Snapshot Stories

Wendigo When to Not

I tromp behind my hunting buddy, both our footsteps getting slower, heavier. We had decided to go hunting despite the thick, twisted trees and warning signs, and now our stupidity was rewarded with being lost.

It's been four days now, we are officially out of provisions and our only source of water is from muddy puddles we find along the way. Neither of us believe we will make it out alive. We are both starving and sick from some kind of disease in the still puddle water. We stop frequently to dry heave, throwing up nothing. At least we aren't dehydrated though.

I look at Brian's back, my vision swimming. I feel faint. The hunger pains gnaw at my sides and drive stakes into my belly. At this point it may just be better to die. We should have not gone into this part of the forest. We should have known not to go and turned back. If we had I would be with my wife and child eating pasta or something instead of starving and sick out here.

I beg Brian to stop for a bit. He told me off saying if we stopped anymore we would never make it out of here. I silently cursed him behind his back. It was his idea to come here. He was always saying how good the game would be. No one hunts in these parts often so the game would be ripe and plentiful. Lies. Even the animals know not to enter this part of the forest.

I sway on my feet. I'm not thinking straight. I know this, and yet I don't stop myself from unsheathing my skinning knife. I'm not thinking straight. And yet I allow myself to stumble forward and drive the small knife into his back. I'm not think straight. I hear him scream and whirl around to face me. Not thinking straight. The sentence repeats over and over in my head, getting louder with every swing of the knife.

I stop, breathing heavily, as I look down at Brian's massacred body. It was his fault, we shouldn't have gone. I knew we shouldn't have gone but he insisted. I remind myself as I double over and dry heave again from the combination of starvation and shock over killing my best friend.

I gaze at his body with bleary, unseeing eyes. I see black creeping in on my vision. So this is how it ends. Never seeing my wife and child again, dying pitifully in a forest alone after becoming a murderer. I hear a crazed chuckle start deep in my chest. I don't even try to hold it back.

And then my vision focuses as an idea strikes me. I stare at the bloody mass that once was Brian. I'm definitely going insane, but that may be the only way I can cope with what I'm about to do. I still clutch my knife in my hand and I stare at it, knowing and dreading what it is going to do.

It slowly, shakily makes its way towards the body. Brian was always bigger than me. I feel my human reasoning slip away as I feast, staving away the hunger pains.

I sit back and sigh, satisfied. My eyelids begin to droop and I decide to wait and leave more traveling for tomorrow. As I curl up next to my dismantled friend, I thank him for saving me instead of cursing him for causing this mess.

I wake up starving again. I thought maybe last night was a dream. Had I passed out and dreamed the whole thing up? I sit up and look around. No, He was still there, just as I left him. Good, I am famished.

I crawl over to him on all fours, not understanding why I was so hungry after last night. I reach for my knife and stop when I see my hands. They looked a bit longer than they did a few days ago. Sharper even at each tip of my fingers like my nails had grown twice as fast as normal.

More hunger pains stabbed at my stomach making me lose track of my thoughts. I make my way over to Brian once again, desperate to get rid of the starved feeling. I wolf down chunks of meat, hardly even chewing. I eventually ditch the knife as well, favoring my sharp teeth to dig into the delicious meat. Before I know it though my friend is gone; nothing but bones remain.

I sit back, expecting a full, satisfied belly again. Instead, I feel more hunger pains and a need for more flesh. What is going on? I feel my body contort, the taste of human flesh still fresh on my tongue. I NEED MORE!!! I groan and drag myself away.

I crawl on all fours, continuing my search for home. I was hungry, and there will be plenty of food back at home.

Prompt: A Wendigo is born