#yantober2023

[obsessivelyloved]

Day 1: Monster

The prompt is from this list. Hope you guys enjoy!

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There were scratch marks on your porch this morning—big, deep ones. You called out of work. You called animal control. There was nothing they could do.

A set of large footprints circled your house. They wrapped around it over and over, as if something was pacing. They stopped, deep, in front of your bedroom window. There were claw marks on your windowsill.

You had slept with your curtains open.

“Sorry,” The man from animal control had apologized, wringing his hands. “More than likely, it was a curious bear smelling food from your house. It’s long gone into the woods. But if you hear anything at night, hide up in your attic and give us a call.”

You numbly nodded your head. “Will do, thanks for- thanks for your time.”

The man left and all you could do was stare down at your porch, at the large footprints, with fear stuck in your throat. It wasn’t a bear. Bears didn’t have such large claws or feet like a coyote. Or the kind of feet bunnies have, whatever it was.

You didn’t want to stay home but you had nowhere else to go. You had recently moved to this dreary part of England, a little away from the city. It was in your grandmother’s will for you to inherit the house; you couldn’t turn it down. It was completely paid off, all you had to pay was the normal stuff like electricity and water. But now, well, maybe you should have waited until you your friend's lease was up. You would have been dealing with this stress better with someone.

Trees lined the back side of the house, but your grandmother had never been worried about animals. She didn’t even have a backyard fence, not having too many neighbors out here.

“I should go see if the hardware store sells cameras,” you say to yourself.

With a shaky breath, heart still hammering inside your chest, you gather what you need and head out. Thankfully, there’s a couple of stores ten minutes away. They’re mostly the necessities, anything but the basics and a few variety items, you have to drive to the city for. It’s a tad annoying but it’s nice to be able to own a house. Something you thought was going to be impossible in this day and age to do.

You feel as if you're in a fog, entering the small parking lot. Watching through a camera as you enter the hardware store.

Fuck you were so scared that the thing was going to come back. What if it turned out to be the Rake? That thing had haunted you for years. Stuff like that has always scared you even though you know it’s not real. Or, hope it’s not real.

“Hi! Need any help today?”

The cashier snaps you out of the fog a little, but you’re still freaked out.

“Hi,” you say, your voice cracking a little. “Do you guys sell cameras here? Like, the ones for outside?”

The lady, Jess, her name tag helpfully supplies, hums a little. She looks off to the side as she thinks.

“I um, have an animal problem,” you add. “The animal control services think it’s a bear, but I’m not sure.”

Jess lit up. “We should still have some trail cams leftover from hunting season. They’ll be right this way.”

She led you through the small store, the small aisles feeling suffocating. The cameras were on an almost completely bare shelf, the words 50% in bold hung on a banner above the shelf.

“Now that hunting season is over, we can’t really sell these. This-“ she grabs a black camera off of the shelf, “-model is the last we have. I’m not going to lie, it kind of sucks but it’s better than nothing if you really need it.”

You take a deep breath. The panic sinks in a little harder. “How does it suck? I actually really need something. I-I want to be prepared to call animal control if the bear comes back tonight.”

She gives you a sympathetic smile.

“It has a three minute delay. Most hunters hate these since their prey tends to scatter by the time they’re caught on the feeds, but this should work for you since bears aren’t too fast when they have nothing to do. I’d recommend trying to set at least one up further from your property, so you can catch the bear quicker.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

“Of course! Let me know if you need help with anything.”

Jess sets the box back onto the shelf, leaving you to your thoughts. Even at fifty percent off these were expensive…..

In the end, you could only afford three. Jess rang you up and wished you well with your bear problem.

You didn’t want to go home. Somehow, you did. One moment you were sitting in your car, staring blankly at the woods, then the next, you were setting up the cameras as best you could.

One was set as high up as you could get it onto the trees behind your house. Another went next to your porch light. And the last, you put above your back door.

After you set them up, connecting them to your laptop, you waited. You waited and waited. Restless, pacing the house with your laptop plugged in and open. Night falls and you distantly think you’re going to be sick. You don’t make dinner. You hardly drink. All you can do is wait.

Eventually, you move your things up to the attic. You turned all the lights off in the house before moving some blankets and pillows upstairs. You’re so thankful there were plugins in the attic. Your laptop dying would have stressed you out more.

By 12 a.m., you start to relax a little. Nothing has triggered your cameras. Whatever it was probably won’t come back. Nothing of worth laid outside your house.

You blink and 1 am glares at you from the corner of your screen. You curl into your blankets and drift off to sleep……

Your laptop beeps.

You bolt awake, scrambling to pull your laptop close. The furthest camera caught movement. Something big was making its way past the tree line. Next, your back door caught it. The night vision didn’t help you at all in trying to figure out what the hell was out there.

If it didn’t have horns above its head you’d thought it was a bear.

Fear crawled up your chest as it sniffed the back door, pawing at the wooden steps. As it moves towards the side of the house, your brain starts to work again.

You scramble around for your phone, desperate to call animal control. But…. you left it downstairs.

Tears prickle your eyes as your laptop beeps again. The porch camera caught it.

You press your hands tight against your mouth. Tears and whimpers escape as you can only stare at the screen.

Sharp purple horns jutted out from its head, dark purple scales lined it’s body. And it’s face….. It had sharp teeth and one black eye.

.

.

.

.

.

It was inside the house.