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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Maccaroni_cheez164 on 2026-05-17 18:25:42+00:00.

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For the sake of privacy, and for police investigation, I will not disclose my exact location. What I will disclose is that the state I live in, it isn’t unheard of to get moose but still remains fairly rare as compared to a state like Alaska.

That’s why despite never seeing a moose prior to my encounter, I still knew the basic rule of that “if you see a moose in the road, try to swerve away from it”. Aside from that fact, the only other information I knew about moose (obviously outside of the basics of that they are native to North America, etc.) came from my freshman year biology class in college.

My biology professor was an older eccentric lady who loved niche topics such as the effects of a specific brand of pesticide run-off on local lake plants, but I’m getting off track. One unit taught us that sometimes that moose will accidentally eat plants that have a snail or by extension deer poop on them and it will cause the moose to get a parasite. The parasite then causes what is called moose sickness, more commonly called brainworm. Brainworm causes symptoms such as walking in circles, stumbling, severe head tilt, decreased fear of humans, some degree of blindness, emaciation, and poor motor coordination before eventually dying from the parasite in their brain.

This was something my professor was passionate about since it was a more common occurrence for moose to develop brainworm due to rising temperatures pushing moose more southern into territories where these parasites thrive. I will never forget her showing us a video of a moose with a brainworm. It was sad, very sad.

Through the grainy YouTube footage, you could see suffering clear as day. It appeared to be a younger moose based off the lack of antlers and size compared to the small trees it should have towered over. The moose’s head was tilted so far to its right, it was nearly parallel to the ground it seemed like. It stumbled forward as if it were drunk, trying to gather its footing. After that, it spun in circles as you would see a dog do when chasing its tail. Before finally, stumbling back into the woods awkwardly. The narration of the video made it sadder.

“Oh that poor baby! Can’t we do anything, honey?” The voice that sounded like a sweet old southern woman asked as the moose disappeared into the tree line.

“Nothing we can do, darling. We just gots to hope and pray it goes quickly.” Responded the voice of a gruff older southern man.

I assume this was a couple on vacation somewhere, how horrible to see something like this on vacation? I know it’s life but even then to see a baby animal suffering from a parasite that makes it brain and nervous system rot is still something probably they would want their money back for.

Something that sticks out to me more vividly than the uncoordinated gait or the sad narration of this couple were the moose’s eyes. You know that old saying that goes, “The eyes are the window to the soul.” When looking into the eyes of that creature, that saying was given merit. Eyes that should have conveyed thinking and feeling were now only black beads resting in skull of a creature being controlled like a puppet.

My encounter made me think about that video and those lessons from my strange yet well-meaning professor. In a sick way it was like foreshadowing only a taste of what was to come.

It was late May, my friend Addy and I had just left from seeing a movie. We are not big movie people overall but we make it a tradition to see a movie every other month just to do something other than play video games as a go to activity. We saw some schlocky horror movie, which was not a great movie, to put it politely. Yet it was still fun. Normally, Addy would be the one driving but I was the one driving that night. I’ll get to why in a bit. We left the movie theater at about a little after 10pm.

“Dude, the part where he stabbed the woman with umbrella and then opened it?! Bruh, of all the things why was that the choice?” Addy laughed.

“Man, I thought the ending was worse. You are telling me the Umbrella Man’s weakness is going indoors? Gosh, only with someone with too much free time would create this.” I replied.

We were walking towards my car when I could feel Addy give me pleading eyes in my peripheral vision. I knew what she wanted, it was fine and I do mean that.

“Fine…how could I say no to my bro.” I sighed. “BUT remember! Outside of the car! I don’t want the smell in there.”

“All good.” She replied “I promise I will be quick.”

I unlocked the car with the key fob, she ran towards the passenger side of the back seat door, opened it, and pulled out a drawstring bag. I could hear plastic and ceramic clanging against each other. She then sat criss cross on the parking lot ground. She pulled out a bowl and a grinder. Yep, my friend was smoking weed in the parking lot of a movie theater.

I walked around to the driver’s side of the car, got inside, started the car, and waited. I rolled down the passenger side window just a smidge so I could hear her, I’ve been spooked too many times by her face suddenly popping up silently. I hear the flick of the lighter and the sound of Addy inhaling.

This is why I was driving; Addy is someone who likes to indulge in marijuana every so often, I don’t mind it. I just am not a person who fancies weed much though I do not like the smell, especially in my car. I’ve gotten too many complaints from family members I’ve had to drive around that I now carry a can of Lysol just in case since I have found it to block out the smell better than most air fresheners.

I heard Addy pack her stuff back up into her bag based on the clanging of ceramic and plastic. Followed by her footsteps getting closer. She opened the passenger door, sat in the seat, and gently placed her stuff in the back seat.

“Thanks man, you know I’ve had a stressful week at the hospital, so I appreciate it.” She commented.

“Of course, man, you know I would never judge. I have no right to even if I wanted to.” I replied.

“I just can’t believe it’s a 45-minute drive home.” She said as she buckled her seatbelt.

I buckled mine and put the car into reverse.

“I know but it was worth it for The Umbrella Man.” I joked.

I guess I should have mentioned earlier that our hometown is rural. I mean the closest hospital is 30 minutes away (under the best weather conditions that is) and a Walmart is an hour away. So, the drive anywhere fun is always a slog. That night I decided to take the backroads since I knew on Fridays nights the main roads would be a bit more…unforgiving. The backroads were always empty, even on Friday nights.

We drove about 25 minutes, just chatting about the movie, life, and how much we appreciated the other. We have always been each other's support system. I couldn’t imagine my life with Addy; she’s an incredible friend. The backroads were dark, having my headlights act as the only source of light for miles. It was closer to that 30-minute mark when “it” emerged.

I was going down a hill, back onto flat land when I started to see the silhouette of something, at first, I thought I was just seeing things because it was late and I was a little tired. The outline got bigger and more defined though which caused me to hit my brakes once I realized it was something. I fully stopped and my headlights illuminated the creature in front of me. It was a moose or at least something that looked like a moose.

It had the overall basics of a moose, the antlers, the build, and was about as big if not bigger than my car. There were traits that did not make it moose-like though. It had a head tilt heavily to its right, which shot memories of learning about brainworm through my head. It's eyes were milky white marbles slightly bulging out its head. The fur that was supposed to be a shiny brown was now a dull beige overtaken by bright green moss. This moss went all over its body from its hooves to antlers. The fur was unkempt, even by the standards of a wild animal. Its legs that were supposed to be straight by standard of regular moose photos were mildly bow-legged and had light splattering of dry dark blood. Its mouth slung slightly open and was constantly drooling.

I was in shock. I could feel the tenseness rise in the car once we both comprehended the creature in front of us. This didn’t look like an animal that should be alive, but it was there.

“Are you seeing-“

I cut Addy off before finishing her question.

“Yeah, I’m seeing it.”

“So my stuff-“

“No, it’s not laced.”

Though as messed up as it sounds, I wish in that moment her weed was laced because then that would mean what we were seeing wouldn’t be real.

That creature was an abomination of nature. We didn’t know what it wanted but we would soon learn.

The moose let out a noise that sounded like a distorted boat horn before charging at us with a swift yet clumsy lunge.

“REVERSE IT!” Addy screamed.

Like second nature, my hand immediately put the car into reverse. I stomped on the gas pedal, and I twisted my body to look out the back windshield to make sure I didn’t ram into anything.

As we moved backward, I started to hear a loud clicking sound among the continued bellows of the beast. What was it? It sounded like…firecrackers? I would come to later realize this was the sound of its bones hitting against each other in its body as it was chasing after us.

“OH GOD HOW IS IT EVEN RUNNING?!” Addy shrieked in horror.

I could feel myself ...

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