by Lou Grimes
“Now hurry up and get dressed. I don’t want to be on the trail alone with you when you’re hungry. You might eat me,” her mom teased fondly, closing the door hard out of excitement. Louvette would have been in trouble if she had slammed the door as hard as her mother had.
“You have no idea,” Louvette said, giving her a half smirk. Her mother wasn’t far from the truth about her going fuzzy in the pale moonlight. Thankfully, the undeniable pull of the lunar calendar was a Hollywood spawned creation. The thought of eating another person gave her pause, as it would any sensible teenager, at the possibility of that being true. She hoped not. If it was, she’d have more issues than just not getting kicked out of school. Louvette would have to run to a place where there were no humans, like remote Alaska.
She put on black loose thermal pants, a blue long sleeved shirt, and her old coat before rushing to meet her mother, who had made breakfast burritos. They left and traveled for half an hour from town until the sign Glacier National Park popped up, pointing down a side road that was well paved for this far from civilization.
They stopped and paid at the booth and went on through to a parking lot that had a few other cars due to it being fall. Louvette was grateful for the other hikers because at least they wouldn’t be alone when her mother had to be carted back to the car after breaking something.
When she stepped out of the car, she took a second to appreciate the peaceful stillness of the forest. Some of its inhabitants were waking up from slumber. Others nocturnal creatures were slipping into bed. The sun was rising, giving the sky a certain vibrance of every shade of pink, yellow, orange, and red in contrast to the neutral forest color palette.
The trunk of her car creaked as Sarah opened it, exposing their gear for the trip. It wasn’t a long hike, but they weren’t used to the territory. The possibility of getting lost was highly probable. They would appreciate clean water, power bars, and a wool blanket if that came to pass.
Sarah was a planner to say the least. If there was a chance for anything that might happen, she planned for the worst that could. The forecast might say chance of a light drizzle and Sarah would plan for a flood.
Hair stood up on Louvette’s neck and arms. Goosebumps suddenly covered her exposed skin. Something was terribly wrong, and her body knew on a biological level. Louvette searched over her shoulder at the offender but found no hikers near them. The parking lot was empty save for them and a few cars. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary except the noise of the woods. There was none. The sound was muted. It had stopped completely.
Her eyes went to the forest line. Her breathing skipped as her anxiety increased. Louvette’s throat went dry as her gaze flicked past something that didn’t fit the bill for the forest’s silhouette. Her vision jumped back to the spot and zeroed in; however, whatever it had been had either moved on or was a figment of Louvette’s wild imagination.
The pause button on the forest was un-paused as birds returned to chirping, animals returned to scratching, and trees returned to rustling. The serenity of the forest resumed. The shadows held more possibilities in her mind than they had before. None of the new possibilities included a lost fluffy little bunny. Louvette and her mother grabbed their backpacks.
“You ready?” her mom asked, excitedly, pulling her straps together toward the center of her chest as she beamed. While she asked this, she was taking in the beauty of the nature around them, rocking on her feet.
“Born ready!” Louvette quipped back and they skipped down the trail. The sun was now bursting out of the clouds.
It gave them enough light to proceed through the trail. They hiked for about two miles, stopping to take pictures here and there. The two picked up cool rocks as they progressed, showing each other their findings before discarding them later on down the trail. The sudden change from quiet to quarrelling slowed their pace. Raised voices drew their attention to the ones responsible.
Two squabbling hikers were in the middle of the trail. Both of the men had the normal set up of hiking equipment that Louvette and her mother lacked.
They both wore jeans and boots. One had fair hair and the other had dark hair. The blonde one in the hoodie was turned toward the path that was going deeper into the forest. The brunette’s body was shifted towards Louvette and Sarah.
“I’m telling you, I saw something,” the brunette repeated. Apprehension pinched his face.
“It’s the forest. Of course, you saw something. It’s full of somethings,” the blonde one said with a bored tone in his voice as if this was déjà vu to him. He rolled his eyes in a manner that would put a teenage girl to shame any day of the week.
“This wasn’t some animal. It was too big to be anything around here,” the brunette argued, waving his arms around, trying to prove the size of his monster.
“It was probably a grizzly. They can get over six feet tall when they are standing. It was probably just checking you out. Let’s just finish our hike for once, please.” The blonde in the hoodie attempted to soothe his disgruntled friend.
“That couldn’t have been a grizzly. It was too fast. I looked once and then it was gone before I could even tell what it was,” brunette said earnestly.
“You always do this, Travis. I don’t even know why you go hiking when it scares you to death every time. I’m pretty sure you have hylophobia. You need to get that checked out,” the blonde claimed, throwing his friend’s fears and insecurities in his face.
At first, Travis’s face was the picture of outrage, but a sudden realization took over his face.
“Jacob, I don’t have hylophobia, but what I do have is a car. I’m going home,” Travis shouted and hurried back towards civilization.
“Come on Travis. You’re my ride,” Jacob reminded him, worry taking over his features.
“Your ride’s about to leave so I suggest you hurry,” Travis called over his shoulder, quickening his purposeful pace.
Jacob debated for a second, then took off after his unwilling hiking partner, right past Louvette and her mom. He shot them a sheepish expression. The whole argument, Louvette and Sarah had looked back and forth between the two men, following the argument like a ping pong game.
Sarah and Louvette traded a confused glance, unsure of what to do after revelation of this new information.
“Should we continue?” Louvette asked, thinking of earlier at the car. If that thing had got as close to humans as it did to the parking lot, then it would for sure get closer now in its element.
“No, that Jacob guy was right. The forest is full of animals,” Sarah decided, surprising Louvette. She had thought she knew her overprotective mother enough that she was going to call off the trip.
Louvette shrugged off her feelings and chalked it up to her mind playing tricks on her and Travis. It was easy to think the worst of what the forest could hold, especially when they hadn’t ever spent that much time in it. Their past living locations had usually been in the desert areas of the United States, but never the mountains.
“All right, but if we get eaten, I’m not going to be able to do any more chores,” Louvette said forlornly.
“That’s how the cookie crumbles, I guess. But, if we get eaten, there will be no more cookies to crumble because no one will be around to cook,” her mother revealed.
They contemplated this for a second. The same argument could be made for the “who came first, the chicken or the egg” game.
“Let’s go so we can get cookies.” Sarah ended the conversation with that enticement to finish their nature trip. They were going to wear themselves out and then enjoy some fresh warm cookies when they got back to the lodge.
The two continued their hike even after that weirdness. Louvette was a little more alert than before. Even if it was just a common animal and not a nightmare creature coming to kill them, she was still on edge. A charging grizzly was just as terrifying as monster. Either situation, they had no protection. The closest thing they had for self-defense was a can of bear spray to deter
the grizzlies.
They were right on schedule because they hit the loop-around portion at about an hour and a half. Louvette and her mother waved to a couple more hikers that they saw. The hikers they saw were outdoor junkies who loved to breathe in that fresh mountain air. Sarah and Louvette were posers compared to most of the other hikers.
The two of them decided to pause for a short break. They could hear the low sound of water running. Louvette exchanged a curious look with her mother, but felt uneasy as they headed off the trail to find the source of the flowing water. It couldn’t be far since they could hear it from the trail and if it was there, there was nothing stopping them from turning back to the path.
Louvette and Sarah walked for about five minutes. The trail was no longer visible as Louvette glanced behind her for the last time. Their whole walk Louvette had checked out every crack of twigs, every rustle, and every potential enemy. Snow spotted the ground and their footsteps gave audible crunches under it.
“Oh, wow,” her mother said softly. Louvette took in the view in front of her. It was postcard perfect. Louvette’s attentiveness to danger fled as she gazed at the sight before her like a wild deer catching sight of a human. She was shocked perfectly still.
A small waterfall had been formed from water flowing down during the creation of the mountain, cliffs jutting out, and fallen boulders. A river fed from the waterfall pooled around a lower set of rocks. Man had not polluted the beautiful deep blue oasis. Louvette wanted to taste the crisp mountain water, but had to remember that it was all just run off. Dead grass lined the creek.
“Let’s get in.” The astounding words that left Louvette’s mouth seemed like they came from someone else.
They took pictures of the views as they explored around, flinging brisk mountain water at each other. Louvette ditched her shoes first and her mother followed soon after, giggling. The feeling of the earth between their toes gave them a certain kind of high. They didn’t dare to be more submerged than their ankles for fear of hypothermia.
A sense that someone was watching took over Louvette, slowing her laughter awkwardly as it trailed off. She glanced around the woods, looking for the trespasser. Her mother, oblivious, continued to giggle around while splashing water on her distracted daughter.
Louvette’s gaze again investigated her surroundings. She was searching for grizzly-like shadows, but with all the straining on her vision, all of the rocks were grizzlies in disguise—or something worse.
A shadow shifted as she caught sight of it, her horror mounting. It didn’t immediately go for her, so she knew it hadn’t realized that Louvette could see it. She turned her body inconspicuously toward it.
A leg, if it could be called that, could be seen half hidden in the shadows and Louvette could tell it was standing on two legs like a man or grizzly would. The build wasn’t any grizzly or man she had ever seen before. There was no rounded bulk like a bear, but the legs were all wrongly formed to be a man’s as well.
The distorted muscles flexed as Louvette took in the rest of the beast’s form. The thing was covered in long hair. Its body was as equally as misshapen as its leg. It looked like a genetic laboratory experiment gone wrong that had resulted in the creation of a chimera. It was unnaturally stuck between a half human form and a wolf.
She knew from Arsen’s words that this thing was a Lupine that had lost complete control of his wolf and now was stuck in this form forever. He was a rogue wolf.
The eyes were the worst as they watched her mother’s movements with their large black pupils and glowing blood red irises. A short-twisted snout was set on the monster’s face, baring its teeth at them similar to a wolf. Louvette knew a predator stalking its prey when she saw one. She wasn’t just going to stand there and let it happen.
“Run!” she screamed to her mother before it even had a chance to move. Sarah glanced at her daughter out of surprise at her sudden outburst. Confusion was clear on her face, but it quickly transformed to horror as she caught sight of the thing in the trees. Sarah had no time to react.
A monstrous humanoid came charging out from the location of the shadow, snarling. The hair on the back of Louvette’s neck stood at the horrible sound that was similar to nails on a chalkboard as she dragged her mother through the trees. Their shoes were forgotten beside the undisturbed riverbed. To Louvette’s terror, she realized they were heading the wrong direction. They were going deeper into the forest. They were being pushed away from their road back to civilization. Water splashed behind them as the monstrosity took chase.
Branches snapped against them as the forest grew denser and wilder. The two of them were having to jump and climb over boulders, fallen trees, and smaller trees. There was no path where they were headed. Her mother’s foot caught a raised tree root, causing her to tumble. Sarah’s arm was ripped from Louvette’s as she took a dive. She landed face first, then lay unmoving. Was she knocked unconscious, or was she was dead?
“Mom!” Louvette screamed as she went back to her side. Her mother groaned and turned on her side, her hand going to her head. Sarah’s head was gashed right above her eye. The blood began to drip out.
She breathed a sigh of relief after her mother groaned, realizing she was alive, but out of it. Louvette remembered the monster. Her eyes futilely searched the trees. The sound of the rogue Lupine was no longer present. There was no sight of it.
The instinct to survive kicked in to hyperdrive. The thing crept from the dark corners of her mind, calm and collected. The origin of the darkness was similar to the monster that was stalking her at this very moment in time. It took over.
Louvette’s burned as her fingers stretched impossibly. Serrated claws grew where her chewed nails had once been. Nails so long that girls would pay money for them at a salon. Her fingers broke in the middle in a way that gave her more paw-like hands.
Louvette’s jaw ached like she had ground her teeth all night long. Her teeth shattered and sharpened into canines. The pain was so unreal that she couldn’t even scream. However, part of her was scared that if she could muster up a sound, it wouldn’t be a scream. She’d be a regular Hollywood monster howling at the moon.
The whole part change happened within a matter of seconds. Louvette was thankful for once that her mother had been knocked out. She wouldn’t have to witness this and Louvette wished she didn’t have to either, but this was her new reality whether she wanted it or not.
Her vision went blurry, then zeroed in on the offensive thing slinking through the shadows, oblivious to this half change. It didn’t know what was waiting for it. It stalked them, savoring its hunt. Louvette’s heartbeat went from accelerated to a more slowed speed.
She glided slowly away from her mother, attempting to snare the thing’s attention. The last thing she wanted was for her mother to get hurt from whatever was about to take place. She didn’t know what she or her wolf inside planned to do about the stalking beast, but she knew it wasn’t going to be good.
The world itself appeared to be too slow as the beast lunged for her. The odd thought of how sloppy and straightforward it was struck her as it charged her. She dug into the earth; her eyes focused, ready for it.
Louvette darted around it easily and then kicked off a rock, giving her the perfect position for her kill.Her claws met their target with a sickening slide. The sound of blood heavily dropping to the forest floor was satisfying, to say the least. The humanoid jugular was severed as it slid to the ground.
The monster reverted back to a full human form as it choked. A wide-eyed man stared back at her, blood filling his mouth as he tried to speak.
Louvette took this chance to truly inspect him now that her and her mother’s life were out of peril. His clothes and hygiene suggested he was homeless. Grime was all over him. The grease was so thick on his hair that it looked like it hadn’t been washed for a year. At this point, his clothes couldn’t be described as apparel since there were more holes than cloth. His jeans were tattered and had a distinct brown colo
r from lack of washing.
His hair was sandy brown as far as Louvette could tell. It wouldn’t have shocked her if he was actually a blonde underneath all of the filth. She doubted that there was time for showers, laundry, and deodorant when they went rogue like that. The only thing he had cared about was getting his pound of flesh. The wrinkles on the man’s face showed his forty-something age. Louvette noticed that his irises were still the color of blood before they closed for the last time.
Her own monster released its hold, gradually slinking back into hiding. It knew they were safe for now. Louvette changed back into normal. This time the transformation was much easier than before as the bones, muscles, and limbs slid back into their rightful place.
The new problem was deciding what to do before her mother saw what she had done. It took her only a moment as she looked between the two bodies to decide what she needed to do. Louvette had to move the body before her mom awoke. Sarah couldn’t know. She’d never look at her the same.
Louvette grabbed the man’s arm and hauled him in the opposite direction from which they had come. His body slid easily across the forest ground. She went further into the forest because she knew no one would come across his body easily or anytime soon because of the thick underbrush.
She kept her mother in sight the whole time she dragged him. When she decided she was far enough, she put some branches over him to keep him hidden.
Once she was done, she noticed blood all over her arm and clothes. Louvette ditched her outer coat. She didn’t feel the cold from all the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Rubbing the rogue’s blood off her sweater, she wrapped it up as small as she could and stuffed the evidence up her shirt. She planned to throw it in the trash somewhere far, far away from here and her mother. After making sure it was secure, she hurried back to her mother, who was still auditioning for Sleeping Beauty’s position. They needed to leave quickly. It was never good to hang around a crime scene. Even if the crime was in self-defense, she wanted to hurry to get her mother checked out.
