Water. It took David a few minutes to synthesize the gurgling sound he heard a while ago. But with only the woods and this choking isolation, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was only in his imagination.

He had been craving for a lot of things over the last two days. However, he found himself trapped in an endless pit, and he couldn’t get out nor cry for help. He lost track of time since he started navigating through these eerie and lifeless woods. He feared for his life, made obvious by how tightly he held into his rifle. Despite his ripe age of eighty-two, he was not ready to die yet. Not unless he found the creature that made his already miserable life a living hell.

David grunted as he moved about, listening closely like a wounded prey who was always on the lookout for an unexpected chase. Clutching his rifle tightly, he could feel his heart drumming inside his chest, as if it would burst any second. Being lost in these woods with only crumbs of bread and an already empty water bottle in his pocket screamed suicide mission, but David was indeed on a mission. He tried to disregard the prickliness he felt all over his skin, and the scratches on his face, his neck, and his bare arms made by the sharp edges of leaves and bushes scattered around the area. Because the truth is, despite the cuts and wounds in his body, he couldn’t feel anything anymore, except the deep wallowing of his mere existence and the guilt and pain of losing the love of his life.

He had been in the woods for three days. Dehydrated and famished, one could say that he was practically a dead man, and it would only be a matter of time before the creatures of the night hunt him down again. He had survived two consecutive nightfall, but now, he wasn’t sure if he could still run. The only solace in his pitiful situation was the sound of a river that his well-experienced auditory senses were able to pick up moments ago. The river would surely take him back to civilization. And by then, he would come back in these woods more equipped. He might even convince some of his friends in town to help him avenge his wife’s death. But right now, all he could do was to wish that the crickets and the hooting owls would help him hide the sound of his swift movements.

A trickle of sweat ran down his forehead as he thought of that. It was already twilight. He couldn’t see the orange hues that had spread across the horizon above him but the coming of the night was inevitable. Terror would once again cast its embrace in this damned place as the moon rose in the skies above. David knew that each passing second was crucial.

The woods had a very special symphony that announced darkness, which for a mere human like him, would mean death. Death to anyone who dared to walk beneath the canopy of trees and above the damp trails of these woods. By this time, David wished he had listened to his daughter. He could still remember the tears in her eyes as she begged him not to leave, but he had been living in a constant nightmare ever since his wife was taken away from him. Now that he’s old and shriveled, he wanted nothing more but to see the insides of these woods and plunge into the horror of discovering if the stories were true. And he could only do that if he was able to face the beast and kill it before it could kill him.

Panting, he moved even more swiftly this time. His gangly stature helped him to have longer strides but his bones and muscles were already on the verge of betraying him. David put bullets in his rifle as he forced his ancient ears search for the gurgling water he had heard some time ago. He desperately hoped he wasn’t hallucinating about that, but, no matter what he did, all he could hear now was the distant squawking of crows that had probably been announcing the coming of his death.

Imagining his unfortunate demise was the last thing he wanted to do. His folks told him before that death was the sweetest thing that could ever happen to a man who had lived his life to the fullest. But to die alone, out here in the cold, one could never find the sweetness in that. Tears trickled down his face as he started succumbing to a moment of weakness. Despite that, he did not stop moving, even to catch his breath. He could imagine his wife being ravaged by this creature in this very place. He had not witnessed the incident but the images seemed real in his mind. He had dreamt of his wife, calling for him and desperately asking for help. No one dared to lend a hand. Not even he who was the husband. How could he ever accept the horrible fact that the love of his life died in here? The villagers who found her remains confirmed that her limbs were torn into pieces. And they knew what creature did that to his poor wife. David also knew. He wished he was kinder to her when she was still alive.

By this time, everything had been covered by darkness. Without a torch, he could barely make out even a small dot of light due to the huge foliage that had enveloped the whole land. He had no choice but to walk blindly through the leaf-covered path as his heart started racing. His thirst for justice led him here. And yet, three excruciating days later, he was only caught in limbo.

“You’ll get through this, David. Y-you have heard… there’s a river in here somewhere…”

He kept repeating that over and over as his feet continued to trek the unfamiliar terrain. He had been a hunter all his life. It’s funny how he had taken the role of a prey. Back in the day, they would laugh and wonder how it felt to be hunted by predators. He wished he could take it all back.

Just then, David suddenly stopped. A petrifying howling immediately rose through the air and echoed all over the woods.

“It’s here. The beast is here! It’s coming to get me!” That was all he could muster as he felt the hairs on his skin crawl all over his body. Even the crickets and the many sounds that filled his ears all day in the woods suddenly grew quiet. The only sound visible in the dreary evening in this cold and soggy place was the howling of the creature that David and the others in their town called the beast.

By this time, his tired gawky legs seemed to have moved on their own. It was as if he had forgotten how tired he was. David knew that he had to get away from that creature, or else, he would end up in its belly for dinner. Without second thoughts, his scrawny fingers found their way toward the trigger.

“Four bullets,” he whispered as he tightly clung to the deadly weapon. “I-I have to kill the beast… with four bullets…”

He desperately wanted to nail this creature down. He had purchased these silver bullets in a place called Beldam Block. Witches resided in this place, and they had no intention to send him off without earning credits for his diligence in tearing the woods down just to find them. He met a scraggly member of the coven in Beldam Block. Everybody in their community called her Beth, and Beth gave him the silver bullets in exchange for the gold necklace that his wife gifted him in their anniversary twenty years ago.

When he was a kid, his brothers used to scare him with stories about the beast in this place, and about how silver was deadly to the Lycans. They said these creatures were half human and half dog. They could walk in broad daylight like a human but would terrorize the night in their beastly form. These were revolting creatures that had been terrorizing the surrounding villages by feeding on human flesh and feasting on their weakness.

“Make sure to aim at its heart,” Beth reminded him before giving the bullets to him. “Lycans are no ordinary supernatural being. They have descended from the original blood of a werewolf and have inherited both the beguiling qualities of a human brain and the uncanny power of the werewolves. Their speed is unmatched and their fangs are sharper than any knife in the world. So, David, no matter what, you should aim for the heart.”

Heaving a sigh, David tried to remember every word, but getting weaker day by day had made him start to lose hope.

The old man once again felt hot tears fall down his cheeks as he recalled the night that his wife disappeared. He reeked of alcohol when he got home that night, creating misunderstanding between them. But it was the argument that had made him slap his wife hard on the cheek. The assault was enough for her to run out the door crying until she was seen no more. The old man wished he could take it all back, but it was all in his memory now. Driven by guilt and remorse, David strongly believed that something in these woods had murdered his wife. He only wished he could still do more to get her justice. But many years had passed, all he got were questions upon questions.

Wiping his tears, David walked briskly as he became more alert. He seriously needed to find the river now. It was the only way for him to get through this horrible ordeal. He filled his mind with the possibility of organizing a task force that would help him catch the beast. Surely, young men and strong fathers would believe him. Their wives could laugh at him and spit on him on dinner tables but David was determined to kill the beast.

A gush of wind passed through him, halting his moves. He suddenly felt something breathing at the back of his neck. It was a subtle encounter but he suddenly felt the horror of being confronted by it. Turning around, David was not able to contain his pent-up emotions.

"Show me your fucking face! Let me kill you and wipe you out of the face of the earth! Come on! I am not afraid of you, beast!"

He screamed and screamed until the veins in his neck turned green, but the only response he got was the eerie silence and the building anticipation in his being. David ran his fingers through his disheveled hair, desperately scanning his already wild eyes around the darkness and cold. Just then, another commotion from the bushes sent him into a surge of panic.

"I will kill you, beast, if it's the last thing I do!"

But David, in his wild rush and the intensity of his emotions, had failed to see the shadowy figure that had been observing him from afar. It was just there all along, lurking in the shadows and tailing its prey since the first night. A slow snarl came out from its mouth. The beast moved slowly toward David with its dripping saliva reaching the ground. And when it finally showed its face to its unknowing victim, it caught a glimpse of the petrified expression of the old man as it tackled him onto the clammy ground.

“The stories are true!” David exclaimed, out of breath and wholly shaken by the claws that were now clutching his cold and sweaty throat. The beast growled at him, reminding him of a wild dog toying with its food. He shot his rifle but the beast that held him was quick enough to dodge his silver bullets. He fired another shot, but it only got one of its hind legs. He then shot another, targeting the bushes behind them. Shaking all over, David felt woozy as he looked straight to the beast’s searing and murderous golden-brown eyes.

“I’m going to kill you, monster!” But before he could fire the last of them, his rifle came flying across the deserted vegetation.

The last sound David heard was the guttural growl that came from his perpetrator. And the woods only stood in silence as it let the man’s cry of trepidation tear through the night.