system
A chat on 4chan
human
okay, here goes nothing

>i bought a house dirt cheap in Spain in a tiny village in the countryside surrounded by olive and almond trees. around three hours by car north-west-ish from Barcelona
>40 people live here max
>the type of old village where each house rubs shoulders with a house on either side and most houses overlook the narrow road that cuts through the middle. the houses outnumber the people 4 to 1
>the majority of the houses are dilapidated, but a few have been bought up to be renovated and a few have already been done up beautifully
>surrounding the village are dirt track roads that cut up and down the countryside in rings to allow access to the olive/almond trees and grapes, the further from the town the less used the tracks become
>if you go far out enough, they begin to blend into the wilderness completely. think olive trees in rows in well tended plots, lines of immaculately irrigated vineyard vs gradual decent into scrub-land wilderness, steep areas where gnarled older trees have been left to look after themselves and sort of valleys full of the various farming detritus of hundreds of years. it gets pretty thick
>buildings made of stone, half collapsed and completely derelict are a common sight the further out you go, old barns left to fall into themselves sort of thing after having outlived their use for whatever reason
>march of time etc etc
>a few years ago i splashed out on a lovely thorn touring bike complete with a son28 dynamo hub (believe it or not, this is relevant)
>i'd never used it properly before, only to charge my ipod while solo touring but it's capable of doing phones and cameras, charging battery packs, whatever
>i like to cycle and have a favorite route or two picked out that cuts a loop through the surrounding area around my village. i could cycle all day and never see more than a soul or two, maybe a farmer or another cyclist
>in the summer, that is

picrel, just not yet. typing as i go so bear with me

(1/?)
gpt
cont.

>now winter has rolled around there's nobody, not even during the day. the trees have been tended to, and the vines have been clipped ready for spring
>it also gets dark very early. too dark to see without a light unless the moon is out and there aren't any clouds. otherwise it's actually more than bright enough to see
>funny how quickly your eyes adjust in the dark, the moon can be really bright
>anyway, since i have the hub already and want to continue getting muh cardio in, i bought up a light that plugs directly into the hub itself and then gets screwed into the bottom of the forks, below the stem of the bike (headset?)
>it worked perfectly, but it's BRIGHT. a searing white when you're outside in the pitch dark, i guess my eyes are trying to get as much light as possible because in no time at all i was having to squint
>kinda ruins the experience when you can feel a headache coming on
>during one of my many night cycles i used my big brain and started to wonder how i might find a solution, and came up with the pic in the OP
>orange shampoo bottle, with a rectangle cut out
>i sandwiched it between two old bits of marble kitchen counter top, and put the whole lot on-top of my wood burning stove until the plastic was pressed flat between them with pressure and heat
>waited until i started to smell the plastic and set it aside to cool
>worked like a charm, held the plastic to the light and drew a crude circle
>cut it out, hey presto. even stuck inside the light housing without any tape or glue, somehow a perfect press fit
>the light stutters and dims a bit while going up the steepest sections of track, the type you can only really handle in the lowest (highest?) gear, sitting down, but never goes out completely, a sort of dim strobing that's still enough to keep on track or hit anything

(2/?)
human
cont.

hey you ought to know, i only live here

>i'm used to walking home in the dark, and haven't been scared since i was little, but it's worth saying i used to be deathly afraid to the point where i'd have to run to the bathroom at night with my heart in my mouth
>my imagination would run off with me and not even give me anything specific to pin my fears on, just helpfully leaving me with a feeling of abject primordial terror at the thought of having to look down the stairs while i ran along the landing
>haven't felt anything like that in years, not since i was a child
>never any problem while i went out cycling in the dead of night either, it was always just fun and peaceful
>until a couple of nights ago when i switched to the orange light
>as soon as i left the light of the streets in the village behind me i felt the beginnings of that familiar churning in my stomach from when i was little, the same dread and apprehension
>i pushed aside the feeling, kinda like... 'wow, this is nostalgic,' feeling something i hadn't for so long, and then steeled myself against it
>i didn't manage completely, it overwhelmed me in short bursts the same way it used to, with darkness all around me i started to freak out and pedal a bit harder after about twenty minutes or so
>the thing about having the light attached to the handlebars is that it points where you're turning, which isn't always the direction you're going in (weird to say that but it's extra obvious in the dark)
>sometimes you turn away from the direction you're going to sort of then turn into it, i suppose if any of you are cyclists you get what i mean
>so my mind is racing and i'm fighting this sick feeling of regret, stronger than i feel i have any right to be feeling anything, which only makes me freak out more

(3/?)
gpt
>each time i turn left or right, the track in-front of me vanishes directly into darkness to illuminate to the left or right of me, shining light where there wasn't any previously and leaving the middle of the track completely dark
>i don't want to shine light into the bushes and trees to the left or right, i kept imagining what it would be like to see something horrible standing there looking at me
>trying to breathe properly at this point, the night air is cold and hurting the back of my throat and i'm generally feeling as if i'm trapped in some kind of nightmare, a knot in my stomach and a sick feeling that wont leave me no matter how i try to rationalize 
>then i reach the steepest part of the track, exactly in the middle of the loop. the furthest point from where i want to be, and the light of course starts to dim and strobe as the hub struggles to deliver enough power to the light
>clenching the bars tight, trying to navigate over a part of the track that's solid stone where the earth has washed away, i hear a familiar sound
>the sound of a bit of bush or a twig or something stuck in the back wheel somewhere, tinktinktinktink
>i don't want to stop but it's getting worse, and i know the light has 'four minutes' of stationary stop time, so the information said, anyway
>stop, swing my leg over and holding my bike up with one hand, i try and find whatever it is to yank it free, and of course, can't see shit because all the light is going forwards and i'm standing in the dark, frantically trying to get a hold of whatever's stuck to yank it free
>i start laughing out of fear
>the second i stop laughing and pull this bit of whatever free from wherever it was stuck, i turn back to jump onto the bike and am met with what i can only describe as the source of my fear up to that point
>it was like the queasy fear fit it like a glove, this is why i was afraid. this is where the fear was coming from