Noctem Aeternam

In the small town of Oakridge, Oregon, there is usually very little going on. Being a small community, however, when something does happen everyone knows and is there to help. Recently it was evident that there was a break-in at one of the houses of one of the communities residents. As expected, everyone was there to help but were quickly sent home by a couple of investigators from another town. It wasn’t, however, a traditional break-in. The door wasn’t open, it wasn’t taken off its hinges, or knocked in. There was a hole about four feet in diameter that looked as if it were scratched all the way through the door! “Wow,” one investigator says to the other, “Something took the time to claw through the whole door!” The other investigator silently examined the door.

It was this time that he had noticed the thick, dark red liquid puddling underneath the door and spread around the hole. The investigators quickly ruled out the fact that it was human blood, it was too thick and dark. Once in the house, the investigators saw no material damage; nothing seemed out of place or broken. There was also no sign of empty space in the house so they assumed there was no theft. The only other damage to the house was a hole, similar to the one on the front door, on the door leading to the basement. Following the trail of blood, the investigators walked to the basement door and descended the stairs. The scent of blood became extremely powerful as they stepped on the basement floor; they were met by an extremely grim sight. The body of the home owner lied on the floor, bloody and broken. His organs lie fanning out on the basement floor, his eyes taken out of the sockets, and his limbs were contorted in awkward angles showing that he was brutally beaten. Before they could say anything, they saw a piece of paper with writing scribbled on it lying on his chest. One investigator grabbed it and read aloud.

I… Am going to die. I need to get my story out, not for fame or publicity; but as a warning. I won’t waste any time so here is my story. The sounds of crickets chirping awoke me from my slumber. As I sat up I realized how badly my head hurt; I felt each individual heartbeat in my temples. Looking around all I saw was blackness. It smelled of damp moss, and, I swear, I heard breaking twigs behind me; making me think there was something.. or someone out here. I quickly jolted around seeing nothing but shadows of branches cast upon the ground like a theater, and the moonlight was the projector. Shrugging it off as nothing, I stood up, my arms and legs felt weak; they trembled uncontrollably. It felt cold so cold, in fact, that regardless of how much I moved I wouldn’t warm up. I quickly decided to establish a plan: to escape the woods. I decided to just select a direction and walk that way in a line, preventing myself from getting lost. After a while of walking, I realized that the smell of moss had faded but was replaced by a metallic smell, like copper or iron. I also noticed that the sounds of breaking twigs were for sure footsteps, and they were louder and more frequent, leading me to believe the source was speeding up. Again, I quickly turned around; despite being more cautious and observant, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I assumed it was just birds or some small animal.

I figured my mind was just racing, filling in the gaps with the worst possible thoughts and I just decided to calm down ; it was during this time that I realized that I wasn’t even sure why I was here or how I had gotten here! I was so tied up with everything around me that I hadn’t noticed the fact that I went to sleep in my bed, but woke up here. “Is this a dream?” I thought, “no, it’s far too real!” I slapped myself, pinched myself, blinked rapidly- but with no outcome. My heart sank at this realization. Another observation I noted was that dark spots in this forest weren’t just usual dark night shade, it was completely black. Deep black as if there was something completely absorbing all light around me; its hard to explain, this dark was far more dark than anything anyone has ever seen. Despite these new realizations, I carried on deeper into the forest. The forest consisted of some dead trees with grotesque branches, stretching out at me, and nothing. The only things visible were these malevolent trees. But this quickly changed as I continued walking; I saw a clearing in the trees, a slightly moonlit field: the size of a large vehicle. Assuming from in there I could get better bearings, I decided to cautiously enter the clearing. As I approached the center of the field, I saw a large, brown object; I wasn’t sure if it was alive or not until I noticed I could see its breath. The creature looked up at me, I froze, it was a bear! But before I could start backing away, it took off in the other direction. “Was it really that scared of me?” I thought to myself. I really did try to tell myself it fled from me, but I knew it ran from something else. I decided just to keep moving onward through the clearing.

It was about this time that I heard a familiar sound; it was running water! I followed this sound for just over a minute before I came across a small creek. I quickly noticed the metallic scent had gotten even stronger, overbearing even, but this soon faded again. I walked to the creek and took seat on a large rock right next to the water. Leaning forward, I cupped water into my hands and drank it. The refreshing, chilled water swam its way down my throat, refreshing me and giving me the boost I needed to continue this questionable journey. I didn’t regard it as anything then, but when I think about it now, it sends chills down my spine. I remember seeing what looked like an extremely pale humanoid, about six feet tall, hunched over, it appeared to be naked. It didn’t appear to have eyes, just black holes, this wasn’t just what a normal person would perceive as black, this is the deepest, darkest black; far beyond any black imaginable. The creature disappeared as soon as it appeared, but its appearance was stitched into my mind, explaining how I can recall what it looked like, despite its short visit. But I figured this was just my imagination going crazy.
When I was done with my short break, I decided to continue in the same direction; I hopped across the visible rocks in the creek and continued. Looking ahead, I saw that the forest appeared to cut off. Strangely, it looked like in a video game when the world hasn’t loaded and there is just an abrupt cutoff. I figured that was the darkness playing tricks on my eyes but as I got closer, I was convinced otherwise. Laying down next to the pit, I could lay my arm fully stretched out without feeling a bottom. So I grabbed a rock and tossed it in, I never did hear it hit the bottom. I quickly noticed that this pit was, in fact, as dark as the creature’s eyes! I couldn’t even see the white form of my arm as it entered the void. I was snapped out of my awe by the sound of footsteps again, I looked back to see a pale shape, running after me. It didn’t run like a person, it contorted awkwardly; swinging its limbs around violently as it stared at me. It didn’t just stare at my eyes, I felt it glare straight to my soul with its empty, black eyes as it created a terrifying screeching noise.

At this point, I ran. I had no destination but to get out. I just continued to run and run; hopping over downed trees, avoiding voids, just running. My lungs felt like they were on fire but I was quickly given hope as I saw a glimmer of light through the branches. It was a house! Not just any house but my neighbor’s! I ran past it and into mine around the corner. My house looked over the dark forest. I slammed the door behind me as I entered and just ran straight to my bed; it took me a while, but I finally fell asleep. The next thing I knew, I awoke in my bed. Now, I am sure you are thinking: “It must have been a dream!” and I even tried to tell myself that but I knew deep down it wasn’t. I went back into those woods; during the day of course. It was just as I remembered it, except there were patches of grass darker than the rest. I quickly realized that these darker patches were where the voids had been the night before. The grass cut from a vibrant lime to a malevolent sage-green. I decided it would be best just to go home.

I have never been back in the forest. However, every night I get the feeling that I am being watched, I feel like the pale creature is looking at me but whenever I look outside, it is just the border of my backyard and trees, or so I thought. Last night I had the same feeling of being watched so, again, I looked outside, this time with a bone-chilling realization; it had been there all along. I didn’t see the creature, but as I looked into the blackness of the forest, I could barely make out two patches in the shadow; much darker than the pitch black of night. I knew these were the creature’s eyes; I was sure of it. I froze, I couldn’t move a muscle in my body but suddenly I gagged. The metallic scent hit me like a ton of bricks. I quickly snapped out of my paralysis and closed my curtains, crawling into my bed, crying. I didn’t get any sleep that night, I talked to myself trying to keep myself company. I soon realized that I was going insane. I had been talking to myself- Even laughing with myself, thinking about those eyes, and the color, or rather, absence of color of them. The longer I thought about the creature, the more I noticed everything darkening. So I tried to keep my mind off of it. Smacking myself every time I thought of it, talking to myself even more, arguing with myself. I looked around at the boarded-up windows, bolted doors, and my small rations of food. The silence was broken by sounds of scratching at my front door. I wasn’t leaving my house, not for anything. I quickly realized that the metallic scent was that of blood and it was getting stronger. I never could find the source and never was prone to having nosebleeds nor did I have them when these incidences occurred. The smell seemed to come from nowhere.

As I walked around my house, I noticed the further away from my front door I got, the fainter the smell became! Amazed by this, I tried to get as far away from the door as possible, not only to escape the scent but to put distance between me and the scratching sounds. So I moved into my basement, the scent was much less potent there and I could embrace in the lighter of the two darks; I was sure that the creatures eyes and the voids were not only absence of light but something more. I write this because I know it will be my last day; my food ran out three days ago and the scent of blood is burning my nose and for the last five minutes I have heard scratching at the basement door now, I will hide this letter in a box in my basement, as a warning to anyone in this area: do NOT go into the forest.

From this point, the small, ink letters cut off into large, hardly legible letters that appeared to be written using the dark blood substance. It was thick, nearly incomprehensible handwriting, as if a child just learning to write had written it using finger paint. “Turn around” The investigator read aloud. The two men slowly peered around from the body, only to be met by two black voids, staring at them from the darkest corner of the basement.

Credit To – CreepyQuantum