Something in the Woods

Chapter 4

The first week in November, Rich purchased and assembled a small shed that he put near the end of his gravel driveway. He had an idea; he was going to stock the shed with all his food scraps and food he purchased from his weekly grocery shopping in town. He would create a little place for this creature to come and eat and maybe even sleep. It was starting to get colder now and he figured this thing in the woods would like some kind of shelter. He'd even set up a little generator in there to keep it heated. Perhaps he'd leave the door to the plastic shed slightly cracked so the Bigfoot could feel there was heat inside.

For two months this worked perfectly. He could see a large trail in the snow coming from the woods to the shed, he saw that all his food scraps were gone, and he even inspected the inside of the shed for clues to further confirm his suspicions of the creature's identity. The only thing he saw was black fur. It was mostly like hair if anything. It wasn't too long, or too short. It felt somewhat like a horse's mane and tail, course and not soft like feline, canine, or human hair. Rich contemplated going into the woods and following the tracks, but felt that may cause issues of trust with the creature. He decided not to interfere other than providing it with a shelter and scraps of food.

Near the end of January Rich started to get impatient. He wanted to see it. On the last Saturday in January he checked the shed for signs of activity and saw nothing. Going inside for the rest of the wintery day, he went to his bed room to read or watch TV, intermittently studying the backyard. He saw nothing, no signs of movement or activity. He assumed it arrived at the shed late at night.

The next day Rich headed to town for groceries. Just as he was about to close his backdoor and head to his truck, he paused, staring down at his key. He glanced over to the open shed, thinking of a new experiment. He was going to leave the door to his house open. He turned off the heater and headed back out to his truck.

While at the grocery store, slowly moving down each isle, he realized he was growing tired of buying extra food for the creature and still not having made contact with it. So he didn't. He only bought enough for himself. "Screw it," he thought. He left his door open, perhaps it would figure out that meant he wasn't home or perhaps it would assume it was safe to enter the house. He didn't know for sure.

Upon his arrival back at his remote home, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. There were no new foot print tracks, the door was still open, and there was no snow tracked inside the house. Rich was in the kitchen, casually putting away the groceries when he felt it; the slight feeling that something was in the house with him and that he was being watched. Slowly closing the refrigerator door, taking a deep breath, he went perfectly still. He heard sniffing. It sounded canine. Then the odor pierced his nostrils. It smelled somewhat like a zoo exhibit. The smell wasn't too disgusting, but it was certainly strong. He backed away from the refrigerator, walking slowly around the counter. When he turned the corner of the counter his peripheral vision saw something tall and dark. It was hunched over slightly, swaying back and forth. Rich remained still, looking out the back window. He counted to three to himself and quickly turned his head to the dark object. He barely saw it. It was like a dark blur speeding out of his home's back door. He gave chase, running to his back porch, but saw nothing.

Trembling, with his heart racing, he reentered his home. He closed the door, and then made his way to his bedroom. Glancing out the window for a sight of anything, he sat at on the edge of the mattress.

"This is getting silly," thinking to himself as he lay on his back. "I'll leave the door open once more, and that'll be it. If it doesn't come inside again, so be it. It's time to stop this foolishness."

He woke the next morning, opened his back door, grabbed some toast, turned off the heat, and headed to his basement office. It was cozy and warm down there due to the small space heater he had. He went to work and thought nothing else of it. He assumed nothing would enter his home because his truck was still in the driveway. He took a lunch break, walking around his property, looking for signs of activity. He saw only his own tracks and what might have been other foot prints interlaced with his in the snow. But he wasn't sure.

When Rich finished his work for the day he closed his back door, and fixed himself a sandwich for dinner. There were no leftovers and nothing set aside for what may be in the woods or the shed. He watched a little TV, took a shower, slowly jacking his cock to thoughts of that new horse trainer at the ranch he passed by on the way to town. He stopped his truck, saying hello to her, learning her name was Denise. That chatted for a few moments; he smiled, and continued on down the gravel road that led to the paved highway.

Sleep came easy for him. He was done with playing games. There was something out there and that was that.

Around 2 am Rich woke up to a loud crashing sound. Shaking the grogginess from his head, laying back down on the mattress, he drifted back to sleep, assuming it was just a dream. He heard another similar sound about an hour later, but again, he assumed it was his mind playing tricks on him in his light sleep state.

Rich overslept, waking up at around 8:45. It wasn't too late, but later than he liked. He sighed, throwing the covers off, cursing to himself; he climbed out of bed and headed toward the bathroom down the hall. The sun was shining brightly through the windows on that side of the house. Sunbeams came through the bathroom window, illuminating the tile flooring in the hall way. He was shaking his eyes free of morning crust, when he thought he saw a shadow move within the sunbeam emerging from the bathroom door.

Rich crept closer to the bathroom, lightly gliding on floor with his socks, not making a sound. He saw a shadow move again, to the left and right. He paused at the door, stretching up against the wall. He thought he should go grab his gun, but something told him not to. Perhaps it was laziness, or the gut feeling it wasn't an intruder -- at least a human intruder. He peeped around the corner and saw it.

Chapter 5

A tall, dark furred, humanoid shaped creature was silently moving back and forth. It was taking turns shifting its weigh on its left and right feet. Its head was moving with each weight shift, as it was inspecting his bathroom. Rich guessed it was around 6 feet tall, but it was hunched over, with its arms and hands held up close to its body. He could only see the elbows from behind, not its entire arm. Not taking his eyes off the tall, muscular, mass, he quickly reached to the bathroom door, slamming it shut. He saw it turn around and face him, just as he reached for the door. He heard it make a grunting sound as if to yell "no!"

It was trapped in his bathroom, there was no way out. Rich wasn't sure it could break a window, much less figure out that the window was breakable to begin with. He went to his knees and at the bottom of the door; he saw movement through the crack. It was moving back and forth, sniffing, trying to figure a way out. It must've placed a hand on the door as Rich could hear what sound like a person moving their hand quickly across a wooden door. Rich scurried to the kitchen to find food to slide under the door.

Rich returned with a few pieces of turkey and some grapes. He slid them under the small crack between the door and tile flooring. He heard more sniffs and then saw shadowy movement. He also heard what could have been chewing.

His heart was racing, with sweat began to bead up on his forehead, knowing he was going to open that door.

"H-Hello?" Rich struggled to say, not receiving a response. "I'm just going to, uh, open the door. I'm not going to hurt you." Rolling his eyes at himself, he took a deep breath and slowly turned the door knob.

The creature was terrified. It was crouching down next to the toilet in the corner of the bathroom. Rich saw it heaving, panting, and trembling as it attempted to hide its face. It reminded Rich of a child trying to hide or shield itself from an abusive parent. Rich slowly made his way toward it, speaking soft, gentle tones.

"Hey there. Hi. It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you. It's alright." He said, approaching the poor thing. He held out a piece of turkey. "I'm just going to leave this right here. Ok?" he said, placing the turkey directly in front of the crouching creature. The zoo exhibit odor filled the room. Rich observed its hands as he backed away. The reminded him of chimpanzee hands. In fact so did the fur. He thought it was interesting that it could crouch down like that. This thing wasn't a super-huge, furry hulk that he had heard about on the internet. It appeared shorter and leaner.

Rich backed out of the bathroom and left the door open. He closed all other doors in the house, including his bedroom. He grabbed his laptop and sat down at the kitchen table. He casually went about his work, pretending that he didn't have, what must be a Sasquatch in his bathroom. The entire time his heart was pounding, his breathing was difficult to control. But he sat there at his table, pretending like there was nothing out of the ordinary happening in his house. He casually whistled a tune as he worked, ignoring everything he just saw. Hoping this plan would work.

An hour passed with no sounds or movement. Another hour passed with the same results. On the third Rich got up to stretch his legs and placed some turkey in the hallway near the bathroom, then resumed his work.

After lunch Rich sat, continuing on with his day, pretending to be totally oblivious to anything going on around him. It was a slight movement at first; a dark shape darting in and out of his field of vision. Not looking away from his laptop monitor on the kitchen table, he ignored it for awhile. Then he saw it again. It was very brief. Rich could tell something was peeping at him around the corner. After several minutes of acting casual as if he didn't notice, he saw it once more. The dark shape held its position, unmoving, watching him as he sat at the table.

Looking down to his hands, looking to his keyboard, his monitor, and then turning to his left to look out the kitchen window, Rich ignored it. The dark shape roughly six feet off the ground stay there, peeping around the corner to watch him. Rich took a deep breath and counted to three. On three he glanced at it, then back down to his work in front of him. He saw half a face looking back at him, peeping around the wall. He saw an eye, rounded and not too large, resembling a chimpanzee's eye. It was black where a human's is white, and the colored part was light brown. He saw an ear that was lighter in color; it was human-like, but slightly larger. He saw part of a face, cheeks, flattened nose, jaw, and half a mouth with thin or no lips at all. All were lighter in color, a dark tan. The hair was black and somewhat short, framing the face, covering the neck.

Rich almost screamed at the sight. But he remained calm, controlling his breathing, trying not to panic. He had never seen anything like that before. While not scary looking, it was out of the ordinary. He knew this was a special event and wanted to remain as calm as possible. Since all the doors were closed, he knew it wasn't leaving. He stood, seeing the face withdraw behind the wall. Rich went to the refrigerator, grabbing another piece of turkey, he casually threw it on the floor as he sat down back at the table. It landed in the kitchen a few feet away from the wall.

About three minutes later, he saw a hairy arm reach out and grab the turkey, followed by sniffing sounds. Rich had no idea what to do next. So he got another piece of turkey and repeated this. After a half hour of placing small pieces of leftover turkey every several minutes, Rich had enough, catching up on emails and work, deciding shut his laptop down and relax -- or at least try to.

He heard large foot falls in the hallway when he started doing the dishes, not bothering to feed it more scraps. His ears followed the sounds back to that hallway bathroom. Rich assumed the creature felt safe there. Later on he was watching TV and heard nothing, never once feeling a presence behind him or in the living room, never once hearing noise in the kitchen. He shrugged, guessing it was resting in the bathroom.

A few hours later Rich decided to head to bed. He double checked the locks on all the doors, decided not to shower, went to his room, closing and locking the door behind him, and attempted to sleep. It must've taken hours. He lay there listening and waiting, hearing nothing. Finally the battle to stay awake was lost, his eyes closing and staying closed a little longer each time they shut. "It's ok," was his last thought before he fell asleep.

Chapter 6

A few hours passed and Rich's eyes shot open in the dark. He instinctually reached for his 9mm next to his bed. He heard movement. It was heavy foot falls down the hallway, followed by a banging sound in the kitchen. He knew exactly what the cause of the sound was. He slowly put his gun back in the drawer, getting out of bed, heading to his door. He unlocked it, turning the knob as slowly and as quietly as possible, hoping to peer out of the cracked door discreetly.

Rich's bedroom being diagonal to the kitchen afforded him a view into it. He saw the counter, the corner of the table he was sitting at most of the day, a few cabinets, all illuminated by moonlight. Suddenly a bright light, the refrigerator door opening, took him by surprise. What the light shown took him even more by surprise.

Rich saw a tall, dark figure standing in the shadowy kitchen, light from the refrigerator silhouetting it. He gasped when he saw it. Glancing away to control his composure, taking a deep breath, he looked again. He studied it, observing its long arm, and large hand resting on the door handle. Rich shrugged, guessing that kind of door was pretty easy to open -- no knobs to turn. He watched it open the door all the way. Something interesting caught his eye. Not only did he see the creature standing at full height, not crouched over, guessing it was close to 7 feet tall, but he saw curvature.

Watching it casually shift its weight, looking into the refrigerator, he saw slight curves in the waist and hip area. Leaving the door open, it opened the freezer, backing away after opening that door, apparently feeling the cold air come out of it. Closing it once more, it looked on top of the refrigerator, easily seeing what nothing was there. Then something else happened that made Rich gasp.

The hairy Sasquatch left the door open and turned to its side, walking toward Rich, looking to the ceiling as if inspecting the room. Rich's eye's shot open even wider, seeing the creature's body silhouetted by the light -- it was hourglass shaped with feminine curves.

Rich's mouth dropped open when he observed it turn to its side once more, raising its hand in the air above its head, touching the 10 foot tall ceiling with ease. The light from the open door showed more curves, this time what appeared to be breasts viewed from the side. Rich gulped, seeing they were quite large. He closed his door silently and sat on the edge of his bed. "Wow," he thought, thinking the Sasquatch looked like a tall, somewhat muscular woman wearing a skin tight hairy costume of some sort.

"I guess I should give her a name," he thought to himself, lying back on his bed, a slight smile on his face. His nerves and anxieties of having a Bigfoot trapped in his home fading away. Perhaps it was because he didn't have a potentially aggressive male in his home. Perhaps it was because his house guest didn't seem as large or ominous as some of the stories he read about online. Perhaps somewhere in the back of his mind he found that curved silhouette in his kitchen appealing to the eye.

"I wonder if she has a Bigfoot boyfriend somewhere out there in the woods," Rich chuckled quietly in his bed before falling asleep.

*****

The next morning Rich woke and began his daily work routine, not attempting to find the where she may be hiding or sleeping, not trying to interact with her, not setting any food out for her -- since she cleaned out most of the kitchen for him. He sighed, shaking his head, setting out some bread she had not found on the kitchen counter for her to eat.

Opening up his laptop he found a few more videos online. They were clips from documentaries about a famous Bigfoot encounter that was filmed in the late 60s - the Patterson--Gimlin film. He had seen it before several times, but one detail of it stuck out, especially after seeing his guest in better detail the previous night. Analysts, who believe the film wasn't a hoax, suspect that the Bigfoot in the Patterson-Gimlin footage was a female.

Rich watched several clips of recreations, sculptures, drawings and so on, that show breasts hanging down. If that footage from decades ago wasn't a hoax and if the Bigfoot was a female, it was much larger than the one in his home. Perhaps his Bigfoot was younger. Some analysts claimed that "Patty" as she was named, was over seven feet tall. Rich's house guest was just at seven feet, he guessed. Patty was also larger and more muscular, again, making Rich think the one in his home was younger.

He stared blankly at his laptop, unaware he was being watched. She was peeping around the wall at him once again, waiting for him get food for her. Rich didn't notice this, closing his laptop, grabbing his keys, locking the door behind him and leaving, thinking about what to name her.

He rolled his eyes at yet another large grocery bill. Rich bought more food than he ever had, hoping it would be enough for her. He would keep most of it in his room, so she wouldn't raid his kitchen every night.

Sitting back at his laptop after throwing a few pieces of ham and bologna on the floor, he resumed working, not noticing the food being snatched away by something hiding out of view. Rich continued thinking about names for her, causally tossing a couple pieces of meat toward the hallway. One piece landed out of her reach.

Rich was typing on his laptop, feeling at ease, still unsure of what to call her when a large dark shape caught his eye.

His held his breath, his eyes looking straight ahead at her. She was crouching down, slowly reaching toward the meat, their eyes locked on one another. Rich saw her face looked ape-like, but definitely having a familiar human appearance. Her face was almost pleasant looking, not scary at all. He gulped and attempted to say "hi" but only a whisper came out.

She reached for the meat, slowly backing away from it, her eyes never leaving his. A slight smile came over Rich's face, watching her retreat back into the hallway.

"Sally," he said aloud, just before she backed out of sight. She stopped, watching Rich, frozen, not with fear, but curiosity. "Sally?" he asked her. He nodded his head, agreeing with himself that the name was perfect for her.

"I'll get you another piece," Rich looked to his side, taking his eyes off her, grabbing another piece of lunch meat from the package next to him. He tossed it to Sally, surprised that she was still there in a crouching position.

*****

The rest of the day followed a similar pattern. Sally moved to a corner, keeping her distance, crouching on the floor, but remaining in Rich's presence -- not hiding. He acted natural, non-threatening, no sudden movements, pretending as if Sally was a pet dog. He felt a little guilty for that, since she displayed more intelligence than an animal, but he figured the less threatening he was, the better.