How to Catch A Werewolf
written by: Dawn DeBraal
Billy Thompkins and Cameron Rey were digging a hole in the woods at the back of Thompkins’ home.
“We are going to catch a werewolf,” Billy told his friend, throwing the dirt over his shoulder.
“Do you think they are real?” Cameron asked, his friend was well over his head, buried in the pit.
“Of course, they are. They come out on Halloween, and this year is a full moon, so we will catch a doubly powerful one.” Billy went back to flinging dirt over his head, a shovel full at a time.
“How will we keep the werewolf in the hole?” Cameron lay beside the open pit, looking down at Billy.
“We’ll make spikes that we will bury in the ground so when the wolf falls into the hole, he will be speared and unable to move.”
“You’ve thought of everything.” Cameron picked up the shovel, ready to get back into the pit.
“I even got the wolfbane.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, there really isn’t such a thing, but I’ve got some monkshood, I think, and it’s supposed to be poisonous.”
“Better be careful with that stuff.” Cameron jumped into the hole and began digging alongside his friend.
“You have to ingest it, or have it put into your bloodstream somehow. I am going to rub it on the stakes,” Billy explained.
“Aren’t you exposing yourself if you do that?”
“Relax,” Billy said, pulling his mom’s rubber gloves from his back pocket. “I’ve got these.”
The two friends worked in silence until they felt the pit was deep enough to contain the werewolf.
“Now we need stakes.” Cameron got Billy to boost him out of the hole and then leaned over and pulled his friend up.
“Let’s scour the woods. I brought some sharp knives to sharpen the stakes.”
The boys grabbed branches and brought them back. They carved several spikes into sharpened points and then jumped back into the hole and drove the stakes in so that they aimed up.
“Okay, now we have to make a cover for the hole. The trick is to make sure nothing is long enough to help the wolf escape.”
“Billy, how come you know so much about werewolves?” Cameron asked as they headed for the pond.
“I read and watch a lot of horror films. I think I’ve seen every single one!”
The boys gathered cattails from the swamp, brought them back, and wove them into a cover to place over the hole, adding native plants to hide the woven mat.
“That looks perfect,” Cameron said when they finished.
“I hope we catch a werewolf.” Billy jumped back into the hole, put on the rubber gloves, and began covering the spikes with the crushed monkshood that he called wolfbane. When he finished, he left the gloves in the pit.
Cameron reached down and pulled him out. They took the woven mat and placed it over the hole, then found some rocks to anchor the mat near the huge pile of dirt.
“That should do it.” Billy brushed his hands on his jeans.
“So how do we lure the werewolf to the pit?”
“I hadn’t thought about that. Maybe I can get some leftover chicken and throw it in the hole!”
“That’s a great idea.” Billy and Cameron ran back to the house.
“Mom, we’re hungry. Can Cameron and I eat the leftover chicken?”
“Sure. Do you want me to heat it?”
“No, we’ll just take it.” Billy opened the refrigerator and grabbed the container with the chicken in it. “We’re going on a hike, thanks, Mom.”
They ventured out of the backyard and into the woods. When they reached the pit, Billy opened the container.
“Wait!” Cameron shouted. He grabbed a leg and bit into it. “The wolf shouldn’t get everything.”
Billy dumped the chicken under the mat, and they hiked back to the house.
“So, when will the werewolf come?”
“I don’t know, Cameron. We’ll check on it when we get home from trick-or-treating. I’m glad your mom said you could stay here.”
When they got back to the house, Toby, Billy’s dog, jumped on his legs, smelling the chicken container.
“No, boy, sorry, that’s not for you. That’s for the werewolf we are going to catch tonight.”
Billy fed his dog, and they ran upstairs to get ready for trick-or-treating.
Billy was dressed as a pirate, and Cameron was a sailor. Billy’s mom dropped them off in town.
“You have two hours, then meet me here.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Billy pulled out a bag for candy and handed one to his friend.
“Thanks, Mrs. Thompkins.”
The boys joined in with the other kids, racing door to door, collecting treats.
The church clock tower told them it was time to meet up with Billy’s mom. They said goodbye to their friends, meeting Mrs. Thompkins in the car.
“We got a haul!” Billy said excitedly. His mom laughed at the boys’ excitement.
At home, they went through the candy to make sure it was safe, and the boys decided they wanted to put sleeping bags in the tree fort and sleep outside.
“Are you sure? It’s going to get nippy out tonight,” Mrs. Thompkins said.
“If we get cold, we’ll come in.” Billy wanted to check on the werewolf trap, and it would be easier to sneak away if they were outside in the tree fort.
The moon was bright and full when the boys settled down and decided to wait a few hours before checking to see if they had caught a werewolf.
Awakened in the middle of the night by eerie howls, Cameron woke his friend.
“Billy! I think we caught a werewolf. Wake up.”
Billy sat up and heard the yowling.
“Let’s go!” he scrambled out of his sleeping bag and grabbed his flashlight.
The boys trailed out into the woods.
“What are we going to do with it?” Cameron asked.
“I didn’t think that far ahead,” Billy said, pushing his way through the brush.
Coming up to the pit, they felt for sure they had caught a werewolf.
The creature howled from the hole in a piteous cry. The boys quietly sneaked up to the pit, looking down, shining the light on a dog.
“Toby!” Billy shouted. The poor dog had gone after the chicken and fell through the reed mat.
“Will he die from the wolfbane?” Cameron asked.
“I don’t know if it was real wolfbane; it looks like the stakes fell over instead of piercing the mat.”
Cameron helped Billy into the pit. “Toby, are you okay?”
He lifted the dog from the pit into Cameron’s waiting arms, and then Cameron reached down to help his friend out.
“We didn’t catch a werewolf,” Billy said dejectedly after checking Toby over for any scratches.
“Well, at least Toby is okay.” Cameron patted the dog’s head.
“Let’s call it a night. The trap is ruined.” Billy sighed.
They turned toward the house when a howl coming from the woods startled them.
“It’s the real wolf, run,” Billy shouted.
The boys ran straight into the house with Toby at their heels. They went to Billy’s room and locked the door.
“What are we going to do?”
“We are going to stay in my room until daylight. Then tomorrow, we will fill in the pit. I have decided I don’t want to catch a werewolf.”
“Good plan.”
Bright and early the following morning, the boys went back and filled in the pit, piling branches over the top.
“That was the scariest Halloween I’ve ever had,” Cameron told his friend.
“It was epic, wasn’t it?” The boys laughed. “Let’s get these shovels back to the tool shed before my dad finds them missing.”
They left the trap scene with the shovels over their backs, all the while a lonely wolf with yellow eyes quietly observed them from the forest while eating the best fried chicken it had ever tasted.
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