scratchers

In my village since the late 1800s there has been legends about a creature or creatures that haunts through forrest around the months of October to December. Well I thought they were legends but I was wrong. They are real very real. From far away they could be mistaken for a drunk old man or even some kind of animal but once you get a closer look you will see that these creatures are not of this world. Their skin is a sickly grey color that mirrors the flesh of a dead man. The bony spine pokes out of its hunched back like a needle through wet paper and the long skiny arms dangle down to its knees. It's average height towers over most of us petty humans at somewhere around 7ft . The name scratcher comes from the description a young girl came up with after seeing one near her house. Me and mother were staying the night at Derek's when the girl came in screaming "scratcher scratcher!!" Her tears were like a waterfall and the pale face matched the creature's skin. My mother comforted her and got her to explain what she saw. After telling us exactly what happened, Derek gave the girl candy and told her to be quiet about it. You see Derek knows about the scratchers in fact he knows alot about them but hasn't said anything in fear the few citizens our community has will leave. When she told us about what it looked like she talked about its nails. Extending from its fingers were razor sharp nails that could easily kill anything. Just like it has many of our dogs and horses. This is why the poor girl called it a scratcher. Something about the name stuck with me maybe it was because I heard it from a voice I can never get out of my head. Her cries and screams still haunt me.

Last week my dog Jenny was killed by the horrible haunting hell creature. She had been let out of the house and got bored so she went for a walk. She walked too far and found herself in the forrest. I heard her cries but we were used to her making a noise about trying to get her cuddly toy so I just ignored it. God i wish i didnt. She was a small chocolate brown labrador. Her eyes always full of happiness and innocence and her small fluffy tail moved like a helicopter at the slightest things. Only 3 years old. We adopted her after finding her as a puppy in the bushes. She ran up to me with such joy and licked my face so many times you'd think it was made of sugar! After much convincing my mum let me keep her and we became close friends. We never found out where she came from.  When we found her she wasn't the beautiful brown color I remembered her as. Her death along with Derek becoming even more controlling to my mother is what has driven me to what me and my friend are about to do.