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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Exciting_Ball9852 on 2024-09-24 03:44:22+00:00.

I slapped my alarm as quickly and quietly as I could. While holding my hand over the alarm I  slowly turned to see if I had woken my wife. Jane always managed to look pretty, even when she was sleeping, well not really but, she looked pretty to me. I walked to the bedroom door on my way to the kitchen making sure to avoid the creaky aged planks that made up my bedroom floor. I could practically step around them with my eyes closed. Jane has always loved the taste of fresh game, I could never understand what she liked about it but, I loved hunting so it was a nice balance. I tried preparing the pots and plates as quietly as I could but, you know… they’re pots and plates. I told myself she couldn’t hear anything I was doing and the surprise wouldn’t be ruined but, I’m certain I heard her trying to race back up the stairs quietly to spare my feelings.

After leaving the kitchen ready for the meal I would prepare later I grabbed my beautiful bolt action CZ rifle and left out the front door. The outside world greeted me with a single tone that mirrored itself as far east as west. The blinding white frost of the cold winter morning created the illusion of distance at infinity while simultaneously appearing completely flat and right in your face. A gentle breeze made sure my eyes never opened further than a squint. I whistled at my lazy mutt and he poked his head out of his luxurious dog house. I lowered my fist to Bartleby and he used my knuckles to give himself a nice shiatsu head massage. I tucked my hand back into my pockets after the cold strips what little heat I had left. Bartleby bites at my hand annoyed that I put it away. I led him to the passenger side of my truck, opened the door for him and he hopped in closing the door behind him with his jaws on the rag I wrapped around the handle on the inside. I walked over to the driver’s side and just before I ducked into the seat I looked up to see her smiling at me from the 2nd-floor window. When I saw her she flinched away but quickly came back when she realized I had already seen her. She gives me a bashful smile and wave and I shake my head chuckling while waving back at her. I start the truck and regret not getting the heater fixed, even on high it’s only barely enough to allow me one hand on the wheel while I warm up the other. At Least she’s a reliable rig.

We cut through the fresh snow with ease on the main road heading towards a nice hunting spot that I frequently visit. Bartleby had already buried himself in his smelly blanket and refused to come out. I pat him over the blanket, “Come on boy, haven’t you slept enough?” He stubbornly gives me a soft “woof”. I reach into the glove box and pull out a package of dried venison. I lay a piece next to his snout and he briefly pokes his nose out to sniff and lick up the treat. I rub his head and continue down the road until I reach my right turn. After arriving, Bartleby and I left the truck and headed towards the treeline. Bartleby immediately finds a tree to mark his territory at, and as I wait for him I begin to load up my rifle one round at a time. The forest is oddly quiet until I hear faint footsteps in the distance, I squint my eyes to try and see what’s causing the noise and I see something coming towards us from in the woods. I used my scope to get a better look at the animal and saw that it was a wolf sprinting in my direction, “huh”. I looked further up and saw an enormous pack of snarling wolves following closely behind the first. My eyes widened as an electric wave of shock sprang from my heart to all of my fingers, despite the biting cold I broke out into a sweat. I hadn’t even realized I dropped my bullets. After they lightly landed on the ground, I had already turned around to run for the truck, stopping when I didn’t see Bartleby following. I must have stopped too quickly because my feet easily lost the ground and I found it with my hands and nearly my face.

 I got up as quickly as possible ignoring my stinging hands, I ran back to Bartleby with the stampede of menacing black fur and white hungry teeth in the background growing in size with each passing moment. You don’t realize how large a wolf really is until you see one with your own eyes. As soon as I could reach him, I grabbed his collar and yanked. He got the message and began following. We weren’t far from the truck but the wolves also weren’t far from us. Their paws were dreadfully audible now and as I ran I couldn’t tell if the panting directly behind me was my own dog or a wild wolf. I must have been panicking too much because after I reached the truck I ended up on my ass again. “DAMN IT!” I exclaimed as I missed the handle by mere inches. I looked up and it was too late, there was no time to make it back in the truck, Bartleby stood over me like a lion. He braced for the gnashing jaws of fierce wolves but the impact never hit. The wolves ran over Bartleby and I as if we weren’t even there. They completely ignored us and continued running as a pack as if they were caught up in a blazing forest fire and had made a temporary alliance with all life in the forest to just escape. I watched them cross the main road I had turned on, their large frames shrunk to nothing in the vast empty canvas that blurred the lines between heaven and earth. The only discernible point of reference was the sun, faded behind clouds with no depth or shadow. I sat there in silence for a moment trying to calm my breath.

Maybe the trees absorbed the wind, maybe the snow muted the ambiance but, after the storm of wolves passed by, the silence of the forest was unnerving. Still sitting on the ground, I laughed to myself in terror as Bartleby licked my face trying to comfort me. I gave him my knuckles and he scratched his head with them. Returning to where I dropped the bullets, I noticed that the divide between the forest and the rest of the world suddenly seemed greater. I stood before the border of two worlds and I willingly stepped into one where I didn’t belong.

Walking through the forest I looked up directly at the sun and felt no pain due to the clouds evenly distributing its light everywhere. Still morning, nearing noon. Bartleby found a scent and I followed him, eventually the scent became a small trail of blood. That wasn’t too unusual but, what I saw in the distance was. I jogged ahead of Bartleby because he was still just focused on the trail in front of him. I saw something in the trees. My gaze grew more intense with every step, as a clearer picture revealed itself to be another wolf hanging upright on a tree branch with its innards on display like some sick mad scientist dissection experiment. Its skin was stretched out and pinned to the tree branches as if someone were leaving an animal’s skin out to dry in the sun. The corpse was still purging its scarlet fluids onto the massive blotch of fowl black-dyed snow below. My brow furrowed, and my face turned to a scowl of confusion and disgust, the pure white snow around the gorey scene only made the colors seem more vibrant and clear. What the hell could have done this? Bartleby backed up with his tail between his legs, I looked around some more and noticed the surrounding trees all had unrecognizable symbols roughly carved into them. I didn’t know what to make of what I was seeing, it was simply strange and disturbing to say the least.

Finally, we arrived at my little tree fort, hunting shack, shelter, whatever you want to call it. I built her right onto a tall strong tree. Bartleby jumped into the box I made for him attached to a rope leading all the way up. I climbed up first using the ladder steps nailed right into the tree then I pulled the rope to bring Bartleby up with me. The shelter was a small one, standing upright in it was impossible and if I layed down on any side with my hands and feet stretched out I could easily touch each side of the walls. Only one side of the wall had an entire section of wood missing to show the view of the deeper part of the forest, the other walls could only be opened with small hinged hatches acting as windows barely large enough to fit my head. There was a large camo tarp covering the biggest segment of the open wall to keep out the cold. We sat patiently and comfortably inside, protected from the unrelenting cold, but despite the gentle howling of the wind, the forest really was oddly quiet. I hadn’t realized how clearly I could hear my blood pulsing to the beat of my heart in my head until the silence was broken by a gentle knocking just behind my head on the wooden wall where I was sitting. Immediately my veins froze over, my heart sank as my eyes grew.

 I tried to ease my growing heartbeat by thinking “Well it’s probably just a loose branch” I got up hunched over and looked at the hatch on the wall, I hesitated as I began to raise my hand towards the lock when another 3 knocks halted my movement. A weak voice from either a young boy or a lady said “Hello…?” from the other side of the wall. The adrenaline came back and I worried someone out there was freezing, in need of my help but no, that couldn’t be. How did they get up here, have they been here for some time, before I even arrived? Are they just hanging on the tree? No, if someone was out there in need of help, they wouldn’t be waiting outside a shelter, I would have found them in here when I came up. I looked at Bartleby and was surprised he hadn’t started barking, he st…

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