Chapter 4 - “Hope Country Sheriff’s Office”

I pulled my somewhat large knife out of its holder and held it in a reverse grip. I stanced my legs and put my left hand to the left side of my face.

A monster crawling on a side of the wall peered its eyes over the edge, the familiar orange eyes looking at me.

The first time I looked into those types of eyes, it scared the shit outta me, but now, I look at them with an unnerving stare, stanced and ready for a fight.

It crawled over the wall and was now facing me. It sprung at me with extended legs with great power, but I was just barely able to step to the side in time, about half a foot away from it's landing.

I grabbed the back of its neck and slammed it into the cabin wall. While it was stunned I drove the blade right in the back of its skull. 

"Got you asshole!" Dylan yelled, a gunshot ringing soon after.

Dylan came around the corner and pointed at the truck. 'I need you to watch my back while I take a look at the truck!"

I ran over without a second thought and we both bolted towards our chance at escape.

I rounded the corner alongside Dylan, but another monster was near the hood of the truck. He raised his gun but I lowered it down with my hand and ran towards the monster.

"Save your bullets!" I yell.

I get closer to the monster and kick its face with the toe of my boot. I stabbed its head as it lay on the ground. I look back and Dylan set his gun down to open the hood of the truck, and scanned the engine for a few seconds. 

"Fuck! No way!" He yelled.

"What? What is it?" I asked.

"It's too damaged to even drive! How the hell are we getting outta here?!" 

"Uhh, shit man. We gotta get inside, I'm tellin you we gotta call the sheriff in the morning."

"To hell with those shits!" Dylan said.

We both ran inside and almost synchronously put the trophy case back up. 

'Well now what?" Dylan looked at me.

"I say we hold up here, call the sheriff, and we get the hell out of this place. Whatever happens here after isn't our concern." I said.

"I'll make a call right now," Dylan said.

I continue to check the windows, just barely peeing through each curtain. I hear the frequent "cmon" from Dylan waiting for an answer.

*switch from Damon's POV to Dylan's POV*

"Hello!?" I say to the phone.

"Hope County Sheriff's Office." The phone said. "Oh thank god you answered. You are not gonna believe me but I need you to listen."

"Try me, I've heard some wild things." The voice replied quite calmly.

"Ok, I'm gonna try and make this short. Me and my buddy came down to our hunting cabin like we do every year. Some crazy, uh, things have been attacking us. Damon, my buddy, saw someone that looked exactly like me but it wasn't me. We were attacked by a group of monsters as well and we had to fight back. They damaged our truck and we have no way back."

"Alright, it's been an empty night, I'll bite. Have you ever heard of skinwalkers? They're a part of Native American mythology and they take the form of certain things to lure in prey, but to be honest with you, those are nothing but legends. This sort've sounds like a prank call. I mean come on, a group of "monsters" attacked you and your buddy and damaged your truck."

"I know, I know it sounds crazy but you have to believe me. We've boarded up our cabin and are holding up in here. We just got back inside after being attacked. We need your help or we'll die. We're way too far out to walk."

"Hmmm." The voice trailed off  in hesitation.

"Give me your location. I'll send a squad car, but if this really is just a prank call, know that you will be fined and possibly have time in jail, so you better not be wasting our time."

"We're off HIghway 97. If you trail down it for quite a bit you'll see a sharp turn on the right with a dirt road. It might be hard to see." I explained.

"Alright, I'll let the squad car know. You seem to be quite a ways away so it will take a while to get there. Do you have a safe place to stay until the officers get there?"

"We're in our cabin as of right now. We can stay here until then." I replied.

"That should do, but do not leave or go outside until the officers get there."

"Ok, thank you! Tell them to be quick, please."

"They'll be as quick as they can sir." The voice again said grumbly.

I hung up the phone and looked at Damon, who was nervously shuffling between each window and just barely peeking through each curtain a shard of light entering the cabin each time.

"Hey, let's just go to the bedroom. It's probably the safest place we can be." I suggested.

"Yeah- yeah let's go there." Damon agreed while wiping the residue off his mouth.

We both walked in the room and locked the door. The room itself was dark and absent of light. The only thing glowing was the computer case lights, blue and green flashing slightly. 

"Dylan, we've gotta make sure we don't fall asleep again." Damon said.

"Well I assumed that. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long before the cops get here."

"Yeah. Hey I'm gonna keep an eye out." Damon said.

I said "Alright." and walked blindly through the room until my hands landed on my bed and sat in the corner. The room didn't make any noise with the exception of Damon's footsteps which I can only assume he was trying his best to stay occupied so he doesn't fall asleep. I decided to break the deafening silence.

"It's not your fault man." I told Damon

"What?"

"The truck, you fell asleep. Not much you could've done."

"Don't say that. If I had just stayed awake your truck would have been fine and we'd be long gone by now." Damon said.

"It's alright dude, the cops are coming to help." 

"They think we're nutjobs Dylan! Who's really gonna believe that we got attacked by a clone or whatever!?" I mean come on man!" Damon said in a fluster.

"Damon no, the person on the phone said that what we encountered was most likely a creature from Native American folklore." I explained.

"Yes Dylan! Folklore! People only believe stories!" Damon exclaimed.

"Ok first, you need to calm down before you bring more of those things on us. Second, what did you want us to do?

We're stuck deep in the woods, no transportation and everything we have is limited. We had no other choice. Sure they might think we're crazy but we'll be far away from here." I said.

"Fine." Damon said sorta defeated.

I closed my eyes, which made no difference since the room was pitch black. I sat in that corner for what seemed like hours on end, until I saw lights beaming through the curtains, and heard Damon tell me that the cops were here.