Sevenfold
“Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”
Genesis 4:14-15
The wind jostled the tree leaves about as the cool breeze chilled Max’s back. His shirt was heavy with sweat from the long day’s work. But he was confident that this was the right spot. He looked over at Andrew who looked to be just as bad a mess as Max was. He sat atop another tree about 10 feet away. Max leaned forward on his own tree branch. They both were harnessed in of course, and they had done this many times before, so they were used to the long nights up in the trees.
He signed over to Andrew. Do you have a clear view?
Andrew signed back at him. Yes, perfect. Now we just wait.
Everyone had laughed at them for taking the time to learn sign language, but if they wanted to go down in history as the people to catch Bigfoot, they had to think differently. They needed to be as quiet as possible. Any audible communication between them could scare him away.
They had had a close call a few months back. They had seen a blur of fur zoom by as their trap was sidestepped. They had only made out the outline of his figure. But that sighting, it had lit a fire in their bellies. And each trip, they were getting closer and closer. This was their chance. Max could feel it in his bones. This was the time they were going to do it.
The placement of the trap was really more important than the trap itself. It was a pretty rudimentary perimeter of bear traps. But the key was to catch him off guard. Max had realized that Bigfoot was much more intelligent than people gave him credit for. So you had to have a series of obvious traps, so he would avoid them and think he was safe. Then by understanding his migration patterns and by placing your traps carefully, you could slowly lead him into the perfect spot. Waiting in a key location was a steel net. It was controlled by a series of small pulleys and cables. Max had figured out the mechanism himself. By flicking his wrist in specific ways, he could cause the trap to be deployed based on where the creature was exactly as he entered the clearing. He’d spent hours perfecting the motion to prepare. Once Bigfoot was led into the small open space they were observing after being led there by the decoy bear traps, it would be game over.
They had enough supplies in their trees for 3 days. Based on the latest tracking data online, Bigfoot should be in the area within the next 2 days, but they had wanted to put some buffer in case he was moving faster or slower than usual.
I’ll take the first watch Andrew signed over at him. You get some rest, gotta have you ready to spring the trap.
Max fell asleep and dreamed. He dreamed about when he and Andrew were younger. How they had promised each other to uncover mysteries others had forgotten about.
***
Max woke with a start as a crunching noise broke the silence of the night. He quickly looked over at Andrew, who had also heard the noise.
Any visuals yet? Max asked.
No, but I think it's coming from that way. Andrew pointed due north.
Let’s do this. Max replied.
They sat, their breath releasing puffs of heat as they breathed in the chill night air. They heard more crunching noises. Large footsteps echoed in their ears. Max grabbed the line he would pull to activate the steel net.
Snap! They heard a bear trap go off. Based on the sound of it, Max reckoned he was only 20ft from the clearing now. He turned, just as they had expected, and started walking towards Max and Andrew’s location.
The footsteps echoed louder and louder until suddenly, a figure appeared in the clearing. Without hesitating, Max flicked his wrist with expert skill to send the net flying right at the spot the beast had stepped into. It landed on the giant figure and brought it to its knees. It was stronger than they realized, though. It stood up and let out a rage filled bellow, pulling on the net that covered it. The action pulled on Max’s trip line wire and yanked him backwards out of the tree. He fell a good 7 feet before his harness broke his fall. Helpless, he looked down at the clearing where he was now only a half a dozen yards from the hairy mass that had been captured in the net. He was still struggling to get out when Max heard the roar of a gun in his right ear. The creature staggered, then fell down to the ground. Max turned around and saw Andrew in his tree, a rifle still tucked into his armpit, watching carefully to see if the beastly apparition would move once more. After a minute with only slight groans from the beast, Andrew put his gun down and hurriedly climbed down the tree. He then ran over and helped Max get out of his harness.
“Why did you shoot him?” Max demanded. “We don’t want to kill him.”
“He, I.. I thought he was going to get you!” Andrew said defensively. “He could have charged at any second. I just saved your life.” He cut the harness, letting Max fall the last 5 feet to the ground. Max landed on his belly and the wind was slightly knocked out of him, but he quickly stood to inspect their catch.
As they moved forward, they shined their lights on the large figure. He looked to be about 10 ft tall. Thick brown hair covered his entire body. It was surprisingly clean, however, as though the beast took pride in the cleanliness of his coat. His face, however, was much more man-like than Max had expected. His forehead seemed a bit larger than normal. As they approached, he bore his teeth. They were surprisingly well kept and human-like as well. The beast held his hands to his stomach, blood was seeping through the gunshot wound.
“Well, what do we do now?” Andrew asked.
“I’m not sure…” Max had plans of what to do once he was captured, but those ideas all seemed to escape him now that he stood face to face with him. “How injured is he?”
Andrew started to walk forward to examine the creature's stomach. The creature lurched and let out a massive roar, speaking a single word.
“NO!”
Max and Andrew stopped in their tracks and looked at each other.
“Did… did he… just talk?” Andrew said.
“I think so…” Max replied.
A low growl rumbled from Bigfoot, and then he spoke in a voice that swelled with a thick bass-like quality.
“Fools, both of you.” It growled.
“We, uh, didn’t mean to hurt you…” Max said sheepishly. “We can help you… do you need help?”
“None can help me.” He growled. “If you aren’t careful, none will be able to help you either.”
“Umm, what the hell is he talking about?” Andrew asked. “Why can Bigfoot talk?”
The animal scoffed. “You call me Bigfoot, but my true name, the name I’ve always been called since the beginning, is Cain.”
“Cain?” Max asked. “You mean, like, the bible story?”
The creature didn’t respond but just growled a low growl.
“You don’t even know what you have just done, do you?”
“What’s that?” Max asked.
“I am dying.” Cain said matter-of-factly. “This thing, it is not good for you.”
“We can help you, it was never our intent to harm you. Honestly, I still doubted if you were real sometimes. But…”
“ENOUGH.” Cain roared. “Enough… please, let me die in peace. Of course I will be back. But you two, you will share my pain now.”
“I still don’t know what the hell he is talking about.” Andrew said. “But it's starting to freak me out.”
“What do you mean, uh, Cain. What is going to happen next?”
“It’s not worth the words.” The hairy giant responded. “You will simply have to wait and see.”
“At least let us help you.” Andrew said. He took a few more steps toward Cain, his hand outstretched to offer assistance. “I feel terrible that I…”
Cain lurched forward once more, this time grabbing Andrew’s outstretched arm. A snap was heard as he broke Andrew’s forearm cleanly into two. Andrew collapsed to the ground. Cain started to pull Andrew’s body closer to his own.
Without stopping to think, Max whipped his own rifle around from behind his back. He pulled the sight up to his eye, clicked off the safety and squeezed the trigger. A bullet erupted from the barrel of his gun and right into Cain’s chest.
Cain recoiled backwards, his head cracking the branches beneath him as it fell. He let out a scream of pain, which was followed by a big bellowing laugh. The laugh swam around Max’s ears and grated on his mind like a devil dragging its claws across a chalkboard. Then Cain sputtered and his body stopped moving.
Max ran over to Andrew. “Are you ok?” he asked, urgency in his voice.
“Yeah, I think so, I mean except this.” He gestured towards his limp arm. “I’ll be needing an emergency room, but I am not dead at least.”
“We will get you there in a sec, we gotta get some pictures first though, before anything else.”
Max ran back over to the tree where his backpack of supplies were hanging. He cut it down then pulled out his camera. He then ran back to Andrew.
As he ran the short distance though, a sudden wave of dizziness hit him. He stumbled and fell to the ground. His vision started flickering in his brain. Like someone was turning the light of the moon off and on every couple of seconds. A sudden stab of nausea hit his stomach.
“I… he let out weakly… I don’t feel so good, man.”
“Neither do I…” Andrew said, somewhat slurring his words. Max had only fallen a few feet away from where Andrew was still sitting.
He rolled over to look at him then gasped.
Andrew’s skin had become very tight against his face. The outline of his skull was clearly visible. All the hair on his head had also appeared to have fallen out. His eyes appeared more beady than before and his nose looked shorter than it used to. The ears protruding from his head had elongated to five times their normal length and his teeth now resembled a row of daggers. His limbs appeared to be getting longer.
Andrew’s face showed a similar look of horror.
“Wut is it?” Max let out, his vision was swimming and his head was suddenly aching like he had never experienced before.
“Yur face…” Andrew said “iz like itz… puffy, and hairy….”
“You dun’t look so great yurself…” Max said back. “Wha.. what iz goin on??”
Andrew’s body lurched as his torso lengthened. His arms extended out in front of him, longer than they should be. His clothes tore in half as a hairless tail shot its way out of his backside.
Max turned over and looked at the stars. The jacket and pants he was wearing started to tear as his skin stretched and tore until thin hairs could protrude out of every spot of his body. His legs snapped and twisted, bending in places they were never intended to. Two antennas burst out from his skull with a flash of pain. His vision went completely gray all at once. A pair of wings ripped their way out of his back. The pain finally was too much as he blacked out.
***
Cain jolted awake. Dying like this was not new to him, but it was still unpleasant every time it happened. It was always in a different part of the world. And generations apart. He had grown very skilled at avoiding even being seen. And that was for good reason. But now these two godforsaken souls would have to suffer his same fate.
He stretched and stood, pausing a moment to look up at the moon. Then he looked down at the two ghastly creatures that now lay on the ground beside him. They no longer resembled the men they had been before. They were now monsters, just like him. Cursed to walk the world forever. A world that would now fear them.
Poor fools he thought to himself. Then he walked out of the clearing and back into the forest.