I’m back in the forest.
It’s just dawn. The trees are blocking most of the light, yet there’s enough for me to see just barely in front of me. The tree’s feel closer than my first time here. Yet, somehow, I I feel as if this is exactly where I was when I lost her.
My little girl.
I hear that sound again. That grotesque, pungent sound of it tearing into her stomach. I can hear the slight…moaning…coming from it as it devours flesh and bone.
And then the images fly into my mind. It looks up at me from its meal. Its white eyes, the red veins throughout. Its ear to ear smile, bearing needle-like teeth behind meat and blood. It’s hairless, humanoid features, stretched and skewed like it was literally just skin and bone.
I see it stand up so quickly, void of hair and any form of clothes on it’s ten foot tall body. Its arms reach its knees, it’s hands almost to its ankles. At full stretch, it looks as if it has to bend to avoid most of the branches on the trees around it. And then it turns and runs away, looking like an excited child playing a game of tag.
And then I see Catherine.
Splayed out on a broken tree stump, my little girl breathing her last raspy breaths as blood and vomit spews from her mouth. She looks at me as I run to her with panic, fear, pain and grief across her face. I hold her, I scream. I kissed her. I apologise that I let this happen.
She fades away.
And then I see it again. Staring at me with eyes that have no pupils, yet it stares directly at me. Directly into me. And it tells me all that I need to know. It tells me it owns me with that stare. It tells me no matter what I do, it will win. It tells me this is a game. And it runs away.
And I wake up.
I’ve had this nightmare every single night since the incident. I can’t get the scene to stop playing over and over in my head. I have literally been stuck in that fucking clearing since the police had found me and Catherine there. What makes it worse is that everyone knows she’s dead. They all look at me with such pity and remorse.
“It’s the guy whose kid died,” says one.
“I heard she was eaten by a wolf.” responds another.
“He’s a drug addict, wouldn’t be surprised if the prick did it himself.” says the few.
I respond to no one. How…why would I? Who would believe me that an overly tall and lanky, stretched out humanoid thing had eaten my fucking daughter and ran away from the scene in glee? Who would believe me that I stared that thing in it’s empty fucking eyes, and saw it’s happiness with what it had done?
That would just confirm their suspicions.
So I don’t respond. I let them all think what they want to about it all. They weren’t there. Them knowing the truth wouldn’t bring my baby girl back to me.
So I go on living, day by day. I eat, I sleep.
Most importantly however, I research.
I haven’t found a name for the thing, not one by lore standards at least. However, I have found some deep web postings about sightings of a creature that matches the description of this thing. I felt as though I was at a loss, until I found one posting on a website that has since been lost to me. I copied it, and now I plan to try it.
“How to scare the Gangly Man” by user56a12kl9
“The Gangly Man, a creature often found in the wooded areas in [REDACTED] is a creature of unknown origin. Although it looks to be a human, it’s features seem to say otherwise. It appears to be more of an evolutionary kin to us, like that of primates but more monstrous and predatory. This creature tends to prey on smaller creatures than it, preferring squirrels and birds over large dogs or bears.
Sometimes, the creature will find itself in a town or city, looking for a more satisfying meal.
This tends to be children.
From my findings, at least forty cases in the past two years of missing children can be attributed to The Gangly Man. All of them are found in close to the same fashion. Their bodies are torn apart, mutilated and ripped asunder. Their faces are locked in a state of fear and pain.
One person, Richard [REDACTED] from the town of [REDACTED], a father who had lost three children one fateful night to this creature, contacted me with some new information I had not known about it.
Apparently, Richard hurt the beast.
When his children went missing, and the police had done nothing to truly help him find them, Richard had taken matters into his own hands. He combed the woods with a shotgun, a crossbow and a can of bear mace. After hours of looking for his children for hours, he had found them, piled on top of each other in the previously stated conditions. He stood above them in shock, not knowing what to do, their corpses starting to decay as they’ve been here for quite some time already, and the bugs have begun to have their way with them.
And then The Gangly Man appeared in the trees.
It stood there, both of its hands covering its mouth like it had just told a joker and was stifling a laugh. Richard didn’t think, he didn’t feel fear as he saw it, he only felt his rage build. He lifted his crossbow and fired, but missed. The bolt whizzed past the creature’s head, missing it by mere inches. This made the thing laugh a disturbing and disgusting sound as it ran towards Richard. He then dropped his crossbow and lifted his shotgun, firing directly into the thing’s torso. The bullets didn’t penetrate. They merely hit its chest and left a red mark upon it, as if the creature was merely smacked. It grabbed the gun from Richard’s hands and swung it across his face, knocking him to the ground. It then stood over Richard, towering over him with an evil intent in its all white eyes.
It lowered its head down to Richard’s face, unhinging its jaw to consume him, but Richard was ready. He felt for the bear spray that was velcroed to his pants, ripping it from its holding place. He pointed it directly at the creature and he sprayed.
The Gangly Man shot backwards, throwing its hands to its face and screaming a horrendous sound. It teetered and faltered on its feet, yet did not fall. Then, it lowered its hands and looked at Richard who was back on his feet now, shotgun back in hand. Its eyes were blood red now, a dark ring forming around both. Its expression changed to one of pure fear and anger, almost like that of his children. He screamed at the creature, challenged it to come at him again, but instead, it turned and ran away, not looking back at Richard.
Richard didn’t tell the police the story, only that there was a bear close by, hence his weapons. They believed the story he told them.
I wish to say that Richard’s story ended there.
I found out three weeks after coming into contact with Richard, he was found dead in his home. His house was torn to pieces, like someone had come in with intent to only cause damage. Richard was found in his bed, his stomach torn open and his innards all but missing.
I hope that passing along Richard’s information may help whoever needs it. May God protect anyone who faces The Gangly Man.”
So I don’t know how to kill it, but I know how to hurt the fucking thing now. And it has me thinking. Damage the eyes enough, and I may be able to damage the brain. So now I have enough information to make my next move. And as God as my fucking witness, this thing will regret taking my baby girl from me.