Today is my birthday, I’m spending my birthday with my father. Since my mother is out of town on a business trip, I had to spend my birthday with my father alone. My father is a very relaxed person. He is calm and collective and enjoys time hunting. I decided that I wanna go on a hunting trip, I only went with him once when I was little. He seemed pretty surprised, considering I spent a lot of time at home building small wooden projects. It’s going to be my first time hunting with a rifle, so my father had to get me prepared.
My father took some time teaching me how to hold my rifle, it was really heavy on my arms. My body also fell with it as it fell into my arms. Considering that I am only 15 years old, and never had any experience outside my home away from my crafts. He had a couple rules that were pretty understanding, but the last one kind of shook me a bit. He told me “If you ever hear me say your name it isn’t me.” He said that in a joking tone, but I can tell he was being serious at the same time.
He never called me by my name. He always told me “Anyone can know your name, but not everyone can know your nickname.” It was getting cooler outside, coming down to around 3pm. Since my father lives out near some woods, it wasn’t too far of a walk for us. He obviously saw me tired, so he looked around for a point where we can relax, and hunt in place.
Over an hour has passed and nothing came around. My father told me “I’m going to go take a walk around Dev” As his patience was coming to a stop. I decided I was going to stay. I felt secure, and all of our stuff was here. Neither did I feel like carrying everything on my back again. I nodded as he headed into the forest.
Hearing all of the noises of the forest around me. I was understandably scared, knowing this is one of my first times in the forest. I heard twigs snap all around me, clutching my rifle as I was shaking sitting on this log. After a while of waiting around I decided it was best to meet up with my father.
Heading into the same direction as him, I was still a bit shaken. My rifle was the only thing keeping me from running away. seeing my father a few more minutes following the same path. I slowly crept up on him, and said “dad are you alright?” He turned his head to me looking a bit frightened, with lost color on his face. My father never gets scared like this, even when he told me about his past hunting experiences. I was asking what was wrong and then we heard it.
“Devin!” I was hit with an immediate sense of danger. A wave of fear hit me that I’ve never felt before, I wanted to throw up in fear. My father grabbed his rifle and rested it on the rock. He whispered to me “can you see anything?” I calmed down and lifted my head up, trying to be as quiet as possible. I looked up, trying to let my eyes focus considering the circumstances.
As my eyes started to focus, I saw a man, but not a man? His body was disfigured, not seemingly to look like a normal human. I couldn’t really seem to make out much more. We were about 40 to 50ish yards out. My dad told me “whatever that is it isn’t human” my father seemed like he was going to break down in fear, but he held his composure for me. “We need to leave now Dev.” he slowly lifted his rifle up and turned around. Trying to not make a noise as we were going to head back.
He couldn’t catch his footing and slipped. The noise caught the creature’s attention who was still yelling my name, seeming more desperate and louder. I was watching it closely, still not being able to make out its face or anything. Squinting more and more, I saw it… It turned its face to me.
My body was telling me to get out of there now. But I was frozen with fear. I waited for my father to go farther down, as he is heavier than me, so I can move faster and quieter than he can. It fled behind a tree out of my vision which signaled us to run. I swung my body out of its frozen state. I said in a hurry “run!” my father leaves me in a full on sprint, following behind him. My gun fell from me and I know it was my only protection. I needed to stop to grab it. When I was looking up after grabbing my rifle, it was around 20 feet away from me and could make it out now.
The figure was tall with very lengthy arms, with hind legs as a dog but much longer. It was a darkish brown color with its head shaped like a human but it’s not normal. The creature’s face looked more human-like. It stared at me saying “Devin” over and over in a comforting tone. I tried to lift my rifle up and shoot, but it was faster. It flew its body at me covering a heavy pace. I was standing 30 yards away.
My father took a shot from afar, yelling at me to get the hell out of there. Pumped with adrenaline and fear. My body was in overdrive. I ran fast, so fast it felt like I was slipping on ice, running past my father. After it felt like ages I made it to the rest point.
Too scared to know what happened to my father I was holding the rest point not knowing whether my father made it or not. As quick as worry and sadness started to fill my body, it was soon at ease when my father appeared only moments after me, he was limping, seeming to look like he had a tussle with whatever that creature was.
We packed in a hurry, knowing that it could come back whenever it wanted to. We were taking a fast pace back to our house. Not looking back, we were both breathing heavily, as we had our first near death experience in the woods. My mom was home looking worried, as we were heading into the house. cause we have been gone for over 2-3 hours at the time, taking us another 45 minutes to make it back home. my father and I headed back in, we both sighed as mom was cooking dinner for the both of us.
I was hearing the phone ring from the living room. It was pretty late at night so my father told me to go check who it was, as he walked into the bathroom to clean himself up. When I got to the phone, it was a voice message from over 15 minutes ago. “Hi Dev, sorry I missed your birthday, my flight got delayed and won’t be back till tomorrow. I love you, hope you get this message today, since I know your dad wants to take you hunting all day. The caller ID was “Mom”
my body was frozen scared to even move. As I slowly put the phone down I could hear my mother’s voice from behind me in a comforting tone, Devin dinner is ready.