It began with a sound outside Sophie’s window—low, wet panting. She thought it was just a stray dog. But when she looked outside, she saw a tall figure standing in the shadows. Its body was shaped like a man, but its head was stretched, elongated, with a snout too sharp to belong to anything human.

The Dog Man.

Neighbors whispered about him for years. Some said he was a man cursed for cruelty to animals; others believed he was something far older, a forest demon wearing a dog’s skin. People who saw him didn’t last long. He marked them.

That night, Sophie closed her curtains and tried to forget. But as she lay in bed, she heard claws scraping at her front door. Then, a voice—deep, distorted—whispered her name.

She froze. No one else was home. She checked her phone, searching TikTok for “Dog Man,” hoping it was just another internet myth. But every video she found ended the same way: the creator whispering into the camera, terrified, “If you hear him call your name… don’t answer.”

The scratching grew louder. She pressed her hands to her ears.

Silence.

She sighed, thinking it was over. But when she looked down, muddy paw prints trailed across her bedroom floor—leading to the closet. The door creaked open, slow and deliberate.

From the darkness, two glowing eyes stared back at her. The panting returned, louder now, hot and damp against her face though nothing touched her skin.

The Dog Man stepped out, his body twitching as if bones cracked beneath his skin. His smile stretched unnaturally wide, lips peeling back to reveal teeth not of a dog, not of a man—but something in between.

The last thing Sophie remembered before blacking out was the stench of wet fur and the sound of claws dragging across the floor, spelling her name in long, jagged lines.

The police found her house empty the next morning. Only her phone remained, recording a TikTok live. The final frame showed her bedroom door swinging open… and the Dog Man stepping through.