Haunted: A Collection of Scary Short Stories

It Follows

Author's note: This story comes from Reddit, posted by Reddit user ghostly_wanderer and the link to the post can be found at the bottom of the story.

Since I was a little, I loved the forests and have always been fascinated with everything about it and everything that lived within it. However, it wasn't until recently that I have become absolutely terrified of the forest, more of the things it conceals and my main reason for posting is to get this off my chest to people who will listen and won't tell me I'm crazy. The plain and simple fact is: I'm scared. I'm absolutely horrified by what I have been seeing and I have no one to tell who will believe me and no idea what to do.

I don't know what this thing is, but I've seen it several times throughout my life and every time I see it...it seems like it gets closer to me and I know it's the same thing I keep seeing because it's so distinct and it's not something anyone could easily forget.

The thing I'm referring to takes the form of a dog, wolf, or coyote of some kind. Only, this creature is distorted in a way that I can't explain as something natural. Let me start with describing it's body. It's body, from a distance, looks like a dog's body, but skinny and elongated and it has human like characteristics. The limbs that sprout from it's trunk are dog-like, but they're long and skinny. Too long and skinny to look like a normal dog, a half-starved dog, or anything natural to begin with. It's limbs were at least twice the length of my German shepherd's, and he's even considered tall for a dog. It has no tail and the fur was thin, patchy, and matted to the bony body of the creature. Then there's the face...it's face is something that haunts me and makes my stomach turn. It has a thin, short dog-like snout with a human like shape, and tiny eyes that appear sunken into it's head and also human like in a way.

The first time I saw this creature was during my childhood, I was maybe 9 or 10, while out on a hike with my grandparents. We were deep in a national park when I noticed something moving from the corner of my eye. I was excited to be out in the forest and in my excitement I ra a little ways ahead of my grandparents, so far ahead that I couldn't hear or see them behind me. I did know from my grandpa that if you saw an animal that you should respect it's space and leave it be, so I tried to do just that. The only thing was, something didn't feel right and I felt this overwhelming sense of unease the moment I saw it. I wasn't close enough to see specific details, but I remember noticing it was taller than a normal wolf or coyote and it walked with this limp and it looked like it was on two legs. I could be mistaken, but that's what it looked like.

The second time I saw it I wasn't alone and I actually have people to back me up on this. My friends and I were out for a drive one night and I was 20 at the time. It was late out and we were driving around in the middle of nowhere. Where we're from is heavily forested and of course.. it's dark. We were driving down a stretch of road about 11:30 or midnight, listening to music, and talking about the shit show that work was that night. Everything was fine until I realized that we were lost and we were in an area with little or no cellphone service. I didn't want to keep driving and continue to get lost so I pulled over onto the side of the road while we tried to figure out where we were and how to get back home.

While we were focused on that, my friend in the front seat said he thought he saw something in the trees beside us and I told him to shut up and to stop trying to scare us. But, the thing was he was serious and I could tell he was starting to get scared. That's when I put down my phone and looked up trying to see if I could see something too and honestly I wish I didn't because what came out of the woods seconds after I started to scan my surroundings scared me half to death. This dog-like creature stepped out from the trees and into the light of the headlights on these long thin legs, it's head hanging, and fur patchy and rotted looking. The eyes on this thing looked cold and dead, like it was distorted walking roadkill. All three of us were horrified and I froze in panic and my friends were screaming for me to drive as it stared at us with those dead human like eyes.

When I drove off we watched it disappear into the darkness behind the car and I haven't been down that country road since.

The third time was earlier today, actually. It was in the early evening and I had just gotten home from work. My house is positioned at the edge of a camp ground so there's no shortage of trees and there's always a woodland visitor or two taking a stroll through my yard or a neighbor's yard. I usually expect to see a deer or fox passing by, but I didn't expect to see this creature again and especially not so close to home.

I was walking up to my front door and something moving caught my eye. I always get excited to see an animal, but what I saw made my blood run cold. Crouching under the cover of trees was the creature I'd seen twice before. It still looked sick and skinny, it's fur was patchy and matted, it had that familiar distorted looking face that looked more human than dog in the light, and it's eyes were watching me. It stayed a good 100 feet from where I stood and I couldn't get inside fast enough.

I have no idea what this thing is and I'm terrified. It gets closer every time I see it and I don't know what it's capable of.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/bpmeuc/it_keeps_following_me_and_it_gets_closer_every/