I wasn’t very old when it happened, probably only 10 or 11 years old; my brother and I were home alone that night (he being 13 or 14 that year); our parents had gone out for the evening and weren’t planning on being back until the next morning.
It wasn’t uncommon for that to happen back then, my grandmother literally lived a block away after all, and we were well behaved, and knew how to take care of ourselves if danger came knocking. At least, that’s what we thought, anyway.
My brother JD had called one of his friends to come over for the evening, and somewhere around 8 or 9, Travis came knocking on the door.
I can remember that it was a cool November night in our small town, I believe the year was either 2002 or 2003, and the leaves were still falling from the trees, some of them still being quite colorful and full of beauty. I opened the door and let Travis (my older brother’s friend) inside, and soon, we all sat around playing games and having a few laughs amongst ourselves, playing pretend, the typical things that kids do.
We had only been playing our video games for a few hours when we heard the back door rattling.
Now, let me stress that this wasn’t uncommon, that old back door was made of the thinnest wood and the hinges were worn out on it, a lot of times the cats would jump onto it, or the wind would catch it and make it rattle, so we didn’t think much of it.
But me being me, I ended up getting annoyed and stood up to leave and go investigate the noise.
“Where are you going, pig?” asked JD, using my nickname.
I shrugged. “I’m going to go see what that noise is.”
“Did you lock the deadbolt?” asked JD.
“Yeah.” I replied.
“Ok, well bring me back a soda.”
I shook my head at my older brother and rolled my eyes.
“Just do it, Stephen.”
I rolled my eyes again and walked to the kitchen; I opened the fridge and got three sodas out, then I walked over to the back door. The noise and banging had stopped, so I was sure it was just the cats or something, but I was a curious kid, I guess I should’ve listened to the people who said that ‘curiosity killed the cat,’ because I wasn’t ready for what happened when I got to the door.
We had an old blind over the thin window in the door, and I opened it up and peered out into the yard; we lived right beside a gas station, so there were giant lights on the other side of our privacy fence that lit the yard up.
I didn’t see anything when I looked out the window, but I pushed further and opened the door, I was checking to make sure none of the dogs had gotten out of their pin.
When I opened the door, I saw the dogs were fine, but when I stepped out onto the porch and looked out into the yard, that’s when I saw it.
It had to have been at least 8 feet tall, and God only knows how wide it was, I just remember locking eyes with it. Its eyes glowed a crimson color, like blood, and it was covered from head to toe with black feathers; it was staring at me beckoning to me with its feathered hand like it wanted me to walk over to it, but I slammed the door shut and ran screaming back into the living room.
Before I could explain it to my brother, the thing slammed into the back door and entered the house; we were already in my mom and dad’s room, so we all three slammed the door shut and my brother, being the trouble-making master of mischief that he was, produced my father’s gun cabinet key from a lockbox in the floor.
He handed me a break-action 410 shotgun to use and a box of shells, he took a 270 rifle out for himself, and then he gave Travis the break-action 12 gauge upon request from his friend, who looked like he was more afraid of this thing than we were, as it beat on the door, trying to get in.
We made our way out a window and into the dark yard, walked around the house to where my brother’s Beetle sat, and we all got inside and took off.
Our first choice was to go to my grandma’s, but she wasn’t there, and this thing was hot on our trail, screeching like a banshee.
My brother floored it.
“Hang on! I’m gonna try to lose it!” he shouted.
“I’ll show you how to lose it!” Travis exclaimed before rolling his window down and firing a shot into the creature’s chest.
The giant humanoid bird-monster let out a loud shriek of pain and did a backwards summersault through the air before falling to the ground.
Before I knew it, we were barreling down route 20 north, going as fast as that old car would take us.
“Where are we going?” Travis asked frantically.
“My aunt and uncle’s house, it’s the only other safe place I can think of.” JD answered.
Before anyone could say another word, we heard a loud thud on the roof, and that thing put its fist through the ceiling, ripping a giant hole in an attempt to get to us.
We all screamed in terror as me and Travis unloaded into that thing with all the ammo we had, but it simply flew into the air and landed in front of the car.
“Hold on!” JD shouted as he whipped the car around, and we headed back the way we came from.
We reached speeds close to 100 miles per hour and this thing was still keeping right up with us, eventually reaching through the open window on Travis’s side and grabbing his with a hand, trying its best to pull him from the car.
“Don’t let go of me!” Travis pleaded as I held onto his legs.
“If you go, he’s taking both of us!” I assured.
Before I knew it, my brother grabbed my loose 410, loaded a slug into it, and told Travis to duck.
When he did, JD extended his arm, firing a shot at the creature, only about an inch or two from its face.
The last time any of us saw it, it was lying in the road.
I suddenly awoke on the floor of our living room, relieved and thankful, and walked over to our window and peered out into a nice, bright sunny day and my brother soon joined me at the window.
“You guys, I had the wildest dream last night.” Travis laughed as he walked over to join us.
“Guys?” he asked nervously.
Neither of us said a word, we simply pointed out the window at our parents who were investigating the giant hole in the roof of that car.
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