Hounded

I don’t have much time, so I'm recording this as fast as I can. My name is Michael Stone and I live in…Well I can't tell you the location because I don’t want you making the same mistake I did. Um, a few days ago, I participated in an experiment. There was an ad in the newspaper that said I could make a thousand bucks in a day, so being a full time student with no job, I jumped on it. You must be thinking that those things never turn out good, but I swear, this one seemed different and I desperately needed the money.

The next day, I showed up to the building and walked up to the front gates. The building looked like an average office building, but there was something off about it. There weren’t any cars in the parking lot and the entire place was enclosed by an electrified barbed wire fence. I went up to the monitor that was next to the main entrance. I pressed a buzzer and said who I was. There was a pause for a few minutes and then the front gates opened.

I walked towards the main entrance. I went to pull one of the huge doors open, but the thing flew open and almost hit me. There was a tall man in a grey suit standing in the doorway. He had short blonde hair and deep blue eyes. I got up and went towards him. He didn't say anything. The guy turned around and started walking into the building. I followed closely behind him and I heard the doors close behind me. There were almost no lights in the entire place. I could barely make out the outline of the guy in front of me.

I was led to a small room with a chair that looked like the one at the dentist’s office, but with straps and wires coming out from it. The guy stood behind the chair and put his hands on it. Out of nowhere, there was a voice. “Please sit in the chair.”

          The voice kind of scared me, but I did as I was told. As soon as I sat down, I was strapped in. The straps were so strong that I could barely move my limbs. Without any warning, a hand grabbed my shoulder and made me sit back. A helmet was slowly placed on me. The thing encased my entire head. At this point, I started to panic. Then, I heard the voice again, but this time it was coming from inside the helmet. “Try to stay as still as possible.”

          “What kind of experiment is this?”

          “You are aware of time travel?”

          “Yes. What does this have to do with the experiment?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “We here at this facility, have created a way to experience the past exactly as it was.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “How does this work?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “Just sit back and relax your mind.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">I took a deep breath and calmed down. I started to hear noises. They were things like a waterfall, and crickets chirping. Suddenly, the helmet lit up and I was looking at a desert, but it wasn’t. I can't really describe it. I looked around and saw that I wasn’t in the chair any more. I wasn’t even in the building. I stood up and began walking around. I noticed that I didn't have any shoes on, when I felt the soft sand in between my toes.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          There aren't words that can describe what I saw. It was like I was on another planet. No roads, no cars, no cities. I was alone with a bliss sense of peacefulness. Even the air felt cleaner. I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. I felt like I was going to cry. I knew that such beauty had never been experienced by another human.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          I began walking. It’s not like I was trying to explore. I was just walking to walk. It felt good to move around in this space. Eventually, I came to a lake. I went to the edge of the water and put my feet in. I started walking into the water. It looked like water, but it felt like I was moving through clouds.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          I bent down and put my hands into the water. These creatures swam through my fingers. They looked like fish, but way smaller and they didn't have any of the characteristics a fish would have, like eyes and a mouth. I caught one and held it in my hand. The creature flopped around in my palm before I released it back into the water.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          A hissing noise almost made me jump out of my skin. Up until this point, there wasn’t any sound. I looked around and tried to find the source of the sound. Then it happened again, this time, it was clearer; it was closer. I ran back to the edge of the water and looked across the lake. There. On the other side of the water, was this…this thing. It was horrifying.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          I don’t want to try to describe it because I know I’ll throw up. And even if I could stomach it’s description, you wouldn’t understand. The thing looked at me. Not just in my direction. The thing looked at me. It looked at me with hatred in its eyes. Like it wanted to tear me apart at my soul. After a minute of this, the thing…it started running towards me. The fucking thing was running on the water full speed at me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          I froze. There was nothing I could do. Nowhere to run to. Even if my legs would work, I knew I could never out run its wrath. The monstrosity let out a terrible shriek that to this day, I will never forget. It was mere feet away from me, when I just started screaming. At the top of my lungs, I just screamed.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          Suddenly, the helmet was lifted from my head and I was unstrapped from the chair. I fell out the chair and started gasping for air. “You are now free to leave. We have all the information we need.” The blonde guy escorted me out of the building and off the premises. He handed me a duffle bag. I took it and began walking home.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          I got home and opened the bag. It was full of money. I threw it against the wall and fell to my knees. I covered my face with my hands and started crying. I couldn’t get those images out of my head. I couldn’t get any sleep that night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that horrifying thing and the evil hatred it had in its eyes.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          It was seven in the morning when my telephone rang. I grabbed the phone and answered it. “Hello?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “M…Mr. Stone. We have some grave news. You need to come back to the facility right away.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “Why!?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “It followed you.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">I dropped my phone because there was a hissing noise coming from my bathroom. I slowly turned around and saw mist coming from my bathroom. The longer I looked, the more mist came out.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          In the mist, I could almost swear that I could see a shape. It looked like a…a…it looked like the outline of a dog’s head, but it was too big. I don’t know how, but it was wrong. It was misshaped in a way that my mind couldn’t perceive. I continued to stare at the thing as it formed out of the mist. The next thing I saw were black tentacle like appendages coming from inside the already dark bathroom.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          The thing came fully into view. It was huge. Too huge to have just come from my small bathroom. I backed myself into a wall reached over and flipped a light switch. My heart sank when the room illuminated. It was the same thing I had seen. In a flash, one of the tentacles stretched impossibly. I jumped out of the way, but I wasn’t fast enough. The tentacle tore off a huge chunk of skin from my arm.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          I yelled and bolted for my front door. As soon as I reached for the handle, the tentacle smashed against the door, preventing me from leaving. I turned around and came face to face with the horror from my nightmare. I looked into its eyes. It was like all the evil in the universe was wrapped into its glowing eyes. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything. I tried to scream, I tried to run, I tried to cry, but nothing worked.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          The thing backed up to the opposite wall. By now, my entire place was filled with so much mist, I couldn’t see. I could only hear as the thing ran at me. In a split second decision, I jumped out of the way and the thing smashed through the door. It smashed into the door, but instead of breaking it, the thing phased through it. I whipped the door open, but the thing was gone. I ran out of my apartment and back to the place where the building I went to was at.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          The place was destroyed. There were fire trucks and police cars and ambulances everywhere. I turned around and started running in the opposite direction. I stopped at my friend Paul’s house. I started banging on his door. He answered and shielded his eyes. “Do you know what time it is? What’s the matter?” I pushed past Paul and darted into his house. I closed all the blinds and sat on his couch.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          Neither one of us said a word for a few minutes. Finally, I got up the courage to speak. “I’m being followed. Or…hunted is a better word.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “You’re not making any sense.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">I sighed. The only thing I could do was tell Paul the entire story. When I was finished, Paul had this irritated look on his face. “Did you really come up with this bullshit story just to fuck with me?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “I’m telling the truth!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “Go home Michael. Get some sleep. You look like shit.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">I was speechless. I knew that I was never going to convince Paul of my story. I stood up and started walking towards the door. I stopped in my tracks when I heard that awful hissing sound. I looked down and saw mist coming from underneath the door. I looked around and the mist was coming from under all the doors in the house. I looked at Paul. He started laughing. “Okay, how are you doing that?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">I put my hands over my mouth. “It’s found me. Paul…I’m so sorry.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          “Sorry for what-” Before Paul could finish his sentence, a black tentacle shot out from a room behind Paul. It impaled him through his throat and lifted him off the ground. Paul grabbed his neck and the tentacle started thrashing him all around the room. I saw the thing start to appear right before the tentacle yanked Paul into the room and slammed the door shut. In a panic, I ran upstairs and into the bathroom. I shut and locked the door behind me. I got into the tub and pulled out my phone. I heard the thing banging against the wall trying to get in. I closed my eyes and pressed the record button on my phone.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">          This is a warning to all of you. There are some things that people are not supposed to see. There are some lines that shouldn’t be crossed. Do not try to venture into things outside of your understanding. There are things that were not meant for human eyes. It’s too late for me. I just hope my mistake will prevent others from making the same one.