For Fear Of The Woods

Supernatural Stories | Sep 1, 2012 | 8 min read
28 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Supernatural Stories

For Fear Of The Woods

When given the opportunity, Cody Renshaw would snatch a penny from a small child. He was a thief. A crook. A no good, dirty, rotten soul with no purpose in life. He had stolen from several convenience stores, small banks, residential homes, and the like for at least six years; and he was only twenty five years old! He wasn't always this way. It started when he needed to pay off his college loans and obviously didn't have the cash in time. So he held up a local gas station. Successfully, he escaped with every last dollar. Then, he worked his way to bigger things. Home burglary was his specialty.

When Cody's friend Will told him that he was going on a camping trip, Cody saw it as a sort of "rehabilitation" from his life as a thief. He figured spending some time away from any cash registers would give him time to sort out his problems. Will hesitated to take Cody, but figured a camping trip with him would be fun. They hit the road a week later, driving northwest from South Dakota to the forested outskirts of Seattle. The camping grounds were a bit different than Cody had expected. It was complete woodland, but it was owned and monitored by a central office. Upon entering the office, Will approached the front counter to pay for three nights in a secluded spot of the territory, near a large pond. Cody walked around the office, viewing various maps, awards, and pictures of the territory and the park rangers. "Ya' better keep your eyes open when driving along the trails. A tree fell on a couple's car, killed them both". The park ranger sounded so stern when he said it, it almost sounded like a threat.
"Sure, we will", assured Will. The park ranger's face never moved from that stern, dead serious grimace.
"We been having problems with animals lately. Campers have been calling us saying that a black bear was attacking them."
Then Will asked the very question within my mind. "What should we do if we are attacked by a black bear?"
The ranger handed Will a walkie talkie. "Cell phones don't get reception out here. Just press this button and speak, out lines are always open. There are several signs around the woods if you stick to the trails, so use them to give your location. We have posts and watch towers everywhere, so a ranger will be there in seconds". While he spoke, Cody was focused on the safe he noticed in the back room.

With that, they thanked the ranger and got into Will's jeep. It was a half hour drive to their spot, but when they got there, boy was it beautiful! The sun was setting over the lake, the birds were chirping. Cody, however, didn't give a damn. All he could think about was that safe. He figured there was a ton of money in it, enough to let him sit pretty for a few months. They both proceeded to set up their king- sized tent. It was spacious enough to fit ten people, and gave a good twelve feet between their sleeping bags, but it was nothing special in Cody's eyes. All he could think about was his potential fortune in that safe. Later that night, they both went to sleep. The walls of the tent were thin, so Cody restlessly watched the shadows of tree branches sway in the moonlight. It put him in a trance, almost hypnotizing him to sleep. But his trance was broken at the sound of a loud crack. Cody sat up quickly, studying the shadows on the tent. Nothing seemed to move after a few minutes. Cody giggled at himself, for acting so skittish. That ridiculous story of a killer bear had made him paranoid. Then came a hideous howl from within the woods. Cody once again shot up within the tent, now shaking from fear. That howl was so loud, so ferocious, so close. He slowly unzipped a portion of the tent to peek out into the night. Trees. That's all there was. Just the pale moonlight reflecting from the bark of the trees, and an infinite darkness behind the trees. Terrified, Cody slowly zipped the tent back up and crawled back to his sleeping bag.

The next morning, Cody was exhausted. That terrible howl disturbed him so deeply, it prevented him from gaining any sleep. Surprisingly, Will never awoke in the night. He denied hearing and howls or cracking tree branches, then proceeded to call Cody crazy. That day was filled with hiking all around the campsite. Up hills, down hills, through the patches of trees and by the lake. "Over here, look at this!", called Will. On one tree, there were four deep cuts. Scratches, but too large even for a bear. It looked like someone was hacking at it with an ax for a week. "Who the hell would do that?", asked Will.
"I don't think any person did", replied Cody.
Will remarked with a cocky attitude; "Well no animal out here could have done it! They're way too big!"
"I dunno", Cody said, "I'll let the park rangers know about it".
Will's eyes widened with humor. "Oh its not that big of a deal! So someone took out their anger on a tree with a hatchet. That's not a crime."

Later that night, Cody was finally going to make his move. He waited for Will to fall asleep, then carefully unzipped the tent, not making a sound. From his bag, Cody removed a black turtle neck shirt, a pair of black jeans, some cotton knit gloves and a ski mask. As he left the camp, he grabbed a flashlight and his lock picking tools. Sure, he wanted to rehabilitate himself, but he knew if an opportunity arose, he'd hate himself for not seizing it. It took him nearly an hour to walk to the central office. It was dark and vacant. Cody checked his watch. 2:33 AM. The moon was high and full in the summer night's sky. It gave him plenty of light to see the security cameras covering the door. Cody climbed on a dumpster near the side of the office, onto the roof. It had a large glass panel to let sunlight in the building. A shuffle in the woods behind the office caught Cody off guard. He ducked down and hid himself from view. Peeking over the edge, he saw nothing. He laughed at himself, then began picking the lock on the panel, knowing he could lower himself onto the counter, creep into the backroom, and crack the safe. It was so simple! He was so close to his prize! Cody pulled the ski mask over his face, and carefully lowered his feet to the counter. From there, he approached the door to the back room. Unlocked, surprisingly. He entered the dark room, turned on his flashlight, and began to pick the lock on the safe. A new model, one with a keyhole instead of a dial. It was easy, within seconds the safe opened. To his great displeasure, there was no money, no great valuables. There were guns. High powered rifles and shotguns. "What the hell?!", Cody muffled under his breath. Anger welled within him, all his anticipation was for nothing. A few worthless guns that he had no interest in. Cody closed the safe and grabbed his equipment. He hoisted himself back to the roof, and closed the panel. While locking the panel again, he spotted movement in the corner of his eye. He instinctively dropped flat to the roof, listening to the shuffle of leaves a few feet from him. He peeked over the side to see what it was. He couldn't believe his eyes. A ten foot tall wolf, standing on its hind legs, was ripping the corpse of a human to shreds. It ripped pieces of meat from the carcass with its black claws, then stuck its snout into the body to retrieve the innards. Cody gagged, he wanted to vomit at the sight, but was too fearful to make a noise. Blood was everywhere, it practically painted the ground surrounding the creature. This was no ordinary wolf either. It had human features. Five clawed fingers, the two legs it stood on. It has black hair from head to toe, a wolf's head with tall, pointy ears. Fangs, at least seven inches long. Cody knew what a werewolf was, he seen his share of horror films. But nothing matched the horror of this thing. Cody crept back to the safe, grabbed the biggest rifle he could find and some rounds for it. As he arrived back to the roof, the creature was gone. The body, now horribly mangled, still remained. Cody wasted no time. He jumped onto the dumpster and back to the ground. He hurried through the woods, running faster than he ever had. Behind him, he heard the panting of a canine. His heart raced, he picked up speed, and bolted back to the camp. The tent was torn apart into pieces. Blood was everywhere, and Will, well, Will was in pieces too. Cody let out a wail of terror and jumped into the jeep. The car hesitated to start and through the windshield, Cody saw the beast running towards him. "Start, goddammit!" he shouted in frustration. The engine finally fired up, and Cody stomped the gas peddle to the floor. The tires screeched, and the car shot forward. He swerved along the trail so violently, he lost control of the wheel. The car smashed into a pine tree, and Cody smacked his head onto the dash board.

After regaining his consciousness, he awoke to see the beast towering over him, blood dripping from its mouth. In a panic, Cody grabbed his rifle. The monster lunged at him and pinned the rifle to the tree as a shot rang out. Cody's ears rang from the shot, and the wolf dug its fangs into his shoulder. Cody screamed in pain, then grabbed his lockpicking tools out of his pocket, and stabbed them into the wolf. The wolf backed down, and growled as it ripped the tools from its torso. Cody cocked the rifle and shot the wolf right in its chest. The wolf bled from the wound, and he let off three more shots before the beast ran off into the woods. Cody stumbled into the jeep, and drove away as far as he could. He didn't care where he went, he just wanted to escape the woods.

Cody came to a nearby city, and ran into the hospital. Laying in a gurney, a doctor came into his room and said, "It's a damn good thing you got here when you did. You were dangerously close to bleeding out from your shoulder." The following month, Cody was at home. He hadn't forgot what happened at the campsite, what happened to Will. He felt sorry that his greed lead to his friend's untimely death. It was a full moon out again, the sight sent a chill down his spine, and suddenly, Cody noticed hair growing uncontrollably from his body, and fangs elongating from his mouth...........

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