Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 52: Meteorite Map, Found

Joshua

Somethingstrange.us is stranger than I was prepared for. And I was prepared for a lot of strange.

A black, clunky front page greets me, littered with ancient graphics from ten years ago and grainy photos annotated in way too bright, way too excited MS paint ink. Beneath the obnoxiously serious header there's an explanation of the site. (Mission statement: to Inform the Masses of the Truth).

Beneath the header is a large photo of two ladies bundled up in winter clothes, excitedly posing around the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The one on on the left is recognisably Shari, her hair proofing out everywhere beneath her cap. The other lady, dressed in a hijab with a smile ecstatically wide, I assume is the one behind this blog.

Down the side of the site, a jarringly long column houses a master post that organizes all the creatures and strange happenings this blogger has chronicled. The posts are listed by relevance and amount of information on said cryptid occurrence, each with strange, sensational titles, such as The Fresno Nightcrawlers, The Creature of Millville High, and The Flatwoods Monster.

The more I scroll, the more I realise Sundo isn't the only creature this blogger is obsessed with. In fact, he doesn't even seem to be the most popular. A good half-dozen blog threads outrank him, and even then, it takes a moment before I spot the one that might be dedicated to him.

The Colorado Wendigo.

It doesn't immediately catch my eye because I'm looking for "alien" or "extraterrestrial", and I pass over it a couple times before I think to pay attention to the name of my state. I'm still not so sure this is the one I'm looking for until I click it. As soon as the page loads, all doubt leaves me. This is the page.

Right there on the first blog post, a blurry photo stares back at me of a Windsor neighborhood. A dark shape is darting across the frame, striped with bones and baring gaping teeth. I wish I could write it off as photoshop, but... it's undeniably Sundo.

Dread sinks into my bones as I begin to scroll. Again and again, I see those words: Colorado Wendigo. What is a "Wendigo"? Does this blogger know something I don't?

I glance to Sundo beside me, where he's engrossed in his screen. He looks like any other normal teen doing research at the library... not like a creature one would be writing conspiracy theories about. He even still has those glasses on. They make him look so scholarly and cute, if I'm being honest... like a highschool senior who might play a good game in soccer but also be able to tutor me in math or AP World.

Why... is that thought kind of hot?

Shit, you're getting side-tracked, Joshua. Focus on the task at hand! As creepy and unnerving as this task is turning out to be...

I force myself to look at my own screen again before Sundo can catch me staring, because that would be embarrassing. Maybe I'll tell him about the glasses thing later. Yeah. Later. Maybe.

Skimming the feed, my nerves return as I dive deeper into this blogger's conspiracies. She speculates that "the ghastly creature inhabiting the Windsor, Colorado area" is "possibly extraterrestrial due to the bolide event preceding its first known sightings." It's just a little too close to home for comfort, however, thankfully, she doesn't seem to adhere to this theory much. Far more often, she's elaborating on why she believes this thing is a wendigo, which apparently is something entirely other than an alien. Something supernatural, but not extraterrestrial.

I'm not sure if that's much better, to be honest.

She describes wendigos as mythical, man-eating beasts that typically inhabit cold, forest-like habitats. Often types they're skeletal, though interpretations seem to vary? The only thing that really matches my alien is the skeletal part.