bump in the night

The tale of the wendigo

Submitted for approval for the midnight society

I call this the tale of the wendigo

" a severe culture-bound syndrome occurring among northern Algonquin Indians living in Canada and the northeastern United States. The syndrome is characterized by delusions of becoming possessed by a flesh-eating monster (the wendigo) and is manifested in symptoms including depression, violence, a compulsive desire for human flesh, and sometimes actual cannibalism. The psychosis is also known by numerous variant names and spellings, among them whitiko, wihtigo, wihtiko, witigo, witiko, and wittigo"

The Covid-19 pandemic was like the winter of the world and it was a severe winter at that.  Every winter the was a resurgence of Covid-19 causing people of all cultures having to isolate not just from the weather but from other people.   The perfect conditions for a wendigo.   Though in mythology he doesn't come out during disease it was still the adverse condition of isolation from other people that caused one kid to not only become depressed but also violent, and then later the compulsive desire for human flash.  Joe was prone to depression and violence so one thought of it as a series thing, just everyday, that is people started to disappear and be found partially consumed buy some creature of the night.   That is if everyone was able to leave for a walk.   And it would be the last walk they talk weather they came back or not. 

As for joe he started looking paler and had black and red streaks on his face and wouldn't eat his vegetables but just meat.   Soon he started biting the hands of his parents actually taking one finger off his fathers hand and swallowed it.  

That was when the compulsion for meat jumped from animal to human meat. His mother knew of the cannibalistic attacks.

Was he the cause of the strange killings.

She soon witnessed the murder of her husband joes father.  That was when she realized that he wasn't just wendigo syndrome but the actual creature it's self.  Feeding if not just the negative emotion of isolation but also the flesh of man. 

She called up the police to say that her so joe was the monster that was eating people to death.  A horrible way to go.  Soon the monster became her son once again and he snapped out of his evil funk. 

"What did I do" he cried.  And turned himself over to the officers.  He admitted to the murders and cannibalism saying that social media wasn't helping him for he couldn't see his friends at all because of Covid-19 and winter. He plead guilty and there was no trial.   He is still in the prison siting in the cell crying almost howling.

Trigger.....isolation.