PART 2: What Bigfoot Really Is…David Paulides Reveals the Evidence
THE THING BEYOND THE TREES — PART 2
THE ONES WHO CAME THROUGH
David woke to the sound of rain.
For several seconds, he didn’t know where he was.
His eyes opened slowly.
Gray light filtered through branches overhead.
Cold mud pressed against his cheek.
He tried to move his right arm.
Pain shot through his shoulder.
David rolled onto his back and stared into the trees.
The forest was quiet.
Too quiet.
He remembered the lights.
Hundreds of them.
Opening in the sky.
The creature pointing upward.
The voice inside his head.
Then darkness.
Then something enormous moving toward him.
David sat up.
His hands immediately went to his pockets.
His phone was gone.
His radio was gone.
His flashlight was gone.
His watch was still on his wrist.
The second hand was moving.
But the time was wrong.
2:13.
David stared at it.
The same time as before.
He tapped the glass.
Nothing.
The second hand continued moving.
2:13.
Always 2:13.
He pulled the watch from his wrist and threw it against a rock.
The glass shattered.
The hands kept moving.
2:13.
David stood.
That was when he noticed the footprints.
They surrounded him.
Dozens of them.
Massive footprints pressed into the mud.
Some were fresh.
Some appeared old.
But none led toward him.
None led away.
They simply surrounded the place where he had been lying.
David crouched beside one.
The print was enormous.
He touched the edge.
Still wet.
Then he noticed something strange.
There were five toes.
But between the first and second toe was a series of tiny parallel lines.
Almost like writing.
David stared at them.
The lines weren’t scratches.
They were deliberate.
A pattern.
He photographed the footprint with his damaged phone out of habit.
The screen remained black.
Then, unexpectedly, it turned on.
There was no battery indicator.
No operating system.
Only one photograph.
David stared at it.
He hadn’t taken it.
The image showed the forest from above.
Hundreds of feet above the ground.
In the center of the clearing stood David.
Around him were six enormous creatures.
And above them—
the lights.
But there was something else in the photograph.
Something David hadn’t seen with his own eyes.
A seventh figure stood behind him.
Tall.
Thin.
Completely hairless.
Its black eyes stared directly into the camera.
David dropped the phone.
The screen went dark.
He spent the next three hours trying to find his way back.
The forest should have been familiar.
It wasn’t.
Every landmark seemed wrong.
Trees appeared where he remembered open ground.
A creek that should have been north was now south.
His compass pointed in circles.
Eventually David found an old service road.
He followed it until he reached an abandoned ranger station.
The same station where he’d discovered the government files.
But something was different.
The building was older.
Much older.
The windows were broken.
The walls were covered with moss.
The metal cabinet was gone.
David walked inside.
The documents had disappeared.
In their place was a single wooden table.
On the table sat a cassette recorder.
David approached it carefully.
A red light was blinking.
He pressed PLAY.
Static filled the room.
Then a voice spoke.
David recognized it immediately.
His own voice.
“If you’re hearing this, you’ve already crossed.”
David stepped backward.
The recording continued.
“Do not trust the lights.”
A pause.
“They aren’t portals.”
David frowned.
The voice sounded exhausted.
Terrified.
“That’s what they want you to think.”
Static.
Then:
“They’re windows.”
David’s heart began pounding.
“There’s a difference.”
The recording clicked.
Then David’s own voice returned.
“They don’t open to other places.”
A long pause.
“They open to other observers.”
The tape stopped.
David stared at the recorder.
He pressed PLAY again.
Nothing.
He rewound it.
Nothing.
The cassette had vanished.
In its place was a small black object.
David picked it up.
It was warm.
Almost hot.
A symbol had been carved into its surface.
The same pattern he’d seen in the footprint.
Three lines.
Two circles.
Three lines.
David suddenly understood.
The creatures weren’t leaving messages for humans.
They were leaving messages for each other.
And he had been reading them backward.
By sunset, David reached civilization.
He found a highway.
Then a gas station.
He walked inside covered in mud.
The cashier stared at him.
“Sir, are you okay?”
David looked at the clock behind the counter.
6:42 P.M.
He stared at it.
“What’s today’s date?”
The cashier gave him a strange look.
“Tuesday.”
“What date?”
The man told him.
David felt his stomach drop.
He had been gone for four days.
He remembered one night.
Maybe two hours.
Not four days.
“Can I use your phone?”
The cashier handed him one.
David called his former partner.
No answer.
He called another investigator.
No answer.
Then he called the cryptolinguist.
The phone rang once.
Twice.
Three times.
A man answered.
“David?”
“Where are you?”
Silence.
“David, where have you been?”
“In the Cascades.”
Another silence.
Then:
“You’ve been missing for four days.”
“I know.”
“No.”
The man’s voice changed.
“You don’t understand.”
David tightened his grip on the phone.
“What?”
“You haven’t been missing for four days.”
“Then how long?”
“Forty-seven days.”
David stopped breathing.
The gas station suddenly felt cold.
“What did you say?”
“Forty-seven days.”
David looked through the window.
Cars passed on the highway.
People walked between pumps.
Everything looked normal.
But David could no longer trust what normal meant.
“Listen to me,” the man said. “Where are you right now?”
David gave him the location.
The man swore.
“Leave.”
“Why?”
“Because that location isn’t supposed to exist anymore.”
David turned toward the window.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tell me.”
Another pause.
Then the man whispered:
“The satellite images show that area as a burned forest.”
David stared at the trees beyond the highway.
“They were destroyed eleven years ago.”
David hung up.
For the first time since the investigation began, he considered walking away.
No more forests.
No more footprints.
No more witnesses.
No more portals.
He would return home.
He would lock every file in a safe.
He would forget the entire thing.
Then he noticed the reflection in the gas station window.
Someone was standing behind him.
David turned.
Nobody was there.
He looked back at the glass.
The reflection remained.
A huge dark figure stood directly behind him.
David spun around again.
Nothing.
The cashier was watching him.
“Sir?”
David pointed toward the window.
“Did you see that?”
The cashier frowned.
“See what?”
David looked again.
The reflection was gone.
But something had appeared on the glass.
A handprint.
Five long fingers.
The palm was enormous.
And beneath it, written in the condensation, were three words.
THEY FOUND YOU.
David left the gas station.
He didn’t take the highway.
He walked into the woods.
He needed to know whether he was being followed.
For two hours, nothing happened.
Then he heard a branch break.
David stopped.
Another branch.
Behind him.
He turned.
Nothing.
He continued walking.
A stone landed beside him.
David froze.
The stone had come from somewhere ahead.
He looked up.
Nothing.
Then another stone landed behind him.
Then another.
Three stones.
Pause.
Two stones.
Pause.
Three.
David’s blood ran cold.
The creatures were communicating.
But this time, the message wasn’t for him.
Something was approaching.
Something they were afraid of.
David whispered:
“Who are you warning me about?”
A voice answered.
Not from the trees.
Inside his head.
Not who.
David’s breathing stopped.
The voice continued.
What.
The forest exploded into movement.
Birds erupted from the trees.
Branches snapped.
Leaves shook.
David dropped to the ground.
Something passed overhead.
Fast.
Too fast to see.
Then silence.
He slowly raised his head.
A dark shape stood on a ridge approximately one hundred yards away.
It was one of the creatures.
The same one from the clearing.
It looked directly at David.
Then it looked toward the sky.
David followed its gaze.
There was nothing there.
Then the clouds moved.
A perfect circle appeared in the sky.
Not a hole.
A distortion.
The clouds around it bent inward.
The air shimmered.
David watched as something emerged.
At first it looked like a bird.
Then it grew.
And grew.
Until it became a massive black shape hovering above the forest.
There were no wings.
No engines.
No sound.
It simply remained there.
David’s mind struggled to understand its shape.
It was almost geometric.
A dark structure suspended in the clouds.
Then the creature beside him made a sound.
David had never heard anything like it.
It wasn’t a roar.
It wasn’t a scream.
It sounded like grief.
The creature dropped to one knee.
David stared.
The enormous being was afraid.
The black object in the sky began descending.
David felt pressure building inside his skull.
His vision blurred.
He heard whispers.
Hundreds of voices.
Thousands.
Some spoke languages he recognized.
Others sounded ancient.
Some sounded almost human.
Then one voice became clear.
David Pites.
He closed his eyes.
The voice continued.
You have been searching for us.
David opened his eyes.
The creature beside him had disappeared.
In its place stood the pale figure.
Hairless.
Tall.
Black eyes.
The same being he had seen through the portal.
It stood perhaps thirty feet away.
David couldn’t move.
The figure raised one hand.
And suddenly David saw memories that weren’t his.
A forest thousands of years ago.
Humans moving through snow.
A group of enormous hairy figures watching from a ridge.
Then something appeared in the sky.
A light.
The creatures ran.
The humans looked upward.
The light expanded.
Then everything became white.
The vision changed.
David saw the same forest centuries later.
Different humans.
Different clothes.
Same creatures.
Always watching.
Always hiding.
Then another vision.
A group of humans standing around a fire.
Beside them stood one of the creatures.
Not attacking.
Not hiding.
Communicating.
David watched as the humans placed food on the ground.
The creature bowed its head.
Then the vision changed again.
Gunshots.
The creature running.
Humans chasing it.
Blood on snow.
A child crying.
The creature disappeared into the trees.
Then came another vision.
Modern times.
Trail cameras.
Helicopters.
Drones.
Military vehicles.
Scientists.
The creatures watching.
Learning.
Adapting.
Avoiding.
David understood.
They hadn’t been hiding because they were afraid of humans.
They were hiding because humans had been hunting them for centuries.
But then the final image appeared.
A group of creatures standing in a circle.
Above them was a portal.
And something was coming through.
Not the pale beings.
Something larger.
Much larger.
The vision ended.
David collapsed.
When he opened his eyes, the pale figure was gone.
The forest was empty.
But the creature’s final message remained inside his mind.
We are not the ones who opened the first door.
David sat up.
“Who did?”
No answer.
Then he heard something behind him.
A human voice.
“David.”
He turned.
A man stood between the trees.
Wearing a dark jacket.
Holding a rifle.
David recognized him.
It was his former partner.
The man who had supposedly been searching for him.
“You’re alive,” David whispered.
The man smiled.
“Yes.”
David stood slowly.
“How did you find me?”
The man didn’t answer.
Instead, he looked toward the sky.
“Did they show you?”
David felt a chill.
“Show me what?”
The man’s smile disappeared.
“The truth.”
David stared at him.
“What truth?”
The man raised his rifle.
“That Bigfoot isn’t the thing we should be afraid of.”
David looked past him.
Something moved among the trees.
A huge silhouette.
Then another.
Then another.
The creatures were surrounding them.
But they weren’t attacking.
They were watching.
Waiting.
David looked at his former partner.
“Put the gun down.”
The man shook his head.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
The man pointed upward.
David looked.
The clouds were changing again.
But this time, the opening wasn’t circular.
It was enormous.
A black crack stretched across the entire sky.
Something was visible beyond it.
Something so large that David couldn’t see where it began or ended.
The creatures began retreating into the forest.
All of them.
Even the largest one.
David’s former partner whispered:
“They’re running.”
David looked at him.
“From what?”
The man answered:
“From the thing that has been watching them.”
The black opening widened.
The entire forest trembled.
Trees bent toward it.
Birds fled.
The ground vibrated beneath David’s feet.
Then a sound came from above.
A deep, impossible sound.
Almost like a heartbeat.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
David suddenly remembered the pattern.
Three.
Two.
Three.
But this time, it wasn’t the creatures making the sound.
The sky was.
His former partner lowered his rifle.
For the first time, David saw genuine terror in his eyes.
“It’s here,” the man whispered.
“What is?”
He looked at David.
“The reason they came here.”
A shadow moved behind the opening.
Something enormous pressed against the other side.
Then one gigantic eye appeared.
David couldn’t breathe.
The eye opened.
It looked directly at him.
And inside David’s mind, a voice spoke.
Not a warning.
Not a threat.
A question.
Where are the others?
David stared at the sky.
Then he realized something.
The voice wasn’t asking about the creatures.
It was asking about humans.
And somewhere deep beneath the forest, something answered.
One by one, lights began appearing across the horizon.
Not hundreds.
Thousands.
David watched as the lights awakened in every direction.
The portals were opening.
Not one.
Not ten.
Everywhere.
And for the first time, David understood the real meaning of the old stories.
The creatures hadn’t come from somewhere else.
They had been hiding from something else.
Something that had been trying to find them.
And now—
it had found us.
David looked at the enormous eye in the sky.
Then the forest went completely black.
And the last thing he heard before the darkness swallowed everything was a whisper from the creature standing somewhere behind him:
Run before they learn your name.
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