Tim’s coughing woke him up. The same raspy cough that had ravaged his lungs for months on end.
“Odd” He thought, “I don’t remember leaving the window open, and the AC isn’t on either.”
A flash of lightning caused Tim to open his eyes abruptly.
A cold panic came over his body and the chilliness was explained immediately. He was in a large field, in a huge clearing, in some forest that did not even resemble those surrounding his town in Missouri. It was still night, but it was eerily light out. Off in the distance he heard thunder.
He stood up now, and began searching frantically for something, anything to help him find a way out of these woods.
After about ten minutes of scouring the clearing to no avail he noticed a presence. He felt like he was being watched, but from a short distance away.
Tim span around looking for whomever was watching, but the clearing was seemingly empty. The presence seemed almost alive, like it had feelings.
Tim started coughing, and as he coughed the presence seemed to grow more menacing. He knew for sure, as he coughed, that he was being watched. The presence was far too real for him to be imagining it. It seemed to make the air heavy, and for some unexplainable reason gave him a sense of impending doom.
He decided to leave the clearing, partly to find a way out of the forest, but more so to escape the presence.
He walked in to the forest and decided to keep as straight of a line as possible, only varying his course when a tree blocked his path.
The forest seemed to be on relatively flat ground, but the roots protruding from the ground kept making Tim fall forward. There were no animals in sight.
To his disdain the presence did not subside with distance from the clearing. But he was resilient and kept on course.
After about a half an hour Tim began to cough again, harder than before, and again this seemed to anger the presence. He kept walking despite the coughing, but as the presence seemed to madden even further his fear began to grow.
Suddenly, for some unknow reason, Tim realized there was someone standing a short distance behind him, he did not realize this because he heard them, but because the presence was emanating from them.
He wheeled around, eager to finally meet his tormentor face to face. He immediately regretted that decision. Standing about 30 feet from him there was a man, but it was not a man. He, the man that is, was tall. So tall that Tim first thought it was his imagination, but no, the man had to be about 11 or 12 feet in height. he had long arms that somehow seemed too long for his body. His head had no facial features, and was as white as snow. There was something red on his chest, but Tim could not seem to make out what it was. He filled Tim with a fear unlike any he had previously felt in his life. He petrified Tim, and seemed to move closer to him. Tim feared the man more as he got closer, but he could not break his gaze.
Suddenly Tim began to cough once more and that seemed to make him briefly look away from the man.
So Tim ran. He ran in the exact same direction he had been going prior to seeing the man. Every so often he would stumble but he never stopped moving. He glanced back and didn’t see anyone in pursuit so he slowed down, but as he turned around he took a tree branch to the stomach and flipped forward and rolled down a small hill. He crashed through the brush and rolled through puddles that were still being filled by the incessant rain. Eventually he came to a rest on some grass. He laid there for a few moments.
When he finally looked up he was alone, except for the presence of course.
All the same a renewed feeling of dread filled him as he realized that he was back in the original clearing.
“Thats not possible,” he thought, “I never turned back…”
He continued to look around for the man, he wanted to see him again, but he did not want the man to see him.
Suddenly a flash of lightning made him wheel around. The man was still not there. His presence seemed to be mocking Tim though, making him feel as if the man knew he was looking for him.
Tim decided to rest for a few minutes under a tree, to get out of the rain. As he sat down he felt the urge to sleep, but he was too afraid. The urge grew stronger, so he stood up and moved around. To no avail.
“Sleep now,” said the man, “you’ll need your strength.”
Tim looked around, searching for the man. He was nowhere to be seen.
Tim was in a panic now, he kept looking around, unable to comprehend how he could hear someone, or know it was them talking, if he could not see them.
“You need to sleep Tim.” The voice continued, “You will need your strength.”
“For what!?” Tim blurted, realizing that the man's voice was in his head, not in the air.
“You are going to have to fight.” Replied the former.
“Fight what!?” Tim answered, terrified.
“You’ll see.” Said the voice, and then he stopped talking.
“Where am I!?” Tim shouted, “What is this place?”
The voice didn’t respond. For a while Tim thought about it and decided it did not belong to the presence. It was far too pleasant to match the malevolence of the presence.
Again Tim felt the need to sleep. He decided if he was going to be abducted by aliens that he would have to rest.
. . .
He awoke sometime later, feeling even more drowsy and with even less morale than before he had slept. Unsurprisingly he still felt the man’s presence.
It was still dark out, but the storm had stopped, and was instead replaced by a thick fog. The clearing was still seemingly devoid of life. Not a bird chirped, not an owl hooted, no wolves howled off in the distance. There was only complete stillness, and the presence.
Tim stretched out his legs, and looked around, unable to see much of anything he decided to stay put, better to just hunker down and wait for help to arrive than to wander around and get possibly more lost.
He remembered the day prior, when he had considered killing himself out of desperation, but the man had stopped him. Not in a kind way of course, but he did not let it happen.
He decided to take a walk around the clearing, and as he walked he considered his situation: he was trapped in these woods, alone except for the man, and could not seem to escape the clearing he was in. The last few days had been hellish, since he didn’t have any recollection of how he got to the woods, and the man was tormenting him of course.
Maybe if he could just communicate with the man he could explain that he had to get home to his family, who would surely miss him. He could offer him all of his money, all of his possessions if he could just escape this place.
Tim looked up, and as seemed to happen all too often in this place he was lost.
“Oh well,” he thought, “I’ll just keep walking and end up back in the clearing.”
He looked around in search of the man, who always seemed to show up at times like this, but couldn’t seem to find him.
The fog was beginning to thin out, but his vision was no better for it. The darkness seemed to remain no matter how long ago the sun went down.
Tim could not seem to get back to the clearing. He tried running, as he ran he hit a root and fell, smacking his face on a tree branch and went unconscious.
. . .
Tim woke up with a massive headache. He was no longer in the clearing, but the storm was still raging around him. He stood up and was so dizzy he almost fell back down instantly, but caught himself on a tree branch.
He looked around and there was the man, standing a short distance away from him.
Tim turned and ran past the tree and in to the clearing, completely disoriented and terrified he span around trying to see in all directions at once.
A flash of lightning illuminated the clearing and Tim saw the man at the opposite treeline from where he had come in to the clearing.
He stared at the man. The man stared at him. He could not break his gaze and was paralyzed once more. The man seemed to move toward him, but he wasn’t actually moving. Tim wasn’t moving either, but the distance between them was getting smaller.
. . .
Tim woke up from his nap and looked around, he immediately saw the man, so he ran through the fog once again and found himself back in the clearing, which he didn’t remember leaving. He wheeled around and saw the man at the end he came from.
He was rooted to the spot and could not look away from the man, who seemed to move closer and closer to him, but never actually moved.
He gazed at the man and was not scared, in fact the man seemed so familiar to him, despite his impossible height, long arms, and lack of facial features.
. . .
The man looked at Tim and as the came closer together all of Tims fear brought itself out in a fit of coughing that couldn’t even break his gaze.
“Come to me,” said the man.
. . .
“Stop the experiment!” shouted a voice.
Tim looked around. The world around him seemed to falter, like a television during a storm.
“STOP THE EXPERIMENT!!!” Screamed the voice.
Tim turned and saw the man raise a hand, his eyes widened as he realized what was happening all too late.
. . .
The distance continued to close. Tim stared at the familiar yet unfamiliar man and tried to figure out who he was.
“I SAID STOP THE EXPERIMENT! FOR GOD’S SAKE THEY ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!” yelled another unplaced voice.
The sky seemed to change to a static briefly, but Tim turned his attention back to the man, who was much closer to him now. He realized what the man was, and began to speak, but all too late again.
. . .
‘KILL HIM NOW!!!” a scientist yelled as a man tied to a table in front of him convulsed violently, “THE EXPERIMENT WAS A FAILURE! HE KILLED ALL THE OTHER ONES!!!”
Another scientist got a needle with a powerful sedative in it ready to put the man to sleep once and for all.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?” screamed the man, thrashing about violently.
“KILL HIM NOW!!!!!!!”
shouted the first scientist again. But as his companion tried to insert the needle in to the thrashing man, who seemed to be growing larger as he thrashed, the needle got hit and went in to his leg.
The scientist turned to the other men and women in the room and as he collapsed on the floor said; “get out, now.”
. . .
“Last month a new therapy to cure people of multiple personalities was attempted for the first time on a human with disastrous consequences, 4 dead and 7 others seriously injured. The scientists involved say that the experiment was intended to force the persons different personalities to meet one another, and eventually they would mold together as one. They have sort of a simulation that they can see of what is happening and they say that something terrible was lurking in this man’s mind. Described as 12 feet tall, with arms about 7 feet long and wearing what appeared to those observing as a black suit with a red tie the creature of sorts had no discernible facial features. Though it resided in the man’s mind, not in his body, scientists were appalled when the creature stalked and killed all of the other personalities. All too late the man in charge, Chris Jacobsen, realized that they would have to terminate the man, as he was a danger to society, but to their dismay the patient began growing, and thrashing about violently, killing one scientist in the process. The other men and women fled, only to be chased down by the man, now perfectly resembling the demon from the man’s mind, and three more were killed. The others are now in various mental institutions across the state after being released from the hospital. Authorities are skeptical of the stories credibility, since it involves a monster of sorts and all of the survivors are locked in insane asylums. Although police maintain that something did happen, so citizens should report any and all suspicious activity.
In other news three more people have disappeared from their homes this week. The newly dubbed “Columbia Invisible Stalker” doesn’t seem to leave any trace of his victims and he doesn’t seem to break in to their homes has taken 11 victims over the last 3 weeks…”