Wendigo (Stephen King)

The Wendigo is a primal demon which terrorized the Native American Algonquians and other Native American races in Stephen King's novels The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Pet Sematary.

Origin
The Wendigo might be linked with the three Moirae, because of its ties with Death. The Wendigo prematurely cuts the thread which binds humans to life, so it might be linked with Atropos. The Wendigo inhabited the entire northern semisphere of North America, around Canada, and had supreme dominion over every creature and every organism in its domain.

Sometime in its life, it encountered the Micmac burial ground in Maine, in the place which would become Ludlow. The Micmac burial ground lay not too far through the woods from a pet cemetery which would become used by the town's future children. The Wendigo cursed the Micmac burial ground and the curse's consequences would be that any corpse laid in the ground would become reanimated in a day, but as a cannibal. Seeing this danger, the Micmacs abandoned Ludlow and resettled elsewhere.

Pet Sematary
Throughout the white settlement of Ludlow, the Wendigo lurked behind the scenes, manipulating events in the town just as Pennywise manipulated events in the town of Derry. The Wendigo reanimated whatever animal was laid in the newly-rediscovered Micmac burial ground, such as bulls, cats, and dogs. It reanimated the dog of Jud Crandall, a native to the town, and his father, who knew of the cemetery, warned Jud against future excursions. Once reanimated from death, the "resurrected" corpses showed more aggression than usual and would frequently attack strangers. They lived for roughly ten years and then died again.

During World War Two, however, the burial ground's pull became stronger, when a man named Timmy Baterman was killed in Italy and shipped back to be buried. Timmy's dad buried him in the Micmac cemetery, feeling the pull. Timmy was reanimated and came back to his father's house, possessed by the Wendigo. This did not escape attention, and a group of townspeople, including adult Jud, came back to Timmy's house, demanding his dad undo the evil he had unleashed. Tim's father refused to notice anything unusual, although he was physically ill. Tim, possessed by the Wendigo, gave away dark secrets about the men who had come to speak to his father, and scared the men senseless so that they left. However, Tim's father that night shot his son, then doused the house in flames, and shot himself. The doctor thought Tim had been dead for weeks because of how decomposed his body had become.

Once the Creed family moved into Ludlow, Dr Louis Creed's daughter lost her cat on the highway. So an old Jud took Louis to the Micmac burial ground and persuaded him to bury the cat. The cat was subsequently reanimated and came back to Louis' house the next day. The cat was more aggressive than usual as it had been possessed by the Wendigo. It took only raw meat and hissed at its owners and stank.

Shortly afters, Louis' preteen son Gage was killed on the highway when he was mowed down by a lorry. Louis went mad and, despite Jud's protests, took Gage up from his grave and carried him through the woods to the Micmac cemetery, narrowly avoiding the Wendigo on the way, whose presence he actually saw. The Wendigo let Louis pass unimpeded, as it knew what he was about to do. Louis buried his son and the next morning his son had reanimated. His son, possessed by the Wendigo, proceeded to kill Jud and Louis' wife, and then came for Louis. But Louis was quick, he killed the possessed cat, and then killed his possessed son. The Wendigo, bereft of a human body, bided its time in the woods as it waited for another victim. Louis happened to drag his dead wife through the trees to the Micmac cemetery - one of his friends tried to follow, but was scared off by the Wendigo laughing.

The Wendigo reanimated Ellen Creed's body and walked back to Louis' house and killed him that night, completing its vengeance against the townspeople.

Trish McFarland
When a young teen girl named Trish McFarland stumbled off her route in the woods when hiking with her family, she began to get increasingly lost and had numerous breakdowns. The Wendigo took advantage of this and pursued her, intending her to be its next victim. During the course of her journey, the Wendigo left grisly omens through the woods, such as mutilated deer. Three supernatural messengers came to Trish in the woods, such as the Subaudible, (her family's view of God) another messenger in the form of her science teacher, and a prophet of the God of the Lost, which was the Wendigo. The Wendigo's prophet said that resisting the pull of the Wendigo was useless and the Wendigo was irresistable. All who resisted met with death. Trish denied ending up as food and persisted in trying to escape the forest. Eventually, through sheer will, she did find a way out, and ended up on a motorway through the woods, but was accosted by the God of the Lost; the Wendigo, in the form of a grizzly bear, which attacked her. She threw her walkman at it but the Wendigo was shot at briefly by a hunter and retreated, seeing it had met its match. Trish was subsequently rescued and the Wendigo thereafter remained in the woods waiting for more victims.