He Hunts

Four years ago, my family moved from the city. We couldn’t take the fast-paced life, and we were a wealthy and well educated family… so we figured we would move somewhere remote and peaceful.
Hayabi Forest in the western part of Maine is where we settled. Now, in our family, there was me, the oldest son. Then you had my father, my mother, one brother, and one sister.
Things were always fine around here. We lived off the land and life was great, but soon, everything changed, and it wasn’t for the better. Oh god, it was horrifying, I’m alone now... It… it GOT them and I’m sure I’m next. So to whoever reads this story… I hope you never stay here… It will get you too.
These are my final thoughts and my horrific story…
It all started when my sister went for water one day. She didn’t return for almost an hour, but we lived alone out here… or so we thought. I still hear her scream sometimes, that earsplitting cry of terror, and the scene of my father and brother flashing looks of extreme fear before breezing through the door.
They came back, glistening blood on their pants and shoes, crying uncontrollably. They had found nothing left of her but a few splintered bones, her ripped clothes, and a puddle of blood. 
Things were never the same after that day. Mother never really spoke again after seeing her daughter's remains.
The next person to go was my father. Our food was running low and we were snowed in, so we couldn’t go to town. He grabbed his rifle and took to the wilderness around us. He didn’t come back when we expected him to. My brother and I decided that we would go search for him in the morning; there was no need to go out straight away.
Around 1:00 AM, I was dozing in a kitchen chair when there was a low, guttural growl from outside... then a resounding BANG! BANG! BANG! on the door, and then a loud thump.
A flash of a mottled black furred creature on two hind legs sprinted past my window… that set me off. I screamed at the top of my lungs until my brother ran inside and asked what was happening. I recounted the story to him. He grabbed a rifle and handed me one, then motioned silently towards the door. He cracked it open very slowly and gasped in fear.
It was our father… or what was left of him. His corpse was mangled to extreme lengths… his arms were gone, his eyes had been gouged out, and he was covered in claw marks that dripped crimson. My brother collapsed in horror and shut the door weakly. 
No one left the house anymore. My mother still never spoke; she just would weakly nod or shake her head to communicate, if even that. My brother would break down at anything that reminded him of our lost family. But what I realized was that whatever that… thing… was, it wasn't stopping until it killed all of us. I felt it.
A few weeks had passed. We lived in fear. Some nights, we would hear these horrid growls... we'd make sure no one fell asleep on those occasions. Instead, we would stay up with guns in hand until daybreak. 
One morning, after a long night of paranoia, my brother proclaimed that he was taking supplies and heading away to town. “Freedom or death,” he said. "One of them happens today."
He offered to take us with him. I pleaded with him not to go, but he insisted. I told him I would not go; my mother just shook her head mutely. He said he would send for help when he got to town and to keep everything locked. “Don't you dare leave, don’t you even stick your nose out of the damn door!” he said. I know I was only 10 months older than him, but I felt awful about him being the one who was going out. I knew it was going to get him, I knew…
That night, he walked out just before dark fully struck, having made sure we were OK and had supplies, and began the nightmarish walk to the car. He got to it and opened the half frozen door after a few violent tugs on the handle. It was then that I heard the sound that unnerved me most.
He turned the key, and as the car started, a bloodcurdling scream rang out into the night air. The beast left the trees from the side opposite my brother. It must have been almost eight feet tall, with a mangled black wolf's face and body, but walked on two legs… or rather, sprinted.
My brother opened his eyes in fear and smashed his foot onto the gas pedal. The… thing pounced onto the car and violently smashed his window. He steered wildly trying to get away from it, but crashed the car into a tree. If that didn’t kill him, the beast reached inside and pulled his still squirming body out of the car. The creature looked right at me through the window from a distance… before slicing open my brother’s stomach with its razor-sharp claws.
Blood dripped from his body, and he went limp. The creature walked slowly towards the door… knowing he wanted me to fear him. It knew I was frozen. It reached the door, and I hugged my rifle tight. There was a thud and another three bangs, though they occurred slowly this time. Bang… bang… bang… then it screamed a chilling scream, like that of a banshee, and stampeded off to the woods. I couldn’t open the door to retrieve my own brother's remains…
I haven’t slept since then; I just watch the door and listen for the thing, waiting for it to come back. It's only me and my mother now. She doesn’t eat or sleep or drink, and she hasn’t moved from her chair in three days. Until her death, I don't think she moved from that chair, actually. It was a long night.
Four days without sleep. I've heard the growls every night since my brother’s grisly demise. But tonight, they were louder…it was tonight it would attack, I knew it. I loaded my rifle and waited for it, thinking it would come through the door or the window in the kitchen. I was wrong. My mother sat in the other room, but even with my phobia of it, I let her be.
It was late when I began to hear a scraping along the sides of the house. Four times he circled - we were trapped, and he knew it. It stopped, and my heartbeat quickened. As if in slow motion, I realized where he stopped just a moment too late… right next to the side of the house, where my mother was. I knew my fears were true when I heard the disheartening sound of the window shattering in the other room.
I heard the beast's call and dropped to my knees… I saw him walk to my mother and in one stroke, take her throat, and within a heartbeat, her chest. He screamed and dove from her room.
This was just a few short hours ago… the scrapings are starting again… to whomever finds this, leave quickly and don’t look back… 
Oh god, the scraping has stopped…
I don’t have long. These have been my final thoughts… please heed this warni
Category:Places
Category:Diary/Journal
Category:Dismemberment
Category:Monsters