I woke up to a chilly December morning. As I made my way out of the house to go to work, I noticed something strange - footprints in the snow that veered off the path and into the woods. I had to make a choice: investigate or ignore them. It was now or never. Curiosity took over, and I followed the fresh prints.
As I continued walking, I couldn't shake off the feeling that someone was watching me. My fear soon became true when I heard leaves crunching and footsteps behind me. Though, when I turned around, I saw nothing - not a motion of nature. As I descended further into the woods, I couldn't shake off the feeling that this was a bad idea.
The trees had marks that I couldn't recognize. I stopped for a second and thought, "What could this be?" I continued on, looking around and being cautious. The air got cold and thick as I ventured deeper into the forest. I heard leaves and sticks cracking to the left of me; I quickly turned, and no one was there. It's getting harder to see; the trees are huge, and they're blocking the sunlight.
I slow down and look behind me - "there seems to be another path." I say, I look at my map, and this path doesn't seem to be on here. I walk slowly towards the path, I look around, and see more of the marks. As I looked around and saw more marks, I decided to go down the path. As I go down the path, it gets foggy, and more trees have more marks. I hear something coming from the forest.
I stopped for a minute and thought, "What can that noise be?" I continued walking through the path where it got colder and even harder to see. So I stopped for a second and took out my map to see where I was at. As I saw where I was at, I saw a building on the map. So I went deeper into the forest to find the building, but once I was getting closer and closer to find the building, I heard the same noise as before.
I went to investigate the noise to see what it was. As I investigated the noise, I saw a black figure standing still in the distance. I stopped and thought, "WHAT IS THAT?" I froze up for a minute because I was scared and alone. Once I saw the black figure wasn't there, I ran deeper into the forest as I was running, I tripped over a rock and hit my head.
I woke up from falling over on a rock; I look around me, and the black figure I once saw was nowhere to be found. I start to head back to my car before encountering anything else out of the ordinary. As I walk on the path back to the road from the woods, I notice these footprints on the ground; they seem to be bigger than the usual foot-size. For some reason, my mind had the idea that I should start following them.
I did as soon as I got to the end of the footprints. I saw a tree with something carved on the side; I walked over to get a closer look, and it looks like what appears to be some kind of weird symbol. As I'm examining this tree, I start to feel a liquid drip down from one of the tree branches. I climbed the tree to see what it was. What I saw was something that looked like an egg but it wasn't a bird egg. It looked complex. The inner shell was silver, and was leaking a red ooze.
I quickly panicked, realizing there isn't anything in the egg. I start running to my car, sprinting as fast as I can. When I get to my car, I notice that I had dropped my keys running away. I quickly try to run back to get my keys, as I run back, I see the black figure, only this time, it looks like a terrifying creature.
I ran away and thought to myself, what must have come out of that egg. Luckily, I'm able to run back to my car in time to drive away and never look back. I still always wonder what happened to the figure, if it was dead or still out there. I still have thoughts about it every night.
Two years later, after the incident.
One dark night, I was feeling tired, more tired than usual. It was probably because I had worked overtime today and ended up overworking myself. That's when I laid down in my bed to rest. My eyes closed slowly; I was comfortable and drained, so I ended up falling asleep pretty quickly.
My eyes opened quickly after I had closed them, but I wasn't tired at all. In fact, I felt like I was still asleep. A cold breeze passed me by, and that's when I realized I was no longer at home lying in my bed, but in the snowy woods. I was confused - was I not in my own bed just a few seconds ago
Was this a dream? It must have been a dream, but it felt too real just to be a dream. This place felt too familiar, almost like I'd been here before. That's when it hit me - 2 years ago, I started remembering it all: the egg, the red ooze, the creature, ALL OF IT.
I started to panic, I was frozen in fear, I couldn't move, I was afraid. That's when I heard a noise and came back to my senses, I started running, I don't know where or how far, I just ran as fast as I could, and kept running. A few minutes later, I finally stopped, there was a cave, I was tempted to just ignore it, but then I realized how cold I was getting.
I cautiously entered the cave. It was dark, and I could hear droplets of water as well as my footsteps echoing through the puddles. That's when I confirmed to myself that this isn't a dream, this is really happening. It didn't make any sense to me, just a few moments ago I was lying comfortably in my warm bed, but now I'm here, inside of a dark cave that's in a forest flooded with snow.
As I was walking, that's when I heard a noise, I panicked and my legs froze up out of fear again, "Move, please… Move!" I shouted to myself. A bat came flying towards me and out of the cave, the noise stopped. Was it that, the cause of the noise, was it the bat? I could move my legs again, I decided that I was deep enough into the cave, I was afraid to go any further, so I figured I'd just rest here where I thought it was safe from that "thing" I saw 2 years ago.
I wasn't completely sure the creature was still alive or not, but one thing is for certain, if there was an egg, that means there is probably more than one of those things in this forest. As I started to settle into the dark cave, the noise, I could hear it again, but this time it was louder than the first. What is it? Why did it get louder? I started panicking again, "Is it a bat? But bats don't sound like this. Then what is it? What do I do? Do I go deeper into the cave? I don't have any light to guide me. What if it's that thing? What will I do if it is?" These are all of the thoughts that went through my head in a short amount of time.
It was like a terrible humming noise. Louder, louder, louder, and louder. The sound kept getting louder and louder. It almost felt like… something was finding its way to me, closer and closer. My legs froze up again; I couldn't move, my body was shaking, and my palms were sweaty. "What's going to happen to me? Am I going to die? Like this? Why? Why me? Why me and only me? What did I do?" I couldn't think of anything.
I tried running, but my body just wouldn't listen to me. That's when it appeared in front of me. Two big red eyes, all black, that's all I could make out of that "thing" in the dark. My legs gave out from the immense fear I was feeling; I fell into the puddle right below me. I knew where the humming noise was coming from now, the humming noise that made me feel like my ears would start bleeding at any moment; it was coming from the thing right in front of my face.
My eyes widened and went blank. I didn't scream, nor did I make any sound. At that moment, I was emotionless; I was pretty sure that my life was going to end. I accepted my fate and closed my eyes for 5 seconds, and when I opened them... I was back in my bed.