Casigus

one

Jackson

_____The most terrifying thing I've ever heard was told to me by my father. I saw something when I was younger, and after I did, I asked my father about it, and the answer that he gave me was one that I never could have been prepared to hear. What I saw and what he told me still haunts me to this day. My father said the thing was called a casigus, which was something I'd never heard of until he told me what it was.
_____ When I was eighteen, I went on a camping trip with a few of my high-school football teammates, and that's where the whole event really began. My father, who, while he had always been loving and supportive, had always struck me as somewhat odd, and up until that point, he had always had an aversion to camping. But, I was eighteen then, I was grown, and he knew I wasn't going to listen to that aversion forever. To ease his mind, I told him that we were going to be camping hours away from where we lived, far from the mountain, as his aversion to camping always seemed to be centered around that particular area. But, that wasn't what we did. We only drove to the other side of that mountain, where there was a campground.
_____ It was spring break, and the weather was just about as perfect as it could've been, the trees in the woods newly green and flowers and bushes were in full bloom. The world had a fresh look, the feeling of a new start after the rather harsh winter we had had that year. I was excited for our camping trip, ready for a break from the pressures and stress of school, with all of its homework and studies and tests. Honestly though, looking back, I would gladly trade the stress of what happened on that trip for the stress of high school, and really, high school didn't feel so stressful anymore after that.
_____The campground we had chosen was sort of secluded, just about out in the middle of nowhere. It was situated about ten miles outside of a small mountain town which had a population of no more than three hundred people. The campground itself was the last piece of civilization on that mountain, and beyond it, was nothing but very deep woods up to its peak. The parking lot was situated about a half mile from the campground itself, and so we would have to walk up a trail to get to our campsite, and carry all our gear with us. We pulled into the parking lot near the visitors center, which doubled as a camp store, and immediatly, we noticed the signs they had up which warned of predators in the area. They had pictures of wolves and bears on them, and warned in bold red letters not to leave any food out, and to hang coolers up from a sturdy tree. Collectively, between the four of us, we decided to be sure to heed that warning; no one wanted to wake up in the middle of the night to a brown bear going through our cooler.
_____We made quick work of setting up our tents and chairs when we got there, and the first day and night went very smoothly. We were having lots of fun hiking some trails through the woods during the day and swimming in the nearby creek, and at night, we enjoyed roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire. One of my friends, Sam, had even snuck a few beers out of his house and into our drink cooler, and so we had a good laugh as we drank them on that first night. We did notice, however, that there were no other campers there, and we were quite alone on the mountain.
_____The second night is when things started to go wrong, and they didn't go wrong quickly or suddenly, but slowly. For the entire time we had been there, we had been hearing noise in the woods. It wasn't anything odd, simply the normal sounds one would expect in a place like that; a small animal rustling in the trees or forest floor, birds chirping, a twig snapping, something like a small branch falling from a tree nearby, and at night, all of the crickets and katydids and other bugs you hear at night, as well as the occasional croak of a bullfrog from the creek. The noise was so constant that it was immediatly noticeable when every single sound stopped on that second night. We were all sitting around the fire when it happened, and as soon as it did, all conversation broke off and we all looked around the campsite. However, we couldn't see much at all, as the fire lit up only a small area, and beyond it, the woods were pitch black.
_____"What in the world?" Sam asked.
_____"That's wierd," Benny, another friend, said. "Where did all the bugs go?"
_____There was a pause as we listened, trying to hear anything, but it truely had gone silent. There was nothing at all to hear, no bugs, no rustling of small animals, not even a breeze shaking the leaves on the trees. It was odd, but more than that, it was rather unnerving. Then, I thought of something that made me a bit more nervous.
_____"Sometimes the animals hide if there's a big predator, like a bear," I told them.
_____"Stop, don't say that," Benny said, tossing the tab of his soda can at me.
_____"Oh no, guys," Milo, the fourth one of us, spoke up. While we all seemed to share the same nervousness, the mood was somewhat light hearted, sort of like when you first start watching a scary movie with a group of friends, and you're actively trying not to get freaked out. "We better sharpen some sticks and get ready to fight the bear."
_____We sort of laughed at that, but my mind was thinking on if there really was something out there or not. We had just barely started to go back to our conversation, when all of a sudden, we began to hear what sounded like footsteps from somewhere beyond the fire. It didn't sound like a person, and it instead sounded like an animal walking on four legs. However, it didn't sound like it could've been big enough to be a bear. My first thought was a wolf, but would one wolf really cause the woods to fall silent like that? That was my question.
_____"You guys hear that?" Sam said, his voice a bit quieter.
_____We sort of paused once again, listening, and we could easily hear the sound of something walking around. But, it didn't sound very close, and within only a minute or so, we stopped hearing it. In another minute after that, the bugs began to make noise again, and everything went back to normal.
_____We should have left right then, even if it was just a bear. But it wasn't; oh, I wish it had been a bear.
_____The following day was just fine; we had almost totally forgotten about the strange event the night before. We just went on with our activities, exploring some different trails and doing a little rock climbing, and I remember that we even found a nice cave a few miles from our campsite. Initially, we had thought the cave was pretty small. The entrance was no more than a two and a half foot wide, three foot tall gap in the rocks. But, once we slid through it, we found that it opened up into a somewhat large room, and beyond that, there were tunnels. We followed them for a short while, until we realized just how big the cave system was, and not wanting to get lost, we left the cave inside half an hour. Really, the day was going well; up until it just barely started to get dark.
_____When the sun began to go down, we headed back to our campsite. It wasn't dark, but it was that time of day when the sun is half way down out of the sky, and the bright beams of light shine through the trees and into your eyes. We were making our way back down the trail about a mile and a half from the campsite, when suddenly, that silence came again. Just as it had the night before, everything went quiet. All of the birds stopped chirping, the bugs stopped making noise, even a frog that was somewhere nearby suddenly stopped making noise, like it had cut itself off mid-croak. When that happened, we stopped walking, stopped talking, and just as we had the night before, we looked around us.
_____"This again," Sam said, his voice sort of quiet, like he didn't want to break the silence around us.
_____Nervously, I looked around, listening, searching for any movement at all, waiting for a bear or wolf or something of the sort to step out from around a tree. But, there was nothing. There was no sound, no movement, absolute dead silence.
_____"Guys, I've been camping my whole life," Benny said, his voice also quieted the way Sam's had been. "I've never had this happen-"
_____Benny stopped dead in the middle of his sentence when we suddenly heard a sound that sent a rush of unease through all of us.
_____"Help!"
_____We all froze. It was a male's voice that yelled out, emanating from somewhere in the trees. My immediate thought was that whatever predator had caused the woods to go so silent had attacked some hiker. I almost ran off towards the sound, but I stopped, and the voice replayed in my mind. Something sounded off about that voice. It was an odd quality that I couldn't quite place, almost as if there was some kind of static in the word. The only thing I can think of to describe it is that it didn't quite sound human, like it was missing something.
_____None of us moved from the trail, but Milo called back to the voice. "Hello?"
_____There was silence for a few seconds, and then we heard the voice again. "Help me!"
_____I found myself searching the trees once more, looking again for any movement. I tried to pick out where the voice was coming from to search in that direction, but it sounded sort of distant, and that made it hard to discern a point of origin. We paused there for a few moments, listening, and then Milo stepped off the trail.
_____"Milo, don't," I said quickly, grabbing his arm.
_____"What do you mean?" He said. "Someone's out there."
_____"Somethings wrong," I said in a hushed voice. Alarm bells were ringing in my mind; it was like there was some primal part of my brain that was suddenly screaming at me to be afraid.
_____Milo stopped, looking back out at the woods beyond the trail. Right then, I knew he felt the same way that I did; it was like I could just feel it. Then, the same voice rang out again.
_____"I'm here!"
_____"Guys, what do we do?" Benny asked, and I could hear the unease in his voice.
_____That was when we heard the sound of a stick breaking. All of our heads jolted in the direction of the sound, and we looked just in time to see something black dissapear behind a boulder. We only saw it for a second, and I hadn't been able to see exactly what it was, but it was big; bigger than a wolf, but not so big as a grizzly bear. I wanted so badly to think it was a black bear, but after hearing that voice, something was telling me that it wasn't. Everything felt wrong, and it was like the air itself carried a type of dread that I'd never felt before.
_____"I think we should get back to camp," I said in a hushed tone, my eyes starring after where the thing went, and the statement was met with quick nods from my friends.
_____Quickly, we carried on down the trail, looking over our shoulders every thirty seconds. That thing didn't follow us at first though, and after only about five minutes of walking, the sounds of the woods came back, and there was no longer silence. Still, however, that feeling of nervousness was with us all as the sun sank further down overhead. By the time we made it back to camp, it was almost fully dark. I felt a terrible sence of dread for the coming night, that voice replaying over and over again in my mind. There was something wrong, something out there, and I knew it. We were quiet as we entered our campsite, not like how we had been the rest of our trip, talking and laughing. I thought that my friends felt the same way I did, and it was confirmed when Sam spoke up.
_____"Guys, should we leave?" He said, and we all looked to him when he did. "That was just... I dont know, you guys, this is getting a little wierd for me. Something seems off."
_____"Did you guys see something black out there?" I asked. "I saw it for like a second."
_____"Okay, hang on," Milo spoke up. "You guys sound like you're thinking there's some creature or ghost or something out there." We all looked at him, and I could tell we were all three thinking the same thing as we did; wondering if he'd had the same experience that we had. Milo paused a moment looking back at us, before he spoke again. "Okay okay, I'm not sure if I believe that, but even if it's just some creepy guy out there, I'll admit that's a little wierd."
_____"Maybe we should go," I said.
_____"We can't, guys, not tonight," Benny said, looking up at the sky. "Its already dark. The cars are half a mile away. We'd just be tripping over ourselves trying to carry everything out of here in the pitch black with just flashlights."
_____We all knew he was right. But, even so, I wanted to leave. Whether or not we should have left right then, I don't know. I can't say that the outcome of that trip would have been different if we had tried to get out of there in the dark right away. I dont like to think about it.
_____For a while, nothing happened, and we kept the fire stocked, the flames licking pretty high up into the air. We tried to distract ourselves from the dread that by then we were all feeling, but every time a twig snapped, we all looked. We couldn't see anything into the woods beyond the fire's glow, and it made me nervous to think that if something was out there, it could easily see us. But, the woods were noisy, and that seemed to mean that nothing was there. Well, they were noisy, until they weren't. Just as they had the previous night, the woods suddenly fell dead silent. The moment they did, my heart jumped with fear, and I looked around at my friends, who had all frozen. Milo was a little bit away from the fire, getting something out of the cooler, and within only a few seconds, he quickly came back over to us, looking around as he did. Then, we heard that same voice again.
_____"Help!"
_____I can't describe the fear I felt in that moment. I knew that something was very wrong; I knew, right at that moment, that we were being stalked. I knew that there was a predator of some kind out there, and we were exposed to it. We were completely exposed, the only protection we had being the fire, or the thin fabric of a tent. We had nowhere to go, nowhere to truely hide, no house or car to retreat into. There was no barrier between us and whatever was out there. We were vulnerable in the most raw sence of the word, and that is a kind of fear that I hope to never expirience again. It's a kind of fear that has stuck with me since then, and one which I have nightmares about. We stayed silent, none of us calling back to the voice, and then we heard something begin to move. It sounded exactly like the footsteps we had heard the night before. It was something on four legs and not two, something big, but not so big as a bear; something just about the size of the black thing we had seen earlier. We listened as it moved from left to right, but the footsteps were barely audible, and if the woods hadn't been otherwise silent, we wouldn't have heard them at all. It wasn't very close to us, and the footsteps weren't getting louder as if it were moving towards us, but it sounded instead as if it were walking directly along side where we were. Several minutes passed before the foot steps stopped, and then we heard the voice again, but from the opposite direction then it had come the first time.
_____"Please!"
_____It was a desperate cry, one which was more convincing than it had been before, but it still didn't sound right. The best way I can describe it is that it was missing something that would have made it sound human, but I can't place exactly what it was missing. But it was just wrong somehow. I pulled my flashlight out of the cup holder of my chair and clicked it on, shining the white beam out into the woods. Terrified of what it might fall on, I shined it slowly around us, and my friends all watched as I did. We saw nothing but trees, until the flashlight finally fell on something. There was something black, even more deep black than the woods, blacker than a shadow, and we caught a glimpse of it moving behind a huge thick tree. I still couldn't see what it was yet, but I saw a long furry tail, and along it, I saw what looked like white spines or spikes. It had moved closer to us somehow without us hearing it, like it was intentionally covering up it's footfalls, as if it were walking on rocks to avoid stepping on the leaves of the forest floor.
_____We all starred at the spot we'd seen it, but it didn't reappear from behind the tree. Then, we began to hear it again. It was avoiding the beam of the flashlight, I realized, and had backed off from us while staying behind the huge tree. Something like that showed intelligence; it showed thought, it showed planning, it showed skill, and that made my heart jolted with an even deeper terror. Then, we could hear it moving left to right again.
_____"What do we do?" Sam whispered, his eyes locked onto the woods.
_____"Don't let the fire go out," I whispered back.
_____We listened for the thing as we stocked the fire, and we heard it's foot steps for a few minutes as it seemed to do a complete circle around the campsite, and then it fell silent. We stayed close to the fire, as close as we could without burning ourselves, and we kept our eyes locked onto the woods in different directions. Milo had a flashlight, too, and we both shined them into the trees, trying to spot the thing. There was a part of me that screamed out to turn off the flashlight, to not let my eyes fall on whatever the thing was, but I just couldn't. I was too afraid, and I needed to try and see where it was.
_____"I'm here!"
_____We all jumped as the voice called out again, much closer that time. It sounded like it was only a few yards away, and then we heard something else that made me want to scream. We heard a low rumbling growl, one which didn't sound like any animal I'd ever heard. Just like the voice, that growl sounded like it was missing something that would have made it sound like an animal, and like the voice, it just sounded wrong. Our attention snapped in the direction the growl had come from, and Milo and I shined our lights that way, but we couldn't see anything.
_____"Its trying to lure us out," I said the moment that I realized it. The notion was absolutely the most horrifying thing I'd ever thought of; it was smart, and it wanted us away from the fire, it wanted us away from each other, it wanted us closer to it. I looked around at my friends, seeing the same growing sence of terror that I felt. "No one leave the fire."
_____For a while, nothing more happened, and we kept on stocking the fire, keeping the flames as high as we could. The sounds of the forest never returned, and every few minutes, we would hear the creature walking around, circling our campsite. I was praying for morning to come, praying for the light of day to chase the creature away. But we were hours from sunrise, and each minute of sitting there in the dark was worse than the last. After two hours, the creature went quiet, but we knew it was there. It was like it was laying down somewhere, watching us, waiting. Then, a new problem arose, as if the situation wasn't frightening enough: our stock of firewood was getting very low. We were almost completely out, and as a consequence, we added less and less fuel to the fire, and the flames lessoned. Then, we began to hear the creature again, that growl emanating from somewhere close by, somewhere that we couldn't see.
_____"We need firewood," Sam said, his voice hushed, his eyes, like all of ours glued to the black woods.
_____"We need to get out of here," Milo said. "You guys, there's one of whatever that thing is and four of us. We all have hunting knives. We need to get to the cars."
_____"No way," Benny disagreed. "Not in the dark. There's a reason we haven't been hiking at night, Milo. It's pitch black out there with tons of crap all over the trails. Even with flashlights, we'll just be tripping all over ourselves."
_____"And what if that thing decides to attack us?" I said. "It starts chasing us, and then what do we do?"
_____Right then, we heard the creature growl again, heard it's foot steps, and they were closer. Our heads all snapped in the direction of it, and right at the edge of the fires light, we caught a glimpse of it moving behind a tree. It was so close, the dying fire opening up what it saw as an opportunity to get nearer to us, and with a glance at our wood pile which had only a few sticks left, I knew it was only a matter of time. By then, we clung to our hunting knives.
_____"Over here."
_____It was the voice again, right behind us. I turned as fast as lightning and shined my light that way, and I caught a glimpse of it as it walked right behind one of our two tents. I saw more of it that time, and scaling it agaisnt the tent, I worked out that it had a shoulder height of about four feet. I didn't see the thing's head, but I saw what looked like spines; huge white spikes down it's back.
_____"What is this thing?" I just barely heard myself say.
_____Well, we knew we needed firewood. So, with dread and fear, we came up with a plan. Sam and I would go to one side of the camp and do our best to attract the creature there, to keep our eyes on it, while Milo and Benny went into the woods on the other side to grab as much wood as possible. We were terrified, but the idea of sitting there in the pitch black with no fire was even more terrifying. So, we split up, and Sam and I went to one side, while Benny and Milo went to the other. Sam and I made noise as if we were going into the woods, snapping twigs and kicking rocks into the leaves, and I shined my light around close to the ground as if I were trying to pick my way through the trees. We listened for the creature, and after a few seconds, we heard the footsteps coming towards us. I shined my light around, looking for it, while Sam clutched his hunting knife. We couldn't hear Milo and Benny from where we were, and that gave us hope that if the creature was closer to us, it couldn't hear them either. We heard it's footsteps for a few minutes, heard it growling, even caught a glimpse of its tail near a boulder, but then it went silent.
_____Benny told me that he and Milo were grabbing as much wood as they could, when all of a sudden, they heard that thing's voice come from somewhere close by. When they heard it, however, it wasn't a yell, wasn't a cry out for help, but instead, it was almost like a whisper.
_____"Hey, over here."
_____Benny said that he and Milo froze immediatly, and they turned to the side, where they finally saw the creature head on, and it said one more word.
_____"Milo."
_____Sam and I suddenly heard the most ear piercing, terrifying screaming you could possibly imagine, and then we heard vicious growling which was so violent that it sounded almost like a roar. I will never forget the sounds I heard that night. The sounds of Milo screaming, of the creature growling, of the leaves rustling violently as that creature dragged Milo away. I heard Benny screaming Milo's name, and Sam and I bolted in thier direction, knowing what was happening, terrified, but desperate to save our friend. Before we even got there, we nearly ran straight into Benny as he ran towards us, his eyes wide and wild, his face panicked, and he grabbed onto us in desperate fear, as if we could protect him. We heard Milo screaming from somewhere in the dark, and then those screams were suddenly cut off, and we knew right then that Milo was gone. But I felt no sadness in that moment, only fear, and a desperate need to survive.
_____"I saw it!" Benny told us frantically as we all quickly put our backs to each other, looking out in every direction around the campsite. "Its a monster! The eyes, those yellow eyes!"
_____"Benny, ssshh," Sam shushed him.
_____Our eyes searched the trees, the beam of my flashlight trailing over them.
_____"I'm here!"
_____The voice was loud and clear, calling out for us, right near us. I jolted in the direction of it, shining my light that way, and finally, I saw the beast. My light landed directly on it, and there it was, standing only a few yards away. It was big, and it had fur that was blacker than the night, missing in some patches to reveal black skin underneath. It vaguely resembled a dog, but it looked like a nightmare version of one. It had long thin legs, a wide broad chest and a thin almost emaciated back end, a long snout like a German shepherd and ears which were twice as tall as any dog, and one of them was noticeably torn rather significantly. In between them, it had two black horns like a gazzel's horns. There were long sharp spines down it's back, at least a foot long at its shoulders, and gradually decreasing in height down into its tail. It stood with its head lowered, and it's jaw was unhinged like a snake, the bottom jaw hanging down, and it's long tongue hung down out of its mouth. Deep red blood dripped from its razor sharp, snake like teeth, staining them in red, and it looked right back at me with the most horrifying eyes I have ever seen. Two bright round yellow orbs which burned like fire, and in them, I saw something that looked all too human.
_____"I'm here!"
_____I saw the thing's chest tighten with the words, but it's mouth didn't move, something like a ventriloquist. I will never get that image out of my mind, and I have seen it in my nightmares for years since. The bright glow of its eyes in the beam of my flashlight, the way it's jaw hung down like it wasn't attached, Milo's blood dripping off of its tongue, and all while it called out to me, looking right back at me.
_____I screamed. I screamed like I never had before, and never have since. Sam and Benny turned immediatly, but the thing dodged out of sight just as they did. Our fire had all but burned out by then, and we grabbed the last little bit of sticks as fast as lightning and threw them into the pit, lighting the flames up again. I bolted into my tent, nearly ripping it with as quickly as I opened the zipper, and I grabbed my sleeping bag to throw into the fire pit, too. Sam and Benny followed my example, and we threw anything we could on the fire, trying desperately to keep the flames alive, but it was a losing battle. Things were quiet then for a short while as the flames burned away the last of the fuel we had for them, and that was when Benny told us what had happened to Milo. We didn't have time to grieve, because soon, the flames died down to embers, and when they did, my hope of making it to morning died to embers, too.
_____After I saw the creature, it didn't call out to us again. It was as if that last call wasn't at all to lure us away, but a jab at me, a simple statement that echoed the words it had said: I'm here. It was just telling us that it was there, that it could see us, and that it wanted us. We stood back to back with each other, looking in each direction, Sam and Benny using thier cell phone flashlights while I shined my brighter light around. With every step the creature took, with every circle that it made around us, I felt that it was taunting us. Whether it was, or it was just waiting for the right moment to attack, I don't know. I listened as it moved, and then I heard it stop right infront of the way I faced, and I knew it was there, just barely beyond the beam of my flashlight. I starred out into those woods, right at that spot, for what felt like forever, terrified and waiting for it to do something, anything, and then it finally did. It all of a sudden rushed forwards, and it was like the world fell into slow motion as that horrific beast rushed from the darkness and into my flashlight beam. It leaped into the air, mouth wide open, huge snake like teeth bared, it's paws reached forwards with claws like a lion. I looked into its eyes for what felt like years, though I know was only a second, and I dodged to the side just in time for the thing to miss landing directly onto me. It crashed into Sam, knocking him onto the ground as Benny and I dodged to the sides. Sam was stunned for a second, but the moment he realized what was happening, he went straight into fight mode, whiping around onto his back to face the beast above him. The creature didn't waste time, and it dug it's claws into Sam's stomach. Deep red blood splattered outwards and Sam began to scream, grabbing at the creature, his hands gripping it's fur violently, trying desperately to push it off of him. Benny and I rushed in, knives in hand, yelling and screaming at the creature. The entire thing was an adrenaline filled blur, but I remember my knife making contact with the beast. I buried the blade in it's back just as it sunk the claws of its other paw into Sam's chest, but my eight inch long hunting knife had no effect on the beast at all. It didn't even flinch, didn't react, and it just continued it's attack. It only lasted mere seconds, but those seconds will forever haunt me, and I will forever feel the guilt that came with my inability to save my friend. Benny was desperately trying to pull Sam away from the creature, but the creature was too big, too strong, and then it's teeth were in Sam's throat. It bit down hard, and nothing will ever take the place of that sound in my mind as the worst thing that has ever assaulted my ears. The horrible crunch of the bone breaking, the wet sound of blood which was almost like a step into mud in a wet field, Sam's gurgling scream as his windpipe was crushed. Then, the thing picked Sam up by his throat, and it dragged him away, off into the woods, ripping him out of Benny's grasp.
_____We heard the sound of the beast eating Sam. It didn't go far from us at all, mere yards away. We heard the crunching of bones breaking, the tearing of flesh, the sound of the creature's tongue as it licked the blood. I wanted to cover my ears, wanted to scream to cover the sound up so I wouldn't have to hear it, but I was frozen there, my eyes starring in the direction it had gone. Then, Benny grabbed my arm. His hand was splattered with Sam's blood, and it got onto me.
_____"Jackson, we have to go," he said in a hushed voice. "We have to try and get out of here."
_____I knew what he was thinking, and my chest still hurts because of it. My chest still hurts at the fact that we took advantage of the creature being distracted by eating our friend in order to try and escape. But we had no other option. We had to go at a moments notice, had to shut out the horrible feeling of what we were doing, and we just ran. We ran down the trail towards the parking lot as fast as we could, tripping constantly over rocks and sticks in the path, dodging under branches and being cut up by thorns which were overgrown and jutted out onto the trail. At one point, I tripped and fell hard, nearly breaking my wrist as I did, and a wave of pain shot up my arm. Benny, who was behind me, rushed up to me to help me up, but he froze just as he got to me.
_____There were footsteps. The creature was coming after us.
_____In an absolute panic, Benny grabbed me and pulled me to my feet, and the two of us kept running down that trail, trying desperately to avoid falling again, but it was useless. The trail was too treacherous, and in only a few minutes, Benny tripped and fell behind me. I whipped around to grab him but before I could even so much as reach my hand out, the creature leaped out from behind a tree, and it sunk it's teeth into Benny's leg. Benny screamed, his eyes wide in terror, and the creature began to drag him backwards. His fingers dug desperately into the dirt, clawing, reaching for anything to grab onto to stop himself, but the creature was too fast. I screamed Benny's name like I've never screamed for someone before, and the sound of my own voice in that moment sounded like it was someone else. I bolted for him, dove for him, tried to grab him, but the creature dragged him viciously off the trail and into the darkness beyond my sight. Benny screamed again, and I heard the sound of dragging for a second or two, and then I heard that all too familiar sound of bones breaking.
______I got up as fast as I could, and all alone, I carried on down that trail, running, getting cut up by branches and thorns, tripping every three feet, and panic and terror are not strong enough words to describe what I felt. Finally, the parking lot came into view, and I ran faster, the trail clearing up as the woods neared thier end. I could hear that beast behind me, and I yanked the keys to my car out of my pocket, trying desperately not to drop them, and hit the unlock button. The car's headlights lit up as the doors unlocked, and I just kept running, my boots slamming into the blacktop of the parking lot, and behind me, I heard the sound of nails clicking. I made it to the car and ripped the door open, diving inside and slamming it shut behind me so hard that it shook the car. I locked the doors and started the car, and when I looked out the windshield, in the beam of my headlights, there was the beast.
_____It stood there, starring at me, almost as still as a statue save for the movement of its chest with each breath. For a moment, I was frozen, my eyes locked onto its eyes. In the brighter light of my car's high beams, I could see that it's fur was slick with blood, it's muzzle covered in the deep red, it's paws soaked. Then, I hit the gas, dodged around the beast, and floored it down the mountain.
_____They never found my friends' bodies. All they found were bits of torn clothes and some blood on a few trees, and nothing else. The police and park rangers said that it was a bear attack, despite my insistence that it wasn't. I tried and tried to tell them that something was out there, that it was a monster, that they needed to shut the campground down and keep people out of those woods, but no one was listening. They told me I was traumatized from what had happened, that I was remembering things wrong, and that what had happened was the work of a grizzly bear. But it wasn't a bear. There is something up there on that mountain, something horrible, something that I will never be able to forget.