Friday Night Frights Feature: Holler, Chapter One

Friday Night Frights feature: Holler Chapter One

Sam Atkinson cursed quietly under his breath as he pushed his feet into his house shoes. He cursed quietly because his wife was asleep in the bed he’d just exited. And even though it was the whining of her damned dog that woke Sam, he knew it would be less of a hassle to just take care of the mutt than it would to wake his wife and deal with her. The little Bichon Friséscratched at the door again and whined. Sam hurried to the door, then quietly opened it and dipped into the hall. The dog scratched at his bare legs.

“No,” he whispered. “Down, Penny. Your damned nails are sharp. Stop. Come on, outside, let’s go.”

He walked across the new, lacquered pine flooring, Penny clicking along behind him. The floors had cost him a fortune, and though he was annoyed the dog woke him nearly every night to let it out, he was thankful that at least it had the curtesy to wake him and didn’t just piss and shit on his beautiful floors. He reached the front door of his new home, unlocked it, and opened it. Penny sat down and looked at him.

Sam tilted his head toward the open door and clicked his teeth.

“Go on, you little shit,” he said. “Go on before I punt you out.”

The dog was hesitant at first, but eventually it began to sniff at the air coming in from the cool autumn night and it went out. Sam shouldn’t be upset with the little thing. It was a new home, a new town, hell, even the community was new, evident by the not yet finished house across a street that was also not yet finished, ending abruptly just a few hundred yards past Sam’s house. His was one of the first, and this was as it should be, seeing as he was the lead investor on the whole project. It had been his wife’s idea… And to Sam’s continued surprise, the project Emma had come up with was quickly becoming one of the most profitable ventures Sam had undertaken. Who knew so many rich people would want to live in mansion sized cabins in the middle of Appalachia. In Sam’s day, the beach is where all his wealthy colleagues wanted to be.

Outside, Penny began to yap, that high, shrill barking that Sam had grown to hate in the two years since Emma had brought the little cotton ball with legs home. Sam stuck his head out the door and shushed. A full moon hung in the sky over the western ridge, and in its light, Sam could see Penny out there at the edge of the front yard, facing the street, barking like a maniac. Then, Sam saw what Penny was barking at. A large, grey form lumbered down the street, its dark mass highlighted against the backdrop of the freshly poured concrete that still almost looked white.

“Bear…” Sam whispered to himself, his breath catching just at the end of the word. “Shit…shit, shit, shit…”

He had no idea what to do. There was no fence out there yet, nothing to keep the bear… Sam narrowed his eyes and peered into the darkness. Was it a bear? It looked grey in the moonlight, and as far as Sam was aware, there were only brown bears in this part of the country. Maybe it was an old one, he thought. The grey thing crept slowly closer to the house, and as it did, Sam could see it was walking upright. Penny continued yapping at the thing, and though it kept coming closer, something in the way it moved told Sam that it didn’t have any particular interest in the little dog. Penny was probably too small to be considered much of a meal for an animal as big as the grey thing.

“What’s she barking at?” Emma’s voice sounded from behind Sam.

He spun around, startled.

“What’s she barking at?” Emma asked again, attempting to see around Sam, who was blocking her view.

“I…I think it’s a bear…” Sam said.

Emma’s eyes went wide. She all but shoved Sam out of the way, the tried to squeeze past him and go outside when he offered her resistance.

“No, Emma,” he said. “There’s something off about it. I think it might be rabid. It’s walking all funny, and it’s not paying any attention to Penny anyway. You can’t go out there.”

“Get out of my way,” Emma said, her voice ragged.

She began calling for the dog, making kissing sounds, offering treats, struggling against her husband all the while. Sam wrestled with her, and eventually got his arms wrapped around her torso under the armpits and locked his hands together. They ended up both facing the door, both able to look outside.

“What the fuck is that thing?” Emma asked.

Sam stared. The grey thing was closer now. And it wasn’t a bear. It was like nothing Sam had ever seen before. A hulking thing, fur all over like a bear, but the head was all wrong. The ears stuck upward and were pointed. Its snout was too long, narrow, and pointed.

“Get out of the way of the door, Emma,” Sam said. “Come on, get back. I need to lock it.”

“No! Let me run out and get her. I can be quick. Let me go.”

“Emma, look at that fucking thing. I’m not letting you anywhere near it. Get…get out of the doorway!”

A sound came from outside then that rattled the panes in the windows and Sam’s teeth in his mouth. It was like a cross between a steam engine’s whistle and a lion’s roar. It was so loud it hurt Sam’s ears, and his wife clapped her hands over her own. Sam looked out through the still open door, and there, just at the end of the yard, stood the grey thing, backlit by the bright moonlight. Its snout was pointed to the sky and a plume made from the steam of its breath poured skyward as it…howled.

Somehow, Emma broke free of his grasp then and shot out into the night, racing across the grass in her bare feet.

“No, Emma,” Sam cried, and after just a moment of hesitation, he ran out after her.

The grey thing had no apparent interest in Penny, but with Emma making a beeline for Penny, and therefore running directly toward the creature, its interest was finally peaked. It crouched and leapt. Sam stumbled and fell at the sight. The grey thing flew, its leap carrying it in an arch twenty feet across. It landed on Emma, and she crumpled beneath its weight with an agonized scream. Sam scrambled in the grass, attempting to get up, but his arms and legs didn’t seem to be working properly. Emma screamed again, the sound of it more desperate and somehow final this time. The creature snarled and growled as it tore at her. Sam began to cry. He froze in fear and lay prone on the yard, his head turned away from the carnage so he didn’t have to watch what he could hear happening to his wife. Tearing cloth, rending flesh, breaking bones, a whimper that faded quickly, and then, finally, the awful sound of chewing and swallowing.

Sam lay in the grass on his back, staring at the sky and crying. When the creature finished…eating Emma, Sam heard its heavy footsteps and rumbling growl growing louder as it neared him. It looked down at him, slavering drool and blood from its snout. Then it looked to the sky and howled. This close, the deafening sound rumbled in Sam’s chest and took his wind from him. The howl abruptly cut off and the creature at once struck, clamping its jaws around Sam’s throat, where it began to shake its powerful head back and forth. Sam Atkinson felt himself die.