The Rider

The road was completely empty. The stars and moon above were my only company on this ride. I liked it that way, just me, my bike, the road, and the sky. No cars on the road gave me free rein over the streets. It was the perfect condition to ride upon the Great Seto Bridge, a road that's been on my bucket list to ride for years. Not only did I now live in Japan, somewhere I’ve wanted to live since I was a kid, and was driving a road I’ve wanted to drive, I also had my dream motorcycle, the Honda NM4. A beautiful bike, so unique and eye-catching. It looked straight out of a movie, and felt great to ride. It roared into the night as I sped down the bridge. A massive smile was forming on my face. I felt so free, freer than I had ever felt before. I finally felt like I was where I wanted to be in life. I didn’t feel locked into anything. I didn’t have to conform to normalcy or be someone I didn’t want to be. I was me, and I was loving myself.

That feeling quickly dissipated. That feeling of being king of the road quickly left as I started to realize something wasn’t right. The bridge wasn’t ending. It was only 13 kilometers, and at the speed I was going I should have crossed it pretty quickly. I would have hit the end in about 12 or 13 minutes, yet I had probably been on the bridge for 30 minutes or more. I started to feel uneasy. Something was clearly not right.

There should have been other people on the road and the bridge shouldn’t have been this long. “What is going on?” I thought to myself, my breath intensifying as a panic began to set in. I revved my bike and sped up even more, I was going at speeds that would kill me if I made one tiny mistake. Then I heard another vehicle on the road. I slowed down a bit as I realized that maybe I just got lost in thought, lost track of time. I turned my head around to see who was coming up behind me. At first, I could only see the vehicle. Another motorcycle. It was a Honda Z Series, also known as a monkey bike. A classic bike, very recognizable. But how was there a bike riding by itself? That was impossible! I turned forward again and gave my helmet a smack, rattling my head inside. Maybe my odd panic attack was making me see things. I closed my eyes for a second and held my breath. I calmed down and opened my eyes back up. I could still hear the bike behind me. I looked back again, this time to see the bike and its rider. As I kept glancing back and forth between the man and the road I picked out all of his disturbing details. A tall, lanky man with spiky black hair. His skin was grey and his whole body was extremely thin, as if he were anorexic. His head was large, the helmet didn’t fit properly so it just rested upon his scalp. He had long fingers with massive nails, the right hand nails were painted red and the left hand nails were painted yellow. He wore a long black trench coat and ripped jeans. He had spiked boots the size of clown shoes and gloves that were ripped and barely fit due to the size of his hands. I looked up at his face, his eyes were extremely wide and his mouth was literally grinning from ear to ear. He had a long chin with a tiny patch of hair at the end, and he had a hitler-esque moustache.

An aggressive laugh boomed across the night. It felt as if it shook the road below. The waves around the bridge intensified, I was now able to hear them over the sound of my motorcycle. I realized he was speeding up, approaching close behind me. I began to speed up again in an attempt to gain distance from him, but I could feel the wind begin to resist my push forward as it picked up as I sped further down the road. The wind kept me from gaining that distance from him, allowing the thing to inch closer and closer. I turned back to see the man laughing again, reaching out towards me. His hand almost grabbed me but I swerved out of reach. I got a good look at the length of his arm, it was almost impossibly long. This man chasing me wasn’t a human, I was sure of it. He reached for me again this time with his other arm. His left arm was longer than his right, maybe twice the length. It had two elbows instead of one. The trench coat ripped loudly as the arm straightened out. He missed the grab again, instead hitting me, causing me to lose control for a split second. I straightened out before I could fall, I once again sped up even faster than before. I didn’t even realize that my bike could go as fast as I was going. Almost hitting 241 km/h.

Somehow the man on his little monkey bike was keeping up, Without a doubt both of us were passing speeds that our bikes would normally not be able to hit. Both speeds were extremely dangerous, although I believed if the strange rider pursuing me crashed he would only get a small bruise. I was on his turf, and he was not happy with it but he cackled in joy of the chase. The sky began to hide from the encounter, I could see the moon’s face become full of fear. The stars hid behind the clouds. This was no ordinary man nor creature. He was something that not even the scariest of monsters or the toughest of men could come face to face with. He could make the sky fear his presence, and yet I was not feeling such fear that the sky did. The adrenaline pumping through me was pushing me through the encounter. I knew I had to live, I was finally where I wanted to be in life, and I wasn’t going to let it end so soon.

The creature continued to swipe at me, eventually letting go of his bike and standing up on it, leaning towards me. He was somehow able to keep balance upon the speeding bike, while leaning completely off of it, only the toe of his shoe touching the seat. He came so close to me. His neck was as long as a giraffe’s and his torso seemed to be about the same length. His legs were uneven, just like his arms. His face turned and I could see him out of the corner of my eye. I could feel his hands slowly begin to grab my shoulder. Panic set in, I could no longer think straight. Was there any getting out of this situation? My fate seemed to be sealed.

That’s when I saw it, the end of the bridge. “Maybe, just maybe I can make it. Just maybe if I hit that end I will escape” I thought to myself. Even my inner voice was speaking in a panicked manner. I now felt the fear that the sky felt. It was unlike any kind of fear I had ever experienced. Whatever this thing was, must have been the equivalent of a god. I couldn’t let myself fall to such a creature, however. My heart picked up, beating seemingly as fast as I was driving. I accelerated so quickly that the thing pursuing me lost his firm grip on my shoulders and I could have sworn I saw him lose his balance for a second. As I approached the end I began to slow down, confident I would finally make it to the end safely, and that I did. I eventually made a full stop, turning my bike around to face the bridge and the creature. It stared at me from the heavens in which his head reached. I stared back, I could feel my body shiver with fear as I made eye contact with the creature. It screamed at me with an ear piercing pitch. I screamed back.

As I began to spin back around on my bike to continue my journey I could see the thing staring at me. I could hear it giggle as if it knew we would meet again, and I knew if we did, I would not be so lucky. It would win, and when I would have to traverse the bridge again, it would most certainly be the end of the line for me.