The only light in the kitchen came from the refrigerator as he opened the door. Looking around for something to eat, Tony Scatturo hummed to himself as the cool air fell across the kitchen floor. He was restless tonight. Tomorrow there was his first day on the job, and he didn’t want to mess this one up. Tony had just moved out to this wilderness reservation when he received the news that he had been hired on as the new help in a nearby shelter.
Finally settling on some leftover pizza, he closed the door, plunging the kitchen into total darkness. He slowly made his way out into the living room, where the TV awaited. He fumbled around, a slice of pizza hanging out of his mouth, looking for the remote control. That’s when he heard it.
He froze in place, and waited to see if he was just hearing things or if he would hear it again. After a short time, he gave up trying. Blaming his imagination, he continued to look for the remote control.
Finally finding the remote nestled between the cushions of the couch, he sat down, the slice of pizza now mostly eaten. Just as he was about to turn the TV on, he heard it again. The howl of a wolf – but this time, it was closer.
He went to look outside the living room window, knowing he’d probably not see anything on this cloudy and dark night. Living in the woods is great and all, he thought, but holy shit, it’s really spooky out here.
He didn’t see anything outside, so he turned back to hit the couch and watch some TV. Just then he heard a big CLUNK from the kitchen and nearly jumped out of his skin in fright, only to realize it was the automatic icemaker in the refrigerator dropping ice into the ice bin.
Chuckling to himself, he sat down on the couch, slice of pizza now fully eaten. He began channel surfing. To his disappointment, there was nothing to watch on TV this late at night except infomercials.
“There’s never a damn thing on TV,” he said to the empty room. Then he heard something again.
This time it wasn’t the howl of a wolf. It was more like a scratching sound. It sounded like nails scratching wood. It was coming from behind him, in the kitchen. It was like something was scratching at the back door. He went to go investigate, but not before he picked his shotgun up near the front door. He had bought one when the other day as he was moving in. You can never be too safe in the woods.
Slowly, he made his way to the back door. He could still hear the scratching sound. It was something pawing at the door, trying to get in. Probably some damn raccoon, he thought.
He stopped to get his flashlight as well. He might need it when he looked outside for that raccoon. The batteries seemed to be dead, since the flashlight was not turning on at all. He hit the flashlight with the heel of his hand a few times, and it came on in a flash. At the same time, the scratching stopped
He thought to investigate further, but he’s seen all the movies. When you open the door, they come after you. Tony wasn’t going to fall for that sucker move. He was going to stay put, inside, where it was safe.
So he shut off the flashlight, turned around, only to come face to face with a silver-grey wolf the size of a large mastiff. In sheer horror and surprise, Tony threw up the shotgun and the flashlight into the air and fell back on the floor, and crawled backwards until his head hit the back door.
“Go away now!” he screamed, as the wolf began growling. “There’s nothing for you here! Go! Go away!” He waved his arms to try to scare the wolf away.
The wolf instead took a step closer, and began growling, a deep sound. It was definitely not a pleased to meet you sound. Tony tried to stand back up, but the wolf inched a little closer as he tried to get up. He couldn’t understand it. Wolves don’t attack humans. And they certainly don’t open doors and enter houses. Flabbergasted, he slowly tried to reach the knob to the back door, so he could try to make a break out of the house.
The wolf watched Tony as he opened the back door, never moving from his position. Relieved, Tony managed to crawl backwards out the back door. As he closed the door in front of him, the wolf cocked its head to the side, as if he was trying to understand what Tony was doing.
As the door clicked shut, he heard the wolf inside immediately start barking and began attacking the door. He had made it out. He let out a sigh of relief. He was safe with the wolf inside the house, and he was outside. He stopped though. He couldn’t get a small creeping question out of his head. Do wolves hunt in packs? Turning slowly around, he finally heard the growls of a small pack of wolves behind the house.
“Oh shit on me.”
