Howl

The huge shelf of masking tape, tarps, paint thinner and tools loomed in front of her like an insurmountable wall. It was so overwhelming, that Theresa found herself staring through it into the middle distance, half-heartedly shaking her head.
     “What the hell am I doing...” she muttered to herself.
     “Can I help you, Miss?” asks one of the shop assistants, snapping her out of her daze. He was just a teenager wearing a green apron emblazoned with the store logo.
     “Oh, sorry, I’m uh... I was looking for something.”
     “Well, can I help you find it? It’s just, we’ll be closing soon. It’s nearly nine o’clock.”
     “Oh, uh, I was just looking for something... flammable,” she says, glancing at the paint thinner.
     “Well, there’s fire-starters and kerosene in the barbecue section.”
     “Kerosene... Yes, that sounds good. Where’s that?”
     “Follow me,” says the kid, and he heads down the aisle. Theresa grabs her shopping trolley, with a tent, a shovel and sleeping bag, and follows quickly behind. She felt guilty making this kid do most of the work for her, but she didn’t see another choice.
The boy leads her almost a dozen aisles down, to where several barbecues are displayed, but he stands by the aisle alongside them.
     “We have kerosenes, here,” he says, pointing at blue and clear liquid in various sizes of bottle. “But, we only have one kind of firelighter left, the white brick. This Friday, we’ll get more stock of the natural bricks-”
     “-What’s the difference between the white and the blue kerosene? Does one burn hotter?” asks Theresa.
     “Oh, no, the clear kerosene is odourless,” says the assistant, picking up a one-litre bottle to show her the label.
     “That’s what I need,” says Theresa, grabbing two clear, four-litre bottles, and adding them to her trolley. “And where are the fire starters?”
     “Just here,” says the kid, leaning down to grab a packet from the shelf. “Is that everything?”
     “Yes, thank you,” says Theresa, taking the packet from his hand. “You’ve been a great help, thank you. Just don’t... I mean... thank you so much, have a good night.”
Theresa turns her trolley around and quickly heads for the checkout, exhaling heavily as she leaves the kid behind her. She had everything, but she still felt a knot in her chest. She rolled her trolley up to one of the only three checkouts still open. A cheerful, old lady was waiting, and began scanning as Theresa unloaded the smaller items, making a painfully high-pitched beep for each purchase. Theresa rolled the trolley forward, for her to scan the tent, sleeping bag and shovel.
     “Going camping are we?” asks the lady, stepping out to scan the items. She took short steps as she moved, and Theresa guessed she had bad knees.
     “Yeah, I’m just going up to the Woods.”
     “You mean, Blackblood Woods?” asks the lady, reaching down to scan the tent. Theresa frowns.
     “No. Where’s that?” asks Theresa.
     “Just by the river,” says the lady, as she gestures vaguely over her head with her free hand.
     “Yeah, that’s where I’m going. But, I didn’t know it was called that. Everyone just calls it ‘the Woods’.”
     “Of course they do,” says the lady, shaking her head as she stood back up. “Everyone just wants to forget what we did to those poor blackfellas.”
     “Right...” Theresa murmured, watching the lady read her screen.
     “That’s one-hundred and ten dollars, and forty-nine cents. Cash or card, love?”
     “Card,” says Theresa, grabbing her wallet. 
Theresa pays, thanks the woman and pushes her trolley towards the door.
     “You be careful, now,” the lady calls to her. “It can be dangerous in those woods.”
     
     
     Theresa heads to her little, white Honda Civic hatchback and opens up the passenger seat. There wasn’t much room in the little two-seater car, but she managed to place the tent, shovel, sleeping bag inside, and even slipped the firelighters alongside the little grocery bag in the foot pan of the passenger side. But, the heavy bottles of kerosene were too big.
Theresa nervously stood up and looked around the sparse carpark. There were still a few dozen cars around, but she couldn’t see anybody near her. She picked up the two bottles of kerosene and walked around to the back of the car. Taking another quick glance around, she unlocked the back hatch and opened the boot. She jumped as she saw her husband staring back at her with wild, dead eyes.
     “Jesus...” muttered Theresa, as she quickly pulled the edge of a blanket to cover his face. The whole wrapped up mess looked distinctly, and disturbingly, like a body - it was a good thing no one could see - and the whole mess smelled like smoke, alcohol and body odour. Theresa quickly picks up the kerosene bottles, and places them by her husband’s feet, then slams the hatch shut again.
     “Fuck you, Pete...” she mutters. Even dead, he was still managing to make her jump out of her skin.
She heads over to close the passenger door, then walks around the car and gets in the front seat. Theresa closes the door and sits there for a minute, staring out at the dark sky around the car park.
She’d made it this far, already. After panicking over his bleeding corpse for almost an hour, she’d managed to mop up the blood, bleach the tiles, roll up his body and throw him in the trunk. If she could just dispose of the body, then she would be free of this whole mess. If she could get away with this, then she could get away from this town, and finally escape.
Theresa closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and starts the car.
     
     
     The Woods are just a twenty-minute drive from the hardware store, so Theresa leaves the carpark, and heads along Maine Street, turning left by the school. It was so quiet and dead, no distractions. It meant there was nothing to occupy Theresa’s mind from the fact that she was driving around with a dead body in the boot of her car.
It wasn’t an accident. He had drunk an entire wine bottle, and had begun talking to her. He was just talking, that’s all... saying those disgusting things he would always say. She knew what was coming, she knew what always came next, and that’s when she grabbed the empty wine bottle...
The sound of sirens makes Theresa jump, and she glances at her wing-mirror to see red and blue flashing lights. It was a police car.
     “Oh, damn...” she says, with a sigh. Had someone seen the body in the boot? She’d covered his face so quickly... but what if someone had seen? She glances at the road ahead. The side of the road looks a little bumpy, but after hesitating a moment, she pulls the car over, and switches off the engine.
     “You’ve done nothing wrong, Terri... it’s routine, you’ve done nothing wrong...” she mutters to herself. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, deep into her lungs, and exhales it all, like her therapist had taught her. After a few calming breaths, she opens her eyes and glances over her shoulder to see a female police officer walking up to the side of the car. Theresa quickly grabs the handle and starts winding the window down.
     “Good afternoon,” says the police officer, as she walks up to the window, “I’m Officer Carrafas. Can I see your license, please?”
     “Of course, of course...” Theresa mutters, getting her wallet out of her pocket. She holds her wallet up to the police officer.
     “Can you take the license out of your wallet for me, please?” says the Officer, impatiently. “Unless it is, you want me to rifle all through it.”
     “Oh, yeah, sorry,” says Theresa, sliding her card out.
     “It’s fine, I just don’t want to be going through your wallet, y’know,” the officer says, as she takes the license. She reads it over.
     “Is this your vehicle?”
     “Yes... I mean, no, it’s mine, but it’s in my husband’s name.”
     “Right, Missus Tibbley,” says Officer Carrafas, handing back the card. “So, do you know why I’ve pulled you up, today?”
     “No, was I speeding?” says Theresa.
     “Well, you should know if you’ve been speeding,” says the officer. “But, no, you actually went through the stop sign, back there on Mockstation Road.”
     “Oh, right, sorry... I didn’t see it.”
     “You didn’t see the big sign on the corner?” 
     “Yeah, I’m sorry, I must’ve just been distracted or something.”
     “Have you been drinking today?” asks the policewoman, leaning down to look her in the eye.
     “No, not at all,” says Theresa, shaking her head. The officer stands up again, and takes a notepad from her belt.
     “Can I ask you where you’re going?”
     “Oh, just... camping. See?” says Theresa, pointing to the tent and shopping bags on the seat beside her.
     “In the Woods?” says the officer, raising an eyebrow. 
     “Well, yeah, I usually work the weekend shift, so I’ve got a few days off, and thought, what the hell, right?”
     “Mhmm,” grunts the officer, writing down in the notepad. “Can you wait here, please? Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.”
     “Yes, of course, ma’m,” says Theresa.
The policewoman walks back to her car, grabbing her radio as she does. Theresa sighs heavily. Her heart felt like it was caught in her throat, and her hands were shaking.
She so badly just wanted to go. Just turn the key, and go. Maybe she could get onto the main road and escape. Drive for a few kilometres without her lights on, and go through the paddocks along Eureka Highway. She’d already murdered a man in cold blood, so what would it matter if she tried to drive away from a traffic stop?
Theresa heard a car door slam behind her and turned around to see the policewoman walking back towards her car, holding something in her hand.
     “Alright,” says Officer Carrafas, handing a thin piece of paper through the window. “I’m giving you this infringement notice for failing to stop at a stop sign. That’s a one-hundred and twenty dollar fine, and you have twenty-eight days to pay.”
     “Okay...” says Theresa, taking the fine.
     “Oh, by the way... are you planning on staying in these Woods overnight?” asks the officer, leaning into the window.
     “Yeah... why?” asks Theresa, nervously folding the piece of paper in her hands.
     “Just be aware, there have been reports that some schoolkids were screwing around up there. Drinking, breaking things, making a racket... so, just try to be careful, and if you see anyone up there misbehaving, especially underage boys, please let us know.”
     “Of course. Yes, of course, thank you.”
     “Alright. Have a good night, ma’m,” says Officer Carrafas, she nods, stands up and heads back to her police car.
Theresa looks at her hands to see that she’s folded the ticket in half five times, so now it was smaller than a playing card. She puts the ticket on top of the pile of camping gear, and leans forward to place her head against the top of the steering wheel, and groans softly.
     “Ohhh, god-freakin’ damn it... you’ve ruined my life, Pete.”
Theresa exhales heavily, then takes another deep breath to compose herself and starts the car once more.
     
     
     There was a carpark just outside the dirt trail, leading into the woods. It was empty, but Theresa drove off the paved roads onto the dirt path through the trees. She didn’t want to risk anyone seeing what she was about to do.
The road rumbled and rattled her little car, the tent and shovel bouncing around in the seat beside her as she made her way. Her stomach dropped at the thought of the body rolling around in the boot. Finally, the trail narrowed for foot traffic, and she could drive no further, so she pulled the car over to the side of the trail and cut the engine. It was so dark, she left her headlights on as she got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side. The trees were just black lines, with grey and dark blue in-between. She couldn’t see. It was perfectly quiet and empty for what she had planned to do, but it made her feel uncomfortable every time the wind picked up and she heard the trees swaying and brushing against one another.
Theresa grabbed the tent, slinging the bag over her shoulder, as well as the sleeping bag and the shovel, and stuffed the fire-lighters into the end of the sleeping bag, then she looked out into the darkness. She would need to head a good distance away from the trail - if she was going to get rid of the body, she couldn’t just leave upturned dirt in the middle of the path. She wanted somewhere secluded, and hidden away. Theresa tucked the shovel under her armpit, and reached into her pocket to get her phone. She switched on the light, and shone it in front of her. It was very bright up close, but the light was too dim to see more than a metre in front of her. She moved carefully, but as quickly as she could, heading into the trees. She’d never been into the Woods before, she’d only heard the stories people had told in town about it. She’d heard that there used to be an old uranium mine that had collapsed many, many years ago, as well as your usual campfire stories of monsters, ghosts and wild-men. But, she’d never stepped foot in it, so she’d never imagined that the trees would be so dense - she could barely walk two steps without there being another two trees in her way. She glanced back to see the headlights of the car disappearing behind the trees. It made her feel uncomfortable, but she had to go as far away from the path as she could, so that no one would ever find him again.
     That’s when she heard the howl.
     “Ah-wooooo!” called out a voice, in the trees behind her. Theresa turned around so quickly, she dropped the shovel.  She desperately turned her phone left and right, looking for the sound. Then she heard it again.
     “Yah-wooo!” it called, and the howl seemed to echo through the trees. Theresa couldn’t help but laugh. It didn’t sound like an animal, it sounded like someone doing a bad impression of a wolf.
     “Must be those kids...” Theresa muttered, reassuring herself. She laughed at how silly she felt, freaking out over some kids screwing around. It was too far away to worry her, so she picked her shovel back up and kept walking.
After another ten minutes of walking, she found the perfect spot. She’d have to put the tent between two trees that were quite close together, but there was a huge space in the middle, perfect for what she had planned. Theresa put the tent and sleeping bag by a tree, then she propped her phone up against the tent bag so that it shone onto the ground. It wasn’t great, but it meant she could see what she was digging without too much trouble.
She drove the shovel into the ground, and the moist soil gave way like wet cake. She lifted the wet ground up and dumped it to the side, and kept digging. She started by making a rectangular ditch, about the same size as a door, and worked to dig it deeper. After only twenty minutes of digging, she was only half a foot deep, but she was already sweating up her t-shirt and jeans, and mud had completely caked her sneakers. She wished that she’d thought about wearing something more appropriate, but it hadn’t been her main concern, when she’d come up with this plan. As she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, she heard the howl again.
     “Ya-whooo!” it cried, way off in the trees.
     “Yeah, yeah, you said that already...” she groans, digging deeper. As she got down a foot deep, the soil was getting tougher, more like clay, but the hole wasn’t deep enough. It took another twenty minutes before the hole was up to her knees, so Theresa figured it was deep enough. She dropped the shovel out of the hole and she climbed out of the makeshift grave. She dusted herself off, although the mud on her legs was so wet, she basically ended up smearing it around. So, she scraped her hands cleaner with the bark of a nearby tree, then picked up her phone. She checked the battery, and it was still over 40%, so she meandered around the trees a little, grabbing large branches and sticks she could see, and throwing them towards her little campsite. She didn’t find very many, and some were very wet. but she figured the branches were basically an afterthought, since the kerosene would do most of the burning.
Theresa dropped the sticks and branches into the grave, then made her way back to the car. 
It was a fifteen minute trek, and she wandered aimlessly for half of the journey before she could finally see her headlights through the trees. Theresa headed over, opened the door and quickly switched off the headlights, to make sure the car battery wouldn’t go flat. Then, she headed around to the back of the car to open the boot. She found the right key on the car keyring, and shone her phone’s light on the back of the car. As she did, her stomach dropped.
     It looked like a bear had attacked her car.
There were about seven long scratches across the back of her car, each one with four lines from claws tearing through the paint, and although none of them had torn through the metal, the back panel of the hatchback had crumpled from the force of the blows.
Theresa turned around carefully, aiming the light all around the trail, but she couldn’t see a living thing.
     “Hello?” Theresa called nervously. Nothing answered and she turned back to the car. She didn’t know what had attacked her car. It looked like some huge beast. Maybe some animal could smell the body inside and tried to get at it, but bears, tigers and wolves weren’t native to Australia, so what could have done this?
Maybe it was those kids the police officer had warned her about... but Theresa had no idea how they’d managed to dent the car so badly. Theresa just sighed, and opened the boot. Once again, her husband was staring up at her, but she ignored him and just took the two bottles of kerosene out of the boot, placing them on the ground, then grabbed him by the legs and dragged him out of the car. She heaved him out, and the rest of his body hit the ground with a thump. First, she turned her phone off and put it in her pocket, then she unwrapped the sheets slightly, and put both the kerosene bottles in by his legs, before wrapping it up tight and starting to drag him towards the hole.
It wasn’t easy, as he was heavy and a dead weight, and she often had to stop to heave him over a root or large rock that he would snag on.
     “You’re such a pain in the arse, Pete,” Theresa groaned, as she dragged him along. “And it’s all your-” heave “-damned fault.”
After two more minutes of straining her arms, and dragging him through the forest, she couldn’t help but hate him even more.
     “I loved you, did you even know that? I actually...” heave “gave a crap about you... and you treated me... like a goddamned-” heave “-punching bag... so, go to hell, Pete. I hope you rot...”
     
     
     After dragging him for what felt like an hour, Theresa looked behind her. It was still hard to see in the dark, but her eyes had begun to adjust to the low light, and she could just manage to see the hole she’d dug, so she stopped to catch her breath. She leant against the tree, heaving, then smirked. She was still tired, but she was almost done.
Theresa unwrapped the blanket to grab the bottles of kerosene, then she dragged the body alongside the hole and kicked it.
Unfortunately, Pete was too fat to roll over, so she knelt down and shoved with both hands, and he dropped into the ditch, the branches and sticks cracking as the body dropped onto them.
The hardest part was over now. Theresa opened up the bottle of kerosene, and started pouring it into the hole.
     “I’m free of you now, Pete...” she says, as she covers him from head to foot. “I never have to dress up for you, or get screamed at, or play your disgusting games, anymore.”
Theresa emptied the bottle, then dropped it in the hole and grabbed the second bottle. she made sure to soak the blanket, so it would be easier to light. Then she dropped the second bottle into the hole, and went over to her sleeping bag. She got out the packet of fire-lighters and ripped it open, and reached in, and pulled out a small, waxy, white cube.
     “Okay...” Theresa mutters, she grabs the phone out of her pocket, and shines it on the packet. It was very bright after getting used to the darkness, but after a moment her eyes adjusted.
     “Instructions, use matches or a lighter to ignite a fire-lighter cube... I don’t have matches, I thought...”
Terri desperately takes all of the fire-lighter bricks out of the packet, placing them on the ground, and searches the packet, but it was empty. No matches, no lighter, nothing...
     “No... no no no no no!” Theresa searches her pockets, but she had no matches. And as disgusting as Pete was, he wasn’t a smoker. Theresa sits down against a tree and covers her mouth with her hand. She felt like a fool. How could she have forgotten matches?
She felt like she was going to cry. She was trapped. Stuck. Pete was going to win, again. She was never going to be free of him.
     “Maybe I...” Theresa grabs her phone and turns off the light, and tries looking all over the case. But, she couldn’t see a way to get a spark from it. All she needed was a spark, or a flame. Just a match, or a cigarette lighter, or....
Theresa jumped to her feet. Her old car still had a cigarette lighter. But would it stay hot?
Theresa picks up two of the white cubes and puts them in her pocket, then runs back towards her car.
     
     
     Her shirt was soaked with sweat, and her legs were burning, but she was running as fast as she could, bouncing off trees as she bolted towards the car. She was getting used to the path, so it was easier to find her way even in the dark, but it was still a long way from the hole she’d dug, to the car. It still took a good ten minutes before she was back at the car. But when she got there, she threw the door opened, and put the key in, and turned the car on. When she did, the interior light turned on, and she quickly saw the grey little, plastic button with the white cigarette symbol. She pushes in the cigarette lighter and exhales heavily.
     “Thank God for smokers...” she mutters.
     “Yah-ooooo!” calls out a voice, and Theresa snaps to attention, and steps out of the car, looking back at the path she’d just come. She heard the howl come from that direction.
     “Don’t tell me those kids are heading towards the body...”
Theresa glances around nervously, listening to the sound of her idling car, when she remembers the fire-lighters in her pocket. She couldn’t worry about the howling kids now. Surely they wouldn’t find her spot... but, she had to light the fire.
Theresa used the light from her phone to search for a small, but sturdy stick on the ground, not too dry, and she found one by the side of the trail. Then she took a fire-lighter out of her pocket, and skewered it like a marshmallow. It was a little heavy on the stick, but it meant she wouldn’t burn her fingers. She then went and sat in the car. She was nervous, breathing shallow, so it felt like ages, but after just two minutes the cigarette lighter popped out. Theresa turned off the car, then grabbed the little lighter nub. it was small, but when she turned to see the heating element, it was a coil of wires, glowing orange. She stepped out of the car, and placed the lighter against the white cube. It slowly lit, and the fire carefully crept around the surface of the cube, burning steady and slow like a candle. Theresa leant back into the car to put the lighter back, shut the door, and headed back to camp. She moved as quickly as she could, hoping the flame wouldn’t go out, but the fire-lighter did its job, keeping a steady flame, but she still couldn’t run while holding a light, burning stick, so she speed-walked through the trees. Every now and then, she glanced around, looking for any kids, or listening out for snapping twigs or people talking, but there was no one along the path. Maybe they hadn’t been here. Theresa had been told that sometimes sound can echo in unusual ways, that can change the direction. Maybe that’s what happened... maybe.
     Finally, Theresa came upon her makeshift campsite, once more. She leant down with her little flame, to look into the hole where she’d dropped his body, and she felt like she was going to be sick...
Blood, and flesh. She could smell the sweat, blood, bile and gore. Something had torn through the blanket, and clawed into the body. She could see a gaping hole where some of the organs were missing, and burst intestines had been tossed aside. She dry-heaved... she hadn’t eaten anything all day, but her stomach tried to leap through her throat. She turned away, and as she did, she heard something scratch against a tree, and she turned around. The flame wasn’t very bright at all, just a small light on the end of a stick, so she couldn’t see the creature. But, she could see two flickering pinpricks in the darkness... where the light reflected off its black eyes.
She stared at it, as it stared back at her. She held the flame out, so she could see a little clearer, and she heard the thing shift again. It was reacting to the fire.
The flame was so small, so Theresa decided that now was as good at time as any to finish the job. She turned, leant down, and placed the little torch onto the cleanest piece of white cloth that she could find. It worked better than she expected. The whole blanket was soon crawling with flame. Theresa turned back to the creature.
As the flame grew brighter, she saw the creature’s face - it looked like a man with leathery skin and pitch-black eyes, but he was covered in dark, brown hair, and he was almost twice her height. It squinted as the flame grew brighter, and bared its teeth, growling.
He sniffed and  snarled, then suddenly he stepped out from behind the tree and tossed its head back.
     “YAH-HOOOOOooo!” it howled. That familiar sound, that sounded almost human. It was a yowie. Or a yahoo. A yeti, a big-foot, a sasquatch - whatever you call it, the monster was staring at her, mouth dripping with spittle tinted red from blood. She could tell from its long nails, it was the same creature that had attacked her car. It started to hunch down, ready to strike.
Theresa wanted to crawl away, but she was right next to the burning pit. Her breathing became ragged, as she realized she was stuck.
Even dead, Pete had managed to trap her again. She couldn’t escape. Taking a deep breath, Theresa got to her feet, tears streaming down her face. If she was going to die, at least this once she was going to fight back. With a snort, the creature leapt out of the darkness...

†

     
     Officer Peyton walked unevenly alongside the long string of yellow police-tape strung between the trees. He took a sip of coffee  and exhaled mouthfuls of mist in the cold, morning air.

     “Jesus, you can smell it from miles away...” he says, as he comes into sight of Officer Wells, who was standing at the edge of a shallow grave. Wells was a stout man with a heavy moustache and severe eyes. Peyton asks him “What the hell are we looking at?”

     “Got a call about a fire in the Woods, thought it was the footy boys again,” says Wells, looking back at Peyton. “but now it looks like some kind of murder-suicide deal.”

     “In Hollow Falls?”

     “Yeah... I called for forensics, but it’s an hour out of town. So now, I’m corpse-sitting.”

     “Do we know who it is, yet?”

     “It’s too early to call it for sure,” says Wells. “Forensics will confirm, but we have reason to believe that it’s Peter Tibbley.”

     “Who the hell’s that?”

     “Local mechanic.”

Officer Peyton leans closer towards the rectangular ditch, to see a black and charred, human-shaped lump laying facedown on top of several logs, ash, burnt plastic and still-smoking embers.

     “So, who the hell was the guy?” asks Peyton.

     “Just a local. What are you prodding at?” asks Wells.

     “All I see charcoal, Mark. Did you turn the guy over? Did you find his wallet? How can you tell who it is?”

     “Last night, Carrafas was called in for a welfare check at the Tibbley house - the front door was left open.” says Wells. “When she got there, the car was gone and there was no sign of the Tibbleys anywhere. I’m thinking something bad happened, and Missus Tibbley decided to skip town and Mister Tibbley here didn’t like that very much, so things turned sour. No idea who the other guy is though...”

     “What other guy?” says Peyton.

     “The one under the big guy. There’s two bodies,” says Wells.

Peyton steps forward, and peers into the hole. It was hard to make out under the huge, charred body, but if he stood just right, he could see a pair of shoes sticking out.

     “Jeez...” he mutters, shaking his head. Both men are distracted by the sound of doors being slammed back down near the trail.

     “Must be forensics,” says Wells. “That was quicker than I thought... I’ll talk to them, you corpse-sit.”

     “Hey, wait,” says Peyton, calling to Wells. “You said the lady skipped town. How do you know that? Maybe she's at a friends or something.”

     “Well, her car’s missing and the kids didn’t show up to school today,” says Wells. “She must’ve grabbed them and run.”

     “Unless they’re in this pit too,” says Peyton, frowning.

     “Depends how deep it is...” says Wells quietly.

     “Yeah,” says Peyton, having another sip of his coffee. “Ain’t that always the way...”