WWC 9 - CaptainQuirk

Jenna swatted away another mosquito and shuddered.  The sticky August haze enveloped her and her friends, but she was the only one who seemed to be bothered by it.

“Of all the weekends in the year, we choose the nastiest one to go camping,” she lamented.

Phil, who was leading the four deep into the forest, reminded her that she’d agreed to come.  

“Besides,” Marty said jokingly, “what would you do in the city with all of us gone?  Go over your stamp collection?”

Jenna shrugged.  There were a million things she’d rather be doing, and they all involved air conditioning.

“I think this is the place,” Dani announced.  Phil shook his head.  He marched on, stopping just several paces later.  He set his pack down and gestured grandly at the surroundings.

“This!”  He declared.  “This is our spot!”  He posed there for a moment, as if in a glorious portrait of a pioneer.

Jenna, who was eager for some semblance of home, suggested they pitch the tent before anything else.  Phil and Dani agreed and got right to it.

“No, Dani,” called Phil.  “You’re supposed to guide the pole through the fabric.”

Dani curtly lifted her head, causing her long ponytail to thrash back.  She glared at Phil from the other side of the misshapen tent.  “Don’t worry about me, Phil.  I’ve got it,” she sang, clearly irritated, and continued pulling the fabric over the poles.

Phil shook his head.  “I swear, Dani, if you rip my tent - ”

“I’m not ripping - ”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Cried Marty.  “Y’all chill out or…or I’ll sing!”

“You’d do better if you helped us out,” hinted Phil.

Marty and Jenna held the material steady, and soon the tent was ready.  Surveying the clearing, Marty guessed if there’d be enough room for a decent frisbee game.  His thoughts were interrupted by Jenna, who suggested she and Phil go to find water.

“You’re not gonna want to drink the water from the lake,” Phil said authoritatively.  “Although it wouldn’t kill you, stick with what we brought.”  Phil might have been bossy, but he knew the outdoors.

“We might as well find it though,” Dani argued.  

“Yeah, Phil,” Jenna chimed in.  “Let’s go.”

Phil folded his arms and thought for a moment.  “We need firewood,” he said decidedly.  “Come with me, Jenna?”

Jenna followed him into the dense forest.  Marty and Dani watched them leave.

“We still ought to know the way to the lake if we’re going to chill there tomorrow,” he said.  “Are you okay setting up the rest of the stuff by yourself?”

“Of course.”

“Thank goodness,” Marty sighed.  “If it were me alone, I’d be screwed.  See ya!”

*****

Colours blazed across the sky as the sun sank beyond the horizon.  Dani had long since finished perfecting the campsite and now sat idly, spinning the frisbee on her finger, waiting for her friends to return.

Suddenly, she heard a low and mournful cry.  Then, silence.  She shivered, the haunting lupine voice still echoing in her imagination.  Knowing it was still too early in the evening for wolves, she tried to assure herself she had guessed incorrectly at the source of the howl.  But then it came again; dark and musical, untamed.  She stood up and decided to exchange the frisbee for something more substantial.  Scanning the campsite, she spied the tent stakes, the ones she had pounded into the ground just hours before.  With a grunt, she pulled one up and tried to take comfort in the cold metal in her grasp.

Dani tried to recall all she knew about wolves.  What provoked them?  How did you stay safe?  Eerie silence filled the deserted clearing.  Dani spun around in the chilly evening air.  Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of something moving.  She shrieked involuntarily, jumped back, and thrust the stake in the blur’s direction.

“Whoa, relax, psycho!” Phil coughed brusquely.  He dumped a pile of thick sticks and small branches onto the grass.  Jenna tossed down the sticks she was carrying and giggled.  “Sorry if we scared you.”

Under normal circumstances, Dani would have been terribly embarrassed, but after hearing that wolf – if that’s what it was – she couldn’t be happier to see her friends again.  Her heart was still pounding and her voice was noticeably shaky as she asked, “Where’s Marty?”

Looks of concern crossed Phil and Jenna’s faces.  

“Isn’t he with you?”  Phil asked carefully.  Despite his burly frame, he seemed very small just then.

“What’s that?!”  Cried Jenna, pointing toward something on the other side of the clearing.  A grizzly-furred, four-legged creature paced in the brush.  Its eyes seemed to glow as they reflected the dying sunlight, but its features were obscured by shadows.

Phil put his arms out in front of Jenna and Dani.  “Okay, stay back,” he instructed.

Dani darted around his reach.  “But Marty’s still out there!” She protested.  

The three of them lost sight of the creature amongst the trees.  Not a heartbeat later did branches start rustling a short distance beyond.  A shadow emerged from the brush.

It was Marty.

*****

Deep darkness swallowed the tiny clearing.  The four clustered around the campfire like insects drawn to a streetlamp’s glow.  Jenna, half playing and half genuinely terrified, squeezed Phil’s hand as he told his favourite tale of the macabre.  

“And the old man said, ‘I know the mark of a werewolf when I see one’.  The kids laughed this off, of course, and headed off into the forest.”

“No!” Jenna screamed, cringing.  “Don’t set it in a forest!”

“Jenna, it’s a story!” Marty growled.  He looked at Phil.  “Continue?”

“Right.  So the kids go into the forest, and it’s pitch dark.  Even the moon is covered up by clouds.  Then suddenly - ”

Jenna squeaked.

“Come on, Jenna,” Marty whined, “There’s no such thing as werewolves.”

Marty’s comment caught the attention of Dani, who had been tuning in and out thus far.  She thought it strange that all of a sudden, the usually goofy and playful Marty was trying to snuff out any spookiness.  And he sure as hell didn’t want anyone to believe in werewolves.  She analyzed his face suspiciously.  Maybe it was the way the firelight skipped on his face, but his features seemed sharper than usual.  More severe.  Wilder.  

As Phil continued with the story, Marty grinned widely.  For just a moment there, his canine teeth seemed somewhat longer than usual.  Dani told herself it was probably just her imagination acting up, but she didn’t feel comfortable taking her eyes off him.

“If this is freaking people out,” Marty suggested, “Maybe we should forget this story.”

“Fine by me,” Phil agreed with a shrug.  “I’m beat.”  He and Dani put out the fire.

Jenna, who had been hunched forwards with her fingers in her ears, looked up and grinned, embarrassed.  She asked the time.  The glowing face of someone’s watch, the only light for miles around, told them it was nearly midnight.

The four ducked into the tent and fell asleep to the hollow sighing of the wind.

*****

A loud and haunting howl pierced the night air.  Dani’s eyes shot open.  A wolf!  And it was close.  She could practically feel its hot breath, its dripping tongue, its jagged fangs on her neck through the tent’s thin walls.  She didn’t dare to move nor make a sound.  Her eyes frantically darted around the tent.  To her horror, both Marty and Phil were missing.  

Summoning all her courage, she leaned over toward Jenna, who lay perfectly still beside her.  Dani blinked.  She stared hard to be sure that the dark patterns that swirled around the sleeping body were shadowy ridges in her blanket and nothing more sinister.  She watched Jenna for a moment to make absolutely sure she was breathing.  Once Dani was convinced that she was fine, she realized Jenna would be safest staying behind.  That meant Dani would have to venture out after her friends alone.

With nothing to prep herself with but a flashlight, she cautiously zipped open the door and slipped out.  On the far side of the clearing, she spied a shadowy figure.  It turned toward her and began to creep closer.  Instinctively, she shone the beam in its face.

It was Marty, who was clearly just as shocked to see her.  He had been carrying a large stick and jabbed it out in front of him for protection.

“What are you doing out here?” Dani asked suspiciously.  Marty studied her face carefully for a moment.  

“I saw something,” he muttered.  

“I heard a wolf,” she told him.  Marty shook his head.

“Whatever I saw, I don’t think it was a wolf.”

Suddenly, they heard something rustling deep in the brush.  The two friends pulled closer together as they felt the air get colder.  Something was making a beeline for them, getting faster and faster.  Marty dropped the stick and took a step back.

The thing burst forth from the brush, stumbled around, and fell to the ground.  Under the moonlight, it appeared human.  The two friends cautiously approached.

Dani shone the flashlight on the stranger’s face.  It was Phil, but something wasn’t quite right.  Gone were his usual confident smirk and proud glimmer in his eyes.  This person was dazed and frightened and his eyes never focused on either friend’s face.  Instead, he seemed transfixed, just staring at the moon.

“Phil?” Dani asked gently.  No reply.  “Phil?!” She tried again.  Phil blinked this time.  “What are you looking at?”  She asked him.

“Don’t worry about it,” he grumbled, and pulled himself to his feet.

Marty reached down to help him up.  “Hey, man, we’re just worried about y-”

“I said, don’t worry about it!” Phil snapped.  He snarled ferociously at Marty and Dani for a moment before slinking off towards the tent.

*****

The sun hadn’t yet risen when the silence was broken once more, this time by a blood-fizzing scream from Jenna.

“What is it?  What is it?” Marty panted, frantically looking around the tent.

“I saw a wolf!”  She whimpered, hyperventilating.  “Here!”

“I thought so!” Barked Phil.  He glared at Marty, who was curling up defensively.  “I knew it.”

“You too, eh?” Marty said cautiously.  “I though it was crazy that I should suspect it, but…Dani, you should have warned us.”

Taken aback, Dani wasn’t totally sure what had happened.  She asked pointedly what exactly she was being accused of.

“You’re a werewolf!” Marty blurted out.  “Me and Phil both saw you.”

“Were you going to kill us?” Jenna asked fearfully.

“Of course not!”  Dani shouted.  “How dare you say stupid things like that?  If anybody’s the werewolf, it’s Phil!”

“What?  No way!” Phil bellowed.

“Yes, way!  I saw you last night!”

“What were you doing out of the tent then?”

“Looking for you!”

“I went looking for…Marty, actually.”  All eyes fell on Marty, who refused to meet their stares.

“You’re all insane,” he scoffed.

“You’re insane!”  Shouted Phil.  “You could have killed us!”  He lunged at him.  Jenna shrieked and jumped out of the way.  Phil tackled Marty and pinned him on the ground.  Marty struggled, but was no match for Phil.  Refusing to let Phil pummel Marty to death, Dani jumped on Phil from behind and tried to pull him back.  Phil lurched around and knocked Dani to the other side of the tent.  She landed on Jenna, who screamed and kicked her in the face.  It was the perfect strike; Dani’s canine tooth pierced her bottom lip, enough to draw blood.

“I’m not a werewolf, you lunatic!” Dani coughed.  She punched Jenna, who fell back against the opening of the tent.  In the meantime, Phil had pressed Marty against the fabric, tipping the whole tent to the side and exposing the outline of a tent stake.  Marty scratched frantically at the shape and pulled the icy metal weapon through.  He thrust the stake at Phil, who grabbed him by the wrist and forced his hand back over his head.  The tent tore further, and the two spilled out onto the dewy grass.  Dani followed to intervene, although she wasn’t quite sure who needed her help…or who she thought deserved it.  From the looks of it, there wasn’t much good she could do for either of them.

Jenna couldn’t take the smell of her friend’s blood anymore, and she left the tent through the intended door.  The time it took her to dart around to the other side of the tent was almost too much; she arrived in time to see her three friends in an indistinguishable pile of twisted bodies.  Struggling.  Writhing.  Blood spattered.  An arm – probably Phil’s – held the stake above the pile as others groped for it.  

Another scream.  The three disengaged and looked Jenna’s way.  She was frozen in fear, mouth open and eyes squeezed shut, pointing in wild staccato at something in the brush.

Everyone looked.  A wolf stepped out of the shadows.  It paused, surveying the four and their campsite, and disappeared back into the forest.