Form Walker

The moon had risen and provided enough light for Shane Larson to clearly see the path that would lead him back home. He snickered as he thought of all the dough he'd roll in from this year's crop. He spent all day gathering the rest of the corn from his fields, and his return to his farmhouse was finally at hand. He was tired now, and still had a way to walk back. If this had been any other evening, he would have been riding his way by wagon while carrying a lantern. The moon would have been of no great beauty for his eyes to swallow up. But that was not the case on this quiet night. His lantern was rendered useless earlier that morning when he accidentally tripped, releasing his grip on the fragile glass lamp. It had shattered into pieces against a boulder, as witnessed by the sticky oil dripping out of it and onto a gathering of wild flowers in a syrupy mess. There was the sharp note of high pitched howling off to his left. Shane jumped unexpectedly as he was yanked away from his thoughts as if from the jarring shock of being zapped by an electric current.

"Dang coyotes," Shane exclaimed as he tried to steady his heart rate by taking deep breaths while counting to four. He let out a shaky rattle and power walked onwards, repeating the exercise. He knew the coyotes were more of a nuisance than a threat, but if they were hungry or desperate enough they wouldn't mind tearing him apart. "Best I hurry on my way," he whispered in a cheerier, though still nervous, voice as he continued on his trek.

He was about halfway when he reached a small but densely packed patch of woods. It had blocked his way a long time ago until he cut a path through it. He needed to go through it every day to get back and forth from his house to his cornfields. Normally he would have brought his wagon through, but he had no need of it that morning. Instead, he had walked through the now dark woods. He regretted making that decision presently. Something about them didn't seem normal to Shane. He swallowed a lump that had grown in his throat and shrugged off the goosebumps that crawled their way across all of his uncovered flesh. More yowls came from the same area again, but this time they were closer. Another yip came in response from just beyond a small patch of pricker bushes. He reached the entrance to the dark wood in a few more paces and found himself frozen involuntarily. He made an attempt to move his legs but realized that was impossible. He found himself glued to the spot by some weird and strange power that crushed his will to move. He had a quick flashback to that newcomer that answered the other prowlers seconds ago. It didn't sound the same as the others to him. He couldn't be sure what was different about it, but it played over and over again in his mind as he wondered what was wrong with it.

After stressing about the coyotes' strange call and response, he recovered from the affliction that had so suddenly seized his legs and he stumbled forwards as a blind drunkard. Likewise, his body did not keep up with his eyes and with a misstep he nearly fell down. He glanced about after he recovered and shook his head as he proceeded to enter the creepy forest. He was more determined now than ever to make it back home as quickly as he could. More howling greeted him inside, and he could make out each of the four distinct individuals that contributed to the song they performed under the white limelight of the Moon. They drew closer, and he guessed that they had his scent now. He noticed that the other performer chose to remain silent.

"Dang fuggers wanna git me!" He huffed and quickened his pace. He pushed ahead, noting how the coyotes kept their distance from him. He laughed then. "Heh," he smiled through clenched teeth and fists. "Them doggies won't get me tonight!"

The forest found a way to grow darker under the unchanging light of the moon. He felt eyes stare at him from the deepening darkness of the forest all around him. He slowed down, his nerves getting the best of him once again. He knew something else was out there with him, that dreaded fifth howler of the dark. He knew through some inner knowledge that it was true that it was not what it appeared to be at all. As if the member had been suddenly found guilty of some macabre act, the coyotes yelped several times in surprise. They stifled themselves shortly after and proceeded to nervously whimper. It didn't take much to scare them, but he knew there wasn't any other predator in the area. That sent another sudden chill down his spine as a cold wind surged and blew against the left of his face. It carried a foul scent, and he knew then he had stumbled across some beast's kill area. Interestingly, it did not belong to the coyotes, though the wind had indeed come from their general direction. He heard them run away suddenly, their yelps growing fainter by the second. In only a mere moment it was quiet once again. So quiet it was that he could have heard a pin drop. But, in fact, it wasn't a pin he heard at all. No, it was but a group of twigs that broke about thirty yards to his left.

He twitched as he looked down the path. He was almost out of the forest and in the clearing just ahead. After that, it was only about half a mile to his house. He clenched his fists harder. He had his six-shooter, but he glanced up and noticed the clouds stretched wispy tendrils to cover part of the moon. He knew it wouldn't be long before they covered it fully, giving him no visibility at all. That was until he saw the two pin-sized red orbs floating about a yard and a half up off the ground about twenty yards diaganol off to his left. He blinked and stood still. It had moved. He hadn't noticed any sound at all. Everything was dead quiet, still, yet he had not been able to hear the thing hiding among the trees stalk him. He hadn't heard it creep swiftly and effortlessly towards him under the now moonless sky in the quiet and disturbing woods. How could any predator have slunk up upon him with such a skill of stealth? He went for his gun and watched in growing horror as the thing in the woods silently crossed the remainder of the distance in the time it took him to clear his eyes. That was a whole twenty to thirty feet in two seconds. It stood in the middle of the path he was following. The clouds moved again, letting the moonlight shine once more and spill over the silhouette of the thing.

It looked like a coyote, but the overall appearance of the form was off in some vague way. He couldn't be sure what exactly that was. Upon closer inspection he could see twitching tendrils blacker than the surrounding darkness extending from the thing's underside. No, not blacker. Void. The writhing appendages looked as if they were erasures of some material, like as if someone replaced material with an inky blackness instead. Another electric shock overwhelmed him as he realized that the coyote's legs were not touching the ground at all. Several of the erased-out tentacles extending from it were touching the ground instead, and he also realized with growing horror that they were actually the feet of the monstrosity. They were larger than coyote legs he noticed as the tentacles supported its weight easily. With its mesmerizing gaze it took step after step in an awkward and clumsy gait with them. The creature that was not a coyote stumbled forward on its spindly void-colored limbs. It stopped abruptly, the staring contest between the two continuing. The coyote head peeled back suddenly like some liquid slipping away from its skull. Underneath it was a humanoid-shaped head made up of the same stuff as its limbs were. It was just a silhouette, its eyes growing larger until they were more like orbs the size of two silver dollars. It stopped about ten yards in front of him with the coyote head reforming just behind the thing's actual head. As it flowed back together it stared at Shane with a piercing gaze that felt like it was boring a hole through his soul.

The creature let loose a long droning howl from its coyote head and stood up to walk in its true bipedal form. Two humanoid legs grew from the darkness of the writhing black ropes and took over where they had left off. It was about four feet tall now with a hunched back, either from the weight of its coyote body it now carried on its back or from some strange alien anatomy. Shane's eyes grew wide as it slowly crept towards him, the animal body twitching its head and limbs in the empty air and flicking its tail. The form appeared ever more like a hunched back humanoid as it advanced, with two arms separating from its dark mass in the same way the legs had. It used them to reach forward and proceed to drag itself closer to the farmer. Shane had enough of the whole debacle and jerked his revolver free from his holster. The silence was stifled as he fired two bullets towards the strange creature. The bullets hit their target true, but they were swallowed up by the thing's black void-like body, showing its otherworldly composition to be that much more unnatural to Shane. The red orbs narrowed. Curiosity had run its course.

It took longer strides, quickening its pace. The coyote head expelled a ferocious growl, increasing in hostility by the second as another cry emanated forth from the creature. The call was high and low in pitch simultaneously, a mixture of howling wind and an ungodly screeching that drained his skin of all color. Shane broke free from his trance and turned his back to run away. The creature shuffled forward on its black lanky limbs. The shambler's coyote legs wrapped quickly around them and they lowered back to the ground. The animal's skin flowed around its black form, covering it completely as it slipped its humanoid parts up into the skin. It became a coyote once more. The Form Walker eyed Shane with hatred and malice for the first time in unison that evening as it lept with the dexterity of a lioness.

Shane went down to the ground with a yelp as it slammed into him. He face-planted into a puddle of muddy water, his hands grabbing fistfuls of damp earth as the thing forced its weight on top of his back. The growl was deep and loud enough to drown out his thoughts as he struggled. He refused to breathe in the filthy water as it invaded his mouth and nose. That didn't work out very well for him, as his lungs gave out quickly and he started breathing it all in and choking on the muck in consequence. He heard a screeching noise that was most unlike a coyote and more like a hideous hyena cackle of sorts before an icy cold sensation penetrated his neck. He tried to scream, but it was useless as more water filled his mouth and poured down his throat. The shadowy tendrils of the void wormed their way deeper inside him as more pierced his back. They left him paralyzed as he continued to drown. He let out a final gargle, a death cry, as the tips of them entered his heart. The humanoid form slipped out from underneath the coyote body, dropped towards Shane's and simultaneously sank into him.

He stopped spasming an instant later and all movement ceased. The coyote skin slowly dissolved into ash as it howled for the last time. What had not dissolved fell onto his still body, blowing away in a sudden burst of cold and nauseous wind that scattered it into the forest around the vile thing. He moved shortly after, first kicking and then coughing and spitting out the rain water he inhaled. As he picked himself up he fell back down right after. An animalistic yelp escaped from him in response and two black limbs quickly extended out from his shoulders, catching him before he hit. An inhuman snarl escaped from him and he succeeded the second time, using all four limbs to pick himself up. The extra limbs retracted into his body as he sat in a slumped position on the forest floor. His head shot up in a quick jerky fashion. His eyes were replaced with two bright red orbs that were for with a burning flame that no soul had yet survived.

The creature's head separated from the back of Shane's and it let loose a satisfied howl of delight into the night, the high pitch and low growl blending in with the wind that blew Shane's body away as the thing stepped backwards out of his skin. It scuttled about the forest path in its original squatting form. After a grunt, a coyote skin grew from it and stretched over itself. The humanoid head was swallowed up into the coyote's mouth, which flowed over it before clamping shut. A tail formed as the liquid flesh flowed into the form of one from its rump. Dropping to all fours, some of the skin separated from its body to allow the fleshy legs and paws of its new form to jut out of its sides. More of the shadow beast shot into the coyote's limbs to give its new skin more substance to grow on. This granted the Form Walker with the ability to scamper forward as the four limbs covered in flesh touched down on the dirt. When it established proper footing it jumped, its human-like void limbs pulling inside it with a snapping motion. Its body became covered by the coyote's form as it padded toward Shane's farm. The hen house sounded like a good enough meal to it. After that it would stalk the remainder of the coyotes. Their form, above the others and Shane's, tasted best of all.