Chapter 16

The Creature Returns

I felt very angry when I saw Pepper hurt. I took my stick and ran into the small trees where Pepper had come from. I thought I heard something breathing nearby. Then I reached a small open space. I was just in time to see a white thing run away into the trees on the other side. I shouted and ran after it, hitting the trees with my stick, but I could not find it.

So I went back to where Pepper was waiting. I washed his cut in the river and tied a piece of cloth around him. Then we climbed back up to the top of the Hole. When we got home, my sister asked what happened to Pepper. “He had a fight with a wild cat,” I told her. I said this because we knew there were some wild cats in the area. I did not want to tell her the truth. I was not even sure what had happened.

But I knew what I saw was not a cat. It was too big and had skin like a pig, but very white and not healthy. And it ran on two legs, almost like a person. I only saw it for a moment, but as I thought about it, I felt both worried and interested.

Pepper was hurt in the morning. Later that same day, after dinner, I was sitting in my study reading a book. Suddenly, I felt someone watching me. I looked up and saw something looking in through the window. At first, I could only see its eyes and ears. I thought it might be a pig and stood up to see better. But it was not a pig. It was something I cannot easily explain.

It looked a bit like the animal I had seen in my strange dream. The bottom of its face was shaped like a human’s, but it was strange. Its nose was long. It had small eyes, strange ears, and almost no head above the eyes. Its face was very pale. I watched it for a minute and felt a little afraid. The animal kept moving its mouth and made noises like a pig. Its eyes looked smart and kept moving away from my look. It looked around the room as if it did not like me watching it.

It held onto the window with two hands. These were brown and looked a bit like human hands with skin between the fingers. The nails were long and sharp. I was afraid, but it was a different kind of fear. It was more like feeling that I was seeing something dirty and not natural. I did not notice all these details right away. I remembered them later, like a picture in my mind.

After watching the animal for about a minute, I began to feel less scared. I moved toward the window to get a better look. As soon as I moved, the animal disappeared. I ran outside to look for it but only saw moving trees. I went back inside, got my gun, and searched around the garden. I wondered if this was the same thing I had seen in the Hole that morning. I thought it probably was.