Horrific

Howl

Danny Truman retreated from the TV back to his room. He walked in and found his wife reading Bill Silvers latest work "Maze" where a lady must reencounter her life's fears.

Personally he found the idea unpleasant to think of. His wife however was always reading some horror novel.

He sat his glass of water down on the bedside table and fell into bed. "How's the reading?" He asked his wife and only got a grunt in response.

He just chuckled and relaxed further into the bedding. Dan was the hunter type but that never kept him from laying around during his free time. Besides, deer season was over.

He waited nearly ten minutes before Sue closed her book and turned in for the night. They turned out their lights and settled in for sleep.

Just as Dan thought he was asleep his wife's voice broke the silence. "Those horror tales always give me the creeps when im trying to sleep."

He thought he felt her scoot a little closer to him but couldn't be quiet sure. He was half asleep after all.

"Danny do you hear that?" He sat up and listened but heard nothing but the wind blowing through the trees.

Living in a house in the woods always sounded like that he supposed. Day or night. "Nah hon, you're just jumpy from that book, thats all."

But that time he heard it. Far off in the distance he heard a form of a scream. A howl almost.

He pretended not to hear and turned back into the blankets. "Danny you did lock the doors, didn't you?" She sounded very frightened now.

"Yes dear, now sleep." She rolled over and lay still but she never slept. The alarm clock on the nightstand read 11:14 PM.

Another howl. This time closer. Still a mile or two out but still closer. "Danny.." Susan whispered.

"I heard. Just the big cats probably. Maybe even the wolves." She said nothing more but was clearly unconvinced. In all honesty, Dan wasn't sure he was convinced himself. The clock read 11:42 PM.

Along the far wall on the right was a glass door that lead to the patio and the outdoor seating. Susan looked to make sure the blinds were closed tightly and found they were.

She turned back towards Danny and made another attempt to sleep. It did not last long. The next howl was heard at 12:23 AM.

The howl had to have come from less than a mile away. There was nothing but woods for 20 miles in any direction. "It has to be an animal, what else could it be?" Danny asked himself, not wanting his wife to know he was still thinking about it.

Sue lay there in thought. She replayed the howl in her mind and couldn't help but hear human in that cry. As if it were in neither pain or Pleasure. Only pure fear could be heard in that howl.

This time both Danny and Sue had gotten to sleep and the time now read 1:31 AM. This time the howl came right from the other side of the glass door.

Dan was up in a second. He reached for the shotgun he niftily hid under his bed. Sue however refused to acknowledge that there was a sound at all.

It wasn't until hands began banging on the glass door that she sat up. She reached to turn on the light but Dan quickly stopped her. "Can't have them thinking we're home."

Her eyes were made of fear and she did not look at the tightly sealed blinds. The banging on the door continued and the thing howled again. There was no doubt that it was human.

Dan pointed his gun at the door but did not fire or move. He simply waited. The howl turned to sobs and words began to be uttered. A few being "Help" or "Please" but the rest being unidentifiable.

"Honey we need to help that man." And she began to stand up but dan whispers "No. He could be looney for all we know. I want you to go hide in the bathroom until he leaves."

She frowned and began to make her way back to the hall, then a new sound arose. It was more like sounds. Several smaller but more predatory howls.

Wolves. And by the sound of it they had flooded into his yard. The volume of the yard began to rise. The time was 1:39 AM.

It sounded as if their backyard had become a dog fight. Growls and howls blasted in every direction for what Dan assumed to be miles.

Dan was no longer looking at Susan. His eyes were glued to the blinds concealing them from what was out there. Despite nothing moving, Dan did not break eye contact with where the man must be standing. Banging and slamming into the door, Danny feared the door might fall in. He did not share this though with his wife.

The man could be heard over all other sounds. He cried and sobbed and shrieked. And Jesus did he howl! Susan had heard no other sound like it in her life. Danny had.

The sobs and cries were the exact equivalent of how his good friend had sounded the night he had lost his daughter. Nothing less than terrified.

Susan was still in the bedroom and neither of them made an attempt to help the man, both fearful of their own lives.

The man was screaming now. It was the loudest sound Dan could recall hearing in his life. And he had been in the Army.

The screaming continued high and shrill and more and more growls began appearing as if they were multiplying.

A single bark was heard over the grows and screams and then the growls ceased. The screaming was audible only a second longer.

A large thud was heard against the glass door and the screams stopped. Susan gagged. Everything was quiet. The time was 1:48 AM.

"Danny... Why is it so quiet?" Susan asked hesitantly. Danny sat with a mixture of fear and shock smeared across his face. "They're eating.."