[ACT 1] Chapter #1: The Beast

(2018)

"Bottoms up muthafuckas!!!" Juan cheers as the three of us knock back a burning shot of cheap whiskey. I let out a seething groan, feeling the dark liquor spread warmth throughout my entire chest and down to my stomach. Darrel smiles at both of us, the campfire glowing brightly off our oily faces.

"Y'know, I'm actually glad you guys convinced me to come along. I never thought I'd really enjoy myself," Darrel admits with a small chuckle, warming his hands near the fire. It was his first time camping, and it took Juan and I nearly six months to convince him to give it a try.

We had a whole game plan laid out, head upstate Friday after work, then leave Sunday evening for the four hour drive back down to the Bay Area. We brought fishing poles, another activity that both Darrel and Juan hadn't experienced before, so I was the impromptu teacher for the weekend, as well as a small BBQ pit to cook through the weekend.

I told them of a campsite I used to go to as a kid, up in Northern California along Eel River, surrounded by illustrious redwoods and lush greenery. We waited until late September to head up to avoid the families rushing to vacation before school had started, and so we wouldn't have to deal with all the hippies during Reggae On The River.

Unfortunately, I didn't do enough research and found out that the campsite was closed for maintenance due to a wildfire that had spread through a third of the site because some dumbass had fallen asleep with their campfire still lit. So while a third of the campground was now blackened, the rest was covered in soot and ash.

While originally disappointed, Juan suggested we could just find a nice flat surface a few miles away and make camp there, while also saving money since we wouldn't have to pay for another campground after they'd given me my money back for our original campsite. The three of us jumped at the thought of saving money and agreed finding a nice area about 10 miles from the burnt campground, while still only being half a mile from Eel River for fishing and bathing.

Juan had set up the tents with Darrel while I built a safe fire pit surrounded by a tall mound of dirt, just to be safe, and a bunch of loose stones I'd found around our new site. Once the pit was done, I found kindling and a few large branches that I dragged back to the pit. I got my axe from the back of Juan's pickup and hacked the branches into suitable sized logs.

"Muthafuckin' Paul Bunion over here!" Darrel quips and all three of us start laughing.

"Ey, this shit ain't easy either. I'm tired as fuck now," I respond, feeling the soreness already creeping up my arms, shoulders, and back.

"I got just the thing once you start up that fire," Juan smirks, pulling out a bottle of whiskey. Within about 10 minutes the fire was lit, tents were pitched, and we were lounging in our foldable chairs around the warm fire.

So here we are, about four shots in and an hour later, relaxing by the fire as the cool night air slithers around us. I'm loving it personally, since I haven't been able to camp out like this since I was a preteen.

I never thought being 24 would be this hard, but this year had been kicking me in the ass pretty goddamn hard. My grandmother had passed earlier in the year and I was the main one who had paid for her funeral and burial services. And even though it was back in March, I still was not caught up financially. Fuck me right?

Darrel and Juan knew this and were constantly trying to get me away from the real world, even if it was just for a few days. Plus they'd been my best friends since 6th grade, so we do what we can for each other, even if its just moral support.

"Hey, should we tell scary stories?" Juan inquires playfully, a devilish grin spread on his face.

"What, y'mean like Are You Afraid Of The Dark type shit? Did you always wanna be part of the Midnight Society?" Darrel teases.

"Yeah, that could be-" I stop talking as creaking can be heard above us. A few kindling branches glide down to us as the creaking moves from over Darrel, to Juan, and finally settling above where I'm sitting. The three of us squint up, trying to make out what it could be, yet seeing nothing but darkness. The campfire isn't bright enough to illuminate the treetops of the tall redwoods, barely showing halfway up the tree.

"What is that?" Darrel asks, a nervous edge creeping into his voice as he continues to look up into the abyss.

"Probably just a fat raccoon or a family of possums maybe," Juan responds while giving me an unsure look. We both know that nothing should be making that much noise that far up in the trees, but we don't want to freak out Darrel either since we'd just got here and this was his first trip outdoors.

"Gimme a sec," I tell them as I run to my tent and pull out my flashlight. I shine the light into the tree, but find nothing amongst the treetops. "Must've ran away..."

"Ay, Chris... sure that was a raccoon?" Darrel questions again, looking between us.

"Well it wasn't a bear if that's what you're thinkin', it woulda made a helluva lot more noise," I tell him honestly. He seems to calm down with that.

"As long as its not a bear, I'm good," Darrel sighs with relief. But while he's beginning to relax once more, I'm on high alert, and Juan can tell. Because if it wasn't a bear, raccoons, or possums, then what the fuck was it?

"I'ma go take a piss," Juan announces, pushing up from his chair and wobbling as he stands. He points at both of us and shimmies eccentrically. "When I get back, more shots!"

"Here, take this and don't go far homie," I tell him as I toss the flashlight at him.

"Okay Dad, you wanna come hold my hand?" he mocks as he trudges off about 15 or 20 feet into the woods.

"And he's on his own with more shots, I'm done with that death tonight. Heh, not tryna wake up half-dead and hungover," I tell Darrel.

"Yeah, I feel you bruh. It's just gonna make me paranoid again," he agrees. We both look at the campfire for about two minutes in silence before he asks, "That's a long ass time to take a piss right?"

"Yeah..." I respond and look out into the woods for the beam of the flashlight. Yet where the light had been shining moments before, had been swallowed whole by the abyss once again.

"Juan?" Still no response. "Juan?!"

"Juanito!" Darrel shouts with a shit eating grin plastered on his face as the shadows dance around us. That weird feeling in the pit of my gut grows stronger as stare into the unending darkness.

"Ey, only my mom calls me that shit you fuckers, shut up!!!" Juan shouts back.

We both crack up for a second before I shout, "The fuck is taking you so long hoe? You got kidney stones?"

"Fuck you asshole. I'm takin' a shit, so be careful when you step this way," Juan shouts back before roaring with laughter.

"Thank god we're by the fire so we ain't gotta smell it," I respond, though I still tuck my nose under my shirt.

"Ey, can one of you toss me the toilet pap-EEEYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" Juan screams, causing the both of us to leap from our chairs and rush towards the sound of his voice. We hear stomping towards us only to find Juan hiking his pants up as he sprints towards us.

"What the fuck happened? Are you a'ite?" Darrel asks, both of us still worried with how freaked out Juan looks.

"Somethin' grabbed my fuckin leg!!" Juan says in a panic, pointing the flashlight at his left calf, which had two long scratches that start near the bottom of the knee, and curve down toward the back of his heel. They're bright red, yet barely cut through the skin, leaving the faintest line of blood to trace the mark.

"Did you see what the fuck it was?!" I ask.

"Fuck no, I took the fuck off when I felt it scratch me!" Juan exclaimed as we walk back to the camp.

"Here bruh, put this on it to disinfect it, just in case," I say, tossing him both the toilet paper and isopropyl alcohol. "I'm sure you need to wipe too after getting scared shitless."

"You'd be freaked the fuck out too if somethin' fuckin' grabbed you mid-shit bro."

And while he went to finish cleaning himself up behind his truck, I still felt off. There's not many things that would readily attack humans out here, especially not things that sneak up on humans.

"That was pretty weird huh?" Darrel comments, trying to laugh it off as normal camping mishaps. His eyes are now creased with worry. And I'm not trying to freak everyone out with my overactive imagination, so I'll just shut up and keep my eyes peeled, making sure the axe is close by at all times.

Surprisingly, after Juan cleaned his leg and ass, he rejoined us to a rather timid night. Nothing else happened, though we all resigned from telling scary stories. Enough creepy shit had happened already. We just talked about random stuff, people from high school, stuff from work, how our families are doing, and for a while, everything just felt normal. It was something I desperately needed with how chaotic my home and work life had been these past 6 months, almost as if on a consistent loop of shitty luck.

"What time is it?" I ask Juan, who looks at his cellphone to tell me its almost 1AM. "Holy shit! Really?! We should get some sleep y'all."

We all agree, with Juan and Darrel heading into their tents first while I pour some water over the campfire to douse it. As soon as the fire was out, I grabbed my axe and started toward my tent when I heard the creaking start up again directly above me. I glare up into the treetops, searching for the flicker of movement or rustle of leaves, but I find nothing. I can't check this time because I let Juan hold onto the flashlight in case he needed to put more alcohol on his leg, plus he could barely walk to his tent without stumbling on every step.

I continue to uncomfortably stare at the canopy of branches, now only shown from the millions of bright stars hidden behind them. For a few seconds I see nothing and brush it off, but as I shift my eyes slightly to the right, I see something hiding amongst the darkness, hovering on a branch, wavering calmly left and right, almost like an excited child rocking left and right while sitting cross-legged.

Once it spots me, it lets out a sort of snort or a very low chuckle, and leaps away quicker than I can see, disappearing once more in the dark abyss of night. I stare into the darkness, frantically searching for any sign of it as I question my own sanity for the second time tonight.

"You guys still awake?" I call out, only to hear light snoring from both of the tents. I can't believe they knocked out so fast. The alcohol must've finally got to them, but I'm completely sober and terrified now. I pace around for a few more minutes, debating if I should even go to sleep with something big out there watching us, or if I'm just tripping and seeing things. After finding no sign of it again, my body begins to feel weak as the adrenaline seeps out of my bloodstream, and I resign myself to sleep, heading into the tent with my axe, and passing out within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

"Help."

I shoot straight up out of my sleep, wide eyed and gazing around. It's still night, or very early morning as the sun had not yet risen. Am I really losing it? What the fuck was that? It sounded like a little girl calling out for help.

"Chris? Juan? What the fuck was that?!" Darrel calls out, alarmed.

"Did you hear that shit too?" I ask, unzipping the tent to poke my head outside. I was right, it had only been about an hour or two since we'd all gone to sleep, pitch still covering the night sky.

"You guys... Shut up... I'm tryna sleep," Juan grumbles, oblivious to the noise we'd heard.

"Help."

Soon both Darrel and I are out of our tents, looking for where the voice is coming from. We pull out our cellphones to use the flashlights on them (something I wish I'd thought of a few hours ago), only to find that nobody was in our camp and that everything had been left untouched.

"HELP."

"Yo, what the fuck was that?!" Juan asks, more creeped out than worried as he begins to open his tent. Meanwhile the both of us have turned around. The voice had definitely come from behind us, near the direction of the river, yet as we shine our lights in that direction, all we can see are the tall ferns, redwoods, and dirt surrounding us.

"Juan, bring out the flashlight bruh," I tell him as he steps out with us, shining the superior light out into the forest. We search for a good moment, but still nothing can be seen through the dark dense forest.

"Why would there be a little girl out here? It sounded like she can't be older than four or five," Darrel asks tentatively. His skin is covered with goosebumps, hairs on end as he notices that we're just as freaked out as him.

"I don't know dude, but it don't seem normal. Either there's actually a lost little kid out here from the town that's like 15 miles away, or someone is fuckin' with us..." I tell them, worried about either option. The only weapons we have are my axe and the three knives I gave each of us which were only supposed to be used for cleaning the fish and gathering tinder.

"Hello? Are you hurt?" Juan shouts out, all of us hoping to hear a response. Silence. "Are you lost? Do you need a ride back home?"

Again, only silence. I shine my light towards a big tree and spot something peeking out from behind it, which quickly hides itself.

"Ey, shine your lights on that tree," I tell them. As soon the Juan points the flashlight at the tree, all three of us gasp and hold our breath. Whatever was hiding behind the tree had left its hand exposed on the side.

It was long, longer than any human hand could've been, as if all of its joints had been yanked out and stretched as far as they could go without being torn off completely. Thick, discolored, jagged nails dig into the bark of the redwood, its skin is gaunt and grey, like the color of a decaying cadaver. We only catch a glimpse of it, because once it realizes it's hand is visible, it yanks the appendage back behind the tree quicker than I can follow. On second its ugly hand is clutching the red bark, the next, its gone, leaving deep claw marks like that of a bear torn into the tree's flesh.

For a moment, all I quiet, until we hear screaming all around us, louder than a siren to where Juan and Darrel cover their ears. I keep my light trained on the tree still, baring with gritted teeth as I spot a flash of movement. I try to keep track of the creature, whatever it is, as it flits around us, almost taunting us. For a moment, I hear something different, like screeching metal, before I spot the movement leaping back behind the same tree it had hidden behind when we'd first spotted its hand. We wait a minute before I decide to speak.

"Juan, go start the car," I tell him sternly. He trades the flashlight for my phone and dashes back to his tent, rummaging through his stuff until he finds the keys. He hurries to the truck only to let off a string of frantic curses. "What's wrong?!" I question worriedly, not wanting to take my eyes off of where the creature is hiding in case it makes a run toward us.

"It ripped off the wheels!"

"What?!"

"It ripped off all the fucking wheels to my goddamn car Chris!!"

I glance back for just half a second to find all four wheels to the truck had been torn off so badly that the axels were also half torn out with the tires, large claw marks lining all sides of the car now just like on the redwood, leaving the vehicle useless as the bottom of the truck is now sitting on the gravel. That's what all the noise had been earlier. It wanted to distract us while it took out our only way out of this fucking forest

"AAAAHHHH!!!" Darrel screams out while looking at the tree. I whip my head around to see what he's screaming at to find the creature now poking the top half of it's body out from behind the tree. It's skin is stretched tight, with its body emaciated, showing ribs that jut out, almost as if to pull you in or stab you, and a sunken anorexic stomach, worse than how Christian Bale looked in The Machinist.

It stands tall, at least 8 or 9 feet from the look of it, and is hairless from what I can see. The eyes are abnormally large, damn near seeming to pop out from their sockets, and they're wild, shifting between the three of us at an alarming speed. The mouth stretches literally from ear to ear, and is covered in a sick brown mess, like it had let festering blood dry on its face for the past few days without bothering to wipe it off. The nose is long and pointed downward like a witch, jutting out like a thin knife from its flat abnormal face. Compared to its face and tall body, its head seems abnormally small and compact, as if all of the other features had grown while the skull had stayed the same all its life.

Once it knew had all of our attention, it painfully spread its thin lips to show a wicked smile, showing off all its pointed teeth. They were each at least an inch long, all pointed and sharp like a sharks, yet thinner and longer, with many of them crooked and pointing our toward us instead of inward like the rest were. I could hear Darrel shaking beside me, which made the creature shift its focus solely on him now.

"Help," the creature chuckles with the voice of a little girl before letting out a deafening bellow that shakes both the trees and the ground below our feet. We all cover out ears for fear of our eardrums rupturing, forcing us to take the lights off of it until it stops. As soon as the screech subsides I point the flashlight back at the tree to find the creature wasn't there anymore.

I heard a scuttling sound and pointed up at the tree to find the creature climbing up the tree backwards, its feet clinging to the wood effortlessly. It moves at such an alarming rate that we can barely follow it. With its doll-like eyes still glaring at us, it takes off, back toward the river, jumping from tree to tree, until it's out of sight.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!" Juan and Darrel scream at the same time, panic setting in as they keep pointing their lights around us, searching for the hideous creature, expecting it to sneak back up on us.

"Witiko..." I breathe shakily, my whole body beginning to tremble as the realization sets in.

"What? You actually know what that fuckin' thing is?!" Darrel shouts, grabbing hold of my arm forcefully. "Did you know that thing would be out here?!"

"Ey bruh, this ain't his fault-" Juan starts.

"The FUCK it ain't!! He picked the location, he picked the area, and he's the one who wanted to go camping in the bum-fuck middle of nowhere!! This is all his fault!" Darrel spouts off, becoming increasingly agitated. "The fuck did you get us into Chris?!!"

"I didn't get us into anythin'. I didn't know that fuckin' thing would be here! And if I did, I DEFINITELY wouldn't have wanted to bring us here!" I shout back, wrenching my arm free from his grasp. We stare at each other for a moment before Juan breaks the tension.

"You guys calm the fuck down, I think that fuckin' thing takes priority right now, don't it?!!" He asks us. "Chris, what the fuck is that thing?!"

"Witiko... A Wendigo."

"A what?"

"My grandmother was from Arizona originally before she came here. She was from one of the Navajo tribes there. There was a story she would always tell us if we were being bad and she wanted to scare us, something they told most kids on her reservation. I always thought it was just some fuckin' horror story, like the boogeyman or the Chucuy, just somethin' to make bad kids behave... A Witiko is a monster, sometimes described as a demon, that used to be human..."

"What the fuck does that mean? How could that THING have ever been human?!" Darrel questions.

"A Witiko is made. The story usually goes that a hunting party of the tribe would go far from the tribe in search of food to bring back during the winter season. Usually they would go far and end up finding nothing. They would be either running low on rations, or had completely run out, when one of the hunters decides to throw away their humanity and become a cannibal, or in some cases, become possessed by a hunger demon that would make them cannibalize their friends and constantly drive them to be hungry, making them consistently hunt for human flesh, never to be satisfied.

"She said that once the cannibal would eat a certain amount of human flesh, a change in its appearance would happen. Its joints would become dislocated and stretched out, its skin turns the color of death, and it sharpens its teeth on the bones of its victims so that it can chew them down to get to the marrow inside. Its mouth continues to grow until it can swallow parts of a human whole.

"That's when it would become a monster of hunger, never able to get full, always hunting for more humans to satisfy its constant painful hunger, even if just for a moment. Usually after it becomes a monster, it goes back to the tribe and begins picking off villagers one by one until there's no 'food' left."

They stare at me in disbelief before Juan asks, "Why are you so sure its a Witiko?"

"My grandma told me before. They can run as fast as the wind, and they can change their voice to whatever, or whoever, they want. Even to sound like one of us, now that its heard us, or just like that girl's voice it was using"

"W-what do we do?" Darrel asks, a tremor edged into his voice now.

"We need to wait for daylight, and make our way back to town," I tell them as I build the campfire back up and ignite it, letting it grow nice and tall. I don't give a fuck if it starts a forest fire anymore.

"You want us to just wait here for the next few hours where it could easily pick us off?!"Juan shouts, walking over to me as I sit down with the axe.

"If we leave now, while it's dark, it'll make it that much easier for it to pick us off. We needa wait for sunlight so that we can at least see it when it comes for us."

"Why are you so sure it won't just get us here and now though?!" Darrel asks.

"Witiko's can't be killed by anything BUT fire, at least that's what I was told. It was probably the only thing that kept us alive last night. If I tried to chop it with this axe it might hurt it, but it'll probably just piss it off more than anything. Fire is our only friend right now," I tell them, sitting down in my chair which I inch as close to the pit as I dare.

"We wait until daylight, then we pack up some essential shit and take off down the road back to town, which is gonna take at least least a day to walk with this thing on our ass, unless by some miracle some car comes and actually stops for us, but I haven't seen or heard any cars on this road since we left town yesterday. It's been pretty desolate since the forest fire I think."

They both heed my words and sit close to the fire as well, each of us constantly looking over each other's shoulders. It's silent for a few minutes as the three of us scan the forest around us. Suddenly we hear the creaking above us and I shine the light up quickly to see it, the Witiko, glaring down at us with that same wicked smile as it crouches playfully on a large branch.

"Why isn't it running?!" Juan whimpers.

"Because it knows we're trapped," I tell him, gripping the axe tighter.

"Why is it smiling?!!" Darrel whispers harshly.

I peer up at the monster, its eyes shifting to me as its smile grows wider, squinting its bulbous eyes into a menacing glare while cocking its head to the side like a dog. It opens its mouth and begins to laugh eerily in my own voice, the exact same laugh I had given out the night before, mocking us as it continues to stare me down.

"Because it's hunting us..."