The Creature of the Shadows
by Nicole
I once knew of a man by the name of Bill Paxton. Now, Bill, he wasn’t much taller than a mule, I’d guess. He had this awful limp, said a shark bit him when he was looking for a manta ray or something of the sort. He runs a taxidermy shop now down on US 1, just a mile or so short of the small farm I own. I became quite a good friend with him after the summer of ‘98’s big hunting trip. That episode turned Bill away from the selling of live exotic animals. Now, I guess I could tell you the story, without all the long stretches on the truth Bill likes to put on it.
Well, May had just begun when my wife Phoebe and I moved down here to Daytona Beach to get away from the tiresome work of owning a large farm in Kentucky. My wife likes to shop, so of course, I had to find a house as far away from the shopping malls as possible. She seemed to take a liking to walking up and down our road during the middle of the day when I was at work. She found Bill’s Pet Shop on one of her walks. She started to walk there every day to look at the strange animals. So, one day she invited Bill to have dinner with us.
"Welcome to our home. Make yourself comfortable," she said as Bill walked into our house for the first time.
"Thank you," Bill stated as he turned to me, "My name is William Paxton, you can call me Bill. This is a wonderful house!"
I reached out and shook his hand and smiled. "My name is Fred Langston. Did you find the house alright?"
"Oh, sure. I used to hunt around in the woods behind the house next to you. One day this boy said he saw a man in the woods covered in hair. Said he stood about seven feet tall, but this boy was a well known liar and we all didn’t listen to him, until some other hunters saw the strange animal in the shadows in the woods. Then, all of Ormond Beach began to say that there was a ghost haunting the woods."
Now this story, it caught my attention. Don’t know why exactly, but I think it was the mystery in his voice that made me wonder. So I asked him, "Bill, did you ever go back into the woods to go hunting?"
"Awe, no. I guess I was just too scared. This was during 1960s and I was only about ten then." Replied Bill as Phoebe entered the room.
"Dinner is ready and on the table. I cooked pork chops, baked potatoes and cream corn. We also have ice cream for dessert." Phoebe announced in her charming and innocent voice. She always seemed like a child when she used that voice.
Well, dinner went on and Bill told how he hunted in Africa and Australia for large exotic animals until a small shark bit him while he was looking for baby manta rays in the islands. He told how he decided to move back to Daytona a good eight or nine years ago and go into selling small exotic animals. Now the story he was telling me earlier in the evening began to eat at me by the time Phoebe served us our dessert. So I decided to ask him about it.
"Are you still allowed to go hunting in the woods any more?"
"Well I guess so. Why, do you hunt?"
"Yes," I replied, "I used to hunt in the camps back in Kentucky. There was a lot of large deer and hogs to be killed."
"How would you like to go hunting next weekend in the woods. This way you might find some big game and I might be able to prove that there is no ghost," replied Bill as he slipped a sly smile towards me.
Well, we agreed on the matter and sat to talk about a few other things like town gossip and happenings. As midnight rolled around, we said our good nights and our see you next weekends and Bill left for home.
Now that whole next week went by in a blur. I just kept thinking about the ghost in the forest and wondering if the stories were true. Monday turned into Wednesday and Wednesday into Friday, and soon it was Saturday morning.
Bill arrived at seven in the morning wearing his camouflage with his beat up Ford truck filled with the necessities for our day in the woods. I said good bye to my wife and Bill and I hopped in the truck and headed for the beginning of the woods behind my house.
"Well, Fred," said Bill, "you ready to hunt some big game?"
"Yeah," I answered, "are you ready to find your ghost?"
We both laughed and got out of the truck. We gather our guns and a six pack of beer and headed into the woods. We walked about five or six miles into the woods and found a good bushy place to settle ourselves. We sat as quite as a lion on a hunt, hidden behind brush with our guns pointed forward. We sat and listened. Suddenly I heard some rustling in the leaves about thirty or forty yards in front of us.
I looked at Bill and whispered, "Did you hear that? It sounds like there’s an animal over there." I pointed directly in front of us.
Bill whispered back, "Sure did. It sounds like it’s moving this way too."
In a heartbeat, something scurried behind us. I turned around fast enough to see a tall man-like creature running in the shadows.
I looked at Bill and asked, "Did you see that?"
He just nodded his head and we watched to see if we saw it again. Sure enough the creature ran by us again and it looked like the creature in Bill’s story. Bill shot at it and tried to kill it, but the animal ran away.
Bill looked at me and said, "Let’s go get him. He would be an amazing animal to put on my hunting room at home."
"Bill!" I shouted, "Do you remember the story you told me?" He nodded his head and I pointed to the ground and said, "Do you think that foot belongs to an animal?"
Bill looked down and stared at the enormous human-like footprints in the dirt. He stared up at me and said, "Should we get out of here? Anything with a foot that big could do some damage."
"We should leave," I stated. "Let’s go back to the house and relax."
In the truck on the way back to the house, Bill asked, "What do you think it was?"
"Well, I’ve heard stories of an animal named Big Foot that lives in the woods in some town in Europe. That’s what it looked like to me."
"Well, what ever it was, I ain’t hunting anymore. And, I’m definitely not selling live animals either."
And so, my friend, Mr. Bill Paxton gave up the live animal business and went into the taxidermy business. I, of course, gave up hunting. My wife and the people in town believe Bill and I just to be crazy old men, but we know what we saw and her name is Big Foot.
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