It was around two in the morning when there was a tap on my window. I got up, and quietly peeked. There was something walking past my window, and tapping it. The thing was tall, just below my window cill. I could touch it if I opened my window. The older boys in my area were talking about creatures that lived in the area, but we all thought they were talking bluff. There was no way that whatever they were talking about was real, and this was all a bad dream. I caught its white void-of-life-eye, and soon ducked down fast. I hope whatever it was didn’t mistake me as a food source. I quietly crawled back into bed, and fell asleep again just to wake up uneasy in the morning. It was a school day too, and I had to bike to school. I showered, and got dressed into my school uniform. My sister was quick behind me as we went to get breakfast. “Have you two seen our dog?” We both shook our heads. “No, I let him out after I took my shower. I had just buttoned up my shirt when I went to call for Riinnii. I haven’t seen her, and she usually comes when she is called..” They frowned. “We’ll post on the neighbourhood group wall about it, and print out some pictures.” Me and Eva looked at each other, frowning.
“It was your job to bring her in!” My nine year old sister hissed at me as we sat down to eat. “I did! I was standing at the door, buttoning my shirt, and watching her! I looked up after every button, and once at the top she was gone!” I said, trying to explain and justify myself. She shook her head, her pigtails shaking with her. I sighed, and moved my spoon in my cereal. “Well, we’ll find her. And, Eva. Please be more nice to your brother.” She rolled her green eyes, and went back to eating. Once we were done eating, we went to the garage and pulled out our bikes. Some kids were already biking down our street to get to school, so we weren’t late. Eva called out our dog’s name, and some of the older guys soon stopped by. “Is your dog missing?” Eva narrowed her eyes. “Buzz off.” One raised his brow. “We were just gonna help you, but I guess not.” I shot my sister a glare. “I’m sorry about her, uh, we’d love some help. Our parents are going to print out flyers and things to hang up. But, Riinii is a grey and ginger Australian shepherd. She’s got two different coloured eyes, one’s ice grey and the other is brown.” They nodded, and made note of it on their phones. “We’ll keep our eyes peeled!”
We both nodded, and they biked off. “See, it’s good to ask for help, Eva!” She rolled her eyes and soon biked off without me. I was quick behind her though. Once we got to the school gate, we stepped off of our bikes, brought them in, and tied them to their respective spots. Classes were easy, and soon we were going home. “Riinnii better be there when we get back.” Eva hissed to me. I knew she loved the dog, and I did too. “It wasn’t my fault though!” I said, feeling stressed at this now. She’s been going on me all day about our dog. We got inside the back gate, and there were just the legs, head and tail of our dog. We looked at eachother, pale in fright. Our parents got home and saw us just standing there by the back gate. Eva started sobbing once her shock moved out a little. I didn’t know what to do. Our parents were in horror of this, and since we got home near the same time, they knew it sure as day wasn’t us kids pulling this sick prank. Once inside, Eva looked at me. “It’s all your fault!” I didn’t understand. “I didn’t do anything, Eva! It wasn’t me!” She bawled her fists up against her navy blue skirt, but my parents stopped her from whatever she was going to do.
“Eva, it won’t help. He didn’t do anything wrong, and you know it. We can get another dog. I know it won’t be the same as Riinnii, but you’ll learn to love that dog too.” She sobbed into our mother’s hug, and father had his hand on my shoulder. Soon, I was pulled into the living room by him. “I have a feeling you know what could have happened?” I nodded. “Want to tell me?” I nodded again. Once we were sitting on the couch, I took a deep breath. “I know you probably won’t believe me, and you can check the footage too on this to prove it. But, it was around two in the morning, this morning, when there were a few taps on my window. So, I got up, and quietly peeked under the blinds. There was something walking past my window, and tapping it. The thing was tall, just below my window cill, and I could touch it if I opened my window. It was all black, with voidless white eyes. It was boney too.. And looked as if it was hungry.” He nodded, and picked up his ipad. Once he logged into the camera app thing, he looked through the footage. “Holy shit… Jesus to Jenny.” Was the only thing my father said before standing up to go get my mother and sister.
I went to my room, and just sat there for a little while. I had picked up a book at the library, and was reading it. The thing that attracted me to the book was that one, it had ‘All Ancient and Modern Mythological Entities, Creatures and Fae’ and two, the cover. It was a pretty thick book, and it was in the format of a field guide. I was looking at the table of contents for all the alphabetical things, when I stumbled upon the ‘S’ category. I looked through, and one stuck out to me. ‘Strider, Stiltwalker, Forest Strider; page 126.’ I thumbed my way through and found it. The page had a detailed picture, which was old but looked exactly like how, or whatever, I saw. At least the head and back. I continued reading, not hearing the knock on my door until my mother came in and sat next to me. “What are you doing?” She asked, ruffling my hair. I looked up at her. “I found what I saw..” She was confused. “You mean that big.. Whatever it was?” I nodded.
“Tell me about it then.” I showed her the picture. “I was in the library looking for a book, and I stumbled across this. It was interesting, so I picked it up and checked it out. I just looked through the table of contents, and I saw ‘S’. So, I looked through that. ‘Stiltwalker, Strider, Forest Strider, page 126.’ I went to that. And here is the creature.” I said, pausing to tap the page before I continued. “I can read it out loud if you want?” She nodded her head. “The Strider is a strange creature that hunts animals and tears off their legs before feasting on their bodies. If a human decides to follow them they will not stop until the person is… dead.” I finished off that sentence, feeling a small drop in my gut. “Well, uh, we’ll not think about it then. And, don’t go finding it either, alright? We’ll get the forensics team to look at it.” I nodded. “Oh.. mama?” She smiled. “There’s a kid in my class, his name is uhm… Min-Jae. He’s part Korean. Uh, anyways, he’s in the hospital again. Can we go visit him?” She nodded. “Yes, we can go visit him.” I smiled, and nodded. She kissed the top of my head, and left the room. I continued reading out loud to myself. “Age and Gender, unknown. Classification: Monster. Powers and Abilities? Uh, S-Super? Yeah- that’s the word. Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Stealth, Enhanced Senses, and Dream Manipulation.”
I paused, seeing my sister in my doorway. “I’m sorry for blaming you.. And also, what are you reading?” I showed her the picture, and she shuddered. “Research?” I nodded. “Mama told us not to go after that thing, and here you are doing it!” She sat down next to me in a huff. “Ugh, just continue.” I nodded my head again. “Attack poten.. Po.. Huh-? Oh. Potency. Uhm, wall level. It can easily gore animals, and mur… murder.. Humans.” My voice got a little quiet. My sister ad I looked at eachother, and in sync, said “Oh..” I shifted a little. “Uhm.. anyways… Speed: superhuman, lifting strength? Unknown. Durability? Unknown… range? Standard scrimitch range.. Intelli.. Intellig? Intelligence? Uh, animalistic.. Weaknesses? Nothing notable.. And thats where it ends.” She nodded. “I don’t like it. Whatever it is, whatever it’s named. I hate it.” I nodded my head. “I know you do… I think our parents do too.” She looked at me. “What about you.” I slowly closed my book, and nodded. “I do too.” The fact was, I wasn’t bothered by it. I wanted to know about this thing, see if I could befriend it.
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