Silver Bullets

Jeffery Hoggens is a hunter. One day his travels brought him to a small town. This town held a curse that only he could cleanse. The only problem was, it seemed his past was catching up with his present. Will Jeffery have the courage to face his past and

It was a small town, Population of seventy-five. At least that's what the sign had said when entering. Lakeview Population 75. I parked my one ton pickup right at the sign and got out. As I looked around, all I could see was miles and miles of woods. Funny, I couldn't see a lake anywhere. This must be the place. It was perfect for it. My name is Jeffery Hoggens, most people call me Jeff. I am a Hunter. Oh no I don't hunt things like bear, deer, antelope, or even tigers. I hunt wolves. Werewolves to be exact.

 

I drove to the small town square to do a little research before taking on my task. I had been given this towns name, in conjunction with the sightings of werewolves. Now most reports of sightings were pretty much a wild goose chase, but I would be remorse if I didn't at least check it out. I knew it would be at least a week before I knew anything for sure. That's how long it was till the next full moon. Till then I would ask around and see what the town folks knew. A town this size should not take me long to talk to everybody.

 

I parked my truck and walked to the hardware store. Not only could I pick up some info there, but I could also get some supplies I didn't bring with me. Upon entering the store, I was greeted immediately by a gray haired man in his early sixty's. He smiled and started walking my way.

 

“Welcome stranger, what brings you to Lakeview.”

 

“Well” I scratched my chin “I have been told there have been some unusual sightings around here.”

 

The gray haired man just kind of chuckled “unusual huh, what do you call unusual?”

 

“Anything out of the norm” I smiled back at him.

 

“Well stranger, anything in this town, is out of the norm” using his fingers to show quotation marks.

 

“Okay then to be a bit more specific. What do you know about Werewolves.”

 

The mans face fell. He looked over the top of his round rim glasses, as if I had said a curse word. “Well now, that certainly would be unusual, now wouldn't it.” It seemed this was not a topic he was willing to talk about. “I don't know anything about what you asked. However I would be happy to help you with anything else.” indicating his merchandise with his outstretched hand.

 

I Smiled at him and nodded my head. I looked around for a little bit, than told the owner I would return later. I walked outside, and reached into my shirt pocket for a cigarette. I pulled one out and lit it, than looked at my lighter. It was a Zippo. A gift from my late wife. There was a picture of a werewolf on the front of it. My wife had been fond of these creatures. We had spend many night talking of whether they were real or not. One year we took a vacation to Europe. We were having the time of our lives. We had decided to camp in the woods. That's when it happened. The third night there was a full moon. We were attacked by a wild animal. At first we had no idea what it was. Than it attacked our camper home. It stood upright like a man, but looked like an animal. It ripped and tore at the camper as I found my shotgun. I fired twice at it, but it kept coming. Than it stopped. It got quite. I looked around and my wife was whimpering. I put my fingers to my lips telling her to be quite. She was backed against one wall. Then all of a sudden the wall caves in, and this creature grabs my wife and pulls her outside. I watched in horror as he dragged her away. Than I began chasing it, and fired my shotgun once more. Before I could fire again it was gone, and so was my wife. We search for days but could not find her. All we found was some of her clothes, and a few patches of blood. The blood was tested and confirmed it was hers. After the funereal I found some of her red fingernail polish. I took the lighter she had given me, and drew a circle around the werewolf. Than put a line through the center of that circle. That's when my hatred for Werewolves had begun. No one had believed it was a werewolf. After all, those are not real. Oh no, they just chocked it up as a wild animal attack. But I knew. I saw it for what it was. I swore that day I would hunt them down and kill everyone I could.

 

“Psst hay mister.”

 

I was brought out of my thoughts and I looked around. There was a man standing just behind a building. I looked over at him.

 

“Yes?” I said to him “can I help you?”

 

“I think its more like can I help you?” he replied “Are you the man looking for werewolves?”

 

“Yes.” I said with my interest peaked.

 

“I'm the one who sent you the email”

 

He waved for me to follow him. So I did. Once behind the building away from others to hear. He told me to meet him at the old church just outside of town, after nine o'clock tonight. I told him I would, than ask if there was a place I could stay.

 

“There is a bed and breakfast about a mile up the road. She should have a room available. By the way my name is Jim.”

 

I shook his hand and told him my name. Then he turned and left.

 

I found the bed and breakfast just fine. I parked my truck and walked to the door. The sign on the door read, ring bell for service. After doing so, a beautiful woman opened the door. My jaw hit the ground. She looked so much like my late wife.

 

“Hello?” She said.

 

I blinked my eyes, and apologized for my starring. I then explained she reminded me of someone I once knew.

 

She too looked as though she had been slapped in the face by surprise.

“Don't worry about it, it happens a lot.” she replied “Is there something I can do for you?”

 

“Oh, yes.” I said. “I was told you might have a room for rent.”

 

“Yes I do. It's seventy-five a night or three fifty a week. Rent by the week I give you weekends free.”

 

“I will need it for at least a week.”

 

“Come on in.” she said “let me get some paperwork on you.”

 

I filled out the paperwork, gave her my money for a weeks rent, then went to my room to settle in. She had said dinner was at five. It was four fifteen now.

I took a shower, and changed my clothes. Then I went to the dinning room for dinner.

 

We talked periodically through dinner. Her name was Nancy Bungalow. I couldn't hardly keep my eyes off of her throughout the entire meal. She looked so much like my Tracy did, eight years ago, before she died. Nancy had lived here for almost six years. So I decided to ask her about the Werewolf sightings. She said she had heard rumors, but had never saw it herself. So any information she gave me would be second hand. That was pretty much the end of our conversation.

 

“If you will excuse me, I must wash the dishes now.”

 

I offered to help, but she refused, so I went back to my room. It was six thirty by this time, and I had some time to kill. I got out my laptop, and using my phone for Internet service, I checked my e-mail. Nothing worth looking at. I searched the net for a while, always looking for something new that might help in my quest. By the time I had finished, it was eight thirty. When I arrived at the church, Jim was already there.

 

“I'm glad you made it here.” he said. “I was afraid you would think my e-mail was a joke.”

 

“No, I take all news of sightings seriously.” I assured him.

 

“Great, well come with me and I will show you where we saw it.”

 

“We? You say we? So that means others have seen it? Right?” I asked “ So where are they? And, can I talk to them?”

 

“It was my son, he was killed by it.” Jim said sadly.

 

“I'm sorry. Then I guess you had better show me where it was.”

 

He took me to the place his son had died. I scouted around with my flashlight. Not able to see much for the darkness. But I knew this was the way it would be when I took the beast out. I tried to familiarize myself with the place as much as possible. Jim gave me details of the night his son died. I filed them away in my memory for use when I needed them.

 

It was late when we got back to town. So Jim went his way, and I went back to my room at the B&B.

 

The week had went by faster than I thought it would. I had talked to everyone of the townsfolk. Some were willing to talk about the rumors they had heard, and some did not want to talk at all. There was one woman working at the general store, her name was Rachael, that actually got mad when I tried to talk to her. This really shocked me. She said I should just leave it alone. It wasn't hurting anyone in town. I told her, it was just a matter of time before it would. She threw me out of the store, and told me I wasn't welcome there. I should just go back to where I came from. During the week I had gotten to know Nancy a little more. It seemed her ancestors were from here, and she moved here to retrace her roots. She was a beautiful woman and I could not help falling for her. But I had to keep my mind focused on my job at hand.

 

Finally the night had come. It was a full moon. Before setting out to the woods, I checked all my gear. A colt .45 with six silver bullets in it. Extra bullets, in case I needed to reload. I also had a knife with the blade made from pure silver, just in case of close contact. I hoped I wouldn't need that. Then I had my Winchester 30-30, with a full magazine of silver bullets. I was ready to go hunting.

 

We got to the woods, I trying to be as quite as I could. Jim had come along with me, so I gave him my pistol. As we walked around, I had to keep telling Jim to be quite. He looked as if he was scared half out of his head. At one point I almost took the pistol away from him, for fear he would shoot me. The moon was almost at it's highest point in the sky. I knew if we were to see the werewolf, it would be soon. Just then I spotted it. It was tall and kind of slender. More so than any Were I had ever seen. It's hair covered it's entire body, and it stood upright like a human. At the moment though it was slumped over like it was eating something. It was a magnificent creature to say the least. Jim had also saw the creature and fired my pistol at it. That stupid idiot, we were too far away for a pistol. All he managed to do was get the Werewolf's attention. It turned and gave a loud roar. I was shocked , this werewolf was female.

 

“RUN!” I yelled

 

Jim fired a few more times, hitting it once or twice. Just because you shoot a Were with silver bullets, doesn't mean it will go down. Oh sure it hurts them, and may slow them down. But you must shoot them in the heart or head to take them down for good. Jim hit it once in the shoulder, and once in the leg. This just pissed it off. I turned to run, but Jim was frozen in fear. He lifted the pistol once more, but by this time the Wolf was on him. It slashed at his arm and ripped it clean off with one swing. Jim howled in pain then tried to run. It was too late. As I turned back around to try to get a clean shot, I saw Jim being ripped to shreds. I looked through the scope on my rifle, aimed, and the beast ran off. I went to where Jim was. All that was left was in more than one place. He was over there, over there, and up there. There was nothing else I could do, so I started tracking the Wolf. As I was tracking it I kept thinking, this female Werewolf must be Rachael. She was the only one that seemed so adamantly about me leaving it alone. I followed the blood trail to the back of the general store. This is where I figured it would be. I followed the blood to the back door. It was still ajar, so I entered. When I got inside I saw Nancy on the floor covered in blood, and striped naked. Oh my god the Werewolf got to Nancy. That's when I noticed the hole in her shoulder and leg. I fell to my knees beside her.

 

“Tell me its not so Nancy.” I cried

 

“My name is not Nancy” she said in a weak voice. “ It's Tracy, your wife.”

 

My heart sunk. All these years, all this time. All I could say was “How, tell me how?”

 

“ When the Werewolf carried me off all those years ago, he didn't kill me. He only bit me.”

 

“Why didn't you come back to me.” I asked as I held her hand.

 

“ I was ashamed, and afraid I would hurt you. Please Jeff if you ever loved me kill me now. Please release me from this curse.”

 

I bowed my head and pulled my knife from it's sheath. I held it over her heart with both hands. I began to shake.

 

Tracy put her hands over mine, and in a weak voice said “I have always loved you.”

 

I shook my head to plead with her and she pulled the knife into her heart.

 

The next day as I rolled out of bed, wishing this was all a bad dream, I reached for a cigarette. I found my Zippo, and tried to strike it. Damn it was out of fluid. I threw it in the trash can. I was done smoking and with hunting Werewolves. I would began my life anew.