Things to fear in the woods.

I live in Northern Ohio, in the area known as the "Black Swamp." There are
a number of creepy things that are said to lurk in the shadows up here. I
never saw or believed in them until last winter. There was one good snow
and I decided to take a walk in the woods to enjoy it. The wind was
whipping through the trees, making whistling and creaking noises. It was
getting late and it was getting colder so I decided to return home. The wind
had caused my foot prints to dissapear, but I knew the general direction I
needed to go. I was walking briskly with my head down. Suddenly there was
a scream. At first I assumed it was either a hawk or a fox hunting or mating,
but it was too cold for that. I kept walking until I heard it again, but louder
and closer. I mugged into my coat and looked around for a minute. I saw
something in a clearing to my right. It looked like a tree, until it turned to
look at me. It was a man, tall and thin with a white face and long arms. He
was wearing a suit, but it stayed tight to him, never moving with the wind. I
realized that he had been been the one causing the screaming. There was
blood all around him . He looked at me and something behind him began to
move. He had long tentacles coming out of his back. I couldn' t move to run
or even close my eyes. These tentacles were moving back, tensing like a
snake about to strike. Then something changed. The wind stopped, the trees
froze and the deep woods were silent. I knew something was wrong, and the
slender man did too. Suddenly, out of the woods behind me came
something. I smelled him before I saw him. It was the rich scent of fresh
earth. IT flew over me and hit the ground between the slender man and
myself. It stood up, no shorter than 8 feet tall. It was gaunt and boney, his
eyes sunken. He glanced back at me and growled. It was the Wendigo. The
cannibal monster of ledgend. It looked at the slender man with rage. The
slender man never broke composer. They stared one another down. The
Wendigo was defending his territory, the Slender Man defending his right to
hunt. I saw an opening and ran. I never looked back, but I knew if they
wanted me, there was nothing I could do about it. By the time I got home,
the wind had begun to blow again. I didn' t sleep that night.
The next day, the snow had begun to melt. I took another walk into the
woods. I took a knife, knowing that it wouldn' t help me. I needed to find the
spot. Hoping it would be undisturbed. proving that the whole thing had been
a trick of the wind and snow. I found the spot. The smell of iron and rot from
the blood was rich. The trees on all sides of the clearing were ripped up from
the root and thrown out into the surrounding woods. I stepped into the
clearing, fear welling up in my stomach. The ground was scarred and dry. I
saw something at the other end of the clearing. It was a log, stuck out of the
ground like it had been slammed hard into the dirt a hundred times. The log
was mangled like something had held it like a bat. Then I realized what had
happened. Who ever lost the fight was buried under that log. I leaned on it,
looking around. I felt the log begin to rise... And I ran.