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ellethespaceunicorn · 7 months

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The Howling in Claw Creek Forest, Prologue

Title: The Legend of the Claw Creek Creature

Rating: Mature, 18+, Minors - DNI

Pairing: Werewolf!Walter Marshall x Reader

Word Count: 2K

Series Summary: You live in a small town called Claw Creek, surrounded by a deep, dark forest. Since you were a kid, an urban legend of the creature in the woods has been told. If the distant howls at night and mutilated livestock are anything to go by, you fear the stories to be true.

Chapter Summary: The story of the creature in the woods is told to you by your grandfather. You pass it on later to the kids in your hospital ward as a funny story from your childhood. It seems all of this might not be just a story.

Warnings: mentions of mutilated animals, spoopy vibes

A/N: So, this is my contribution to Halloween/Kinktober. It was supposed to be a one-shot, but I digress. This poll helped me decide who is my main character. Thank you to @viking-raider for challenging me. Thank you to @milknhonies for setting a fire under my butt. And a special thank you to @peyton-warren for being my lovely beta and soundboard for this.

Dividers by me

Support/Reblog banner by me

Cover Art by me

Series Masterlist

My Masterlist

“Grandpa, I wanna hear the story again, please!” You bounded over to your grandfather, your pigtails flopped on your shoulders when you landed in his lap as he sat in his favorite armchair.

He smiled down at you and spoke, “And what story might that be, darling?”

“C’mon, Grandpa, you know what story. The one about the Claw Creek creature!!” You reminded him of your favorite tale, the legend of what happened right here in your town.

“Alright, alright,” He scratched at his gray beard and looked off into the distance, “So, way back when the town was first founded over two hundred years ago, there were only a few families that settled here. The first of which was a wealthy family from England. Then came a successful farming family from the South. And so on. Well, little did these settlers know that there was an evil lurking in the woods at the edge of town.”

You listened to the story, even though you knew it backward and forward. You just liked to hear how your grandfather could make it so fanciful every time you heard it.

“After a prosperous number of years, the townspeople started to notice livestock being mutilated overnight. One family would blame the other, of course. But no one was ever caught sneaking on the farms or taunting the animals. And sadly, it didn't end there.”

You couldn’t hide the smile on your face. This is the good part!

“Look at you getting all excited! I should have you tell this story.” He laughs and pats your head.

“No, Grandpa. You tell it so much better than me.” You adopted a pout and looked up at him through your lashes.

“Your mother used to use that same approach; she must have taught you well,” He rolls his eyes and smiles, continuing, “If losing cows and chickens wasn’t enough, the town suffered another tragedy. While playing a game of ‘Chicken’, a group of boys stood at the edge of the tree line with their backs to the forest in the dead of night. One by one, each boy would run away for fear that the noises coming from the trees were a signal that the creature was nearby. Until only one boy was left. When he saw his friends had all left him, he started to whoop and holler about his victory. And that was his last mistake, sadly—”

“Are you telling her that damn story again?” Your mother interrupted your grandfather, her father, “You aren’t the one that must reassure her in the dead of night that this story isn’t real, Dad.”

“Mommy, the story is real! And I promise I won’t get scared tonight. Please let Grandpa finish the story! Please please please please please—”

“Alright, fine! But remember you promised not to get scared tonight, young lady.” She kissed your forehead, patted her father’s shoulder, and shook her head before leaving you two to your story.

“Now, where was I?” Your grandfather starts, searching his memory for his place in the story, “Ah right, the last boy was making all kinds of racket over his victory. He started to walk toward where his friends were standing until something grabbed him from behind. All his friends could do was watch for one second, he was there, and the next second he was gone. His screams faded into the sounds of the forest. Those boys ran as fast as they could back to town to tell of what had happened.

“When some of the townsfolk went to search the forest, they weren’t very lucky. They scoured those woods in search of the boy. All they found was a cabin that was covered in vines, and it seemed to have been there for quite some time. But there was no sign of anyone having lived there. They searched and they searched but only found the boy’s jacket which was in shreds and covered in rust-colored fur. With no bears in the area, they assumed maybe it was a wolf or something. Which would have made sense with the missing livestock as well. It seemed that whatever took him must have eaten him whole because they never found anything else of his. No pants, no shoes. Gone, without a trace. And they searched for days, never finding him.

“After that tragedy, the elders discouraged everyone from going even near the woods. Unless it was daytime. If the sun was out, the forest was still a little scary but nothing like that night. Even now, with all the safety precautions we have, I wouldn’t go into that forest if you paid me a million dollars. Anyway, they ended up renaming the town Claw Creek in remembrance of what happened. Never found a wolf though. I guess after all these years, we can safely say whatever was there that night is long gone now. Occasionally though, the wind carries, and I could swear I could hear howling late at night. Whatever it is out there, I say we let him have the forest and we keep to the town. That goes for you too, darling. You stay out of those woods, okay?” He finished his story with a warning, and he’d never done that before.

“I’m not going in those woods. I am curious, though. How come I’ve never heard any howling? That would be so cool!” Your excitement about the story stopped you from thinking of the danger.

“Trust me, darling. You do not want to hear those howls. They are haunting. And I’m old, I’m barely afraid of anything. But that creature? I believe he’s still out there. That’s why I tell this story, even if your mother hates it. Listen a bit closer in the night, maybe you’ll hear the howls one day. But promise me that you won’t go in search of where they lead.” His serious face scared you a bit, he was usually so jovial.

“If I hear it, I won’t go toward it. I promise, Grandpa.” You reach out your pinky to him and he locks his pinky in yours to seal the promise.

“That’s my girl. Now, what do you say we go and see if there’s any milk and cookies we can get into?” With his warm smile back in place, you return it happily.

You hopped down from his lap and took his hand to pull him up off the armchair. Pulling him into the kitchen, you took a seat and watched as he poured the milk and took out some cookies from the cookie jar. You sat and talked with him about the creature and how you hoped you could hear the howl one day.

That night you stayed up extra late to wait for the sounds of the forest to float to your window. All you ended up hearing was the sounds of owls and crickets chirping. No howl that night and no howl any night after that.

That is, until about twenty years later...

It was just a bit past midnight and you had just finished your shift as a nurse in the children’s ward of the hospital. You were dog-tired but you loved your job. You made it a tradition to pass on the story that your grandfather told you about the town. Telling all the little kids scary stories had only one consequence. They wouldn’t want anything else before bed but your story. And you loved it. Of course, you gave them the same warning as your grandfather did, to never go in search of the ‘big bad wolf’.

You made it home and had a quick dinner and shower before you poured yourself into bed. Your open windows allowed the night breeze to come and wash over you. It also allowed you some white noise to fall asleep to.

And that’s when you heard it.

Ahh-wooooooo...

You shot up in bed, thinking you were hearing things. You went to your bedroom window and you peered out into the night. You could see the tree line from where your house stood and you listened again for the howl. There seemed to be only silence and you were about to give up when you heard it again.

Ahh-wooooooo...

Your eyes were glued to the trees as the sound traveled to your ears. You blame it on your lack of sleep that you saw yellow glowing eyes watching you before disappearing back into the dark of the forest.

But your tiredness wouldn’t explain the sound. The howl was there. You heard it twice. You can’t mistakenly hear something twice. Can you?

You wait at your window for a couple minutes and there are no more sounds and no movement from the trees. You close your window and lay back in bed. You toss and turn most of the night, thinking of that pained howl all night long. You even dreamt of those eyes that you thought you saw.

You didn’t know it yet, but that was not the last time you would hear that howl or see those eyes.

The next morning, you go out to your local coffee shop to fuel up. You notice there seems to be a commotion as some folks are gathering outside near the town square. With coffee in hand, you make your way over and spot your best friend.

“Olivia, what is all this about? Why is everyone out here?” You ask, gesturing toward the crowd of people near the fountain.

“Girl, you didn’t hear those howls last night?” Her panic-stricken face tells you everything you need to know.

Those howls were real. And everyone heard them.

“But...it’s just like a wolf or something? We’re outlined by a forest. That’s gotta be normal. Right?” You’re not sure whether you are trying to calm her down, or yourself.

“Well, yeah. But that doesn’t explain what happened on a few of the farms. Actually, the Elliot and the Sullivan farms got it the worst. They say some of their cattle and chickens got mutilated. But the doors to the enclosures to where the animals were kept? They weren’t broken in, they were just opened. Like something opened the door and walked in, ate their fill of beef and poultry, and then just walked right back out. How could that even happen?” She shakes her head and wraps her arms around herself to try and keep warm in the brisk autumn morning air.

You were fine with thinking you had gone crazy and heard howls and saw glowing eyes. In fact, you would rather have continued to think you were nuts. But this ain’t no dream. Other people heard the howls last night. And now there were animal mutilations. All like in your grandfather’s story.

I bet he would have gotten a sick little thrill out of all this happening. But you’re suddenly glad that he wasn’t around to see all this nonsense.

“Liv, I’m gonna go back home. If anything else comes up, call me ok? Just be careful out here, girl.” You give her a quick hug and make your way back to your house after she promises to check in with you later.

Sitting at your kitchen table, your coffee gone cold, you stared off into space. Was this all really happening? Was the creature real? Had it seen you that night? You pour your coffee into a mug and place it in the microwave. While you wait for it to be done, you check your phone and see Liv sent you a text.

‘Hey girl, so they’re actually setting a curfew for tonight. Can you believe it? Everybody needs to be indoors by ten. Anyway, let’s get together for drinks tonight. Your place or mine or whatever. Don’t really wanna be alone tonight with all this mess.’

You send a quick text back agreeing to have her over for some wine and bad television, not wanting to be alone tonight either. Grabbing your coffee from the microwave, you settle down in the living room with your laptop. You begin to search the internet for any local wolf sightings, and to your horror, there hasn’t been a single one. Which, in your brain, can only mean one thing.

The creature your grandfather warned you about might not be just a piece of fiction.

To be continued...

A/N: I am really nervous about this story so any comments are welcome. I really wanted this to be a one-shot and I should have known better lol.

**Tag List**

@deandoesthingstome @cakesandtom @brattymum96 @ambinxe @avengersfan25 @kebabgirl67 @thabiddie23 @sweetandgentlecreature @foxyjwls007 @astheskycries @enchantedbytomandhenry @rebelangel1102 @milknhonies @peyton-warren @geralts-yenn @raccoon-eyed-rebel @cardierreh15 @viking-raider

Let me know if you wanna be added (or removed) 😁

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kdsburneraccount · 1 year

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So the NFLPA released report cards for each team's working conditions that graded them based on polls from players, which I found pretty interesting but also a little depressing. You can read it here: NFL Player Team Report Cards | NFLPA

More thoughts under the cut since I was initially going to put my thoughts in the tags but I thought reading it was quite eye-opening.

The Bengals being graded an F- for nutrition... I'm not that surprised considering what former players have said about the cafeteria, but it's still pretty embarrassing. And those comments were from the 2000s. Not providing dinner, vitamins, or supplements to players is a little questionable, especially if players are going to be spending long days at practice. And the fact that they’ve had breastfeeding mothers sit on the floor of public restrooms to take care of their kids is… concerning. (This is a Mike Brown moment. Unfortunately. The “no indoor practice facility” jokes looking more and more true by the moment. Like I get he’s pretty poor for an NFL owner but your team made the Super Bowl two seasons ago invest in the facilities more have an actual food service on hand cmon man why are you proving Carson Palmer right)

I wasn't surprised looking at the Falcons' grading of their strength coach (by and large, strength coaches were graded exceedingly positively by the players, except for the Falcons and the Ravens. In the case of the Ravens it appeared that they had a strength and conditioning coach who was pretty disliked by the players, and that coach did get fired, so at least the team's aware of it), mostly bc the Falcons aren't very good at tackling 😭 hopefully they make a change in that regard because man. At least they think Arthur Blank is ok.

Haven't watched mid-season Hard Knocks so didn't really have an idea of how the Cardinals' facilities were, but... wow. Overall second to last behind the Commanders (who are, y'know, dysfunctional), which kinda surprised me but at the same time the Cardinals are kind of low-key dysfunctional now I think about that. Making players pay for dinner out of their payroll... don't like that! Oh yeah and their training facilities are apparently a health and safety risk (fun).

It is interesting to note that the rankings of the facilities didn't necessarily correlate with team success: the top-ranked teams in this survey were the Vikings, Dolphins, Raiders, Texans, and Cowboys while the bottom-5 teams were the Commanders, Cardinals, Chargers, Chiefs, and Jaguars (Bengals dodging this phew). This is probably because a lot of stuff that's surveyed here can impact team performance, but only if it's egregiously bad (ie Cardinals or Commanders). Was surprised by how the Chiefs graded out on their training staff considering they just won a Super Bowl but I would wager that's to do with Andy Reid and his whole system; works but isn't the nicest about it.

I thought that the way some categories were weighted were a little questionable, ie travel and treatment of families being abt the same level. Personally having younger players room with each other is whatever, not having a proper space for families is a bigger issue. But maybe that's me being unsympathetic (and there is the whole difference between a star player and practice squad guy to consider because their treatment would be different).

Overall, pretty good survey, I do hope it's able to enact some awareness bc the NLFPA isn't that strong, but they do seem to be doing their best as a union (working in the interest of players).

#the rare mildly serious post i make #im ngl when i saw the locker room grades i thought they meant like vibes and not the actual locker room they spend time in #and panicked abt that #will insert the caveat that it's kinda hard to extrapolate anything quantitative #bc there are categories that i feel shouldn't weigh that much but they are in the calculation of rankings #the dolphins had the concussion protocol situation yet were rated really high overall so hm #the saints doing generally well in the survey and then having an f- in the food department. you are in louisiana. ???#the grading did seem kinda arbitrary bc there was only the explanation of 'no dinner' whereas w the bengals #there was a litany of complaints abt the food service there #and yet they got the same grade #kinda spitballing here so feel free to add on and stuff #sports #nfl #nflpa #unions #working conditions

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braindead-virtually-tv · 1 year

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WrestleMania Nights 1 & 2 Match Cards

April 1st & 2nd So-Fi Stadium, Inglewood, California

Have your say in the "Who will win" Polls!

NIGHT 1

Singles Match for the WWE United States Champion Austin Theory (c) v John Cena