Windigo

by Stefan Magi Fionn
(OHIO)

Excerpt from my book "Clairvoyant: A Chronicle of Paranormal Events" on Amazon.

This is a True Ghost Story:

Chapter 4

Windigo

It was the fall of 2003, and school had just reopened a few months prior. I had spent the summer vacation working hard at a fast food business full time. I was now around 16 years old and would often party a lot with some friends throughout the neighborhood. Despite being back in school, I managed to work on the weekends, so I still had money to blow. This particular weekend I was at a keg party with my friends Charles and Jim. We were all pretty buzzed and wanted to see if a mutual friend in another nearby subdivision had some pot since either no one at the party had any or wanted to share. It was close to midnight when we decided to embark on our quest.

The trees were wearing bare of their leaves, on the eve of another Ohio winter. The air was chilled and smelled of decaying foliage still soaked from rain a night before. The moon was full and sparse clouds filled the night sky passing by at a brisk pace. We walked down the dimly lit streets of the neighborhood, which ran its course straight back to where we were headed. Along the way, we would stop and hide ever so often when seeing headlights, fearing either our parents, or the cops that would catch us breaking curfew. Jim suggested we stop off at his house to grab a few things before we headed out further. He grabbed a soda for us all, which I gladly accepted. We also took two short swords that we found a few months prior that were behind the trailer park─while trekking through the woods. They were both rusted up pretty good and caked in mud before cleaning them up.

The blades were less that an inch wide and at the hilt there was some kind of Latin writing. It was an unusual but novelty find; so we kept them.

The lot of us probably made a comical sight to
anyone who had been observing our trio walking down the street. Charles with his curly red hair and freckled pale skin carrying a short sword, Jim staggering a bit, even dragging the sword loudly across the pavement behind him, jovial at times. The entrance to the adjacent trailer park was a cut in the fence leading out from our neighborhood. In a bit of a daring mood, I inquired if we should take a short cut across the field and through the dark woods instead.

“Are you sure about that..?” Jim asked resting his hand nervously on his head then through his sandy brown hair.

“Yeah, what you scared?” I mused.

Charles smiling joked “You know its a full moon..
right?”

“Oh don't tell me now, you too!?” I laughed.

“Okay, screw it, lets go.” Jim replied.

After walking to the back of the park half of me
really regretted my boastful opt to take the shortcut through the woods. The field had been chunky from last years till, the saturated clay ran off with puddles of water and mud. Out across the field the outline of the trees appeared as a towering foreboding mass. The bare branches of the tops were like outstretch fingers
scratching at the sky. The moon seemed to hover over where the 'Hollow Tree' would be, the clouds still moving at an offset quickening pace. This night seemed uniquely and utterly haunting.

“I don't know guys..” I started becoming fearful.

“Oh really now? We just came all this way man.” Jim replied a bit smug.

“Yeah.. just kidding.” I lied nervously. Once reaching the tree line, the aroma of pine needles and decaying woods struck my senses. It seemed
like I had hit a brick wall and a great part of me was quite reluctant to enter the dark enveloping woodlands. I stumbled a bit through the brush and bushes between the trees, Charles and Jim close behind, often holding away branches or thorn vines for each other. After breaking
through the front line of trees we reached the clearing and there in our midst stood the 'Hollow tree'.

In the middle of the clearing the statuary monolith was illuminated by the moonlight that shone down upon it, almost as if it were some sort of druid's shrine. The tall ash colored branches that rose straight up creaked loudly, swaying with the whistling wind. We all paused for a moment, staring at this tree in all its mystery, glimpsing into its hollow void─half expecting some creature that dwelt within to leap upon us. We all seemed transfixed by the creepy scenery, reluctant to go any further, it was as if conditions were ripe for evil to manifest.

“Over there!” Jim whispered frantically.

“What? What?” I asked concerned.

“I saw it..” Charles said gravely.

“Saw what?” I asked scared.

“A shadow.. something big walking, dark... like a spirit.” Charles replied.

“Really guys..?” I choked a laugh, attempting to mask my fear.

I was still a little buzzed from the drinking we were doing that night and I had sometimes had this brazen approach to spirits. Over the years whenever I thought I was dealing with a ghost of any sort I would put up this ultra aggressive front to provoke it or call it out. I never
believed spirits could actually hurt you, just thought they could speak or throw objects but not hurt people. I had this mentality that if you show these things your not afraid then they cannot touch you. Emboldened by this philosophy, I began to taunt this being, still somewhat doubting its existence. My friends must be playing a joke on me, I thought, so I was going to show I wasn't afraid.

“Hey...!” I yelled.

“Screw you!” I continued.

“I'm not afraid of you! Come and get some!” I kept
egging on into my surroundings.

I then saw a tall shadow float across between two trees about twenty feet in front of me. I look about the area seeing if something might have cast such a shadow, to my dismay just my friends stood there in disbelief still holding the slender swords at their sides.

“Come on man stop!” They pleaded.

“No.. screw that!” I screamed.

“Come on you sissy!” I screamed one last time.

And with that final word a dark mass enveloped around me, lifting me up a few feet off the ground carrying me over to a nearby tree. I struggled, still defiant although utterly afraid. I couldn't move and was being restrained by this entity, held against a pine tree. I looked down, and saw Charles standing there, mouth wide open in disbelief with sword still in hand as the edge resting in the ground. Jim was motionless too, frozen with fear just shocked staring up at me. After what felt like a few minutes, I stopped struggling then promptly the being let go of me. I fell slumping down and landing at the base of the tree. My friends cautioned over to me, concerned they helped me stand on my feet.

“Oh my God.. that was insane.” I stuttered.

My friends couldn't believe what happened, we continued talking about the event later that night after leaving the enchanted woodlands. This was the first time something physically touched me, I was completely creeped out. The amount of strength and force this spirit had led me to realize the foolishness of my actions to provoke it. I declined to go back to that area, I didn't
want a repeat of what happened that dark, nightmarish night.