I was sitting on a park bench mining my own business when I heard someone knocking the air next to me.

At first I thought it was someone that had hit a baseball with a bat nearby and the sound had travelled, but it was rainy and

approaching midnight. There wouldn't have been anyone outside playing baseball.

I just got enough work and decided to have a seat at the park that it must pass on my way home.

There's a tree directly over the bench that had chilled me from most of the rain.

When I dismissed the first thought for the sound's origin, the second, my brain still clinging to rational explanations arrived.

It had been a gunshot.

I had never heard a gunshot before, not one in real life, but it seemed plausible at the time.

This of course put me on edge.

I was alone, unarmed, and still had about a mile and a half on my walk home.

The bark held several towering trees and the lights placed intimately throughout the park did little

to dispel the darkness and shadows abound.

Anyone could easily hide beneath the

onbridge of the trees, completely hidden with a clear view of me since a light

pole stood just by the bench. I scanned the area trying to discern some human-shaped object in the darkness, but saw

nothing beyond the form of trees and some other recognizable park paraphernalia,

fountains, benches, trash cans etc. Of course any of these subjects could hide

or partially conceal a human body if they had mind to hide themselves.

I peered through the darkness for what felt like ages but saw nothing.

The sound did not repeat and in my burgeoning fright and tried to tell myself that it couldn't

have been a gunshot that if someone had fired a gun,

they would have fired a second shot to ensure that the victim was dead.

...