Not far from Vancouver Island, there lies a small group of islands named Haida Gwaii. The islands are relatively all packed together, so getting to one island from another would be a somewhat quick trip. I wish I could say the same for my island - it was a tiny, forest-covered speck on the map, far from the rest of the archipelago, with a rocky beach surrounding it. That’s where my family lived. We called it the Gateway, because it was the southernmost island of Haida Gwaii, as well as being in the dead center, so to speak. A trip from here to the nearest island would take at least 15 to 25 minutes, sometimes significantly more depending on the weather. We lived in a large family, eight people strong, and each person had their own bit of land to claim their own. We were all hunters, farmers, fishermen, and occasionally loggers, all confined to the island we called home. We owned a boat with which to take to the nearest island to buy groceries for everyone. We had a great life there.
Near my house, there was a large shed used to store tools. This shed quickly became overrun with birds and other small animals, so we just abandoned it altogether. I had no problem with this though; the birds all collectively sang very early in the morning, acting as my alarm, and my alarm only. Every morning, at 8:00 AM sharp, they never missed a beat. I felt safe on that island for five years, until now.
A few months ago, I woke up at around noontime. This startled me a bit, as I hadn’t heard anything at all until I just gradually woke up. I got ready for the day, made a quick brunch, and headed towards the shed to see if anything had happened at all to the birds inside it. Upon opening the door, I found that something had indeed happened in the middle of the night; the birds were all dead and on the floor, all facing up and slashed open. A good number of them had their faces... scrambled, to say something, which meant that these birds did try to fight back. I also noticed that the other small animals in the shed were found this way as well, which indicated that they stood up for their neighbors. The whole scene was heartbreaking. I radioed my brothers, sisters, mother, and father to come over and clean up the mess, to prevent insects from getting close to the home. Afterwards, we still had the threat of an intruder on our island, one that could ruin a lot of our things if not taken care of. My father set up an island-wide patrol system taken in shifts by days, each one of them armed. We all owned guns in our homes, and so having some form of security for our island made me feel safe, at least for a few weeks.
For a month afterwards, things started to change. Many of the trees on the Gateway were slowly rotting and dying off. Many other plants and small animals were found dead, either from illness or attack. On October 1, the salmon started migrating from the north to warmer waters down south in the open ocean, and the Gateway was along their route. It was what we called Salmon Season, which also meant that we had to get ready to fish. This also meant that we would be competing with the wildlife for the fish as well, and so the security we enforced had to be tightened further. One person still patrolled the island, but with two weapons at the ready. Since that, however, things started escalating around my home and the others’. Many salmon were found beached on the shore within the first few days of Salmon Season, often torn open with most of the skeleton showing. Something, maybe the same something that killed the birds in the shed, was now killing our salmon and leaving it in a state that prevented us from selling them at the nearest market. On the rare occasion that I found a survivor, I could make note of a hole under its eye, almost as big as its face. When it died, I kept it for further research as to what was killing our animals. For a week, about 500 salmon were found like this, and I was no longer feeling safe in my own home. Then, on October 8, at around 8:00 AM on a very foggy morning, my brother, who was patrolling at the time, ran to my house, got me out of bed, and told me to come look outside.
There’s nothing more unsettling than just waking up and having your eyes adjust, only to find an eviscerated bear carcass on your front doorstep, especially if you haven’t eaten yet. There were two things that I realized that made me have a feeling of nausea after the initial shock wore off. 1: This bear was practically hollowed out, no organs or anything could be found. Adding to this is the fact that the pebbles around him were clean, as in no trace of anything was found on them. Whatever killed the bear covered up its tracks.
The second, more terrifying thing I realized is that an act like this would undoubtedly make noise; however, to the best of my memory, it was dead silent that night. This means that either the bear was killed rather quick, or something manage to kill this bear without making any sound at all. My brother radioed everyone over to the house as soon as he could, and now we had an actual threat on our hands. We discussed what we should do to at least identify what was on the Gateway, to which my father suggested to by a security camera system for each of our houses. I though it was a good idea, however such an installation takes a few days at least for all our houses. Until then, my father said that the patrols were going to be more strict. From now on, two weapons were to be on you, as well as two people were now patrolling the island. This announcement managed to calm my fears a bit, however, I was still worried. If I, a not-too-light a sleeper, was not able to hear the signs of a bear being made into a blob, then how exactly would two people be able to detect anything?
Once there were two people out patrolling the Gateway, things further escalated. The trees were now dying much faster, and the animals were all found in the same way as the bear. There was soon almost no life at all on our own home, and our father eventually said that we needed to start packing up just in case. When that was said, I no longer felt safe in my own home anymore.
On the day that our security systems came in, I eagerly stood next to my siblings while they were all being set up at each house. With the last security camera in place, we waited on the boat for the next few days. My youngest brother set up a steel trap on all of our properties, so that if the intruder gets caught in one, it would make a sound. After three days of hiding on the family boat, my oldest sister went out to see what happened out there, going to retrieve the cameras. When we realized that she didn’t bring two weapons with her for safety, my mother fetched me and my other sister to guard her while she retrieved the cameras.
While we were looking for our sister, I noticed that it was dead silent. No animals made any sounds, and I realized soon that there were no animals left alive to see. I then thought, if no animals are alive on the island, then we were next up on the menu. Just realizing this made me run faster, and so did my sister. When we finally found our sister, I was horrified by what I saw. The whole cabin we found her at was completely destroyed, with windows shattered, doors almost off their hinges, and overall just looking like a tornado had ran through it. The ground was frozen solid, yet something managed to make footprints in the dirt. They were long and thin, with five toes each about the length of a pencil, stretching out from a shape I can best describe as being like that of a human heart. On the ground several martens lay, almost split entirely down the middle, and hollowed out like the bear.
Our sister was in the center of this scene, sitting on her knees and white as a sheet. After a few moments of getting her to snap out of her shock, she told us that we needed to leave now. We asked her what she meant by that, and she said that something definitely was on the Gateway, and it was quite possibly that which we as a family could not handle. She proceeded to start hyperventilating, so we decided to get her on her feet, take the security camera, and head back to the boat. By the time our sister was taken back to the boat, she managed to calm down, but was still shocked over what she had seen. My father, who had always been somewhat protective of us all, was now starting to get angry at the fact that someone or something managed to upset one of his children. While he didn’t take any anger out on us, he was now demanding to see the security camera footage. Our sister shakily did so, but instantly looked away afterwards.
The footage started off normal. The martens were fighting amongst themselves, a common thing to do when there was no food for them. But about a minute and a half in, they all turned to face something off camera, growling and hissing. At first we were confused, but then a man showed up on screen. He was not entirely dressed for the weather, but other than that there was nothing off about him, aside from the fact that this was an unusual person none of us had ever seen before. Then he picked one of the martens up, and all normalcy faded from him quickly. While he looked like he was smiling and handling the animals rather nicely, a wound of some sort began to open up from the corners of his lips to his back of his neck. His face then started to contort into some forms that should not be possible in a human being. It was almost as if the top half of his head was being pulled back like a hoodie. The thing now revealed several small, medium, and large teeth, each like an icicle. Then it slowly reverted into its other, truer from: a large, thin, Gollum-like creature, with bizarre shaped hands and super long claws, and all the while its mouth(at least we thought is was its mouth) was still wide open. The thing then stood upright and plopped the martens into its mouth, and then compressed its whole body. In 15 seconds the creature spat out the marten onto the ground, in the state that it appeared when I found them, and repeated the same process with the other four martens. Then the thing reverted back to its human disguise and ran off.
At around the time the thing leaves the crime scene, our sister appeared, and thrown off guard, sat on her knees for 10 minutes until we found her, then the footage ended. After that unholy display, my father sat back in his chair for a few minutes, scared out of his mind. He then told us to grab everything we considered necessary to us, that we were leaving ASAP. While he didn’t get anything for himself, our mother did, and we spent a good half hour grabbing the bare necessities so we could start anew. When we got onto the boat, we saw the “man” approaching us and waving hi. Our father decided to try and convince it to not come after us, carrying his shotgun with which to at least slow the creature down. For five minutes he threatened the man at gunpoint, not exactly yelling, but not at all in a good mood either. The whole time, the man just stood there, seemingly happy as a clam.
That was, until he began to smile.