I looked over at the clock that was sitting on my desk, it flashed big red letters at me “11:28pm” they read. I figured I did enough work for one day and shut off my computer before rising from my desk and pulling a hoodie over my head as I left my bedroom. I walked to the living room to find my pug, Boomer sleeping on the couch. I gently woke him up and said to him “Hey bud. Want to go outside?” He was quick to stand up and make his way to the back door so I could take him outside to do his business before we went to sleep.
I pulled on my boots and opened the door as me and Boomer stepped outside, causing the snow under us to crunch beneath our weight. Boomer almost immediately took off running when something caught his eye that I didn’t notice. I began walking slowly across my backyard occasionally checking on the dog to make sure he wasn’t up to no good.
I saw a big fluffy snowflake fall from the sky slowly. My eyes followed it all the way to the ground when it landed near something I had never seen before. There were 4 long skinny lines in the snow. 1 single line and then at the end of the line there were 3 other lines that all were connected by the main line. They almost seemed like footprints of some kind, but they were too skinny and much too long to belong to a human. My mind began to wonder what type of animal this could have been. That’s when I noticed that the prints seemed to go in the direction right behind me. I turned, half expecting to see a long lanky figure that came from the imagination of a scared 6 year old child, but to no surprise, nothing. They just led towards my neighbors fence.
As I stared I heard the running of my dog come towards me behind me. I turned just in time to see his big googly eyes, ears flying in the wind, and wide smile on his face as he panted from running around. I laughed as he crashed into my legs, causing me to stumble a little but I managed to get my balance back. I grabbed a small amount of snow and rolled it into a ball before playfully catching Boomers attention with it and then throwing it. He chased it and got confused when it hit the snow. I chuckled as he dug and sniffed at the landing sight.
I turned back around to face the footprints and curiosity got the best of me. I followed them to my neighbors fence and scaled the tall wooden boards, perching myself so I could see the other side of the fence but I didn’t go to their backyard. And what I saw where the tracks had led me, shocked me. Absolutely nothing. I looked back down to my backyard to confirm this is where the tracks led. It was like they walked into the fence and vanished.
A particularly cold gust of wind came over me, upsetting my balance on the fence a little and sending a shiver down my spine. I climbed off the fence and said to my dog “Alright Boomie. Are you ready to go back inside?” He tilted his head to the side for a moment before making his way towards the door back into our house and I soon followed.
I got ready for bed, and laid there tossing and turning, my mind racing with questions and thoughts on the prints. Eventually I just decided to start googling, of course to no avail. The closest thing I could find to the prints I saw were that of a bunny, but even those were nowhere near what I had seen just outside my walls.
The only way I could describe what I saw was if you took a clothes hanger from your closet and made 4 connected imprints. Very long, and absurdly skinny.
My bedroom is on the back of the house, in fact, the closest area of the house to where the tracks were. I leaned across my bed and opened the curtains. I looked down at the snow to look for the prints again. But, nothing. My gaze wandered over where I had seen them. I saw my footprints and Boomers footprints, but no animal footprints. I tore my eyes from the backyard, blaming the fact that the prints were gone on the dark lighting outside. I tried to calm my slightly undone nerves and laid down in my bed and lifted my big fluffy blankets over my shoulders. Even though my mind was still racing, I was able to doze off sooner or later.
The next night, me and Boomer did a ritual similar to the one we did the previous night. However, on this night, I went to check the footprints in the snow, but they were not there. Nor were they gone. My eyes went wide when I saw that the footprints were on the side of the house facing the wall. No other footprints, just two, right next to each other facing the house. It was the wall to my bedroom. It was also the same wall that had a window that looked directly into my bedroom. I looked around, scanning my surroundings, unnerved.
Me and Boomer went back inside sooner rather than later. I knew sleeping tonight was going to be harder than normal, so I took a few minutes to search my house for a bottle of melatonin to help get the job done.
I climbed into bed and plugged my phone into its charger. I opened my curtain and gave one last glance outside. I looked down and of course, I saw no footprints. I sighed and closed my curtain and curled up in my bed and tried to fall asleep.
I’m not sure how long it took me to fall asleep, but I woke up a few hours later, probably between two and three o’clock. In my half asleep state I opened the curtains again, but saw nothing. It was too dark outside to see anything.
I woke up again shortly after that. Right now as I’m writing this it is nearing 4:30 am. So why am I telling you all of this when I could be sleeping? This is why;
I woke up at around 3:45 and opened my curtains yet again. I took a second to look outside and noticed how pretty the stars were. I looked at the light snowfall and all of the street lights in the distance. That’s when it hit me, how did I not see any of this before?
It hadn’t even hit me previously in my sleepy state, but when I first looked outside, I would have seen this but I didn’t. It was completely and utterly black. As if someone covered my window in black paint. My mind wandered more and more and I had to assume that something was outside of my window. My tired and anxious mind made my body tremble at the thought that when I had looked out my window, was there something staring back at me?
To make matters even worse, my bedroom is on the second floor of the house.
So I guess the reason I’m telling you all this is to get an answer of some kind. My mind has traveled from nightmares, hallucinations, and every creepy pasta that I know of. None of which seem to give me any answers.
I am asking for your advice. What do I do when my dog needs to go outside in the morning? Is it safe? Of course I can keep my dog inside and clean up after him, but I can’t stay in my home forever. So please, I am open to any suggestions.
If I see any more of the footprints in the snow, I will make sure to update you here.