Sunset shining. Birds tweeting. Leaves on the ground glistening. I lace up my shoes out on the front porch of my cabin, grab my supplies, and prepare to set out on an evening jog.

You see, I live in a small community in the middle of the Mountains in North Idaho. I have no neighbors close by, as I have lived alone since I moved here 2 years ago. It had been my dream all my life, to just escape the fast pace of life and live out on my own, taking everything easy. I had worked hard for 10 years after graduating and saved enough money to move out here without any consequences, and now it was paying off.

I jogged through the forest, enjoying the crisp, Early October air as it hit my face. I have been doing these jogs almost every evening since I moved here, as a way for me to stay in shape. Because of that, this forest was very familiar to me, and I had set out a path through the forest that I could jog through every day. It was roughly 2 miles, as it cut through the forest and looped around back to my cabin. I always tried my best to make it back before the sun fully set, because at night, bad things happen in this forest from what I have learned in my time here. More specifically, bad things happen around Jaw Cave at night.

Jaw Cave is a cave that is near the furthest point of the trail away from my house, and it got its name from the Jaw-like “mouth” of the cave. In daytime, it is a very beautiful place to go by, as I have ventured over there many times before. However, when nightfall hits, the locals warned me to never go near it, as according to them, that is when the “Jaw Wolf” comes out. I never really believed it, but the forest did have animals like Wolves and Bears that were known to be more aggressive at night, so I just never went out at night anyways.

I continue jogging, until I reach the furthest point of the trail to take a break. With the sunset still beaming through the mountain peaks, I get out my water bottle and take a quick drink, but then I hear a rustling in the brush nearby, roughly 15 feet in the tree line.

“Hello? Anyone there?”

No response. I presume it is an animal like a fox or small fawn, as those live in the area, and I have seen a few of them on my ventures through the forest. I decide it was just one of those animals and take a quick drink of water. Then I hear the rustling again. This time, I decide to jog away. However, as I am doing such, I see a figure stand up in my periphery vision.

“Beeeeeing here is a baaaaaaad thing at night”.

I freeze, and turn around to see a tall, bearded man wearing all black. He couldn’t have been younger than 60, with wispy, white hairs and a long, white beard that looked like it hasn’t been trimmed in years. He looked frail, almost like a skeleton.

“W-Who are you?”

I respond to him, with a slight stutter to my voice from the shock of seeing someone out here at this time.

“Beeeeeing here is a baaaaaaad thing at night”

He repeats the line again, this time stepping closer, but still behind the tree line.

At this point, a feeling of dread rushes over me, and I decide to just take off in a full-on sprint. However, I trip on a tree-branch in the forest, head hitting a rock, and I black out.

I wake up in a small clearing in the forest. I have a small headache, but I decide to get up anyways and look around. The sun has already set, and it was pitch black. No birds are tweeting, no insects are buzzing--nothing. That would have been spooky enough, if not for the next thing that happened. I hear the same exact rustling in the woods from earlier, except it is coming from behind me. I can feel the blood drain from my face as it turns pale with fear. I know it is the man from earlier, and I don’t want to encounter him again, so I do the only thing I can do here--run. I cannot see anything, except for the path that I am on. After what seems like an eternity of running, I finally reach the end of the trail, and leap forward. I am free! I am completely exhausted, and after finally catching my breath, I take the flashlight from my pocket and shine it. It was not my house. It was Jaw Cave.

Dread sweeps over my whole body at the sight of Jaw Cave. Jaw Cave did not look like the once beautiful place it was at daytime. It looked…off. I couldn’t describe exactly what was wrong with it, but it just looked evil. Something was wrong with it. But I didn’t have too much time to fully process it, as I once more heard rustling from the tree line behind me. However, this time it was all behind me, and it wasn’t just one point. It was everywhere.

I froze in fear, dropping my flashlight but unable to do anything except look forward into the mouth of Jaw Cave. Then I heard a low growling from the interior of Jaw Cave. As I am still frozen, I see a set of yellow eyes come from the cave. I turn to run, but I cannot move. Some force outside of fear is keeping me frozen. The set of eyes grows bigger and bigger as it gets closer and closer, until it gets out of the darkness and into the mouth.

The flashlight illuminating it, I can see it is a grotesque creature that looks like a giant wolf, but I know it cannot be a wolf. It stands on 2 legs, tattered fur barely binding to the skeletal limbs of the creature. Its eyes a beaming yellow, full of malice. I try to scream at the sight of it, but nothing comes out. It then lunges forward, and I accept my fate as everything turns dark.