u/Obscure_orbit

live on a little patch of family land just outside Kountze, right where the houses thin out and the Big Thicket starts. Single-wide, couple acres, woods starting maybe thirty yards from the back steps. Nothing special. I’ve been out here most of my life. Work construction in the refineries like most around here, come home, mess with the truck, sit on the porch with a beer or similar. Same as always.

About a month ago the nights changed.

It was after that stretch of heavy rain we got. Everything was still soaked and the air felt thick. I was outside late, just smoking, and I realized I couldn’t hear the frogs. Or the cicadas. Nothing. In summer around here that’s not normal. Those things never shut up. You get used to the constant noise so much that when it’s gone it feels like your ears are ringing.

I figured it was just the weather. Told myself that for a few days.

Then I started catching movement at the tree line. Not animals. Something taller, thinner. Standing still between the pines. I’d look, and it would be there. I’d look away for a second and it wouldn’t be, or it would be a few feet over. Never close enough to really see. Just a shape that thought maybe it was just a tree and I was over thinking it,

I checked the property the next morning. Found some tracks in the soft dirt near the fence line. Long and narrow. Not deer, not dog, not hog. I don’t know tracks that well, but they didn’t look right. A couple days later there were two dead armadillos laid out neat, side by side, like someone placed them there. Not scattered or torn up the way coyotes leave things.

My dog quit going past the edge of the yard. Used to run the whole property every evening. Now he just stands at the tree line, staring, and then turns around and comes back under the trailer. Won’t even take a piss out there after dark anymore.

I tried to write it off. Trespasser. Homeless guy. Somebody’s kid messing around. I walked the line with a flashlight a couple times. Called out once. Nothing answered. Neighbor down the road said he hadn’t seen anybody. Sheriff’s deputy I know from high school told me to call if anything actually happened, but he didn’t sound interested.

The quiet kept coming and going. Some nights the insects would start back up like nothing was wrong. Other nights it was dead silent from sundown on. Those were the nights I’d see the shape again.

One night last week the motion light on the back of the trailer kicked on by itself. I looked out the kitchen window and it was standing right at the edge of the light. Closer than before. Maybe fifteen or twenty feet from the steps. I couldn’t make out a face. Just the outline. Too tall, arms hanging wrong. I grabbed the shotgun and stepped out on the porch. The second the beam hit it, it moved. Not like a person turns and runs. It just wasn’t there anymore. No sound of feet in the leaves or branches breaking. Just gone.

I stood there a long time. Wondering if im losing my mind.

I haven’t stayed the night out there since. Been crashing on a buddy’s couch in vidor or at a hotel.... Told him the A/C went out. Went back once in daylight to grab clothes and everything just seemed odd. Even then the woods felt off. Too still.

I keep telling myself it’s stress, or lack of sleep, or my eyes playing tricks in the dark. But the dog knows something’s wrong. And I can’t shake the feeling that whatever it is doesn’t need to come any closer. It’s already where it wants to be.

I’m writing this from the Whataburger parking lot off 69. Thinking of trying one more night home but not reqlly wanting to I don’t know what to do with the place. Can’t sell it easy, and I can’t keep paying for a motel every night. But I also can’t go back out there after dark and pretend everything’s fine.

If you’re from around Hardin County and the woods have gone quiet on you lately… maybe just stay inside.

live on a little patch of family land just outside Kountze, right where the houses thin out and the Big Thicket starts. Single-wide, couple acres, woods starting maybe thirty yards from the back steps. Nothing special. I’ve been out here most of my life. Work construction in the refineries like most around here, come home, mess with the truck, sit on the porch with a beer or similar. Same as always.

About a month ago the nights changed.

It was after that stretch of heavy rain we got. Everything was still soaked and the air felt thick. I was outside late, just smoking, and I realized I couldn’t hear the frogs. Or the cicadas. Nothing. In summer around here that’s not normal. Those things never shut up. You get used to the constant noise so much that when it’s gone it feels like your ears are ringing.

I figured it was just the weather. Told myself that for a few days.

Then I started catching movement at the tree line. Not animals. Something taller, thinner. Standing still between the pines. I’d look, and it would be there. I’d look away for a second and it wouldn’t be, or it would be a few feet over. Never close enough to really see. Just a shape that thought maybe it was just a tree and I was over thinking it,

I checked the property the next morning. Found some tracks in the soft dirt near the fence line. Long and narrow. Not deer, not dog, not hog. I don’t know tracks that well, but they didn’t look right. A couple days later there were two dead armadillos laid out neat, side by side, like someone placed them there. Not scattered or torn up the way coyotes leave things.

My dog quit going past the edge of the yard. Used to run the whole property every evening. Now he just stands at the tree line, staring, and then turns around and comes back under the trailer. Won’t even take a piss out there after dark anymore.

I tried to write it off. Trespasser. Homeless guy. Somebody’s kid messing around. I walked the line with a flashlight a couple times. Called out once. Nothing answered. Neighbor down the road said he hadn’t seen anybody. Sheriff’s deputy I know from high school told me to call if anything actually happened, but he didn’t sound interested.

The quiet kept coming and going. Some nights the insects would start back up like nothing was wrong. Other nights it was dead silent from sundown on. Those were the nights I’d see the shape again.

One night last week the motion light on the back of the trailer kicked on by itself. I looked out the kitchen window and it was standing right at the edge of the light. Closer than before. Maybe fifteen or twenty feet from the steps. I couldn’t make out a face. Just the outline. Too tall, arms hanging wrong. I grabbed the shotgun and stepped out on the porch. The second the beam hit it, it moved. Not like a person turns and runs. It just wasn’t there anymore. No sound of feet in the leaves or branches breaking. Just gone.

I stood there a long time. Wondering if im losing my mind.

I haven’t stayed the night out there since. Been crashing on a buddy’s couch in vidor or at a hotel.... Told him the A/C went out. Went back once in daylight to grab clothes and everything just seemed odd. Even then the woods felt off. Too still.

I keep telling myself it’s stress, or lack of sleep, or my eyes playing tricks in the dark. But the dog knows something’s wrong. And I can’t shake the feeling that whatever it is doesn’t need to come any closer. It’s already where it wants to be.

I’m writing this from the Whataburger parking lot off 69. Thinking of trying one more night home but not reqlly wanting to I don’t know what to do with the place. Can’t sell it easy, and I can’t keep paying for a motel every night. But I also can’t go back out there after dark and pretend everything’s fine.

If you’re from around Hardin County and the woods have gone quiet on you lately… maybe just stay inside.

live on a little patch of family land just outside Kountze, right where the houses thin out and the Big Thicket starts. Single-wide, couple acres, woods starting maybe thirty yards from the back steps. Nothing special. I’ve been out here most of my life. Work construction in the refineries like most around here, come home, mess with the truck, sit on the porch with a beer or similar. Same as always.

About a month ago the nights changed.

It was after that stretch of heavy rain we got. Everything was still soaked and the air felt thick. I was outside late, just smoking, and I realized I couldn’t hear the frogs. Or the cicadas. Nothing. In summer around here that’s not normal. Those things never shut up. You get used to the constant noise so much that when it’s gone it feels like your ears are ringing.

I figured it was just the weather. Told myself that for a few days.

Then I started catching movement at the tree line. Not animals. Something taller, thinner. Standing still between the pines. I’d look, and it would be there. I’d look away for a second and it wouldn’t be, or it would be a few feet over. Never close enough to really see. Just a shape that thought maybe it was just a tree and I was over thinking it,

I checked the property the next morning. Found some tracks in the soft dirt near the fence line. Long and narrow. Not deer, not dog, not hog. I don’t know tracks that well, but they didn’t look right. A couple days later there were two dead armadillos laid out neat, side by side, like someone placed them there. Not scattered or torn up the way coyotes leave things.

My dog quit going past the edge of the yard. Used to run the whole property every evening. Now he just stands at the tree line, staring, and then turns around and comes back under the trailer. Won’t even take a piss out there after dark anymore.

I tried to write it off. Trespasser. Homeless guy. Somebody’s kid messing around. I walked the line with a flashlight a couple times. Called out once. Nothing answered. Neighbor down the road said he hadn’t seen anybody. Sheriff’s deputy I know from high school told me to call if anything actually happened, but he didn’t sound interested.

The quiet kept coming and going. Some nights the insects would start back up like nothing was wrong. Other nights it was dead silent from sundown on. Those were the nights I’d see the shape again.

One night last week the motion light on the back of the trailer kicked on by itself. I looked out the kitchen window and it was standing right at the edge of the light. Closer than before. Maybe fifteen or twenty feet from the steps. I couldn’t make out a face. Just the outline. Too tall, arms hanging wrong. I grabbed the shotgun and stepped out on the porch. The second the beam hit it, it moved. Not like a person turns and runs. It just wasn’t there anymore. No sound of feet in the leaves or branches breaking. Just gone.

I stood there a long time. Wondering if im losing my mind.

I haven’t stayed the night out there since. Been crashing on a buddy’s couch in vidor or at a hotel.... Told him the A/C went out. Went back once in daylight to grab clothes and everything just seemed odd. Even then the woods felt off. Too still.

I keep telling myself it’s stress, or lack of sleep, or my eyes playing tricks in the dark. But the dog knows something’s wrong. And I can’t shake the feeling that whatever it is doesn’t need to come any closer. It’s already where it wants to be.

I’m writing this from the Whataburger parking lot off 69. Thinking of trying one more night home but not reqlly wanting to I don’t know what to do with the place. Can’t sell it easy, and I can’t keep paying for a motel every night. But I also can’t go back out there after dark and pretend everything’s fine.

If you’re from around Hardin County and the woods have gone quiet on you lately… maybe just stay inside.