Let us begin the journey here…

If I illuminate my path with a candle will you follow me into the dark night? – J.Irwin

It was 1985 and I was in my second year of college. I lived on campus in a towering dormitory. I was fortunate enough to have a private room, which means no roommate and everyone who knew me stopped by using the spare bed as a place to chill.

On this particular September night the clouds were covering the moon, and being as it was a week day I shouldn’t have been considering going out to the club but I was antsy and couldn’t stay in.

I got ready as usual, finding a short enough skirt and spraying ten tons of hair spray into my hair. I had a sports car and because I didn’t want to park too close to another student and risk getting my door dinged I’d parked it that afternoon in a separate parking lot from the dorm.

This meant I’d have to haul my cookies down the elevator, across the huge fenced dorm parking lot and out into the sidewalk then down the hill. As I walked across the parking lot lit by several security lights I could see different students getting into their cars. Some people were walking along the sidewalk to get to the party street. I felt for them, it was quite a ways away.

By the time I reached the 16 foot gate for the parking lot I could see a couple walking towards the gate.

You know that weird decision you have to make when almost colliding with people on a sidewalk, do you shift left or do they. I was trying to decide if I should slow down a bit so that they could pass the gate or enter before I stepped out onto the sidewalk. I swear to you that as I slowed down so did they. By the time I stepped onto the sidewalk they were merely 4-5 feet from me and I shifted to the right and they both turned their heads to look at me as they moved to my left. There was nothing unusual about how they dressed. It was a male and female walking close but not holding hands.

As they looked my way and I caught their gaze, their eyes glowed red. Now, understand this is before red contacts and their eyes seemed to glow. It stunned me to the point that fear and shock almost made me run. Immediately I questioned them. ￼I don’t know why I thought that turning around would explain anything but I had the urge to stop and turn around. By the way, they didn’t enter the gate for my dormitory but stayed on the sidewalk. I stopped a few safe feet away and looked back at them. They were gone. There were no other buildings nor trees or bushes to hide behind. They simply vanished!

I’ve gone over this memory a million times trying to check if anything else stood out about them but nothing extraordinary.

I walked down the partially lit sidewalk and down the hill to the separate parking lot where my car sat, chilled to the bone, half scared and questioning my own sanity. Had I caught something in their eyes that I wasn’t meant to see? Why did they disappear? I’ve always felt deep inside that I saw something or someone not from this world but as of right now, that question remains unanswered.