Since I was born, I have lived in this small village in Hungary. There was a large forest about 20 meters behind our house, and since I was a kid, someone or something was always watching me from that forest. I first saw it when I was five. I was playing in the backyard one evening and looked at the forest. It was massive, with the tallest trees I’ve ever seen. Then I saw some movement in the shadow of a tree, and there was this creature, around 3 meters tall. It ran away before I could take a good look at it.
I was seven when I saw it again. I couldn’t see it clearly, but its glowing yellow eyes burned in my memory. It lasted only a few seconds, and then it was gone again. I was terrified, so I told my parents, but my father just laughed at me. My mother seemed worried, but my father told her I was just imagining things, like every kid my age.
After that encounter, I saw it every week from my bedroom window. I told my parents every time, but they didn’t believe me. Years went by, and I was afraid to even go to my bedroom. We didn’t have any curtains, so I just slept facing the wall every night.
One night, when I was 12, I saw it again, but much clearer than ever. It had a strange head structure, like a horse’s head combined with a human skull. It had two big horns. The creature was standing on two legs, unlike any other animal living there.
As I was staring at it, my father opened my bedroom door and walked inside. For the first time, he finally saw it too. He couldn’t believe his eyes as he walked beside me. The creature ran away again. I looked at my father, and he was still shocked.
“See?” I asked. “I see that thing almost every night. Do you finally believe me?”
“Son, stay with your mother!” he said, then went to the living room, where my mom was reading a book. I followed him.
“Is everything okay?” my mother looked at my father. “You two look worried.”
“Stay here! I’ll be back soon,” said my father as he grabbed the hunting rifle and left the house.
I explained to my mother that I saw the creature again, and my father saw it too. Her hands were shaking. She finally believed me too. I hoped that the creature would be gone forever. We waited for my dad to come back. An hour went by and it became dark. My mother told me to go to my room and sleep. I was sleepy, so it wasn’t that hard.
I woke up the next day and went to the living room, expecting to find the others having breakfast, but I only saw my mom speaking to some neighbors. She told them that my father still hadn’t returned from the forest.
Half of the village spent the next week searching the forest for my dad while I stayed home with my mother. I saw that creature again, every night. Later, the police got involved too. They questioned both my mom and me. They later found a fresh skeleton in the woods with a broken skull and a missing arm, but they couldn’t identify it.
About a decade later, I was still living there, but I wanted to leave the village. Living there was painful. Often we both saw that thing. We were living in terror, although the creature never came closer; it was just watching us. I finished my studies a few months after my mother died.
I wanted to move out to the neighboring city. I got a job interview there, but the company’s CEO vanished without a trace just a few days before they sold the company, so I had to stay in the village.
I was cutting some wood in November for the winter with Peter, one of my friends. We were supposed to get home by evening, but we drank a little, and suddenly it was way harder to collect enough wood.
It was already dark when we heard a strange noise coming from deeper into the forest. Our horses immediately ran away.
“No, come back!” Peter shouted after them, but it was too late; the horses were already gone. Then I heard someone moving behind us.
“Peter, something’s here,” I said. We looked around, but there was no one there.
“We should go find the horses,” Peter suggested.
We spent about an hour looking for the horses, and we found absolutely nothing. It was a waste of time, and I was angry about it.
“Oh my god!” Peter shouted. I looked there, and there was the creature, standing right beside Peter, who froze from fear. The thing was twice as tall as him. It had disturbingly long arms, ending in four long fingers. It grabbed Peter and ripped him apart. I just stood there, not knowing what to do. Then finally I ran out of the forest as fast as I could.
I immediately contacted the police. A few days of investigation later, they said it was just some wild animal killing Peter, but I know it wasn’t an animal. That creature is still watching me from the forest every night with its two horns and glowing eyes. I don’t know what to do. Why doesn’t it kill me? It left me alive after it killed Peter, but why? It’s just stalking me and doesn’t do anything else. I see him every night and feel like I’m going insane.