Left Step First

On Saturday, March 12, 2011 5:18 PM, Joey Smith <somemadeupemail@compBS.com> wrote:

The following story is true. I wasn’t going to forward it at first and started having nightmares…I went back and forwarded my email and haven’t had a dream since.

I was walking down a sidewalk, my dog sniffing at the end of its leash examining things left behind on the grass growing on the side. It was still overcast but the rains and winds had past for the day, or at least that was the hope. I dug my hands as deeply as I could into my hoodie pockets given the fact that I was holding one end of a leash with one, but I had no desire to lose feelings in my fingers because the dog had to pee. Clearly this was not the right place to do its business because the dumb mutt continued leading me down the path. At one section of the path it goes along the side of hill and has a slight tip to it. Because of the recent rains a small trickle of water was running over the sidewalk towards lower ground. I sure as hell was not going to step into it, I was no longer a five year-old splashing in puddles, so, naturally I attempted to step over it. I had just stepped with my left foot so, logically, it was time to walk with my right foot. Unfortunately something short circuited in my brain, I took half a step and stumbled to step over the small stream with my left foot. My dog turned its head and gave me a hurt look, like me stumbling like an idiot was somehow an insult to him. I laughed a bit at myself on the way back to the lonely apartment after my dog did his business.

Finally warm and dry I plop my bare feet on the arm of the couch, my dog laying on the floor near by, and my computer resting in my lap. Spotting a familiar name on my buddies list I send a message. We spend some time catching up since the last time we spoke and I told my friend about my stumble. I could see they had read my message but there was nothing for a long moment of time. I wondered if they had lost connection or something came up but after around ten minutes I finally got a response. They told me how they had read something online about how we, humans, don’t step over things with our dominant foot. That it is some instinctual reaction so that if something were to come out of say a hole we step over and grab onto the leg over it, it would most likely be the non-dominant foot and we would be better able to keep our balance. Seemed reasonable enough to me. My friend provided a link as well, and, with full trust in my friend, I clicked on it. Sometimes you should really get better friends.

I expected some science website, or some article or something. Instead I came to what appeared to be an old school dorky blog dedicated to, of all things, chain mail. You know the type, pictures saying “this is the lucky dollar! Pass it on to receive good fortune with money” or “send this to twelve friends in twenty minutes or you die” kind of crap. I snorted thinking we were reverting back to our childish teasing. I was going to send back something about checking under the bed for monsters when a title of an entry caught my attention, The left step. Curious I clicked on it and began reading, fully ready for a nice laugh. What I got was anything but funny. It talked about how the instinct came from some creature living in another dimension parallel to ours, that cracks between the two worlds manifested when we stepped over anything and it could reach us. That it could fully grasp our souls once we were aware of its existence. This wasn’t scary. It was rather funny actually, to read all these people’s stories, about how to seal the connection by sharing the existence with someone else, preferably someone who nearly stumbled upon a crack themselves. I laughed at how often the word “stumbled” or “tripped” appeared in the posts. Some were atrociously badly written. Then there were the pictures. They ranged from “I hope a five year old drew that” to “Jesus Christ, who do I sacrifice children to to get that talent?” All showing the same creature reaching out of darkness to grasp at the viewer. Of course each post ended with an encouragement to send this website to twelve friends or risk your soul being sacrificed to the creature within a year. I laughed. I went back to messenger to tell my friend it was a good joke only to see a last message “I’m sorry” from them and that they had unfriended me. I was a bit put off about that but shrugged it off and decided to go to bed.

I don’t think the dreams started that night…but I don’t know anymore. I haven’t slept in nearly forty-eight hours. Memories began to blur together. I’m writing this post to warn whom ever is unlucky enough to have received the link to this god forsaken site…forward it. Don’t think it is a joke. I am not forwarding it…I could not live with myself if I sacrificed a friend who thought it was a joke…but I hope you don’t. If its not longer a website…just forward the damn message.

Forward to twelve friends in thirty days or risk your soul to the creature.