The Monster in the Woods

To outsiders, the monster in the woods was just a quaint town legend, the kind told to keep children out of the woods. To the people of Mossy Hollow, it wasn’t a legend.

Nearly everyone who lived there had seen the monster for themselves. Some even left food out for it. Now and then, brave children wanted to befriend or keep it as a pet, until parents intervened. The monster had always seemed gentle, harmless, and skittish except when treats were left out. They also liked to think it kept predators away, protecting their woods with its presence.

The monster sightings had started a few years before. At first, much like the passers-through, the people of Mossy Hollow didn’t believe anyone when they claimed to have seen some sort of 7-foot-tall, sometimes 10-foot-tall monster with reddish-brown fur.

It didn’t help that the first person who had claimed to have seen a 10-foot-tall monster in the woods was Zeke, the town’s old hermit who lived by the woods. He also claimed to have seen an alien spaceship before, so it was difficult to take him seriously.

But before long, it wasn’t just Zeke who reported sightings of a monster in the woods. A few children playing in the woods claimed to have seen it, but they were also brushed off. Then some of the adults in town, and finally even Sheriff Grace saw the monster for herself.

She screamed and threw an apple at it when she saw a large creature behind a few trees, watching her. But the monster seemed more frightened than Grace was. It disappeared back into the forest in a flash. After that first sighting, it was still easy to convince herself that she was seeing things.

As more and more people in town began to report seeing the monster, and all reported sightings seemed to indicate the monster was curious and docile, the town eventually got used to its monster in the woods.

Sheriff Grace and her deputies still tried to warn residents and disbelieving visitors to keep their distance, just to be safe. And to keep their pets on a leash. She’d chastise the others for feeding the creature, warning that, like any wild animal, it shouldn’t get too used to getting food from humans. But Grace would occasionally also toss a few apples from her tree into the woods when she was certain no one was looking.

Many of the residents liked to call the monster Fred, including Deputy Frank. This had been a subject of debate over the years between Sheriff Grace, Frank, and some of the others. It seemed to have been Frank’s idea to call it Fred.

“It feels comically ordinary for something so, well, not ordinary,” was Frank’s explanation.

“Well, how do you know it’s male?” Grace had asked him, “Have you seen any evidence?” she added, with a grin.

“I guess I hadn’t really thought much of it. Does Fred have to imply it’s male? Couldn’t it be short for Frederica?”

Grace shook her head, “I think Fred implies you think the monster is male.”

“Well, what do you call it?”

“The monster,” she replied, grinning.

“How about Bob, or Bobbie? I knew a woman named Bobbie once.” Deputy Carol chimed in.

Everyone else wrinkled their nose and shook their heads.

The debate about the name continued over the years, but as they never settled on a better name, Fred stuck.

The only person who never seemed to grow comfortable with the monster was Zeke. Then again, Zeke didn’t like anyone or anything near his property. He’d been saying for years that if the creature ever crossed his fence line, he’d shoot it.

Everyone else in town had felt safe enough with the monster lurking in the woods. That was until today, until a body was found just inside the tree line near Zeke’s property.

A resident who had been walking their dog across the street from Zeke’s had called the Sheriff’s office to report strange, unearthly noises and gunshots from the woods. When Grace and Deputy Frank went to investigate, they found the body. Despite the extensive wounds, she knew right away it was Zeke, and felt incredibly guilty at the relief she initially felt. He didn’t deserve to die, and she had nothing against him really; she was just glad it wasn’t some kid.

Grace had hoped to keep it quiet long enough to investigate, but it took little time before most of Mossy Hollow seemed to be crowded outside the sheriff’s office, demanding to know more. This was the first violent death in town in decades.

It seemed clear that their friendly monster wasn’t so friendly after all. Grace still had her doubts, but the evidence did seem overwhelming. She was surprised by how quickly the town turned on the monster, and also how heartily they wanted justice for Zeke. Suddenly, they all reverted to calling it “the monster” or “that thing” rather than “Fred”.

“I warned all of you, I knew that monster was evil!” Lydia, who worked at the grocery store, suddenly shouted in Grace’s direction. Grace frowned in disbelief. She couldn’t recall Lydia ever even speaking to her about the monster before.

“It could have been a bear, we don’t know anything for sure yet,” Grace suggested, but she already knew deep down that those claw marks were bigger than a bear’s.

“We haven’t seen a predator in these woods in decades,” Marcus answered, “And what kind of animal could do that anyway?”

The entire town seemed to be in an uproar, all shouting their ideas of what needed to be done about the monster. Sheriff Grace and her deputies were trying to restore the calm, to no avail.

When a few residents suggested they would personally march out into the woods to hunt the monster, Sheriff Grace grew frustrated and gave a loud, sharp whistle. “No one is going out hunting the monster in the woods,” she shouted, “I don’t want any accidents. The deputies and I will handle the monster.”

Immediately, the talking and shouting started up again, everyone wanting to know what she was planning to do, which she wasn’t sure of yet herself. They all seemed to have advice to give about how to hunt and destroy the monster. Grace thought she heard someone ask if anyone had silver bullets.

Sheriff Grace sighed, resigned to what she knew had to be done. She couldn’t disagree with them, but something didn’t feel right. The monster hadn’t ever hurt anyone before, so why now?

“Everyone, go home!” she shouted again, “Lock your doors and stay away from the woods. The deputies and I will go right now and see if we can flush the monster out.”

There was a lot of grumbling, but the townspeople seemed to relent and dispersed.

Sheriff Grace and most of her deputies met out in front of Zeke’s place with supplies, including weapons, flashlights, and flare guns. The best plan they had come up with was to fan out and look for signs of the monster, then shoot off the flare if it was spotted. Grace took the far right flank, and they all started their march into the woods.

Grace picked her way through the trees, trying to step quietly, but the early fall leaves gave too much away. She was already tired and hoping she wouldn’t be the one to have to shoot the monster.

Then she froze. She spotted reddish-brown fur from behind a tree ahead and ducked behind the tree nearest to her, gun aiming at the creature.

It remained where it was behind the tree, but peeked out a little further, looking at her.

Grace hesitated, getting a better look at it. She had never seen it this close up before. The monster was at least 2 feet taller than any human she’d ever met before. It stood upright on two feet. She swallowed hard at the sight of the long, sharp teeth and claws.

The monster looked frightened, she realized. She tried to shake that feeling off so she could shoot it and get this over with. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Grace swore and cursed herself. “What am I supposed to do now?” She shouted at the monster, frustrated with her weakness. The creature flinched at her shout, but otherwise didn’t move.

She put her gun back in the holster, took a deep breath, and came out from behind the tree with her palms out. The monster watched her warily.

“Can you understand me?” she asked “Can you speak?” Judging by the blank look of the monster, “Nope. No, you can’t,” she answered for it.

Grace huffed, watching the monster as warily as it seemed to be watching her. “Any chance you ate an old, grumpy man earlier today?” She asked wryly, chuckling to herself.

The sudden thrashing of branches and shouting in the distance made Grace freeze. She dropped to the ground when gunshots went off. She heard screaming, more shouting, and trees thrashing violently, the sounds moving closer.

Grace realized suddenly, “It’s not me you’re afraid of, there’s something else in the woods,” she said, looking at Fred.

Suddenly, everything went quiet. Grace got to her feet, her gun back in her hand, and backed up slowly until she could use the nearest tree as a shield, still keeping an occasional eye on Fred. Fred was huddled behind the tree, looking in the same direction the noises had come from.

The woods were eerily quiet still, and Grace could hear her heart thundering in her chest.

Glancing over again, she was startled to see that Fred was looking at her now.

Not at her, she realized, behind her.

Grace spun around and fired a shot at another huge monster, which had been trying to sneak up on her.

The monster screeched and slapped at her gun. Grace fell back, then rolled away from it.

Another gunshot went off, and she was relieved to see Frank had followed the new monster, with the rest of the deputies not far behind. The monster turned on Frank and the others, who she could see had already sustained wounds. Grace found her gun again and joined them in taking the creature down.

The monster turned on Grace again, but didn’t make it far before it fell to the ground and stilled.

Relief swelled within her, and she flopped against another tree, breathing heavily. After they all stared at the monster for a moment and seemed convinced it was dead, the others noticed Fred.

“Wait!” she put her hands up and jumped in front of Fred. But none of them moved to take a shot at Fred anyway.

“So, Fred didn’t do it,” Frank stated, seeming relieved about that fact.

“Guess not,” Grace agreed, chuckling a little wryly.

“So, what do we do now?”

“I don’t know. I guess we let Fred be, for now,” Grace answered with a shrug, while also putting more distance between herself and Fred.

They inspected the now dead monster. It looked very similar to Fred, but slightly larger and with grey fur. And, in Grace’s opinion, evil eyes.

Fred’s demeanor had completely shifted now that the other monster was dead, looking a lot more relaxed and had even come out completely from behind the tree. Fred watched them with curiosity and not fear, or at least that was Grace’s interpretation.

“So, do we report this to the feds, or the county authorities at least?” Carol asked, indicating the dead monster before them.

“I suppose we need to. Now that we know there could be more of them. The problem is...”, she trailed off, looking in Fred’s direction.

“Well, I would assume we can’t be the only ones encountering monsters,” Frank suggested, “I’m sure the feds are already aware. And if they are already aware, why haven’t we heard anything? What if they come after the whole town to keep this thing quiet?”

They decided to put it to a vote, to see if anyone felt they should turn both monsters over to the feds. They unanimously decided they were terrible law enforcement officers and that they would bury the dead monster and not report it to any state or federal authorities.

They would have to call a town meeting and tell them the truth; there could be other monsters, and everyone in Mossy Hollow would need to take precautions in the future. And they would make a point to ensure that Zeke was properly honored.

They hoped everyone else in town would agree to their plan, but there was nothing they could do to keep the monsters from leaking entirely. Even if the story did leak, Grace figured no one outside of Mossy Hollow would actually believe it, and maybe it would bring in a bit more tourism.

Grace and the deputies agreed they would all need to keep a closer watch on Fred. Just in case Fred turned evil.

“I hope this wasn’t a friend of yours,” Grace said to Fred, who was still watching them as they buried the other monster. “You should stay away from town for a while,” she continued, with no hope the creature actually understood her. “But I’ll bring you a whole bushel of apples, and a cake!” she smiled, hoping that would mean something to Fred.

Fred apparently grew bored and left them to their work.

Even though Fred was a bit of a scaredy-cat, she liked the idea of having this particular monster lurking in the woods.