The White Thing

Nathan was a well rounded man, most would say. He was a hard worker, he went to church twice a year on the major holidays, and he loved his wife. He was a little rough around the edges and wasn't perfect by any means and he had quite a reputation that followed him around. The law knew him as "white lightening" - they said because when he went speeding by in his little white pick up truck, it looked like a streak of lightening. They never did chase him and give him a ticket for it. I guess they figured they couldn't catch him.

One evening, Nathan had just left his backwoods, illegal, moonshine distillery. It was his lucrative side business and yet another thing that the law just tended to over look with him. The sun was starting to set behind the tree lines, so the large forest cast a long shadow across the gravel road that he was walking down.

It was just about like every other evening walking home, listening to the birds chirp, the squirrels chatter, and even hearing the distant sound of a fox or coyote calling. Nathan liked to use this time to unwind, sometimes pray, and even smoke a few cigars before he got home. His wife Wanda couldn't stand it when he smoke cigars.

There was an unusual sound mixed into the chorus of nature that he was accustomed to hearing every day. The sound of crunching gravel behind him. Another set of food steps. Now Nathan didn't take anybody out to his distillery, and only he and one of his brothers knew were it was. The only thing that could be out on the old gravel road this late in the evening other than him, was trouble.

He turned around and didn't see anything so he turned back and kept walking. The distinctive crunch of gravel under feet started up again and the hair on his neck stood up. He spun around again, only to see an empty road spanning out behind him, and the ever darkening forest floor yawning open into the approaching night.

This time, he picked up his pace, and in a near run, he heard the food steps again. He chanced a quick glance over his shoulder, only to see a large shadow cast on the ground behind him, and the steady thumping and crunching gaining on him. Fearing for his life, he took off in a dead sprint and didn't stop until he tumbled through the front door of his small wooden cabin. His wife, Wanda, rushed to him. "Nathan! What in the world is wrong with you? Are you drunk again? You smell like shine!" She nagged him, clearly thinking he was drunk out of his mind. Not bothering with words, he grabbed his double barrel shotgun, loaded it, and sat on his front porch with a bottle of whiskey.

Wanda, annoyed at her husbands assumed drunken state, cleaned the house and cooked dinner, trying to allow him time to blow off steam and maybe sober up a little bit. She was admittedly a little concerned over his welfare given that he was a fairly serious man, only prone to joking and jostling her and his closest friends from time to time. He was never prone to hysterics, however, and he seemed a bit hysterical when he stumbled in.

After an hour passed she opened up the front door, ready to drag him back in and put him to bed if she had to. He was fast a sleep in his rocking chair with his feet propped up and his shot gun laid across his lap. His bottle of whiskey sat beside him, hardly touched.

A noise made Wanda looked up from her sleeping husband just in time to see - directly in front of her house stood a huge, hairy, white, man-like creature. It towered in height over her, having to be at least eight foot tall, and it only stood maybe thirty feet away. Its dark eyes held challenge, and maybe even curiosity, as it kept approaching. Its gaze never left Nathan.

Panicking, Wanda did the only thing she knew to do. She snatched up her husbands shot gun, braced for the recoil, and fired. She missed.

Blessedly, the gun shot was close enough and loud enough that it scared the creature off. Nathan awoke with a start and asked Wanda - "Woman, what in the world are you out here shooting at?!" When she told him about the creature, his face went white. Later that night, they lay in each others arms, listening to an eerie howl just right outside of their house that did belong to any of the creatures that they knew of. Whatever it was, it was making a point to stay close and to ensure that they knew it was still there.

That wasn't the first time, or the last, that Nathan and his family would come face to face with this unknown, white thing.