goatmen

   It was the last summer that we all had together. We being me and my small group of friends from high school. There was me, my boyfriend, and four of our mutual friends. So things don't get confusing I'm going to call my boyfriend Lee. My four friends can be Ally, Harris, Landon, and Kathy.

    It was originally me and my boyfriend's plan, just the two of us going up to his parent's summer house in a nice rural area. Our friends got wind of it, and we decided to let them in on the fun so we could all do one more fun thing together before we all went to different universities.
    The summer home was really pretty, very rustic. It had big, open windows lining all the walls, so during the day turning on lights wasn't necessary. There were no electronics, but entertainment wasn't an issue because there was a lake not far from the place and we had each other.

    We made sure everyone had a few days free from work and whatnot, and we took off, packing up our big comfy pillows and blankets, stuff for smores, hot dogs, and a hatchet for firewood. We took Harris' rig up, a clunker of a van, because it had the most room. It had rained the day before and the dirt driveway leading to the summer home was all muddy and shit, so we decided to just leave the car and carry our stuff up to the house.

    Once we got inside, we pretty much just dumped all our stuff on the floor of the living room. We wanted to get down to the lake while the water was still warm, the sun was going to set soon and we wanted as much time in the lake as possible. There wasn't a lot of people there, just a two old guys with their kids fishing out in a boat.

    Everyone was in the water at one point except for Harris and Landon, who were just chilling on the dock. We are all just having fun fighting over an inflatable raft when Landon yelled "Hey, there's someone in the woods!" I propped myself up on the raft and saw what appeared to be a half naked dude standing in the woods a little ways away from us. I can't really remember facial features, but I do remember his eyes. They were very dark and glittering, they kind of reminded me of a fox or something. From what I remember he was tanned and had black hair, he was obviously Aboriginal. Most of all though, I remember his eyes. They seemed to shine, kind of like those pictures you see of animals and their eyes glow from the camera flash.

    I assumed he was a swimmer, maybe with the old guys who were there early. I yelled at him and asked if he wanted to join us, but he just stood there stiffly, didn't move, it would almost be like he didn't even notice us if it wasn't for the fact we was staring right at us...
    I remember Lee yelled at him if he was okay, but he still didn't answer. Harris is a big guy, a big irritable guy. He shouted at the guy to "stop standing in the fucking woods like a pervert." The guy still didn't react, just stood there with only beige shorts on. Lee thought maybe he was on drugs or something, he got really uncomfortable and suggested we leave. I agreed fully, the guy was really creeping us all out. We clambered out of the lake, wrapped ourselves up in towels, and headed on our way.

    The trail back the summer house was uphill, and gave us a good vantage point on the guy. He was still standing down by the lake, still stiff and awkward looking, except his head was turned as far as it could be to the side watching us. Landon is skittish as all hell and started cursing and telling us to go faster. Harris said he was "probably just retarded or something" and if he attacked we could take him.

    We all went inside the summer house, under the guise of wanting to organize our stuff we dumped on the floor, but I think we just didn't want to go outside while that guy was still poking around. We do all we can do inside, and it's starting to get dark out. Ally volunteers to go outside with Landon to go dig a fire pit, and Harris tags along. Lee says he's going to go out in the woods to get some dead branches and stuff with his hatchet and I go with him. Kathy said she'll look for kindling, but I think she was still kind of freaked out.

    Anyway, me and Lee are out in the woods. He's getting some firewood and sticks to roast food on. I'm stuck carrying the wood since he's the one cutting. The mosquitoes are eating us alive, and all I hear is buzzing. But the buzzing keeps getting louder, and louder, and louder, until it feels like my skull is vibrating, I can't see and my teeth are chattering. Eventually it gets so bad that I drop the firewood and swat around my head, but that does nothing, so I just put my hands over my ears, but it feels like my hands are shaking too.

    It's then I notice I lost sight of Lee. I shout out to him, and as soon as the shout leaves my lips, I'm overcome with a violent stench. I can't even begin to describe it, it was so rancid and foul. Imagine if someone found decaying roadkill and decided to leave it in a barrel for a week with some feces. Now imagine them holding your face to the barrel and opening it, and you might get an idea of the smell.

    I put my hands over my nose, it took all my willpower to not hurl. I start heading back to the house when I catch someone out of the corner of my eye. It's Lee. I feel really relieved to see him and start to walk towards him, about to make a joke about how he tried to ditch me, but he doesn't really react. He just stands stiffly without any real emotion in his face. His face is slack, like he's forgotten how to smile or make any emotion for that matter. His posture isn't relaxed like usual, he likes tense, like all his muscles had cramps in them. My smile drops from my face, and he lets out a wheezing gasping noise, his shoulders convulsing up and down, it seems like he's trying to laugh but it just comes out as a strange mockery. I felt so fucking terrified, I turned on my heel, and it seemed all my time on the track team payed off. I was running and jumping over branches, and the buzzing returned, joined by the frail wheezing noise.

    I burst out of the treeline and bump directly into Kathy, after what felt like an eternity. I remember she said "woah, what happened?" but I was panting and shaking too much to answer. She brought me over the the campfire which was started, and sat me next to Lee. He put his arm around my waist and started to pick the twigs out of my hair.
    "What happened?" he had asked. I looked at him, confused and angry. "What do you mean? You left me in the woods!" He seemed perplexed. He then explained that he saw me clear as day heading back towards the house, and he followed me back, wondering what was going on. When he got back he said he didn't see me anywhere, and the others didn't see me leave the woods. They were just going to look for me when I burst through the treeline, after apparently running a marathon.

    "What happened, anyway?" asked Landon. "Did you see a bear?" I wasn't sure if I was going crazy or not, but I was sure I saw Lee. Now that I was back to relative safety, I was began to doubt myself. But I told them anyway, told them about the buzzing and how I thought I saw Lee. Ally said maybe I was just tired, and Harris agreed mumbling about "mumbo jumbo."

    We decided to try to relax and make some smores. It was pretty dark by this time, and the atmosphere seemed more lighthearted. We were all reminiscing about old times and getting sticky from marshmellow goo. Landon took out his harmonica and started doing this funny old blues guy impression he does. I was content and was just laying on Lee's lap listening to everyone's banter, just kind of zoned out, when Landon stopped playing his harmonica.

    Everyone looked at him expectantly, no matter how tired everyone was we could depend on Landon to be goofy. But now he was sitting still as a statue, peering into the woods. "Guys, I think there's a coyote or a fox or something in there." Lee is a country guy and is used to little critters like that, so he seemed unmoved. He told Landon that it probably just smelled our food and would be easy to chase off. "Yeah, but this one looked... big? It's eyes are high off the ground. I think." I feel myself tense up, thinking back to the woods, and Lee snaps at Landon, tells Landon that he isn't being funny and that he's scaring me. I tell him it's okay, but I ask Landon to stop. Landon looks at me and swears that he isn't kidding, with no trace of his usual smart ass smirk. He says maybe we should go inside, in case it has rabies or something.

    We leave the fire going, and go inside the house, intending to go outside again after awhile. There's a few couches in the living room, which faces out a big window towards our fire, so we all sit there to keep an eye on it. Harris growls at Landon that he "better not be messing around" but Landon swears up and down that he isn't. We sit around for awhile, our feeling of lightheartedness gone. The fire starts to burn low, when we see it. Kathy lets out a nervous squeak and gasps "eyes!"

    Two glowing eyes can be seen in the woods, the light of the fire making them burn bright. Slowly, a shadowy figure makes it's way out and towards the campfire. As it steps into the light, we notice it's the Aboriginal man from before. He moves forward slowly, like a wolf circling prey and crouches down by the fire. On closer inspection, we notice he has no shoes and what we though was beige shorts was actually some kind of skin wrapped around his waist. I hear Harris mutter "are you serious?" and I feel Lee's sweaty hand slide into my own. Ally whispers timidly "he could be mentally ill" to which Landon replies "Jesus fuck."

    The man paws around our stuff, and goes to where Landon was sitting. I see the man reach for something on the ground, and his movements seem robot like. Like he doesn't know how to extend his arms properly. I see a something glint in his hand and my first though was "Oh God, he has a knife?"
    But then I hear a long, high pitched note of a harmonica. Landon makes a weird gulping noise, like he wants to laugh and cry at the same time. The man blows into the harmonica again, holding the same high pitched note for about 20 or so seconds. He makes a few more circles around the campfire, his dark eyes still glowing. He stops for a moment and looks into the window. He stands there for a good five seconds before heading back to the woods.

    None of us dare to speak. None of us move, but I can feel Lee's heart pounding beside me and I hear Harris breathe a shuddering breath behind me and that tells me enough. I'm not the only one who is fucking terrified.

    "Okay, what is that dude's deal?" Landon asks weakly. Ally repeats he could have a mental illness, but she is met by silence. Kathy looks extra nervous, she has her knees pulled up to her chin and she's shivering. I ask her if she's okay. She starts to rub her eyes and her cheeks turn pink, like they always do when she's about to cry. "I'm sorry, you guys. I'm sorry. I should have mentioned it earlier. I saw that guy earlier when we were walking up the driveway, but I didn't mention it, I didn't know, I didn't know-" and she breaks off into tears repeating her mantra of I didn't know.

    Harris pats her awkwardly on the head and tells her she doesn't need to apologize for not assuming every half naked guy in the woods is a creep. She shakes her head viciously and she begins to ramble on about old Navajo legends and beliefs. She tells us how she's scared and thinking of how her mother would tell her old stories of yee naaldlooshi. Ally told her to be quiet and that she was only scaring herself.
    Lee goes through his bag and gives her his bottle of water. He covers her with a feathery blanket and tells her that she's okay.

    The fire is nearly burned out, and we decide we won't be going out to it anymore that night. Harris and Lee go outside to grab our flashlights and things we left out in our hurry to get indoors without incident, unless you count a light drizzle an incident. "It's not all bad, at least with the rain we don't need to worry about catching the whole place on fire," Ally remarks.

    We pull the cushions of the couches, which apparently double as beds. I'm in one bed with Lee beside me, and Landon on the other side of him. Ally, Kathy, and Harris are in the other bed and Ally and Harris seemed to have made a protective barrier around Kathy. The sleeping arrangements are more cramped than what we intended, but we didn't want to separate.

    I guess I fell asleep at some point, because a loud clap of thunder woke me up. It was raining pretty hard now, the rain was coming down sideways like a thick sheet. "Hey, is anyone awake?" I whisper but no one replies. There's a flash of thunder and I can make out Ally, Kathy, and Harris' sleeping forms. Lee has his arms around me, and I pull the blanket up over his shoulders and snuggle in closer.

    Another flash of lighting. And I see it. Those two, green-yellow orbs lit up in the darkness, standing right at the huge, ground level window. The house goes dark again, but the light of those orbs are burnt into my retinas, and it seems everywhere I look for a couple seconds, the orbs are there. Another flash of lightning, and I see the man walking along the side of the window. It goes dark again, then bright, and now he's outside the window at my feet. I nudge Lee awake, and tell him not to move. That the man is circling the house. He shushes me and kisses my ear, and the lighting flashes again. The man has made a full circle and is to my left again. "I think he's trying to get a rise out of us," Lee whispers. I ask him what we should do. "Stay still, I guess. If he gets in, I have my buck knife under the pillow."

    Landon shifts beside us groggy, and moans "keep it down, lovebirds, I'm trying to sleep." I tell Landon he's an idiot and that the man is outside, and he groans. Landon and Lee have their eyes shut, I think. Mine are opened to slits, and the room lights up again. That's when I notice it. The fucker is inside. I guess Landon didn't have his eyes shut, because we scream at the same time. Lee sits up, holding his buck knife. "Listen, we don't want trouble. Just leave us alone, don't make me do anything crazy."

    The man is moving slowly forward, eyes glittering in the darkness, Lee staying still, unable to see in the darkness. The man opens and closes his mouth a couple times a in a choking growl says "Trouble. Trouble." His voice doesn't sound right, it gives me a sick, sinking feeling inside. It sounds like a scratchy record, maybe like a parrot or something. The room lights up again, and the man is nowhere to be see. Harris and the others are sitting up now, bewildered, Lee is on his feet pulling on a shirt.

    "The fucker's in here!" he brandishes his knife around. "We need to leave!" My eyes are starting to adjust, and I see the shape of Ally tilt her head. "It's dark as shit and piss pouring rain."
    Harris is on his feet now, reaching around in the darkness for a flashlight. "I think he's the one that needs to leave," he growls, and he makes his way to the kitchen, hatchet in hand. Lee follows closely behind, and, noticing they took all the weapons, the rest of us follow, Kathy sticking to me like glue. "This is what it wants," she mutters. "It's a game." We check the house, upstairs, every room, every closet, and we don't find anything. We all returned to the living room after that, trying to decide what to do. "It's gonna be morning soon." Harris says. "We'll leave as soon as the sun comes out."

    I didn't want to stay there any longer, but blundering down the long, muddy driveway in the darkness was not an attractive option either. We all settled back in. I think we all got scattered sleep except for Lee, who sat up the whole night "keeping watch". Every time I drifted off I found myself jolting awake again. Eventually, the sun rose, and the outside was bright and pink.

    We hurriedly shoved our crap in our bags. My bladder felt like it was going to burst, and when everyone went outside, I asked Kathy to come to the side of the house with me to pee, because I was not going back in the house. She still looked traumatized, her dark skin looking pale, and she hugged her own shoulders. I squatted down to pee by the house, and told her not to look. She didn't reply, but I didn't expect her to. I finished and stood back up, and I told her to come. She stood still, her arms crossed, looking at the ground.

    "Come on, I urged." I started towards the others, peering around the corner. Cathy was with the others, sitting on the stairs. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach, and turned around to see the Cathy doppelganger, her arms wrapped around her shuddering shoulders. She lifted her upper lift in a weird sort of smile and sighed heavily, mouth opening and closing. Her breath hit me and I smelt the repugnant scent from before. I choked, and she backed slowly towards the treeline, staring into my eyes not blinking. She choked out the words "come on!" in that strange, animal voice. During the "on" the voice changed into something that sounded like a fox, and she vanished into the underbrush.

    I guess that's pretty much it. We rushed to the van, loaded our shit, and high tailed out of there, trying to ignore this disgusting aroma that seemed to followed us and a strange voice croaking "lover birds!"

    Nothing terrible happened after we left, no strange twist. A lot of nightmares of that thing, me waking up to see it outside my window or at the end of my bed. I'm not in contact with Ally anymore. Kathy stays at home, never did go to uni to get her degree. Landon changes the subject if anyone brings it up and Harris just gets mad. Lee will listen to me when I wake up in a cold sweat. He did talk about being on watch during one occasion, but you can tell he wants to pretend nothing happened. That isn't to say I'm overly eager to discuss it, I'm all for forgetting about the whole incident.








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In the summer of 2010 I ended up in Hardinsburg, Kentucky for my grandmother's funeral.
The only other time I had been up there was when I had been younger, and it was so that my grandfather could be the priest for my dads current marriage.

Anyways, I was in Kentucky for 5 or 6 days and spent every night at my cousin/aunt's ( I am not really sure which she is) house. Of the grandchildren who were "grown up" I was the youngest and ended up on babysitting duty for the majority of the time up there. I stayed in a little trailer at the top of a hillock along with a bunch of my younger cousins.

During the day everyone would go over to my granddads and leave me there with the kids, and then come home for a few hours and put the kids to bed before heading back out to go and do god knows what.

I stayed up pretty late on the last night we were there. The kids were in bed and I had the place to myself for quite awhile so I figured I would go and sit on the porch enjoying a cigarette. As I walked out the door there was this god awful stench. It was a metallic/shitty smell that is really hard to describe, but I am sure if you have smelt it you know what I am saying. It was just this gross ass stench that hit me like a ton of bricks when I got outside. I started gagging and walked down the stairs of the trailer thinking I would get some fresh air off the porch. As I got down I saw in the moonlight what looked like one of my younger cousins, Aiden.

He was just kind of standing there, with his back to me a good 50 ft away from the trailer. I yelled out to the little kid that he needed to get back inside or his momma would flay him alive, but he just kept standing there. I kept hollering and walked up to him and as I got closer i noticed he seemed kind of.. off. He was standin, but he had his knees bent at weird angles to each other and his head was cocked to the side a little. I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around. Aiden had this crazy, manic smile on his face and sweat was just pouring off of his little forehead. He started shaking and it took me a moment to realize that he was laughing cus no sound was coming out. I tried to pick him up and carry him inside so I could look at him in some decent light and make sure he was okay, but he must have back-stepped as I tried to get him.

I snatched at him again, and I caught him and he just started screaming in this really freaky guttural voice I didnt think he could make. It was just way too deep and gruff for a 5 year old to make. While he was screaming, he was also flailing his arms and legs around. He ended up making contact with my groin so i dropped him, and he ran off towards the trailer. I sat there hunched over for a moment getting some air before Running up after him.

He was gone when I looked up, so I ran inside hoping he would be waiting for me in the living room. Well, he wasnt but after some looking around, I found him passed out in the top bunk of his bunk bed.

I was confused as shit, but I wasnt going to wake him up and I just decided I would let his Mom kno wabout it when she got home.

When my aunt got home a few hours later I told her about it, and she woke Aiden up to ask about it. He had No clue whatsoever what we were talking about and we ended up sending him back to bed after giving im some juice.

My aunt thinks I must have had some crazy vivid dream and made it up, but the next morning while I was loading my stuff up into the truck, I smelt that gross smell and I would have sworn I saw Aiden darting underneath the trailer. Had he not walked out the frfont door a split second later along with the rest of the family I would have chased after him, but I just told myself I was imaining things, and didnt say anything to my family.