What Walks in These Woods: Part 4
Keith waited for Wolcott to drive off. Once his car disappeared in the distance, Keith took his rifle and headed out to the woods.
The cold morning air gripped at his body as he snaked through the thick clusters of trees, tracing his path to each trap camera.
One by one, he reached them and checked for exposures or videos. One by one he found nothing but disappointment.
In the claustrophobic sprawl of the forest, Keith checked another camera, and found nothing once more. He threw the camera down in rage. He looked around, desperation and despair painted on his face.
Was he really losing his mind? Is this what it was like? Moments of intense and visceral terror, or his mind just beginning to fray from within?
He knew he had seen something. He had shot at something. His door was ravaged. It had to be real. Had to be.
Keith made his way to the last camera, his internal struggle eating away at his concentration. He was no longer looking around with a vigil alertness. He had slung his rifle over his shoulder in quiet defeat.
Accepting the inevitable, he approached the last camera. In a nonchalant manner, he looked at the settings on it to see if it had taken any photos, or any video.
It had.
Keith froze and then nearly ripped the camera off its connection base as he grabbed it. Keith moved quickly, his feet crunching through twigs and splashing through mud as he hurried to his house with the trap camera held tight.
A part of Keith's brain was trying its best to convince him of what would be on the camera.
Deer. It's just going to be deer.
Raccoons. Possums. An owl.
This is what he would find. His brain was trying to tell him this, but the rest of Keith was having none of it. Keith threw his front door open so hard that it finally came off its hinges and crashed onto the porch as he ran into the house.
Fumbling with shaking hands, Keith finally got the SD card in the camera out and into his computer.
The brief seconds while the files were rendering felt like iron hot agony.
Keith clicked on the first picture. His heart sank.
An owl. Blurry and mid-flight, but an owl for sure.
The next photo was a deer off in the distance as well. Keith's heart was racing and he continued on.
The next photo hit him in such a way he pushed himself from the screen in a sort of primal retreat.
The picture was in grayscale from the night vision IR light. The majority of the picture was just trees. But there was something large and near the center that garnered all the attention.
A huge hulking mass stood in the forest. Its skin looked like that of a rhino, but with vein-like structures protruding out all over. It stood on its hind legs, with feet that had some sort of fur that covered long flat claws. Its face was rounded and yet triangular, with a mouth that hung down nearly to its chest. Mandible-like jaws and thin tentacles dropped out of its face, and on the upper part of its head were those three eyes, glowing bright.
An unholy, outer worldly, evil monster was clear as day. Keith moved closer to the screen and began to study the photo. The creature was hideous. It appeared to be nearly eight or nine feet tall compared to the trees around it.
Keith noticed there was another file on the card. A video.
Keith clicked play. The camera showed the monster lumber in and out of the trees and then stop suddenly, as if listening for something. The eyes blinked independent of each other as it stood still. With incredible speed it turned about and lunged into the darkness, moving lightly and swiftly.
Keith noted how it moved with little to no impact. That had to be why Keith couldn't track it, or get a bearing on it at all in the night. Its sudden burst of speed also showed Keith that his rifle might not be a match for something that fast.
Keith began making digital copies of the evidence. He was planning on sending it out to every news outlet possible. But something had stopped him.
Keith sat back and pondered for a moment.
If he sent the files out, this place would be swarming with all types of people, looking for the monster in the woods. The creature wasn't for them to find. It was for him and him alone to deal with.
This was still his fight. And he needed to get ready for war.
Keith felt himself changing. He had felt empty and lost since Morgan had been taken. But now, he had a purpose. His path was clear. The forest called out to him, speaking the language of vengeance.
Keith turned off his computer without sending the files and got in his truck and began the short drive to Marvin's shop for one last purchase.
STAY TUNED FOR PART FIVE TOMORROW
