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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/BadandyTheRed on 2025-07-16 22:42:15+00:00.

The thing was back and it was time for another hunt. I didn’t know if we would find what we were looking for, but we had to try, we had to do something, because it was killing us. One by one, life by life, it was bleeding us and soon no one would be left to stop it.

I lived in a small rural town of little significance. As for where it was, I won’t disclose that here. Suffice to say you may have passed it by, but I doubt you have ever been there. That is for the best since it means you are safe. Safely away from the danger that still torments the region. The danger that is tied to the town, from some unknown chapter of the past.

It had been there before, eight years ago. It came to our little town in the past and bled us. No one knew what it really was, no one knew exactly how long it has preyed upon our town. Stories insist it was here before even that, but few still alive can say for sure.

I suppose the entire history no longer mattered, what mattered was the danger its existence posed to us and what we could do to finally stop it.

Last time it killed twenty-one people. A militia lead by the sheriff was formed to try and fight back, but at the time I had to stay behind. I was only twelve and I remember my dad and my older brother leaving to try to hunt down and stop this thing that was hunting us.

They never came back and my family, like many others had to endure and survive the loss in silence. The thing, whatever it was, was never stopped. Supposedly it was hurt, and it left. It left us alone for over eight years, until just recently, when it had come back.

An assembly had been called after the first deaths occurred and those who knew about the last incident had been quick to act. Volunteers had been called to organize a hunt based on the limited knowledge we had about the being that stalked us.

I was too young back when it showed up last, when it slaughtered my family members. This time though, I could help, this time I could fight.

It was the night of the hunt. I left to join the others just after 8pm. It was still light outside, but not for much longer. I walked down the street feeling weighed down by the equipment I was carrying.

I came around a corner and saw Jenny and Kyle’s house. I slowed my pace as I walked and winced at the sounds coming from inside. I had grown up with them and like many of the other kids my age we were very close, the tight knit relationship in a small town with shared grief made me feel their pain as keenly as if it were my own, in many ways it was.

Their father had been killed just two nights ago, their mother’s sobbing could be heard inside. We all knew what had killed him, we all knew that the thing had returned. Eight people already dead and the number was rising. It reminded me of my own father and brother all those years ago, when we thought we had gotten rid of it.

My heart went out to the whole family, that night I prayed there would be some measure of justice served. Most of the people would stay indoors, unwilling to enter the dark woods that all accounts claimed the thing resided in. I did not blame them; it was the smart thing to do. Yet I did wish our group was larger.

I swallowed back the nerves and pressed on. We had to hope and trust that our sheriff, the one who survived, would be able to track this thing down and destroy it once and for all.

I kept walking toward the meeting place at the outpost on the border of the forest. That was where I was supposed to meet the others that would participate in the hunt.

I heard a voice call out to me and I spun around and leveled my shotgun at the sound. A reflex, since you could never be too careful, even if it sounded like a friend calling out to you.

I saw it was Jenny. She had an ill-fitting jacket and hood on and was carrying a large hunting rifle. When I saw her, I lowered my own weapon and she whispered to me,

“Sorry to startle you, I have not been in a good headspace since the other day, I can’t believe this is all real. Anyway, Kyle is already there. I was just trying to help my mom, before I left. She is not taking any of this well, but I told her that Kyle and I have to do this.”

“It’s okay.” I responded, showing her a glimmer of a smile as I whispered back.

“Are you sure you are up for this?”

She paused and looked around and then toward the forest in the distance.

“Yes, that thing cannot keep taking people, who knows who will be next!” Her voice started to rise, and I had to keep myself from too harshly hissing at her,

“Ssssshhhhhh”

She nodded her head, and I felt bad, but we had to be careful, right now especially. We walked together in silence. In a different time, we might have had a lot to talk about but not that night, not so close to dark.

At the outpost we were greeted by five others. Each wore a similar jacket and brightly colored rings on the sleeve to indicate that we were in the hunter cadre. We all had various firearms and Clyde, who I recognized despite his mask, due to his large frame, even had a hunting crossbow.

We whispered greetings to each other. We had all volunteered for this hunt. Each of us had lost somebody. The town’s population was dwindling again, and we knew we had to do something before it was too late. We could not allow this thing to keep slaughtering us.

The sheriff was there, preparing the equipment. He was tall and imposing in a heavy greatcoat and strapped down with a small arsenal of weapons. Not only was Steve the towns sheriff, but he had led the previous hunt into the woods. His face bore a ragged scar across the right eye and down the cheek. That mark still looked bad years after the thing we were hunting had apparently given it too him in exchange for a wounding of its own.

He had claimed that whatever it was, if it could be hurt, then it could be killed. Despite his professed fear of going back in there, he had promised if the thing returned, he would lead the next hunt and the next, until it could be stopped. True to his word, he was determined to lead our group this time.

He looked us all over and nodded his head, then handed out a small, folded note to each of us.

We all read the instructions on the note and were given five minutes to commit every step to memory. I examined the paper and read the rules of the hunt once more, though I could recite them from memory by then.

“Rule 1. Stay together, it will try and isolate us. It preys upon stragglers, keep a tight formation.

Rule 2. Do not panic, it uses fear as a weapon against us. We can hurt it, we have before. It knows this, but it is clever and will try to use our fears against us, do not let it.

Rule 3. We are hunting just after nightfall. It only shows itself at night, we could never find it in the day. But early on at night it seems to be weaker, more sluggish. Whether it is dead or not, we are returning before 2am. In the dead of night, it seems to move faster, and it will likely overwhelm the group.

Rule 4. Always keep a light on you, a strong flashlight, a headlamp, hell a torch if that’s what you want to bring. Hunting in the dark this might seem obvious, but do not let the moonlight or your eyes adjusting, trick you into thinking you can rely on night vision out here. The thing is hard to see even when exposed to light, you will never see it before it’s too late if you try to eyeball it.

Rule 5. The absolute, critical and most important rule of all. Keep your mouth shut! No speaking at all. You will compromise the entire group if you do. Not even whispering, unless it absolutely can’t be helped when we are out there. Use the hand signals, use your lights and paper and pen if you really can’t use the sign language. If you hear a voice, stay on guard and move with extreme caution, it might not be who or what you think it is.”

I put the paper back in my pocket and Steve looked at the group, nodded and waved us on. We formed into a line just as we had practiced before. Without a word spoken we walked into the shadowed forest, just as the last faint light of the sun crept behind the horizon.

We marched on in silence, only the soft patter of our careful tread and the occasional snapping of twigs or clatter of small rocks being disturbed heralded our movement.

I nervously regarded my comrades as we walked on in an orderly line. There were seven of us in total. Myself, Jenny and Kyle. Clyde, Steve, Cody and Terry. I did not know all of their stories, but I knew what we were here to do.

I kept repeating the instructions in my head, like a mantra to cling onto as the shadows closed in. We were out there with a predator that would likely be hunting us, just as we were hunting it. Failure was not an option.

We marched for around forty minutes. No signs of anything out there but us. Honestly, I was not sure what we were searching for, Steve never mentioned if it had a lair or something we could track it by. The bright lights all around us from the varied flashlights, lamps and other devices made me feel slightly better, though it limited what we could see in the distance.

I considered that we might not be looking for something, so much as listening for something, based on how Steve’s ears perked to every sound of the forest.

Suddenly we stopped as Steve held out a hand. He gestured for us to look down and to the right of our path. He motioned for Clyde and Terry to stay where they were and cover our backs while the rest of us knelt down beside him to see wha…

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