00:00My grandfather always told me, if you hear the cow's bell ringing after midnight, don't look out the window.
00:07Just count to 100. I never questioned him.
00:10We lived on an isolated farm in Montana, miles away from the nearest town.
00:15It was just me, him, and 20 head of cattle.
00:18But three months ago, my grandfather passed away in his sleep.
00:22I inherited the land, the house, and the animals.
00:25For the first few weeks, everything was normal.
00:28But last Tuesday, it happened.
00:30I woke up at 3.14 a.m.
00:33The air inside my bedroom was freezing.
00:35That's when I heard it.
00:37Clang, clang, clang.
00:38It was the heavy copper bell of our oldest cow.
00:42Martha, I remembered my grandfather's words.
00:46I closed my eyes tightly and started counting.
00:49One, two, three.
00:51But then, the sound changed.
00:53It wasn't a rhythmic, slow ring of a cow walking.
00:56It was fast, violent, like something was shaking the bell with extreme anger.
01:02And it was moving.
01:03It was moving away from the pasture, coming down the dirt path, straight toward the main house.
01:0945, 46, 47.
01:12My heart was hammering against my chest.
01:15The ringing stopped right outside my front door.
01:18The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating.
01:21Then I heard a wet, heavy thud against the wood.
01:24Like a massive piece of raw meat dropping onto the, uh, porch.
01:28I stopped counting at 60.
01:30I couldn't help it.
01:32Curiosity is a curse.
01:33I crept out of bed, the floorboards cold beneath my bare feet.
01:38I walked into the dark living room and approached the window next to the front door.
01:43The moon was bright, casting long, sharp shadows across the yard.
01:47I peeked through the blinds.
01:49There was a cow standing on the porch.
01:51It looked like Martha, but everything about its posture was wrong.
01:55Its spine was bent at an impossible angle.
01:58And its rear legs were elongated, almost human-like.
02:01It wasn't standing on four hooves.
02:03It was standing on its hind legs, leaning its heavy, furry chest against my door.
02:09But the worst part was the head.
02:11The cow's neck was twisted completely upside down.
02:14Its jaw was unhinged, hanging open, dripping a thick, black fluid onto the floor.
02:21And dangling from its neck, tied with a bloody rope, was the copper bell.
02:26As I stared in horror, the thing stopped moving.
02:29It slowly turned its upside-down head toward the window.
02:33Its eyes weren't the dull, gentle eyes of a farm animal.
02:37There were wide, milky-white human eyes, staring directly into mine.
02:41It smiled, a wide, jagged grin.
02:44Then it raised a long, pale, five-fingered human hand from beneath its chest.
02:50And tapped softly on the glass.
02:52Tap, tap, tap.
02:53A voice, dry and raspy, whispered.
02:56You stopped counting.
02:58I ran back to my room.
03:00Locked the door, and hid under my blanket.
03:02I counted to 100 over and over again until the sun came up.
03:07Tonight I am sitting in my room.
03:09It is 3.10 a.m., and from the empty fields outside, I can hear the faint, distant sound of
03:16a bell.
03:17Clang, clang, clang.
03:20This time I won't stop counting.
03:22I will never stop counting.
03:24Clang, clang.
03:26Clang, clang.
03:27Clang, clang.
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