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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/lightingnations on 2024-11-25 13:34:33+00:00.

I’d (28f) been with Daniel (29m) for almost three years. Things were great until this August, when he started commenting about how I always hid my phone (I didn’t) and was wearing ‘special’ perfume to work (I wasn’t).

A friend of his (Greg) worked in the same building as me, and Daniel claimed Greg said I was “very, very close” to one of my male co-workers. Ever since then, Daniel basically danced around accusing me of having regular sex at the office. He never said this DIRECTLY, but it reached the point where there was never a day when I could simply relax without worrying about a snide remark.

Then, out of nowhere, he insisted we go hiking one afternoon. We set off late and weren’t too far along the trail before the conversation circled towards how ‘busy’ I’d been lately.

“I’m not accusing anybody of anything,” he said, all defensive. “I’m just saying it’s weird is all.”

He marched along the steep path so fast I needed to jog to keep up. Above our heads, past the ceiling of trees, the light was growing thin, and on either side of us was a thick tangle of jagged nettles and hanging ivy.

“Maybe we should turn back?” I asked, squinting up at the side of the mountain. “I’m starting to feel a chill.”

“And I suppose that’s my fault as well? I said you should’ve brought a heavier jacket.”

A little tremor of fear ran through me. I continued with my head down, sidestepping the little ditches while Daniel ducked beneath the lowest branches cutting across the path. We hadn’t passed another hiker for more than twenty minutes.

He said, “It isn’t just me who thinks this by the way. Greg told me everyone makes jokes about you and your ‘office boyfriend’.”

That wasn’t true—Daniel was just fishing for intel. Part of me wanted him to lay the cards on the table, but a confrontation might’ve ended with us screaming at each other. Or worse.

I said, “I really think we should head back. At this rate it’s gonna be pitch black before we can even sniff the summit.”

In an exaggerated display, he grabbed his phone and yelled, “Oh, what’s this, the fun police AGAIN? Damn. They said they’re getting reports I’m enjoying myself for once and need to shut it down.”

Neither of us breathed a word as we walked on, and soon we only had the moonlight to see by. When my breaths started misting up and my fingertips turned blue, I said, “Listen, keep going if you like, but I’m heading back to the car. Hopefully if I get to the doctor quick enough they can save my hands from frostbite.”

“Fine,” Daniel said, the corners of his mouth curling into a mean-spirited grin. “Just watch out for Harper the Hook.”

His expression made my blood boil, despite the massive drop in temperature. Daniel’s fun personality lured me in at first, but after three years his cruel jokes had become stale and tasteless.

“Don’t even start,” I said, turning away.

“You mean you never heard about Harper? He’s a local legend.”

A gust of raw air whistled through the trees, making their limbs scrape together roughly. Shivering, I let out a little sigh and caught up with Daniel, who said, “So anyway, they call him Harper the Hook—”

“I don’t wanna hear—”

“—and he was a butcher in the old days. He built a fancy factory right here on this mountain and employed men from the nearby towns, and soon he was making mega bucks which meant he could get pussy on tap. But he fell for this one lady. Real girl next door type. They got married, and Harper thought he’d found his happy ending, but the poor bastard couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Daniel paused to see whether he had a captive audience. I folded my arms and made it clear I wasn’t listening, but since when had that stopped him?

“See what Harper didn’t know is his gal was the town bicycle. She had five boyfriends all feeding her the pipe, but he was completely clueless until he went looking for this expensive watch he’d lost. Going through the dirty washing he realized one of his wife’s blouses smelled like pig’s blood, and even he wasn’t naïve enough to explain it away, so he started following her. Eventually he caught her sneaking into the factory late at night to get nasty with one of his employees, in the abattoir of all places.”

Nearby, a tangle of bushes rustled. I shuffled closer to Daniel and said, “What was—"

“SO ANYWAY,” Daniel continued, “a fight breaks out then the worker tackled Harper onto the conveyor line, and this meat hook dangling from a chain went into his back and straight through his heart. But this is before health and safety so he got dragged into the meat grinder, along with all the pig carcasses.”

Deadwood snapped, somewhere left of the trail.

“And you wanna know the worst part? The wife and her lover didn’t say a word. They just took Harper’s fortune and vanished. Nobody knew what happened until some lady bit into a pork sausage and found an eyeball staring back at her. Now this is where the story gets really tasty.”

Facing me, he said, “Years after Harper’s death, a couple came up here one night and heard a scraping sound. The guy threw himself in front of his girl just as a hook on the end of a chain came flying out of the darkness and pierced his heart. The poor guy got dragged away before he even knew he was dead. The girl went to the police, and she had to confess the guy who vanished was engaged and she was the bit on the side. They combed the area but all they found was a shoe. Then a few months later, a lady was out with her husband for a hike when she got impaled and vanished too. Now here’s the twist: a secret boyfriend turned up at the funeral, and that’s how they realized Harper had a type. See it turned out he only killed people who—”

Something cut through the trees, reflecting the moonlight as it went. I said, “Daniel I think I just saw something.”

“Oh? Is it a homicidal ghost that stalks serial cheaters?” He expelled a low whistle. His teeth were bared now. “Because if I were you, I’d be shitting myself.”

Whatever caught my eye vanished into the gloom. But the fear had set in, and I couldn’t leave by myself. Daniel had set the trap.

Attempting to regain my composure, I looked at him and said, “I thought you didn’t believe in that supernatural crap?”

“I don’t, but you do. So maybe play it safe and confess your sins? Maybe Harper will go easy on you.”

“I already let you read my messages, isn’t that enough?”

“Like that proves anything. I’d bet you’re sending nudes on snapchat.”

“Can we please just go?”

He grabbed me by the arm, tight enough that the fingers bit into my skin. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

“Because it’s freezing,” I said, struggling to break his grip with my free hand.

“I think you’re scared. But you know what? You’re gonna stay right here until I hear a confession.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Am I? Why not just come out and admit it.”

“How many times do I have to—”

“Did you think I’m stupid?” he snapped, his temper rising. Even in the darkness, I could see his face turn bright red, the anger in his eyes. “Did you think I’d never figure it out?”

“There’s nothing to fig—"

He yanked me in close, nose to nose, and said, “Just tell the truth, you filthy tramp.”

Unable to break his grip, I slapped Daniel clean across the face. He rubbed his cheek in a state of shock. I tried bolting away, but from behind he grabbed me by the hair and hurled me against the nearest tree, hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs.

“You fucking bitch, look what you made me do,” he said, as his hands clamped tight around my throat. “Why couldn’t you have just made this easy?”

As the pressure in my skull built up, everything in my window of vision blurred. Daniel had completely lost his mind. I couldn’t spit out a cry for help or pry his fingers loose. My body went limp and everything cut to black until, suddenly, I could breathe again. I was lying in a sprawled heap in the dirt, too concerned with dragging air into my lungs to care about Daniel, who advanced on the brush.

His head snapped toward a rustling hedge, just off the trail. He faced the thicket and shouted, “Who’s there?”

There came a low, carving sound of metal being raked across wood. Whatever caused it advanced on us, steadily drawing louder and closer.

Using the tree for support, I pulled myself up, still gasping. I’d barely straightened my legs before Daniel spun around and knocked me aside.

My ‘fearless protector’ tried to run but instead came to an abrupt halt. Confused, I rubbed my eyes until a majority of the brain fog cleared.

Beneath Daniel’s collarbone, right where the heart would be, the end of a curved hook burst through the skin, razor-sharp and stained dark red. It was attached to a thick, heavy, metal chain that had stretched out of the darkness and pierced his back.

Still fixed in mid-air, the chain jangled. Then, inch by inch, it began to retract. Daniel vomited a fat wad of juicy blood into the dirt and fell backwards, his body completely limp.

And then I could only watch, frozen in horror, as my boyfriend got reeled away into the darkness…