The Wendigo of Huron
“No, no,” said Catherine, offering a forgiving smile, waving it off. “It’s quite alright. Keith doesn’t talk about his mother too much. I say vanished because…well, they never did find her body. His father said that one night when they were out in the woods camping, his mother just went crazy. He said she was screaming about a voice calling out to her. She snapped and ran out into the blizzard in the middle of the night. No explanation, no reason. She just jumped up in the middle of the night and ran, screaming about a voice.”
“That sounds horrifying,” said Karen.
“My father-in-law didn’t explain more than that,” she said. “I insisted, wanting to know about Keith. I could tell, the memory was painful for him, too. He took Keith as far away as he could get. He said something about the mountains, that they’re cursed. No,” Catherine stopped herself. “He said that his wife said the mountains were cursed. What was it again…the curse of the wendigo?”
“Wendigo?” Karen asked. “I think I’ve heard a legend about that.”
“Really?” Catherine asked, her soft brown eyes filled with intrigue. “What do they say?”
“What do you already know of the wendigo?” Karen asked.
Catherine nodded. “They say they’re cannibalistic monsters. The Algonquins said that those who eat the flesh of another human turn into them. And they have those deer antlers.”
“Yes, that’s the most popular myth,” said Karen. “The whole antler thing is a recent phenomenon, it’s not really true to the original stories. I’ve read some stories about wendigos. I’m sort of a fan of that stuff.” She smiled.
“My favorite is one about an old Algonquin warrior who was traveling in the woods. He gets word of a monster in those woods who had slain an entire village that resided nearby. Many of his people beg him not to go, but he is a great hero, so he grabs his spear and ventures off. After many days of travel, he comes upon a family deep into the mountains. He finds it rather odd. At first, they welcome him to dine with them and rest for he has had a long journey, but he grows suspicious and tells them he cannot. See, they looked like a normal family, but he could sense something was off about them. Something not human. So, he feigns that he continued on his journey but instead hides in the brush and waits out the night. The next morning, he sees the father with his three sons leave to track him down the path they thought he had set out on. Once they leave, he approaches their camp and discovers that the mother is a wendigo, and bodies of men, women, and children from the tribe are all hanging like cattle on hooks in the tent. The hero kills the mother and goes after the father and sons. Eventually, he finds them , and, after an intense battle, he finally slays the father, but only two of the sons. The third manages to escape the hero and retreats deeper into the forest, never to be seen again. Some say that he still haunts the forest, but is still in fear of the warrior. Others say that it is his descendants who now haunt the forest. That their line is cursed, and that they can take human form once they leave, but whenever they return, they revert back to their true form. I don’t know why, but it was always one of my favorite local legends.”
“That is a strange story,” said Catherine.
“It is,” said Karen. “There are many legends, but that one always stuck out to me. Like, the idea that wendigos can disguise themselves as humans is just– oooh..” She shivered.
Catherine snorted. “Can they also create blizzards?” Catherine asked jokingly.
“Actually,” said Karen, “according to the legend, yes, they can.”
Catherine sat in solemn silence. Karen could see that her words had bothered the young woman. Keith let out a groan but then went silent.
Catherine reached out, when both she and Karen were startled by the sudden thumping of footsteps thundering down the hall.
“Can’t you hear it?!” a man yelled, running out the hallway, dressed only in a plain white shirt and boxer briefs. Karen leapt to her feet, dropping her mug onto the wooden floor.
“Can’t you hear it?!” the man cried again.
He had gone completely mad. He grabbed at his head like he was trying to pull an invisible entity out of his mind.
“The voice! The voice!” he shouted. Guests began to funnel out of their rooms disturbed by the noise.
“Steve! Steve!” a woman called after him. “What has gotten into you?”
The man ran through the lobby. Karen rushed to go after him but he was too quick. He dashed to the front entrance, all the while yelling about the voice.
“Don’t!” Karen shouted as she watched the man throw open the doors.
“Steve!” the woman continued to call after him.
The man laughed maniacally before dashing barefoot outside, disappearing into the blizzard, all the while still yelling about the voices.
Karen reached the front entrance, but she couldn’t see. The snow and wind pelted her like icy daggers. She immediately shut the door. She spun around just in time to catch the now sobbing wife.
“Keith!” she sobbed.
The woman collapsed in her arms as Karen held her. Some of the guests had started to gather back into the lobby. She could hear their murmurs of confusion, wondering what had happened. Karen held the sobbing woman and turned to look back through the glass of the front entrance, seeing nothing but snow and darkness.
What the hell had possessed the man to do that? Then she realized the name the woman had been shouting – Steve.
She looked back over at Catherine who was watching. Her soft pink face had gone ghostly pale. What the hell was going on?