Fiction: The Creature, a short horror story

The Creature 

A short horror story

I am a private investigator on a mission from The Time Councils Cryptid Department.
It was in the middle of the winter and I had just parked my car at the only parking area available in this remote part. This used to be a national park but since a couple of years ago it had been permanently closed. This was the last known location of what the organization referred to as The Pale Stalker. Few had survived their encounter with the otherworldly being. Even fewer had information about it. They talked about a tall, lean and pale humanoid figure that would stand in the distance at the forest’s edge, just staring at them. Most people would just leave immediately upon seeing it, but the park is not closed without a reason. Ever since the first sightings of the pale creature people has started going missing and strange phenomenon had been reported.

Heavy footsteps left footprints in the snow as I left my vehicle. I thought to myself that if I were lucky
enough to find the creature, it would observe me at most, there was little risk of danger. Carrying
light equipment would make me mobile enough, I reasoned to myself. My arrogance would
prove to be my undoing that night. I got my flashlight and I started heading down the dark path.

Mere minutes had passed before the strange feeling of being watched made me turn to the side and every second suddenly felt like a minute. The forest felt darker and the snow deeper, as I looked.

There, leaning out behind a tree was a head sticking out, a pale face lacking the basic features was staring right at me. Black eyes like those of a shark was studying me without blinking.
I looked away for a second and when I looked back it looked like the creature had moved, it now stood behind a tree that was closer to me. I brought my flashlight up to point it at the creature, to get a better look. This might be the only chance to get a good look, I convinced myself. However, instead of shying away, it walked out at the tree line in full view.

My mistake was now clear to me, I knew that I was playing a game of high risk here and I had to act fast. There was no time to lose so I started running, but every step was heavy and the adrenaline made me lose my sense of direction. “I came from that direction, right?” I desperately said to myself as I let out a big puff of warm air in the cold winter night. The small cloud of fog dissipated in the air, just like my hope of survival. It was clear to me that I had gone in the wrong direction.

I saw movement to my side, the creature was after me. It was out there. I could feel it. The deep snow wore me down and I was losing energy quickly. By now I was using the last of my strength.

After running along the path I was on, I came out in a clearing and the silhouette of a cabin stood out against the tree line further away. Moonlight broke through the cracks in the cloudy sky and reflected in the windows of the small building. This was my chance I thought in desperation, as I rushed to the door.

My throat was hurting from the cold air and the sprint toward the cabin had raised my heartbeat, the beating was almost deafening to my ears. This is what true fear felt like.

The wooden door of the cabin now stood in front of me, all I had to do was push it open.
Would it yield to my desperate push?
As fate would have it, the door opened up with a creak as I pushed it open and a gust of old and stale air reached me. For a single moment in time everything was still, I saw dust dance in a single beam of faint moonlight. My eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness of the cabin. But now I was safe.

My feeling of safety was not much longer than the moment of that very thought. I realized that there had been tracks leading to this cabin, but not leading away from it. Now it was too late to turn back.

I felt a drop touch my cheek, but it wasn’t a tear or a raindrop. A sigh of resignation left my body, and even though fear filled my body it would not run away from there, it was if I lost control over myself.

It all went so fast after that, the sound of movement was quickly followed by a pale figure appearing out of nowhere. It leapt right down upon me, and it held me down against the floor as it gazed upon me with dead eyes. The eyes were completely black, there was no trace of a soul, only the moonlight was reflected in the infinite darkness of this nightmare. Pale hands with long claws dug into my chest and shoulders. I let out a tormented scream and the creature simply tilted its head a bit and then opened its mouth, revealing thousands of small, gleaming teeth. As I was trapped in its sadistic grip, it reached for me with its mouth. I was met with a stench of old blood and rotten meat that was so strong that it made me forget my pain for a moment.

Ignoring my every effort of resistance it bit me in the neck. Thousands of small teeth piercing my skin. A stinging, acidic pain jolted through me, which was more than I could handle. Laying there in a growing puddle of blood, I felt my body grow colder and my vision faded.

This was it, I was done for. Resistance would had proven futile and hope was gone. I felt my body shutting down and the creature that had been impaling me was now just a blur before me.

What must have been hours passed and I woke up on the cabin floor, as I moved I heard my frozen blood crack as it had frozen my clothes stuck to the floor. I felt dizzy from the attack.
”Was I still alive?” I wondered to myself.

I wish I wasn’t. Because an unsatiable hunger has risen in me, that no regular food can satisfy.
I am now prowling the forest at night, sleeping at day, an empty husk of what I once was. In an eternal state of being somewhere between living and dead.

And that creature, the damn creature responsible for my cursed doom, is still out there. Still hunting.