It worked.
It actually fucking worked.
I didn’t kill the thing, although from the events that took place last night, I would sure say it’s feeling pretty afraid for its life right about now.
Catherine, I hope you’re up there somewhere looking down at me, proud of what I’m about to accomplish.
So, where do I start? In my last post, I had a few helpful comments from people who’ve told me to try flare guns, lots of them, and gasoline. And after finding that posting about the guy who went toe to toe with the fucking thing, I sure as hell was ready to try.
I stocked up on ammunition and gasoline, so much that at worst case scenario I could burn the fucking woods down with me and that thing in the flames. Best case, I have a good enough aim to take this thing down in one shot.
I even bought a tree blind to steak out the spot where it…took her from me…and I would wait it out. I would find this thing one last time.
I pulled up to the same spot me and the police did that night and got out of the car with two canisters of gasoline strapped to my back with four flare guns holstered to my waist, and the memories started flashing back to me immediately. Looking over the treeline, I could still see the red and blue lighting up the abyssal black of the deep wood. I could smell the rainfall again, I could feel the wrenching fear in my chest that something terrible awaited me in these woods. And I felt the shock and terror when that all came true.
But this time, I was ready, and I wasn’t scared.
I was fucking pissed.
I remembered the image of that monster. It’s elongated arms and legs, it’s snake-like neck. It’s nearly featureless face albeit those bloodshot white eyes. I remembered its smile, with those massive fangs sticking out of its mouth like something out of a John Carpenter film. The sounds of it tearing into my baby girl. The laughter as it ran away.
I used all of this to fuel my anger. After tonight, it would be the creature that would remember me.
As I walked through the trees, I looked as far in as I could, scoping through the trees as best as possible for any sight of the thing. I made sure to walk the same path as I originally had, trying to find that spot as fast as I could to set up and wait. And it hadn’t taken long either as I walked into the clearing. I saw the broken tree, still stained with the blood of my daughter. I saw the path on the other side that the thing had taken that night as it ran from me, laughing its monstrous sound.
It took around twenty minutes to set up the blind and bring up the gas canisters; being up at this angle seemed like the perfect position. I could see the entire opening from here, and there was just something inside of me telling me that it would show up again tonight.
I waited for an hour and heard nothing.
Two hours. No sound.
Four hours later, the sun was now down, and there was still no sound.
Until finally, as the last of the sun’s light disappeared and gave way to the black, I heard something. I heard a branch break close by. Then more.
I heard the leaves amongst the trees start to rustle, even without a breeze moving through them, as if some unknown force was awakening them. I knew this was the thing, it had to be. And I was right.
Slowly, I began to see trees bending away from each other in the distance, making a path coming towards the opening. I then saw it, pushing the trees away to make room for its pathway. It finally entered the clearing and it stood there for what had felt like an eternity, its arms on the ground and its head dropped low like a neanderthal. I watched it, flare gun in hand, as it walked to the broken tree. It leaned down to the stain and slowly licked at it, its body twitching with every taste.
I aimed the gun.
It stopped licking.
I steadied my breath.
It stood and smiled.
I waited for my hand to steady.
Even in the vein covered white eyes, I felt it look directly at me.
I fired.
In an instant, the entire area was covered in the brightest red light imaginable. I couldn’t see the creature beyond the light, but I knew my aim was good enough to make contact. I heard it let out this blood curdling, high pitched roaring scream, almost like an alarm system for a town about to be bombed. Then I noticed something confusing.
The flare hit the tree stump, bounced to the ground and set a blaze on the grass.
I wanted to wonder where the creature had gone, but before I had time for that thought to pass, it was in front of me.
Somehow, in the time it took me to shoot, the thing dodged the flare and climbed my tree. It was halfway in the blind with me, yet from its size it was face to face with me. It’s white and red eyes burning into my memory. It was still smiling, but there was something else to its expression. A rage unlike any I had ever seen before. It let out another scream, but I screamed back at it. Instead of having to reload, I had three other flare guns on my hip, ready to be fired. I grabbed one, aimed directly into its mouth. Before I could pull the trigger, however, I felt it’s cold, clammy hand wrap around my throat. It grabbed me and threw me to the ground, causing me to roll through the growing flames and knocking the wind out of my lungs. I tried to stand but the shock of the moment caused me to lay motionless as I heard its heavy footsteps approach me. I managed to turn my head and realised it was walking back and forth, pacing the flames.
It was trying to decide how to get past them, to get to me. There was an easy gap on both sides of the flame, but the sheer sight of it must have stopped reasonable thought in its head. This gave me enough time to compose myself and to stand back up. I grabbed another gun and tried to aim through the fire, but the creature was watching me, and I knew from this distance it would move out of the way like last time. And I couldn’t run around the fire because that would give it enough time to prepare an attack on me.
So that left me with one option.
I lifted the flare gun, unholstered a second and fired them both. Thankfully, they both hit their marks. One went up to the blind, setting the gas canisters ablaze, causing an explosion that lit the treetops above us on fire, the creature ducked down, covering its head at the sound as the area was alive with my hellfire. The second shot went behind the creature, causing another small fire to stir behind it, trapping it in place for me so it only had two options: run through the flames, or stay where I can fucking see it.
I grabbed the final flare gun from my side and didn’t lift it, not yet.
“This ends right here, with you and me.” I shouted at it as I ran through the flame, jumping up towards its face. It grabbed me by my throat again, but I was prepared for it to try and throw me, so as it lifted me to the sky, I aimed down, now only feet from its face.
It couldn’t run from something it was holding.
I fired the final shot.
The flare went right into the creature’s left eye, burning a whole through it. Immediately it dropped me to the ground, and covered its face with its hands. I could see smoke billowing through its fingers as it writhed and convulsed in pain and agony. Its screams shook my very core. It turned to run, and since it was unable to see anything at the moment, it ran into the fire behind it. It began to jump and scream more, falling over into the flames and lighting itself on fire. It stood up quickly, a monumentally sized burning man, and yet it ran still into the woods, leaving a path of fire and destruction in its wake.
I quickly made my way out of the woods. I wanted to chase it down but in my current state, I knew I couldn’t continue tonight. So I got back to my car, and I drove away. I didn’t even pay attention to the smoke as I found my way back onto the road. I didn’t even look at the fire trucks as they sped past me. What I did pay attention to, however, was its screams. Even with the emergency vehicles blaring past me, I could still hear its anguishing cries in the woods. I prayed it would find no escape. I prayed the flames would capture it and take it with them.
I awoke the next morning to a nightmare.
After I showered and cleaned my wounds, I came to my computer to write up the events of last night. I turned on my television for white noise, but something caught my attention. It was an emergency news bulletin.
“Eight of the fourteen firefighters were killed in the incident, while the other six have been hospitalised from the attack. Nobody knows what truly happened last night in the woods outside of (my town’s name) but our sources say that one of the survivors was heard telling police to avoid the woods, that a, and I quote, ‘gangly man’ is in there.”
Fuck.