Dark Spirits of the Forest

by Michael Weinberger

Suddenly, the Wendigo jumped forward without any sign of being compromised by the Bakaak’s arrows and it speared its body straight into the Bakaak, taking both of them to the ground.

  The attack was so sudden that Jett barely had time to stop register what had happened. The inhuman noises that came from the pair as they fought on the ground was straight out of a nightmare, but it was the Wendigo that found itself finally on top.

  Jett could only watch as the Wendigo effortlessly ripped the arms off the downed Bakaak, before it mockingly removed the war club from the still clenching hand of one of the Bakaak’s severed limbs. The beast seemed to give its enemy what must have been a sardonic grin before it began bashing in the Bakaak’s head and chest with the war club. Jett could hear the bones shattering as the Bakaak screamed in protest at being bested by its quarry but, despite its protests, could not save itself from the onslaught of the blows being unleashed upon it by the Wendigo.

  Jett could only stare as, eventually the Bakaak’s skeletal legs stopped kicking and its body ceased its struggles under the weight of the Wendigo. One final blow to the skull caused a swirl of gray wind to surround the pair and the dark forest energy that had animated the Bakaak dispersed back to from wherever it had come.

  Jett could see it happen. He could see the angry Spirit of the Bakaak appear in ghostly form as the human hunter it had been, before being drawn away to disperse on the wind. Jett felt a chill as he realized he was alone, vulnerable and exposed to the Wendigo, which he watched raise its head from the remnants of the Bakaak to peer hungrily at him.

  Tossing the war club aside, the Wendigo stood brandishing its elongated claws and needle-like teeth with an almost amused expression upon its horror of a face. It considered Jett momentarily, and then the amused expression vanished as the monster seemed to grow wary. It was as if the beast saw something in Jett that made it think that all was not as it appeared. Perhaps it recognized him from its earlier battle with Ursula, or maybe the Bakaak had managed to weaken it enough that it was hurt, and not operating at full power. Jett had no idea, but he immediately called upon the earth and searched for anything he could use against the creature.

  Unfortunately, before he could find anything that might be effective, the Wendigo shouted its war cry into the air and charged. Jett couldn’t move as the abomination thrust its claws in front of itself and opened its mouth wide with the intent to rip its prey into little pieces of future food. Then, something exploded behind Jett, and the Wendigo contorted as if hit by a massive fist. The shockwave of the blast caused Jett to drop and spin, as again the sound of a shotgun firing exploded from the space just behind where he had been standing.

  Covering his ears, Jett dropped to his knees and noticed that the Wendigo’s charge was now being reversed, as blasts of buckshot knocked the beast’s body backward upon each impact.

  Still covering his ringing ears, Jett’s eyes widened to see yet another emaciated Bakaak figure walking casually out from the shadows of the surrounding trees, but this time the Bakaak that emerged was markedly different from the others. It was still a skeletal figure, still had the red glow behind empty eye sockets, but the fabric covering its loose skin and bones was the torn and tattered remains of an Ashland police department’s uniform. Jett didn’t need to see the name tag still pinned to the uniform to know the Bakaak that was walking angrily toward the Wendigo and aiming its shotgun had been Ashland’s Police Chief, Lawrence Tull.

  Jett’s heart dropped. The Chief had been a good man, and the idea that his spirit was now a part of the evil within the forest was heartbreaking to see. The Chief’s face was sunken and skull-like, with all the vestiges of his humanity erased, while he shot the Wendigo again and again, driving the creature farther back with every shot.

  The Wendigo looked as though it was about to run again, but then managed to avoid one of the shotgun blasts, stepped forward and slapped the weapon out of Chief Tull’s hands. The Chief barely reacted as the shotgun was knocked away, and launched himself into the Wendigo and took the creature down to slam bony fists into the beast.

  The Wendigo shrieked and slashed with its wicked claws, tearing most of the skin off of one side of the Chief’s face to reveal only bone and teeth underneath but the Chief didn’t react to the damage. An unnatural smile created by the blow made the Chief appear as though he were laughing at the Wendigo as he continued to pummel the beast while it struggled beneath him.

  Jett used the distraction to call upon the earth spirits and found the roots of a tree just below the surface where the pair fought. Extending his will, he called on the tree to shift the roots to the surface in order to ensnare the Wendigo’s limbs and pin the monster to the ground. He had managed to entrap one of its wrists when the Wendigo realized it was being restrained and, with inhuman strength, it wrenched its wrist free of the root.

  Jett winced as his magical connection with the tree was severed and spied the fallen shotgun lying a few feet away. He had seen that the rounds hadn’t done any significant damage to the Wendigo, but it might give the Chief an added advantage.

  The Wendigo saw Jett move for the weapon, and kicked the Chief off of its chest before, with an almost boneless dexterity, adjusted itself to run toward Jett.

  Together they sprinted, the Wendigo moving much faster with its unnatural speed, but Jett had been much closer and had enough time to roll onto his back, ratchet in a cartridge and begin to pull the trigger, before the Wendigo was on top of him.

  The Wendigo saw the barrel come up and the thing hesitated at the sight. It was about to dodge away when Jett squeezed the trigger and he was rewarded, not with an explosion of sound and force, but with only an empty click.

  Both Jett and the Wendigo flinched in surprise, but then the Wendigo seemed to look from the barrel of the shotgun and into Jett’s eyes as a terrible smile spread across its disgusting face.

  Leaves rustled to the side and the Wendigo turned in time to see, but not avoid, Chief Tull, as he swung the Bakaak War Club “baseball style” into the side of the monster.

  Again the sounds of bones breaking underneath the force of the war club echoed through the forest, but this time they were the bones of the Wendigo, and the howl it let out was clearly one of pain.

  The Chief struck again, and again, each time breaking another part of the Wendigo and driving the creature away. Despite the damage it was taking, the Wendigo was still on its feet, trying to regain its balance.

  Jett realized the Wendigo was being hurt but it was repairing itself faster than they could damage it and he screamed in frustration, “How the hell are we supposed to stop it?”

  Jett heard himself shout the words and something in his head clicked. He didn’t have to, and probably couldn’t, kill the Wendigo, but like Cottonwood had said, he just had to stop it.

  Jett jumped to his feet, grabbed the shotgun and ran past both Chief Tull and the Wendigo until he found a large tree that would, very soon, be directly in the path that the Wendigo was being driven.

  Jett rested one hand on the trunk of the tree, until he felt a connection with it. Holding the shotgun by the barrel he began repeatedly striking a thick, low-hanging limb until he felt and heard the massive branch crack. Jett grabbed the far end and pulled with all his strength until most of the limb had torn free, leaving a wickedly pointed remnant of the branch. He could feel the tree react to the damage, but forced himself to stay connected as the Wendigo stumbled closer and closer.

  Jett pointed to the rough, jagged, severed tree limb and shouted to Chief Tull, “Here!”

  He didn’t know if the Chief could hear, or even understand him in the form he now occupied, but Jett had no other choice but to take the risk, while he prayed that his theory was correct.

  Chief Tull didn’t visibly react, but each subsequent blow from the war club seemed to be steering the Wendigo closer and closer to the limb.

  Jett’s excitement rose at the thought his plan might actually work as Chief Tull struck the beast again and aga
in, driving it closer and closer toward the impaling limb.

  Then it all came crashing down as, with one extra fumbling step the Wendigo backed gently into the sharp point of the limb, realized the danger and managed to avoid the next strike from the war club. The Bakaak that was Chief Tull tried to bring the war club back around for another strike but the Wendigo whipped out one clawed hand and caught the club mid-swing, before wrenching the weapon out of Chief Tull’s bony hands.

  Jett stepped in, and like a baseball player swinging for the fences used the shotgun like a bat and struck the Wendigo solidly in the chest. The impact sent painful vibrations into the bones of his hands and forearms but the Wendigo barely reacted to it. It turned its head slowly to Jett and opened its mouth, as if allowing a slight laugh to escape.

  “Well, that didn’t work as planned,” Jett said ironically.

  The Wendigo’s smile vanished, and it swung the war club at Jett’s head.

  Jett ducked underneath the swing to casually toss the shotgun to Chief Tull, and said, “Here, you give it a try.”

  The Wendigo’s head spun back to the Bakaak that had been Chief Tull, who had just caught the weapon with causal ease, and in one fluid motion, spun it around John Wayne style, and pulled the trigger. This time, in the hands of its owner, the empty shotgun exploded, and just like the invisible arrows that had been used in life by the other Bakaak, the Wendigo’s chest erupted from the impact of the invisible shot that Chief Tull had used when he had been alive.

  The Wendigo’s body was lifted from the ground, slammed into the severed tree and was driven back on the limb until the point erupted from its chest. It didn’t cry out in pain as much as it looked confused by the foreign object that projected from its body.

  Jett immediately ran to the other side of the tree and touched the trunk, re-establishing and strengthening his connection with the earth and the tree. Now the Wendigo did scream as Jett focused his will on the tree limb and caused it to sprout small branches that grew and pushed their way into the chest cavity of the Wendigo while the end projecting from the beast’s chest twisted and bent over itself effectively preventing the monster from escaping by sliding off the limb.

  Jett and the Bakaak that had been Chief Tull watched as the Wendigo flailed helplessly, pinned in place by the tree limb, and screaming in frustration at its situation.

  Understanding that the Wendigo was trapped, at least momentarily so, Jett and Chief Tull faced each other. Jett raised his hands as if to say he wasn’t going to interfere and began to back away from the spot. The Bakaak inclined its head and regarded Jett a moment more before it turned back to the Wendigo and raised the barrel of the shotgun.

  It shot the weapon over and over again, far more times than the weapon would have ever normally been able to do without reloading. Each shot was focused on the shoulders and hips of the Wendigo until the beast was little more than pulpy flesh and splintered bone that hung limply as it dangled from the tree.

  The Bakaak dropped the shotgun and moved to pick up the war club from where the Wendigo had thrown it. It slammed the heavy wooden club down on the beast’s chest, just to the side of where the impaling limb extended from the body. Again and again the club fell on the spot until a ragged gaping wound appeared.

  Then Chief Tull pushed its hands into the opening, past the Wendigo’s ribs and grabbed something inside the body. The Wendigo shrieked with pain as the Bakaak wrenched at something inside the creature. Finally there was an awful tearing sound and a snap before the Bakaak pulled a large portion of the Wendigo’s liver from its body with both hands.

  Knowing what was coming, Jett turned his head away as the Bakaak hungrily brought the organ to its mouth, and the thing that had been Chief Tull took a huge bite, while the Wendigo angrily watched and snarled back.

  The Bakaak made a show of swallowing the bite it had taken and then raised its head to the sky and let out a bloodcurdling scream of triumph. It was immediately interrupted when an ethereal hand rested on its shoulder.

  Chapter 25

  The Bakaak whirled, but hesitated as its red glowing eyes landed on the woman standing close to it, with a hand on its shoulder. The woman was clearly Native American and clad head to toe in buckskins, furs, beads and also sported small, multi-pointed antlers, sprouting from the top of her head that gracefully extended skyward from between parts in her long black hair. The Bakaak dropped the remnants of the Wendigo’s liver to the ground in front of the woman and her eyes dropped to the spot where it landed. Slowly, carefully, the woman stepped forward and crushed the offal underneath her moccasin-clad foot, before looking back to the Bakaak with a sad smile on her face.

  The skeletal creature that had been Chief Tull regarded her, as if trying to decide if she were prey, but made no aggressive moves. A single tear fell from the woman’s eye before she let out a heavy sigh and waved a hand in front of the Bakaak. The ripped and haggard face of the creature managed to convey a confused expression as magic swirled the air and its body began to give off the faintest glow of light. And then the red glow from the Bakaak’s eyes flowed out of its sockets, like a fine powder on the wind, and floated up and away to disperse like a puff of smoke in the sky.

  As soon as the light had left its skull, the skin and bones that was the body of the Bakaak fell lifelessly to the ground, and in its place was revealed a glowing ethereal image of Police Chief Lawrence Tull standing dressed in his uniform, looking confused, but unafraid.

  Chief Tull and the woman’s eyes met, and for a small moment, they held each other’s gaze. Then the woman nodded and the Chief smiled warmly as the light that was illuminating his form began to slowly fade.

  Jett watched as the final light of Chief Tull’s spirit disappeared. “Goodbye Chief,” Jett spoke out loud to the trees, “thanks for the help.”

  Then Jett remembered the Wendigo and he turned to the tree where he had left it impaled.

  It was gone.

  Jett looked around the forest in a panic for a few seconds and then he used his magic to search the area for the foulness that would reveal the beast. To Jett’s surprise he only found traces indicating that the Wendigo had been in the area, but nothing to confirm that the creature was still around.

  Chapter 26

  The next evening Jett and Ursula were sitting in the waiting room of St. Mary’s Medical Center in Ashland, where they had taken the officers after they had rescued them from the cave in the forest. The press had converged on the hospital, but Jett and Ursula had managed to stay out of sight, as the reporters were far more interested in reporting on the incident that had taken place within the Bad River Reservation Casino’s Amphitheater.

  ***

  “A concert at the Bad River Reservation Casino became a frightening experience for those who attended on Friday, when authorities say a large bear attacked several attendees leaving six dead and over two dozen more injured. Steve Wyland has the report…”

  ***

  Jett and Ursula watched, as the news program ran stock footage of random bears loping along in the forest. Brown bears and black bears were flashed on the screen, many clearly having been filmed from unrelated parts of the country, as the On-the-Scene reporter began speaking.

  ***

  “What was supposed to be a celebration of the Grand Re-opening of the Bad River Reservation Casino, owned by a division of the Ojibwe Tribe, has ended in tragedy when a large bear, possibly attracted from the local woods by the noise and abundant smell of food, wandered into the middle of a crowd of concert attendees.

  ***

  Now the screen switched from their stock footage to the emergency crews that had been wheeling injured people away on gurneys and into ambulances, along with other images of victims wrapped in blood soaked bandages.

  ***

  Authorities aren’t sure how the bear might have found itself inside the event, but speculate that, once inside, the noise and chaos of the crowd made the bear feel as though it were trapped, and seeing no way t
o get back into the woods, it chose instead to attack the people closest to it out of fear. In the end, six people were dead and over two dozen injured.”

  ***

  Ursula stood abruptly and switched off the small TV in the waiting room. “Six dead with over two dozen more injured at the concert, and people are buying the story that it was a bear attack?”

  Jett shrugged at Ursula, “People need an explanation, and one that fits into their concept of reality.”

  “But people were there,” Ursula insisted, “and they witnessed everything with their own eyes!”

  “True, but the way their minds are working is that, in the heat of a panic-filled moment of adrenaline and chaos, they thought they saw something extraordinary. Then someone they see as an authority gives them the “bear” explanation, and because their minds can’t wrap around the idea of a supernatural monster, they mold their memories into the more plausible explanation.” Jett frowned at her, “Why so upset?”

  Ursula grumbled, “They’re blaming a bear.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  Jett felt foolish not to have understood and expected Ursula’s reaction. She was part Ancient Bear-Spirit after all. “Well, the good news is the story also says the bear was taken care of, so there won’t be any kind of culling on the local populations.”

  “No?” Ursula sounded doubtful, “And what about when it happens again?”

  “Happens again?”

  “You said yourself that the Wendigo can’t be killed or destroyed. Only stopped, so what happens when it comes back?”

  Jett sighed, “Yeah, I’m going to have to do something a bit more permanent.”

  Ursula just looked at him, and then a smile spread across her lips, “You have a plan, don’t you?”

  Jett smiled back, “You’re not going to like it.”