A HORROR STORY TO GET YOUR HEART RACING

CAMP VALE – A HORROR STORY

I, James Marlow, will never forget the day I led my wife to slaughter at Camp Vale, blinded by ignorance and a childish tale.

“Darling, have you read something like this?” I asked, smiling at the yellowed pages filled with pictures.

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” she replied recognizing the classic story. “That tale gives me the creeps.”

“Yes…..,” one of the two rangers chimed in, “It is real.”

I laughed, thinking it was harmless to howl. “Awwwuuuuuu!” I shouted but the second ranger pounced on me grasping my lips firmly.

“You’ll attract leopards, sir!” he warned.

I recoiled, offended by the rough handling.

“Take your filthy hands off me!” I shoved him aside.

Ava calmed me immediately, whispering, ” Stop it Marlow! You shouldn’t repeat tales like this. People die from ordinary things.”

But I refused to listen. “We paid for the full jungle experience babe!” I argued.

She ran to apologize to the rangers leaving me to my folly.

“Baby, check this out,” I howled again trying to vex her even more but everyone suddenly froze in terror.

“It’s a fresh human carcass,” the first ranger warned, pulling Ava back.

The lifeless brunette lay hollow before us, no insides visible.

“Kumasi stay away”, the second ranger ordered his superior out of trepidation but he was curious. How can an empty body be warm and somehow alive?

I stumbled backward, horror etched on my face. “What the hell is that?”

We all trailed off, eyes fixated on how it began to twitch.

Ava grasped my arm quickly, her voice trembling. “Marlow what have you done?”

The brunette’s eyes flickered open as she sat up with bones crunching.

“Who howled?” she asked.

The rangers stood frozen, their guns forgotten.

“I said…,” she then rose taller, her insides closing at an alarming rate. “…who howled?”

“I…I…I didn’t,” I stuttered.

But it was too late, one of the rangers panicked and ran.

“Whatever you do, don’t move,” the brunette warned me.

Her legs snapped, transforming into hind claws but that was not the scariest part. Her smile grew, revealing teeth as long as my thumbs.

“Baby!” Ava screamed. “What should we do?”

In seconds, the brunette transformed into a full-fledged werewolf.

“Nothing”, I swallowed hard with every drop of saliva.

We both watched as it pounced on the first ranger, ripping him from limb to rib.

“Baby, just stay behind me,” I grabbed a stick.

“I said who howled?”, the brunette growled but the little story book fell from my shaky hands.

The second ranger tried to intervene, a claw swipe nonetheless transfigured him from hero to victim.

“Run…I dare you,” the werewolf taunted, its voice low and evil.

But instead of ferocity, I saw loneliness in its eyes. She must have been tracking us from the start and now just like a predator, she sought to lick the sweat off her food.

“You have a chance,” her human head surfaced through the throat.

I stood agape, unable to meet her gaze due to the unsettling fusion of human and wolf features.

“That story”, she stared at the little book on the floor. “I ate the boy in that story. The wolves came for his sheep but I came for him.”

“What?” my wife trembled behind me. “Is she saying the truth?”

“How would I know babe?” I replied, gripping the stick firmly.

But the creature growled over its shoulder. “Take that away… it offends me.”

I should have obeyed without hesitation but a spark of defiance ignited within me.

That’s when the werewolf snatched Ava away.

“Babe” I screamed as the creature’s bite tore through her torso. In those fading moments, I saw in my wife’s hand, a pocket knife.

The realization dawned on me that the werewolf was referring to her.

“Short, ain’t it?” she snarled, tossing Ava’s torn guilty hand at me. “How quickly a warning can become a consequence.”

“I’m sorry,” I begged but her fangs pleaded to differ.

“You should never howl in the woods”,she ran her claws playfully down my throat.

“Wait!” I screamed watching as everything went black.

“Good Lord”, I jolted awake in my office, sweating like a mine employee. “What kind of nightmare is this?”

It was exactly 4pm and Ava was sleeping peacefully on my coat near the reception. Relief washed over me but then I saw her – the strange brunette. She wore a furry beret as she cross legged beside my wife.

Dream on Marlow,” she winked. “We belong together.”