Now normally, being able to talk about my hunting trips would be something I do with pleasure. This time though… I am not sure if I should talk about this at all. Or want. I guess I have to.
It was the fourth day of our hunting trip. Me and my brother were sitting in the tree stand, looking over the valley for deer. We hadn’t had any luck the days before and this day didn’t seem much better. It’s not just that we didn’t see any deer, there were few animals at all. Disappointing, but we still enjoyed our time.
After about an hour we quietly gave up and stopped paying attention. Instead talking about other stuff. We still had time. In Northern Sweden the Sun doesn’t set so soon.
As we were talking my brother suddenly looked away, hushing me. „You see that?“, he whispered.
„No. What?“
He pointed in the distance. „That giant white thing over there.“
Then I saw it. Between a few trees was what looked like a giant grey and white furball. And it was moving. „What is that?“, I asked, completely irritated.
„I have no idea. A bear? A giant wolf?“, my brother laughed quietly.
„The hell.“ I got out the binoculars to see better. Unfortunately the trees were in my way so I couldn’t see much more. But whatever I saw clearly was not a normal animal. It was a giant ball with three pairs of thick legs close together. My brother snatched the binoculars out of my hand.
For a few seconds we just looked at each other confused. „Do…we kill it?“, my brother then asked.
„What? No.“, I answered.“We don’t even know what that is. Maybe we should call someone?“
„Who?“
„The police?“
A short silence set in.
I got out my phone to take a photo of the thing but to my annoyance every picture I took was blurred. „I think the camera is damaged.“
„Can’t be.“, my brother objected. He took a photo of the other side of the forest and it was completely fine.
„I think it’s picture shy.“, I claimed, not knowing what was going on.
„Alright fuck it.“ my brother climbed down the ladder. „What are you doing?“, I shouted.
„Getting closer. I got a gun. That thing can’t do much.“
My instincts told me that that was a bad idea. I should have listened to them but instead I followed him.
Quietly we walked through the long grass, with our eyes fixed on the strange creature. Suddenly it began to move and we stopped abruptly. The creature was bigger than it had appeared from afar. Nearly twice as tall as a human. It gave off a weird groan. Slowly I was starting to get scared. My brother felt the same but neither of us said anything and so we continued. At some point I must have noticed that the creature seemed to grow larger. But I put it off as an illusion.
Then it noticed us. It gave of a loud scream and turned to face us. For the first time we could see it’s face. It had a wide mouth with multiple rows of teeth and three irregular sized eyes above it. It looked like the drawing of a kid rather than an actual animal.
I raised my gun ready to fire if necessary. My brother did likewise and the creature came running towards us. Horrified, I had to watch as it grew additional limbs out of it’s body. It’s legs multiplied and grew larger. And then the entire body. The eyes and mouth multiplied like cells. Just a lot faster. As it kept growing and running towards us it yelled out unnatural screams that hurt my ears. I fired. I fired twice. Nothing. The bullets just disappeared in front of the creature. We didn’t waste any time and started running. But we didn’t get anywhere. The entire landscape has changed. The forest was gone. Surrounding us now was a strange grey mist above the grass field. Only in the direction of the sun could I spot a massive tree in the fog that only seemed to grow.
Just like the creature behind us. What had once been a fluffy ball had now transformed into a giant horrifying web of heads and limbs with eyes and mouths everywhere. We couldn’t escape. The thing was far too fast and it was everywhere. My brother fell down and something invisible dragged him into the air. He screamed louder than before. I ran towards him, but it was too late. Before I knew it he was out of my sight. Disappearing into the grey fog as his screams grew more silent. I yelled his name and cursed at the monster. It didn’t even seem to notice me anymore.
Then the floor under my feet was ripped away and I fell into a strange nothingness. I closed my eyes and screamed. But I just kept falling. After a while I reopened my eyes. But I wasn’t sure if I was seeing right. There was grey fog everywhere. And the monster. Or multiple monsters? I wasn’t sure. It was a giant web of limbs that seemed to form a ball around a bright yellow light. Was that the sun? It looked like it. But it was completely surrounded by that thing. I also still could hear it’s weird noises. Although a bit fainter now.
I was drifting through the grey void for maybe an hour when suddenly a red liquid mass came towards me. I tried to escape but it was hopeless. The mass caught up to me and as it touched my skin it started to etch like nothing I had felt before. It got even worse when it touched my face. Fortunately I closed my eyes in time. Otherwise I might not be able to see anymore.
After that I must have fallen unconscious. I woke up in a hospital bed. My skin covered in bandages. Apparently I had been found in the forest. Barely alive with my skin nearly burned off.
My brother was found as well. Ripped apart.