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Finn

The sun dipped below the horizon, casting the vast expanse of the woods in an eerie glow. I adjusted my backpack as I got out of the car, glancing at Luke and Jason, friends and fellow ghost hunters. The whispers of a ghostly wolf prowling the woods drove me to arrange the trip, and tonight, I was desperate to find it.

“Want to do the intro now?” Luke asked.

I shook my head. “Tomorrow. If we find something. You got the gear?”

“I’m grabbing the night cam,” Jason said. He tugged on a pack of supplies and Luke picked up the pop up tent. 

“I’ve marked a few GPS points on our map. Let’s head for the first one,” I said. My phone had a half dozen apps that helped with our investigations. The actual audio and camera equipment had a habit of malfunctioning when I touched them, which meant I left that stuff to the guys.

“I’ve got audio,” Luke said. He tucked the spare battery block in his pocket. “Stay close,” he glared at me. “No running after shit, Finn.”

“No kidding,” Jason added. “Mr. I-Get-Lost-in-the-Grocery-Store.”

“I do not.” Well, sometimes. My phone was fully charged, and I opted for the regular camera as anything else would raise questions of legitimacy. “Let’s do this.”

We set off into the woods, the peaceful calm of them stretching high overhead easing my anxiety. The deeper we walked, the more shadows stretched into wells of overwhelming darkness. If I stared at them too long they moved, but then I’d blink and it would go back to being long shadows. I tried a few videos and Jason kept the camera going. Luke asked questions as he held an audio recorder out in front of him.

We’d been walking almost two hours when Jason asked, “Isn’t it weirdly quiet?”

We all froze. The crunch of leaves beneath our feet faded and with it every other sound. 

“Is someone here with us?” Luke whispered.

I raised my phone and turned on the video, scanning the area in a wide arc, but nothing showed up on the feed. “Nothing.”

We stood in the silence for another few minutes. My gaze drawn to the far side of the area we stood. Was it getting darker? Night had set, but the headlamps the guys wore illuminated a couple dozen yards. 

“Do you feel that?” Jason asked. 

A chill filled the air, sharp, and biting. My breath puffed out in visible clouds, while my heart raced with both fear and anticipation. A flicker of movement caught my eye, and I lifted my phone, flipping on the video as I scanned the area. The height of the trees added layers of shadow and a cast of darkness around us, adding to the creepy sensation of being watched. If I stared too long at the shadows I could almost feel them moving, slinking forward like some sort of dark ooze.

“I’ve never been more creeped out in my life,” Luke said.

“Me either,” Jason agreed.

I tiptoed toward the darkest of shadows, never one to be afraid of the dark.

“Fuck, Finn, why you gotta pick the spookiest of places?” Jason complained.

“You see something?” Luke asked.

I kept my phone focused on the dark. The closer I got the more I felt something lingered. “Nothing yet.” I gazed into the brush, crouching to focus. “Hello? Anyone there?”

A pair of glowing eyes appeared in the depths of the shadows and I sucked in air as if I’d been sucker punched. Jason and Luke gasped beside me, so I knew they saw it too. I tried to zoom the video in, still heading for the darkness.

“Stop, Finn. It could be a bear or something.”

“Bears don’t have glowing eyes, dumbass,” Luke griped.

The edges of it materialized as I got closer, still too far to capture a solid view of more than a hint of shadow and shape. Was it the ghost wolf?

I reached out a hand, wondering if I could get close enough to touch it. A shuddering icy cold pooled up from the ground around me, as though trying to stop my forward movement, and the glowing eyes suddenly lunged. We all screamed. I flipped backward, half rolling as I found my feet and ran. We scattered, racing away with no real direction in mind. I clung to my phone, heart pounding, but tripped over something that sent me sprawling face first into a well of shadows.

My gut swirled and spiraled for a half second as though I’d fallen a thousand feet instead of a handful. I landed in a heap, on my back, staring up at the sky, trees overhead tinted with reds and golds in thick streams of moonlight. The scent of rain and freshly fallen leaves filled my senses and I sighed, heart slowing as the eerie sensation of being watched faded.

I got up and realized Luke and Jason were nowhere in sight. Neither was the crazy dark shadow wolf or unnatural movement of the darkness. The chill seeped away and aches arose in a dozen places. A skinned knee, a twinge in my back, something hot ran down my elbow and I suspected I’d been cut on something. But the chaotic and disturbing ambiance of the woods had vanished. 

What the hell? I turned off the video and opened the GPS. No service.

“Guys?” I called. Which way had I come from?

My voice echoed, but beyond a fluttering of leaves on the wind, nothing else made a sound. Okay, that was a little creepy. I gazed upward trying to find the moon, but realizing there was sunlight. Had I been out long enough for it to be morning? The pale sky covered in clouds hovered above the trees, hiding the direction of the sun or any indication of which way I’d come. 

Maybe that’s why I smelled rain? A storm coming? If I’d knocked myself out, shouldn’t I hurt more? Or maybe I was remembering wrong and it hadn’t been dark yet when we entered the woods. Forests could breed darkness as the canopies snuffed out anything above, maybe that’s why I’d thought it was night. 

I turned in a slow circle, trying to catch a sense of where I was, but it all looked the same, towering trees in every direction. And Jason had the pack of supplies.

“Fuck,” I cursed, checking my phone again, wandering a few feet and finding no matter which way I went, I had no service, and my battery was quickly running low. I watched back the video I took, wondering if the wolf really appeared, but there it was, plain as day, captured on my phone camera. “Stuck in the woods with no way to show the world. Debunk this, assholes!” I shouted as if someone could hear.

But my voice faded away, leaving me with nothing but silence, trees, and rising anxiety.