Vacations are the best, getting away from school, no work or chores. It’s great, unless you have the vacation I did.
I was visiting North Carolina with my parents, staying in the mountains. My father’s family lived on the other side of the state in a more agricultural area, so of course we went to visit them before going home. We stayed for about three days.
My grandfather told us stories about this animal that would come out only during the fall and early winter, some type of wolf. He said those who were close enough to see it usually didnt make it out alive, from what he had heard. I thought he was just telling a story obviously, like this sounded crazy. He talked about a wolf like animal that was at least 6 feet tall on all four paws, all black fur and no eyes, huge razor sharp teeth. I admit it gave me chills but I didn’t believe it.
I went hunting with my grandfather one evening, it was a cool evening, mid fall. He kept teasing me about the wolf, whom they had dubbed The Devils Pet. I rolled my eyes as if I thought it was completely ridiculous, but I couldn’t help but feel nervous. What if it was true?
Anyway we were sitting in the hunting blind and my grandfather decided he had to go piss, so he went off somewhere to go. It took him forever it seemed like to get back. Who takes this long to pee? So I leave the blind and go looking for him, listening to the leaves crunching under my feet.
I freeze when I hear this sound, a sound that makes the hair stand up on my neck. I hear a howl, a low haunting howl. This can’t be real, my Grandad must be messing with me.
I roll my eyes and yell out for him to cut it out. I hear only silence. So I keep walking and find some wet leaves, but I don’t remember it raining, and why is it just in this spot? Oh wait, there’s a trail. But what is it? I stick my finger in the wet leaves and look, its red. Oh god, its blood.
I start to panic, thinking something happened to my grandad so I follow the trail until it stops, but there’s nothing at the end, just blood, and some… skin? I’m too afraid to pick it up, too grossed out. I struggle not to puke at the smell.
I look around and call out for my grandpa but once again there’s only silence, until I hear the howl again.
Now I’m really panicking. I start to run out of the woods, but I can’t remember which way to go. I’m literally in the middle of the woods and it’s getting dark. I stop running, but only because I see it. Oh god, its real. The wolf.
I try to slow my breathing so I don’t alarm it. It has no eyes, how can it see? It looks like it can’t, obviously, it just seems to be smelling its way around but, how does it get around so well? Is it really possessed? I start to slowly back up to walk away from it, but I freeze when it looks directly at me. Looking at me with no eyes. It starts running toward me, these giant paws pounding the ground. I scream and start running, seeming to completely forget that I have a gun.
It attacks me. I feel its teeth sink into my leg, I’m screaming in pain, even worse when I feel my leg torn away from my body. I grab my gun because I dropped it when the wolf attacked me, I shot it in the face. It makes tho painful howl and rolls over on the ground, but it’s not dead, it only seems slightly wounded. Its scraping around on the ground trying to get the bullet out of its skull. I find the time to pull myself across the ground and actually make it back to my grandparents house across the field, out of the woods.
My mom screams when she sees me, and that’s all I remember.
I wake up in the hospital, thinking it was just a dream until I look down and see the absence of what was my leg. The doctors start asking me what happened as soon as they see I’m awake. I tell them the best I can, and they just look at me in horror.
The older doctor takes off his glasses and sits on the edge of the hospital bed and tells me that when the wolf tastes your blood, he has to have all of it. He has your scent and will hunt you and only you until it gets you.
I’m absolutely horrified. They’ve had at least five cases like this, and all the patients ended up missing, supposedly dead. Looks like its my turn.
As soon as I’m released from the hospital my parents and I get our flight back home. The wolf shouldnt find me if it has nothing to track me with right?
I’ve been home for a few weeks now, finally able to feel at ease, but it’s still hard getting used to only having one leg.
I’m in bed and I hear it. The howl.
It found me.
There’s no escaping the Devil’s Pet.
