Weekend in the Woods

“How much further are we going to walk?” whined Lauren.
“Stop complaining we need to find a clearing to set our crap down.” Marcus replied.
Damian shook his head and kept on trekking through the Blue Hills. This had been planned for about a month. Marcus had wanted to go on a trip with his girlfriend, Lauren and decided that Damian, Luke, and Mary couldn’t be alone that weekend. The only problem with all of this was that Luke had asked Mary to the Harvest Dance next week. That would be all fine and dandy if Damian hadn’t told Luke the day before yesterday that he really liked Mary and wanted to ask her out. Now he was stuck with Luke and Mary all weekend. He was so looking forward to that. All sarcasm intended. Damian fixed the shoulder strap of his backpack and looked up at the sky.
“It’s starting to get dark guys, we need to hurry up.” Damian declared.
“Whose bright idea was it to start out at 4? Oh yeah, it was effing Marcus’ idea!” Luke grumbled angrily.
Marcus turned to glare daggers at Luke. “Shut up and keep walking.”
Lauren smiled a little bit and took Marcus’ hand to comfort him. She was the mother figure of them all. Damian smiled a little; glad his friend was happy for once. He sighed and zipped his jacket up a little more.

After about another thirty minutes they came to a slightly clear area along the trail. Damian set his bag down and looked over at his friends. Luke pulled out the stuff for one of the tents. He took one look at all of the rods and tarp and shook his head.
“Screw this, hey Dame wanna take a shot at it?”
Mary rolled her pretty blue eyes and went over to them. She passed him the directions before starting to put the tent together. Damian chuckled lowly and shook his head.
“Nah, I think she’s got it man.”
A blush crept up Luke’s face before he cleared his throat and attempted to help Mary. Damian smiled and started to make up his own tent. When he finished making his home for the weekend cozy he joined the others around a small camp fire.
“Just in time, Dame, we’re gonna tell scary stories. Ooooh.” Luke put a flashlight up to his face to make himself look scary.
“Yeah, yeah, I doubt you know how to scare anyone but yourself.”
Mary and Marcus laughed at that and Lauren added some twigs to the fire.
“Anyone have a scary story?”
“Hm, have you heard the one about the haunted high school?” Mary asked.
“Pssh, cliché much?” said Marcus.
“What about the three friends on vacation in Amsterdam?” Damian chimed in.
“Eh, sounds like the movie Hostel, but give it a shot.” Luke added.
Everyone got close in around the fire to hear this. Lauren and Mary cooked up some marshmallows while Marcus and Luke worked on hotdogs. Damian cleared his throat and smiled at the four before he started to speak.
“So about 3 years ago a group of friends graduated from high school, which happened to be my older brother’s school actually. Oh you remember this Marcus? Good. So anyways, these three kids had been talking about this trip since freshman year. They were gonna go to Amsterdam after graduation for about a month. They worked their asses off until senior year and then took first class to their dream destination. They hung out around town and did some stupid things. You know, the usual for teenagers in a country where there is no age limit. The next morning a Rasta bar was opening up and the owner saw something in the alley next door. Hanging from the building, according to height were the three friends.”
“You’re lying.” Mary murmured; eyes wide with fright.
“No, Damian is telling the truth. I was there when his brother got the news.” Marcus said softly.
Lauren clutched onto her boyfriend, shaking like a leaf. Luke rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.
“Well…crap. That’s messed up. Did anyone ever figure it out?”
Damian shook his head at that. “No, the police in Amsterdam had leads but none of them ever turned up anything.”
Suddenly there was a blood curdling scream from somewhere in the woods. Everyone but Damian jumped and the girls let out screams. Luke looked around, his face full of fear.
“The hell was that?!”
“I don’t know…maybe it was an animal or something?” Marcus added carefully.
“No way man that did not sound like an animal!” Luke argued.
Damian shushed them and looked around, listening. Another scream, lower in pitch was let out from far off. Luke grabbed for a piece of the wood and held it to himself like a security blanket to a small child. Lauren turned on her flashlight and shined it around. Marcus grabbed it and turned it off so as not to draw attention to them.
“We need to stay calm and be quiet.”
“No, we need to get the hell out of here.” Luke yelled in a hushed voice.
“Luke, you’ve seen the movies. We need to think this through. If we act while we’re in the heat of the moment this could go bad.”
Marcus let out a slight laugh. “You have seen way too many movies dude, but you’re probably right. So let’s go over the rules.”
“We need to stay together no matter what. You go off on your own and you die. Don’t drink or get high. Don’t have sex. Don’t talk to strangers. Yeah, I know but it helps. Another good one, do not scream.” Damian ticked them off on his fingers as he said them.
“So, we don’t do anything?” Mary asked.
“I know how it sounds. But I’m just saying that if you watch enough horror movies you come to realize some things.”
“Or you become paranoid, dude.” he chuckled a little then jumped as a long, low howl erupted from the woods.
“That sounded close…” Lauren whispered.
Damian nodded a little and looked around. He got up slowly and took the flashlight from Marcus.
“Lauren, Marcus and Mary, I want you to start packing everything up. Luke, gather up all of the flashlights we brought.”
They hurried to do whatever job he had given them. Damian ran his hand through is dark hair and looked around the area. He turned on the flashlight and walked toward the closest tree. He leaned up against it and shined the light into the darkness. He cursed softly and stepped away when the light caught a flash of some giant animal. He took a deep breath.
“Crap, I saw an animal. It was…enormous. We need to hurry this up.”
Marcus started shoving stuff into his backpack and sealed it up. Then he went over to Lauren and helped her put her stuff in her bag. Luke walked over to him with the light sources clutched in his arms. Damian nodded and shouldered his bag.
“Let’s go. “
He led them down to the path but stopped when he saw the giant animal. It was a large black wolf sitting there. Its mouth was open and it was panting, teeth gleaming in the moonlight. Its tongue lolled out of side of its mouth the saliva spinning an evil hungry web. Damian ushered his friend back away from them, turned and tried to lead them another way. As they started to run a woman swooped down from the sky. She was laughing manically, sharp canines exposed with droplets of blood.
“Tsk, tsk children, leaving so early?” she giggled at them, waving a boney finger back and forth.
Luke screamed and ran from the group. He didn’t look back as he ran west of them. Damian cursed and spun around, looking for an escape. He grabbed Mary’s hand and looked at Marcus before running east. The woman could be heard laughing before she whistled and barked at the wolf. The sound of a fight could be heard from behind them. A large man appeared from the shadows. His eyes were a deep red.
“You’re not in Kansas anymore kiddies” He growled before he lunged at them. Damian pushed his friends away and cracked the guy in the head with a flashlight. The man roared and swatted at him until one of the wolves lunged out of the woods and tackled him. Marcus grabbed Damian and pulled him away from the commotion.

Damian ducked down when they found an abandoned shack. He looked at his friends, taking in deep breathes. Mary wiped at her eyes and looked at him. Lauren was tight against Marcus’ side, shaking. Marcus tried to catch his breath, looking around at every noise.
“What is going on?!” he hissed out between breaths.
“I don’t know. I’ll sound crazy if I say those weren’t normal wolves or regular people but that’s what I think…”
“Wolves are not that big.” Mary whispered.
“Werewolves then?! And what are those people? Vampires?” Lauren asked hysterically.
Damian sighed and nodded. He looked around in the dark before he gripped the handle of the flashlight harder.
“We are stuck in the middle of something and we need to get out of here. Luke did what I told him not to and ran away. So, we need to stay together.”
Marcus nodded. “Okay, what do we do?”
They were looking at him like he was a god-send there to lead them to heaven.
“We stay quiet and walk away from here.”
He got up and led them away. He kept a flashlight in one hand and held Mary’s hand with the other. He kept his eyes peeled and his ears tuned in to everything around them. He heard footfalls come toward them and stopped. He looked at his friends then took a couple steps forward. He slowly turned on the flashlight to illuminate about 10 feet in front of him. There stood a petite woman in leather. She smirked slowly and looked at them in turn.
“More pawns on the board.” she murmured before she turned and ran from them.
A giant wolf ran after her, eating up the distance with its huge stride. Mary screamed and pulled away from the group. Damian tried to grab her and calm her down but it was too late. The vampire woman came from behind and grabbed her. Damian went to smack her but she used Mary as a shield as she bit down on Mary’s tan neck. Marcus grabbed him from behind and pulled him along.
“Just keep going! We can’t do anything for her!”
Damian ran with them. His breathing was labored and his heart was racing but he never slowed down. He kept going until he felt something grab him from behind and he saw the ground come up to meet his face. Everything went dark and deaf except for Marcus’ voice as he yelled for Damian to get up and run. The only thing he felt was the pain in his neck, then nothing.