Jake Patterson was 10 years old when he disappeared walking home from school in 1996. I’ve followed this case for years. The backpack found empty and torn apart on the side of the path. His math book and notebooks ripped to shreds, pages blowing in the breeze. One blue and white Adias mid-cut basketball shoe, size 5, found caked in mud. One set of footprints, suggesting he was running, then suddenly they just end. Initially, the police thought it was an animal attack, but no body, no blood, no other physical evidence, ruled that out. The popular internet theory was an abduction, and the kidnapper tore everything up to throw police off the trail. But the lack of other footprints, fingerprints, hair or fibers is hard to explain away.

I follow the path now, mist coming in as twilight descends and a soft rain drums a cadence on my hood. I think about what Jake could’ve been running from.

An old cross with ribbons faded from time, marks the place where he vanished. I took years for his parents to legally declare him dead, and hold a funeral. They held out hope he’d be found for so long.

I turn my head at the sound of snapping twigs. A ways back I thought I’d heard a whisper, but shrugged it off as just the breeze. Maybe there was something behind me. I struggle to remember if it was foggy on the day Jake disappeared too, but draw a blank. It was definitely raining. There’s nothing behind me.

I keep moving, knowing there’s no way any evidence would suddenly appear 20 years later, but keeping an eye out anyway. This area was heavily comb over when the initial investigation took place. Then again by average citizens after the documentary was released last summer. If something was here they’d have found it, but sometimes people will look right at a piece of evidence and never see it for what it is.

I first heard about this case as a kid. My father was on the first task team assigned to find him. He’d come home and talk to my mother about how it gave him chills the way Jake’s footprint just stopped, like he literally vanished into thin air. “Raptured” was the word my father said as I eavesdropped from the top of the stairs.

There was that noise again. Like a whisper. Like someone was having a conversation next to me but just low enough I couldn’t make out the words. I waited this time. Gave no indication that I’d heard then whipped around as fast I could, hoping to startle whoever was behind me.

Silence. Nothing. I waited. I waited so long my muscles began to ach from lack of use. The rain came down harder now. The mist had fully enveloped the low land around the path, giving off a rotten smell like decaying flesh. Twilight moved into dusk and evening. I let out a sigh and walk forward again.

Footsteps. Just overtop of the sound of the rain I heard it. Something I can not see is running up behind me. I take off.

My heart is pounding like the footsteps behind me, like the rain on my face, my hood falls back. Whatever it is is catching up. I hear it huffing a breath and feel the warmth on neck. It’s taller than me, and it’s so close it could grab me. My legs move double time. It’s claws slash against my back and I hear my jacket tear. The momentum breaks my stride and I nearly trip. Instead I stumble off the path and into the marshes. This is bad, but I don’t dare slow down or look back.

An angry snarl, it turns and comes after me again. The fog is getting thicker. I know I need to watch out, there are wet lands throughout here. Getting stuck in a bog isn’t going to help me escape.

I turn again toward the trees instead. Whatever is behind me is big, hopefully too big to follow me. I’m wrong. Flying through the woods, branches and twigs claw my face while the beast behind me growls. Finally one branch looms out of the fog and hits me square in my chest. The wind locked out of me, I fall and roll down an embankment. I need to get up, but I can’t. I wait for whatever was chasing me to seize me but nothing happens.

One minute. Two minutes. Silence.

A couple shaky breaths later a scream pierces the night somewhere far from me. A child’s scream, “Help me! Help me please!” It’s coming from the same direction I had been running. Cautiously, I stand up and search my pocket for my phone. My hand goes right through it into empty air. Inspecting my jacket I find a tear from the back clear down to my right pocket. My phone long gone and not an option, I look around for a weapon and find a large stick. Better than nothing.

I want nothing more than to find my way out of the woods and back to the path. I wish I was back at my car, but I hear the scream again, “Help me! Help me please!” Knowing I led that thing to whoever was no in danger, I owe it to them to try and help.

I move toward the screams. The mist is still dense even though the land is higher here than in the marsh. Suddenly it breaks away around a large form in front of me. The creature, whatever it is, is two feet taller than me. It’s legs are matted with mud and burs but appear to be covered in a thick course fur. Its feet are cloven hoofs but it stands upright, bipedal, and the fur ends at its mid section. There the skin is stretched and taunt at unnatural angles like its abdomen is made of broken bones. Its arms are long and end in claws. Its head is the most horrifying. It resembles a human head, if a human face had been stretched over a watermelon. Its eyes are glassy and unfocused it looks like it’s looking up at the sky but I know its zeroed in on me. The nose is practically rotting off its face. It’s hair is patchy and molting. The features are twisted and decaying but something about it is familiar. The school picture of 10 year old Jake Patterson I’ve memorized over the years flashes in my mind. The mouth begins to move, but the sounds is coming from far away, “Help me! Help me please!” The boy’s voice.

The thing begins to flex its claws. Huffing out a breath. The rotten smell from before fills the air.

“Oh my god.” The words fall out of my mouth before I’ve even thought them.

The creature cranes its neck. “Oh…ohmy…oh my god.” It mimics. It practices the phrase a few times before it sounds exactly like me. I hear my voice echo around me and even though I know the thing stands right before me I sound miles away from my own body.

Something in the back of my mind clicks into place at the same time the creature grabs my throat in its claws. Some ancient understanding that I should’ve never wandered down the path, away from the lights and into the fog, looking for things that weren’t ment for me to find.

I drop the stick in favor of grabbing its claws with both hands. Trying my best to wretch free and get a breath. “Oh my god” I echo from a distance, as a loud growl and hot breath fill my face. It lunges and the world goes black.