"When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'one word at a time.'" Stephen King

Somewhere among my old document files I have found a story that has been written by yours truly as a homework assignment in the good ol' days of high school. :) The topic was - "Write a story that begins with the following words: 'It was a very dark night, even the moon was obscured by heavy clouds…'", and the story was to be approximately 500 words long. It seemed a perfect introductory sentence for a scary tale, so that's exactly what I wrote, as you may have already suspected from the quote in the title of this post. :) It's funny reading it now and that's why I decided to put it up here. ;) While reading, please keep in mind that it was written by me back in the days when my command of English was not as good as it is now. ;)

It was a very dark night, even the moon was obscured by heavy clouds. It was somewhere around two in the morning and I was just coming back from a pub. In a little town like mine by that hour everything was as tightly locked up as a safe. I was walking down Main Street slowly, because there was a soft breeze in the air - a nice refreshment after six hours of sitting in a stuffy pub with dozens of people smoking all around you. The streetlights threw circles of white light on the sidewalk and the fronts of the business buildings, making downtown look like a deserted stage-set. Suddenly all the streetlights started flickering and went off. I stopped. Goosebumps crept up my spine and I looked around nervously. I could hardly see anything, and a deadly silence filled the air. Then I looked at the sky with its heavy clouds and sighed with relief. There was probably a storm coming, and very often there was a power shortage connected with it. I smiled to myself. What was I thinking, that some zombies will start walking down the street or maybe a killer car will show up? I got to stop watching that many horrors, they can make you paranoiac. I was just about to continue walking home when a car came up Ford Street and stopped at the crossing with Main Street about a hundred meters ahead. I was facing its passenger’s side. All the fears came back at once and my heart sank. Who in a sane mind would drive a car in the middle of the night in a small town like this? This time a chill went through my whole body and I didn’t appreciate the refreshing breeze any more. I could hear the engine running, sounding like a growling dog. The car turned in my direction and was advancing slowly, and somehow it reminded me of a stalking tiger. I found myself unable to move. My heart was pounding faster and faster as the car was getting closer. I couldn’t take my eyes of the approaching lights - bright blinding lights like the eyes of a hypnotist. I felt like a character from Stephen King’s book, standing there paralyzed by fear. The only problem was that it was not fiction but cruel reality. When the car came to a halt next to me and the window started opening I decided that I couldn’t stand there waiting. Just when I was going to start running as if I wanted to beat the world record a voice from the car spoke.
"Hey, Brian. What are you doing here so late? Need a lift?"
It was the voice of the Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Elvigan. It must have looked really stupid when I let out a huge sigh, but I couldn’t help it. Jeffrey laughed. He probably knew that he scared the hell out of me, but I was so relieved that I didn’t even bother to act like I’m angry with him. I just got in his cruiser and he dropped me of at my house. Now I know that there are some sane people driving around in the middle of the night - policemen.

And since my little story cannot even match the horror of Stephen King's books, here's a nice quote by the very man. :)
"People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk."