The Clawer

Does anyone remember those old, creepy stories we used to tell as kids? Stories of monsters and ghosts. We all laughed them off as being nothing more than stories, but at the same time, we'd still check under the bed before going to bed. For a long time, I was the same, not a believer, but still uneased quite easily by these tales. It wasn't until a recent experience I had, in my home town nonetheless, that made me believe in the unknown and the occult.

It all started one hot as fuck summer a few years back. I'd gotten time off of work for a few weeks, and I'm bored out of my mind. Then suddenly, newspaper reports came in of people disapearing off the streets. Children, old people, even animals were vanishing without any kind of trace. And with no real explanation. I thought to myself, maybe there's some sick serial killer out on the loose, or maybe there's some crazy bloodlusting cult out there with a taste for blood. In the end though, I put it out of my mind, I thought it's probably just some weird coincidence and carried on with my dull, boring life. It wasn't until one dark night in august that things really took a dark spin.

It was a dark clear night, the moon was full and there are crickets chirping loudly. I was browsing the internet, the two kids were in bed, the wife was out at the pub and my dog was snoring quietly at my feet. I'd read yet more reports of these disappearences, one as recent as today, as well as a couple more from earlier in the week. This time though, things were different, all of the maybe victims were last seen wondering into the Grimoire forest on the edge of town. I became curious about this, I've always been fascinated by this stuff, and part of my mind (you know, the little voice in your head daring you to do stuff) was urging me to go check it out. I was a little hesitant at the same time though, I mean... people could be dead. But in the end, my curiosity got the better of me. I grabbed my coat and boots, plus a bit of extra supplies, wrote a quick note to the wife explaining that I'd gone for a stroll, and left. It's a good evening to go look for a murderer.

It's a long walk to the Grimoire forest, I remember getting lost one the way there as a kid, and since then I've always been slightly unnerved at the thought of the long roads that lead there. Upon reaching the woods, I feel slightly hesitant at entering the place. It was just after midnight, and aside from the odd glimpse of light from the full moon, these woods were pitch black. In the end though, I told myself to man the fuck up and sauntered in. I initially had to adjust my eyes to the darkness, I couldn't see more than a few metres in front of me, after a few minutes however, I did begin to make out shapes in the darkness. I search around the vast, eerie, maze of torment for what seemed like hours on end.

I felt like I'd walked all around this hell hole, my feet are blistered and I managed to cut myself repeatedly on thorns and bushes, and blood began to soak into my clothes. I was at the point of giving up my search, and was feeling pretty disappointed with myself. It wasn't until I was making my way back to the entrance when I could have sworn I saw something move, not ten meters ahead of me. I could barely make out its silhouette, but it looked like a tall, thin humanoid creature, it was walking towards what looked like a clearing in the distance. "Result", I thought to myself, and began to follow the mysterious being, making sure to not be heard. I followed the entity until it reached the clearing, it was what I saw here that was possible the most eery thing I've ever seen. At the feet of the creature were the bodies of the latest missing people. There was a twenty five year old woman, a young boy, probably no older than nine, and an old man in his sixties. The spookiest part was what happened to them. All three bodies had had their eyes gouged out, their stomachs slit open and their entrails are strewn all over the forest floor.

It wasn't until I looked up and saw the creature itself that I decided that I had to get out of there. The creature was over 7 feet tall, and is skinnier than even the most anorexic girl. It was basically a skeleton with skin, as well as long, gangly arms that extended down to its knees. The creature had long, razor sharp claws that were dripping with blood. And its face was one of the more horrifying than anything I'd seen in any horror film or game. It had teeth that could cut through steel, that were dripping with further blood, its eyes gleamed with murder, and were a deep red with a hint of black. When it saw me, the look in its eyes changed to one of sinister delight. The grin widened, the eyes narrowed and it bared its claws. The creature, which I will now dub The Clawer, began to edge away from the bodies and towards me. I began to back away slowly, this may have been the scariest moment of my life, my heart was pounding, sweat was pouring and I had the sudden urge to run for my life.

Finally, some sense kicked in, and I legged it. The creature let out a hideous noise, which sounded like knives being scraped along a plate. Immediately after, The Clawer is pursuing me, I look around and had the thing is moving with a mix of running and galloping, occasionally using all four limbs. I've seen some strange beings in my life, but this one takes the cake, and it runs almost as fast as a human can, with me barley keeping three metres ahead of it. I make a break for the main road, bolting towards the centre of town. Finally, I get to the point of collapsing with terror and exhaustion, I arrived at the deserted main road in the town centre. As I fell onto a bench to collect my breath, I thought to myself; "maybe it was a bad idea to go monster hunting in the middle of night alone".

After an hour or so, I thought it was time to make my way home. I pull myself up off of the bench, and begin to walk back. On the long way home, I began to get a slightly uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, at first I felt that I was just getting paranoid. But then I thought to myself; "Did I fuck up by leaving the kids and dog alone... nah, I locked the doors, what's the worst that could happen?" My only minor concern was the wife, she hadn't called at all in the entire time I had been gone, then again, she was probably just too drunk to give a shit. As I got closer to the house though, I couldn't help but feel that something was off, I don't know, maybe I'm just going crazy.

It wasn't until I reached my front door that I began to feel deeply unnerved. The door was open, all of the lights was off and the house was deathly silent. My heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest, and my stomach was kissing my ankles. I edged my way into the house, and called out to the family... silence. I tiptoed into the kitchen and turned on the lights. What I saw made me scream. It was my wife lying dead on the floor, her eyes had been gouged out, and her entrails were spread over the kitchen floor like a slaughtered pig. I was at the point of collapsing, but I had to make sure the kids were alive, I scrambled upstairs, blood staining the steps from my bloodied shoes. I slam open my sons bedroom door, and instantly my heart sinks. He was lying on the floor in a foetal position, with the same injuries as I'd seen previously; gouged eyes, slit open abdomen. I rushed to call the police, but the line was dead. I rushed to try the house phone, but that too was down, when I gave up on the phone, I caught a glimpse of something in the living room... My dog was lying on the table, mutilated just like all the other victims. "There's no way this is a coincidence any more, how the fuck did this thing find my house, I thought I lost it".

With my family dead, and no way to contact the police, I sat there pondering what to do next. I thought about running away and hiding somewhere, or even kiling myself before the beast got to me. Then suddenly, I hear a noise from the basement that makes me tense to the bone. It was the sound of scraping on the floor, and there was a faint sound of breathing. I quickly stood up, not knowing what to do at first, before I finally made my mind up, I knew I had to go down there and deal with this myself.

I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and proceeded to tiptoe towards the door of the cellar. Upon touching the doorknob, I hesitate for a minute or so, was this the best thing to do in this situation? Yes I thought, I have to end this here and now, before any more people are killed. I caress the knob while deep in thought, before finally plucking up the courage to open it. I open the door, and immediately tried the light switch... it's dead... fuck, why? I began to slowly sneak down the staircase, making every effort not to make even the slightest sound. The heavy breathing from The Clawer grows ever increasingly loud, and I begin to sweat to the point of it dripping from my brow. As my eyes adjusted to the thick darkness, I see the hideous being crouching in the corner, devouring the rats that I've often heard down here (hey, I guess every cloud has a silver lining). At first, the creature didn't seem to notice my presence. It wasn't until I got to the bottom step, which creaks a bit, did the thing turn around and see me. Imediately, it let out another tortured hissing noise and started to prowl in my direction. I was frozen in place, I couldn't move or break my glance away from the horror that stood before me.

After 30 seconds or so, I finally manage to regain my composure, and readied the knife. The Clawer was seemingly smiling, and perhaps even gazing straight into my soul. I raised the knife, raised the knife, ready to plunge it into the creatures head. Just before I made my move, the thing lept onto me, imediately slicing my right hand clean off. I screamed, and was about to make a break for the door, but it got there first. I thought to myself, "This is it, this is the end of the line". At this point, I was ready to give up and accept my fate. As I lay on the floor, the monster went at me, its jagged claws went straight into the back of my head. At first the pain was insuferable, but after a minute or so, it faded away. This was a little perplexing to say the least, but in the end I just had to sit there and deal with it. I was completely helpless, and could only sit there and await what would happen next. I suddenly had the urge to go and type at my computer.

You may have gotten to this point and wondered how the hell I made it out of this situation alive. Well... that's the thing, I didn't technically. It turns out that this creature has a few... special skills. My brain is still entact, and is being used by The Clawer itself to let the world know of it. This things claws are stuck in my skull, and caressing my brain, and thereby controlling it. I have no free will, and am being used by this creature to document his presence to the wider world. And let it be known that there is a new breed of apex predator, we go by The Clawer, and humanity will be our feast.

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