The world is filled with tales of strange creatures that share this world with us. Myths, legends, tall tales, and urban legends. Stories told around a campfire at night to a disbelieving audience. Despite all the stories, most people seem to dismiss them. Occasionally something turns out to be true, like the giant squids. But in a era of cameras and phones everywhere, it seems hard to believe any of the bizarre could be out there unrecorded. Maybe in the depths of the ocean or the most isolated spots in the Amazon. But not around civilization. Not in the places humans call home.

I used to believe the same. I used to be a skeptic who didn’t believe in anything that didn’t have a scientific article behind it. I wish that were still true. Because ever since I found out about what really exists out there, I haven’t had a night of good sleep.

Let me explain. I’m not putting my name out there, but you can call me Robin for convenience, and I was born in a small town twenty-two years ago. I won’t say what it’s called or where it is. It’s not my place to give away the information of others. Suffice to say it was an ordinary town surrounded by thick forests, endless meadows, and giant farms hosting God knows how many cows. My childhood was dull and uneventful. I got a normal family with my two siblings and a small neighborhood with just enough kids to have play dates with. I didn’t have many friends, and my relationships with my siblings were strained, but I wasn’t lonely much. After high school I went to a big city university, got a degree in something I’ll probably never use, and made my parents proud.

My parents had messaged me less and less over my four years at college, and the last two years they got me an apartment that I stayed in over the summers as well. Any time we got together those last two years they came to me. I didn’t think much of it; I was never the most observant when it came to people. It was when I decided to go home the summer after my degree that they panicked. They didn’t ban me from coming home, but they hinted I should stay away. I came anyway. It hurt that it seemed they didn’t want me at home. Now I know they were protecting me.

That’s when it all started.

The first thing I noticed was the emptiness. My hometown was never the liveliest place, and it had its fair share of poverty, but the people there were happy for the most part. Kids hanged out, adults went to the bar, and people enjoyed their honest work. It was dull to me, but to those who like the quiet life it was a lovely place. You could always see people walking around what passed for the downtown, and the hot spots for getting together usually had people there. None of that was the case now.

Everywhere was all but deserted. Employees that used to wave hello stayed inside. The hang outs were empty, and even the bar only had a small handful of drunks. From the moment I crossed the county line to when I pulled into the driveway the number of people I saw not working could be counted on one hand, even though it was a Saturday afternoon. I found it a bit odd, but I was focused on getting home.

As I parked in my driveway, I noticed the second odd thing. Most of the neighborhood had overgrown grass. The once neat lawns were filled with weeds, and some of the dry grass was reaching the height of my knees. That got me suspicious, it being a sacred American tradition to keep your front lawns as neat and green as possible. I looked past it in my excitement to get home.

I knocked on my door. I heard footsteps and then I saw my mother look through the bedroom window next to the entrance hallway, peaking at me. That was the third odd thing. As long I have lived at my home my parents have never checked who was at the door before opening it. Around here, only a few paranoid people did. That did get my nervous attention. Had something happened? A burglary, perhaps? Whatever the reason, she gave a look of what almost seemed like fear before closing the blinds and walking to the front hallway.

The door unlocked and opened. My parents were both standing there, and for a moment I saw sadness on their faces. Then they both hugged me and my problems were forgotten.

I won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say the next few hours were what you’d expect from a family reunion. Lots of catching up and tearful hugs and a happy dinner, when we weren’t busy getting my things in order. The whole time my parents seemed somewhat subdued, but when I asked them what was wrong, they insisted everything was fine. I didn’t believe them, but I didn’t push it. Nothing interesting happened until after dark when my parents and siblings went to sleep and I stayed up in my room for a couple of hours reading a book.

It started with a light. A bright white speck appeared in my window, casting a glare through that disturbed me while reading with only my nightstand light on. After a couple of minutes of the irritation I got up to close the blinds in my room. That’s when I saw the light outside the window. It was in the distance just above my backyard, and I couldn’t make out what it was. All I could tell was that it was all but blinding when I looked directly at it. I made to close the blinds, but before I fully closed then I saw the light get bigger.

No, not bigger. Closer. It must have been in the neighbors' large cattle farm to the back of our neighborhood, and it was slowly approaching. As it did the light began to change color, flickering from white to blue to yellow and then back again. And it became to dance, the ball twisting from side to side and floating in circles. I should have closed the blinds and been done with it. But I couldn’t. I was mesmerized. I lost all thought as I spaced out, seeing double as the light danced differently in each eye.

I started to hear a whispered chanting, too soft to make out the words. There were at least two voices, maybe three. Their voices were harsh, growling like the wind. As the light got bigger the voices got louder, until their chant was also being screamed in my ears. But they never changed from a whisper, and no matter how close it got I couldn’t understand anything they said.

The lights blinded my entire field of sight, the chant thundered into my ears. I saw nothing else, heard nothing else. It became everything. Then I blacked out and remembered nothing.

The next moment I was conscious, I was alone a meadow with flowers and grass up to my waist. I felt rather than saw that, because it was near midnight in the middle of nowhere with only the moon and stars to illuminate the earth. I don’t know if you’ve ever been far from civilization at night, but if you have you know it’s all but impossible to see anything. So I had no way to see more than the nearby field and didn’t hear anything except for distant crickets. And I was utterly alone, with nothing on me but my clothes.

I tried to stay calm. My breath heightened and I felt dizzy, but I forced myself to focus. It wasn’t too cold out and I wasn’t going to freeze. And in the darkness I’d have no idea where I was going, whether I was getting closer or farther to people. If I stayed where I was until morning I could use the daylight to navigate back to someplace I knew, or at least a road I could follow. So I sat down and did my best to avoid panicking.

Somewhere to the far front of me I heard rustling through the grass. I figured it was the wind, although I felt no breeze. Then I heard footsteps. Loud, slow footsteps. Each one was a few seconds apart, and as they got louder, closer, the ground began to tremble.

I panicked. I got up and ran to my back, not caring where I might arrive but only concerned with escaping whatever was causing those footsteps. I stumbled and tripped in a few places, earning me scratches around my ankles. I didn’t care. All I needed was to run. But no matter how fast I ran the footsteps just got louder. They never stepped up their cadence, yet they shrunk the distance to me. I admit, at this point I was crying. I had only faced situations like this in my nightmares.

Suddenly the field brightened, and behind me I saw a white light. It didn’t move or change colors, but somehow I could tell it was the same light from my bedroom window. The whispers returned, this time not in tune with each other but each shrieking. Each scream sent a white bolt of pain through my head. I turned around again and the light was a little closer. I started to yell for help.

“Oh God, someone help me!” Not original, but it was hardly the time for originality. From behind I heard what sounded like laughter, but in a deep, inhuman voice. I looked back and the light couldn’t have been more than thirty feet away. The next time I looked twenty-five. Then twenty. I wailed into the night for help.

Ahead of me I heard new noises, and I saw a second light from close by. I stopped running for a second before sprinting to my left in the now neck high grass. Almost as soon as I switched I ran right into a third light.

It was a flashlight. Behind it was a man I recognized. I’ll call him Jim, and he was the owner of a farm inside the county but a few miles outside town. He leaned down and offered a hand.

“Run, now!” he yelled. I got up and followed him. The second light was the flashlight of his wife, who had brought a large cow by a rope around the neck. She threw the rope down and together the three of us ran. I heard a loud crack not even ten feet behind me and I looked back. I wish I hadn’t.

Some...thing more than ten feet tall was standing right behind me. In front of it was a light, attached to a long antenna hanging in front of its face. Its face was made of what looked like meat and bones mashed together. It had no eyes, no nose, no ears. It had only a massive mouth hanging open in a mocking grin. Shattered bones served as teeth, going back into the darkness at the back of its mouth. And its body was the same. Like raw meat and crunched bones all mashed together and packed tightly enough to allow for support. With one hand it grabbed the cow and lifted it up. Its head leaned forward and ripped the head right off. The cow gave a loud grunt of fear before its head was shattered, and the only sound was the flesh and bones being ripped apart. With both hands it lifted the cow up above its head and tore it in half. Blood and guts fell down onto its face, and with a serpentine tongue it licked it clean. Then it brought the cow parts in its left hand forward and began eating again.

“Come one, we have to go!” Jim shouted. I realized I had been standing there in shock. I stumbled forward, turning slowly away from the thing, and began running as fast as I could. After a while the footsteps started up again in the distance, but we had gained ground. Ahead I saw the porch light of what I assumed to be Jim’s house. The three of us ran in before his wife slammed the door. I stopped to catch my breath and noticed all of the windows were shut in their house. Not only that, but every light was on and the TV was blaring noise. I could hear the footsteps no more.

“Are…are we s-safe?” I asked.

“As safe as we can be now,” Jim replied. “For some reason most of these things don’t come in homes. They’ll snatch you right up if you look outside though. How’d you get there in the middle of our field anyways?”

I explained to them everything I could. They seemed unsurprised by any of it, although they did look understandingly as I described my panic. While I did this Jim made me a cup of hot coffee, which I thanked him for. After I was done explaining it was their turn.

Dark things had begun to haunt the night a few years ago, they said. At first it was all rumors and tall tales few believed. Stories of being stranded in the dark (Sleepwalking they thought) or seeing things creep along the farm to steal their cattle (coyotes or other predators they thought). Then a couple of years ago the first death occurred. Some man named Darren I had only heard of was found ripped into five pieces outside his home along the sidewalk. The concrete was cracked next to him. People thought a serial killer was on the loose, but over the next few weeks disappearances and murdered corpse appeared all over the county. More people reported seeing things outside in the night. And slowly but surely, people realized the night was haunted.

Now nobody went outside when it seemed dark. People rarely went out in the day other than for necessities either, after a couple of children disappeared in broad daylight. People tried to get the word out, but nothing worked. No cameras or phones worked near anything odd, and any online mentions were quickly deleted or lost to the depths of the internet. The people of my home county were isolated, scared, and dying. And now I was living with them.

That morning Jim drove me to my parents' house, who had already called the police. Everything got under control, and I calmed down once I reached family in the daytime. But it hasn’t stopped the nightmares. Ever since I got back these past months things have been horrifying. I even tried to move back to my apartment first before finding out my landlord was evicting me. I’m searching for a new home, but who knows when that will work out. In the meantime I’ve done odd jobs around town and asked more questions. Whatever was out there-and I heard a lot of ideas-terrified me, but it also intrigued me. God forbid I be interested in something normal.

I think I know what these things are. They are the creatures of legends, of myths and urban legends and spiritual traditions long since lost. The things that make us feel weak and alone. The things that remind us we are not in control. I think they are coming back. Or maybe they never left and were just hiding or living elsewhere. But they were back in my home now, and everyone I loved was in danger.

I don’t know if anything is happening where you live. Maybe we’re alone in this, maybe we aren’t. But if you’re luckier than us, just remember this the next you go somewhere alone in the dark: We are not alone anymore.

Edit: part 2