Sleep didn’t come easy over the next week. I had nightmares about the watch tower and those creatures. Most of the dreams have either been forgotten or my brain subconsciously blocked them. Though that was not the case for one of the horrid dreams.
I was one of them. I stood at the top of the watchtower looking out at the surrounding forest, hungry looking for anything that I could eat. Something moved in the woods and I quickly looked where it came from. Darkness plagued the forest making it very hard for my non human eyes to see. Maybe it moved I thought and began looking around the general area I heard it from. Nothing. I descended the ladder that was behind me.
I saw the silhouette of one of them standing staring out the window. This started to make me uneasy in my dream as I began to realize that what I was couldn’t be right. I kept going down the ladder and went past the second floor and then I reached the first floor. The weird part was, the ladder kept going down underground. Hesitantly I went down it into the complete darkness. I kept going down and down until I noticed a light coming from below. The light got closer and closer until it was right below me. As I was about to see what it was, I woke up in a cold sweat. Not feeling good, I walked to the bathroom and threw up.
A week had finally passed and we all met up at Ralphs house. I brought two of my friends, one was John who was a bodybuilder, and Austin who was just a very good friend of mine. Ralph only managed to get one of his friends to come. His name was Mark and he was a wrestler.
We each brought something that could possibly help us on the adventure into the unknown. John brought a backpack filled with water and food just incase we managed to get lost or if one of us was hungry/thirsty. Austin managed to take his dad’s .44 magnum with enough bullets to go through 5 magazines (not sure what they are really called on a magnum) Mark found an old machete in his garage a few months ago and with a little convincing, his parents agreed to let him have it, so of course he brought that. Ralph took his dad’s shotgun and had around 40 bullets for it minus what was already loaded into it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to bring anything that could be of much use, but I brought a few pocket knives and for myself, a butterfly knife.
We left for the old house at about 8 in the morning. The only reason we left so early was we’d rather face these things during the day. As we got there we all immediately figured out our one flaw with this plan, the path didn’t exist anymore.
Fortunately, Mark had the machete so he began to cut his way through the brush. We were all worried the whole path would be covered in this brush, but it was only for about the first hundred or hundred and fifty feet. The strange part was that after it ended, there was none for the rest of the path. All there was grass nothing more, nothing less.
We had been walking for an hour when Austin started complaining. “This is pointless guys; we’re never gonna find anything!” he said rudely.
“Yes we will,” said Ralph.
“You sure this the right path, Ralph?” I asked, “I mean we haven’t really seen anything out of the ordinary yet.”
“I think it is.”
“You think!?” said John.
“Almost positive. The only way it wouldn’t be is if there was another path I didn’t see before”
While rolling his eyes, John said, “Well I think it’s about time we eat something.”
“I agree, I’m starving!” Replied Mark.
So we sat there and ate. While we were eating, I sat there absorbing the scenery. It was about noon so the sun was high up in the sky lighting up everything that wasn’t directly below the trees which wasn’t much. The light or should I say the lack of light allowed me to notice something odd.
On the side of a tree, a part was slightly bulging out. I walked closer towards it when it hit me:
“What the hell are you doing?” Asked Mark.
“Just come here guys.” I said back with a grim look on my face.
As they walked next to me, they noticed it too. On the tree was one of the claw marks Ralph had told me about. There were 4 total claws that caused it. Each mark was about an inch and a half or two inches deep while being about an inch across.
There was a long silence between all of us for a couple minutes as we all took in what we saw.
Austin finally broke the silence by saying, “Well I guess this is the right path.”
“Told ya,” said Ralph.
“I’m worried now,” John said.
“Don’t be. If we come across one of these fuckers I’ll blow it’s head.”
“But what if our guns and knives aren’t enough?”
“Well I highly doubt that, but I guess we would just run for our life.” replied Mark.
We continued down the path, but this time we had our weapons ready for anything. There was more and more scratch marks on the trees.
We all definitely felt the tension rising the further we walked through the path as all of us began to talk less. Occasionally I’d look over at my friends just to make sure they were okay and all of them minus Ralph had a look fear in their eyes. The look Ralph had was that of regret and terror.
After what felt like hours of walking, we noticed an opening far ahead. Although blurry, we could make out the watchtower.
“Fuck fuck fuck,” Ralph said with a hushed voice.
“What?” I asked him nervously.
“We gotta get out here NOW!”
“Why? What’s wrong?” asked Austin.
“The watchtower has at least doubled in size since I was last here.”
I started to step back towards Ralph when I heard a loud snap and suddenly I was stuck in a net. It began swinging violently and I hit my head on a tree and got knocked out.
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Slowly I started to become conscious. I opened my eyes and was blinded by light so I quickly closed them tightly shut. The light made me notice my horrific head ache. At this point I was still very disorientated so I wasn’t really worried. All the memories of what just happened began flooding back into my head. This made me not want to open my eyes. I was hoping maybe somehow my friends got me out of the trap and were just resting for a second so they lied me down, but the noises I began hearing made me realize that was not what happened at all.
It sounded almost like a voice but, it was very deep and malicious. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human and there was definitely at least three of them. They were having a conversation about who knows what. I could only assume it was about me which caused me to worry for my life and my friends life. At first I thought I should just keep my eyes closed and not move, but why stop the inevitable?
Once I opened my eyes, I noticed that the light shining on my face was coming from a very strange light. The light source was surrounded by some type of glass in the shape of a cube with little metal rods sticking out from each corner emitting a what I presumed was electricity into a glowing orb in the middle. Several of these hung from the unusually high ceiling throughout the room. About halfway across the room, a row of bars and a door came all the way across the room blocking me off from the other side of the room.
On my side, there wasn’t really much at all. In the corner of the room laid a blanket and what I assumed was suppose to be some sort of pillow made purely from cloth or something. The corner across from that one had a hole about a foot in diameter. It had to have been pretty deep too because you couldn’t see the bottom even with the light placed directly above it. At the center of my side was a huge pillar with some crazy type of writing wrapping around it from top to bottom.
The other side was very… weird. One of the corners was completely blocked off like it was an abnormally large cubicle. The other side had a couple of very big containers almost like an 8 foot filing cabinet except they only had a single drawer taking up where all the drawers would be. Along the back wall was a door except, it didn’t have a door knob. On the floor directly in front of the door was markings of what I assumed was another creatures footprints. Tubes hung from the ceiling in a very strange pattern.
I kept hearing the voices I had been hearing earlier from the general direction the cubicle was at. Slowly the voices were growing in volume, almost like there was some type of tension in that cubicle. The louder the voices grew, the more malign they sounded. Eventually it was almost like the creatures were having a full out argument; they were what seemed to be yelling, occasionally stomping on the ground.
The stomping was nerve wrecking at the least. Every time they’d stomp it would shake the entire room meaning the creature itself had to have been large. Very large.
They kept arguing, getting louder and louder for what felt like hours until one of them finally left the cubicle. I wanted to vomit the second we met eyes.
The creature was horrific; it was about 8 feet tall, very muscular and looked like a humanoid. This things skin looked thick, almost like leather minus the brown color. Instead it was a sort of a darker pink, but not quite red. One of the creatures leg would be as thick as a car tire and about four to four and a half feet long. The feet looked almost human, but very large and instead of toes, it had small versions of the claws described in Ralph’s story. It’s torso was abnormally small compared to the rest of it body, but it still remained one of the most muscular parts of its body. His arms were long, hanging down to about its knees, but the worse part was the dreaded claws it had instead of fingers. They were just like Ralph described except I could clearly see that they were a whitish yellow, almost like teeth meaning they were most likely bone instead of whatever nails are made from.
The face was the thing that stood out the most. Honestly, it still gives me nightmares today..
Anyways, it’s head was very proportionate to the rest of its body, just like a humans. hung out of the edge of its mouth being significantly longer than the rest of its fangs which might I add it had several rows of fangs. The tongue was like a humans except completely flat. There wasn’t a nose, instead holes for nostrils much like a snake. No ears existed either; just holes like the nose except it had some type of filter covering the ear most likely blocking things from crawling in there. The hair was possibly the strangest part, it looked almost like rope hanging from its head except you could tell each “rope” was a single piece of hair. Before I noticed any of those features though, I noticed it’s dreaded eyes.
Where the white is in our eyes was black in this things eyes. The black took up a majority of its eyes with a white iris that took up a space as thin as pencil lead. Red pupils were in the center of the eye. Anyways I ended up calling these things wolverines because of their claws.
After I threw up, I looked up at the wolverine as he looked back at me. A smile grew across his face which sent a shiver down my spine. It stopped in its path and we just stared at each other for probably about five minutes when he turned around. The wolverine quickly ran back into the cubicle. I heard the voices again until three wolverines walked from behind the cubicle.
All of them stared at me with the same disturbing smile. Eventually one said something while staring at me. At first, I wasn’t too sure who it was talking to, but it became obvious he was talking to me as he began saying the same phrase three or four times. Not sure what to do, I replied with the simple phrase of I don’t understand what your saying.
It quickly frowned and began walking towards the door. The wolverine stood where the foot prints were when they slightly moved down. The door flew open and then all three wolverines walked out.
For the next few hours, I was in there alone. At first I quickly began looking around for an exit but, came to no avail. I gave up and just began thinking about Ralph, Austin, John, and Mark. What happened to them? Were they okay? Did all of them get stuck in the trap? Who got away? Are they even still alive?
All these thoughts started becoming too much and I honestly started to cry. Hard. I probably cried for about thirty minutes when I started thinking again. At the time I thought what’s the point in crying? I mean it’s not gonna get me anywhere and all it’s gonna do is dehydrate me. And what if they don’t give me water? It will only make the inevitable come so much quicker then I wanted.
After a few hours had passed, a couple wolverines came back except it brought a table with straps where my feet and hands would be. They opened the door in the middle of the room as I groaned waiting for my fate. It picked me up with what felt like actual care, almost like a mom picking up its baby. This made me very confused at first until I figured out they were treating me like a piece of evidence; with care to try and not alter me.
I was lied down on the table and was strapped in. One of them opened the door while the other pushed me. We went through a very weird hallway that looked like something like a hallway in an asylum and ended up in a room I could only call an operating room.
For a couple minutes, the two wolverines talked. After they finished, they began making marks all over my body where I presumed they were going to cut open. The wolverine grabbed a knife and made an insertion in my forehead and my right arm. I guess the other wolverine called him as he put the knife down next to my right hand. This was my chance, my chance to escape, to get away. I quickly began looking around for an exit. At first, I couldn’t find anyway out as I knew the door wouldn’t work for me but, thats when I noticed another hole in the corner of the room except it was slightly bigger than the one in my cell.
I grabbed the knife and quickly began cutting the restraint on my right hand. While I was cutting it I kept looking up to make sure they weren’t paying attention and fortunately they weren’t. The first restraint took the longest to cut, but the rest only took a second. I was free, well from the restraints at least. As quietly as I could, I got up and was crawling towards the hole when I heard it scream.
For a second, I thought I went deaf. How incredibly loud that scream was. This disorientated me to the point of me not being able to move. I quickly managed to compose myself together while one was beginning to run towards me. I couldn’t make a run for the hole because before I’d reach it, the wolverine would get me. At this point I still had the knife so I did the only thing I could think of. I threw it straight at the wolverine hitting it in the head. The knife itself was very sharp, but due to the creatures thick skin it only went in about an eighth of an inch. Fortunately, this was enough to stun the beast for a split second. I quickly turned around, got to the hole and jumped down.
I could barely fit in the hole so as I fell I constantly hit the walls. I only fell about 50 feet or so until I hit water or some type of liquid. For some reason, it had a very strong current though so it dragged me right along with it. The water was only a few feet deep which most likely saved me from drowning. After about 15 minutes or so I saw light from the way I was going.
Happiness overwhelmed me the closer and closer I got. Finally I got out of the cave or whatever I was in and was in sunlight. I quickly got out of the water on the side of the river and lied down absorbing all the sunlight I could. I actually ended up falling in a deep sleep right there on the shore.
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I was in my bed, nice and warm. Feeling pretty content, I got up and went to shower. Hot water poured all over my body, cleansing every pore in my body. The kitchen was right above the bathroom so I could always smell what was being made. My mom this morning was making eggs and bacon so you know what my bathroom smelt like. I got out of the shower, dried myself off, got dressed, and went up stairs for an amazing breakfast.
That morning we had a family breakfast, something we never usually do. My dad told elaborate stories about his childhood memories which would bring joy and light to each person in my family. My mom would talk about her job and getting a raise which would mean things were going to change around here, for the better. My sister talked about how she met this amazing guy and how she thought he might actually be “the one”. I rolled my eyes at this and laughed as I washed my plate clean.
All of the sudden, I heard glass breaking coming from the basement. My dad said as quietly and frantically as he could, “Go upstairs, lock yourselves in your room and don’t make a noise.” All of us did exactly as he said except I went a little further and hid inside my closet. I sat there for what like hours and listened as closely as I could to try and here what was happening downstairs. All I could hear was banging which filled me with fear.
Something was starting to come up stairs and it sounded bigger than my dad. I held my breath and got in the fetal position as it started to walk towards my room. Whatever it was, it sounded like it had taken my door clean off the hinges. It walked towards my closet and opened the door. Looking right at me was a wolverine with a huge smile on its face. The monster picked me up and threw me towards the wall. Thats when I woke up.
When you first wake up, you’re usually really dazed and disoriented especially after a dream. Well that’s what I was like as I was flying through the air. I didn’t really understand what was going on until I hit the tree. The second I hit the tree was the second collapsed. I spit up a shit ton of blood and looked up. Staring straight at me was a wolverine about 30 feet away with the same grin on his face as the one in the dream.
At this point my adrenaline began rushing, but it wasn’t too much help as I couldn’t even really stand. The creature slowly began walking towards me making the noise that I could only describe as laughter. I began looking around frantically trying to find someway to get out of there when I noticed the river about 5 feet away from me. I quickly rolled in to it as the current took me with it.
As I began going down the river I saw the creature quickly jump into it trying to chase after me. I tried to swim with the current to make me a little bit faster, but it never helped much. The further and further down the river I went the closer the beast got to me. At one point, it swung its claw towards me but missed. While it’s claw was right by my leg, I quickly used all the strength in my body to force myself further away. Let’s just say it didn’t really work. Somehow, he countered it grabbing my ankle and flinging me into the air further down the river which I noticed turned into a lake.
I crashed down in shallow water on the opposite side of where the river came out at. I knew this was the end of me, both my legs had to be broken at this point and same with my arms. The creature got dumped out into the lake, but something surprising happened.
The creature flailed its arms in every direction, filling the air with that dreaded scream. I was very confused about what was happening at first, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It can’t swim! It was drowning in the deep part of the water! I was filled with relief until I lost consciousness most likely due to blood loss.
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I slowly opened my eyes and realized I was in a hospital bed. Looking down at my body, I noticed I was almost completely covered in bandages while both my legs and one of my arms were in casts. My mom was sleeping on a chair they had placed next to my bed. I smiled and said her name probably about five times until she woke up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mom cry so hard or heard her scream so loud.
Police questioned me over the next few days about what had happened. I didn’t really know what to say so I made up a story about how me and a friend went exploring down the river when I fell in, hit my head, and passed out in the river. Next they asked which friend and I said Carl. Apparently, Carl had been missing for a couple days now, way before I “passed out” in the river. I became a main suspect in his disappearance, but there was a lack of evidence to actually convict me.
Recovery would take me years to become a fully operable human being again. In fact, they actually had to replace a few bones in my legs to get them to work like normal.
One thing to this day still makes me very curious. What happened to Austin, Mark and John? Did they go crazy? Maybe they just kept quiet about it? Or did they even get captured too? Honestly, who knows, but I can only assume they were probably captured too.
Whenever you’re in a forest and see a strange structure that doesn’t look quite so normal, PLEASE get out of there. The wolverines are probably there and they have no mercy. They are way more powerful than us humans. If for some reason you do come across one of them though, find some near by deep water and jump right in. Don’t worry, you can swim and they can’t. Well that is unless they’ve learned how to swim since then.
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Credits to: Doctor Slim
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