The Nightmare Continues (book 2)
Prologue
The constant fear of the creatures returning had taken its toll on me, and I was beginning to have nightmares. It seemed like I had one every time I closed my eyes. The nightmares were horrible, full of beastly creatures hiding in the shadows at night and other things. I feared that I would never be able to sleep in peace again. I had no control over what was happening to me and I did not understand why. I never had any nightmares before, even when watching the creatures night after night. Evidently, my fear was getting the best of me.
I was traveling into the abyss and could barely function. Thank goodness, for my family who helped pull me through this hard time. My husband sat up with me at night monitoring the forest, assuring me nothing bad was going to happen. I wanted to believe the Bigfoot investigator when he told us that the Bigfoots weren’t here to harm us. Although, he was referring to the human-looking reddish brown haired ones, but what about the other type and the dog-man beast? Even the investigator did not want to deal with them.
We discussed putting the house up for sell and moving, but of course, it was not that simple. My husband contacted a few realtors and he was told it could take up to a year. We also considered other drastic options, but if we wanted to keep all four of our dogs, this was our only one. We decided to put the house up for sell in the summer. I wanted to move forward with our lives and leave all this behind. To me the house was ruined and none of the renovations we had done matter anymore. The whole situation was draining, and I felt damaged, beaten, and worst of all, defeated.
I was truly at my lowest point, when suddenly it occurred to me that even if we moved tomorrow, it wouldn’t do me any good. The fear was paralyzing, and I needed to find a way to cope with it first then I would be able to move on. I did not want to have nightmares for the rest of my life. I knew that running from the problem would be a temporary solution, but fear would follow me and I’d be like an injured animal limping around for the next 50 years, trying desperately to explain what happened to us.
Chapter 1. Ghastly Things
Finally, the forest seemed quiet with only a sound or two every now and then. During the day, no life seemed to exist in the forest, not even the squirrels. It reminded me of a forbidden forest full of withered trees and broken branches that formed macabre shapes. Dead brush littered the forest front, making it impossible to see into. The only green was from the evergreen trees and even their branches appeared tired and stripped of beauty.
The peace and quiet should have been a relaxing break, but we knew it was only a matter of time before the Bigfoots returned. According to Mr. Hill, the Bigfoot investigator we contacted, we were in part of their territory and they were not going anywhere. However, for once we hoped our expert was wrong.
I also hoped I would never have to see the dog-man beasts again, or as I called them, the daytime Bigfoots. They were nasty looking creatures and I was definitely keeping an eye on the forest for them. Just the thought of those beasts returning gave me chills. I kept recalling Mr. Hill’s warning, “You better hope this is not what’s in the forest during the day. They are dangerous and fast. Be very careful if this is what you are dealing with.”
I really didn’t want to deal with any of these things. If I had it my way, none of them would exist. Unfortunately, all the wishful thinking in the world was not going to change anything. What did we ever do to deserve this? Night after sleepless night we awaited their return.
For the past few weeks, we were up all night listening to the forest and recording sounds from the camera’s microphone by the front door. Sometimes, I switched the monitor screen to view and record sounds over the garage. We could only view and listen to them one at a time. Both cameras were hooked up to the same monitor screen. We mostly watched the camera by the front door. I felt a lot safer watching part of the front porch at night.
On January 15, Dean returned to the office after fixing a cup of coffee. We were going to be up all night monitoring the forest again. Since the forest had been quiet, we hoped this night would be the same. We were sitting at the desk on our computers—Dean sat on one side of the desk, and I sat on the other side away from the window. The dogs were also in the office sleeping around us. Everything was calm and quiet until we heard the increasing sounds of police sirens wailing in the distance. Then all hell broke loose.
Screams and howls started coming from the forest, engulfing it. Dean and I were shocked. There were so many animals howling that we could not believe it. We had not heard one sound of movement in the forest yet, they were there hiding in the woods.
The chilling howls began with a bizarre, elongated wail. One of the animals attempted to mimic the siren. The other howling beasts only responded to its vocal scream. One of the howls definitely was a Bigfoot; it was the loudest of the pack. The Bigfoot’s howl engulfed the pack and encouraged more yelps and howls. Some of the howls could have been coyotes, but if so, they were very strange. It sounded like a pack of hyenas yelling and chuckling in the night.
Our dogs heard them and started to react. Cockapoo barked and growled in the house by the recording device. I tried to shush our dogs so we could listen. (Chilling Howls) When the frenzy finally ended, I told Dean, “They’re definitely back.”
“I guess they weren’t just there during the hunting season,” he replied.
I stood staring at the monitor in a frozen state, wondering if some of the howls were of the dog-man beast. After all, we did not know what they sounded like. My heart was racing, hearing that Bigfoot yelling in the night was not a good sign. I felt very nauseous, not knowing what was going to happen next. I looked at Dean, and I was sure glad he was sitting in the office with his pistol nearby. The rest of the night was quiet, so quiet it too was unnerving.
The next day, I videoed and photographed the forest through the office window, looking for any sign of the beasts. Everything appeared the same, as if the forest had not been touched. I would have noticed changes in the forest, like I did in December, when the trees would darken. We listened to the howls on the recording again, and I said to Dean, “Can you imagine this is in a neighborhood with families and children. It sounds like we’re in the middle of Africa!”
“Yeah, that or the middle of a zoo, when something triggers all the animals to scream,” he said.
It was absolutely horrifying to me that these creatures were back roaming and hollering in our neighborhood, and there was not a damn thing anyone could do about it. There was nothing we could do except start worrying again.
Later that evening, we heard the Bigfoots using their creepy childlike voice calling out in the neighborhood. It sounded like there were two of them. One said, “Mommy,” then a few seconds later, another said it again but at a further distance. (Mimic #5) An hour later, one of the Bigfoots returnedand said, “Mommy eat.” (Mimic #6) The Bigfoot was adding words, and I wondered if it knew what it was saying. If so, no one in this house was going to feed it. Hearing these Bigfoots again, I tried to stay calm as we continued monitoring the forest the rest of the night, but deep inside I was cringing. It was starting all over again.
The following night, we heard “Mommy” repeatedly, followed by an eerie barking sound. This time the tone on the monitor changed, and there was something abnormal about the voice. It sounded different, almost ghostly. It reminded me of the ghostly images in the forest. Unfortunately, I had also watched them while looking out the windows at night. (Mimic #7)
The next morning, I was checking the forest again for any signs of the creatures, especially the beastly looking ones that used to roam the forest during the day. I was terrified that maybe they, too, had returned and I just could not find them.
A few days later, we heard, “Mommy, come here, come here eat,” at 2:00 AM. It was the Bigfoot using its creepy childlike voice again. (Mimic #8) After hearing these words, I told Dean, “Are you kidding me? It is talking in sentences; can things get any more bizarre? I have chills just listening to it. Where are they learning these words?”
He said, “The voice they use is childlike for a reason,” and then he gave me a perplexing look, “they’re listening to the children playing in the parks nearby.”
I was completely shocked, this had not occurred to me. I never really thought much about the parks in our neighborhood.
In our neighborhood, there are two large parks. One park is along the backside of the forest and across the street. The other park is across the street from Mr. Drake’s house, our neighbor on the corner. Both parks are very active. They’re full of young families with children during the day and with little league games played there at night.
I never considered all the reasons why the creatures were in the forest across the street in the first place. Mr. Hill told us it was because of the fresh water creek and us placing food in the forest. But Dean was right, there was another reason—the parks. With only one isolated dark street between our forest and the parks in either direction. It would be very easy for them to travel back and forth without being seen. They are probably watching the children and eating out of the trashcans and large trash bins that are there at night. It would be an easy source of food. No wonder there were so many creatures in the forest across the street. Some were probably just waiting for the parks to close. It all made perfect sense.
I told Dean, “This is really disturbing. Do you think Mr. Hill knew the Bigfoots were going back and forth to the parks? He never said anything.”
Dean said, “Well I figured it out and I don’t investigate these creatures, so what do you think?”
I said, “I think I’m going to be sick,” and I was so sick I could hardly breathe.
A few days later, we heard a bone-chilling scream that echoed in the night. It lasted about a minute. Whatever screamed sounded like it was being tortured in the forest. The scream was high pitched, and we did not recognize what animal made it. Of all the creepy sounds and voices we heard, the screams were what tormented me the most. They reminded me of how helpless I felt. I really hated hearing them. (Scream 2)
On the 26th of January, the two Bigfoots were back again. One called out, “Mommy,” followed by weird barks and mumbled voices. Then he talked again and said, “He’s making sound,” then another faint voice said, “Net.” (Mimic #9) They sounded really close to the microphone on the front porch. Upset by their vocal taunting, I grabbed the night vision scope and left the room to go upstairs to look for them.
Something made me pause when I reached our dark bedroom. I stood in the darkness for a few minutes, and reflected back on all the horrible things I had seen, and how they now tormented me through nightmares. The intense feelings of fear and despair began to engulf me, followed by a single thoughtwhat the hell was I doing?A Bigfoot was the last thing I needed to see right now along with the other things. I turned around and went back downstairs. When I returned to the office Dean asked, “What happened?”
I said, “Nothing, I think I’ll stop looking out the windows at night for a while.”
Dean knew I was having horrible nightmares and struggling to deal with our situation. During the night, we often took breaks to make snacks, or watch a little television, which helped with the stress. Our hours were sporadic. Most nights, we would stay up until the sun rose. Some nights, we went to bed around 3:30 AM, if we had errands to do the next day. It made no difference to me, I only slept a few hours at a time due to my horrible nightmares, but Dean could sleep longer.
Regardless, our life was turned upside down and the life we knew before was diminishing. How did we ever get to this point? Looking back, we made a lot of mistakes. We should have never messed with the Bigfoots to begin with. It was a bad idea placing bait in the forest, chasing them, and wanting to see them.
The Bigfoots wanted to stay hidden so they could move freely through the neighborhood at night, but they weren’t hidden anymore. They knew we knew they were there, especially after the night Adam looked eye to eye with the creature standing on the pathway. Then Jack ran out to feed it.
During the investigation, the Bigfoots were probably watching us the whole time. I kept thinking of the night, Mr. Hill placed the gaming camera in the forest—the night the four larger ones showed up. It was the way they were standing along the path and staring at the house that gave the impression they were deciding our fate. After all, our fate was up to them.
In hindsight, had we just ignored them in the beginning, maybe none of this would have happened, and I would have never seen the other things. Unfortunately for us, that ship had sailed and there was no way to put that genie back into the bottle.
“Come here, find me,” was the next childlike voice we heard loud and clear. They were definitely taunting us, and I wondered if they knew I was watching them from the windows at night. (Mimic #10)