I don't really know how to start this, so I guess I'll start it like this:
My name is Trent. I am a police officer working for the Laurel County Police in Kentucky. I'm a pretty high ranking officer, but not as high as my friend, who was promoted to a detective recently. A few days after his promotion, he was assigned to a case involving mysterious disappearances in the Holly Bay area. He decided to go ahead and head out to Holly Bay that night and investigate the area. I decided that I would go with him on the investigation.
We arrived at the Holly Bay campgrounds at around 7 PM, and my friend parked his truck so we could go investigating the woods surrounding Holly Bay. Obviously, we took a flashlight with us, and we were both armed with police-issue handguns in case we ran into anything threatening to our lives.
We were walking through the woods for at least an hour before anything substantial happened.
My friend, whose name is Robert, noticed what looked like a figure walking through the trees a few feet in front of where we were. We both silently crouched down and turned the flashlight off. At first, we thought somebody else was in the woods with us, until my friend turned the flashlight on low and shined it on the figure. I was nearly frozen with fear from what the flashlight illuminated, but I managed to quietly pull my phone out of my pocket and snap a quick picture before the creature lumbered off into the darkness of the night.
The picture I took.
As soon as me and my friend were sure that the thing was far enough away from us, we ran as fast as we could back to the truck. It felt like we were running for hours. I knew that it didn't take us more than an hour to get where we saw the beast.
While I was running, I tripped on a branch that was lying on the ground, and as you'd expect, I fell straight to the dirt. I quickly got back up, and my friend was nowhere to be seen. I tried calling for him, but I never got an answer or anything. I pulled out my phone and used it as a makeshift flashlight. It didn't shine very far since it was just a weak iPhone 3, but it was better than nothing. I wasn't sure which way was the way back to my friend's truck, but I assumed it was straight forward since this was the way I was running before I tripped. I was basically shit out of luck because my friend had the flashlight, his compass, and his keys. Even if I got to the truck, if he wasn't there, I couldn't leave. I hoped he was alright and continued forward.
About 30 minutes into walking, I started hearing rustling in the distance, and I pulled my pistol, ready to shoot whatever was shittin' it and gettin' it to my location. There wasn't even much of a chance that I would hit anything that came after me, since my only light source was the weak screen light from an iPhone.
Suddenly, my friend emerged from the darkness and drew his gun on me as soon as he saw me. He must've been in the heat of the moment, but I yelled that it was me, and he shined the flashlight on me. He was so relieved that I was alright. I asked him if he was injured or anything, to which he replied that he wasn't. I asked him where he ran off to, and he didn't have an answer. I then asked him which way the truck was, since getting the hell out of those woods was priority numero uno for me. He said that it was east, and so we headed east. After about an hour of walking, we emerge from the woods, at the parking lot where my friend's truck was parked. We hopped into the truck and left as quick as possible. While my friend was pulling out of the parking space, I noticed that a figure emerged from the woods. It was the creature that me and Robert had seen deep in the woods. We got a better look at the creature at that point. I fumbled with my phone, opening the camera app so I could snap a picture of this thing.
What the hell is this thing?!
Whatever the creature was, I've never heard of anything like it before. We quickly drove away, and I saw in the rear view mirror, it seemed to be watching us drive off. I had the strangest feeling that it wasn't just gonna let us leave. We had just initiated it's "game" that night.
My friend dropped me off at my house and then headed to his house, and we agreed to never talk about our strange experience ever again.
Everything was normal for the next few days, but then, at around 6:04 on a Saturday, I got a call from Robert. Here's the conversation from what I can remember:
"Me: Hello?
Robert: Trent, I think someone's trying to break into my house.
Me: What makes you think that?
Robert: I'm hearing footsteps in the leaves outside.
Me: It's probably just a raccoon or something...
Robert: I don't think so, dude. It sounds too big to be a raccoon.
Me: Maybe a dog?
Robert: No, dude, I'm almost positive that it's someone sneaking around my house.
Me: Look, it's most likely not someone sneaking around, trying to break in. You're probably just a little shook up from the...thing a few days ago.
Robert: Yeah, you may be right...I guess it is a raccoon or a dog...
Me: See you tomorrow, buddy. Bye.
Robert: Bye."
I went to bed after that, hoping that I was right and that it was just a raccoon or dog outside Robert's house...
I woke up at around 10:33 AM, and decided to head over to Robert's house, since we were both off. When I got to his house, it was surrounded by squad cars and police tape. I walked up to one of my fellow officers, and asked what had happened. He told me that someone had murdered Robert last night. I pushed him out of the way and entered Robert's house. Officers were standing around inside, I asked one where Robert's body was, and I was told that his body was in the living room. I ran down the hall towards the living room and turned the corner. I wish I hadn't...
Robert's living room was smeared with blood. His blood. His mutilated body lay on the rug in the middle of the room. I could barely tell that it was indeed him. It all felt like a horrible dream that I would wake up from in a sweat. Unfortunately, it wasn't a dream. This was real. My best friend was lying dead in his own living room, after being butchered by some sadistic fuck. I dropped to my knees in grief...
Once I regained my composure, I asked the coroner if he could tell what Robert's cause of death was. He said it seemed to have been an animal of some kind, from the claw marks all along his body. He said that he was trying to figure out how an animal would attack Robert while he was inside. He didn't own any pets other than two fish in an aquarium on the bar. I started remembering that thing that me and Robert had seen down at Holly Bay a few days ago, and how it watched us as we drove off that night...
I had figured that the creature was coming after me and Robert, and it had already taken one of our lives. I was next. I formed insomnia over time, from the fear that that thing would bust into my home while I was asleep and do me the same way that it did Robert.
As I'm typing this, I keep hearing rustling outside my window. It sounds like a large animal is stalking around out there. It's probably nothing, though...