October 15, 1:59 a.m.
Timberton Parish, Louisiana
Hayden couldn’t sleep. He’d been a hunter since he was nine years old and his daddy brought him his first rifle. He’d slept in the woods thousands of times. But this time, as lace-thin streams of the full moon came in through the sides of his tent, rest simply could not claim him. The trouble, this time, is that he didn’t know what he was hunting.
Nobody believed him when he told them Derrick was in trouble. Everyone said he’d gotten into a good drunk somewhere, or finally run off to Shreveport to find Kellie and beg her to take him back, but Hayden knew better. Derrick stopped drinking a month ago, after he got hurt in their last camping trip, and he’d stopped talking about Kellie too. All he’d really been interested in, ever since something in the shadows bit him out there, was coming back to the woods and trying to find whatever it was. Then, this morning, he hadn’t shown up for work. He didn’t answer his phone, and his AA sponsor had no idea where he could be. Hayden used his spare key to let himself in to Derrick’s house, only to find it empty, and Derrick’s furniture and clothes shredded like the house had imprisoned a wild dog.
Hayden didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he knew Derrick would stop at nothing to find him if Hayden were missing. They’d been best friends since Kindergarten, when Hayden started calling Derrick “The Blob” because of the irregularly-shaped birthmark on his right cheek. They got in a fight over that one. They’d been inseparable ever since… until this past month.
At the same time Hayden’s watch chirped the stroke of 2 a.m., there was a chilling howl from outside. Hayden’s eyebrow raised… it sounded like a wolf, but… there were no wolves in these woods. Were there?
He rolled over in his sleeping bag, determined to get some rest before dawn came and he resumed his search. He was almost there, too, almost asleep, when he heard a rustling come from outside his tent. Goddamn raccoons, getting into his things… He pulled himself out of the sleeping bag and, through something of a groggy haze, reached for his rifle. Raccoon may not be the prettiest pelt in the world, but the way he felt right now, shooting one of the little thieves may be damn therapeutic.
He stepped out of the tent, rifle extended, and scanned the camp. To his surprise, the garbage bag with his food scraps had gone unmolested. In fact, it didn’t appear that anything had been disturbed at all. What, then…
The rustling came again, and a shape emerged from around the back of the tent. It was a wolf – huge and hungry-looking, with fur like a smoothly fallen field of snow. It didn’t snarl, growl, or blanch at Hayden’s presence. In fact, as he looked up at Hayden with huge, almost intelligent eyes, Hayden almost got the sense that the wolf had been waiting for him. That feeling was only intensified when the beast’s nostrils flared.
My scent, Hayden thought. It knows my scent.
He began to step back, trying to put a little distance between himself and the wolf, but the animal stepped forward. It was about a foot away from a pool of light created by a part in the trees, and as it approached, Hayden saw the light fall across its body. In the moonlight, the snowy fur was dazzling.
“Get back, you son of a bitch,” Hayden muttered. It was illegal to hunt wolves in Louisiana, but he wouldn’t lose any sleep over pulling the trigger if he was afraid for his life. He brought his rifle up slowly and was about to fire when the wolf threw its head back and howled. As it did so, its face was completely in the moonlight for the first time.
On the wolf’s muzzle was a small patch of brown fur, small and irregular… the shape of a blob;.
“Derrick?” He whispered.
The wolf finally growled… at least, he thought it was a growl. It may actually have been a laugh. The wolf was laughing… Laughing at him… as it lunged.
Hayden didn’t arrive at home the next week. The camp was found, but Hayden himself never was, nor was his friend Derrick. Although a month after Hayden vanished, a pair of hikers reported seeing a pair of wolves in the woods where none had ever been seen before.
