I need to tell someone about this. This happened back in 2003, when I was living alone on five acres outside of Whitehall, Montana. I'd just gone through a divorce and wanted space, you know? Somewhere quiet where I could clear my head. The property was perfect. Old farmhouse, nearest neighbor about two miles down the road. Just me and the trees. I'd been there about three months when I started noticing things. Small things at first. My dog wouldn't go out after dark anymore. She'd stand at the back door, whining, but she wouldn't step outside. This was a German Shepherd who'd never been afraid of anything. I figured maybe there were coyotes around, or a bear. Then I started finding footprints in the yard. Right outside my bedroom window, in the dirt where I'd planted some flowers. They were shaped like human footprints, but wrong. Too long, maybe thirteen or fourteen inches. The toes were spread out wide, like fingers. And they were deep. Whatever made them was heavy.
The first time I saw it was a Tuesday night in late September. I remember because I'd just gotten paid and I was feeling good about things, here's the thing. I was washing dishes around 10 PM, looking out the kitchen window into the backyard. The motion sensor light was on, lighting up maybe thirty feet of grass before the tree line. It was standing at the very edge of the light. Just standing there, right where the illumination met the darkness. At first glance, it looked like a person. Tall, maybe six and a half feet. Standing upright on two legs. But the proportions were wrong, and here's the thing. The arms hung down past its knees, too long for the body. The legs bent backward at what should have been the knee, like a bird's leg. The head was mostly human-shaped but elongated, stretching back too far. It wasn't moving. Just standing there, facing the house. Facing me. The skin was pale, grayish-white in the artificial light. I couldn't see any clothes on it. The surface of the skin looked smooth but somehow wrong, like it was too tight over the bones. And the face. God, the face. It had eyes. Dark eyes that caught the light, but they were too large, too far apart. The mouth was a thin line, closed, stretching wider than a human mouth should.
I dropped the plate I was holding. It shattered in the sink and I jumped back from the window. When I looked again, maybe five seconds later, it was gone. Just the empty yard and the trees. I checked every door, every window. Made sure everything was locked. My dog was in the corner of the living room, shaking. I didn't sleep that night. I sat in my bedroom with a baseball bat across my lap, listening. The next night, it came back. Same time, almost exactly 10 PM. Same spot at the edge of the light. This time I didn't go near the window. I watched from the hallway, peeking around the corner. It stood there for maybe twenty minutes. Completely still. Then it took one step forward, into the light. Then another step. It was coming closer to the house. I called 911. Told them someone was in my yard, that I was afraid. The dispatcher said they'd send a deputy. The sheriff's department was forty minutes away. The thing kept walking. Slow, deliberate steps. Those backward-bent legs moving in a way that made my stomach turn. It got within maybe fifteen feet of the house before the sound of the siren started in the distance. backward bent legs sound absolutely nightmarish - Brynn' Then it turned, not like a person turns, but swiveling its whole upper body while its legs stayed planted. And it ran back into the trees. Fast. Faster than anything that size should move.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]