Seconds passed as Collin sat there petrified as a victim of Medusa's gaze. Then the sound of feet stomping and crunching leaves and twigs could be heard, marching towards him. Collin flicked his light at the new comer like it was a sword he was brandishing, tip ready to squire whoever they were.

A young man in his mid twenties swam in from the dark. He had short cropped black hair, a distinguished chin, and slightly oversized ears and nose making him reminiscent of a house elf from Harry Potter.

"What the fuck are you yelling about," he demanded, his eyes were red and bloodshot, and the sour smell of booze emanated from his jacket.

With an unsteady hand, Collin directed his light back to the horrific sight, cringing slightly, not wanting to look at it directly again.

"What the fuck..... Mitch?"

In the peripheral glow of the flashlight Collin could see the man ogling at the sight of his decapitated friend. After a couple seconds his face contorted and wheeled around on Collin, his eyes wide as head lights on a car.

"You fucking bastard, you killed him."

"Me?" Collin screamed defensively, flicking the light off of the corpse and planting it back on his accuser.

"I just stumbled across him like this, how the fuck do you suppose I did such a brutal act? Look at the neck, it hasn't been sliced, but ripped off, I can't do something like that with my bare hands, can you?"

The man eyes narrowed into a skeptical glare, and when Collin clambered back onto his feet, he took a few steps back in precaution. As fear having momentarily melted away in anger, Collin was about to start to lob his own accusations, when a deep guttural growl carried through the darkness. Both men froze like they had been sprayed with liquid nitrogen.

A shape had stalked out of the shadows forth on all fours. Its posture however was less like a quadruped animal and more like a hunched gorilla walking on its knuckles.

It came to a halt then the creature rose up on two legs tilting its elongated head skywards. The howl that preceded caused a ripple to emanate from Collin's stomach and extending to his finger and toe tips. After several seconds of the call ending, there was a reply coming from the north west in the direction of the campsites.

Finally after several seconds of enduring quaking knees, Collin managed to get his legs to respond to his commands to run. Whirling around, he thrust his left foot forward and launched with his right, his footfalls so heavy it felt like he was slamming them into concrete rather then compacted dirt. The sound of the other man's own feet thudded right behind him. Collin ignored this however, focusing his hearing for the rushing of the monster they had left behind. Thankfully, and at the same time ominously, it seemed the creature was notchasing them. If Collin had not been driven temporarily stupid with fear, it would have been obvious the reason it wasn't pursuing was because they were running directly towards where one of the answers to its call had originated.

As the lights of his neighbors campsite bounced into existence, Collin veered left, leaving the other man in the dark. His first priority was getting to Rachel, then worrying about anyone else. She just had to be there when he returned, she had promised all those months ago.

Calin paced back and forth nerotically, from the kitchen to the bedroom of his tiny apartment, somehow not yet having worn a groove in the wooden floor from repetition. Less than an hour ago, he had had his first fight with Rachel since they agreed to be in a relationship. The fight had been over where they were going to dinner, Rachel as usual wanting meat, while Collin wanted to try new sushi place around the corner. He still didn't know why the discussion had escalated into a full blown argument. However it had resulted in Rachel giving him a glare that a cobra would give a approaching mongoose, stomping out and slamming the door so hard the picture next to it on the door fell and shattered. Collin glanced at his X-files watch dial. It was midnight, and Rachel was still not answer his calls.

He was standing over his cell phone on the kitchen table debating if he should call again when there was a knock at his door. Frantic, Collin wheeled around so fast his arm swiped his phone and it plummeted to the floor with a thunk. Too stressed to give the fallen device a thought, Collin jogged over to the entrance to the apartment. He wrenched the door open with such force it smacked into the wall and the lock on the knob left an imprint.

Standing in the doorway was Rachel, her lips a thin line, brow inclined.

"You're back," Collin cried, wrapping his arms around her tightly never again going to let go. "I'm so sorry, it was stupid to argue, I didn't think you were going to come back after that."

Rachel was so taken aback by his groveling, her eyes widened, her lips curled into a sheepish smile.

"I'm not going to leave you over something so trivial," she assured him moving her head back few inches in order to look into his eyes.

When Collin continued to hang his head, lips pursed, Rachel chuckled, and moved her head in closer.

"I promise, no matter what happens or what mood I'm in when I leave, I will always come back, okay?"

When Collin finally looked up to return her gaze, she darted her head like a striking cobra, and pressed her lips against his.

The campsite seemed undisturbed, no overturned camping chairs, nor the table with the portable stove on it. The car remained parked ten feet away behind a hollow log where he had left it. Heart slaming against his chest, Collin rounded the right side of the tent, and was relieved to see the entrance intact. Making a slide across the dirt, down onto his knees so that he bunched up the welcome tarp, Collin ripped open the zipper with a motion of someone flicking aside something revolting.
"Rachel we gotta get ou....."

His voice died off upon being greeted to a still empty insides. Frantically Collin whipped the flashlight's beam around the scene, but all the glow illuminated was empty space. His stomach cartwheeling Collin spun around to leave, when a flash of blue light caught the corner of his eye. Turning back to the bags in the corner of the tent, Collin saw the flash again, like a distress beacon on blinking in a dark sea. Darting forward, he savagely snatched at the source which was poking out of Rachel's backpack.

Collin's heart began to conga drum, as he stared at Rachel's phone, something she would never go into the woods without. The blue light flashed again, indicating there was an unread text. Collin's finger fluttered over the device's power button, wondering if he should invade Rachel's privacy, but the message might give him a clue to where she went. So Collin slammed the button, and the screen burst to life, illuminating the entire tent. When his eyes adjusted to the brightness, Collin found himself looking at a conversation with a number he didn't recognize.

Sender: Well my mistress, waited long enough yet?

Rachel: Indisposed right now, will sneak away in a few hours, start the fun without me.

Sender: Will be waiting.

Rachel: Meet you at on the other side of the campsite next to mine, make sure you are not seen.

Collin's finger's vibrated as his stomach became a bottomless pit. Rachel was cheating on him? He paused for a second, thinking back if there had been signs. There was one big piece of evidence, Rachel going out of town on the last weekend of every month. Collin didn't know where she went but did know she took the highway out of town that headed towards Red Valley. She could have been meeting someone in the area, maybe someone she had know before they had found each other. She might have even been camping for such a rondevu when they met.

Collin started to become lost in his own mind when another eerie howl sounded, coming from the direction of the nearby hills. Now was not the time to wonder, Collin needed to go find Rachel, and get the fuck out of dodge. Later would be the time to ponder her possible infidelity. Collin raised himself up straight crept to the tent's flap. He had just unzipped it, when there was a ripping sound from behind him that chilled his marrow. Swiveling his head and light, Collin illuminated the back wall of the tent to see five, three inch long black claws slowly shred the canvas.

The skin of his entire body tingling, Collin ducked under the tent flap and burst onto all fours, on the welcome tarp. As more ripping shredded the air, he bolted, the sound continuing as he made his escape past the picnic table towards the other campsite. Collin didn't stop running, even though he heard no pounding of feet behind him. In seconds light of the neighboring fire bled through the tree's and he dashed towards it.

When Collin breached the sea of trees, and landed on the shore of the illuminated site, he felt his heart rise out of his chest towards the treetops.

"It's the mother fucker that killed Mitch," came a cry from across the clearing from a group assembled around a large crackling fire.

The speaker was the black haired man from before, he was pointing a rattling finger at Collin, causing the three to close ranks around him.

"What the fuck, you still think I killed him?" Collin shouted, eyes narrowing and his a nerve in his cheek trembled as all fear his turned again into rage.

"You're sure of what you saw Paul?" Demanded another young man with short spiked black hair, beady eyes, and a large gap in his front teeth.

The man's march toward Collin was extremely threatening, not just his gate, but the fur jacket, hunting cap, and snake skin boots. When he drew with in four feet of Collin, he swished his hand to the back of his belt and whipped out a large revolver, who's bullet's would surely leave gaping holes in any unlucky target that he shot at.

"Whoa, what the fuck," Collin screamed his hands shooting up into the air like fireworks, eyes widening like hubcaps. "I'm telling I didn't kill that guy, you were there asshole, you ran from that thing just like I did."

The black haired man twitched when Collin mentioned the unspeakable monstrosity they had fled from.

"What thing is he talking about Paul," demanded a brunette with large eyes, flat forehead, and prominent nose.

The man named Paul shifted position like he was uncomfortable in his own skin, and looked from the guy with the gun, to the burnette to a third man with dirty blonde hair, who had plopped down on the picnic bench next to the fire. His face slack in an unconcerned almost bored fashion.

"There is no evidence that whatever that thing was killed him," Paul finally mumbled turning his head away from the gaze of the other's.

"No you jackass, there no evidence that I killed him," Collin retorted, his arms crossed across his chest, now to indignant to feel threatened by the man with the gun. "Your friends head was ripped from his shoulders, seems like something a big lumbering thing like the one we saw is capable of doing, rather than a man."

"So was it a bear?" ask the brunette, in a historical high pitched voice that stung Collin's

ears.

"It was big and hulking like a bear," Paul replied screwing up his eyes trying to remember the thing.

"Bear's don't howl dumb ass, and they don't actually walk on two legs. To me it look like a wer..." Collin trailed off, unable to speak such a fantastical idea, especially since he had already been accused of it's handywork.

The brunette gazed wide eyed at Collin, turning her hands upwards asking him to finish his sentence, but luckily he didn't have to.

"Don't be ridiculous Sarah, there are no predators in these woods anymore, they killed off all the mountain lions and wolves, native to the area, even the bears got smart and migrated," said the man, with the gun no longer pointing it at Collin, but instead gesturing with it to emphasize his argument.

"Then what was it, Scott?"

Their discussion was cut short as a sharp snap of what must have been a tree branch echoed from the side of the camp farthest from the fire, and thus shrouded in darkness. Sarah gasped sharply and darted behind the blonde man, cowering like a frightened sheep. The sound of rustling of bushes could then be heard, Scott growled and marched away from the illumination of the fire towards the darkness, his gun raised. His eyes were narrowed as he took aim.

"Wait don't it, my Gir.."

Collin's words were drowned out by the thunder of the shot, before all went silent.

"Hit it," whooped Scott, his lips twisted in a triumphant grin, gun still raised in a dramatic fashion.

Stomach twisting in knots, Collin started to make his way to the body, sure it was Rachel. His path was blocked however as Scott, stepped in front of him, gun pointed at Collin's heart.

"Stay right there, I don't trust you, and for safies sake, best leave a trained hunter check to see if it's dead."

Jaw clenched like he had titness, Collin watch helplessly as the arrogant jerk, slowly slunk into the darkness, pistol raised ready to fire at the first sign of movement. Stomach writhing Collin suffered eternal seconds, until they heard a call.

"It's just a fawn," Scott called through the gloom, his voice caring a noticeable air of disappointment like he wanted it to be a large ferocious beast.

Collin's knees almost gave out on him as relief washed over him like a tsunami. This was momentary, because he realized that the others around the fire were glaring at him again.

"You see there's nothing dangerous out there," Scott shouted, as he emerged back into the glow of the fire, before raising his gun at Collin again. "Nothing non human anyway."

Collin took a long steady breath to contain his burning anger, but he never had a chance to defend himself, for at that moment the exonerating evidence choose to make an entrance.

There was a roar from the shadows next to Scott, like a rabid bear on cocaine. A large shape, moving to fast for the eyes to register lunged from the darkness and bowled Scott over before he could even raise his arm a fraction of an inch. At it towered over the helpless man, the light of the fire was cast on the hulking form, and they all got a look at it. It was tall, about eight feet when standing on its two muscle clad legs. A pair equally muscular arms sprouted from an enormous chest each one ending in five thick, clawed fingers. It's entire body was covered in thick matted fur, patches of gray and black that were blended together at the edges. There were splotches of brown on its snout, and the tips of its pointed ears. The eyes were large and amber in color, that glowed in the light of the fire, and were now glaring at Scott.

The trembling man, attempted to raise his weapon, but the beast just snarled and with the back of its enormous hand smacked the firearm, which flew across the camp and landed in front of the fire with a dull clunk. Now disarmed Scott let out a terrible shriek like a mouse that had been trampled on. This seemed to antagonize the monster, because it roared drowning out his cry. Reaching down with one clawed hand it seized Scott's shoulder, and wrenched him into the air. In the form of an olympic discus thrower, the beast took two steps towards the nearest tree, before whipping Scott by the arm. He went soaring through the air facing backwards. What followed was the hardest thing Collin ever had to watch.

There was the cracking of bone as Scott was impaled on a thick tree branch, which the tip of burst through the right side of his chest, like a long bark covered alien.

Scott gurgled softly as blood bubbled out of his mouth, but the creature was not done with him. Lumbering over and still towering over him, despite Scott being suspended two feet off the ground, the beast growled, making a quick sweep with it's claws. There was a splattering noise like when spaghetti is dropped on the kitchen floor, as Scott's innards came spilling out like an uncoiling rope. Scott weezed as he struggled to get air out of his lungs, now looking at the beast, with wide pleading tearful eyes, begging to be put out of his misery.

Unfortunately this beast was far more cruel, as Scott struggled to breath the beast slowly almost dramatically turned its back on him, reframing to finish the job inorder to prolong the man's suffering for as long as possible.. The following silence was momentary because Sarah, seemed to snap out of shock, and let out a scream so piercing that, Collin feared it would make his ears drums break. Shaking its head the beast inhaled like its mind had been far away, and scanned the campsite. It's eyes moved from Paul, to Sarah, to the dirty blonde man, and then to Collin, almost like it was counting.

Then it straightened up, inhaled deeply and let rip a roar that would have put a lion to shame. Instantly Paul, and Sarah bolted around the tent on the other side of the fire and vanished into the treeline. The dirty blonde, lunged from his seat, like a frog, and landed in front of the fire, snatching up the revolver, brandishing it at the monster, as he retreated into the trees. The beast for its part, just stood there calmly watching them leave, before turning towards Collin. His feet having been rooted like he was been standing in quicksand, Collin started to back up as the beast lumbered towards him with heavy swings of its massive arms.

That's when Collin placed his left foot on a loose piece of firewood, which slipped out from under him, and he took a spill landing backwards. As he fell his wrist was dragged across a tree stump, the bark of which acted like a cheese grater and sheared off several layers of skin. Wincing Collin grasped his wrist feeling warm blood run down his fingers like tears. This was it, shark's went into a frenzy when they detected blood in the water, what this creature would do when it smelled that he was bleeding was beyond terrifying to imagination.

Sure enough the monster's pupils constricted, and its fangs were bared, as it started to stomp towards Collin, who was rattling like an empty can tide to the back of a car bumper at a wedding. Then something curious happened, the beast froze, its foot in mid air, sniffing heartily once then twice, it's eyes fixing on Collin's chest. It a frustrated snort and shrugging its massive shoulders it slowly turned around began to trudge back towards the darkness it had come from. Then it stopped, straightened up, and tilted back it's head. The howl was bone chilling, making Collin blood boil from cold terror. Then the beast was gone.

Confused, at why the beast looked at him at though he was tainted with infectious disease, Collin, slowly pushed himself onto his unreliable feet, which swayed him back and forth. As he tried to compose himself, there was a sharp zipping sound. Collin looked over to see the flap on the tent behind the fire, lift up and a man step out. He glanced around in a calm almost irritated manner.
"What hell is going on out here, can't a guy fuck in peace."

He had short cropped crown hair, with broad cheeks, and narrowed eyes, as he stumbled out of the tent, his hands fumbled with the zipper on his jeans. In between his bare chest and his arm was a shirt that had several stains in it.

Once then man had extricated himself from the tent entrance, a women crawled out, with long shoulder length blonde hair, fair complexion, a narrow nose, and gray eyes. She would have been beautiful if not for the disgusted grimace she wore on her lips.

"Honestly, how is a girl supposed to get laid with all this racket."

She was in her panties, topless, her less than modest breasts, obscured by her unstrapped bra, which she was pinning to her chest.

"Who the fuck are you?" the man demanded when his eyes settled on Collin, whose mouth fell open a couple of millimeters.

"Do you have no idea what just happened? Didn't you not hear all the screaming?"

The man gave a sheepish yet proud smile as he looked at the women next to him.

"Couldn't hear anything over this one's screams," he crowed, slapping the blonde on the behind. "By the way babe, we still are in an agreement that this is a one time thing, I mean I got a girlfriend at home?"

The women gave a rough jerk of her head, as she struggled to close the clasp of her bra, behind her back.

Collin on the other hand was barely managing to keep his legs from giving out, at the sure selfishness of these two, so self absorbed they didn't even notice that a massacre was happening outside their tent.

"Look we gotta get out of here, before it comes back," Collin ordered deciding to get his mind back on track.

"Before what comes back?" shot the Blonde as she pulled a t-shirt over her shoulders. "Hey where did the others go?"

"Before the werewolf comes back."

Collin had gotten so sick of the two's ignorance that he had shouted out the ridiculous notion without considering a better way to propose it."

The girl scoffed, giving Collin a sneer of contempt as she pulled her hair through a scrunchie.

"You superstitious idiot, there are no such thing, I will skip telling you how such a creature is scientifically impossible, and just refer you to the fact, that they are myths."

Infuriated Collin raised his hand to point out the corpse of Paul, when there was a roar. Out of the edge of the campfire light a humongus shape lunged out of the darkness. It caught man in the chest with the bottom of it's plate sized foot, slamming him to the ground. This monster was by far the tallest Collin had seen so far, a towering eleven feet, with arms as thick as Telephone poles, fur that was a mix of reddish brown and gray, and piercing eyes that glowed red in the fire light.

"Mike," screamed the women retreating behind the picnic bench to cower like a dog confronted by a vacuum cleaner.

"Ann help me."

The beast responded to the man's plea, by leaning on the foot it had pinned him under, so the breath wheezed out of him.

Then it turned its attention on Ann, and in one swift movement it snatched a full keg sitting next to the tent and hurled it at the picnic table. The cask hit with a dull metallic thud, the side denting as it skidded off the other end of the table. Ann screamed and tore off through the trees, as Mike called after her for help. Starting to struggle futility, the helpless man cast a glance in Collin's direction, and his eyes widened like he had forgot he was standing there.

"Guy you got to help me," he screamed pounding his fists on the humanoid ankles which bounced off like balled up pieces of paper.

Glancing at the ground around him, Collin spied a bat sized piece of firewood at his feet, and snatched it off the ground. He was hesitating to charge though when the beast shot him a soul shattering glare, that said don't you dare interfere. There was something familiar about that look that forced Collin to obediently freeze where he stood. Turning it glaring eyes back to Mike, the beast wrenched its foot off him like it had stepped in something nasty. In what was a second, its right hand shot forth, going right between the man's splayed legs.

There was a blood shattering scream, as Mike's lions were shred with one forceful yank of those powerful claws. Mike shriek in agony as gleaming blood ran across the ground like a crimson tide. For a whole minute the Werewolf stood body lax, watching the man trashing, with disdain curving its muzzle. Then as though growing tired of the situation it shot its wrist out once more, seizing the top of Mike's cranium. There was a skin shredding crack as it twisted his head around a full hundred and eighty degrees. When the monster released its grasp Mike's lifeless body fell onto it's back burying his face in the dusty earth.

Colin's fingers rattled from the gruesome display of violence that had just unfolded in front of him, it was a few seconds when his eyes swiveled back to the hulking brute. It was staring at him, with an irritated frown, the same expression Rachel gave him when he failed to do the obvious. Colin could hear the beast's blood curdling voice shouting in his head, you know you're supposed to run right? Finally Colin's feet responded and he shifted them into second gear, sprinting in leaping strides, not daring to look back. 

The beast watched him flee with narrowed eyes, a malevolent grin fracturing its muzzle. It knew that human only needed to be pushed just a little more, before his true nature would surface, it could smell it. It already had made the preemptive move of taking the one thing that would bring what it wanted out of him. Now it was just a matter of him finding out this reality. Once Collin's footfalls ebbed out of earshot the beast dropped to all fours, sniffing the ground for the trail of the other one that got away. Within five the beast's nostrils inhaled the flowery scent of its prey. The monstrosity sneered in anticipation for the fun it was about to have, fore it had a thing for tearing up stupid blondes.