1. The Wendigo
The wind hammered at the house. A shutter had come loose somewhere and was
beating a steady rhythm against the outside wall. The children were all huddled together
in the same bed, each having their own blanket that they clutched under their chins.
Madison paced the room chewing on her fingernails and wondering if this storm would
ever stop or if the house would survive it.
"Aunt Maddy, are we going to be ok?" little Sylvia asked grasping at Madison's
hand with her tiny little fingers.
"Everything is going to be just fine." Madison told her hoping she was telling the
truth. There was a local legend of a Wendigo haunting this part of the territory and no
one believed the stories. They just chalked them up to old wives tales until recently. A
few cows came up missing in a couple of the farms surrounding town. There were trails
of blood that led off into the woods and then just disappeared. One of the farmers found
deep gashes in their barn that resembled claw marks, but no one had ever seen a creature
with claws that large. They were bigger than a grizzly bear's.
The legend of the Wendigo dates back to the mid 1800's. Madison had done a
report on it last year for her sophomore English Language Arts class. When Pioneers
first settled this territory many of them would come up missing. One of the Pioneers kept
a diary of things that happened and Madison found it in her room when her parents were
remodeling it. The diary was hidden inside the wall. The Pioneer's name was Abigail
Smith. Abigail wrote about how one or two settlers would be gone in the morning when
everyone woke up. They formed search parties but never found any of them, it was like
they disappeared without a trace. One night a settler woke up the entire camp with a

2. blood curdling scream. She had woken up to see some creature that was about twice the
size of the men in the camp, dragging off her husband. The man's face was frozen in a
state of terror and she could hear him whimpering as he was being dragged off. Her
scream made the creature turn around and what she saw caused her to scream again. The
creature's face resembled a wolf's face with a long snout and fangs protruding from it's
mouth. There was blood dripping from it's maw and the eyes were the same color as the
blood dripping from it's fangs. The disappearances ended after that night. The woman
told her story to the rest of the Pioneers and then never spoke again. Abigail went on to
tell about caring for that woman before she finally died peacefully in her sleep a few
years later.
After that the diary was boring. It basically just went on for the next twenty years
about everyday life in the settlement and Abigail's growing family. It also talked about
the growth of the settlement into a town and the farms that surrounded the town.
At this point Abigail was much older and the entries were getting few and far
between. When she started writing with regularity, people were starting to disappear
again. Abigail compared it to the first time it happened and saw many similarities. Right
before the abductions, a huge storm swept through the area and caused a great deal of
damage to the town and the people of the town. During the storm, almost as if it was
being carried on the gusts of wind ripping through the town, everyone heard a horrible
scream that did not sound human. The weather for the next week to ten days would be
dismal with rain mixed with snow. There would be freak thunderstorms erupting out of
nowhere. One moment it would be peaceful and then the next lightning, thunder, wind
and torrential rains would hammer the landscape. As before, in the mornings they would

3. find people missing. Abigail had finally put the puzzle pieces together and realized that
the people being taken were the oldest people in the town. It reminded her of how many
farmers would cull their herd when their numbers grew too large to manage.
As Madison had read this diary her heart raced during these times as if she was
there with Abigail. Madison came to the last entry of the diary and found the writing
more frantic and odd. The last part read: I don't know what is out there but I can here it
breathing and snuffling along the walls to the house. Thank God all of the children have
grown and are living elsewhere now. My husband snores away oblivious in the other
room and if I wake him I know he will be furious with me. What was that noise? It
sounded like something scratching at the wall. It is right on the other side of where I am
sitting. I got up and moved to the kitchen. I glanced at the window and saw a lightning
bolt light up the sky. I saw a brief silhouette at the top of the hill of something but I don't
know what it was. It was huge and was walking on two legs. I blew out the candle I had
brought with me. I sat on the floor with my knees to my chest scribbling in the dark. Just
then there was another lightning strike and this time as I looked out the window I saw
this terrible hairy face staring back at me. Those eyes, my god, those eyes. I am going
into the other room. I have to wake my husband up. The wind just tore the door open.
My god I can smell it. It is like a wet dog with the smell of dirt mixed in. Oh God help
me. My and that is where the diary stopped.
Madison was terrified after reading the last entry. She felt like she had been right
there with Abigail. She went to the library the next day and started to research the history
of the town. She had found a pattern in the local newspapers. Every twenty years,
people would start turning up missing and never be seen again. The police and

4. investigators never found any trace of anyone taking them. There were a couple of
reports of loud howls heard in the night and screams coming from the woods, but nothing
was ever found. A couple of people that were interviewed described long claw marks on
their homes or barns that was the only sign. Madison decided to dig a little deeper and
found out that the weather during this period was always the same, with freak storms and
weird precipitation happening and it would last for a week to ten days every time.
"Aunt Maddy, are you ok? Your face is all white!" Brian asked worriedly.
This snapped Madison out of her memories and she shook her head as if she were
trying to knock the cobwebs off her brain. She felt like she was back in the early 1800's
when Abigail had lived, which was foolish because the technology clearly spoke that it
was a different time. "What the Hell am I afraid of?" Madison thought, "We have guns
here and we can protect ourselves. I am acting like a frightened child."
"I am fine Brian, nothing to worry about. Why don't you take your sister in the
living room and watch some TV and I will go get us some snacks from the kitchen."
Brian grabbed his sister's hand and said "Come on Syl. If we hurry we can catch the rest
of Goosebumps. I forgot to record it today."
Madison watched the two small children run off to the living room. She was
overcome at the moment with how much she loved those two and would do anything in
the world to protect them including giving up her own life to save theirs. Yeah, yeah I
know everyone says that but how many people truly mean it? Well Madison is one of
them so shut up and let's get back to the story. Madison turned and walked into the
kitchen and opened the cupboards. "I am hungry and even though the cupboards and
fridge are full of food, there is nothing I want." she thought. She pawed over fruit snacks,

5. boxes of granola bars and shoved aside pudding cups. "There has to be something in
here." Her hand closed on a jar of popcorn. "Ok, maybe we can find a good movie to
watch then." she spoke to the empty kitchen. Just then the door to the backyard burst
open and slammed into the wall a couple of feet from her. Leaves swirled in the open
door. Madison must have jumped what felt like ten feet into the air. She felt like she had
left her skin behind. She stared at the door and saw no one there. She approached the
door and stuck her head outside to investigate and saw no signs of anyone being there.
"It must have been the wind." she told herself.
The kids rushed into the kitchen at that time and asked in unison excitedly "What
was that Aunt Maddy?"
"Nothing kids. The wind must have blown the door opened. This storm is
starting to get pretty bad. I hope your mom and dad are going to be able to get home ok."
She almost slapped herself in the forehead after she finished speaking. "Great now they
are going to be worried about their parents all night. I suck at this babysitting thing."
"Do you think they will be ok, Aunt Maddy?" Brian asked.
"Nice job dumbass!" she scolded herself. "I am sure they will be fine Brian.
There is nothing to worry about." She grabbed the door and fought with it until she was
finally able to get it closed and latched again. She lead the children over to stove and told
them, "Alright let's make some popcorn and then go find a movie to watch. Before you
know it your parents will be home."
Madison and the children made some popcorn and then retired to the living room
to find a movie to watch. They were searching through movies on Netflix and the
children were fighting over which one to watch. This got everyone's mind off the

6. conversation in the kitchen and calmed them down. The rest of the evening was
uneventful. They watched their movie and Madison put them to bed. It wasn't long after
that her brother and sister in law returned home.
"How were the kids?" Alicia asked.
"They were good. We watched some movies and they are both sleeping now."
"Good, I'm glad they weren't too much of a hassle."
Madison put on her jacket and said her goodbyes. She walked outside to see that
the storm was weakening. She had read on her phone earlier that it was going to come
back stronger later in the night. She got into her car and drove back to the small house
she lived in with her grandmother on the outskirts of town. As she pulled into the
driveway, lightning lit up the sky. The woods behind the house was lit up like it was
daytime. She thought she saw a figure standing at the trailhead that led back into the
woods. There were miles and miles of state land behind her grandmother's house that
were interlaced with trails. Madison shook it off and went inside to find her grandmother
watching television.
"You are up late, Grandma."
"Oh, hi sweetie. I couldn't sleep so I decided to come out here and watch some
shows to shut this old mind down."
"Ok, well I am whipped so I am headed to bed. Night Grams."
"Good night Sweat Heart. Sleep well."
Later that night Madison woke with a start and jolted upright in bed. She looked
around disoriented for a minute until her mind settled on what had woke her up. The
window was swung wide open and was bumping against the wall and the lightning and

7. the thunder seemed to be warring in the sky. As she crossed the room to close the
window, lightning lit up her room and she thought she saw some wet footprints crossing
her room. She closed the window and then hurried to the light switch. Madison flicked
the switch on and shielded her eyes from the light. After her eyes adjusted, she looked at
the floor again. There were what appeared to be five footsteps that crossed her room and
disappeared at her closed bedroom door. The footsteps were huge and looked like animal
pads.
Madison jumped as thunder shook the house. She went to the door, opened it and
peered into the hallway. She saw more footsteps leading to her grandmas room. She
followed them swiftly and stopped in the doorway. The door was open and it was dark in
her grandma's room. She stood there for a moment and could hear her heart beating a
staccato rhythm inside her chest. She could feel the beats pounding in her temple. She
took several deep breaths and then concentrated on listening. Over by her grandmother's
bed it sounded like a dog snuffling. She heard what sounded like the low growl of an
angry dog. As she reached for the light switch a bolt of lightning tore across the sky.
She slumped against the doorframe as her hand finally found the switch. She threw the
switch up and looked towards her grandmother's bed. Standing over grandma's still form
was the largest creature Madison had ever seen. It stood taller than most men she knew.
It was covered in white fur and had long fangs dripping saliva from it's mouth. It had a
long snout that ended in that mouth. The thing that got her the most was the eyes. The
eyes had no pupils and were entirely red. It was the color of blood and they pulled her in.
Madison was getting lost in the sea of red. The creature stared right at Madison and then
opened it's mouth and let out a horrendous roar that shook the walls around her. It

8. reached down and grabbed her grandmother and then charged at Madison. She tripped
trying to get away and slammed her head into the wall in the hallway. The blow knocked
her unconscious.
Madison awoke some time the next day and her heart was still racing. She
scrambled up from the floor and ran into her grandmother's room. There was no sign of
her. She frantically searched the house and still no sign of her. She went into the
bathroom to compose herself before she called 911 and her brother and stood in shock
when she gazed at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were streaked red and bloodshot.
Her face looked like it aged ten years over night. The most shocking thing though was
her hair. Her hair has always been long lustrous and black. Now it was still long and
lustrous but the color had changed. Her hair was now completely white. As she stood
there with her nails trying to dig their way through the sink basin, she heard the creature
roar again.