Me (34m) and my wife, (34f) have a son together who is now 3 months old. It was recently my wife’s birthday, where I got her a cute 2-year-old Irish Setter from a nearby animal shelter. She has been nagging me about getting a dog for quite some time now. I got her the Irish Setter because when she was a kid, she had one herself. It sadly ran off into the woods and was found dead three days later. As sad as this already is, the poor dog was cut up into multiple pieces, which they still haven’t found. I believe they only found the head, the torso and the right foot.
Anyways, our house is pretty old and surrounded by woods. I should probably mention that this is my wife’s childhood home as it is a big part of the story. And I’m starting to think that the place is cursed. For example, one time I woke up to my son crying. I walked up to his crib, and for a split second I swear I could see a tall black figure in the corner of my eye. I didn’t think much of it as I hadn’t been getting the best sleep because of our baby boy. Before all this happened, my wife had been complaining about scratching sounds on the windows, I always just brushed it off and didn’t think much about it. We are surrounded by woods, so it could just be a forest animal looking for food or a bird getting into its nest.
OK, back to the story. I had just got home from work. It was a sunny day, and I was looking forward to trying out my new BBQ grill witch I had brought the other day. My wife soon joined me on the patio where she sat down, with our dog. He was usually a very good boy and didn’t need a leash or any fencing. My son was playing with toys in his baby gym, when suddenly the dog started barking like crazy out towards the forest. I put down my stuff, and sprinted towards him, but it was no help. He ran into the forest, my wife following. I yelled after her to come back, but she didn’t stop. I wanted to follow her and help look for the dog, but I couldn’t leave my son alone. I quickly picked him up and ran inside where I picked up my phone and called my brother-in-law. He’s a strong man, a little older than me. I felt my heart pounding in my chest as I talked. He told me to wait and calm down. That my wife and dog would be back any minute. But minutes turned into hours, and soon it was dark. By 9PM, I decided to call the cops. They quickly arrived at our house, which mind you is about 30 minutes away from town.
At first there were only a few officers. They were in the forest for about 2 hours before giving up and getting a search team. Of course, I joined them and tried to look for my wife and dog while my mother was looking after my baby. At about 1am we heard a loud scream that I could tell was my wife’s. It sounded like she was nearby, which gave me hope. We continued looking with no luck and at around 3 the search team decided we would take a break until sunrise. Of course, I was against this as I wanted to find my wife ASAP, but I agreed at last. That night I couldn’t sleep at all. I was up thinking about my wife when I heard the scratching that she had been talking about.
The second day of searching went badly. We didn’t find anything after 12 hours of non-stop searching and were about to give up. But then I heard my dogs familiar barking coming from nearby. A large weight was lifted off my chest, and I started running towards the sound of the barks. There he was, sitting on top of a big boulder covered in moss. He looked dirty, like a stray dog. I was so happy to see him, but disappointed when my wife was not with him. That night I came home with my dog, but still no wife.
Fast forward three days later at 1am the scratching came back, followed by a loud knock on the door. I got up and ran downstairs wearing nothing but my underwear. I looked through my ring camera and I was shocked to see my wife standing at my doorstep. I was so happy, and quickly opened the door for her. Looking back at it now, something was definitely different about her. Like, she was my wife, but she didn’t feel like my wife. Her face was pale. I tried to hug her, but to my surprise, she pushed me away. I was shocked and confused. She walked up to our bedroom, and proceeded to lay down in our bed, not saying a word. My first thought was that she was tired and all she wanted was to sleep, as I didn’t know what could have happened in the dark woods. I ended up going to sleep as well.
The next day I called the search team and told them she had gotten back. It was 6am on a Saturday, and I had gotten up early to go clean out our old shed. I made coffee and her favorite sandwich which I would make for special occasions. When I got upstairs, to my surprise she was already sitting up in our bed, looking out to the forest. This creeped me out, as usually I had to force her out of bed on the weekend. She suddenly turned her head to me, slowly. She had no emotions on her face. I brought her the food and placed it on her lap. “I made you breakfast”, I tried. She looked down at the food before turning back to me. “I don’t like strawberry jam”. The way her voice sounded gave me chills, as it had gone from a sweet, high-pitched tone to a dead sounding voice which didn’t sound much like her. “But strawberry jams always been your favorite?” I protested. She shook her head and placed the tray on the floor. “No”.
Later that day, after I had finished working in the garden, I went to check on my wife. She was still sitting in that exact same position; she hadn’t even moved a muscle. I was out in the shed for about 3-4 hours, so it was unrealistic that she could’ve sat there all day. “Honey, don’t you want to have a shower? After being in the forest I mean” I asked, in the softest tone possible. She made an expression at the word “forest”, which was really scary. She nodded and got up. I walked her to our bathroom and put the water on for her. I walked out of the bathroom, and to my dog. He was lying in his bed. I tried to pet him, but to my surprise he snarled at me. I decided it was best to back off. Plus, there was something about his eyes that just seemed different.
I went to lay in my bed and browse on my computer, when I could smell something coming from under the bed. I looked and was disgusted when I saw a bird’s head covered in blood. It was missing an eye too. When I got up, my wife was standing by the door. The weird thing was her hair wasn’t even wet. “I’m sorry” she said as she was coming closer and closer. “What the hell is this???” I asked her. “Don’t worry about it”. I felt a chill going down my spine. “I will take him outside, to the forest”. She picked up the rotting head with her bare hands and walked out of the room like nothing had happened.
Why would my wife do this? She has never acted like this. I am currently sitting at my kitchen table writing this as my wife is sleeping. I’m scared, I feel like she’s always watching over me, like she’s behind me at all times. I don’t want to leave her alone with my son. I have work, what am I supposed to do, I mean what if she hurts him. I fear that she will do something to him while I am away. I really have no idea what happened in that forest, but something definitely did change her; or maybe even take her away. I feel like this is not my wife. and that she knows I know. And if this is true, what will she do to me?