Just before the Covid years, I was cooperating with an event planner. We usually worked with setting up stages for local politicians, small bands, and charity events. Most of us had other day jobs and used this as a sort of supplemental income, planning our time around events that were announced well in advance.
So imagine our surprise when our manager, Lori, called us in to say we were gonna have a huge event going down, and just four days to prep. The biggest event we’d ever had, by far.
Turns out there’d been sort of raffle. There was this west coast singer-songwriter (which I won’t mention by name) that’d agreed to a do an online raffle thing to play for fans of a random town. The town ended up being this middle-of-nowhere Minnesota nothinghole, population who cares. She’d been trying to get out of playing there for months, but it was contractually deemed that she pretty much had to – and time was running out. So they figured they’d just get it over with and hire some local team to set it up.
And that was us.
So it was all a bit of a pop-up event. Lori had found this field not far from the town center where we were allowed to set up, but it needed some serious work. I was one of the first to sign on. I’m in landscaping.
We had four days in total. We lost one day just getting the crew together, finding a site for the event, and coordinate with the singer-songwriter’s team off-site. They were gonna come in one day ahead of the concert just to make sure we hadn’t messed it up. The princess herself was flying in the morning of the concert; she didn’t care about being jetlagged for a small crowd.
So I got in my van and headed for the middle of nowhere.
It is not a good sign when you can barely find the town itself, but I eventually made my way there. Crawling around the pothole-infested back roads, I finally ended up in a field just off the main street. Three of the others were already there, unloading equipment. There was a small excavator by the side, smoothing out a path for us to run our vehicles straight into the field.
Parking by the side of the road, I met up with the others, and we got to work.
We set up flags along the perimeter to make sure we didn’t touch anything we weren’t supposed to. The others tore up saplings and moved boulders as I climbed up on my lawn tractor. It would take two of us most of the afternoon to clear the field, and the uneven ground didn’t help.
Part of why I love this line of work is because I can kind of zone out into this space in my head where just nothing goes on. It’s really peaceful. Zen, even. In my day job as an assistant warehouse manager, I have to spend a lot of time talking to people and confirming shipments, so to get away from all that and just stay in my head for a while is almost like meditation.
That’s where my head was at when I saw the ground suddenly dip ahead of me. I threw myself on the breaks and watched the heads of the others turn. I took off my headphones, stepped off the lawn tractor, and got a better look.
Now, it’s hard to describe exactly what it looked like. There was this space in the middle of the field where some sort of animal had slept. The grass bent outwards, and there was this darkened patch of soil in the middle; vaguely shaped like an animal. Sort of large, but not bear-large.
The others joined me, getting a better look. We were all stressed about getting the work done on time, but we had no idea what we were looking at. Something had slept there recently, and frequently. The ground was soggy, and there was a bunch of crushed blue flowers arranged in a spiral. Kind of looked like sunflowers.
I looked up at Manny. The guy had worked with Lori for years, and in lieu of her being on-site, he was the guy who called the shots. He wasn’t having it. He just looked at me and shrugged.
“Cut it,” he said. “Cut it all.”
So I did. I got back up, and we cut it all.
We didn’t get off work until somewhere around 8 pm. We went out and got ourselves a dry steak dinner from a local diner and drove off to a motel. Lori had set us up, so we just had to get the keys and crash. She’d been nice enough to get us one room each; no need to share.
I settled in for the night, put on some local TV and took a long shower. I spent little over an hour checking my socials and reading up on my subreddits before I drifted off.
I was deep in that lucid space between sleep and awake, having just passed that bump in the night, when I heard this distant high-pitched noise. At first I thought I’d imagined it, like some kind of electronic feedback, but there was just something off about it. My eyes shot open when I realized what it was.
Someone was screaming.
I threw on a pair of jeans, jumped into my shoes, and headed for the parking lot.
The motel was divided into two buildings in a sort of U-shape. I could see someone running out of one on the rooms on the opposite site. Someone screaming like a wounded animal, flailing madly with their arms. I’d never heard a human make a sound like that before. Never.
I thought they were wearing some kind of shirt. I ran up to help, but stopped dead in my tracks. They weren’t wearing a shirt.
It was all blood.
It was Manny. As he stepped out under a weak streetlight, I could see he was torn up. A deep cut splitting his jaw, making half his face hang loose. Puncture wounds on the side of his ribs, with an inch-deep cut going from his left breast all the way around to his back. He collapsed on the pavement, still spewing out that unhinged high-pitched shriek.
I heard people calling for an ambulance. An older woman was running out with a first aid-kit from the main building. A man grabbed a blanket from his car. I could see faces pop up as people were waking up, looking out their windows. We were like ants, swarming him, doing what little we could to help.
But I just stood there, mouth wide open and shirtless. And all I could hear was that horrible scream, squirming like a cold worm down the back of my spine.
The next day, as we all gathered, we got the news that Manny was in stable condition. Not out of the woods, but he’d probably make it. We wanted to go visit him in the hospital, but we were contractually bound to finish our work for the event. None of us were feeling it. I was still getting this uneasy hiccup in my stomach when I thought about Manny’s split jaw. It physically hurt to think about.
Getting back to work was a blessing in disguise. It was nice to get into that zero-thought space and get some work done. But all throughout the day, there were all kinds of little bumps in the road.
For example, when we started to level the space for the stage, we noticed piles of rocks. They seemed to have been arranged in a rectangle. Yuri, one of the local guys, thought it looked like a grave.
We also found more of those weird blue flowers. Some of them were hanging in bunches from trees at the edge of the field, like someone was drying them. As the wind passed through the petals, they gave off this eerie rattling noise; like hissing snakes.
Still, we did our job. Last day we’d be meeting up with the off-site team and ironing out the details and electronics.
That evening, we had another dry steak at a local diner. It was quiet. No one knew where to begin. Work had kept our minds busy, but now we were heading back to the motel. We just looked at one another. It’s like we all knew what we were thinking, but no one wanted to talk about it.
“Do they know who did it?” someone asked.
No one answered. We all just shook our heads. We’d been waiting for updates all day, but nothing had come in. Lori had sent a few encouraging e-mails, thanking us for being stoic and keeping up the good work, but there was no news about Manny. At least he hadn’t gotten worse.
Coming back to the motel, we could see that they’d cordoned off the room with yellow tape and plastic tarps. Still, I could see it all the way from my room. It was already on my mind, so knowing it was just across the parking lot didn’t help.
I followed the same procedure as the previous night, but I couldn’t sleep. Lying in my bed, freshly showered, I just stared straight ahead. There was some commercial running on the local TV station, but I didn’t even know what I was looking at. I was just lying there, my leg shaking, waiting for something to happen. At around 3 am, I was still wide awake. The local station wasn’t even showing anything anymore, and I barely noticed. Every little noise coming from outside made me look up, but it all turned out to be nothing. A passing car. A stubborn bird. Just little nothings.
I did manage to get a couple of hours of shut-eye, but there was still that part of me that kept whispering that this was far from over.
The next day, we got a call at 6 am. The other team was coming in early, and we had to meet up with them. We still had a ton of work to do to support a large crowd. Lori told us that the event reveal had gone up and there’d been a bigger than anticipated response. People were going crazy. I don’t think I’d ever heard a single song from that woman, but apparently the people of rural Minnesota had.
I was yawning all the way to the meet-up. Getting there, I could tell we’d be out of our comfort zone. These people had insane standards and a completely unrealistic schedule. Still, they had the money to back it up. They were on another level, and we just had to try and live in their world for a while.
I worked my fingers to the goddamn bone. We’re talking fifteen straight hours of non-stop demands. We had to wear these cheap little black walkie-talkies where we heard this shrill voice just spew out demand, after demand, after demand.
And still, we got it done.
It was around 9 pm when we sat down by the edge of the stage. We were ahead of schedule, and the secondary team was gonna take over from there. Someone had brought pizza and a bunch of cokes, and I could tell we all needed to blow off some steam. We were making jokes and laughing it up. As we all took a collective breath, we did a headcount.
We were one man short. Yuri, the local guy.
We all looked at one another. Someone had seen him at lunch. Another guy saw him carrying some cables by the stage that afternoon. I gave Lori a call just to double-check, and she had no idea. Yuri didn’t answer his phone, and he hadn’t said anything about heading home early.
The guy had just disappeared into thin air.
As we all went back to the motel, I shambled straight to my room and crashed. The moment my head hit the pillow, I was checked out. I felt like I’d climbed a mountain; my legs could barely keep me up.
But I was on edge. Some small part of me didn’t want to let go of what’d happened, and there was something in me telling me that Yuri hadn’t just taken off. Maybe Lori called he cops. We didn’t check. Doing these temp jobs all over, you rarely get a chance to get to know people on any other level than their first name.
So sleep came and went. I couldn’t relax. Sometimes, my eyes just refused to close. I was still expecting that scream again. Any second now.
At some point in the night, I heard something from the other room. I didn’t know what to make of it, but it was no scream. Not a TV either. But it was definitely… something.
I decided to check it out. I put on my pants, slipped into my shoes, and stepped outside. One of the other guys from the build was sleeping next door, and I couldn’t put my finger on what kind of noise he was making. After all that’d happened, I wanted to check in on him.
I came all the way up to the front door before I stopped to listen. The sound was clearer.
Sobbing.
Was he crying himself to sleep? Maybe the pressure got to him. I ended up with my hand silently resting on the door as I stepped away, not knowing what to make of it. I could understand. I’d been close a few times myself.
I left early the next morning. I must’ve been more tired than I’d thought, as I’d left the car unlocked overnight. Good thing there aren’t too many car thieves out there.
Having heard no news about Manny, I decided to stop by the hospital. I knew Lori was anxious to hear about him too.
There was a long wait. I just sat in the waiting room scrolling through some shared pictures and videos. A lot of the other guys were sharing stuff from the concert. The smiles and cheers as these young women got the surprise of their lives. It was nice to have been a part of that, but I couldn’t help but to think of what we’d seen in that field. What’d been out there?
I was finally allowed to see him. Manny was conscious, but barely responsive. Some kind of delayed shock. His head was more bandage than skin, and he had this awful discoloration across his body. He’d had a lot of stitching done, as well as some not-so-minor surgery. The cut through his breast had gone deeper than we’d thought.
I couldn’t get a word out of him. Nothing. It’s like he was afraid to look at me.
Frozen.
It took me a while to get back home. I was a bit distraught and missed a few exits, leading me on a goose chase to find a spot to turn. It’s so weird what you see on these rural roads though. There was this one guy hitchhiking next to a stop sign, dressed up with this big scarf like it was mid-winter. I saw this group of four absolutely shit-tier rust cars going the opposite way, looking like they in no way belonged on a trafficked road. I guess it’s when you get out of the large cities that you get to see the real originals, you know?
Coming back home, I thought I’d be relieved. Parking my car in the driveway to my little townhouse and making my way up the stairs. I would be offloading my stuff in the morning, for now I just wanted to curl up in my own bed, under my own covers. This hadn’t been like any other job I’d ever done. Accidents happened, but this was something else.
I brushed my teeth, took a quick shower, and plopped down in my bed face first. I curled up under the covers, waiting for my feet to get warm. A string of moonlight made its way inside through the blinders.
I decided I’d do a quick swipe on my phone before I called it a night. A few updates on my socials, and a couple of texts from the coworkers. Most of them congratulating us on a job well done, linking more articles about the concert.
Except one message – from Lori.
“Did you see Tony last night?” it said.
“He slept in the room next to you.”
I texted back, letting her know I had no idea. Minutes later, I got a response. No one had seen him since, and people were starting to ask questions. It’s like he’d disappeared.
I could feel my pulse rising. Blood hammering in my ear. What the hell had happened in that room?
If I’d opened that door, what would I have seen?
As I forced my breathing to slow, I heard something. I couldn’t tell what it was at first. A windy noise, like something escaping my radiator. Maybe the AC. Maybe I’d been gone long enough for things I usually took for granted to sound different.
But no, it was… something. Holding my breath, I tried to pinpoint where it came from. I put away my phone on the nightstand.
I was just about to turn around when I heard it again.
It was coming from behind me.
The other side of the bed.
Sobbing.
There was a disconnect in my head. It was such an alien sound. It wasn’t like an ordinary sob, it was lighter. Shriller. Like someone on the edge of reaching a falsetto.
I just froze. It was one thing to have someone breaking into your house but this wasn’t… it wasn’t that. It’s so hard to explain, but I knew, I felt it, that this wasn’t someone there to rob me, or murder me. They were just standing there – watching me.
Maybe they thought I was asleep. Considering what happened next, I think that’s it.
I don’t know how long I lay there. I was completely still, hoping it would go away. It could’ve been minutes, maybe half an hour at most. There was no way to tell. Time stood still, and I could barely breathe.
Then, slowly, my covers started to peel away. The cold night air made the hairs on my back stand at attention. I heard the quiet sobs come down – lower and lower. A weight upon the mattress.
It was lying down next to me.
It was cold and moist. It had this strange skin texture, like wet grass. It crept closer, wrapping this arm around my chest, stretching out a six-fingered hand across me. One hand was large enough to cover my torso. Fingers with seemingly a random amount of joints, all ending in these fish-hook shaped fingernails.
It must’ve been over 7 feet tall as it slowly wrapped around me, like a snake that didn’t want to wake me. Another arm slipped under my head, and I just… I couldn’t do anything. I could’ve fought it earlier, but by then, it was too late. I let myself be caught, simply because I had no idea of what to do. My eyes flickered back and forth, and my mind was trying to come up with ten plans at once, and it all backfired into nothing.
I shivered. The fear crippled me, sending this icy panic down my neck. I couldn’t get my jaw to stop shaking. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest, as if trying to push the thing’s hand away. My mouth went dry, making the air taste bitter.
It wrapped me up tighter.
That quiet sobbing, right next to my ear.
It could easily snap my neck or choke me. Its fingers could rip me apart if I struggled.
It had come to Manny first. He must’ve panicked, tried to get away. That’s what ripped him up.
Maybe Yuri had a nap, or something. Maybe it got him too.
And that night when I’d almost knocked on Tony’s door… this was the thing I’d heard. This was it. This was the answer to all of it.
Moving as little as possible, I tried to probe for weaknesses. Spaces where I could wriggle myself loose. But every time I did, it just squeezed harder. The texture on its skin was so rough that it gave me these awful rashes wherever it dug into me. I had to be completely still, trying not to think of the itching across my legs.
Then my phone buzzed to life. Such a small light, blinding me. Lori had sent me a response.
The thing grasped me, as if responding to a threat. It dug into me, breaking my skin open. I could feel all the little nails poking through, but I bit down hard and said nothing. I did nothing. One wrong move, and I’d be ripped to pieces.
A long arm with a few too many joints swept by overhead, knocking my phone straight into the opposite wall. The sobs grew louder, but it relaxed. The nails came out of me, leaving me gasping for air. I tried my best to keep a steady breath, pretending I was asleep.
Then began the most grueling night of my life.
I stayed completely still. No matter how much it twisted and turned, I did my best to just play along. No matter how much it grasped, or scratched, or itched, I just looked straight ahead and stayed quiet.
I went to that silent space in my mind. That place where I have no thoughts, and I stay focused on one singular task. That task was to keep a steady breath and watch that string of moonlight slowly turn into sunlight.
My body didn’t play along. I was sweating like a pig. The thing next to me was bony, cold, and every little movement of mine was like rubbing against sandpaper.
I didn’t know what I was expecting. Maybe an opening. Maybe it’d fall asleep. I waited for the sobbing to stop, but it just… it didn’t. All through the night, it just lay there, making that same dreadful noise, over, and over, and over. Like a pattern.
Now, I can’t be sure, but I don’t think it was actually crying. I think it was mimicking. It must’ve heard so many people crying while it did this, that it just… it thought that’s how people sound when they sleep.
Maybe that’s all it’d ever experienced.
I didn’t even notice when it happened. All of a sudden, the dark outside had begun to fade.
The thing behind me moved. Its nails dug into me again as it began dragging me backwards. It wanted to bring me along.
I closed my eyes as hard as I could. I held my breath, letting my body turn limp. If I fought back, or tried to escape, I’d end up like Manny. I had to try something, even if it seemed counterintuitive, or just blatantly insane.
As I haphazardly dropped out of bed, I felt its grip loosen. I tumbled to the floor, still with my eyes closed and my breath held.
It kept sobbing. Poking at me. Fingers dragging across my cheek, scratching up a rash along the way; little itchy blood boils forming under my skin. It lifted my leg, dropped it, and the moment my heel hit the floor with a thump, it retreated.
I could hear it across the room. The sobbing stopped. A deep, rattling breath took its place.
Seconds passed. I was running out of breath, and I had to exhale. I did it as slowly as I could through my nose, then back in again. Micro-breaths. Trying my best not to make any sudden moves. To not think about the itching.
There was a dragging noise. Heavy, limping footsteps.
My breathing betrayed me, growing heavier by the minute. I felt lightheaded. I opened my eyes, sat back up, and felt the many cuts across me scream out in agony.
Whatever that thing was - it was gone.
My bedroom was a mess. The covers were littered with grass and nettles. My body had these tiny blood boils, cuts, bruises, and holes from the nails. There were splashes of blood across the sheets and covers.
I called the police while trying to clean my wounds. I called Lori too, but I didn’t manage to find the words to explain what’d happened. I said there’d been an intruder. Someone following me from the site, breaking into my home. That’s what I ended up saying to the police too.
Turns out, it had followed me home. That night when I forgot to lock my car, it found a hiding space behind my equipment. I found the dry blue petals from it later when I cleared it out. How something that large managed to fit into that space, I can’t imagine. No human can contort themselves like that.
Maybe after doing whatever it did to Tony, it wanted to see me next.
I pushed the police to investigate it, but before they made any significant ground, Covid hit. It all turned to nothing, and whatever leads we had just faded away. There were talks of them finding similar vegetation in Manny’s room, as well as the room next to me at the motel. Apparently, according to the local police of the area, it wasn’t uncommon for some people to have an allergic reaction to those oddly colored sunflowers.
I sometimes see posts about people hiking near that town. Some right here on reddit. Just the other day, there was a guy complaining about how he’d had an allergic reaction after spending a night on a trail up there. The comments revealed he was not far from where we set up that stage, years ago. And the rashes he showed across his torso, well… I‘ve seen them before.
I don’t know what to make of this. I think we messed up, bad. Maybe that thing just slept out there, minding its own business. Maybe we ruined its home.
Or maybe it just wants to be like us. Some kind of misshapen mirror image.
I don’t know, and I’m not sure I want to know. I just want to reassure myself that this wasn’t just a crazy happenstance – that this was real. This happened. It was an actual, physical, thing. But sometimes things happen in our lives that are so unreal that it feels like they happened to someone else. I feel like that sometimes too.
I don’t know what it was, or how to explain it. But I don’t think it’s going anywhere. It’s out there.
Sobbing.