The Windigo

Chapter One

  Ramsey knew as soon as he entered it that this was the valley he had been seeking. It appeared to be just as the old mountain man who had sold him the map had said. A nearly untouched wilderness, one of the last places left where a fur trapper could still make a profit.

  Aside from it's natural beauty there was nothing unusual about this locale, yet just as he was told, there had been no signs that anyone ever frequented this place except for a small log cabin near a beaver pond.The cabin seemed to be in fairly good shape with only a few repairs need to the roof.

 The scratching began that night. Ramsey awakened to the sound of what sounded like claws digging at the walls of the cabin. The noise was random and seemed to come at different times from each wall.
The cabin stood very close to several large trees and possibly it was their branches that was creating this sound.

  In the morning nothing around the cabin seemed amiss, there were no marks either on the ground or outside of the cabin to indicate a bear or other animal had been there during the night.

  Without anymore thought to the matter Ramsey spent the day setting his traps and tending to his horse and pack mule.
Shortly after Ramsey had turned in for the night the scratching began again, louder this time and from every side of the cabin at once!

Chapter 1 by Dr. Scarabus

 

Chapter Two

 The noise reached a feverish pitch.The front door of the cabin began to rattle.All of a sudden the huge window by the front door,exploded with a ferocious sound.

  Something big,something VERY big,crashed through the window and landed on the coffee table.The massive weight of the creature crushed the table to pieces.
Ramsey rushed to the front of the cabin as fast as he could.All that he could make out in the darkness were the eyes.
They were huge and not like any he had ever seen.It wasn't more than a second before the creature leaped through the air,coming right for Ramsey who let out a ear shattering scream.Then silence...........   
  Ramsey's screams woke himself up.He was drenched in sweat.Finally the realization hit him."It was just a dream.Ha ha ha!Jesus,it was just a dream.I must have been dreaming that first night as well."Ramsey thought.

  Dawn was breaking through the bedroom window.Ramsey decided to get an early start on the day.

  He got up and put on a pot of coffee.While drinking his first cup.Ramsey couldn't get that insane dream out of his head.
Just to satisfy his curiosity he headed for the window by the front door.Slowly he peaked behind the curtain.

  Ramsey let out a deep breath as the window was still in one piece.Ramsey took a sip of his coffee and decided to make sure."Just to be safe,ha ha."Ramsey muttered."Just to be safe".He put on his slippers and headed out the front door.

  As soon as he got outside he could see that something was wrong.Something was VERY wrong.Ramsey dropped his coffee cup and ran around the cabin.No matter where he looked they were there.There were HUGE claw like gouges on all sides of the cabin,even on the roof."That had to be made by something BIG.Something that wanted to get inside.To....to get at me!".........

Chapter 2 by HouseRat

 

Chapter Three

 Ramsey felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Maybe part of the past nights' happenings had indeed been dreams...but these markings were real. He had obviously been hearing this going on in his subconscious...this had given him the nightmares....but he was awake now.

  "I'll be damned," he thought to himself. His mind drifted back to the traps he had set thus far on his excursion. Mere childs' play were the woodland beasts he had had in mind for those traps...an order B on the dinner table and a throw for the baby's crib compared to the king's feast and living room rug this huge animal would surely provide.

  The possibilities came flooding into Ramsey's mind, and in his sudden excitement he hurried back into the cabin. Ramsey's first instinct was to dial Marlowe up on his cell and tell the old buddy to get out here a day in advance. But at the last minute, something convinced him not to.

  "No," Ramsey thought to himself, "this one is for me....this one will be mine."

  Ramsey changed his plans for the rest of the day to preparing a new trap while he still had daylight on his side. During this time he didn't stop to wonder what had possessed him to hunt this mysterious clawed creature...he was just driven.

Chapter 3 by London_Reign

Chapter Four

  Ramsey inspected the gashes across the cabin with his fingers, "Thats got to be at least 3 inches deep.. what the hell kinda bear is this?"
  Marlowe sits in his plush 8th story office, toying with new laptop, "1500 bucks.. you'd think it'd buy a little covienience."
With a shrug and yawn he closes the screen. He stands an opens the blinds behind his desk, overlooking the busy intersection of 8th and S. 13th.
    "Mr. Marlowe... theres a woman on line three who says its urgent to speak to you" a young voice interjected. "Thanks Lori" "This is Marlowe... Hello?" a low buzz and then the scratch of long finger nails across an ancient chalkboard ring through the speakerphone.. "Who the fuck is this? Hello!?"
"Hello? Hello?.." "Thats strange",
Ramsey mutters as he slides his cell phone back onto his belt.

  Its a quarter till five and still no action with the traps. "I'll make another trip before I retire for the night" Ramsey muttered as he made his way back to the cabin.

  "Daddy..it was terrible.." Jodi, Marlowe's seventeen-year-old exclaimed on the drive home from cheerleading practice..
"I mean, Peter Ripley kissed me, in front of the entire school.. he hits on the lunchlady even.. I can never get back... this was the worst...Daddy watch out!!"

    "I'll have your head hanging on my wall come tomorrow!!" Marlowe exploded while his Lexus came to a stop feet away from a small cub.
"Move the hell outta the road" Marlowe demanded with a honk of the horn. The cub stood and climbed onto the hood of the Lexus..
"What the fuck?" Marlowe moaned as the bears eyes flashed red and roared with wolf like fangs.

Chapter 4 by Mike_Menace

Chapter 5

  David Marlowe quickly threw his cars transmission in reverse and gunned it, tires squealing as it went.
The bear cub or whatever it was clawed at the hood trying to find a hold, snarling as it slid backwards and out of sight.
"Daddy!! Daddy!! What WAS that?

Jodi Marlowe was in a near state of panic.
"It was just a bear Jodi....I think".
"We must have scared the poor thing nearly to death and it just reacted the only way it knew how".

  Jodi carefully peeked over the dash searching the road looking to where the cub should have landed. "It's gone now dad, vanished. It must have run off and we didn't see it go".
"Well I'm not getting out to check on it honey, besides we're running a little late, your mom's probably wondering where we are".

Satisfied that the bear was gone, David and Jodi continued the rest of their journey homeward uneventfully.

     Lost in thought Ramsey sat on the cabin's front porch cleaning his rifle. The dreams haunted him.
"What on earth could be that big? What creature could possess the power to damage my cabin that way"? "It just had to be a bear, the gigantic mother of all bears, but a bear just the same".

  "Helllloooo" a friendy voice called from the far thicket of Mulberrys behind the cabin interrupting his reverie.

  Ramsey's badly weathered rocking chair groaned with relief as he arose to peek around the corner to see who the voice belonged to.
"Ramsey..you here?" the Mulberry thicket seemed to say. From behind the dense underbrush stepped Luke.
"Luke Warmwater?" "Is that you?" "You old sumabitch" "How the hell are ya?"

  Ramsey never ceased to be amused with the thought of ol' Luke's parent's sense of humor. "Kinda like A Boy Named Sue" Ramsey chuckled to himself.

  Hugs were exchanged and smiles abound.
Luke Warmwater was a native of these parts and when I say native I mean indigineous. His people had hunted, fished and flourished in these mountains from time prehistoric.
Luke knew these woods like his own name.

  "What the hell happened to your digs?" asked Luke.
"Looks like Godzilla sharpened his claws on the side of your place".
"I was hoping you'd tell me" responded Ramsey slightly shaken that the cabin's scars were that noticable.
"Let's have a closer look-see Ram." said Luke and the two men approached the nearest wall.

  Upon closer examination a scowl appeared on Luke's face. "What do ya think Luke?" quieried Ramsey. "It's gotta be bear..right?"

  "It's not bear Ram" it's something else.... If I didn't know better I'd say it was Windigo".
"Windigo Luke? What the hell is Windigo?"
"We'd better go inside Ram. Do you have a beer or two? This is gonna sound strange to you."

  Back inside the cabin, with a freshly opened bottle of Bud, Luke began....
"There is a legend among my people that tell of Windigo".
"The Windigo is a spirit, a spirit of evil that has plagued the people of these mountains since men have called this place home.
It can assume any form. Bear, wolf, even a field mouse if a mouse will serve it's purpose". "It has many names and many faces. It stalks and kills men. Just why no one knows for sure but some of the elders say it avenges nature. It avenges the wrongs of man against the natural order of things".

  "If it IS Windigo we'll need more help."
"A lot more help".

  David Marlow was just sitting down to dinner as the phone rang.
"Daddy...it's for you" Jodi yelled from the den.
"It's Ramsey and he say's it's important".........

Chapter 5 by Slo

Chapter 6

  David snapped the phone from his daughters hand and spoke: "Yeah, Ramsey what is it?"

  From the other end of the phone Ramsey forced out a reply.
"Your're not gonna believe what I'm about to tell you, but if we really are friends, you'll ask no questions and do what I say..."
David interupted."Whoa, this sounds serious."
"It is"
said Ramsey. "Out here in my part of the forest area, I've witnessed many strange things these past few days, and my friend Luke has his own take on it, here I'll put him on."

  "Hello"spoke Luke from the phone,
"I believe Ramsey has been witness of the Windigo, my people have known about this....thing for centuries and we need your help as soon as possible".

  David couldn't believe what he was hearing from the other end of the phone. He almost wanted to burst out in laughter but held it in.
"Ok this all sounds.......fascinating, put Ramsey back on."
"So, will you help us out Dave?"
pleaded Ram.
"This all sounds like pure bull to me and if we weren't such good friends, I would have hung the phone up along time ago. I'll be up a your place in a few hours, hold tight."
Dave hung up the phone and sighed.

  Back in Ramseys cabin, Ramsey hung up the phone with a huge long smile on his face. Luke didn't look so happy.
"Well he is coming, thats some help right?" Ramsey bartered.
Luke said nothing to Ramsey and walked outside.
The sun was still bright as ever and everything seemed quiet.
Luke looked out to his right and saw a flashing shadow in the woods. It was gone as fast as it appeared.
Luke, as always, thought the worst and went out to investigate.
"Hey Luke where ya going?" Ramsey shouted from an open window in the cabin.
Luke looked back with no expression on his face, then continued on to the woods.
When he got to the woods the same shadow appeared again. This time the shadow created shapes. The shapes of four elk. Luke gasped as they surrounded him, their eyes glowing red.

  Ramsey didn't feel good about Luke in the woods alone so he ran to the basement as fast as he could and picked up the rusty old shotgun he had never used before. It was still loaded from the last time it was used and who knew how long ago that was? And Ramsey was out the door.

  The sun was begining to set when Ramsey heard a crying scream from the heart of the forest ahead.
"LUKE!!!" Ramsey yelled. Ramsey got deeper into the forest when saw the bloody mess that was Luke.

  The four elk were eating his remains.
Ramsey raised his shotgun at the unknowing beasts and fired a shot.
The blast got the closest elk right in the heart. It fell dead automatically.
A cloud of black smoke poured out of the elks eyes and floated in the air. This same smoke poured out of the living elks eyes also,The melding smoke forming a larger mass. The elk that were possesed by it had fallen dead.

  The smoke came right for Ramsey. He tried to run but couldn't. The smoke made its way into Ramsey.

  With his eyes now glowing red, Ramsey let out an unholy scream that echoed throughout the forest.

  Hours later David's car sped up to the edge of the forest. David got out of the car and opened the trunk.From inside he pulled several different guns and knives.

  "Hey Ramsey, whatever problem you got in them woods, I'm gonna take care of it!!!" Dave bellowed out to no one.

  David shut the trunk to reveal the possessed Ramsey sitting on the hood of the car with Luke's head in his hand, blood dripping all over the freshly washed Lexus.

  "HOLY SHIT!!!" Dave yelped as he fell backward trying to pull the big knife from his belt.
  Ramsey jumped on top of David, dripping blood on Dave's face. Smoke poured out of Ramsey's eyes like an evil mist and right into David. When the smoke had consumed David, Ramsey's eyes went black and he fell dead.

  David awoke with the trademark glowing red eyes and screamed aloud to the uncaring forest.

Chapter 6 by SilentAssasin