It was September, 1996, I was driving east from Pacific Coast Highway on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, California as I have done many times before, only this time it was on a Friday, the 13 th.

 My destination was a production company I was affiliated with that was east of 26 th street and down a few blocks south of Wilshire.

Lunch hour traffic delayed my progress as I slowly passed 11 th street, then 12 th, so I decided to turn south at the next street, Euclid, and zig-zag the rest of the route.

 Exactly as I turned south onto Euclid (13th Street) off of Wilshire Boulevard, I just happened to look straight at my Jeep’s digital clock as it changed from 12:59 to 1:00 PM (1300 hours). As I completed the right turn the sky immediately dimmed, like when you put on sunglasses, only I was already wearing sunglasses.

 A dark ambience fell over both sides of the street and the apartment houses, lawns and parked cars, appeared to fade into the background as a heavily shrouded darkness materialized in their place!

A menacing feeling immediately surrounded me. What was happening? This was madness!

 I looked in the rearview mirror - nothing but Darkness! Ahead I could see daylight, the real Euclid Street and an intersection. I gunned the Jeep with the intent that if I could turn off this street at the intersection I could get out of this Hell! The darkness was gaining on both sides of the street and I was beginning to feel strangely sick.

 Suddenly, something large came from out of nowhere and flew straight into the windshield. In the split-second before it hit, I saw it clearly, it was a hideous Darkness Bat! Then another hit the front passenger’s side of the window and hung on the window-frame gnashing at the window before it fell off and then still another hit the front windshield but slipped off and I could hear and feel it get mangled under the Jeep.

This was insanity!

Through the windshield mess I could still see daylight and the intersection up ahead.

 The Darkness closed in as the ambient sounds of distant screams and howls began to build. As I prepared to make the right turn the Darkness sensed my intent, overtook and passed me on the right and continued down the whole right side of the street blocking the right turn at the intersection.

I swerved hard-left; as hard as I knew I could without rolling the Jeep. This created a bit of torque-powered momentum to help the shift into overdrive as I made my way across the intersection onto Arizona Street - my only exit!

 Then, just like in the movies, everything started moving in slow-motion. As I looked down the street on the left side of what used to be Euclid; was the other side of Darkness closing in on me. And just as in dreams, I couldn’t make the Jeep go any faster, my boot felt as though it was pushing through the floorboard, but the Jeep just felt like it was going slower, not faster!

With everything still in slow-motion, I caught the peripheral Darkness on the right closing in - I was being cut-off!

Arizona Street and daylight straight ahead were fading into Darkness. I felt a horrible sickness in my heart and soul - then everything went black.

 Have you ever woken up to the realization that you were “asleep at the wheel” and are driving a car?

Usually if you survive, the mere fact that you did, brings forth an adrenaline rush that will last for the next one hundred miles or two hours, whichever comes first.

 Well, that happened; horns honked and brakes squealed as I came-to behind the steering wheel of my Jeep!

I slammed on my brakes and stopped halfway into the next intersection at Fourteenth Street and Arizona!

A woman that I had almost hit was shaking her fist at me. I whipped around, the intersection behind me at Euclid and Arizona was clear! No Darkness anywhere, the sun was shining. Was I mad? Had I really fallen asleep at the wheel, and was it all a dream?

I safely continued through the intersection and pulled over. It was so real! But if it was real, then I must be mad because there was nothing there!

 Even though I could tell by looking through the windshield, I still got out to check for any Bat residue, but the Jeep was clean.

I got back in and looked at the clock in the Jeep, the same one that clicked over to 1:00 PM (1300 hours) just as I turned the corner a couple minutes ago.

It read, 1:17 PM.

1:17 PM?! I immediately drove back to Wilshire Boulevard to simulate the route on similar streets to confirm the time it would take to make a right, go down a block, and then turn left, and go down a half-block to a stop. I started at 1:25 PM; when I arrived at the end of the route the Jeep’s digital didn’t even click to 1:26 PM! It took less than sixty seconds! Where did sixteen minutes go?!

 I continued to my destination and attempted to convey what had happened to some guys I knew at the production company, but they were more interested in the previous night’s “Babylon 5” episode than real-life. So then I moved on to close friends I could trust, but it ended up sounding so unbelievable when spoken aloud that even I had to rethink the experience.

Eventually I had to admit to myself that even though the missing time always troubled me, it must have been the time I was asleep and dreamt it all.

 Nahh, just kiddin’, I’m hep to that jive, that’s the knee-jerk imprinted response of society’s hold on the expression of free thought and personal experience.

I knew better, I wasn’t asleep, I was wide awake and I knew something extraordinary had happened to me.

 The only physical oddities following the incident were a series of sleepless or nightmare-filled nights and the fact that the Jeep had a sort of burnt oil smell for a couple weeks afterwards.

 A few months passed and I found myself with the fun task of changing a tire on my Jeep. The spare is in an awkward place under the backend and is like wrestling metal and gravity for a half hour. Eventually I removed the spare and noticed something in the recessed wheel area; it was a spiked bone-like object.

As I picked it up and turned it over in my hands my mind reeled! That whole incident, the drive through Hell, the attack on the Jeep, it was all true and now I had proof; I held in my hands a pan-dimensional Darkness Bat Skull!

 Epilogue:

While I use the word “Hell”, it is only for relative considerations. Was it Hell - or one of many possible Dark planes of existence? The emotional and physical oppressive horror I encountered conveyed no name, no origin. The manifesting Darkness was an intricate threatening force, constantly amassing and consuming the street and environment behind and around me. Suffocating dread and Darkness Bats were all I knew for sure. I didn’t have time to truly question my sanity, as the immediate concern for survival took priority.

 Theory:

The combination of the number 13; the turn south onto 13th Street (Euclid) at the exact second it turned 1300 hours (1:00 PM) on Friday the 13th must have completed some cosmic numeric synchronistic anomaly that created a temporary layered existence of realities.

 Somehow during the Darkness Bat attack, the one that got run-over must have been decapitated and the head got caught-up in the wheel of the spare tire. The fact that it was “in” the Jeep must be why it was able to “pass” into this dimension or vibration.

 The source of the burnt oil smell that came from the Jeep must have been decomposing Darkness Bat.

 Friday the 13 th:
The strongest basis as a source for the negativity surrounding this date occurred on Friday, Oct. 13, 1307 when France's King Philip IV had the Knights Templar rounded up as a falsely-accused “corrupt order” within the church and then had them tortured and executed for heresy.   Justifiably the infamy of this date may be forever cursed by that one event that occurred nearly seven-hundred years ago. Any negative outcome attributed to, or involving the number 13 that occurred throughout history only added to the superstition.

 Proof of how powerful this symbol is negatively imprinted in society is evident in the majority of cities and towns that have no 13 th Streets or Avenues, and usually there are no 13 th floors or room numbers in buildings, especially hospitals and hotels, and so on.

Airlines, the stock market and countless other service industries take a hit every Friday the 13 th due to perceived negative connotations.

In essence, observance of this “superstition” by the people at large perpetuates and creates a "self-fulfilling prophecy" effect.

 Frequencies of occurrence: In one year out of every seven, Friday the 13 th occurs three times; in three years, it’s twice; in the other three years, once.