Ghostwolf
The classic definition of a ghost describes it as a nonmaterial embodiment or the spiritual essence of a human being. Many people would argue that animals also have a spiritual essence that survives physical death and may later appear as ghosts. A letter from J. E. D. informed me of his experience with a ghostwolf:
I have been told many times that there absolutely are no wolves in the vicinity of Missouri where I live. Yet I and people with a certain sensitivity have heard a wolf moving in the brush and have seen and heard the ghost wolf. And always, the authorities insist that there are no wolves in the area. Once my eyes were drawn to lights moving among the trees. I felt uncomfortable and walked away. When I had gone about 150 feet, I heard the unmistakable howl of a wolf.
In addition to the spirits of animals prowling the darkened forests, it may well be that there are a host of multidimensional beings that masquerade as ghosts or are perceived to be the spirits of the dead when they are actually entities of quite a different nature--some benevolent, some malevolent. Some may even appear as grotesque, werewolf-like monsters.
In one particularly vivid account, three young couples, all close friends, decided to economize and decrease their debts by temporarily renting an immense three-story house on the outskirts of a medium-sized city on the West coast. Mrs. M., an avid student of antiques, was overwhelmed by the splendid treasures that had been left in the house. A few days later, they received their first eerie clue as to why the house had so long stood deserted with all its valuables left untouched. They all heard the unmistakable sounds of someone clomping noisily up the stairs, then running the full length of the upstairs hallway. In addition, there were slamming doors, cold breezes blowing past them, and the sight of the huge sliding doors being pushed open by an invisible hand.
Then, one night, Mrs. N. was attacked in bed by an invisible assailant that attempted to smother her. At last she freed herself, only to be thrown to the floor with such force that her ankle twisted beneath her and her head hit the wall. Throughout the incredible attack, her husband could only sit helplessly by, his face ashen with fear.
The three couples held a council to decide whether or not they should move, but they voted to bear the frightening phenomena and continue to save their money. And so they endured foul, nauseating odors, the sound of something sighing and panting in a darkened corner of the basement, and a remarkable variety of ghostly clanks, creaks, and thuds.
They received some insight into their haunted home when Mrs. M.'s grandparents came for a visit. Grandmother W. was a tiny woman who possessed great psychic abilities. She told the couples that the blond woman in the portrait that hung above the living room fireplace had been poisoned in one of the upstairs bedrooms. After a few days of getting to feel the atmosphere of the old mansion, Grandmother W. said that the place was haunted by something inhuman. She stated that she was not easily frightened, but the creature had terrified her.
As the elderly couple was preparing to leave, some invisible monster threw Grandmother W. to the floor in front of the fireplace and began to choke her. Grandmother W. was turning blue when her husband called upon the name of God and wrenched her free of the unseen beast and into his arms.
Her voice barely a whisper after the attack, Grandmother W. said that she had been "speaking" with the blond lady in the portrait when she saw an awful creature creep up behind her. It was as big as a large man, but like nothing that she had ever seen before. It had stiff, wiry orange-colored hair standing out from its head, its arms, and its torso. Its hands curved into claws, like that of a wolf. The beast had threatened to kill her, and it had left cuts on her neck where its claws had gouged her flesh. Grandfather W. proclaimed the mansion a place of evil and urged the three couples to move.
They made their final decision to move a few days later after a night in which a huge black bat had crept under the covers and clamped its teeth onto Mrs. N.'s foot. It took two men to beat and pry the monstrous bat off her foot--and even after it had been clubbed to the floor, it managed to rise, circle the room, and smash a window to escape.
The encounters with the grotesque, werewolf spirit being did not end with their vacating the haunted mansion. Ten years after Grandmother W.'s death, a number of her kin were living in her old ranch house. One night Uncle J. came downstairs, trembling with fear, claiming that he had seen a monster with orange-colored bristly hair poke its head out of a storage room, then shut the door. Although the family teased him when he began to claim that "something" was entering his room at nights, the laughter ceased when Uncle J. died after about a week of such nocturnal visitations.
A decade later, Mr. and Mrs. M., one of the three couples who had occupied the haunted mansion, were now themselves grandparents, and they decided to spend their vacation on Grandmother W.'s old ranch. They had their nine-year-old grandson with them, and they were looking forward to a comfortable stay in the old homestead. But on their very first night, Mrs. M. was awakened by something shuffling toward her grandson.
Looking the creature full in the face, she saw a grinning mouth with huge, yellow teeth. Its eyes were nearly hidden in a series of mottled lumps. It brushed Mrs. M. aside and lunged at her grandson, who was now wide awake and screaming. She grabbed a handful of thick, long hair and desperately clutched a hairy, scaly arm with the other hand. In the moonlight which shone through the window, she could see huge hands that curved into long claws.
At last her husband was alerted to the terrible struggle taking place and turned on the light. The monster backed away, seemingly irritated by the sudden illumination, but it still gestured toward their grandson. In the light, they could see that the beast wore a light-colored, tight-fitting one-piece suit of a thin material that ended at the knees and elbows. Thick, bristly orange-colored hair protruded from its flattened and grossly misshapen face; and thick, bulbous lips drew back over snarling yellow teeth. It gestured again toward their grandson, then turned and shuffled through the doorway, leaving behind a sickening odor of decay.
To the M. family, it had been demonstrated that a ghostly entity that haunts one house can follow the family to another domicile. Perhaps Grandmother W. had thrown down a psychic gauntlet and a challenge that the grotesque, werewolf-like entity had accepted. Whatever the explanation for the frightening manifestation, they demolished the old ranch house shortly thereafter.
From The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings, Second Edition by Brad Steiger, (c) 2012 Visible Ink Press(R)
Steiger's homage to the beast within provides meaty facts for the lycanthropic in all of us.
