On the Mountain

Rick was a hunter that was freezing as the wind blew snow in his face; it blinding him for a moment. He had never seen a blizzard come in that fast before, now he was lost on the side of this stupid mountain, and he had no idea how to get down to his truck. He shivered and pulled his coat closer, he could barely see and he was cold, he had to find some sort of shelter for the night or he would freeze to death. Then he slipped in the snow and started to slide down the slope, feeling snow and branches under him as he slid down, he clutched his rifle against his chest or he would lose it.

Rick felt the ground stop as he went off a ledge and he lost his grip on his rifle, it went flying in the air, he lost track of it in the snow before he hit the ground again. He groaned as the wind was knocked out of him when he landed in a snow bank, he had landed on a rock, his back flared with pain. He knew because of the pain that he was not paralyzed, that meant that his back was not broken, he groaned again as he rolled to his stomach and he looked up. Was that light that he saw in the wind and snow?

It was; there was a small cabin with some light coming out of the single pane window. He knew that he had to get to it; it would mean shelter and warmth, maybe even a guide off the mountain once the storm was over, it was the only key he had to survive through the night.

Rick groaned as he got to his feet with some trouble, a shot of pain running up and down his back as he stood up, but he had to deal with it until he got to the cabin. He shivered when he felt some snow slip down his neck as he walked and he trudged to the door of the cabin; his hands felt like frozen rocks as he knocked on the door. His cold ears strained to hear movement inside and at least one person with a heavy step. Rick leaned against the side of the house, he felt like his energy had been drained out, he was so tired. His eyes were starting to droop close, his mind was getting fuzzy and he could not think when he heard something come from the distance; a loud howl that was heard over the roaring wind and it seemed to echo from all around the cabin. That was the last thing that he heard before the door opened and he fell to the ground unconscious.

When Rick woke up, it was on a rough wooden floor and to the delicious warmth of a fire. He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying in front of a wood stove and that he was being watched by a large man that sat on an old wooden chair that squeaked whenever the man moved in the chair. Rick blinked; thinking that the man might be a hallucination but he was still there. The man was tall and muscular, the strangest thing was the scars that went from above his left eye and down across his face to his chin, the scars looked like giant scratches. The scars were in three jagged lines and they had healed but they were still red and purple from the layers of skin that had still had to heal. Rick also noticed another scar, one on the man's neck that looked like someone had tried to slit the throat.

"Don't mind my little brother; the last time Benny saw anyone else was before our father died." A woman's voice said and Rick sat up.

He looked around the cabin and saw that it was only one room with a curtain that separated a small space near the stove. He saw a young woman about twenty years old that was sitting in a rocking chair in the far corner. She had to be related to the man, Benny, since they had the same sand colored hair but she was his opposite; she had no scars, she was short, and very thin.

"Thank you for taking me in, ma'am, my name is Rick and I got lost when the storm came in." Rick said and the woman waved him off, he realized that he could see the bones in her wrist.

"Benny is the one that brought you in, I could not lift you. You can stay here until the storm lets up; you're on your own then."

"Thank you, miss..." Rick said, trying to find out her name.

"Not a miss or anything, just Naomi."

"Is it just the two of you out here?" Rick asked and Benny grunted for a moment before he stood up out of his chair and went towards the door.

"Our father died about six years ago, he and our brother went out to hunt and they got caught in a storm like this one. They were gone for a month but Levi finally came home, said that Father had died in the first week." Naomi explained as Benny wrapped a blanket around himself and went outside.

"And where is your brother, Levi, now?"

"He died about a few weeks after he came back. Now, it's just Benny and me. Benny hunts what he can and takes care of the wood while I take care of the rest." Naomi says as she looked out the single window that the cabin had.

The wind howled around the cabin, snow beating the single pane of glass and making it rattle. Naomi suddenly jerked her head up at the sound, she jumped out of her rocking chair and ran to the door, letting her brother in as a dark figure ran past the window. Benny fell into the cabin, wood dropping to the floor as Rick spied a large figure, slightly darker then the snow and it was running towards the door. Naomi slammed the door shut, the thing roared outside angrily and it pounded against the door, Benny scrambled to help his sister keep the door shut. Rick stood up as Naomi and Benny leaned against the door. They were trying to keep it, whatever it was, outside while it tried to get in. Rick ran over and added his weight to the siblings' weight, the combined weight kept the door shut until the pounding stopped and they heard it leave. The snow crunched under its feet as it walked away from the cabin and left the three people alone, for the moment.

"What the hell was that?" Rick asked; he had never seen or heard anything like that before.

Benny whimpered as he stood up and looked at his sister; his eyes wide and teary, like he was sad and scared. Naomi sighed and took her brother's large face in her hands and brushed some of his hair out of his eyes.

"It's alright, Benny, just put the wood close to the stove." Naomi told her brother and he nodded.

Benny went to do as his sister told him to do while Naomi went and sat in her rocking chair again. Rick watched her, he knew that they had to know what that thing was if they were not surprised by it, they had to have lived with it for years.

"What the hell was that thing?" Rick asked again.

"A wendigo; a creature that hunts and eats any human that it can find in this area," Naomi answered with a sigh as Benny finished with the wood and he had gone back to the door and pushed a rock in front of the door.

Rick sat on the floor, limply, like all the strength had left his legs; he had heard of the wendigo before but never thought that it was true. He heard that it was only created when a human ate another; that the act of cannibalism would change them into the wendigo. The act of cannibalism would make them a monster, one that could only survive on human flesh, and forcing them to repeat their sin forever. He also remembered that the wendigo was a hunter, it would continue to eat humans after the change, and it could only be killed by fire.

"How long has it been here, who was it?" Rick asked.

"This one is about six years old, it stays around the cabin and tries to get in at times, but it usually leaves us alone."

"It's your brother, isn't it?" Rick asked and Naomi said nothing for a moment as she stared out the window again.

"Levi; he changed when he came back. He lost weight fast, his skin changed color, his nails changed, his teeth fell out and were replaced by more, and he wanted meat all the time." Naomi said as Benny sat on the floor next to his sister's rocking chair.

"One day, Benny cut himself as he was shaving, Levi attacked him and almost killed him. That's why Benny has the scars and why he can't talk, Levi's thumb slashed his throat, but Levi came back to his mind and he ran off into the trees." Naomi explained as she pet her brother's hair.

Benny laid his head against his sister's skirt and closed his eyes, as if to go to sleep. Rick did not know what to make of this; he had to get off the mountain, but he could leave the two siblings to the monster that used to be their beloved brother, they would get eaten eventually. He could take them with him, his truck would fit them, and they would be safe.

"Will you come with me off the mountain when the storm clears?" Rick asked and the two looked at him.

"Benny, check that Levi is gone," Naomi told her brother and Benny got up to walk towards the window, out of Rick's sight.

"Will you come with me?" Rick repeated; he wanted to help the two.

"Why would we leave our home?" Naomi asked.

"Because that monster is going to kill you if you don't get away, he's not your brother anymore, he's not Levi!" Rick said, trying to get her to understand.

"Levi won't kill us. He only comes to here when a stranger comes." Naomi replied and Rick looked at her in confusion.

"Levi came back a couple days after he attacked Benny; we all knew what was happening, our family has passed down stories of the wendigo for years, so we made a deal." Naomi told the hunter.

Rick gasped when he was grabbed from behind, Benny's thick arms wrapping around Rick's chest, pinning his arms and making it so he could not fight back. Naomi stood up as she watched her brother keep hold of the hunter and she went over to the wood stove and to the pot that was sitting next to the wood.

"You see, Levi will not eat us, in exchange we give him any strangers that come to the cabin. That is why he tries to get inside, he smells the new blood, your blood." Naomi explained as she took a small knife out of the pot.

She walked over to the hunter as he continued to struggle to get free from Benny's grip. Naomi kneeled down and ran the knife down Rick's face, creating small cuts and having blood trickle out, she had to get him to bleed enough to create a trail. She then cut open his shirt and did the same over his chest. Rick now knew that they were planning on giving him to the creature when he first showed up, they had only been waiting for their brother to show up, then they were going to sacrifice him.

"Just enough for Levi to catch your scent even over the wind and so that he can find you when you run," Naomi explained as she put the knife on her rocking chair.

She went to the door and moved the rock away with some trouble while Benny made Rick stand up and dragged him towards the door. Naomi opened the door, a blast of cold wind and snow came through the open door, almost putting out the fire in the stove. Rick was then thrown out the door into the storm and the door slammed shut behind him.

Rick heard the howl of the wendigo again and he took off running, he could not see where he was running; he could hear the thing chasing him, the crunch of the snow, and the rapid steps. Rick did not want to die and adrenaline was surging through him as he ran. His heart was pounding as he tried to get away and he did not see the trap that another hunter had set. Rick felt the bear trap close on his ankle and he screamed as the pain flooded his leg, he could not move, blood pouring over his ankle. Rick gritted his teeth as he crouched down and tried to pry the metal jaws apart but it was slippery from the blood and rusted from years of being forgotten. Then he heard it: the snow crunch again. The wendigo had caught up to him.

There was a growl above him and he looked up, it towered over him. Rick could see the gray skin was pulled tight over bones that stuck out and an open mouth with many sharp teeth. The last thing he saw was a gray hand with long fingers and black nails coming at his face. He screamed as the nails raked over his face and eyes, blinding him, causing blood to pour out of the cuts. The pain became worse when he felt teeth tearing into his stomach and biting off large chunks of flesh and bone. The last sounds that Rick heard was his ribs being broken and his heart as it began beating slower and slower.