To whoever suggested giving Rose an entire cow femur as a reward for taking one of those things down, she appreciated it.
To whoever suggested that a cult might be involved, well, I think you might be right.
I ended up visiting the gym I used to work at. I didn’t recognize most of the staff(the turnover rate was always awful), but I did find myself in luck. When I asked the girl at the front desk about James, the fitness coach who was always into the occult and paranormal, she said he still worked there. While she couldn’t give me his personal number due to company policy, she did set me up for a morning appointment with him.
Annoying, but whatever works, I guess.
A few days passed. The greys continued to poorly skulk around the woods. Beck continued to act like the world was ending each time she heard a weird sound. Sam, Rose, and I, continued to go on our eventless night patrols. I worked, played Valorant, and acted like nothing was wrong.
Biding my time until I could meet up with James.
When I walked in, his eyes lit up with surprise. We weren’t particularly close coworkers or anything, but I was one of the few people who’d listen to him ramble about sister Sanguine or whatever new SCP had been discovered. I took a few moments to glance him over. He was a tall bastard, probably around 6’ 4”. He had a shaved head, a few tattoos, and several holes where he used to have piercings. Probably had to take them out due to company policy, or maybe he’d gotten too old to keep dressing edgy. Who knows. “Clay? How’s it been man?” He spoke with a bit too much energy for any sane person at this hour. “Honestly, awful. That’s actually why I’m here-“ He cut me off and waved me towards the treadmills.
“Let’s walk and talk, man.” Well, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to use the appointment to get some exercise in. With those things outside of my house, it couldn’t hurt to be a little more prepared. I made a mental note to sign up for a membership after this.
“So, you still into the paranormal stuff?” I set the treadmill to a low speed and began to walk at a brisk pace. James being the freak of nature that he is began to jog. I’m not sure how he could talk casually and move like that, but whatever. “Yeah, why?” He looked at me with a bit of sincere interest, and I knew right then that I’d gotten his full attention.
It took a bit of time, but I went over everything in my first post and got him caught up.
By the time I was done, he’d finished his jog and stepped to the side of the treadmill. He started mumbling to himself, something about Gristers, and various SCP numbers. Eventually, he spoke up. “Grey people with black eyes. That could be a lot of things, man. Summoned creatures from another realm, Gristers, a new SCP-“
“Aliens?” I chimed in.
“No, that’s stupid.” He scoffed and started to rub his chin.
I stared at him in disbelief for a moment. I’d completely forgotten that he didn’t believe in aliens and found any conspiracy regarding them to be, well, as he so eloquently put it, stupid. “Mind if I see them?” He asked, and then I shrugged. When I finished up on the treadmill I gave him my address and went home.
As I was pulling down the driveway I noticed that there were more of them. Much more of them. There had to have been at least twenty of the damned things running around in the woods. They didn’t approach me, though, so I went inside and resumed my game of pretending like everything was alright.
Later that evening he texted me and said he was coming over. I told Sam and Beck that I was having company over. They seemed more surprised about that than the fact that we have unknown creatures running around in our damned woods. I put Rose out back to avoid any incidents- she’s always been bad with strangers. Grabbed my glock and my holster, borrowed a smoke from Beck, and went outside.
It’d been a long time since I’d had a cigarette, but now felt like a good time take the edge off.
Right before I finished it I could see James’ headlights. I looked towards the woods to see several of the greys skulking about. They started moving erratically, but I’d gotten used to them behaving strangely. Besides, it wasn’t like I was about to try and pretend to understand their behavior. Not yet, at least. I took my last drag before several of them began to run deeper into the woods. Weird, but no big deal, right?
I didn’t feel any concern until James’ truck reached the end of our driveway, right where the woods begin. It was a good twenty meters away from the house. Where most people would pull into the yard and park next to the house, James parked right along the edge of the woods. I recall staring in bewilderment, trying to understand why he didn’t come closer.
He got out of his truck while holding something sharp. It was hard to tell from this distance, especially with the sun starting to set. What I could notice was something moving around within the back of his truck. When he got closer, I could see one of the greys stand up while holding something. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief as it appeared to be a metal…teddy bear?
Whatever it was, it freaked James out. He started to run towards the house, but didn’t make it more than a few feet before we heard this god-awful deafening screech. It seemed to echo and resonate throughout the woods, but didn’t seem harmful. At first.
James froze mid-escape and started screaming in response. Despite how loud the noise was, I could barely hear him over the noise coming from the things in the back of his truck. My hands were shaking but I grabbed my gun and pointed it towards the grey and the weird metal thing within it’s grasp. I lined it up with my sights and was prepared to squeeze the trigger, but it what felt like a second, the grey was crouching behind James.
I watched the little metal bear waddle up to James’ leg and grab it. He kept shouting something towards me, but I couldn’t hear it over the cacophony coming from one of the damned things. With the grey being the easier target, I aimed a bit faster and pulled the trigger. One shot, two, three, all of them landed on the creatures chest. Crimson fluid started leaking from it’s chest and it dropped to the ground.
But, that screeching persisted.
It was obvious that James was suffering, so I made a judgment call.
I pointed the gun towards the rusty teddy bear and pulled the trigger. With the first shot, I heard James scream louder. My heart sank into my gut when I realized that I’d probably missed. Even worse, I only had one bullet left. With clenched teeth I steadied my aim and fired again, this time hearing a loud clank. That awful noise stopped and the little bear released James’ leg. It’s head turned towards me, and I could feel it staring at me.
Only for the accursed thing to start dancing. It danced away into the woods. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to scream, but whatever I felt was overshadowed by the need to check up on James. When I got to him, I could see where I’d missed. Yup, definitely shot him in the thigh.
“You okay, man?” I asked, knowing damn well that he wasn’t. No response. I checked and made sure that he was still breathing. His heart was racing, he was breathing, but he was out cold. Blood was trickling from his ears, and he was completely unresponsive to touch. I pulled out my phone and got an ambulance out here. I’m expecting to have a word with the police later, but for now I’m going to rest.
And hopefully come up with a good enough excuse for the police before they arrive. I’m fairly certain telling them that a few grey creatures and a rusty bear are in my woods will warrant taking me to a mental health facility.
If any of you have any idea as to what these creatures may be, I’m still looking for answers.