The Road and the Earthquake

True story by Narrow-Frosting1817

It wasn't ordinary fear—it was that vague, lingering heaviness that sets in after a tragedy. Even though I lived far from the epicenter of the earthquake that had just shaken Venezuela, the tension in the air was felt all across the country. The atmosphere was thick, muted. To make matters worse, right around those days, my town was holding a wake for an entire family that had died in the quake. There was something in the air that I still can't quite put into words. I usually fall asleep past midnight. That night I turned off the TV and got ready to rest, but as soon as everything went quiet, a sound broke the stillness. It was the neighbor's dog. I always heard it barking at night, but this time it was different—long, deep, eerie howls. I had never in my life heard it howl like that. As soon as its last howl faded, the street fell into an absolute dead silence. My room is the first one in the house and faces straight onto the main avenue. At that hour no vehicles pass by, but suddenly I started hearing something that made my blood run cold. Over the asphalt echoed the slow creak of old wood, the clatter of iron wheels, and the heavy tread of hooves. It was the unmistakable sound of an old horse-drawn cart making its way through the night. A chill ran down my spine instantly, and a heavy pressure filled the room, as if the air on the other side of the wall had turned freezing cold. I thought about peeking through the window, but instinct stopped me. Something deep down told me it was better not to look. I lay frozen in bed, listening as that sound slowly faded down the street. The next morning, my mom told me something that sent another chill through me. In her room, around four in the morning, our cat had crawled under the bed and started wailing in a way we had never heard before—this agonizing cry. And at that exact same moment, from the street, the neighbor's dog started howling back at it. Sometimes I find myself thinking about that night. With the whole town mourning that family, I can't help but feel that whatever traveled down that street in the dead of night wasn't from this world.