Tuesday 27th, 2023. Northern Finland, 2.20 AM.
I am struggling sleep because it’s light as day, watching tiktoks on my phone, like most teenagers would in a doubletent outside my stepdad’s summer cabin with my nephew, when i hear my front door open.
I realize that my norwegian elkhound has opened the door, and is now running away. As I hastily open the tent and put on my flip flops, I see my dog standing still just 20 meters away from me. I think to myself that, I will catch him by stealthily creeping up on him, of course when I try to sneak behind him, he hears my footsteps and starts running down the dirt cabin road. I start running behind him, but as fast as my feet can only run, the dog runs many times faster with ease. I start walking pissed off, and start thinking to myself, how stupid of me to not lock the door, as he has opened the door before too.
After a few hundred meters of walking down the road, swatting mosquitos and yelling “Sisu, tule tänne” for a few times , i get chills down my spine and the sudden urge to look backwards, but I do not out of fear and just keep walking. The feeling slowly fades, the further the road I am, but never leaves. I keep my eyes forward and keep on yelling out to my dog. I walk another hundred meters when I hear my dog barking in the forest and I start speedwalking towards the noise, and when I get closer he starts whimpering and I feel the same chills and the urge to look back but ten times worse, now I feel that I have to look back. As I start to turn the feeling fades fast and as I have fully turned, i do not feel anything except the few mosquitoes landing on me. I start to feel relief when I hear barking behind me.
I turn around fast just to see nothing, as I start to turn and look into the forest, i realize that I saw something in the forest far away, something very human, but I knew it wasn’t human. It was about the same height as me, very skinny body build, but it was matte black. I turn to face the thing and I feel the chill down my spine, then I spot the thing about 20 meters from the forest, in a wheat field running towards me. I turn around and start a full sprint towards the cabin yelling to my dog, when my dog runs infront of me, looks at me, then the thing far away, whimpers and barks then runs extremely fast towards the cabin.
I was extremely scared so I just ran, while the feeling creeped into my core till i reached the cabin, yelled out to my nephew, and l opened the door, when my dog went inside and I looked back for the first time. The thing was not on the road, and when i hurriedly rushed my nephew inside, I saw him standing behind the tent my nephew came from.
The first time I saw him close by. He had no nose, only a mouth with nothing inside, and pitch black eyes. As I stared at him, my nephew grabbed me and pulled me inside the house, because he thought an animal was chasing me. As I grab a small knife to defend myself and after hiding the knife, I realize that the thing had a large frown on his face, likely disappointed he didn’t get me, my dog or my nephew. From all this commotion, my mom and stepdad woke up and I told them that a wolf chased me and my dog, knowing that they would not believe the true story. As my family went to sleep, I stayed up all night waiting with fear, would the thing attack me. As I start to feel sleepy, i realize that my dog would bark and wake my family up. I finally fell asleep.
I wake up. 7.20 AM on my phone, I lay in bed and think to myself, “Am I going insane? Would something like this really happen. I walk downstairs and make myself a bowl of cereal. I sit down and watch some series on HBO max, when I look up to the big windows on the cabin, and far away in the treeline, i see the thing, with a smile on its face, its teeth glaring in the morning sun.
I freeze, as the thing starts ripping its ribs out. I look in horror as he disappears into the forest and the ribs turn into ravens. I go into the bathroom and just wait, until a family member wakes up. I hear my mom waking up and coming downstairs and i burst out of the bathroom to see my mom staring into a wall, then she turns to look towards me with he upper body, but she wasn’t herself, it was her with the same eyes and smile of the thing, so immidiately I run into the woods and don’t stop running until I reach a cabin, i stare endlessly into the only door the cabin has.
I wait for what felt like days passing, but I stay still and hear the thing walking around. I feel myself starving as the hours go by and i desperately want to drink water, but I physically can not make myself move, the feeling of dread seems to be fading and i start to hear my family members yell to me. I do not budge, as the thing might be mimicking them. I start counting seconds in my mind to not go insane, still sitting in a corner waiting for the thing to show up. I start hearing police sirens, and i think to myself, “Will I survive, and has my family survived?”
I rise up to a stand, limp to the cabin door and yell for the thing to take me and i hear a muffled speaking and I start panicking. I take out the knife I hid in my backpocket and hide it in my fist, so it faces upwards to my wrist and wait. A police officer runs up to me and asks me if I am okay, I answer yes, and look towards the officer. I expect to see the heinous eyes the thing has, and a big smile, but i see a normal human face. A feeling of relief waves over me, and I nearly collapse but i stand still as I don’t want to trust the policeman yet. The policeman comes close to me and starts smiling, and I panic and hit him in the stomach with the knife. The policeman falls on the bushes and yells out for help. I start walking away, when far away I see the thing crying, and the further i walk away from the policeman, he starts to smirk.
I quickly realise my mistake and run back to the policeman and aid to his wounds. He calls for backup and two ambulances from his radio, and the policemen question me after the paramedics have tended to me. I tell them the entire story, but change the thing, to a human, so I do not get locked up in an asylum. I ask where my family is, and the police tell me, that they’re safe inside a police station. As i step inside the police van for a ride, I see the thing one last time, and ir makes an x gesture with its hands and rips its own throat out, and falls on its stomach on the ground.