A family of four people in an 2005 SUV head toward New Mexico to visit a family of cousins and Grandparents. Hi, I’m Jose Garcia and I am going to be visiting my family this year. As I was munching on some mini Oreo’s I decided to look outside the window of our car. As I expected to see some dirt and sandy hills that lay there boringly. I wondered what it feels like sitting there watching cars pass you and as the wind blows you away into pieces of sand and dirt. I wouldn’t be able to stand the heat and boringness to stay out like that. I ponder over the topic for a few minutes and left it be so It wouldn’t waste any of my time. I came back to reality again making sure I didn’t mishear any of my parents saying anything important about this trip. This also reminds me we were coming here to visit abuela, it’s her Birthday on Friday is what my parents said and my whole family was going to be there. I sighed at the thought and went back on my phone listening to “Pewdiepie’s Meme Review Part 3”.
Two hours later I look up from my device and look outside the window. “WERE FINALLY HERE, YES!” I say inside my heart beat raced with excitement and then I braced myself quickly. The road was windy with sand and dirt flying in, covering the windows. This made it hard to look where we were going but the reason I stopped because I saw something move with mad speed, almost like a coyote. The eyes were blinding white though but I quickly embraced the fact that I was seeing things and went back to looking around the car. I saw my big brother moving his head back and forth listening to his incompatible rock music which made my ears ring to the loud banging of the base and guitars. This is annoying because he sometimes pinches me just to bug me when I’m not looking and then he acts as if he dancing to his rock music. I could tell we were near due to the signs of Colorful words that said, “Happy Birthday Grandma”. My mom began boasting of Abuela being the best mom she could’ve dreamed of and I just sat there listening to her amazing acknowledgements. Mom was like, “Oh, cómo mi madre era tan sabia y respetada.” In english this meant that, “Oh, how my mother was so wise and respected.” The car slided by the dirt parking lot. I got out of the car and found myself facing all of my cousin, aunts, uncles, and mostly my grandma and grandpa. ChoCho my grandma’s dog also came to greet me with its tongue. I don’t know what happened but I started laughing all of sudden and the second thought was this was gonna be a good birthday party.
Thursday, One day before the party, 11:00pm
My cousins began speaking of the Navajo Native Legends because my grandpa was a Native American who believed in such legends. They spoke about haunted creatures and demonic forces that still roam the earth today. I brushed these facts off because I didn’t believe these legends to be real because I didn’t see anything unusual to begin with for the past fifteen years. It was getting late and it already happened to be 12:50. We all had to sleep quickly because tomorrow was the day grandma would turn 72. I myself was shocked to find out how old my grandma lived.
My cousin shouted in mad mans voice and it shook me and the others because he was telling us a ghost story and decided to scare us. The final story was about a demonic native that gained dark witchcraft magic to where he could become any animal and gain the animal powers as well. He also mentioned that the animal also seemed to have the same eye color as the person who turned into that animal. This native was known as the “Skin-Walker”. I bursted out laughing the name was so hilarious that I almost ran out breath. When I finished laughing my cousins stared at me with a serious look. One of my cousins tapped on my shoulder and whispered that our family believed in the “Skin-Walker” and that people who mentioned it would die. I quickly turned to my cousins after hearing this and I apologized for my behavior under the fact that this “Skin-Walker” situation was so real to them. My cousin finished saying that the speed of the coyote doubled because it has the speed of both human and animal. My heart stopped at these words and I became pale. Then my cousin continued saying that the “Skin-Walker” had mostly white eyes without any pupils. Everyone shuddered after this and my grandpa came by to say that it was bedtime for all of us.
I got up quietly and the horrible memory came back as if it happened right now this instant. I did see a “Skin-Walker” looking back and this was true it was a coyote that ran past our car with blinding speed. I thought about telling my family about what just happened but then I thought come on a “Skin-Walker”. A minute ago I laughed at its name saying how funny it was and now I’m scared all of sudden. What a stupid part I was to be scared of a non-lethal legend that’s probably not even real to begin with. I shook it off believing that it couldn’t be true and that it was just a story. I arrived at my room which was all clean and furnished with an open window with a lamp placed beside the wall. I looked at floor normal concrete with an old dusty carpet. I took of my shoes and clothing and jumped on top of my bed. It was the best thing I ever felt after getting back from a twenty-two-hour drive. That’s when I fell asleep.
Friday, 2:00am, The Party, 15 hours before birthday party starts
I wake up to hear a scratching noise near my window and decided to get up and check what it was. I get up grunting off my bed and walk slowly near my window. For a second I thought it was coyote standing on its hind legs but I balled my fists and rubbed my eyes making sure I wasn’t crazy and as soon as I opened them I see a normal coyote scratching the wall near my window. I shooed it away and it ran away very quickly. I sighed and decided to go take a piss before I fell back in bed. So I slowly walked toward the bathroom which was down the hall somewhat by the kitchen.
I opened the door to the bathroom and found that the window had been opened and wasn’t completely shut properly. I took the pride of closing the window and locking but since there were no curtains I had to leave it wide open of view which made me uncomfortable. Two minutes have passed and a sound of scratching came back again. ‘Not again,’ I sighed and I got up and kicked the wall twice harder to make whatever was scratching the wall to stop. When I turned to leave I looked outside the window and my bones became icy cold.
Eyes white as daylight, I could see the saliva running down from its mouth as it had the feeling of catching its tasty prey as dinner. It was a crouched tall desert fox on its hind legs and yes on its hind legs! I gasped for air and turned to run but the fox noticed me and charged with lightning speed toward the window. The window broke into a lot of pieces and I covered my head but a warm wet feeling in my leg seemed to glow in pain. Tears filled my eyes as the pain took over, the noise was so loud all my family members were awake and found me lying there in agony. My grandpa had brought his rifle and checked the bathroom. “It was clear,” he said and he turned to me and crouched looking at my wound. He said a claw mark which appeared to be eight inches down my skin and seemed to be four to five inches deep. A hole had appeared on the other side of my leg and I thought that I would be dead with losing all of my blood.
My grandma rolled her wheelchair in and handed my grandpa a first aid. The bandage was tightly wrapped around my leg and seemed to have made the bleeding stop by ten fold. It felt much better when they gave me some anesthesia pills to eat and some water. My parents questioned my older cousins and my brother if they were up but all of them said no. Then they whispered to my grandparents a question bone chilling enough that could give you chills for weeks. My mom whispered, “¿Hizo el Skin-Walker hacer esto?” This means, “Did the Skin-Walker do this?” I cleared my throat and shakily told them what happened. The story sent everyone flying. Grandpa ordered that they couldn’t celebrate the party here but somewhere else and that they were gonna brought in native blood priest to purify the area so the Skin-Walker couldn’t attack. I knew this wasn’t going to work. It made sense that the Skin-Walker indeed was what he saw stalking past their vehicle in the sandstorm.
That morning everyone had woken up better from the mood they were in from last night. They all cheerfully wished her a happy birthday and decided to cut the cake early so they could leave later on in the day. We ate cake, danced, and had a good time. It was afternoon when it was time to leave and my parents were the last ones to leave me with them. My brother seemed to be in a bad mood knowing that his phone was dead and that he couldn’t listen to music. We gave hugs and kisses to my grandparents and left. I asked my parents if they were gonna be alright. My parents said that the priest will purify the house and make it defensive against any Skin-Walker. This I knew wouldn’t work. I felt as if it was trying to target me but I am fortunate to be still alive at this point was very lucky. I decided that brushing something off is something I could never do after that experience.
