The Stone of Blood by Tony Nalley

hear anything.” I answered. “Who would be playin’ music all the way out here?”
    “I don’t know, but keep your voice down.” Colby whispered while motionin’ me to follow him. “Let’s go check it out!”
    There was no time to waste. I either followed him or I’d be left there in the dark alone. So I set our gear down upon the gravel road and I followed.
    We crept through the trees and underbrush keepin’ our communications to a minimum.
     
    The woods were thick and we traveled cautiously.
     
    We could see em’ now amidst the thickness of the forest as they danced by the firelight. Smoke rose from the flames as they howled into the twilight. Drumbeats resounded and echoed throughout the woodlands and rock walled caverns.
     
    Like wolves these creatures cackled with a great gnashing of teeth!
     
    We moved in stealth around em’ …as that of a Mountain Lion; maintainin’ our distance and keepin’ downwind of their encampment.
     
    “This is just like that movie ‘ Salem’s Lot ’.” Colby whispered to me as we knelt upon the ground hidin’ ourselves from the light. As history would have it, Bardstown was once known as Salem .
     
    “Only these aren’t ‘ Vampires ’. They’re ‘ werewolves ’!” He continued.
     
    The power of suggestion could lead a boy to think a great many things.
     
    “I think we’d better go.” I whispered to Colby as the clamor around the fire grew louder.
     
    Flickerin’ shafts of light danced amidst the trees. Like tiny soliloquies cutting through the darkness, the moon shone brightly castin’ its light upon the earth; for by the light of Earth’s moon they walk; half man half beast.
     
    Colby shook his head at me but I couldn‘t see him. I was too busy watchin’ the people as they danced and sang around the campfire.
     
    “You’re right. Let’s get out of here.” Colby whispered.
     
    We moved cautiously over the trail by which we came, ever conscience of the sounds we made; retreatin’ backwards into the night, far enough from the fires that we could speak freely again.
     
    It was hard making sense of what we had seen, putting into words expressions of fear.
     
    One thing we knew for certain: it was a long way home if we were to make a run for it!
     
    “ Silver bullets can kill a ‘werewolf’ .” I thought to myself. But we didn’t bring any with us. I held up my hand in front of my face, at arms length I couldn’t see my fingers.
     
    “We’d better keep our flashlights off tonight so we’re not spotted.” I whispered, even though we were far enough out of ear shot now not to be heard.
    “I agree. We need to keep the lights off.” Colby whispered back. “At least until we get to the other side of the quarry, and away from em’!” he continued as he pointed in the direction of the fires.
     
    By the light of the full moon we picked up our gear and traveled to the east. After a while, our eyes adjusted to the dark. Things could be seen much clearer. But the suitcase was still heavy.
     
    So I moved slowly, setting it down from time to time in attempts to rest my fingers from the rope handle that cut deep ridges into them. The indentured marks nearly cut off my circulation, and I had to open my fingers slowly so as to not break em’ off from the rest of my hand! It took a while to get the blood flowin’ again like normal, so I would sit down on the suitcase and rest for a minute while Colby continued blazing the trail ahead of us with the machete he had brought with him at the beginnin’ of our trip.
     
    I was doing my best not to think about what we had seen. But I knew Colby was thinkin’ about it.
     
    His imagination was geared more towards horror stories. He’d seen lots of scary movies in his life, much more than I had. His mom and dad had let him. So naturally when something like this happened, he automatically saw people and events that were unexplainable or unforeseen as somethin’ evil or savage!
     
    There were