I have talked to some of the other men in the village, and to my surprise, no one laughed. Others have seen and heard things themselves, it seems, and while none of us mentioned the rumors about the Bowl or the cavern, we all seemed to be in agreement that some kind of monster is plaguing our woods. After some discussion, they have agreed to handle it without notifying any officials. They are forming a hunting party tonight and have asked me to go along. I am not good with a rifle, but I will still go. I feel this is important and necessary to keep us all safe.

****

There continue to be more entries after this, but they are usually short and typically detail their efforts to hunt this creature. Over the next two months, three more people are killed and the hunting party is going out every night with no success.

Then there is a brief paragraph that says that there was a city-wide assembly held by government officials. The townsfolk were told to stop all hunting activities, that this was a government matter that was being investigated. Anyone found outside of town at night (aside from going to and from work at the plant) would risk arrest and punishment.

The next one was the last entry written by Alexi and was clearly hastily done, with the man’s normally precise handwriting, so much like my own, being replaced with the slanting cursive I use when I’m in a rush. The date of the entry was April 27, 1986, the day after the Chernobyl disaster.

****

The plant is still burning. They say it started with Reactor 4. Everyone is afraid of getting sick from the radiation. Many people want to leave, but others say the radiation goes with the wind, and we are safer here. I say that it doesn’t matter, because the whole thing is a lie.

Last week we started the hunting party again. The military was doing nothing and our people kept dying, so we resolved to act. Night before last a group of us went on patrol, and for the first time, we found what we had been looking for. I wish now that we hadn’t.

The creature was standing over the body of a woman, though between her condition and the dark, I couldn’t have said who it was, and in the commotion of the past two days I still haven’t learned. It looked up at us, and in the glow of our lights, we saw it fully. God, but we saw it too well.