1 A Hike

The middle of summer, a national park in Montana. The sun is starting the set, the sky above turning a shimmering, golden, orange. The vast, mountainous, forest below is painted with streaks of gold as if a painter took a giant brush and carefully lined the tops of each leaf-filled branch. A low breeze blows through the air, wafting the aroma of fresh bristles, dirt, and flowers. A young couple, a man with short blonde hair and a woman with light brown hair going a little bit past her shoulders that turns blonde at the tips, are hiking through the woods, taking in the gorgeous scenery.

They've been to this place two other times, always coming every summer for their anniversary, it's the first place they met each other after all. Ever since they arrived at the forest, they noticed something felt, off about the place. It felt, different, like someone was constantly watching them from afar, the whole forest seemed to be a lot quieter than usual. The only sounds they hear as they trek up a mountain are their own footsteps along with the leaves rustling in the wind.

"It's going to get dark soon Rick," The woman says as they reach a wide open flat part of the mountain they're on, "Think we should set up here for the night?"

Rick looks around the area, nodding in head.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," He responds. They take off their giant backpacks and start pitching up their tent, which spans a little over two yards in every direction. They make a little campfire and start roasting some marshmallows to make smores. As the sun sets, the full moon rises into the star-filled sky, covering the land in a dim silver moonlight. The campfire, now not much bigger than a candle light, still provides some heat and a small circle of light around. Having eaten the food they brought for dinner, they get into their tent to sleep for the night. And soon they both peacefully drift off to sleep.

An odd howl disrupts the silence of the forest.

Thump.

Thump.

Snap.

"Selicah...Selicah," Rick whispers as he gently shakes her, "Selicah,"

"Hmm, what?" She asks groggily as she rolls onto her back and looks at him. She becomes more awake when she realizes how scared he looks.

"There's, something, outside the tent," He whispers as he glances to the left side side.

"Rick what are you-"

Thump.

They hear the sound of something moving outside, it sounds a couple yards away from them.

Thump.

They both stare at the thin fabric wall of the tent as they follow the sounds of the footsteps as they move from the side, to the front, to the other to the back. It's circling them.

Selicah slowly gets on her hands and knees, moving to the entrance of the tent.

"What are you doing?" Rick asks.

"Getting my gun," She replies. She stops moving when they hear more footsteps.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

They're a couple feet in front of the tent.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The footsteps move closer to the tent, a large shadowy figure becoming visible through the tent. Whatever it is, it's very tall. The thing comes down, seemingly walking on all fours as it walks around the tent, Selicah and Rick only following it with their eyes as much as they can, not daring to breath. When it moves to the back part of the tent, Selicah slowly turns her head to Rick, seeing the look of terror in his eyes, seeing the large shadow behind him on the other side of the tent. The thing stands up, a low growling emanating from it.

Rick screams as a claw tears through the tent and grabs him.

"Rick!" Selicah screams out as he pulled out of the tent. She turns around, running through the front of the tent and quickly unzips a pocket on her bag, pulling out a large caliber handgun. She turns around, getting ready to aim when she sees what has Rick. A massive monster, covered in brown fur stands like a man, using its human-like clawed hands to hold onto Rick as it uses a dog-like snout to sink its teeth into his shoulder as he screams in agony. Selicah aims at its head and fires. The thing lets go of Rick who falls to the ground with a hard thud. It shakes its head and looks up, glaring at her with crazed, feral eyes that seem to glow a ghostly yellow, its pupils like that of a wolf's.

She shoots the monster again, then again, and then again. The monster roars in pain, taking off and disappearing out of sight. Selicah stands there for a second, tightly holding onto her gun as she registers what the hell she just shot at.

"S-Seli, cah…" Rick struggles to say, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Rick? Rick!" She exclaims, running over to him and kneeling down by his side. She puts the gun down and looks at the severe wound in his shoulder, blood almost pouring out of it at this point, the skin completely torn off leaving nothing but exposed flesh, some deep bite marks showing some bone.

"J-Just, stay calm! I'll be right back!" She exclaims, getting up and running over to her bag. She pulls out a first-aid box and runs back to him. She gets some disinfectant alcohol and pours it onto the wound, Rick crying from the stinging pain. She dabs a towel on it to dry it off before wrapping his shoulder in gauze. Rick lays on the cold dirt, unable to hide the immense pain that's causing him to suffer as Selicah sits there, unable to do anything else. There's no signal, and no watchtowers remotely close, she has no way to contact anyone.

She spends most of the night awake, ready to draw her gun at a moments notice. Rick soon falls asleep, leaving her alone.

What the hell, was that thing? It looked like a werewolf...no, those aren't real, they can't be real, it must have been a bear...oh God, please let it have been a bear...and don't let Rick die on me...

Before she knows it, she falls asleep herself as exhaustion takes over. She wakes up, her head resting on Rick's chest, the sun starting to rise above the mountains. She slowly sits up, not wanting to wake up Rick, and sees all the blood that's been soaked up by the gauze. She gets the first-aid kit and gently starts to cut the gauze so she can put on some fresh ones. As she pulls them off, she's shocked to see that there's almost no trace of the fatal wound anywhere except for some scars where the bitemarks were. As she sits there and stares at where the wound was, Rick wakes up.

"Man, you wouldn't believe the dream I had last…" Rick stops talking when he sees the look on Selicah's face, then realizes he's not sleeping in the tent. He sits up, looking over at the tent to see the back part has been torn to shreds, then looks down to his side where the blood filled gauze sits by his right shoulder. He starts freaking out when he sees the scars on his shoulder.

"Selicah, please tell me, we weren't attacked by a werewolf," He starts to say very worryingly, "Tell me I just imagined it," Selicah just looks at him, her expression enough to give him the answer, "Selicah," He sits up, grabbing her shoulders, "Tell me!" He cries, shaking her a bit.

"...Yes…" She finally replies. Even though he knew that was the answer, hearing those words come out from her lips fills him with dread, both of them knowing what will happen the next full moon.