Part 2 — The Creature That Stood Up
(Part 1) ➡️ https://storiesworld.us/archives/10209
West barely had time to react.
Something burst from the tree line and crossed directly in front of his truck. His foot slammed onto the brake pedal, and the tyres screeched against the pavement, but there wasn’t enough distance to stop.
Thump.
A second impact followed almost immediately.
Thump.
The steering wheel jerked violently in his hands before the truck finally came to a halt several yards farther down the road.
For a few seconds, he simply sat there, gripping the wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. His heart hammered against his chest as he stared through the windscreen, trying to understand what had just happened.
His first thought was the most logical one.
A dog.
The mountains were full of stray dogs, coyotes, and deer. Animals wandered onto these roads all the time, especially late at night. He felt a wave of guilt wash over him as he imagined an injured animal lying somewhere behind the truck.
“I’ve got to check,” he whispered to himself.
He reached for the torch he kept behind the driver’s seat, switched on the hazard lights, and stepped out into the cool mountain air.
The silence hit him immediately.
It was even heavier than before.
No insects chirped from the woods. No breeze rustled the leaves overhead. Even the engine ticking as it cooled seemed unnaturally loud against the stillness surrounding him.
West walked slowly toward the front of the truck.
The headlights illuminated the empty stretch of road ahead, but there was no sign of an animal.
He frowned.
If he’d struck a dog at that speed, it couldn’t have gone very far.
He swept the torch across the shoulder of the road, expecting to find something lying in the grass.
Nothing.
He checked beneath the truck.
Still nothing.
The only evidence of the collision was a small dent in the front bumper and a few dark streaks across the grille.
Confused, West began walking back along the road.
His boots crunched softly against the gravel as he searched both sides of the pavement. Every few steps he paused to shine the torch into the trees, convinced he would eventually find an injured animal hiding in the undergrowth.
Instead, he found tracks.
They began at the edge of the forest where something had emerged from the trees.
At first glance, they resembled canine prints.
But the farther he followed them, the stranger they became.
The impressions were too large.
Much too large for any dog he had ever seen.
They also seemed unusually deep, as though whatever had made them was far heavier than its size suggested.
West crouched beside one of the prints, studying it in the beam of his torch.
Something about it didn’t make sense.
The spacing between the tracks kept changing.
One set looked like the stride of a four-legged animal.
The next looked almost…
Human.
He quickly dismissed the thought.
He was tired.
It was dark.
His imagination was getting the better of him.
Straightening up, he continued searching.
About twenty yards farther along the road, his torch landed on something pale lying near the edge of the asphalt.
His stomach tightened.
For a moment, he thought it was the animal.
Instead, it was a patch of light-coloured fur caught on a broken branch.
He stepped closer.
The hairs were unusually coarse and much longer than those of a typical dog.
As he reached toward the branch, another sound drifted from the woods.
A low rustling.
West froze.
The sound came again.
Not far away.
Something was moving through the brush.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
He switched off the torch for a second, hoping his eyes would adjust to the darkness.
Almost immediately, he regretted it.
The forest wasn’t merely dark.
It felt alive.
Watching.
He flicked the light back on and aimed it toward the sound.
Nothing.
The rustling stopped.
West let out a nervous breath and told himself to get back into the truck.
Whatever he had hit had obviously managed to run into the woods.
There was nothing more he could do.
He turned to leave.
Then another sound reached him.
It wasn’t coming from the forest this time.
It came from behind him.
Very slowly, he turned around.
The beam of his torch swept across the road until it settled near the front of the truck.
At first, he couldn’t understand what he was looking at.
Something was lying in the middle of the pavement.
It hadn’t been there moments earlier.
The shape resembled a large animal curled on its side, partially hidden by the glare of the headlights.
For a brief moment, relief washed over him.
There it was.
The dog.
He took several cautious steps forward.
Then the shape moved.
One long arm pressed against the pavement.
Then another.
The creature pushed itself upright with a slow, unnatural motion.
West’s entire body went rigid.
Whatever stood in the road was not a dog.
Its limbs were impossibly long, and its body seemed far too thin for its height. Even stranger was the way it held itself. For a moment it remained balanced awkwardly on all fours, its head lowered toward the ground as though sniffing the air.
Then it looked directly at him.
The headlights caught its eyes.
They reflected with a pale yellow glow.
West couldn’t move.
The creature remained perfectly still for several seconds.
Then, with a movement he would later replay in his mind countless times, it slowly rose onto two legs.
Not because it had to.
Almost as though it wanted him to see that it could.
Neither of them moved.
The road fell silent once again.
Then the creature tilted its head slightly, studying him with unsettling curiosity.
West felt every instinct in his body scream at him to run.
Before he could react, the creature suddenly dropped back onto all fours.
With astonishing speed, it spun around and disappeared into the forest, crashing through the undergrowth until the sound faded into the distance.
West remained frozen for another few seconds.
Then instinct finally took over.
He sprinted back to his truck, locked the doors the moment he climbed inside, and floored the accelerator.
He never looked in the rear-view mirror.
Not once.
Because deep down…
He wasn’t sure he wanted to know if something was following him.
(Continued in Part 3) ➡️ https://storiesworld.us/archives/10208