When I was a kid I lived in the rural parts of Oregon. I lived with my Dad,brother and our three dogs. There was a kind of forest that stretched for a few miles and we shared it with our neighbors, the ones who had kids,not the other one, she never left her house. Our neighbors were about a mile away from us,each. My brother would bike down to his friend’s house who lived in the city. We never bothered the kids that lived down the street,their mom was a freak,well I mean she was just paranoid I guess. It would take my brother about 30 minutes to get there and 40 minutes for me because I would enjoy the forest,and take a route I built in the trees. My brother would yell for me every once and a while to make sure I was okay. Our dad never let us do anything by ourselves. My brother would play with one of the kids that he made friends with while I would be drawing something under a tree or go out to one of the gas stations near where we hung out. Our dad would pick us up at 5 right before the sun went down to drive us home.
I would sometimes skip school just to play in the forest,or look for mushrooms,and bones for my ever growing collection. But…when I was 15 I found something very interesting, I found a camera. I thought this was very cool so I brought it home with me. Then the next day a lock of hair in my favorite tree to climb. The hair was long,like a woman’s hair,a week later after I found the hair I found a pile of bones,this was odd. I had never seen such perfectly placed bones in the forest before. They were laid out like a ladder on the ground,I followed them and followed them. It seemed like they went on forever. I then heard one of our dogs behind me. Dad would send them out to find me if I went a little too deep into the forest. I decided that I would leave this bone thing to nature to deal with.
Dad had made pasta with alfredo,with red sauce on the side for my brother. I remember that night so well it still sends chills down my spine when I try to recall the memory. It may seem cliche but this was terrifying to my 15 year old self mind. When I went into my room coming straight from a shower that sent shivers into my bones and made my chest tighten. This was my first sign to not go into my room,but I ignored it. When I grazed my palm onto my door knob another shiver chilled my bones and at this point my chest was so tight I was taking deep shallow breaths. The air was thick, almost heavy on my goose bump covered skin. I heard my brother’s footsteps coming up the wooden steps. Against all of my instincts I went into my room. My lights were off,I don’t remember turning them off though. My large window was wide open and a skull layed on my desk where I kept my other bones. A skull that I had not found, a skull that still had flesh attached to it, simulated that I could not identify what it came from,the room smelled like,well rotting meat. I was frightened,and I still don’t know why I decided to not tell my dad or even my brother about this. I had a gut feeling that I shouldn’t get rid of the skull,my gut was telling me that if I threw out that skull, whatever climbed up to my second floor room opened my window and left me this…gift? Would be back to hurt me, or worse.
At 1 a.m I got out of bed, grabbed the skull with a ziplock baggie that was laying on my floor,and took it outside. I was terrified of what brought me this skull and why,and if it was watching me now. I got to the shed where my brother did his woodworking for his woodworking class in school. I placed the skull down on the table and grabbed one of his tools.I’m unfamiliar with the tool names,but it was the sharp flat one used for carving. I used it to start chipping away at the flesh,I was horrified to what was under the mutilated fleshy skull.
I recognized it from my anatomy classes,it was one of a human. I gasped,stumbling back and dropping the tool,it made an ear bleeding sound as it shattered the silent night. I whipped around to make sure no one heard me and there was a creature as tall as the shed. It was standing on its hind legs,its long torso twisted,and moved unnaturally. Its front legs sagged down to its side,they were short,almost like a ferret’s body. But its head was long and narrow,its sharp facial bones pushing against its thinly fured flesh. It looked like a bad attempt at taxidermy. It then let out this unearthly shreek I could hear my dogs barking from inside of the house. I heard the front door slam open,and loud footsteps came quickly after. The creature looked at me. I blinked and it was gone,my dad came running to the shed, he had a shotgun in hand. And found me dumbstruck still trying to contemplate what I just witnessed. He ripped me out of the shed and dragged me all the way back inside of the house.
I quickly learned the truth about this creature that had been apparently watching me for years. My dad would hear it climbing up the house at night and try to shoot it down. But obviously that wasn’t working. So when he realized I wasn’t in bed he saw it coming out of the forest towards the shed. And that happened to be where I was. I could tell that he was obviously frightened by it,almost more than I was. I never went out to those woods again,until now. My name is Samuel Crules,25 years old and I’m going out to finish this. For good. If I do not show up after a full 72 hours don’t call the police. I am already dead. And I wish for my body to rot in the forest that I grew up in. And be careful if you ever see a trail of bones in the rural parts of Oregon.