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The Watchtower



Estimated reading time — 22 minutes

People always have pondered what another intelligent being would be like. They’ve always theorized that these beings would be light-years away and that us, humans, would be dead a very long time before we ever made contact with them. Other people say that they have already met them after being abducted and experimented on. Then some will say that we are the only intelligent being there are or ever will be. Well, I can say one thing for sure, and that’s that no one was right. We were all so very wrong…

Back when I was a teenager, I’ll admit I was a smoker and an avid drug user. I’d done most drugs that were deemed “safe” from my friends such as LSD, MDMA, DMT, many prescription drugs, and I even had a phase where I did some over-the-counter drugs. As a teen, I like to think I played it smart by only doing those every so often and stick with my main fix. Weed.

I used weed almost as a social tool to some extent. What I mean by that is it got me to meet people who all were similar to me in at least the one aspect; we just wanted to get high. Around the end of my Sophomore year, I met this kid named Ralph at a party and we quickly found out that we had a lot in common so we became friends.

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When summer came, I’d hang out at his house, which was out in the middle of a forest, at least 4 or 5 times a week. While I was at his house, we’d barely ever go inside because his parents never liked anyone in there. Instead, we’d go to his barn which was filled with cats that were most likely illegally being held. You’re probably thinking why the fuck someone would hold cats in a barn. His mom actually bred some very expensive cats ranging from around $500-$3,000. She never had a permit for it either, and most of them were very maltreated by barely being fed or given water. Anyways we would hang out in that barn for hours every time I came over and all we would really do is smoke weed and cigarettes. We grew bored of that after a couple of weeks, since there wasn’t much to do so he started to show me some cool spots throughout his neighborhood.

Some of the places were just a great view like this place we called the ledge which was on a small mountain. From the ledge, we could see the entire forest stretch out so far that we couldn’t even come close to seeing the end of it. Then there were spots that were just cool, like the cliffs which are pretty self-explanatory from their name. My favorite place was what we called the old house.

The old house was long-abandoned, and located down a long driveway with many “No Trespassing” signs, but we had thought that whatever the owner didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. The house was a three-story building that looked as if no one had lived there for probably around 50+ years. As you could imagine, the house was obviously decently decayed, and very neglected by wildlife and everyone that had been there. All the windows were busted out, parts of trees grew inside the house, the floor was broken in, parts of walls were missing showing the inside of the wall which most likely was filled with asbestos. The walls that weren’t broken in had graffiti covering almost every inch possible. The house’s obvious property was pretty big probably being a couple of acres. Decently thick brush surrounded the yard and a side building that was presumably an outhouse. The house and it’s property also had an eerie feel to it, but what abandon house doesn’t?

Most of the time we would visit there during the day, but I personally thought the best time to go was at night. The rush I would get from this place past dark was unreal. Only people who have been in an abandoned house in the middle of the forest overnight would know what I mean. I had only done this a few times as I would go alone because Ralph would refuse to go there during the night.

One night, we were at the barn around 20:00 and I was trying really hard to convince him to come with me to the old house. Like always, he constantly said no. This ended up making me mad so I demanded him to tell why he wouldn’t come with me. He sighed and said “Well, this going to seem a little ridiculous, but I saw… something… in the forest by there.”

“Well, what the hell does that have to do with anything?” I replied.

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“I’m just worried that it would come to the house during the night.”

“That what would?”

He sighed and began to tell me what he saw.

Back when he was 9 or 10, he and his friend Carl wanted to find a spot where they could go to get away from both of their families. After a few weeks of exploring through the woods, they came across the old house, but in a slightly different state. Apparently, there were around 9 or 10 paths all around the house where the brush grew now.

He and Carl would try to always explore one path every time they would go to the house until they ran out. This would allow them to have something new to do every time they visited. Some paths took a couple of days as they would walk pretty slow at first absorbing the scenery of the forest and its inhabitants. When they would turn back, they would leave a marking in the ground or put a pile of sticks together and leave it at the furthest point they reached. The next time they would visit the old house they would quickly walk past everything they have already seen until they go to their “checkpoint”.

They never found anything interesting enough on these paths to actually keep, but a few weird things began happening. Oddly enough, it was only on the final three paths. Mostly the mysterious happenings affected the checkpoints.

The checkpoint at the first of the three was just a stack of sticks tied together by some long pieces of grass. He and Ralph came back the next day excited as they always were when they explored one of the paths. Eventually the checkpoint came to view, but it wasn’t how they left. The sticks were ripped into pieces in a pile. This didn’t bother either of them though since they thought it was maybe a fox or another animal in the woods. Ralph said looking back now, it wasn’t possible for any animal to make those sticks look like that.

The second of the three checkpoints was comprised of four sticks jabbed into the ground in a square pattern. Carl was going to be out of the town for the next couple of days so it was there for a few days. The day he came back, they both went happily down the path. When they finally arrived at the checkpoint, there were 3 more squares of sticks in the ground next time the first one making a giants square of sticks. This made both of them a little uneasy, but they kept going down the path a little more hesitant. Nothing else out of the ordinary happened on the path.

They ended up exploring the last path all the way on the same day. Half of it was explored during the day in which they made a star in the ground with a stick. Both of them were very eager to finish this one therefore they made a plan. At exactly midnight, they would both sneak out of their houses and meet up at the old house. Carl was supposed to bring two flashlights while Ralph was going to bring two of his father’s pocket knives. Everything went exactly as planned. They met up and started going down the path.

Ralph and Carl quickly realized that the paths at night weren’t as appealing to the eye. In fact, most of it was straight-up terrifying. Neither of them would end up saying anything about it because they both wanted to to be brave. When they finally reached the checkpoint, they shone their flashlights on it and what they saw would leave them breathless. Right next to the original star was another star that sloppily drawn. Ralph told that it resembled what you would think a two-year-old would draw for a star. The worst part was it was at least an inch deep and half an inch in diameter.

At first, Carl wanted to turn around and go home, but Ralph convinced him not to. Ralph said that someone probably saw them leave the property of the old house after the sixth trail. That person then began to mess with their checkpoints in order to scare them off so they would stay off the property. Carl thought about Ralph’s theory and came to the conclusion he was probably right so they continued down to finish the path. Apparently this path was very long compared to the rest. The further and further they went down the path, the weirder things got. On some of the trees, there were deep gashes almost splitting some of the trees in half and some of them were even knocked over. These sites became more and more common the deeper they went.

Then they reached a clearing in the shape of circle probably being about 100 yards across. There was no grass and no trees except one. It was in the middle of the glade and had a tower built into it. Eventually, they would name it the watchtower due to the structure of the building. The watchtower was very crudely built out of wood and around four stories tall. On the bottom floor, there was a doorway that looked abnormally big. The second had a balcony above the door with no railing and it supports sticking in the ground. Next was the third floor which was pretty plain only having what appeared to be a window. Finally was the fourth floor. It was almost like a roof, but not quite. Presumably, there was either a ladder or stairs leading up there. It had almost a railing around the perimeter.

They didn’t notice the fourth floor at first because when they looked at it from an upward angle, it would appear as a flat roof. But that’s when they noticed it. There was a very tall humanoid creature standing on the top. This thing was looking in the opposite direction of Ralph and Carl and most of its features were impossible to see in the darkness. Both of them stood absolutely still staring at the creature for what felt like hours. Neither of them noticed how quiet the forest was until this point. In fact, it was so quiet that they both heard the ringing noise your brain makes up when there is no noise to hear.

After a few minutes, it began to move about the top of the watchtower. The creature reached its hand up into the air making a motion that looked as if it was stretching. What they saw would scar them forever. This thing had claws for fingers, but probably not the way you’re thinking of. The sharp part of the claws was where the back of your finger would be leaving the other side dull. They were also opposable and probably around 10 inches long. Ralph managed to hold back his scream, but Carl wasn’t so lucky.

The second Ralph heard a noise come from Carl’s mouth, he dived on him tackling him to the ground covering his mouth as they fell. Ralph looked Carl straight in the eyes and brought one finger up to his lips letting him know to not make a noise. When they finally looked back over at the creature he was looking directly at them. Both of their hearts stopped and they held their breath trying not to move a muscle. Fortunately for them, the darkness was the perfect camouflage leaving them invisible to the creature. It began looking around them frantically almost as if it was scanning the area to find where the noise had come from. That’s when they noticed a silhouette of the same thing standing in the third story window looking in their direction also.

Suddenly, the creature jumped from the roof making a loud bang and a cloud of dust rising from the ground. Ralph and Carl both looked at each other and knew exactly what they had to do, run. They both ran as fast as they ever have the way they came from hoping the creature didn’t see or hear them. After about 10 minutes, they finally came to a stop. Ralph almost collapsed, but thankfully Carl managed to catch him and softly lower him to the ground.

Both of them sat there in utter silence listening while trying to catch their breath. Neither of them heard a sound except for that of the local wildlife, which seemed to return to the forest. After a few minutes, both of them just walked home not saying a word to each other.

I was speechless. Like who really would know what to say after hearing all that? Honestly, I thought it was all bullshit at first and responded with a really sarcastic comment about it being a nice story. But the look in his eyes after I said that convinced me otherwise.

I asked him what happened to Carl and unfortunately, he moved across the country soon afterwards. Apparently they managed to stay friends for a couple of years, but as time went on they lost contact.

We went to sleep after that, but I don’t really think either of us got much sleep. Neither of us talked to each other for a couple of days, but then it went back to how it used to be. After a couple of weeks I brought up the idea of going to the watchtower just so we can clear things up. Initially, he said no, but with a bit of convincing I got him up to a maybe. I said we would do it smart this time and bring a gun or two and maybe some knives. This made him feel better and agreed, but we have to bring a few more people. We both called some friends and planned it for the next weekend.
2
Sleep didn’t come easy over the next week. I had nightmares about the watchtower and those creatures. Most of the dreams have either been forgotten or my brain subconsciously blocked them. Though that was not the case for one of the horrid dreams.

I was one of them. I stood at the top of the watchtower, hungry, looking out at the surrounding forest for anything that I could eat. Something moved in the woods and I quickly looked where it came from. Darkness plagued the forest making it very hard for my non-human eyes to see. Maybe it moved I thought and began looking around the general area I heard it from. Nothing. I descended the ladder that was behind me.

I saw the silhouette of one of them standing, staring out the window. This started to make me uneasy in my dream as I began to realize that what I was couldn’t be right. I kept going down the ladder and went past the second floor and then I reached the first floor. The weird part was, the ladder kept going down underground. Hesitantly I went down it into the complete darkness. I kept going down and down until I noticed a light coming from below. The light got closer and closer until it was right below me. As I was about to see what it was, I woke up in a cold sweat. Not feeling good, I walked to the bathroom and threw up.

A week had finally passed and we all met up at Ralphs’s house. I brought two of my friends, one was John who was a bodybuilder, and Austin who was just a very good friend of mine. Ralph only managed to get one of his friends to come. His name was Mark and he was a wrestler.

We each brought something that could possibly help us on the adventure into the unknown. John brought a backpack filled with water and food just in case we managed to get lost or if one of us was hungry/thirsty. Austin managed to take his dad’s .44 magnum with enough bullets to go through 5 magazines (not sure what they are really called on a magnum) Mark found an old machete in his garage a few months ago and with a little convincing, his parents agreed to let him have it, so of course, he brought that. Ralph took his dad’s shotgun and had around 40 bullets for it minus what was already loaded into it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to bring anything that could be of much use, but I brought a few pocket knives and for myself, a butterfly knife.

We left for the old house at about 8 in the morning. The only reason we left so early was we’d rather face these things during the day. As we got there we all immediately figured out our one flaw with this plan, the path didn’t exist anymore.

Fortunately, Mark had the machete so he began to cut his way through the brush. We were all worried the whole path would be covered in this brush, but it was only for about the first hundred or hundred and fifty feet. The strange part was that after it ended, there was none for the rest of the path. All there was grass nothing more, nothing less.

We had been walking for an hour when Austin started complaining. “This is pointless guys; we’re never gonna find anything!” he said rudely.

“Yes we will,” said Ralph.

“You sure this the right path, Ralph?” I asked, “I mean we haven’t really seen anything out of the ordinary yet.”

“I think it is.”

“You think!?” said John.

“Almost positive. The only way it wouldn’t be is if there was another path I didn’t see before”

While rolling his eyes, John said, “Well I think it’s about time we eat something.”

“I agree, I’m starving!” Replied Mark.

So we sat there and ate. While we were eating, I sat there absorbing the scenery. It was about noon so the sun was high up in the sky lighting up everything that wasn’t directly below the trees which wasn’t much. The light or should I say the lack of light allowed me to notice something odd.

On the side of a tree, a part was slightly bulging out. I walked closer towards it when it hit me:

“What the hell are you doing?” Asked Mark.

“Just come here guys,” I said back with a grim look on my face.

As they walked next to me, they noticed it too. On the tree was one of the claw marks Ralph had told me about. There were 4 total claws that caused it. Each mark was about an inch and a half or two inches deep while being about an inch across.

There was a long silence between all of us for a couple of minutes as we all took in what we saw.

Austin finally broke the silence by saying, “Well I guess this is the right path.”

“Told ya,” said Ralph.

“I’m worried now,” John said.

“Don’t be. If we come across one of these fuckers I’ll blow its head off.”

“But what if our guns and knives aren’t enough?”

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“Well I highly doubt that, but I guess we would just run for our life,” replied Mark.

We continued down the path, but this time we had our weapons ready for anything. There were more and more scratch marks on the trees.

We all definitely felt the tension rising the further we walked through the path as all of us began to talk less. Occasionally I’d look over at my friends just to make sure they were okay and all of them minus Ralph had a look fear in their eyes. The look Ralph had was that of regret and terror.

After what felt like hours of walking, we noticed an opening far ahead. Although blurry, we could make out the watchtower.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” Ralph said with a hushed voice.

“What?” I asked him nervously.

“We gotta get out here NOW!”

“Why? What’s wrong?” asked Austin.

“The watchtower has at least doubled in size since I was last here.”

I started to step back towards Ralph when I heard a loud snap and suddenly I was stuck in a net. It began swinging violently and I hit my head on a tree and got knocked out.

* * * * * *

Slowly I started to become conscious. I opened my eyes and was blinded by light so I quickly closed them tightly shut. The light made me notice my horrific headache. At this point, I was still very disorientated so I wasn’t really worried. All the memories of what just happened began flooding back into my head. This made me not want to open my eyes. I was hoping maybe somehow my friends got me out of the trap and were just resting for a second so they lied me down, but the noises I began hearing made me realize that was not what happened at all.

It sounded almost like a voice but, it was very deep and malicious. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human and there were definitely at least three of them. They were having a conversation about who knows what. I could only assume it was about me which caused me to worry for my life and my friend’s life. At first, I thought I should just keep my eyes closed and not move, but why stop the inevitable?

Once I opened my eyes, I noticed that the light shining on my face was coming from a very strange light. The light source was surrounded by some type of glass in the shape of a cube with little metal rods sticking out from each corner emitting what I presumed was electricity into a glowing orb in the middle. Several of these hung from the unusually high ceiling throughout the room. About halfway across the room, a row of bars and a door came all the way across the room blocking me off from the other side of the room.

On my side, there wasn’t really much at all. In the corner of the room laid a blanket and what I assumed was supposed to be some sort of pillow made purely from cloth or something. The corner across from that one had a hole about a foot in diameter. It had to have been pretty deep too because you couldn’t see the bottom even with the light placed directly above it. At the center of my side was a huge pillar with some crazy type of writing wrapping around it from top to bottom.

The other side was very… weird. One of the corners was completely blocked off like it was an abnormally large cubicle. The other side had a couple of very big containers almost like an 8-foot filing cabinet except they only had a single drawer taking up where all the drawers would be. Along the back wall was a door except, it didn’t have a doorknob. On the floor directly in front of the door was markings of what I assumed was another creature’s footprints. Tubes hung from the ceiling in a very strange pattern.

I kept hearing the voices I had been hearing earlier from the general direction the cubicle was at. Slowly the voices were growing in volume, almost like there was some type of tension in that cubicle. The louder the voices grew, the more malign they sounded. Eventually, it was almost like the creatures were having a full out argument; they were what seemed to be yelling, occasionally stomping on the ground.

The stomping was nerve-wracking at the least. Every time they’d stomp it would shake the entire room meaning the creature itself had to have been large. Very large.

They kept arguing, getting louder and louder for what felt like hours until one of them finally left the cubicle. I wanted to vomit the second we met eyes.

The creature was horrific; it was about 8 feet tall, very muscular and looked like a humanoid. This thing’s skin looked thick, almost like leather minus the brown color. Instead, it was a sort of a darker pink, but not quite red. One of the creature’s legs would be as thick as a car tire and about four to four and a half feet long. The feet looked almost human, but very large and instead of toes, it had small versions of the claws described in Ralph’s story. Its torso was abnormally small compared to the rest of its body, but it still remained one of the most muscular parts of its body. His arms were long, hanging down to about its knees, but the worse part was the dreaded claws it had instead of fingers. They were just like Ralph described except I could clearly see that they were a whitish-yellow, almost like teeth meaning they were most likely bone instead of whatever nails are made from.

The face was the thing that stood out the most. Honestly, it still gives me nightmares today. Anyways, it’s head was very proportionate to the rest of its body, just like a human’s. hung out of the edge of its mouth being significantly longer than the rest of its fangs which, might I add, it had several rows of fangs. The tongue was like a human’s except completely flat. There wasn’t a nose; instead, there were holes for nostrils, much like a snake. No ears existed either; just holes like the nose except it had some type of filter covering the ear most likely blocking things from crawling in there. The hair was possibly the strangest part, it looked almost like rope hanging from its head except you could tell each “rope” was a single piece of hair. Before I noticed any of those features though, I noticed it’s dreaded eyes.

Where the white is in our eyes, this thing’s were black. The black took up a majority of its eyes with a white iris that took up a space as thin as pencil lead. Red pupils were in the center of the eye. Anyways I ended up calling these things wolverines because of their claws.

After I threw up, I looked up at the wolverine as he looked back at me. A smile grew across his face which sent a shiver down my spine. It stopped in its path and we just stared at each other for probably about five minutes when he turned around. The wolverine quickly ran back into the cubicle. I heard the voices again until three wolverines walked from behind the cubicle.

All of them stared at me with the same disturbing smile. Eventually one said something while staring at me. At first, I wasn’t too sure who it was talking to, but it became obvious he was talking to me as he began saying the same phrase three or four times. Not sure what to do, I replied with the simple phrase of I don’t understand what your saying.

It quickly frowned and began walking towards the door. The wolverine stood where the footprints were when they slightly moved down. The door flew open and then all three wolverines walked out.

For the next few hours, I was in there alone. At first, I quickly began looking around for an exit but, came to no avail. I gave up and just began thinking about Ralph, Austin, John, and Mark. What happened to them? Were they okay? Did all of them get stuck in the trap? Who got away? Are they even still alive?

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All these thoughts started becoming too much and I honestly started to cry. Hard. I probably cried for about thirty minutes when I started thinking again. At the time I thought what’s the point in crying? I mean it’s not gonna get me anywhere and all it’s gonna do is dehydrate me. And what if they don’t give me water? It will only make the inevitable come so much quicker then I wanted.

After a few hours had passed, a couple of wolverines came back except it brought a table with straps where my feet and hands would be. They opened the door in the middle of the room as I groaned waiting for my fate. It picked me up with what felt like actual care, almost like a mom picking up its baby. This made me very confused at first until I figured out they were treating me like a piece of evidence; with care to try and not alter me.

I was lied down on the table and was strapped in. One of them opened the door while the other pushed me. We went through a very weird hallway that looked like something like a hallway in an asylum and ended up in a room I could only call an operating room.

For a couple of minutes, the two wolverines talked. After they finished, they began making marks all over my body where I presumed they were going to cut open. The wolverine grabbed a knife and made an insertion in my forehead and my right arm. I guess the other wolverine called him as he put the knife down next to my right hand. This was my chance, my chance to escape, to get away. I quickly began looking around for an exit. At first, I couldn’t find any way out as I knew the door wouldn’t work for me but, that’s when I noticed another hole in the corner of the room except it was slightly bigger than the one in my cell.

I grabbed the knife and quickly began cutting the restraint on my right hand. While I was cutting it I kept looking up to make sure they weren’t paying attention and fortunately they weren’t. The first restraint took the longest to cut, but the rest only took a second. I was free, well from the restraints at least. As quietly as I could, I got up and was crawling towards the hole when I heard it scream.

For a second, I thought I went deaf. How incredibly loud that scream was. This disorientated me to the point of me not being able to move. I quickly managed to compose myself together while one was beginning to run towards me. I couldn’t make a run for the hole because before I’d reach it, the wolverine would get me. At this point, I still had the knife so I did the only thing I could think of. I threw it straight at the wolverine hitting it in the head. The knife itself was very sharp, but due to the creature’s thick skin it only went in about an eighth of an inch. Fortunately, this was enough to stun the beast for a split second. I quickly turned around, got to the hole and jumped down.

I could barely fit in the hole so as I fell I constantly hit the walls. I only fell about 50 feet or so until I hit water or some type of liquid. For some reason, it had a very strong current though so it dragged me right along with it. The water was only a few feet deep which most likely saved me from drowning. After about 15 minutes or so I saw light from the way I was going.

Happiness overwhelmed me the closer and closer I got. Finally, I got out of the cave or whatever I was in and was in sunlight. I quickly got out of the water on the side of the river and lied down absorbing all the sunlight I could. I actually ended up falling in a deep sleep right there on the shore.

* * * * * *

I was in my bed, nice and warm. Feeling pretty content, I got up and went to shower. Hot water poured all over my body, cleansing every pore in my body. The kitchen was right above the bathroom so I could always smell what was being made. My mom this morning was making eggs and bacon so you know what my bathroom smelt like. I got out of the shower, dried myself off, got dressed, and went upstairs for an amazing breakfast.

That morning we had a family breakfast, something we never usually do. My dad told elaborate stories about his childhood memories which would bring joy and light to each person in my family. My mom would talk about her job and getting a raise which would mean things were going to change around here, for the better. My sister talked about how she met this amazing guy and how she thought he might actually be “the one”. I rolled my eyes at this and laughed as I washed my plate clean.

All of a sudden, I heard glass breaking coming from the basement. My dad said as quietly and frantically as he could, “Go upstairs, lock yourselves in your room and don’t make a noise.” All of us did exactly as he said except I went a little further and hid inside my closet. I sat there for what like hours and listened as closely as I could to try and here what was happening downstairs. All I could hear was banging which filled me with fear.

Something was starting to come upstairs and it sounded bigger than my dad. I held my breath and got in the fetal position as it started to walk towards my room. Whatever it was, it sounded like it had taken my door clean off the hinges. It walked towards my closet and opened the door. Looking right at me was a wolverine with a huge smile on its face. The monster picked me up and threw me towards the wall. That’s when I woke up.

When you first wake up, you’re usually really dazed and disoriented especially after a dream. Well, that’s what I was like as I was flying through the air. I didn’t really understand what was going on until I hit the tree. The second I hit the tree was the second collapsed. I spit up a shit ton of blood and looked up. Staring straight at me was a wolverine about 30 feet away with the same grin on his face as the one in the dream.

At this point, my adrenaline began rushing, but it wasn’t too much help as I couldn’t even really stand. The creature slowly began walking towards me making the noise that I could only describe as laughter. I began looking around frantically trying to find some way to get out of there when I noticed the river about 5 feet away from me. I quickly rolled into it as the current took me with it.

As I began going down the river I saw the creature quickly jump into it trying to chase after me. I tried to swim with the current to make me a little bit faster, but it never helped much. The further and further down the river I went the closer the beast got to me. At one point, it swung its claw towards me but missed. While it’s claw was right by my leg, I quickly used all the strength in my body to force myself further away. Let’s just say it didn’t really work. Somehow, he countered it grabbing my ankle and flinging me into the air further down the river which I noticed turned into a lake.

I crashed down in shallow water on the opposite side of where the river came out at. I knew this was the end of me, both my legs had to be broken at this point and same with my arms. The creature got dumped out into the lake, but something surprising happened.

The creature flailed its arms in every direction, filling the air with that dreaded scream. I was very confused about what was happening at first, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It can’t swim! It was drowning in the deep part of the water! I was filled with relief until I lost consciousness most likely due to blood loss.

* * * * * *

I slowly opened my eyes and realized I was in a hospital bed. Looking down at my body, I noticed I was almost completely covered in bandages while both my legs and one of my arms were in casts. My mom was sleeping on a chair they had placed next to my bed. I smiled and said her name probably about five times until she woke up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mom cry so hard or heard her scream so loud.

Police questioned me over the next few days about what had happened. I didn’t really know what to say so I made up a story about how me and a friend went exploring down the river when I fell in, hit my head, and passed out in the river. Next, they asked which friend and I said Carl. Apparently, Carl had been missing for a couple of days now, way before I “passed out” in the river. I became the main suspect in his disappearance, but there was a lack of evidence to actually convict me.

Recovery would take me years to become a fully operable human being again. In fact, they actually had to replace a few bones in my legs to get them to work like normal.

One thing to this day still makes me very curious. What happened to Austin, Mark and John? Did they go crazy? Maybe they just kept quiet about it? Or did they even get captured too? Honestly, who knows, but I can only assume they were probably captured too.

Whenever you’re in a forest and see a strange structure that doesn’t look quite so normal, PLEASE get out of there. The wolverines are probably there and they have no mercy. They are way more powerful than us humans. If for some reason you do come across one of them though, find some nearby deep water and jump right in. Don’t worry, you can swim and they can’t. Well that is unless they’ve learned how to swim since then.


Credit: Doctor Slim

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61 thoughts on “The Watchtower”

  1. It was good! But there were a lot of spelling errors and it was almost like a foreigner wrote this… Somethings disnt make swnse and words were put where they shouldnt have been

  2. Alright, I liked the basic idea of the creatures – they’re relatively intelligent and are capable of learning. That makes for a good antagonist, I think. That’s the only nice thing I can say about this story, however. I don’t know how it has such a high rating.

    The whole bit about weed and other drugs at the beginning of the story seems really unnecessary. It adds nothing to the story and never comes up again. The same goes for the different locations around Ralph’s neighbourhood and the fact that his mom breeds cats, among others. I don’t mind if a pasta is long – I’ll read it all if it’s entertaining. What I don’t like is being presented with a load of pointless, irrelevant details that leave the story twice as long as it needs to be.

    Sometimes people do stupid things in real life, but I think the characters in this story might be legitimately retarded. Ralph opens up to his friend about a terrifying and traumatic experience from his childhood and the friend’s first reaction is to take a stroll through the area in question while dragging Ralph (who takes surprisingly little convincing) along with him. Their buddies also agree this is a good idea, despite the fact that they are aware how dangerous the situation is. I mean, they’re toting guns and blades around with them in order to defend themselves against mysterious, malevolent creatures.

    The grammar was just fucking awful. For example:

    “Him and his friend.”
    “All there was grass nothing more, nothing less.”
    “We gotta get out here NOW!”
    “If we come across one of these fuckers I’ll blow it’s head.”

    There are words missing all over the place, others are spelled incorrectly, and all in all the writing feels very juvenile. the author is also just plain lazy in places. For example:

    “(not sure what they are really called on a magnum.)”
    “they were most likely bone instead of whatever nails are made from.”

    You know what you do when you run into problems like this? You hop on over to Google and find the answers. It’s not good enough to say “Yeah, you know the thing? With the stuff? Know what I’m talking about? That thing.” Have some god damn respect for your readers.

    How exactly did the lack of light enable him to see scratches on the tree trunk? You realize that things don’t get easier to see in poor lighting, right? That’s not really how it works.

    The narrator doesn’t seem all that bummed to find out his friends are missing / dead / being held captive by horrific aliens. Nor does he appear to be bothered by the fact that Carl suddenly appears out of nowhere. Seeing as it’s really his fault they’re in danger, you’d think he’d express a hint of guilt for convincing them all to go on his retarded adventure in the first place. It sounds like he’s pretty ok with how things turned out, though.

  3. I couldn’t make it through the entire story, to be honest. I’m sorry. =/ I started reading the the first paragraph, then skipped ahead to see if it got more interesting, but it didn’t.

  4. dude its soooooooooooo fake!!!!!!!!!! dont tag it in based on a true story IF ITS FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    1. Sorry to break this to you buddy, but every story on this site is fake. That’s what fiction is, man. Just because it says “based on a true story” doesn’t mean it’s a true story. The author could’ve been in a forest and saw something weird and thought, “I should write a story based on the creepy thoughts of what the thing I just saw could be.” Or something like that.

  5. A good story but it was definitely mistagged. I laughed at how this is supposed to be true but if it was a logical person would’ve told the police to follow to the watchtower.

  6. This started well, and though it carried suspense, it was so poorly written it was hard to endure. You need to work on your grammar. And I don’t think you should have named the creatures.
    Lots of random, unnecessary detailing as well.
    Not a bad concept, just keep working on your skills and I’m sure you’ll have a good future pasta.

  7. … I thought this was supposed to be based on a true story. It is obvious to me that this is not the case. Also, the grammar, spelling and descriptions were poor. The story line, however, was intriguing… at least until the plot switch after the main character fell asleep.

  8. I really love the concept of your story here. The “creepy thing in the woods” stories always make for a great read! I particularly enjoyed the buddy adventure aspect of it. It really strikes a chord in all of us who have memories of childhood woodland exploration. That being said, I do have a few critiques to offer. First thing, the grammar errors were just way too loud to ignore. Even something as simple as comma placement can often make or break a story. In your descriptions, stating that something looks like something else “minus” something is never a good way to go. Stick to straight descriptions. Never assume your readers know what is in your mind or what “something else” looks like. For example, in your description of the monster’s “operating room” you say: “We went through a very weird hallway that looked like something like a hallway in an asylum and ended up in a room I could only call an operating room.” What does a hallway in an asylum look like? Without your description we are left with nothing to go on, except the fact that you wish us to visualize a hallway. And what makes an operating room? Why would your character call the room an operating room? My next critique is your description of the monster itself. It was both too descriptive and yet not descriptive enough. What I was left imagining was an amorphous humanoid monstrosity with backward claws on its hands. You gave just enough description for your readers to develop some sense of what it looked like, but not enough to fully develop a workable mental model. It’s very hard for readers to fully embrace your story when they are left with a mediocre description of the very cause of their horror. If your readers have to stop and think, ‘Wait, what the hell does this thing look like?’ then you’ve lost them. The second option you have is to keep your monsters in the dark, allowing very little, if any, direct description. I actually feel that this method makes for a more horrific story. Remember, the monsters we can’t see are always more horrifying than the ones we can. And now I’ve written much more than I intended to… I really did enjoy the story. My critiques are meant as helpful reminders, not jabs. Remember, polish, polish, polish! I very much look forward to your other works.

  9. Pros:
    Good story line
    Mostly well written
    Descriptions are pretty good

    Cons:
    Grammar*
    Many confusing scenes

  10. yea to tell you the thruth i didnt read it all the way threw cause it started to bore me but what i did read was rather enjoyable.

  11. HDXdub2K (2K-G)

    It was okay, but there’re some errors within this story. Over all, it was good. Keep up the good work…:D

  12. Really good story line. Being that I live in the woods the dark does make it creepy and gives good background. But if you really wanted to freak people make it as though the monster isn’t a boulder but a creature with a horrible facial feature now the classical description made it easy to imagine them wich to me is the who reason I love reading them keep up the good work bro it was fantastic.

  13. autumnenchanted

    I thought that was a great story,very suspenseful. The errors that these people are talking about in the comments just make the story seam more real to me and not made up. As if my friend is telling me a true scary story. I give it a thumbs up! :-)

  14. I feel like a decent idea was murdered by poor writing. This needed to be proofread, then proofread again, and finally one last proofread. Then you should have given it to a friend to proofread.

    Also, and I understand this is just personal preference, but you might want to reconsider first person. Your protagonist is a horrible story teller. I felt like I was a schoolmate of his and he was trying to fill me in on summer vacation between classes. Descriptions need variety.

    6/10

  15. ForeverMyMaster:
    I liked this in the beginning. Like really liked it, but it had a ton of useless information.

    What did the lack of knowledge of a .44 Magnum have to do with anything? Why are there so many characters? What was the point in telling us their jobs really? Like Mark being a wrestler and Austin being a body builder? Whyyyyyy?! Add that to the many grammatical errors, the fact that you never get a clear image of what the hell is going on with the “Wolverines”, ( I kept picturing a werewolf with long claws) and you are confused about what is happening. Main Character went from strapped to a table with an incision in his forehead and arm, to falling in a hole across the room and landing in water, to waking up in his house with mom cooking breakfast (with no clear transition between the two forcing me to believe that he never went into the watch tower to begun with) then as if that weren’t confusing enough, the wolverine is suddenly in the basement, creeping up the stairs, throwing the main character 30 feet who lands in a tree trunk. Somehow he has fuckin superpowers or some shit cause he survives that and rolls into a river which carries him to a shallow lakefront shore. The creature jumps into the lake and drowns. Then main character passes out from blood loss? Quite Realistic. Then Carl, who apparently was a childhood friend to Ralph, was missing a few days earlier? I thought he moved away during his childhood? If you meant Ralph, how could he have been missing for weeks if he lived with his parents

  16. I liked this in the beginning. Like really liked it, but it had a ton of useless information.

    What did the lack of knowledge of a .44 Magnum have to do with anything? Why are there so many characters? What was the point in telling us their jobs really? Like Mark being a wrestler and Austin being a body builder? Whyyyyyy?! Add that to the many grammatical errors, the fact that you never get a clear image of what the hell is going on with the “Wolverines”, ( I kept picturing a werewolf with long claws) and you are confused about what is happening. Main Character went from strapped to a table with an incision in his forehead and arm, to falling in a hole across the room and landing in water, to waking up in his house with mom cooking breakfast (with no clear transition between the two forcing me to believe that he never went into the watch tower to begun with) then as if that weren’t confusing enough, the wolverine is suddenly in the basement, creeping up the stairs, throwing the main character 30 feet who lands in a tree trunk. Somehow he has fuckin superpowers or some shit cause he survives that and rolls into a river which carries him to a shallow lakefront shore. The creature jumps into the lake and drowns. Then main character passes out from blood loss? Quite Realistic. Then Carl, who apparently was a childhood friend to Ralph, was missing a few days earlier? I thought he moved away during his childhood? If you meant Ralph, how could he have been missing for weeks if he lived with his parents

  17. This was confusing, scary, trilling kept me up all night, I still don’t know what to think the monsters are, was Carl or Ralph in a dream when he went home and the things took him? And grammar errs! Don’t forget that Carl and Ralph got switched half way through the story.

    But Other than that it was great and I loved it til It got confusing.

    Sincerley, XOXO_Anoymous.

  18. This was truely confusing me and you had way to many grammer errs. You really should have read through and made sure that no characters got mixed up, be because I think every one thinks that Ralph and Carl were swiched around half way into the confusing, scary, and weird story. And I don’t think this was ever based of a real story. 0: >-<

  19. ^ It’s not putting people down, its giving someone criticism so they can improve and have a better, more professional story next time. I’m sure most people want to improve, not stay mediocre.

  20. It’s all about what scares you. What makes you think a little more. Well done. Everyone is a critic but we all came here for the same reason, so why put people down?

  21. Really confusing. Uneccessary details and information. Could have worked harder on this, make the whole story shorter so you can add a better ending. To many characters for a short story like this. Should have gone through for mistakes you could have made it sound a lot better. Its hard to read, lost focus really fast I give it 4 out of 10

  22. A little proofreading would have saved you a lot of trouble. Poor descriptions, poor character decisions. A solid concept though! Keep at it.

  23. Started scary but soon got ridiculous and the ending was bad. Also throughout the story there were unnecessary bits of information.

  24. How did he go from sleeping on a shore to flying through the air and hitting a tree? Did the Wolverine throw him 30 feet? If so, you might want to add a note about how he has super powers, to survive such a thing.

    Also, if he’s curious, did he never try to talk about it with any of the other people that were with him? It seems odd that he’s curious when he could have just asked, so a clarification about what happened with their relationships would be nice.

    And while I can ignore the poor grammar, your descriptions need work; I don’t really have a clear mental image of the Wolverines due to vague and possibly conflicting accounts. What exactly do you mean by ‘claws but with the sharp side on top’, to paraphrase your description? And they’re humanoid, only a couple feet taller than humans but with legs easily 5-10 times as thick? That definitely needs explained or fixed; are they extremely squat and broad, or is the ‘thick as a car tire’just hyperbolic? It might seem nitpicky, but having a mental image is key to having fear.

    Plot holes and poor explanations aside, it was a pretty intriguing concept, and the story makes for a good base to expand upon the Wolverines. I’m really curious as to what they are, and what they’re doing, so job well done on that part.

  25. Wow! Really good pasta. Didnt get as much love in terms of ratings as I saw fair but very very good work. My only knock on this pasta is the numerous grammer errors…but other than that great concept and great story. One of the best in my opinion.

  26. It was a good plot and a really good pasta. But it did have missing words, and grammatical errors. Keep on improving doctor.

  27. While I’m not an avid pasta reader, I felt like this one really had potential! In the beginning it really kept me on the edge of my seat, but the further I got into the story the more confused I became. It could’ve used a bit more to describe the environment transaction. Also was he dreaming when he returned home? At what point did it cut off into a dream verses reality? Did that mean he wad ever really in the watch tower? Nonetheless, aside from maybe needing a proof read or two, it was a pretty good story. 5.5/10

    1. Eh, it’s pretty obvious to me that it was just a dream. I mean he does say that he passed out on the shore, then I suppose one of the creatures found his body and decided to throw it for some reason, and then he woke up mid-flight.

  28. I loved this pasta. The only thing that threw off the ending that was so small and minuscule and kind of stupid is that the last sentence could have used a comma. Like: Well that is, unless they’ve learned how to swim since then. I don’t know why, it was really small little grammar error, but commas do matter, like, um: Let’s eat, grandma!
    Or then: Let’s eat grandma!
    You get what I mean?
    But other than that I loved it, it’s really good, but it could have used a bit more detail on what happened to his friends. But other than that, it was good.

  29. tbh this pasta really boreed me, some parts felt like they were written like a 5 year old, but hey that’s just my opinion

  30. Master of death

    Material from which nails are made is called as keratin. The skinfold like ear cavity is called tympanum.. Lastly what i didn’t get is that when the moster came to your house was it a dream or was for real?

  31. There were mistakes all over the place. And. I thought Carl moved away much earlier than this? Overall though, it was pretty good.

  32. Aside from a good many grammatical errors, I found it rather enjoyable and read the whole thing through.

    One thing… that “ringing” in your ears your “brain makes when there is no sound to be heard,” is tinnitus, and means you have hearing damage.

  33. This concept I think could have been executed better. I was left ultimately confused as to the intentions of the creatures; malicious or unknowingly harmful? Were they torturing or experimenting? Elaborating would really set this story apart from generic “aliens abduct me” pastas. There were a decent amount of grammatical errors and awkward syntax. Notably the details sometimes bordered on tedious; for example the narrator mentioning they didn’t know what a .44 magazine is called contributed nothing to the story. Also, calling the aliens wolverines was kind of distracting; I kept visualizing a literal wolverine rather than an alien. The overarching motif is the extraterrestrial so making them resemble Earthly creatures subtracted from that. Smaller detail: how in the world did Ralph and the narrator convince others to bring guns and knives into a forest searching for aliens? It would seem best to just leave them out. And I’m sure the narrator would know soon if his friends were missing.
    Also….if I came across a terrifying monster with deadly talons clearly trying to get me, I’d stay the fuck away from there. To hell with closure.
    Sorry for the length….I just think some reworking would make for a very nice read! =)

  34. Nice idea, but horrible writing.
    Your writing needs a bit work.
    Your comparisons are awful and you use “like”, “or so” and so way to much. Ruined it for me.

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