The town of Jacksonville was a place with many secrets. Some secrets were left forgotten with time, while others walked among the people to this day. The story began with Holden at his home a week after high school graduation, he was getting ready to go on the camping trip with his younger sister who was a senior.
"Come on, Holden!" Allison, Holden's sister, yelled upstairs while holding her backpack, "I'm ready to go already!"
"Alright, alright. I'm coming." said Holden as he walked down stairs while spinning his car key, "I had to find my car key."
"Great! Let's go already!" Alison said excitedly while pulling her brother to the door.
As brother and sister were walking out, their Mom walked in from the kitchen.
"Wait, Holden." Mom said, "Did you double check if you have everything?"
"Yes, Mom. I got extra clothes, mosquito spray, and some extra food." Holden said as he and Alison got into his car, "Don't worry, Mom it's only gonna be two days!"
"Honey, you can't never be too careful." Mom smiled as she waved goodbye to them, "Have fun! Make sure to take care of your sister!"
The woods that they were going to camp on were on the edge of the town near their home, so the drive wasn't too long. Alison and Holden had the camping trip for months before Holden graduated, it was a chance for the siblings to finally catch up after a long and hard school year.
"I can't believe we're finally going on this camping trip," Allison said as they drove on the ramp into the woods. "I hope there are going to be fireflies for us to catch."
"I'm pretty sure there is, it is firefly season." Holden said as the road slowly turned into a dirt road. "I just can't wait to relax before I go to college."
"Don't worry, nothing beats marshmallows over fire." Alison smiled excitedly before giving a light punch on his shoulder.
When they arrived at the camp area, it was almost sunset. So they immediately started to set up their camp. It took them about an hour to set up the tents, gather the woods, and start the fire.
By the time they finished, it was already nighttime. Only light source was the campfire, and the full moon that was shining in the sky. The both siblings were tired from setting up the camp, so they were resting and telling ghost stories to each other while roasting marshmallows.
"Oh my God!" Alison gasped after hearing Holden's story, "Did they ever find the body?"
"Nope, some say his soul still roams around the mall to this day." Holden said while roasting his marshmallow, "Wanna hear another?"
"Nothing is gonna be scarier than the headless shopper." She commented before eating her marshmallow.
"Trust me, this story happened in this very wood itself." Holden said before taking a bite of his marshmallow.
Alison was about to take another bite of her marshmallow, but when she heard that she froze. "This very wood?" She asked.
"Yep, at this very wood itself." He said while smiling mischievously, "The legend of the Werewolf of Jacksonville."
Alison just laughed, "Holden, seriously? Werewolf?"
"Yep, I actually heard the story from one of the guys from school." Holden pointed out, "it could be true, it might not be."
Alison just sighed before smiling, "I guess since there is a full moon tonight, I will let it slide." She said as she roasted her marshmallow. "What's it about?"
Holden began to tell a story of a human-like wolf creature that was spotted a year ago around the forest. Apparently there had been farm animals missing, and a couple of dead deer corpses that were found scattered around the town. No one had an explanation for the missing or dead animals. Alison, of course, didn't believe the story.
"God, that story isn't even scary. The headless shopper was so much scarier." Alison said, "Besides there are perfectly logical explanations for all the reports on the farm animals."
"Alright, Alison." Holden laughed while getting up, "Time to sleep. It's getting late."
"Oh come on, it's only..." She complained before looking at her watch, "it's only eight thirty!"
"Do you want to fish tomorrow?" He asked while getting the sleep bag from the car. "If you do, we gotta wake up early. So it's better to sleep now."
"Ugh fine," she grumbled before getting up and getting her sleeping bag asleep. "But we get to stay later for fireflies before we go home tomorrow."
"Sure, Alison." Replied Holden.
They both fell asleep pretty quickly, as they were pretty tired from setting up the camp. The night was peaceful, the only sounds were the peaceful wind and the graceful water sound that was flowing in the nearby creek. Around 11 pm, a nearby wolf howling woke up Holden from his sleep.
"Ugh... fucking wolfs." Holden grumbled before trying to go back to sleep.
After some tossing and turning, he decided that he needed to use the bathroom. He slowly got out his sleeping bag, carefully not to wake up his sister. The campfire was already burned out, but the full moon was bright enough for him to see where he was going.
He looked around, before deciding on a brush. As he was peeing in the brush, he suddenly heard movement behind and could feel someone was watching him. He slowly zipped up his pants.
"Uhh, Alison? Is that you?" Holden called out. No answer. "This isn't funny.."
He slowly started to walk back to camp, suddenly he heard a stick snapped behind him. He quickly turned around to look who or what it was. He was expecting to see Alison jumping at him and scaring him, or some deer or racoon running into the brush. Instead he was staring at something truly horrified him to the core, it was a 8 foot tall wolf creature standing and with bright yellow eyes staring back at him. He could tell it was a female, from the large breasts and the curves around the hip.
Holden at first was in disbelief and thought he was dreaming, as werewolves weren't supposed to be real. However when he looked into the werewolf's hungry eyes, he knew this was real.
The werewolf slowly stepped out the shadow, revealing her brown body fur and her white undercoat.
Holden slowly backed off. He knew he couldn't just run back to camp, or else he would endanger his sister. He also knew he had to think fast, or else he would be eaten by the werewolf. As he was backing up, he felt his foot touch a large branch. It wasn't the best weapon against a hungry beast, but it would have to do.
