The full moon filtered through the branches of the trees at the edge of the woods, its light glowing brighter as the sun finished setting. Four boys sat around in a circle, with a flashlight in the center of the group. Two small tents were set up a short way back.
“…And when they got back to the house, the guy goes around to open the girl’s car door and there’s this hook hanging off of it!” one of the boys finished with a flourish.
“Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard that one before…”
“No! I swear it happened to a friend of my big brother’s! He told me so himself!” defended the first boy.
“Yeah, well, my big brother went into this haunted house, see, and….”
One of the boys shifted slightly and looked at his watch and then at the full moon overhead, and finally at the western horizon, where the last grey light of dusk still hung.
He turned to the group as the third boy finished his tale, and all the boys groaned.
“Do you really believe that, man?”
“Your brother is such a dork!”
“Yeah, he’s so full of it!”
The ghost story telling quickly degenerated into whose big brother was the biggest pain. Three of the boys were ready to go on at length on this topic.
Finally, as full dark arrived, the fourth boy finally spoke up.
“My big brother says that these woods have monsters in them.”
“Monsters?!”
“Yeah, right!”
“And you believe him? Come on, man!”
“Yeah, I believe him. I think he’s right. There are monsters here.”
“Then why’d you come camping with us, huh?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Aw, he’s just trying to scare us! There aren’t any monsters here. Either that or he’s trying to prove that his big brother is the worst!”
The other boys all burst out laughing. “Anyway,” one of them added, “we’re right in his backyard, or almost. You can see the lights of his house from here!”
The fourth boy waited until they were done, and said, “That’s why I’m here. I knew you wouldn’t believe me, so I came along, especially since you were going to be camping in the state forest right by my house. This way, maybe I can help you get away from the monster.”
“Yeah, right. So maybe you and your brother can work something up to scare us all!”
“Oooohhhh!” the other boys joined in.
Then one of the other boys spoke up. “No, his brother is going to be out of town. I heard his mom talking to my mom yesterday, when they were talking about us camping out. She said that he wouldn’t be available to come camping with us because he wanted to go to visit his uncle or something.”
The fourth boy twitched nervously and looked at the moon again. “He says that there are monsters here for sure and they like to come out on nights like tonight. He says I shouldn’t come out here on nights like tonight.”
“Yeah, well, your mom and dad didn’t have a problem! I think he’s just trying to scare you and us, too!”
The fourth boy shrugged, “They don’t know. They’ve never seen it, and they don’t go out at night anyway.”
“So how does your brother know?”
“He’s seen it. More than once, too.”
“No way, man!”
“Serious?”
“Yeah. And, well, I have too. Sorta. I’ve seen something, anyway. Eyes, you know, and something running through the underbrush.”
“And you came anyway. Even though you say you know there’s a monster here.”
The other boys were still acting derisive but they were on the verge of believing, the fourth boy knew. He needed to hurry though, because time was running out.
“I came because I knew I could convince you if I was here, and we could all get away safe.”
There was a rustling in the underbrush near the edge of the tiny camp.
The fourth boy looked over quickly and was visibly relieved when a bird flew up.
The other boys shifted uneasily.
“Man, you’re scaring me.”
“Yeah, me too.”
The third boy gulped nervously but didn’t say anything. He looked around at the dark woods.
The fourth boy said, “We should leave now. It’ll only take us a few minutes to get back to my house, and we’ll be safe there. My folks won’t care if we spend the night in the basement rec room.”
There were more noises from the bushes nearby. These were louder, as if something big were moving around.
No one said anything.
Something that sounded like a growl came from the distance.
The boys looked around, frightened.
One of them gasped and pointed, “Eyes, big red eyes, over there!”
This time the growl was clear, low and menacing.
“RUN!” shouted the fourth boy.
The three boys ran shrieking for the house several hundred yards away. The fourth boy got to his feet but stood his ground.
As something large and hairy, with glowing red eyes and fearsome, dripping fangs emerged into the clearing, growling, the boy reached into his pocket and spoke, “You know, I almost didn’t get them out of here in time! You really need to do something about this, you know! Just think how you’d feel if you actually ate someone!” Then he pulled a small package from his pocket and threw the contents in the face of the advancing creature.
As the powdered wolfsbane and silver mixture flew into its eyes and nose, the werewolf took off running into the woods. The boy shook his head and sighed. “And they think their big brothers are a pain in the butt!” Then he let out a convincing shriek and ran for the house to join the others.
She Wolf (c)2007
