Rewriting this with DeMix's permission [The Thing by the Creek (Part 1)] I live in a little log cabin about five miles out of town. Out in the woods; out in the middle of nowhere really. I inherited it from my father, who only died recently of a sudden case of prostate cancer, who inherited from his own father. It took us a while to completely fix the house, as it was in a terrible state when we first arrived. You may have noticed I said us, and you have probably already guessed I'm married. Happily married, in fact. My wife, Kate, loves it out here. It's beautiful, calm and most importantly, escaping. I really couldn't have asked for a better place, or a better wife, as a matter of fact. She's pregnant, and we're looking forward to having a child. They say it's going to be a boy, and I'm excited. I think I'll be a good father, or at least, I hope. I forgot to mention that we also have a sizeable creek behind our house, hidden in the woods, only alerting us that it's there by glistening in the sun on a good summerns day. I intend to play there with my child someday. Skipping rocks or something - you know. Unfortunately, at the moment, I work at Taco Bell, about four hours of driving away, so I get to serve people all day. Which, I guess, you serve people in almost every job in the world. If not all of them. But that's not the type of "serving" I mean. I hate asking people hundreds of times a day, [i]Hi, welcome to Taco Bell. May I take your order?[/i] I don't know, maybe it's just me. My wife's the one with a great job. She's a nurse at the local hospital and that kind of makes me feel like I'm not doing my job. Like I'm a waste of space. Our salaries are insanely different. I know that she doesn't care about stuff like that, but can't help but think about it every once in a while, usually on Monday mornings, 5AM, driving to that stupid Taco Bell. Anywho, after work, I get to come home, which is amazing considering we live somewhere that beautiful. My routine is this exactly: Open the door, take off my shoes and socks and throw them somewhere where I'll probably forget them. Put on my boots and yellow shorts. Grab a cold beer. Then head to the creek and walk around and just relax. As I'm usually already home at about 4PM (I don't work full-time), the sun's always nice and warm and it makes you forget the Taco Bell and the fat customers who ask for ten XL Taco's.That day was no exception, and it was a wonderful time to be outside. No clouds and the temperature was perfect. I started to walk around in the creek; the lower part that is. The warmth of the water was so comforting, as if Mother Nature was giving me a hug. I continued to walk around in the creek, until a sudden splashing noise caught my attention. It was coming from the distance and sounded like someone throwing a massive rock in the creek. It certainly wasn't a fish hopping out of the water, unless that fish was huge, but even then, I'd never seen a fish hop out of the creek. So I crept down there as quietly as possible just in case it wasn't a fish. And to my surprise it wasn't. It looked like some kind of bear, but not like the ones you see on pictures at the National Parks. It had black fur, matching the color of a black bear (which weren't uncommon around these parts) but its limbs were deformed in a terrifying way. I was kind of relieved in a sense because black bears don't really care about humans. More afraid than anything, at least, that's what people say. But this bear had a very unusual body, the back legs looking extraordinary long for a simple bear, not to mention that the beast had deep scars all over the rather big body. It had thrown its own head under water and was just keeping it there. Considering it had taken me sometime to get here after hearing the splash, it apparently hadn't moved since then. As if it didn't need any air. That honestly creeped me out. I was about to leave until the most frightening thing happened. My cellphone rang. That didn't just happen. My ringtone isn't what you call, "subtle." I hurried to cancel the call, but by the time I did, it was too late. I heard yet again the splashing noise and I immediately felt liquid-ice running through my veins. Somehow, Imanaged to keep myself calm. "It's just a black bear," I mumbled to myself and I turned around and looked. And was shocked. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't blink. I was shut down in fear. It had no fur on its face and white, staring eyes. Its grinning mouth was so wide it almost reached around to its neck. The beast was defying all laws of gravity and standing up on two legs, slowly walking towards me. [i]Why can't I move?[/i] It was like I was being hypnotized. It got closer. And closer. [i]Is this it? Am I going to die? Like this?[/i] I closed my eyes, pretty much accepted my fate. I felt it coming up to me and stopping right in front of me. I felt a hot, rotten breath entering my nose, almost making me puke in my own mouth. I was too scared to do anything. Opening my eyes was out of the picture. It wasn't making any noise at all. Then suddenly, it started walking away and I finally managed to build up the courage to move. But as soon as my foot exited the water it stopped walking and turned to my direction yet again. It seemed this thing was sensitive to sound but luckily blind. At least I thought, so I continued to walk away very cautiously, this time without making any major noise. When I turn back to look at it I almost threw up. Its blank eyes expanded slightly and the beast tilted its head slightly to the right. This thing could hear you, but only see movement. I stopped moving in hope that it would just walk away like it did last time, but I wasn't that lucky this time. It charged at me in full force, crushing the gravel on the outside of the creek. Its limbs were so deformed it looked like some kind of demonic creature running, and I probably wasn't far off with that statement. It was determined, but so was I as I turned to run for my life, almost tripping, becoming dizzy, feeling sick, thinking the worse. It commenced screeching an horrifying scream, which I can only describe as what sounded like a baby and a cat combined. I obviously didn't really feel like taking notes on the noise it was making. I made it inside my house, slammed the door, and locked it faster than The Flash himself. I looked out the small window only to find nothing. "What the hell, wha---," I passed out in shock. I awake to a car door slamming outside. It's my wife. She comes inside with a cheerful expression. "You'll never believe what happened to me today."