American Tourists

Across the British Isles, Elijah and his cousin, Liam, went backpacking, accompanied by their girlfriends, Amelia and Madison. They hailed from New England, and were still young—not one older than twenty-two.

Through the island of Ireland they went first, from the north to the south, back up north again through a different route to fetch a ferry to the Isle of Man, and from the Isle of Man they went to northern Wales and travelled southward before entering England, which they planned to travel from south to north, and into Scotland. The four, however, never made it farther than southern England on their journey, when they reached a rather queer town.

In the woods they camped, two a tent, planning to stay for two nights. On the first, the will-o’-the-wisp, an alien phenomenon to them, danced around their camp, daring to get ever so close. And the four each swore they saw brief glimpses of small and slender, humanoid creatures, flying from tree to tree, from the many small doors upon them. Stranger still, they felt watched by some shadow, hiding betwixt the trees, and the women both thought they saw a pair of eyes, separate from the shadow, lurking nearby. None slept too soundly when they finally retreated to their tents.

Elijah was the first to venture out of his tent come dawn, and he saw the face of a man, an old man, staring down to his own. His hair was messy and untrimmed, covering his full head and face, appearing more wolfman than true man. No harm came from this wolfman, only his raspy, smoker’s voice urging the four to leave, before the new moon arised the next night. The four did debate to leave the queer town and its queer folk, but ultimately decided against it.

On the second night, they saw what they had before: will-o’-the-wisp dancing in the night, slender bodies flying from tree to tree, a shadow that they never truly spotted, and an unknown set of eyes, of which the men, too, saw this time. All seemed as the night before—eerie, and yet peaceful—until suddenly, the many flying creatures flew alarmed into their many doors, the shadow violently dashed from one tree to the other, and the eyes were unsightable. Another creature had come, one lurking betwixt the trees, in the blackness of the night, which the others feared.

The four stood, anxiously shaking, around their campfire.

Without warning, a cat-like beast pounced on Madison, dragging her away into the darkness. Liam, like a fool, ran to her, followed by his cousin, who ran back to the campfire after Liam’s death was heard in the form of a scream, the silhouette of his body in the darkness being ripped open. The two that remained each had a stick in hand, top ends alight, taken from their fire, to ward off the beast. It did grow cautious with the flames about, but in short time pounced again; first on Amelia, shredding her jugular; next on Elijah, though he stabbed the foul beast with his stick as it tackled him to the ground. He had the strength to hold back its bite, but there was naught he could do to keep the claws digging in to his chest and legs, that was prevented only by two successive blasts, which slew the large cat.

To the direction of the blasts Elijah looked, with the feline carcass still upon him, to see a familiar set of eyes. As the eyes came closer, they were revealed to belong to the old wolfman Elijah had seen the day before. He was holding a shotgun.

After checking the American for bite marks, and that he could stand and walk, the local Englishman left without uttering a word. Elijah welcomed the dawn sunlight on his fair skin and blond hair.