Werewolf legend.

There's a legend of a werewolf that lives in the woods. Typical start, I know. There was a dare every year at the town high-school to have everyone or a certain group of people camp out in the woods on the night of a full moon. The dare usually flies around the school at the beginning of the year as a form of hazing or the end of the year as a way to go out with a bang. There was one year when the school first opened that students decided to camp out in the woods on their last day of senior year. That was 5 years ago, and they've been missing since. Their camp grounds were found, all of their stuff being in tents or around the campsite, but no sign of the students. The police searched the whole forest, and everywhere in town that kids might try to be hiding because they're doing drugs or drinking, but the kids are still missing. Every year that dare went around the school everyone says they'll camp out in the woods and chicken out at the last minute. This year though, there is a group of students that didn't grow up in the town and didn't believe the story of the students that went missing because of the werewolf. They thought the werewolf story was made up as a reason for the students to just disappear, but the students from out of town thought they may have just run away. It was a small town so everyone seemed to know everything about the people here, so maybe they were all running from something they had done in this town. The out of town students decide to stay in the woods overnight the first Friday night of the school year. They kind of bonded over not knowing anyone, and because they weren't from this area. There were three boys and two girls in the bunch. As they were talking about their plans to camp out in the woods where the werewolf was supposedly at, they decided to attempt to invite other students at the school so that they had more people to keep them company and play games. They all invited one person to join them, and all of the people they invited said they would be there, but of course, they wouldn't know for sure until they got to the camp spot in the woods. Derek was the first to show up, in the group and when he got to the camp site there was a girl with super curly hair sitting on a log that was made into a bench and was placed in front of a fire pit. Derek assumed she must be a friend of one of the other people in the group.

"Hi! I'm Derek, what's your name?" Derek asked, trying to be friendly. He was surprised someone showed up other than his group. Everyone in town seemed to believe in the werewolf in the woods.

"Sheila. It's nice to meet you Derek." Sheila said smiling. She looked shy, so he figured he wouldn't try to make conversation with her long. She seemed to be enjoying sitting by herself and being quiet. Derek started putting up his tent and getting it ready for when he felt it was time for bed.

"You aren't staying the night, are you?" Sheila asked, looking fearful. Derek laughed.

"Yeah, that's what I planned on with the rest of my friends. Did you just want to come hang out for a bit and leave? That's not really the point of us coming out here." Derek said, wondering who would've invited her just to hang out and leave afterwards. No one in the group sounded like they were planning to ditch.

"I did plan on leaving later. Not sure when. If you do stay out here tonight though, you should be in your tent by 11pm. I heard as long as you're in your tent before the werewolf comes out then you're safe from it." Sheila explained, looking like she was being honest. Derek chuckled.

"I'll keep it in mind. You should let everyone else know when they get here." Derek said, still chuckling under his breath as he spoke. That was a new piece to the story that he hadn't hear from anyone else in town. He wondered where she got that part of it but wasn't interested enough to ask. More of his friends showed up, and after the last person in their group showed up, Derek told Sheila to tell everyone what she told him earlier. She told them the exact same thing she told him. Everyone laughed at what she told them.

"I guarantee if a werewolf was real, that a tent wouldn't be able to stop it from getting me." One of the girls in the group, Patricia, nearly yelled because she was still laughing as she spoke. Sheila looked a bit ashamed and disappointed.

"No one ever believes me, then they disappear too. Please, if you're going to stay the night here, just make sure you're in your tents before the sun is completely gone. Tonight the sun is supposed to be down after 11pm." Sheila insisted, the fearful look was back on her face again. She looked like she was desperate for someone to believe her. Everyone continued to laugh.

"Now let's make a new dare. Who's up to stay up all night in front of the fire?" Jason, one of the other boys in the group said, raising his hand to show he wanted to stay up. Everyone raised their hands except Sheila. She looked disappointed and terrified.

"I wish there was something I could say to change your minds, but it seems to be pointless so I'll leave now. Don't tell me I didn't warn you." Sheila says as she stands up and walks further into the woods. Everyone started playing the cornhole game and talking about where they all used to live. As the night went on, no one seemed to talk or even think about Sheila except for Derek. Everyone started to settle down and made a fire so they could make smores before it got too dark.

"Who invited Sheila?" Derek asked, wondering who could've told her that we were going to be here tonight and that we didn't plan on staying. Everyone looked around at each other like they were waiting for someone to fess up, but no one did.

"I thought she came with you?" Jason said, sounding confused. Everyone seemed to nod in agreement, that they all thought she was my friend that I invited.

"She was here when I got here. I assumed she was one of your guys' friend that you invited out here. You guys are seriously telling me no one knows her?" Derek asked, looking around at his friends faces as they all nodded 'no'.

"Honestly, I think she was just some weird girl. Maybe she's the one that started the werewolf story that's been sweeping the town. For all we know, she's one of the missing girls. When she left she walked further into the forest and away from town. Most of the people in town don't even want to be here during the day because they all seem to be afraid of the werewolf that lives here." Jessica, one of the girls in the group explained. She very well could be right. Maybe the girl lives in the woods and helped the students who disappeared leave. Maybe she was one. Derek started to realize, she really did walk further into the woods. If she was so afraid, why would she walk away from town. Derek pulled out his phone to try to search for pictures of the missing students online but he had no service to search online or make a phone call.

"She probably sits on that log everyday waiting for people to show up so she can tell them that new part of the story. That's the first that I've heard that we're safe as long as we're in a tent before it gets dark." Jason said, trying to add to the story of them trying to make sense of the girl. Everyone nodded in agreement and seemed to want to stop talking about it. It started to get really dark, and everyone got quiet. Jason started telling ghost stories to try to scare everyone, but they didn't seem phased by his stories. The bushes around their camp site started to rustle, and they could hear deep growling. Everyone looked around and tried to see if someone was missing to accuse them of doing that, but everyone was sitting by the fire. Jason started laughing.

"Okay Sheila, you got us. You can come out now! We can spread the word of your story and pretend it's real, just come out now." Jason yelled at the rustling bushes where the growling was coming from. Some of the others started to loosen up with Jason thinking it was Sheila. She was the only person they could think of that could be doing that. The growling got louder and more menacing at Jason's accusation. Jason got up and started approaching the bushes cautiously.

"Seriously Sheila, give it up. It's over." Jason said, his fear coming out of his voice a bit as he spoke. Jason got only a foot away from the bushes when a giant wolf humanoid creature jumped over the bushes and on top of him. Jason and everyone in the group screamed in terror. The werewolf took Jason's head in it's mouth and climbed up a tree too fast to see it. The werewolf picked everyone off one by one, Derek was the last one standing by the fire. He was shaking in fear after seeing everyone be taken and not know where they were. He shouted for them, but no one shouted back. He assumed they were all dead. He heard a loud thud behind him. He spun around to see the werewolf towering over him. Derek fell to the ground and was frozen in fear, staring up at what he knew was about to kill him. The werewolf leaned down and looked at his eyes.

"I warned you." the werewolf said in a growl. Derek realized the werewolf was Sheila and started screaming. Sheila grabbed his head and broke his neck before taking him up into the trees to gather the rest of his friends that she murdered. She lived off eating people when they would camp there, but if they were in their tents, they were safe from her, and she would feast on the animals in the woods when no one would camp there. She didn't want to kill people, but the werewolf in her couldn't stop. It was instinctual. To try to save people, she spread the story throughout the town, and as people would try to camp there she would tell them to be in their tent when it got dark so she wouldn't kill anyone. Hopefully, from now on, people will listen to the strange girl in the woods.