It was a dark night the night I was cutting through the woods on campus to get back home. I had been out drinking with some of my classmates and it got so late that there was nobody out.
I always loved nights like this. The campus was so peaceful when everyone was inside and there was no one to bother me. Even the cold didn't bother me all that much, but that was probably due to my sweats and the booze more than anything.
This night was a bit different though. It was close to Halloween and the forest was appropriately creepy and oppressive. I could almost feel the trees watching me.
A chill wind freed the moon from behind some clouds and brought with it a low droning sound I had heard before. It was rumored that we had wolves in these woods, and while officially there was no way that could be, I had heard this howl plenty of nights as I lay in my bed awake. Although it never filled me with fear while I was safe and warm as it did now, in the cold black woods, striped with moonlight cutting through the trees. I picked up my pace almost to a run. I wanted out, but I didn't want to provoke whatever was out here.
My plan apparently backfired, because as I was quickly making my way towards safety I was blindsided, thrown to my left as if I was picked up and tossed, spinning and wheeling in the air so that when I came down I slid feet first in the dirt.
I looked up to see what had hit me and came face to face with a monster. When it stepped into the moonlight I was able to see that it was somewhere between a wolf and a bear and was hunched over on two legs. I wasn't knocked stupid, so I knew that this must be a werewolf, or something along those lines, though I couldn't wrap my dazed head around the fact that a B-list Hollywood monster was standing there very frighteningly and staring at me like it was going to devour me.