Shadows

I just had one of the scariest bike rides of my life; and I've been through all the classics. I have done the bike away from the angry man who's car you hit, bike away from angry dogs, angry bullies, the omg I'm gonna get my ass beat 'cause I didn't get home when I should have, etc. Yet even at this age, I still scare so easily.
The bike ride was originally an attempt to relieve myself of some bored and lonely feelings I had while sitting at home alone on a Wednesday. I left the house around five and just began biking to nowhere in particular. After weaving myself through campus I eventually found myself heading down towards the beach that leads into old town. Normally this would have been the best part of the ride, considering the giant hill that goes down, but it was dark, and I don't have a light on my bike.
After a harrowing blitz down the hill I made it to the airport and eventually old town without any incident (a lie actually, I'm adding this from much later in the riding, there's a mark in the text as to where, but I had to go over this wooden bridge, in dark, after riding by a river, in the dark) and by this point had decided to stop by and see the lady at work; a romantic surprise if you will. On the way there I was riding by a large business complex I see often and decided to explore. It was fun; larger than I expected. But at the back of the gigantic parking structure was a sort of ominous grove of trees and debris. I hopped of my bike to explore but then hesitated, letting my fears get the better of me I quickly rode off at the sound of what was most likely falling leave; in my mind it was ravenous hobos with knives shuffling towards me. I found my way out though and quickly biked on.
I arrived at the lady's place of employment and chatted for a bit (even getting some see's candy from the pharmacist) and then headed out for a bit; deciding that I was going to explore down a street I had never been down on the way back.
Of course, foolish me turned down the wrong street without paying attention. Then hard headed me decided I could find my way though the neighborhood. As I was bike riding I did see something strange. In a court, through a large glass window into a nice house, was a woman sitting at a piano, a man standing by her side (presumably singing), and another man sitting close by intently listening; all next to a large brightly lit Christmas tree. Very strange. Not the point of my story though.
I eventually came to the conclusion that I had failed to weave my way though the neighborhood and made my way back to the main streets before coming to the destination of my adventuring. I took a left and headed down the road, but the street lights quickly disappeared and while I was freaking out about not being able to see pot holes I almost slammed by face into the back of a dump truck. Luckily I avoided it and continued down the road. The quality of the concrete began to lessen as I went, as did the lighting around me. The businesses became industrial compounds and eventually it was just me and creepy fences. As I was starting to get my doubts about going down this road and talking outloud to myself I saw a light and a crossroads in the distance. The light turned out to be a guy resting on his back and the crossroad was a bike path that runs along the back side of the neighborhoods between the beach going towards campus; which was exactly what I needed ( the road looked creepy as it went along.
Things were looking good, it was a nice bike trail, bushes on one side close to the path and some brush and high bushes on the other, sloping down eventually to what I assumed was the ocean. It wasn't too cold surprisingly and I was excited to try out the bike path as a potential way of getting though town. But, as I was riding the lights quickly stopped leaving me in the dark, this presented the more immediate problem of not wanting to crash then actually being scared of anything and eventually I came across more lights, but then for no reason the lights became yellow and orange instead of the nice bright white the had been. Still not so bad, but then a chilling cold gust of wind hit me, and then another, coming from the direction of the ocean. I began to get worried but peddled on. The lights stopped again right as I was hit by another gust of cold ocean wind and my imagination took that as its cue to run wild.
This was also the point that I noticed the bushes were not hugging fences but dark alcoves of potential danger. I panicked and began peddling faster; but as it goes, the faster you run, the faster the demons behind you catch up. This went on for some time and until I could eventually see lights from the highway by the campus and I let out a sigh of relief. Of course then a woman on a bike rode by out of nowhere, humming some creepy half-retarded person sounding song. This surprised me but I continued on. Unfortunately the lights that once calmed me started blinding me and I couldn't see the path, and small ponds and streams were on both sides. Then one of the lights turned towards me, I freaked of course, but then as the bike road past me I felt foolish. This happened a few more times.
But then there was anyone around, occasionally a far of car would blind me and I would have to slow, which wasn't fun. And then the frogs started croaking, and it got louder and louder. Trying to ignore the noise I looked ahead but all I could see were lights. I started yelling and swearing at the frogs and the car lights. Once again the bike road past me (I can only assume how scared they were-crazy bike man swearing at them in the dark).
By this point I was exhausted (its 6 miles distance from the lady's work) and a little on edge, but I finally made it back to the beach, only to realize I had to climb up that hill I had previously* barreled down blindly; facing several oncoming bikers and the blinding lights of headlights the whole. Only to be scared at the top by my phone ringing, with of course, my mother on the other line. Who then panics when I tell her, heavy breathed of course from the riding and fear, that I just had the scariest bike ride. But when I explain the reasons (dark, hobo possibilities, cold wind, etc) she gets upset at me for worrying her for nothing and makes fun of me. So that's it, I'm bad at ending things and I wrote a bunch anyways.