Crawler's Forest

I remember when I was younger,I was looking through my father's attic to find some old vintage stuff to sell. I found some sort of old notebook that used to be his. At first it seemed just like any old charming little diary but as I skimmed through it,it got weirder. There were skribbles here and there and many crossouts. After around 30 pages, entire sections of the book were crossed out. I went down to the kitchen to ask my father about the book. Since I was so young I don't remember much,but what I do remember was he was very angry. Its been so many years since then. Tomorrow I will go and ask him again. Hopefully he will be more open to talking about this subject.

"Where did you find this?"

"I found it in your attic twelve years ago...

"Well I guess I need to explain this to you now.

It was many years ago. When your grandparents split up I went with your grandfather. It was one hell of a mistake. As you know, your grandfather was an Ethologist which means he studied animal behavior. He was given the task of studying unusual preditory behavior in the local woods. In other words,some lion or somthing was eating up all the dear and the local hunting club complained. So we set up a cabin in the middle of the forest so he could observe the wildlife all the time. It was a creepy ass place. The floor creaked,there were spiders everywhere,and half the house was outdoors.

He kept on ranting about unimportant things and how horrible the cabin was for a while. I think I'll skip this part your your sake.

I remember your grandfather ran a test by hanging huge chunks of meat from poles of varying hights. He said depending on how the meat was when we came back, he'd be able to tell what ate it. For example, if the meat fell off the pole, somthing like a mountain lion got to it. Or if the meat was nowhere in the area, chances are a bear carried it away. A week later we went out hiking to check the bait. Some of it was scratched up. Other bits of it were half eaten. But the last sample was the worst. I remember what happened vividly. We climbed up to the area where we remembered leaving the bait. We found the pole. The meat was a couple of yards away. It was still intact   except for a couple of chunks missing. My father bent down and examined the meat. Then he handed me a knife. "Would you do the honors? I took the knife, bent down and cut it open. Black liquid started to leak out of it. It steamed and bubbled and spilled all over the ground. I stoop up. "Ugh dad this reeks!" I shouted. "Dad?"

He was standing perfectly still. His face was pale and he was looking down. "Don't move son." Pose yourself just like me." I did what he said. I stood still like a statue and faced the same direction. Then I noticed why he was acting like this. Far ahead of us,something sitting in the trees. It was mostly covered by leaves but there was two things I saw clearly. One. It was staring at us. two. It had a long barbed tale that ended in a sharp point. "Now listen son." My father whispered to me. "I am a man of science.I need you to know something. There is not a single creature on this earth,living or dead,that kills for no reason. There is ALWAYS a reason."

The creature began to slowly climb down from the tree. I noticed it was very human like. It was covered from head to toe in dark brown scales. "Now since it hasn't eaten the food, that means it is protecting it's terratory. What I need you to do is bend down and put your hands on top of your head. This is a sign of submission. If it continues to come closer, you must run." I did as he told me. The creature continued to draw near. It seemed like it was limping. One leg dragging behind the other, and it's shoulders not level to eachother. It's face was warped and demented. It's mouth was too far to the left and slightly slanted upwards. Inside was a mess of extremely thin needle like teeth. It was constantly moving like it couldn't fit in all the teeth.It made a terrible clicking noise. Its glowing purple eyes were wide,almost like it was scared. Now it was about ten feet away from us. It stopped and continued to stare at us. It cocked it's head. That was a sign of confusion. "Now slowly get up. Don't rise all the way. Stay slightly hunched,then proceed to walk backwards. Always making eye contact. Once we're around five feet away,turn and walk. DON'T RUN." I did what I was told. Dad rose with me. We began to walk backwards. Now that we were standing, I could see that dad was a few feet taller than it. The beast continued to stare at us. It horrified me. We were around three feet away when I broke eye contact.

It loocked at me and screeched. The noise was a combination of clicking and raw vibrations. Almost like someone singing with a sour throat. "RUN!" I began to run. I heard my fathers footsteps behind me. I also heard some sort of rustling noise behind me. At some point we crossed a river. I remember looking back and seeing it on the other side of the river. Its arms flailing in anger. I never forgot it.

A couple of years later, when we were settled down in a nice apartment in the city, I remember waking up in the middle of the night. I went to go get a glass of water. I noticed the window was open. I closed it and walked back to my room. On my way I heard faint noises coming from my dad's room. I went in and I couldn't believe my eyes.

The creature was standing over my father. His chest was splayed open. Revealing his organs. The creature's mouth was dripping blood and black goo. It opened it's mouth and let my father's heart fall on his chest. It appeared to be grinning. It jumped up and began to crawl on the cieling and out the window. Never to be seen or mentioned again.

My father lied.