Part 1: Home Life https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/zhm77i/hunter_part_1_home_life/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Now that you know where I’m coming from it might mean a bit more when I say what I’m about to say. I found something scary, one of them big gross looking things I’m supposed to kill, but it didn’t want to kill me. This started out as a fairly normal job, well for my line of work anyway. I got called by some detective in Oregon, he wanted someone to look into something called ‘Bhagdo’ and I guess he heard about me and my work.
So I head out to Yachats and had a conversation with the guy, Detective Dunbar was his name. He told me about a case with some kids finding a creepy girl in the woods who was friends with this Bhagdo. He said the monster saved the kids from some shadow people or something. We had no real leads so the detective and I went to the playground where the kids had encountered Bhagdo before and waited.
We waited for a few hours it seemed, until the warm air got freezing cold. We could see our own breaths as we readied our weapons. The Eschaton had surely seen better days but it has definitely been worth whatever it cost to make, and still has plenty of time left to boot. I gazed into the darkness of the dense tree line searching for movement. My eyes are well adjusted to not see things that aren’t there in the dark but this darkness was special somehow. It shifted in ways that only a living being could.
What came out of this shifting abyss was a blobby black mess. It was upright on 2 crouched thin legs, supporting the rest of its mass with a long spindly arm on the ground. The other arm was beckoning us into the woods. It’s oval shaped head seemed to be illuminated by 2 red compound eyes and in their glow I could see what almost appeared to be a proboscis.
Dunbar was hesitant, don’t get me wrong so was I but this thing didn’t seem to want to hurt us. There was almost a concern in its eyes somehow. That little girl wasn’t with it, maybe it was something to do with that. We followed what I could guess was Bhagdo through the woods which by the way, we’re very very dark. The shadows seemed to be shifting around us. Even our flashlights were dimmed heavily by the dark. It almost seemed as though shadowy tendrils were trying to grab us and rip us into the fathomless forest if we weren’t looking for long enough.
We walked with Bhagdo to an abandoned shack. The buzzing of flies was the first thing I noticed. A dense cloud was gathered around a dimly lit lantern in a makeshift window. I looked at Dunbar who looked like he was on the verge of vomiting he was so pale. Bhagdo gestured toward the door that was slightly ajar and walked around in a circle like an anxious dog. It was a strange sight to see a creature of that size be so, gentle almost. I once again looked back at Dunbar and he half shrugged and half nodded, so we walked toward the door.
I carefully opened it and in the small amount of lantern light I could see a small figure laying down on a pile of rags that might’ve been a substitute for a mattress. It was about the size of a child, Marisa as Dunbar had told me about was my guess. I heard a revolver hammer cock and I turned to see Dunbar beginning to raise his gun at Bhagdo. I was about to join him when we heard a small cough. I put my hand on Dunbar’s arm and lowered his gun. Bhagdo cocked his head to the side in confusion.
I looked back at the figure that had just coughed. It sat up now and for some reason, there were no flies on her even though they were buzzing around almost everywhere else. The description of the child fit that if Marisa. She coughed some more and asked us who we were. We explained that we were here to help, brought by Bhagdo. She said she had gotten very sick and Bhagdo was trying to find help but people were scared of him. There was a mask on the floor next to Marisa. It was black with red eyes and a proboscis. It looked like a carnival mask of a fly for some reason but it was made of wood and had some kind of ancient quality to it. We asked why Marisa hadn’t tried to go to civilization for help and she said that her condition was brought on by a ‘tree stabbing her with a magic sword’. Her words. She looked concerned all of a sudden. “I talked about it” she said.
All of a sudden a howling wind shook the house. Even the flame in the lantern was disrupted for a moment. Marisa grabbed the mask and put it on and as she did, the flies all stopped moving. Outside Bhagdo began to stir. I told Dunbar to stay with the girl and I ran outside to see what was happening. A tree had uprooted itself and formed its bark into what looked like a knights armor. This figure was around 8 feet tall and was wielding a sword of about the same length.
I was processing for a moment too long as the massive blade swung down at me. It would have killed me too if Bhagdo didn’t step in front of it to take the blow. Bhagdo let out a guttural groan as dead flies poured out of the wound in his side. As the knight reared up for a second strike I took aim and shot its gauntlet, shattering it and making it drop its sword. Bhagdo went to the door of the house and beckoned Dunbar to bring the girl which he did. Bhagdo grabbed the Marisa and with a few hand motions she ordered the flies to fuse themselves to Bhagdo, closing the wound in his side.
The knight groaned like a tree in the wind as it bent down to pick up its weapon. I fired another shot into its back that seemed to do a lot less damage. It turned around very quickly for a tree and punched the gun right out of my hands. It brought both of its fists together to slam them into me. As this was happening Marisa and Bhagdo saw. Bhagdo grabbed a chunk of his ‘flesh’ and threw it into the air, turning into flies mid flight. With another motion of the hands Marisa commanded the flies to shackle the knight’s hands to a nearby tree. This gave me just enough time to grab the Eschaton and fire a killing blow into the helm of this wooden knight. The blast shattered the tree into chunks, scattering them across the forest floor.
Bhagdo looked a bit worse for wear but he put down Marisa and grabbed a chunk of the tree that had exploded. He began sculpting it as if it were made of clay and produced a mask just like the one Marisa had used during the battle and presented it to me. I smiled and accepted and thanked Bhagdo for what he had done. Marisa said she was going to go try to rest some more and that Bhagdo would take us back to the park.
Dunbar didn’t want to leave her alone out here and I told both of them that I’d find someone who can heal her but that we have to go process what just happened. So Bhagdo led us back to the park and we parted ways. I went back to my hotel for the night and looked at the mask. It had the same red compound eyes and proboscis that the other mask had. As I was looking at it I noticed my window had a thin layer of flies gathered on the outside.