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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here.

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Let's get into it. I was twenty one when my

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cousin Wren called me about this random old cabin we

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apparently owned. Wren was always that cousin, laid back but

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somehow always dragging people into things. He talked like whatever

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he was doing was already a done deal and you

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were just catching up. We go out there, he said,

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check the place out, clean it up. Maybe it's a

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total dump. Maybe it's fixable, could be a rental, could

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be a hunting cabin. Worst case, we turned it into

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a hiking biss camp. I mean it's free real estate.

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I said, yes, because I needed to get out of town.

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I've been drowning in noise. It's gold stress room. It drama,

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that weird feeling of being stuck and spun out at

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the same time. So a couple of days off forwards

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sounded perfect. Trees, air, silence, no reception. I expected quiet.

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What I got was the exact opposite. We left on

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a Tuesday. The drive started like any road trips. Next maps,

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a playlist that kept skipping high always became county roads,

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which became gravel, which turned into a track that looked

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like it hadn't seen a maintenance crew since before I

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was born. At one point I looked down at my

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phone and realized we hadn't had a signal for almost

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an hour. When grinned see already better. Eventually we pocked

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where the path disappeared completely and hiked the last half

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mile on foot, hacks, tight crunch of dry leaves underfoot.

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The trail, if you could call at that, was barely

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a suggestion. No markers, no signs, just dips in the

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underbrush where people may be used to walk decades ago.

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We hit the clearing around sunset. The cabin looked like

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it had been swallowed and then partially spat back out

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by a hill behind it. They sat sunken, as if

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it had tried to dig itself into the mountain and

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changed its mind. Halfway through, Kudzy called up the sides

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and looped over the roof in thick ropes. The front

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door leaned inward like it was tired of trying. The

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whole structure was gray and sagging and oddly small, like

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it a trunk a little with time. There was no porch,

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just a broken slab of concrete and a shadow that

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seemed heavier than it should be. Inside, everything was pine

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and dust. The walls were paneled in seven as knotty wood,

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the kind that felt like it could splinter if he

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stared too hard. The air was dense and damp, as

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if whatever had once been alive there had left, but

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not entirely. No furniture, no dishes, no anything, just a

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stone fireplace and aloft above the main room with a

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stain matters half visible through the railings. When stepped inside

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and said, man, smells like the scow and failure, we laughed,

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then stayed that first night, racoot beans on a little

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fire pit up back head lumps flaked on beers cracked up,

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and folding chairs creaked. It should have felt peaceful, but

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there was no sound. No crickets, no rustling, no owls,

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just the fire popping and the occasional creak of wren shifting.

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I mentioned it, he shrugged, Maybe it's just not the season.

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Then we heard footsteps, slow and heavy, like some one

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walking carefully through leaves just outside the ring of light.

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Not deer, not raccoon, two legs pausing between steps. Crunch, buzz, crunch.

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We froze wren stared into the woods like he expected

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something to shew itself. I whispered, do you see it?

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He didn't answer. He stood and turned slowly, like trying

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to catch a scent. Then the steps stopped. We didn't

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finish our beers. We went inside and jawned a hunting

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knife into the latch as a makeshift bolt. The next morning,

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the woods weren't the same. The path we come an

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aunt gone, not overgrown, not covered up, just not there.

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We walked in every direction, north south, trying to retrace

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our steps. Each time we looked back to the same

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fallen tree. Massive roots twisted up like veins. The chunks

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split like a mouth. Initials were coughed deep into the

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exposed roots, mine Ren's, Wren's, and a third set al.

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Neither of us had a clue who that was. We

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sure as hell hadn't carved anything. Later, Wren worked in

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the back wall, trying to patch a soft spot in

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the penelane. He found a hidden compartment behind one of

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the studs. Inside was a leather collar with a chunk

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of RUSTA chain looped through the ring. No name tack,

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just around metal with a spiral scratched into it rough

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enough center alike done with a nail. Wren stared, then

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tossed it into the woods like it was hot. That night,

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we heard humming from the loft, soft and even a

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slow tunis melody, like a kid half remembering a lullaby.

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No words, just and we didn't check it out. I

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three a m. The lantern was out, not flickered, it

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was gone dead. The matches were missing from our pack.

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I had packed two boxes. Rehn clicked in the flashlight

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and aimed it toward the loft. The door, which we

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had tied shut with fishing line was open, wide open.

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Whn whispered, did you hear it come down? I shook

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my head. I didn't sleep after that. On the third day,

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we tried mapping the area. We use string, tied it

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to trees, tried to make a grid, walk straight lines.

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No matter what we did, we ended up back at

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the same tree, same initials, seem deadful. The forest didn't

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make sense, like it was curling in on itself. We

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stopped taking our boose off at night. Around midnight, Wren

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got up to pea and didn't come back. I found

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him barefoot in the clearing, murmuring to the trees. I said,

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I bring it back. I said I would. His voice

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was wrong, off, like someone mimicking him and getting the

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kit and slightly wrong. I gro out his arm. He

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flinched hard, like waking from a nightmare, and screamed in

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my face. His feet were shredded. We wrapped them in

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shirts and duct tape and didn't talk about it. That

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fourth night I saw it. I woke to a dragging sound,

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like fabricon wood. I turned toward the window. Something pressed

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against the slats, A face too pale, too long, only

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one eye visible. It blinked once, slowly. I didn't move,

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didn't breathe. When I blinked, it was gone. Next morning

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when found long, deep claw marks scored across the side

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of the cabin, perfectly spaced, too clean, Not an animal.

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That afternoon we sat around the fire pit and found

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a message burned into the stone under the ashes, three

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sets of initials and a date, September nineteenth. It was

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the twelfth. Ren stared and said, I didn't do that.

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I didn't answer that nice thing knocked maw on the door,

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on the walls behind the fireplace, then by the kitchen,

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then beneath the floorboards. Three knocks each one lure. It

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felt like something was crawling under us. We dragged our

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stuff into the center of the room, turned off the light,

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sat in the dark and didn't move. I counted breast

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to keats stead. He tried not to think about the

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eye of the humming wren whispered what do you think

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it wants? Before it could answer, the loft door slammed open,

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not creaked, not drifted, slammed. Then the stairs groaned. We

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didn't wait. We ran. We ran barefoot, no gear, Branches

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whipping faces, rocks, stabbing feet. We didn't care. Somehow we

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found the car. Both front tiers were flat. Though. We

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didn't talk until we saw the first sell tower blinking

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through the trees. We didn't talk after that either. My

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cousin Kalan had this way of this purring into the

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woods when every things got too loud in his life.

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He called it Westing said. The deep forest helped him

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think again, like it scrubbed all the static out of

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his head. Blue Hollow was his usual escape. When he

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invited me to go with him the August, I said

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yes before really thinking about it. I wasn't the camping type.

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I liked knowing where I was when I opened my

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eyes in the morning. But Callan had the kind of

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quiet confidence that made you want to prove something. He

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said we'd be off grid for a few days, no fohns,

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no maps, just the old routes he remembered from his

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solo trips. I didn't want to be the one who

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backed out, so I packed out and told myself it

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would be a detocks, something to bragg about later, something

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to shake off the usual. We popped his truck at

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this washed out looking road a round noon and hiked

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him from there. The trail, if you could call at that,

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was really just a dip in the earth where tires

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had once cut through. Now it was grown over with

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ferns and soft moss. We followed it until it disappeared

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into the trees. Then we kept going, tracing a creek

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that wind its way down the ridge like it knew

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where it was headed. We followed that water deeper into

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the woods, stepping over death full and ducking under low branches.

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By dusk we found it clearing near a bend in

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the creek. It was the kind of spot people imagine

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when they think of camping. Flat ground, dry leaves, the

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whole air reframed by tosspruce and hemlock. We dropped our

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packs and got a small fire going with kindling. Kllen

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always carried that night felt about how I expected it

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to peaceful, in a way that didn't quite settle in

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my chest. I kept telling myself, I just needed time

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to ajust. Later, I left to gather morewood before the

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light completely vanished. At when I noticed it, No matter

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how far I went, the sound of the creaked invate.

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I climbed the slope, stepped around some fallen stones, pushed

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past the thick patch of rhodendron. Still I heard it,

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same volume, same pitch, like it was trailing me. And

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when I turned back to camp, what should have taken ten,

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maybe fifteen minutes to retrace only took a couple. It

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was like the forest folded in on itself when I

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wasn't looking. I didn't mention it to Callen, just sat

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back by the fire and told myself I was tired,

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that it was my first time really roughing it, and

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I was just off balance. He didn't say much either,

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just stared into the flames and poked at the logs. Then,

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without looking at me, he said, you see those rough

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piles were aller. I thought he was kidding. I made

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some joke about garden gnomes a weird forest at but

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he stood up and motioned for me to follow him

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to the creek. He wasn't joking. Right along the bank

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were these stacks of stones, smoother river rocks, balanced free high.

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They weren't just randomly placed theater. Each stack was about

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the same size, evenly spaced, all lined up with this

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eerie kind of care. They looked too intentional, too clean.

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What really got to me was how warm they were.

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I picked one up, expecting it to be wet or

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cold from the creek spray, but it felt dry, like

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it had been sitting in the sun all day. But

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the sun hadn't touched that part of the forest since

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late morning. I asked if he thought other hikers came

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through and made them. Callen just stared at them for

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a long time. Then he said, no one comes out

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this far, not without a reason. We left them alone

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and went back to camp. The next morning. Something was different.

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Our fire pit, the one we'd built by hand moving stones,

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clearing a patch of dirt, was gone. In its place

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was a new ring, a perfect circle of smooth with

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flat rocks arranged with the same kind of precision as

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those piles by the water. Neither of us had touched it.

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Cowns wore up and down. He hadn't gotten up during

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the night. I know I didn't. We didn't stick around

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to debate it. We packed up fast and moved out,

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headed away from the creek, deeper into the trees. Cowan

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thought he remembered a ridge trail that would lead toward

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an old for a service road. But within an ire

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we heard the creek again, and by noon we saw

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it running just to ry same bad, same sound. It

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was like the landscape had turned itself around while we

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weren't paying attention. By the third day, the silence started

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to feel unnatural. No birds, no insects even off its steps.

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Sounded too loud, like the forest was muffing everything else.

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The air felt heavier, too, like it hadn't moved in days.

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That afternoon we came across something that stopped as cold.

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Three figures were standing ahead on the trail, spaced out evenly,

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facing away from us, just there. At first I thought

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they were other hikers, but they didn't move, didn't shift

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their weight, didn't speak, just stood like they were waiting

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for something. Call and growled my sleeve and whispered, don't move,

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but I already had. I couldn't take a step forward

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if I tried. My legs just locked. And then the

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nearest figure, only about thirty feet away, tilted its head

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to the side slowly. The ankle bent too far, way

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past what an ex shu'd allow. It was like watching

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a poppet on all the string. We ran, didn't think,

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didn't talk, just turn and sprinted back the way we came.

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Branches tore at our arms and legs, roots snied our boots.

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I slipped once and hit the dirt hat but cow

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and grabbed my jacket and yanked me up before I

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could think piece. The worst part, the sound of the

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creek never left. I couldn't see it any more, but

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I could hear it running beside us, matching our pace,

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same distance, same speed, like it was tethered to as

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somehow like it new. Eventually the trees thinned out into

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a clearing. We burst into the open and skidded to

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a stop. At the center was another fire pit, same

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perfect ring of stones, same unsettling precision. It was identical.

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00:12:03,919 --> 00:12:07,000
I felt my stomach twist. Callan stepped forward like he

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00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:09,720
was going to say something, but I didn't let him.

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00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,000
I stumped into the circle and kicked the stones apart,

241
00:12:12,039 --> 00:12:15,000
scattering them into the brush. One bounced off a tree

242
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,799
and cracked in half. Keep moving, I told him, and

243
00:12:17,879 --> 00:12:21,080
shoved his shoulder. We didn't stop after that, just pushed

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forward through the undergrowth, deeper into a pot of the

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forest that didn't feel like it belonged to any one

246
00:12:25,399 --> 00:12:29,399
any more. The air grew colder, the trees got closer together.

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Every step felt like we were being watched. We finally

248
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dropped beneath pine tree that night, not because we felt safe,

249
00:12:36,279 --> 00:12:39,039
but because our legs couldn't take another step. I curled

250
00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:43,480
into my sleepin back fully clothed deutes on harp pounding.

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I didn't close my eyes. I couldn't. Every time I blinked,

252
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I imagined one of those figures standing over me, head

253
00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:55,720
bent wadin. The ground was freezing dump. I remember feeling

254
00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:57,639
every rock underneath me like it was trying to crawl

255
00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:02,039
into muskin. Then morning came, and with it finally a sound,

256
00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:07,559
A sound not the creek tires. Somewhere ahead, a car

257
00:13:07,639 --> 00:13:10,519
rolled cross pavement I could barely hear it, but it

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00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:14,120
was real. It was human. We dragged ourselves through the

259
00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:17,120
brush up a shallow slope and saw it a narrow

260
00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:19,600
road cutting through the ridge like a life line. The

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00:13:19,639 --> 00:13:22,720
asphalt looked thick and black in the sunlight. We stumbled

262
00:13:22,759 --> 00:13:24,559
on to it like people crawling out of a flood.

263
00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:27,080
A truck came around the bend a few minutes later.

264
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I didn't even look at the driver, just lifted my

265
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:32,440
arm and waved like my life depended on it. He

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00:13:32,519 --> 00:13:36,039
slowed down, looked us over, muddy, scratched up, probably wild eyed,

267
00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:38,000
and let us climb into the back without a word.

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We didn't speak on the ride down the mountain. Cown

269
00:13:41,279 --> 00:13:44,080
stared straight ahead. I kept my eyes on the trees

270
00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:47,039
until he disappeared. I haven't been back to Blue Hollow.

271
00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:50,320
Some places don't want to be found. I had picked

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00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:52,399
up a summer job clearing survey lines for a small

273
00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:54,879
land company based out of Renselair, a little mountain town

274
00:13:54,919 --> 00:13:57,879
without a real vast station. The man who hired me, Scott,

275
00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,559
I think, barely lifted my idy. He asked if I

276
00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:03,159
could hig long ires, carry gear and stay out of trouble,

277
00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:05,960
and I said yes. The job did not pay great,

278
00:14:06,039 --> 00:14:08,080
but it covered my rent and left enough for gas

279
00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,960
and groceries. They did not care if I kempt on sight,

280
00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:12,960
so I could avoid a daily hike back to the truck,

281
00:14:13,039 --> 00:14:15,000
which honestly was the worst part of the job. So

282
00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:17,559
I stayed in the woods. The section they gave me

283
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,080
to map round along a ridge between two narrow hollows.

284
00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:23,399
There was no cell service, no radio reception, and not

285
00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:25,879
even a decent spot to hang a food back. The

286
00:14:25,919 --> 00:14:28,360
ground was steep and uneven, cut through with all dry

287
00:14:28,399 --> 00:14:31,639
creek beds and overgrown lugging trails that led nowhere. The

288
00:14:31,679 --> 00:14:34,120
forester was thick enough to lose the sun by midafternoon.

289
00:14:34,799 --> 00:14:38,039
At first it felt peaceful, just trees, bogs and occasional

290
00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:41,080
square I found a small clearing about fifty yards from

291
00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,200
a washed out trail, fart enough from my little tent

292
00:14:43,279 --> 00:14:45,200
and just far enough from the slope that runoff would

293
00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:46,840
not worry me. I set up a fire ring with

294
00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:49,279
stones and used a fallen log as a seat. It

295
00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,960
was not cozy, but it worked. The first day was uneventful.

296
00:14:53,559 --> 00:14:56,000
I flagged a few trees with bright orange tips, started

297
00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:58,399
taking distance notes and got the lay of the land.

298
00:14:59,039 --> 00:15:02,360
My GPS was un libel. The signal kept dropping, but

299
00:15:02,399 --> 00:15:03,879
I knew how to read a compass, a use and

300
00:15:03,919 --> 00:15:06,440
note book. I cooked tickin of Chilly over the fire,

301
00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:08,759
read a few pages of a paperback, and fell asleep

302
00:15:08,799 --> 00:15:10,480
to the sound of crickets, and went in the trees.

303
00:15:11,159 --> 00:15:13,840
On the second day, things started to feel off. I

304
00:15:13,919 --> 00:15:15,600
was marking a line from the old road out to

305
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,440
a ridge point roughly a quarter mile away the straightforward

306
00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:21,919
eastward walk. I tied off tape every twenty or thirty feet,

307
00:15:21,919 --> 00:15:24,960
took notes, and counted steps, the usual routine. When I

308
00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,000
turned back to return to camp, the walk took twice

309
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:30,799
as long. I kept stopping to check my bearings. Everything

310
00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,600
looked right, but it did not feel right. The ground

311
00:15:33,639 --> 00:15:37,000
did not match my notes. The slope was steeper, the

312
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:40,240
spacing between trees was different. The differences were subtle, but

313
00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:43,039
enough to make me second guess myself. By the time

314
00:15:43,039 --> 00:15:46,080
I returned, I was sweating and disoriented. I figured I

315
00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:48,720
had drifted off course without realizing it. The woods can

316
00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:50,559
play tricks on your sense of direction if you are

317
00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:54,399
not careful. Still, I double check my notes. The line

318
00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:57,720
was accurate. My markings were exactly where they should have been,

319
00:15:57,879 --> 00:16:01,080
but the distance had somehow stretched. That night, I left

320
00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:03,200
my pack by the fire like usual, sipped and latched.

321
00:16:03,759 --> 00:16:06,320
When I woke, the pack was gone. At first I

322
00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:09,000
thought an animal had dragged it off. Then I saw

323
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,240
it hanging from a low branch about fifteen feet away.

324
00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:13,840
It dangled there like some one had lifted it and

325
00:16:13,879 --> 00:16:17,399
hooked it over the branch. Nothing was missing. There were

326
00:16:17,399 --> 00:16:20,159
no claw marks and no chewed straps. It was not

327
00:16:20,279 --> 00:16:23,440
torn or dirty. It had simply been moved deliberately. I

328
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:25,639
stood staring at it for ten minutes before I grabbed

329
00:16:25,639 --> 00:16:28,320
her down. My gut felt tight, like something was sitting

330
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,320
on my chest. I told myself raccoon had done it,

331
00:16:31,559 --> 00:16:33,639
or the strap had caught as it dragged. Whatever would

332
00:16:33,679 --> 00:16:37,200
let me sleep. By day three were smaller things. I

333
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:39,480
was cooking raymond and used my knife to stir the needles.

334
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:41,759
Because it worked. I set the knife down on a

335
00:16:41,759 --> 00:16:43,879
flat rock next to me, turned to drain the pot,

336
00:16:43,919 --> 00:16:47,799
and when I turned back, the knife was gone, completely gone.

337
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:50,720
I checked the ground, my bag, under the tent, inside

338
00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:54,519
the pot, and even my boots. Nothing. Hours later, I

339
00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:57,360
unrolled my sleeping bag and felt something rigid near my feet.

340
00:16:58,159 --> 00:17:00,600
There it was my knife, blade, clothes, and tuckedl on

341
00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:02,720
the inner lining, like it had been packed or all along.

342
00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,720
I did not put it there. That night, the force

343
00:17:05,799 --> 00:17:10,400
went silent, not quite truly silent. No birds, no crickets,

344
00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:13,400
no rustling. The stillness pressed in around me, even with

345
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,880
the fire burning. I turned off my head lump and

346
00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:17,960
sat in the dark, hoping it was just my ears.

347
00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:21,559
The quiet stayed. On the fifth day, I started a

348
00:17:21,599 --> 00:17:23,960
new line to the north, taking a fresh path, mocking

349
00:17:24,079 --> 00:17:27,880
new trees and tracking my bearings carefully. About forty minutes

350
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,799
in I saw orange tape ahead. At first I thought

351
00:17:30,799 --> 00:17:32,799
it was some one else's line, a remnant of a

352
00:17:32,839 --> 00:17:35,680
previous survey. When I got closer, I saw my own

353
00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:38,359
initials carved into a tree, the same tape, the same knots,

354
00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:40,599
the same box scrape from when I slipped with the knife.

355
00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:42,839
I had somehow ended up in the same place I

356
00:17:42,839 --> 00:17:45,319
had been three days earlier, even though I had walked

357
00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,400
the opposite direction. I stood staring at that tree, my

358
00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:50,279
stomach turned, and now wiped my hands on my pens

359
00:17:50,279 --> 00:17:53,160
to steady myself. My notes were right, and my direction

360
00:17:53,279 --> 00:17:55,240
was right, but the woods had brought me back anyway.

361
00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:58,480
That night I could not sleep. I kept the fire

362
00:17:58,599 --> 00:18:00,000
going and saw it with my back to a tree

363
00:18:00,039 --> 00:18:01,759
because I did not want to be caught off guard.

364
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:05,440
Some time before dawn, I heard soft rattling. It came

365
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:07,599
from my coffee tin, the one where I kept matches.

366
00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:10,359
I grabbed it, thinking maybe a mouse was inside, but

367
00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:13,799
the tin felt warm, not hot, just warm. I opened it.

368
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:17,160
Every single match was gone. In their place were seven

369
00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:20,640
small stones, white, smooth and perfectly round, like river rocks.

370
00:18:21,279 --> 00:18:23,079
I was at least ten miles from the nurse stream.

371
00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,240
I sat holding that tin and steer. In the morning,

372
00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:28,880
I found footprints around my camp, bare feet, small and human,

373
00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,519
forming a perfect ring around the fire pit. There was

374
00:18:31,559 --> 00:18:34,319
no trail leading, and no trail leading at just a circle.

375
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:37,519
I did not follow them. I did not want to know.

376
00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:41,279
That night I did not sleep. I heard little rustles

377
00:18:41,279 --> 00:18:44,240
and soft taps, like fingers brushing tree bark. I could

378
00:18:44,279 --> 00:18:46,000
not see anything, and I did not dare to turn

379
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,440
on my light. I sat with my knife in one

380
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:50,440
hand and the coffee tin shaking so hard I could

381
00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:53,200
barely hold them. On the seventh morning, I worked to

382
00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:56,000
find my survey notebook lying open on my chest. It

383
00:18:56,039 --> 00:18:58,240
had been zipped inside my bag when I fell asleep.

384
00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:00,440
The page it open to was not one I had

385
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:04,400
written on. The handwriting was neat and unfamiliar. The words

386
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:08,680
were simple. They read not here, not yours. My pencil

387
00:19:08,759 --> 00:19:11,640
lay snapped and two beside it. That was the last straw.

388
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,079
I pack everything, tent gear through without bothering to fold

389
00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:17,920
anything properly. I crowned it all into my back and

390
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,720
started walking. The trail back to the logging road was

391
00:19:20,759 --> 00:19:23,599
supposed to take twenty minutes. I had walked it half

392
00:19:23,599 --> 00:19:26,519
a dozen times that day. The forest would not let

393
00:19:26,559 --> 00:19:29,319
me out. I hiked up a ridge, reached the top

394
00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:31,480
and saw the same slope ahead, the same fallen tree,

395
00:19:31,519 --> 00:19:33,720
the same split in the path, over and over again.

396
00:19:34,319 --> 00:19:36,039
At one point had dropped my pack to test it

397
00:19:36,079 --> 00:19:38,000
to mark the ground with a bagex using a stick.

398
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,319
I haiked for another ire, sweating and swearing. The hallway

399
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:44,039
where I finally reached a clearing, My peck was sitting

400
00:19:44,079 --> 00:19:46,160
next to the same mex. I thought I was losing it.

401
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,039
When I finally stumbled out onto the logging road. I

402
00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:51,839
almost cried. My watch, said I had been walking only

403
00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:53,559
an ire, but the sun was higher than it should

404
00:19:53,559 --> 00:19:55,279
have been, and my legs felt like they had carried

405
00:19:55,319 --> 00:19:57,680
me for a full day. I did not stop walking

406
00:19:57,759 --> 00:20:00,240
or look back. I followed the road and till I

407
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,799
heard a truck engine behind me. An older man in

408
00:20:02,799 --> 00:20:04,920
a feed cap pulled over and asked if I needed help.

409
00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:07,920
I must have looked rough, pale, shaking, the clothes, dirty

410
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:10,720
and damp, be sweat. I told him I was fine.

411
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:13,519
He did not press, and he drove on all the

412
00:20:13,519 --> 00:20:15,720
way down the mountain. I kept checking the rear view mirror.

413
00:20:16,319 --> 00:20:18,359
I kept waiting to see a flash of orange tape

414
00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:20,599
fluttering from the truck bed, as if something had followed

415
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,039
me out that evening, I turned him my gear at

416
00:20:23,039 --> 00:20:25,480
the depot and told Scott I was done. The body

417
00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:27,599
of mine. Darant had this uncle who owned a lawn

418
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,279
narrow stretch of line out in the Appalachian woods. He

419
00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:32,720
called it a quiet place to clear your head. But

420
00:20:32,799 --> 00:20:35,279
it wasn't a camp site, not really. There were four

421
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,279
of us, me, Darnt, Kyle, and Jen. We were all

422
00:20:38,319 --> 00:20:40,400
about the same age, freshly out of high school and

423
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:42,720
floating through that strange in between space where nothing really

424
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:46,200
felt permanent. So when Darren suggested we kend off grid,

425
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:50,359
no phones, no distractions, it sounded perfect, like a little

426
00:20:50,359 --> 00:20:52,880
reset before life caught up. That first day had a

427
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,599
certain kind of reckless joy to it. We were loud,

428
00:20:55,799 --> 00:20:57,960
laughing too much, getting in each other's way while we

429
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,599
set up the tents. Dian Summer and how managed to

430
00:21:00,599 --> 00:21:03,000
pitchers upside down at first, which she insisted was a

431
00:21:03,039 --> 00:21:05,960
creative decision. We gathered a bunch of dry brunches from

432
00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:07,799
the edge of the clearing, built a fire that smoked

433
00:21:07,839 --> 00:21:10,759
more than it burned, and roasted hot dogs on sticks.

434
00:21:10,759 --> 00:21:14,519
We barely cleaned. The smoke stuck to our clothes. Everything

435
00:21:14,559 --> 00:21:17,759
tasted like ashen muster, and we didn't care. The woods

436
00:21:17,759 --> 00:21:20,000
felt big, but not threatening, more like a massive green

437
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,720
back dropped our We can't get away. The second day,

438
00:21:22,799 --> 00:21:25,920
everything felt a little off. It's sort of with something small.

439
00:21:26,559 --> 00:21:28,400
I gone down to the creek that sliced across the

440
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,200
Propie to fill our water jug, maybe five minutes away.

441
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,799
Tops had already made the trip earlier that morning, so

442
00:21:34,839 --> 00:21:37,400
I didn't even think about it, just took the trail

443
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,279
we'd warn in and came right back. Only when I

444
00:21:40,279 --> 00:21:44,799
stepped into the clearing again. Something was missing. My tent gone,

445
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:48,599
just gone. I stopped at my tracks, blinking like maybe

446
00:21:48,599 --> 00:21:50,200
I was looking at the wrong part of the clearing.

447
00:21:50,759 --> 00:21:53,720
I paced around, checked behind trees, even retrace my steps

448
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:55,519
to the exact spot where I knew I'd set it up.

449
00:21:55,559 --> 00:21:58,920
But there was nothing. No collapse fabric, no broken poles,

450
00:22:00,599 --> 00:22:02,880
like it had never been there to begin with. At

451
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,359
first I thought someone was messing with me. I even yelled,

452
00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:08,599
half laughing, half serious, calling out to the others. Darren

453
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,920
came out of his tent, rubbing his eyes. Jen looked confused.

454
00:22:12,559 --> 00:22:14,960
Cale looked like he was trying not to grin. But

455
00:22:15,039 --> 00:22:17,680
they all swore they hadn't touched it. They hadn't even

456
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:21,000
left the clearing. We split up, found out just a

457
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,000
little into the trees, calling and checking. Maybe it got

458
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:29,400
blown away, maybe a bear dragged it off, maybe who knows.

459
00:22:29,799 --> 00:22:32,960
And then Kyle shouted one of those shop clipped yells

460
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:36,240
that cut through everything. We found it. My tent was

461
00:22:36,279 --> 00:22:40,079
standing upright, perfectly, zipped about fifty yards deep into the woods,

462
00:22:40,519 --> 00:22:45,559
not damaged, not dragged, just there, sitting like someone had

463
00:22:45,559 --> 00:22:47,240
picked it up in one piece and walked it over.

464
00:22:47,839 --> 00:22:50,240
Everything inside was exactly where I left it, even my

465
00:22:50,279 --> 00:22:52,640
pillow still a little crumple from my eyed napped earlier.

466
00:22:53,279 --> 00:22:55,200
We stared at it for a long time. Then someone

467
00:22:55,759 --> 00:22:58,720
I think Jen, laughed, just a short, dry chuckle, a

468
00:22:58,839 --> 00:23:01,799
kind of laugh that says, okay, that's word. But if

469
00:23:01,839 --> 00:23:04,079
we pretend it's funny, maybe it wort freak us out.

470
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:06,880
We all sort of joined in, but nobody looked at

471
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,839
each other while we did. Nobody said what we were thinking,

472
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,839
because what were we supposed to say? That someone had

473
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:14,680
seen thing, moved a whole tent and set it up

474
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:17,640
like nothing happened. We dragged it back to the clearing,

475
00:23:17,759 --> 00:23:20,640
set it down in the exact same spot. That night,

476
00:23:20,799 --> 00:23:22,839
we stayed closer to the fire than we had before.

477
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:27,480
The conversation died up fast. We weren't tired, just not talkative.

478
00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:30,720
Fire cracked and popped, sending smoke up into the trees.

479
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:33,680
The darkness fell closer than it had the night before,

480
00:23:34,319 --> 00:23:36,519
not thick exactly, but heavy, like it was leaning in

481
00:23:36,559 --> 00:23:39,480
to hear better. Then the log split. It made the

482
00:23:39,519 --> 00:23:42,200
shop snapping noise like a gunshot, and I jumped up

483
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,680
to nudge back into the fire pit. I was still

484
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,720
crouching when I saw it, another chair right there in

485
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,960
the circle with us. It was a folding chair, thin metal,

486
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,359
framed with his faded burkeundy cushion that looked like it

487
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,480
belonged in a church basement or a school genasium. I froze,

488
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:59,799
looked at the others. Nobody said a word. They were

489
00:23:59,799 --> 00:24:03,279
still dirring too. We hadn't brought it, No one had.

490
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:06,279
We didn't even own a chair like that. It was

491
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:08,480
just their position, like some one had been sitting in

492
00:24:08,519 --> 00:24:12,160
it and gotten up for a second. Handle toward the flames, comfortable, intentional.

493
00:24:12,839 --> 00:24:17,960
No one moved. I looked around, scanning the trees, listening nothing. Nothing,

494
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:21,359
not even when in the leaves the woods were dead, silent,

495
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,160
no bugs, no birds, just the low hiss of the

496
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,240
fire and the sound of my own breath getting faster.

497
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:29,720
I said we should leave right then, pack what we

498
00:24:29,759 --> 00:24:31,480
could and make for the car, dark trail or not.

499
00:24:32,279 --> 00:24:35,400
But they hesitated. Darren didn't want to risk getting lost.

500
00:24:36,079 --> 00:24:39,279
Jen said we should wait for sunrise. Cow Kat glancing

501
00:24:39,319 --> 00:24:40,799
at the chair like he was waiting for it to

502
00:24:40,839 --> 00:24:44,400
do something. We argued in whispers, voices tied careful, like

503
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:47,440
raising them might wake something up. In the end, we stayed.

504
00:24:48,079 --> 00:24:50,200
We didn't touch the chair, just sat there round the fire,

505
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:52,359
trying not to look at it, trying not to acknowledge

506
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:54,839
that we were sharing the circle with something we hadn't invited.

507
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,160
Eventually we drifted off to our tents, though none of

508
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:01,039
us really slept. I lay there in the dark, staring

509
00:25:01,079 --> 00:25:04,319
at the tent ceiling, skin crawling. I felt watch, not

510
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:06,480
in the paranoid way, not like when your nervous in

511
00:25:06,519 --> 00:25:10,759
your mind placed tricks on you. This was different, specific, focused, focused,

512
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,079
like someone was just outside the fabric, nearly, maybe breathing quietly.

513
00:25:14,759 --> 00:25:16,519
Sometime in the middle of the night, I reached for

514
00:25:16,599 --> 00:25:19,759
my backpack I always kept at zipschut right beside me.

515
00:25:19,839 --> 00:25:21,640
I could crowd it without even sitting up, but it

516
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,759
wasn't there. I froze, sat up, slowly scanned the tent

517
00:25:24,799 --> 00:25:27,920
with my flashlight empty, just my sleeping back and a

518
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:30,799
few crumpled clothes. A zipped the door and stepped out

519
00:25:30,799 --> 00:25:32,599
into the clearing, the beam of my light jittering as

520
00:25:32,599 --> 00:25:34,440
my hand shook. And there they were, all four of

521
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,279
our backcacks, found up neatly side by side, popped up

522
00:25:37,319 --> 00:25:40,279
right against a tree, perfectly arranged. Each one's zip closed

523
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:43,400
facing the clearing, like they were waiting for inspection. My

524
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,519
mouth went dry. Behind me, I heard the other's tents

525
00:25:46,519 --> 00:25:50,000
on zip. One by one they stepped out. None of

526
00:25:50,079 --> 00:25:53,759
us spoke. We just stared at the rold backpacks, like

527
00:25:53,799 --> 00:25:57,079
they'd somehow become sacred objects, like touching them would be

528
00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:01,160
a mistake. Eventually Jen whispered, did someone, But she didn't

529
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,839
finish the sentence. We already knew the answer. We sat

530
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:08,240
up until dawn as red shoulders hunched, watching that tree

531
00:26:08,279 --> 00:26:11,039
like it might do something else. When the sky finally

532
00:26:11,039 --> 00:26:14,039
started to lighten, we didn't say much. We grabbed the

533
00:26:14,039 --> 00:26:19,559
bare essentials, phones, wallets, car keys, left the rest. We

534
00:26:19,599 --> 00:26:22,759
didn't even try to unpack the hence we just walked,

535
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:27,519
thated no brakes. The trail seemed longer than we remembered

536
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:32,960
the rout shopper, the slopes deeper. Nobody looked back. When

537
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:34,880
we hit the road and sold Darren's car part where

538
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,960
we left it, I nearly cried. The air felt different

539
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,359
on this side of the tree line, like it can

540
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,559
move again. We piled them without speaking, drove in silence

541
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:45,599
until we saw a gas station, and only then did

542
00:26:45,599 --> 00:26:49,160
someone exhale. None of us ever went back. We don't

543
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:51,720
talk about it, not really, not even in group chats

544
00:26:51,799 --> 00:26:54,319
or jokes. It's like saying it out loud might give

545
00:26:54,319 --> 00:26:57,400
it permission. People love to tell stories about those mountains,

546
00:26:57,440 --> 00:26:59,079
say they are old, old of the memory, that the

547
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:03,759
land remembers things people forget. Maybe that's true, maybe it isn't.

548
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:07,240
All I know is this. I left everything behind them,

549
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,640
walked away. That was the only thing I could do.

550
00:27:10,279 --> 00:27:12,599
I was broke, bored and tired of what tever version

551
00:27:12,599 --> 00:27:14,960
of life I've been living back home. So when a

552
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,039
friend of a friend mentioned they needed extra hands to

553
00:27:17,039 --> 00:27:19,000
help map some land out in the middle of nowhere,

554
00:27:19,039 --> 00:27:22,039
I didn't ask too many questions. The pay was solid,

555
00:27:22,079 --> 00:27:24,480
and something about being unplugged for a couple months actually

556
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,440
sounded good. What I didn't realize then, what none of

557
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:29,279
us did, really, was that the deeper you go into

558
00:27:29,279 --> 00:27:31,640
those woods, the less they start to feel like someplace

559
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,000
you're visiting, and the more they feel like something watching you.

560
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:36,799
Deciding whether or not you get to leave. The Hiken

561
00:27:36,839 --> 00:27:39,720
took almost the whole day. We started early in the morning,

562
00:27:39,799 --> 00:27:42,200
packs loaded up. Following to on. The crew lead along

563
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,200
a thin trail that barely existed. Every step took us

564
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,480
deeper into trees so thick they blocked the sun, until

565
00:27:47,519 --> 00:27:49,319
it felt like we were walking through the inside of

566
00:27:49,319 --> 00:27:54,079
a locked cabinet. No cell signal, no noise, no sign

567
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,000
of anyone else. It was beautiful in a way, but

568
00:27:57,039 --> 00:27:59,680
not comforting, the kind of beauty that feels like it

569
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,359
doesn't care whether you were there or not. We finally

570
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:04,279
made camp on a flat ridge, just wide enough to

571
00:28:04,319 --> 00:28:06,400
set up four tents around a little five pit Tom

572
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,200
had used on previous trips. The ridge gave us a

573
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,160
bit of space, but even then the forest pressed right

574
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:13,880
up against us, thick with pine and laurel. The trees

575
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:16,000
leaned into each other, and their roots twisted through the

576
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,680
soil like they were trying to claim every inch. When

577
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:20,720
you looked up, you could only see thin robbins of sky.

578
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,039
It was so quiet I kept catching myself holding my breath.

579
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:26,880
I didn't notice it at first, just this weird tension

580
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:29,799
that crept into my shoulders and never really left. I

581
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,359
kept expecting birds or bugs or anything, but there was nothing,

582
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:36,359
just us moving around, trying to act like it was normal.

583
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,200
The crew was small. Tom, who was maybe mimnus fifties,

584
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,640
had done jobs like this all over the country. He

585
00:28:42,759 --> 00:28:44,839
was calm and efficient and always had a compass on

586
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:47,160
him like it was part of his body. The other

587
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:50,559
two guys, Illy and Mason, were around my age. Lee

588
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:53,440
was from Arkansas, lean and kind of wiry, always chewing

589
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:55,880
some fast seeds and talking about some girl he'd almost

590
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,480
proposed to. Mason was quajer, more thoughtful, kept a journal,

591
00:28:59,559 --> 00:29:01,920
trynk in and coffee like it was religion. We didn't

592
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:03,759
know each other before the job, but out there we

593
00:29:03,799 --> 00:29:06,799
didn't really have a choice. That first night around the fire,

594
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:10,319
Tom explained what we'd be doing, marking property, lined, flagging trees,

595
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:15,119
logging GPS coordinates. Pretty basic. The land didn't technically have

596
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:18,720
an owner, he said, some old boundary dispute maybe, or

597
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,200
forgotten paperwork. We weren't supposed to talk to anyone about it.

598
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:25,440
Just get the job done and head home. I remember

599
00:29:25,519 --> 00:29:28,279
thinking that sounded a little shady, but honestly I didn't care.

600
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:33,039
It felt like something I could handle. Physical work, no bosses,

601
00:29:33,079 --> 00:29:36,359
breathing done my neck, and no phone buzzing in my pocket.

602
00:29:36,759 --> 00:29:38,680
For the first time in a while, I felt like

603
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,799
I could just exist. The first couple days were normal enough.

604
00:29:42,319 --> 00:29:46,359
We woke curly eight oatmeal or granola bars, set up

605
00:29:46,359 --> 00:29:50,200
with flagging tape and handheld GPS units. The work was repetitive.

606
00:29:50,799 --> 00:29:52,920
Find a tree, flag it logged the point, move on

607
00:29:53,519 --> 00:29:56,720
it gave me a rhythm, something to focus on. I

608
00:29:56,759 --> 00:29:59,839
stopped thinking about anything outside the woods. Then things do

609
00:30:00,039 --> 00:30:02,559
art to shift. It was off third morning when we

610
00:30:02,599 --> 00:30:05,400
noticed the trail we'd cut the day before was off.

611
00:30:06,079 --> 00:30:08,160
We'd spent I was hacking through a wall of laurel

612
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:10,079
tying red tape every ten yards or so to mock

613
00:30:10,119 --> 00:30:15,279
a path. It was fresh, torn branches, footprints in soft dirt,

614
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,720
sweat soak shirts. But when we were traced it the

615
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,400
next morning, all of the tape was gone, not just

616
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:26,960
fallen off, gone, no scraps, no string left behind, no

617
00:30:27,039 --> 00:30:30,160
knots on the trunks. The trail itself looked different, to

618
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,200
like it had been there for a long time, maybe years.

619
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:37,039
The branches we'd cut were weathered, our boot prints had faded.

620
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:40,519
The whole thing felt old. Tom squinted at the trees

621
00:30:40,559 --> 00:30:44,160
and said, maybe wind had taken the tape, or maybe animals.

622
00:30:44,839 --> 00:30:47,640
But his voice didn't match his words. He looked like

623
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:49,599
someone who didn't want to believe what he was seeing.

624
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,200
I remember Mason crouched by one of the trees we

625
00:30:52,319 --> 00:30:55,200
flowed and ran his fingers over the bark. This isn't

626
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,400
just a couple hours of her growth, he said, quietly,

627
00:30:58,039 --> 00:31:02,960
This looks heeled. Nobody replied. We kept working, but from

628
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:06,359
that point on something was different between us. We stopped

629
00:31:06,359 --> 00:31:10,079
talking as much during the day. The jukes faded Evenly,

630
00:31:10,119 --> 00:31:12,839
who never shut up, stirred a keeping to himself. I

631
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,279
caught him chewing on sun far seats one afternoon and

632
00:31:15,319 --> 00:31:17,559
just staring off into the trees, like he was listening

633
00:31:17,559 --> 00:31:20,200
to something none of us could hear. Then met it moved.

634
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:22,799
We just finished a long day surveying a low what

635
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,759
section of the forests. When we got back to camp,

636
00:31:25,759 --> 00:31:28,039
the fire was still smoldering from the morning, and everything

637
00:31:28,039 --> 00:31:31,000
looked in touch except my tent. It had been shifted

638
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,799
a few feet closer to the fire pit, not dragged

639
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,160
or half collapsed like you'd expect if someone pulled it,

640
00:31:36,319 --> 00:31:39,279
just moved neat precise, like it had always been there.

641
00:31:39,799 --> 00:31:42,720
I looked at the ground around it, no drug marks,

642
00:31:42,839 --> 00:31:47,279
no footprints. The dirt underneath was unsturbed. It made no sense.

643
00:31:48,039 --> 00:31:50,720
Asked the others if they'd moved it. Tom said no.

644
00:31:51,559 --> 00:31:54,319
Mason shook his head. They just gave me this look

645
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:56,839
like he wanted me to drop it. That night, I

646
00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:59,200
lay awake staring at the top of the tent. I

647
00:31:59,279 --> 00:32:01,599
kept thinking about how careful the move had been, like

648
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:03,920
someone or something wanted to send a message, but didn't

649
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,559
want to scare me off. Not yet. After that, none

650
00:32:07,599 --> 00:32:10,720
of us really slept well. Tom admitted one morning over

651
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:12,880
brent coffee that he'd heard something walking around the camp

652
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:17,519
at night. Not animals, he said, not twigs napping or rustling.

653
00:32:18,079 --> 00:32:22,960
First steps, slow, deliberate, he said. They circled the camp

654
00:32:23,039 --> 00:32:26,480
just beyond the firelight, and when he called out, they'd stop,

655
00:32:27,079 --> 00:32:30,440
then they'd start again from the opposite side. The next night,

656
00:32:30,519 --> 00:32:32,720
I stayed up to see if I could hear it too.

657
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:37,920
Around midnight, I caught it. Crunched, crunch, long pauses, the

658
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:41,240
sound of someone walking slowly, like they were testing each step.

659
00:32:41,759 --> 00:32:44,039
It started to the left of the camp, near Mason's tent,

660
00:32:44,799 --> 00:32:48,000
then nothing for a while, then again, this time behind me.

661
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,920
I sat up parpounding, I wanted to believe it was

662
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,720
one of the guys taking a leak, maybe stretching their legs,

663
00:32:53,759 --> 00:32:56,200
but I knew it wasn't. The steps were too slow,

664
00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:00,160
too purposeful. I whispered hello, no answer, just silence so

665
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:02,920
thick I could hear my own breath. Then, right when

666
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,279
I started to convince myself i'd imagined it, I heard

667
00:33:05,279 --> 00:33:08,599
the steps again, coming from the opposite side, like whoever

668
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:11,160
or whatever it was had moved around the entire circle

669
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,200
of tents without making a sound. I didn't sleep after that.

670
00:33:14,759 --> 00:33:16,720
By the second to last week, the job didn't feel

671
00:33:16,759 --> 00:33:19,119
like a job any more. It felt like we were

672
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,319
just trying to make a three stay without breaking apart.

673
00:33:21,839 --> 00:33:24,160
The four est felt heavier, like it had thickener round us,

674
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:28,480
Distances stretched longer than they should have. Landmarks changed slightly

675
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,039
from one day to the necks pasts we walked the

676
00:33:31,119 --> 00:33:34,720
day before looked unfamiliar. Then came the hollow. It was

677
00:33:34,799 --> 00:33:37,240
narrow and him by steep hills and pat with thick trees.

678
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,200
We were flagging trees as usual. When I noticed Tom

679
00:33:40,279 --> 00:33:43,000
wasn't with us, I figured he'd lagged behind, so I

680
00:33:43,039 --> 00:33:45,319
picked up a pacee to Catchually a Mason at the ridge.

681
00:33:45,799 --> 00:33:48,079
When I got there, Tom was already standing at the top.

682
00:33:48,559 --> 00:33:51,680
He looked normal, maybe a little tired. He nodded at

683
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:54,319
me like nothing was wrong. Then I heard him call

684
00:33:54,319 --> 00:33:57,160
my name from the hollow behind me. My stomach dropped.

685
00:33:57,839 --> 00:34:01,599
It wasn't just similar. It was Tom voice, the exact

686
00:34:01,599 --> 00:34:04,640
way he said my name when he needed help. Same pitch,

687
00:34:05,519 --> 00:34:10,199
same rhythm, same slight rasp. He called again, closer. This

688
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:14,599
time I turned to look nothing but trees. The Tom

689
00:34:14,679 --> 00:34:16,719
in front of me looked just as confused as I felt.

690
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:19,559
He said my name quietly and took a step back.

691
00:34:20,199 --> 00:34:22,840
That was it for us. We didn't wait another night

692
00:34:23,639 --> 00:34:26,639
at Haawn. We broke KEMP, left, the flag paths, the

693
00:34:26,679 --> 00:34:29,960
GPS logs, even some of our gear. None of it mattered.

694
00:34:30,519 --> 00:34:32,360
We just carried what we needed to make it out alive.

695
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:35,039
The forest had tolerated us for a while, but that

696
00:34:35,159 --> 00:34:38,039
day we all felt it shift. My cousin Red had

697
00:34:38,039 --> 00:34:39,719
just inherited a chunk of who had lanned out in

698
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,920
a place called Blue Hollow, just acres of untouched trees

699
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,360
and undergrowth, sitting there like they had been waiting to

700
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:47,800
be left alone. Rit said he thought he could make

701
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:49,960
something out of it, just the two of us, a

702
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:52,159
couple of machetes, some beer, and enough gear to rough

703
00:34:52,199 --> 00:34:54,960
it for a few nights. It was early October when

704
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:57,960
I made the drive out. I remember because the trees

705
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,159
were just starting to change color and the roads were

706
00:35:00,199 --> 00:35:02,639
scattered with orange leaves. The stopped to my win short wipers.

707
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:06,280
I spent six hours on highways, then another iro or more,

708
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:08,719
winding through smaller county rows that terraned to gravel and

709
00:35:08,719 --> 00:35:11,639
then eventually to dirt. The last few miles did not

710
00:35:11,679 --> 00:35:14,079
even look like a road. It looked more like the

711
00:35:14,079 --> 00:35:15,679
remains of a creek bed that had dried up just

712
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,119
long enough to form my ties into thinking it was safe.

713
00:35:18,599 --> 00:35:20,920
I lost our service a while before the last gas station,

714
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,079
and Maggips gave up completely not long after that. I

715
00:35:24,119 --> 00:35:26,719
had to go off Reed's directions. After there, ridden out

716
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:29,159
behind on a receipt, and somehow I still made it.

717
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:31,639
He was already there when I arrived, sitting on the

718
00:35:31,639 --> 00:35:33,519
hood of his beat up Dodge with his bootsap and

719
00:35:33,559 --> 00:35:36,239
a beer in his hand. His window was down and

720
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:38,079
he was chewing some of our seats like he always

721
00:35:38,079 --> 00:35:40,480
did when he was killing time. He tossed me a

722
00:35:40,519 --> 00:35:42,639
beer before I had even turned off the engine and said,

723
00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,719
you ready to disappear off the grid. The first day

724
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,079
was actually kind of gray. We started clearing just past noon.

725
00:35:49,599 --> 00:35:52,320
The machete sliced through the undergrowth with the satisfying rhythm,

726
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:53,960
and the deeper we got, the quiet of the world

727
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:59,480
seemed to become. No traffic, no phones, no people, just

728
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:01,599
the sound of laid on vine and the occasional coal

729
00:36:01,599 --> 00:36:04,360
of birds overhead. We made it maybe half a mile

730
00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:06,639
before the lights started fading, and we picked a spot

731
00:36:06,679 --> 00:36:09,599
near a shallow stream to set up camp. No tents,

732
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,639
just tops, sleeping bags and a small camp stove. We

733
00:36:13,679 --> 00:36:16,079
heated up cans of chili, drunk warm beer, and spent

734
00:36:16,119 --> 00:36:18,440
the evenings swapping dumb stores from high school that neither

735
00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:20,880
of us had told in years. Reed was always the

736
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:22,800
kind of guy who could laugh with his whole chest.

737
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:25,960
That night he laughs her hard. He nearly dropped his

738
00:36:26,039 --> 00:36:28,800
chili in the dirt. We were exhausted, but in a

739
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,400
good way, the kind of tire that comes from doing

740
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,400
something real with your body. That night he snowed like

741
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,159
a chainsaw while I lay in my sleeping bag, stirring

742
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:38,800
up at the sky so black and full of stars

743
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:42,320
it looked fake. The next day started early. We ate

744
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:44,760
granola bars and drank ins and coffee that tasted like

745
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:48,079
campfire ashes, then got back to work. The sun was

746
00:36:48,119 --> 00:36:50,480
bright and the air had the crispage that only happened

747
00:36:50,519 --> 00:36:53,840
right before everything turns truly cold. A couple I was

748
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,199
in Reid stopped swinging and pointed off to the side

749
00:36:56,239 --> 00:37:00,559
of the trail. You see that, he asked. At first,

750
00:37:00,599 --> 00:37:02,239
I thought it was a pile of sticks made a

751
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,440
fallen lock. But as we got closer it became clear

752
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:07,480
what it really was, or at least what it had been,

753
00:37:08,039 --> 00:37:10,199
a deer, or what was left of one. But it

754
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,880
did not look natural. There was no blood, no torn flesh.

755
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:16,559
The skin had been peeled back like a jacket, clean

756
00:37:16,599 --> 00:37:18,960
and intact, as if someone had made a single, precise

757
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,840
cut and just pulled. The ribs were bare, pick clean,

758
00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,639
but nothing had been chewed, no bite marks, no torn ligaments.

759
00:37:26,199 --> 00:37:28,239
It looked dry, almost old, but it had not been

760
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:32,000
there lawn. The grass underneath it was still pressed down coodies,

761
00:37:32,119 --> 00:37:34,920
Reeds said, but his voice did not match the word.

762
00:37:35,599 --> 00:37:39,360
There were no tracks around it, no drab marks, no

763
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,199
signs of a struggle, just the two of us standing

764
00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:44,320
there and our own beaut prints leaving in and out.

765
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:47,280
We moved on, but the silence between us got heavier.

766
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:49,960
Maybe an aile later, we came across a patch of

767
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:52,519
forests that just fell wrong, like it did not match

768
00:37:52,559 --> 00:37:55,880
the rest. A dozen trees, maybe more, each with a

769
00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:58,400
thick black ring burned into the trunket exactly the same height,

770
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,599
about waste level. The rings were perfect smooth, too smooth.

771
00:38:01,639 --> 00:38:04,400
But there was no sign of fire anywhere else, No

772
00:38:04,519 --> 00:38:08,320
scorch branches, no ash, no smell. The moss that grew

773
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:11,280
along the buck did not seem touched, only that when

774
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:13,480
spot on each trunk, like someone had leaped a branding

775
00:38:13,519 --> 00:38:16,599
iron around them. I said, I've never seen far do that.

776
00:38:17,159 --> 00:38:20,800
Breed did not answer. He just kept walking. That night,

777
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,599
we did not build a fire. He told me not to,

778
00:38:23,639 --> 00:38:26,800
said the smoke might draw Attentionine maybe a ranger, maybe

779
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:29,079
someone with a drone. But the look on his face

780
00:38:29,119 --> 00:38:31,000
had something different, like he did not want to risk

781
00:38:31,039 --> 00:38:34,639
lighting anything up not here. We ate cold beans out

782
00:38:34,639 --> 00:38:37,519
of the kin and barely spoke. Around midnight, I woke

783
00:38:37,599 --> 00:38:40,800
up frinched in sweat, My sleeping bag felt like a furnace,

784
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,719
but the air outside was cold, freezing even. I could

785
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:47,199
not hear anything. No owls, no wind, no bugs, just

786
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,559
this dead, crushing stillness that felt heavier than silence. I

787
00:38:50,599 --> 00:38:53,400
opened my eyes and knew immediately something was off. I

788
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:56,960
did not hear anything move, no brunches snapping, no animals rustling.

789
00:38:57,039 --> 00:38:58,840
But I had that feeling, deep and solid in my

790
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,519
gut that some one was watching me. I stayed perfectly still,

791
00:39:01,559 --> 00:39:04,280
barely breathing. Then I unzipped the side of my top

792
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:07,440
just a few inches and looked out. Reed's top was empty.

793
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:12,000
I whispered his name. No response. I slipped up barefoot

794
00:39:12,039 --> 00:39:14,840
and clicked on my flashlight, aiming it low. That's when

795
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:16,960
I saw him. He was standing at the edge of

796
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,280
the clearing, maybe fifty feet away, perfectly still facing me.

797
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:22,480
His arms hung at his side, like he did not

798
00:39:22,599 --> 00:39:25,039
know what to do with them. I whispered his name again.

799
00:39:25,559 --> 00:39:28,840
He did not answer, did not move. Then he took

800
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:32,960
a step back, then another. He did not turn, did

801
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:37,199
not stumble. He just started walking backward, one careful step

802
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,639
at a time, retreating into the shadows between the trees,

803
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:42,639
like something was pulling him on invisible strings. I did

804
00:39:42,679 --> 00:39:45,360
not move. I stayed rooted in place until the sun

805
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:49,199
started rising. He never came back. I packed everything that

806
00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:52,079
morning except his top. I could not bring myself to

807
00:39:52,079 --> 00:39:54,519
touch it. It did not feel like it belonged to

808
00:39:54,599 --> 00:39:57,280
him any more. I tried to follow the trail we

809
00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:00,679
had clear, but nothing looked right. The turn were off,

810
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:04,320
the landscape did not match what I remembered. Every time

811
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,199
I checked my compass, it pointed somewhere different. I passed

812
00:40:07,199 --> 00:40:09,519
those burned rim trees again twice, even though I was

813
00:40:09,559 --> 00:40:12,199
walking in the opposite direction. It was like the woods

814
00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:14,519
were folding in on themselves or shuffling when I was

815
00:40:14,519 --> 00:40:17,559
not looking. By midday, I was out of order. My

816
00:40:17,679 --> 00:40:21,360
lips were cracked, my legs were screaming. I sat down

817
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:23,280
on a flat rock and pulled up my phone, even

818
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:25,400
though I knew it would not help. And then I

819
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:30,280
heard his voice behind me, Hey man, you good. I froze.

820
00:40:30,519 --> 00:40:33,159
Then from my left, trails clear this way. Then from

821
00:40:33,159 --> 00:40:37,320
my right, don't get turned around, same voice, same tone,

822
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:40,519
palm like he was still standing a grinning at me

823
00:40:40,559 --> 00:40:43,159
with a bier in his hand. But it was not him.

824
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:45,360
It sounded like someone had learned how to wear his

825
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,239
voice like it had been listening and decided to try

826
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,920
it on. I shut my eyes and counted to one hundred.

827
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:54,320
It slow. When I opened them, everything was quiet again.

828
00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:57,480
I did not look back. I just picked a direction,

829
00:40:57,599 --> 00:41:00,679
any direction, and walked. Eventually I heard a hum in

830
00:41:00,719 --> 00:41:04,480
the distance, a generator, faint but real. I followed it

831
00:41:04,519 --> 00:41:06,880
like a lifeline. I stumbled out of the wood some

832
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,519
time in the late afternoon and collapsed outside a ranger's station.

833
00:41:10,079 --> 00:41:12,840
They were at my feet, gave me water, called me lucky.

834
00:41:13,519 --> 00:41:16,119
I told them my cousin wandered off. They said they

835
00:41:16,119 --> 00:41:18,480
would send someone to check, but did not find anything.

836
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:20,800
The three of us had spent most of our lives

837
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:23,760
in the foothills around that area. Camping trips were as

838
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:26,199
normal as grabbing a bouger after skull or sneaking into

839
00:41:26,199 --> 00:41:29,559
old drive in lots to hang out. We weren't survivalists,

840
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,119
but we knew our way around the woods, or at

841
00:41:32,199 --> 00:41:35,400
least we thought we did. That sense of confidence maybe

842
00:41:35,519 --> 00:41:38,639
arrogance is probably were goddess in trouble. We done weekend

843
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:40,920
hikes and a few multi day trips, always sticking to

844
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:44,239
mort trails. We were always near enough to civilization that

845
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:46,880
if something went sideways, we could find our way out.

846
00:41:47,519 --> 00:41:51,119
But that summer something shifted. We wanted more of a challenge.

847
00:41:51,639 --> 00:41:54,440
We wanted to go offskirt, so we planned a three

848
00:41:54,519 --> 00:41:56,800
day trek, cutting straight off the standard route into the

849
00:41:56,840 --> 00:42:01,039
deep woods. No signage, no mapped campsites, no rescue markers,

850
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:04,320
just the three of us, our packs, and the assumption

851
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,159
we be back by Sunday night. We told our parents

852
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:09,559
the basics where we were starting and when we check in.

853
00:42:10,119 --> 00:42:12,280
We brushed off the half hearted warnings with the kind

854
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,360
of casual bravado only teenages can get away with. The

855
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:18,840
first day felt like freedom forrests swallowed the trail behind us.

856
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:22,119
Within minutes, everything felt bigger. Once we left the marked path,

857
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,880
heels were steeper, brushed, thicker trees, and dense uneven clusters.

858
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:28,360
It felt and touched wild in a way I hadn't

859
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:31,920
experienced before. Every so often we stopped and stood day listening.

860
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,239
It was exhausting, but in a good way, like we

861
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:37,880
were earning something. By the time the sun dip below

862
00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:40,199
the hills, we were ready to stop. We found the

863
00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:42,840
small clearing beside a narrow creek set up our tents

864
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,559
and got a small fire going. The ground was damp

865
00:42:45,599 --> 00:42:47,960
and a little spongy under our sleeping paths, but we

866
00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:50,519
were too tired to care. That first night should have

867
00:42:50,519 --> 00:42:53,840
felt peaceful. The running water had that soft, steady sound

868
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:56,079
that usually knocks me right out. But I couldn't shake

869
00:42:56,079 --> 00:42:57,800
a sense that the woods were a little too quiet,

870
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:00,199
not silent, just watchful, like there was weight behin hind

871
00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:03,199
the stillness. Nothing I could explain, just a low level

872
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:06,320
on each Sitting in my chest while collecting fireward, I

873
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,480
wanted a bit farther outstream and noticed something weird. There

874
00:43:09,519 --> 00:43:12,400
was a tree, wide and old, looking just past the bank.

875
00:43:13,079 --> 00:43:15,159
His bark had been gouged in a spiral pattern. Deep

876
00:43:15,159 --> 00:43:18,360
cuts went and upward, and clean, almost rhythmic lines, not fresh,

877
00:43:18,639 --> 00:43:21,039
but not weathered either. They were deep enough that I

878
00:43:21,079 --> 00:43:23,199
could press my fingers into them without touching bark on

879
00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:26,920
the other side. It didn't look like natural damage, not

880
00:43:27,119 --> 00:43:30,440
like anything I'd seen before. I caldily in Marcus over.

881
00:43:31,159 --> 00:43:34,760
They shrugged and said, probably a bear. He sounded unconcerned.

882
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:38,920
Marcus glance then turned back to the fire. Bear climbed up.

883
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:42,880
That's all. He tossed over his shoulder. I wanted to

884
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:49,159
accept that I really did. But I'd seen bare mockings before, jagged, rough, chaotic.

885
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:53,599
These were sharpened, deliberate too. Even I stared at those

886
00:43:53,599 --> 00:43:56,280
grooves longer than I probably should have, then forced myself

887
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:59,440
to walk away. The next morning, things started to feel off.

888
00:44:00,119 --> 00:44:03,760
We worked to find our gear, slightly re arranged, nothing dramatic,

889
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:06,960
no torn packs on missing supplies, But our stuff wasn't

890
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:10,000
where we'd left it. My sleeping bag was on zipped haffy,

891
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:13,239
even though I remembered closing it tight before crashing. Lee's

892
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:15,400
pack was tilted on its side, with the top flap open.

893
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:18,360
Marcus found his water felter taken out and sat neatly

894
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:21,280
beside the stove gate. All the zippers opened and closed,

895
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,880
nothing missing. Even the grand olla bars in an outside

896
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,719
pouch was still there. It was like some one or

897
00:44:27,719 --> 00:44:29,880
something had gone through our things and put them back.

898
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:34,559
Accoons rely mumbled, but without conviction. Raccoons don't open zippers

899
00:44:34,559 --> 00:44:37,119
and close them again. I said, I wasn't trying to

900
00:44:37,159 --> 00:44:41,239
be dramatic, just stating a fact. No one argued. No

901
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,400
one wanted to. We packed quickly and kept going, heading

902
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:47,440
deeper into the hills. At first, the trail, or what

903
00:44:47,519 --> 00:44:49,679
we thought was a trail, seemed to lead somewhere, but

904
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:54,280
the terrain became unpredictable, steep ridges, sudden drops, thorny underbrush

905
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:57,360
that hadn't been disturbed in years. There were no signs

906
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,960
of other hikers, no footprints, no war dun logs, no

907
00:45:01,039 --> 00:45:04,239
broken branches to follow. At one point we passed a

908
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:06,440
crooked birch tree with a split right down the middle.

909
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:09,239
Nothing special, just one of those weird looking trees that

910
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:12,000
sticks in your memory. We crossed it and moved on.

911
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:15,679
About an hour later we passed it again, same split,

912
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:19,079
same not on the left side. None of us said

913
00:45:19,119 --> 00:45:22,440
anything at first. Then Marcus muttered we must be looping

914
00:45:22,519 --> 00:45:25,280
and picked up the pace. That should have calmed me down.

915
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:28,360
Maybe we turned around without realizing it, but his face

916
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,119
told a different story. He looked pale and tight lipped.

917
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:33,639
He kept looking over his shoulder like he was trying

918
00:45:33,639 --> 00:45:37,000
to spot someone behind us. That night, we didn't talk much.

919
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:39,719
We built a bigger fire and sat closer to it

920
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:43,320
than usual. No one said we were scared. We just were.

921
00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:46,559
Some time after midnight, I woke cold, heart pounding, with

922
00:45:46,599 --> 00:45:49,639
no idea why the fire had burned down to glowing coals.

923
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:52,599
I lay still, trying to figure out what had stuttled me,

924
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:57,199
And then I heard it. Footsteps, slow, measured, crunching just

925
00:45:57,199 --> 00:46:01,679
beyond the light. Not rushing, not hiding, walking, pacing, like

926
00:46:01,719 --> 00:46:04,480
someone was circling us. Not a deer, not a bear,

927
00:46:04,599 --> 00:46:07,599
not anything trying to avoid detection. I sat up quietly

928
00:46:07,639 --> 00:46:11,400
and whispered Marx's name. The second I spoke, the footsteps stomped.

929
00:46:12,079 --> 00:46:15,960
Everything went still, not just quiet, dead still light. The

930
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,880
forest had exhaled and decided to hold its breath. I

931
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:23,360
didn't leave the tent. I couldn't. I sat there, frozen, listening.

932
00:46:24,039 --> 00:46:27,119
My body was tense, palms damp, chest height. I stayed

933
00:46:27,159 --> 00:46:29,159
that way until I must have passed out from exhaustion.

934
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:32,360
Next morning, Marks looked like he hadn't slept at all.

935
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:34,719
He said he dreamed some one kneeling at the foot

936
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:37,639
of his sleeping bag, tugging gently at his boots. We

937
00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:40,039
tried to laugh it off, but when he went to

938
00:46:40,079 --> 00:46:42,800
tie them, the laces were already and done. He swore

939
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:45,280
up and down. He tied them tight before bear. We

940
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:48,880
didn't jerk. After that, we all agreed, without really saying it,

941
00:46:49,159 --> 00:46:51,639
that we needed to get out, head back, find the trail,

942
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:54,199
follow the sun if we had to. But every path

943
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:57,360
we took lead as deeper ridges dropped into hollows identical

944
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:00,159
to once we'd already crossed. We found the crook could

945
00:47:00,159 --> 00:47:03,000
birch a third time, then a fourth. By late afternoon,

946
00:47:03,159 --> 00:47:06,159
we stumbled into a clearing. None of us recognized. It

947
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:09,039
was wide open and too quiet. In the middle sat

948
00:47:09,079 --> 00:47:12,280
a perfect ring of stones, maybe ten feet across, not

949
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:15,559
jagged or random, smooth uniform fitted together like someone had

950
00:47:15,559 --> 00:47:18,800
spent serious time arranging them. Inside the circle, the dirt

951
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:22,800
was bare, no grass, no leaves, no twigs, just smooth

952
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:26,199
swept earth. We didn't go near it. None of us

953
00:47:26,199 --> 00:47:28,679
said a word. We turned away and picked the direction

954
00:47:28,719 --> 00:47:31,760
at random, walking as fast as we could. That night,

955
00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:34,559
we didn't bother with the fire. We sat huddled in

956
00:47:34,559 --> 00:47:36,880
the dark, backs to each other, listening to every shift

957
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:40,639
in the rush. Then the footsteps came back, same pace,

958
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:43,480
same rhythm, just outside the reach of our headlamps, circling

959
00:47:43,519 --> 00:47:48,239
us in wide, deliberate loops, never coming closer, never backing away. Tyler,

960
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,119
who hadn't said much all day, was shaking. I could

961
00:47:51,159 --> 00:47:54,679
hear his teeth click. Marcus breathed fast, hands clenched in

962
00:47:54,719 --> 00:47:57,920
his lap. I didn't even try to sleep, None of

963
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:00,400
us did. We waited for the sunlight. It was a

964
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:04,760
life line. When morning finally came, we started walking, no plan,

965
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:07,719
just kept moving after what felt like IROs. I saw

966
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,559
thin slushes of lighthead through the trees, a strip of

967
00:48:10,599 --> 00:48:14,920
asphalt the highway. None of us here. No one said

968
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,800
a word. We walked faster until we reached the edge

969
00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:20,599
and stepped on to the shoulder. Gravel under our boots

970
00:48:20,679 --> 00:48:24,239
never felt so solid. That was enough. I haven't been

971
00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:27,400
back since, I haven't camped, and I haven't hiked beyond

972
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:30,000
where I can see the road. I was nineteen when

973
00:48:30,039 --> 00:48:32,760
it happened. MICUs and Maddox had asked me to help

974
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:34,800
him check on this old hunting cabin. He kept up

975
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:37,559
past the last switchback, deep in the hills outside of

976
00:48:37,559 --> 00:48:41,800
Graver Hollow. We loaded up his truck with what we needed, flashlights, food,

977
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,519
sleeping bags, a couple of rifles we didn't expect to use,

978
00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:48,159
just precaution. Maddocks had been saying for a while that

979
00:48:48,199 --> 00:48:51,440
he wanted to check for squatters or storm damage, basically

980
00:48:51,519 --> 00:48:54,719
make sure the place hadn't been overrun by raccoons or teenagers.

981
00:48:55,079 --> 00:48:57,320
We took the dirt road until the trees thickened and

982
00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,559
narrowed the sky to a sliver. After that we hiked

983
00:49:01,199 --> 00:49:03,719
the trail, went through steep switchbacks and shady ridge lions,

984
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:06,880
chewing up the afternoon faster than we planned. At first,

985
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:10,320
it was easy. We joked about mountain lions, old hermits,

986
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:12,199
and what we do if the cabin had somehow fallen

987
00:49:12,199 --> 00:49:15,039
through the earth. Dumb stuff to pass the time. But

988
00:49:15,119 --> 00:49:17,400
as the trees closed and then the path cut loser underfoot,

989
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:20,840
more rocks, more sliding dirt, the talking stopped. You know

990
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:23,280
how it goes. The deeper you get into woods that

991
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:25,440
don't care if you're there, the more you go quiet

992
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:28,719
without thinking about it. The cabin was still standing somehow,

993
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:31,239
It looked like something that had held its breath through

994
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:34,719
decades of weather and forgotten seasons. One shutter clung to

995
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:36,960
the frame like it was afraid of falling. The door

996
00:49:37,039 --> 00:49:40,199
hung half open, not broken exactly, but not fully closed either.

997
00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:43,000
Maddock circled around back to check the hunting blind in

998
00:49:43,039 --> 00:49:46,440
the foundation, and I stepped inside same as I remembered,

999
00:49:47,079 --> 00:49:49,519
same smell of old smote that never fully left the wood,

1000
00:49:50,199 --> 00:49:52,639
same caught against the wall, worn through in the middle,

1001
00:49:53,199 --> 00:49:55,559
same kettle on the table, stained and dented like someone

1002
00:49:55,599 --> 00:49:57,880
had once tried to clean it and gave up pathway through.

1003
00:49:58,400 --> 00:50:02,400
Cobwebs in the corners, dust on the windows. I brushed

1004
00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:04,480
off the cot more out of muscle memory than intention.

1005
00:50:05,079 --> 00:50:08,960
Everything inside felt still, too still. I heard a creek

1006
00:50:09,039 --> 00:50:10,920
near the stove and told myself it was the wind.

1007
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:17,440
Something scrouching faintly under the floor. Mice, definitely mice. Maddock

1008
00:50:17,559 --> 00:50:21,280
mumbled something from outside, maybe talking to himself, maybe talking

1009
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:24,599
to me. Hard to tell. We sat down our packs

1010
00:50:24,599 --> 00:50:26,599
and ate with the kind of silent urgency that means

1011
00:50:26,639 --> 00:50:28,239
you want to get through the meal and move on.

1012
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:31,880
No camp fire, just dry bites and a shaved flask

1013
00:50:31,960 --> 00:50:34,639
of water. Then came the part I still can't explain.

1014
00:50:35,199 --> 00:50:37,639
I heard Maddox's boots on two sides of the cabin

1015
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:40,039
at the same time. At first I thought I was

1016
00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:43,599
misjudging the direction, maybe sound was bouncing weird off the trees.

1017
00:50:43,639 --> 00:50:46,440
But it wasn't just the footsteps. I heard him muttering,

1018
00:50:46,559 --> 00:50:49,039
same cadence, same rhythm, same words, but the voice was

1019
00:50:49,039 --> 00:50:51,519
coming from behind the cabin and also from the front steps,

1020
00:50:51,559 --> 00:50:53,199
like some one had taken a recording of him and

1021
00:50:53,280 --> 00:50:56,000
was playing it just out of sink. The version from

1022
00:50:56,039 --> 00:50:58,719
the steps was a half beat behind, too precise, too slow,

1023
00:50:59,039 --> 00:51:00,760
like it was trying to copy him but didn't quite

1024
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:04,039
understand timing. I stood there, listening, waiting for the echo

1025
00:51:04,159 --> 00:51:06,280
to fade or for it to resolve into something normal,

1026
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:08,519
but it didn't. I went to the door, tried to

1027
00:51:08,559 --> 00:51:12,800
keep my voice easy. You good, I called out, Yeah,

1028
00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:15,400
just checking, he said from behind the cabin, But the

1029
00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:18,119
voice in the front steps kept going saying the same thing,

1030
00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:22,960
matching his tone exactly, and there was no one standing there,

1031
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:25,800
just the porch and the dirt trail. Maddox came back

1032
00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:28,920
around a minute later. I looked at him, he looked

1033
00:51:28,960 --> 00:51:32,079
at me. Neither of us made a joke. That's when

1034
00:51:32,119 --> 00:51:35,480
I started feeling it. That's low crawling awareness that something

1035
00:51:35,559 --> 00:51:37,159
was off, but not in the way you can name,

1036
00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:40,039
like the cabin was holding its breath waiting for us

1037
00:51:40,119 --> 00:51:43,559
to acknowledge it. We didn't. We just moved through the

1038
00:51:43,599 --> 00:51:46,079
tasks like we were supposed to be there. We shut

1039
00:51:46,079 --> 00:51:48,519
the door tight, closed the leaming shutter as best we could,

1040
00:51:48,599 --> 00:51:51,400
stuck somewhat, checked the corners, but I avoided the porch.

1041
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:54,920
It felt like standing on it meant something. Something. Night

1042
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:57,000
came heavy in full, the kind of settles on your

1043
00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:59,920
shoulders and makes every noise shopper. We turned off the

1044
00:51:59,880 --> 00:52:04,119
flashlights and laid down rifles, clothes. Neither of us really slept.

1045
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:06,880
At some point I must have dozed, because the next

1046
00:52:06,880 --> 00:52:09,280
clear thing I remember was waking up to Maddock's voice

1047
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:13,679
calling my name from outside, drawn out, playful, just loud

1048
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:15,920
enough to be heard the way he says it when

1049
00:52:15,920 --> 00:52:18,360
he's being a smart us. But he was right there

1050
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:21,559
next to me, still breathing, so and steady. I reached down,

1051
00:52:21,639 --> 00:52:24,960
touched his arm and shook him awake. He blinked, looked

1052
00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:27,400
at me, and then we both heard it again, his

1053
00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:31,519
own voice from the front steps, calling my name, steady, patient.

1054
00:52:32,199 --> 00:52:37,159
It didn't sound scare or angry, just expectant. We jumped up,

1055
00:52:37,199 --> 00:52:39,360
grab the rifles, turned on every flashlight we had, and

1056
00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:42,679
opened the door. There was nothing there. The sound moved

1057
00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:44,960
as we stepped out, just a little deeper into the trees,

1058
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:47,920
like it was backing away. Keeping just out of reach.

1059
00:52:48,719 --> 00:52:53,039
It called again, same voice, same cadence, like it knew us,

1060
00:52:53,559 --> 00:52:56,840
like it was waiting. We didn't follow. We slammed the

1061
00:52:56,840 --> 00:52:59,519
door shut, voyaged a chair under the knob, and waited

1062
00:52:59,519 --> 00:53:02,840
out the night. No sleep, just the slow grind of

1063
00:53:02,840 --> 00:53:05,000
time and the occasional shifting of whit as something warped

1064
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:08,920
the perimeter. At dawn, the world looked wrong, not scary,

1065
00:53:09,679 --> 00:53:13,400
just too calm. Then we saw the ground around the cabin.

1066
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:18,880
The earth was marked wide, dragging lines, not prints, not tracks,

1067
00:53:19,639 --> 00:53:23,880
just deep skyers, almost circular, like something heavy had moved

1068
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:27,679
around the building, over and over. Not a raccoon, not

1069
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:31,079
a bear. Nothing I've ever seen moves like that. We

1070
00:53:31,119 --> 00:53:33,599
didn't talk much on the way back. I think we

1071
00:53:33,599 --> 00:53:35,639
were both afraid saying anything out loud would make it

1072
00:53:35,679 --> 00:53:38,039
more real. By the time we reached the track, it

1073
00:53:38,079 --> 00:53:41,079
felt like the trail had rearranged itself. I kept looking

1074
00:53:41,119 --> 00:53:44,000
over my shoulder. Maddox kept his hand near the rifle

1075
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:46,360
the whole time. He never went back to the cabin.

1076
00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:50,800
He got married that winter, started a new job, sold

1077
00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:53,280
the truck A few months later. When I asked him

1078
00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:55,639
about that night, he shrug and changed the subject, but

1079
00:53:55,679 --> 00:53:58,599
I know he remembers because I do, and I still

1080
00:53:58,639 --> 00:54:02,440
hear the voice, sometimes, not often, just now and then.

1081
00:54:02,599 --> 00:54:05,719
I'll be walking near trees, nothing deep, just some part trail,

1082
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:08,519
or behind an apartment complex, and now hear Maddock's voice

1083
00:54:08,519 --> 00:54:13,159
calling my name in that same rhythm, slow, familiar, patient,

1084
00:54:13,840 --> 00:54:16,719
And there's never any one there. I started wearing ear

1085
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:19,480
but's carrying a flask light even in daylight, by time

1086
00:54:19,519 --> 00:54:21,639
my steps, so there's no gap, no rhythm for something

1087
00:54:21,679 --> 00:54:24,239
else to match. I didn't tell my cousin. I still

1088
00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:27,360
hear it. What would be the point. We don't talk

1089
00:54:27,360 --> 00:54:30,679
about the cabin any more. It's still there, probably still

1090
00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:33,480
leaning in the trees, still waiting. People have asked me

1091
00:54:33,519 --> 00:54:35,559
about the story. When I've told little pieces of it,

1092
00:54:36,159 --> 00:54:37,960
they'll laugh, or they say it sounds like something I

1093
00:54:38,039 --> 00:54:40,480
made up. A friend once told me I should turn

1094
00:54:40,559 --> 00:54:42,360
it into a short film. But I'm not telling it

1095
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:45,760
for entertainment. I'm telling it because whatever that was, it

1096
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:49,280
knew how to sound like someone I trust, exactly like him,

1097
00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:54,639
not close, not similar, exactly. It didn't try to trick

1098
00:54:54,719 --> 00:54:57,239
me in a flashy way. It didn't knock or rattle

1099
00:54:57,320 --> 00:55:00,960
or howl. It just waited. They called me by name

1100
00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:03,079
and waited for me to come to it. And I

1101
00:55:03,159 --> 00:55:05,039
wonder all the time what would have happened if I

1102
00:55:05,039 --> 00:55:07,599
had stepped on to the porch, if I followed the

1103
00:55:07,719 --> 00:55:10,320
voice just a few paces into the trees. I was

1104
00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:12,239
twenty when I picked up a summer job working for

1105
00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:15,639
this land survey outfit that specialized in forgotten properties, all

1106
00:55:15,719 --> 00:55:19,079
plots bearrowed deep in the Appalachian backwards. My main task

1107
00:55:19,159 --> 00:55:21,320
was the hike to remote boundaries, half of which hadn't

1108
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:24,800
been checked in decades. Big co ordinates, snap a few photos,

1109
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:27,800
and move on. The company was small base out of

1110
00:55:27,840 --> 00:55:29,960
a town no one's ever heard of, Wickler, I think,

1111
00:55:30,039 --> 00:55:31,679
And the guy who hired me was the kind who

1112
00:55:31,679 --> 00:55:34,800
you didn't talk much. He just handed over field assignments

1113
00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:37,760
with a staple print out and a nod. I didn't mind.

1114
00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:40,639
I liked the quiet, like that. I was paid decent

1115
00:55:40,679 --> 00:55:43,320
money to wander around places so overgrown they barely remember

1116
00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:46,039
people existed. That sense of being the first person in years,

1117
00:55:46,119 --> 00:55:48,719
maybe decades, to walk through a patch of land. It

1118
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,360
had a strange pull to it. That morning I left

1119
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:54,440
before sunrise. I drove up past the last gas station,

1120
00:55:54,599 --> 00:55:57,000
through two towns with more bordered windows than open ones.

1121
00:55:57,599 --> 00:56:00,639
The paved road faded to gravel and eventually graveled to dirt,

1122
00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:03,920
weaving between hills that grew steeper and more claustrophobic than

1123
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:05,800
far that I went. By the time the track ended,

1124
00:56:05,840 --> 00:56:08,400
I was deep enough in that even the GPS signal flickered.

1125
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:10,800
I pot the truck at a little clearing that had

1126
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:13,519
clearly been used before, flat enough for tires, some sun

1127
00:56:13,559 --> 00:56:15,440
bleach to beer cans in the wheeze, and locked it

1128
00:56:15,519 --> 00:56:18,679
up behind me. The assignment was simple. I had to

1129
00:56:18,719 --> 00:56:20,960
follow a narrow creek listed as Little Weaver Branch on

1130
00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:23,559
the top a map for about three miles. At the

1131
00:56:23,639 --> 00:56:25,400
end point there was supposed to be an old iron

1132
00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:28,960
boundary marker set back from the water photograph. It logged

1133
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:32,039
the coordinates and head back. They told me there were

1134
00:56:32,039 --> 00:56:36,639
no standing structures out there, no cabins, no maintain trails,

1135
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:39,800
pure forests, the kind of place even hunters had stopped

1136
00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:42,280
going a long time ago. I started off in a

1137
00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:46,079
good mood. Weather was decent, hack wasn't too heavy, and

1138
00:56:46,159 --> 00:56:48,760
I liked having the creek as a natural guide. It

1139
00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:50,880
ran along my left As I moved a pill on east,

1140
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,920
the girdlings found a weed comfort. I remember the trees

1141
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:57,920
feeling dense, but not oppressive, at least not yet. I

1142
00:56:57,960 --> 00:57:00,239
walked for maybe an ire, stopping here and there check

1143
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:02,119
the map and make sure I hadn't feared, of course,

1144
00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:05,440
But then something about the creek caught my attention. It's

1145
00:57:05,480 --> 00:57:08,760
hard to explain, but the floe looked from like the

1146
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:11,679
current was sinking with my movement. The faster I walked,

1147
00:57:11,679 --> 00:57:15,280
the faster, it rushed. When I slowed down, it almost lack.

1148
00:57:15,880 --> 00:57:18,559
I told myself it was just an illusion. Maybe my

1149
00:57:18,599 --> 00:57:21,280
eyes were plain tricks, or the tray made it seem

1150
00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:24,280
that way. Still, I pulled out my compass to double check.

1151
00:57:24,920 --> 00:57:28,880
The needle wobbled, not in the steady spin, not broken,

1152
00:57:29,519 --> 00:57:32,280
but twitching. It danced in place like it couldn't pick

1153
00:57:32,320 --> 00:57:35,000
a direction. I set it down on a rock, thinking

1154
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:38,800
maybe my body was interfering, but no luck. It kept quivering.

1155
00:57:39,360 --> 00:57:41,519
I figured maybe there was iron in the soil or something.

1156
00:57:42,119 --> 00:57:45,760
Mountains do weird things to magnetic fields, right. I pushed on,

1157
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:48,719
telling myself i'd be at the mocker soon. Then I

1158
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:51,280
saw the first tree. It sid just off the creek

1159
00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:54,360
buck clicking in gray strips. At first, I thought some

1160
00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:57,519
one had carved initials, maybe left a message. But as

1161
00:57:57,519 --> 00:58:00,599
I got closer, I saw they were just talers, straight

1162
00:58:00,679 --> 00:58:04,519
vertical lines, not grouped in fives like you'd expect, just

1163
00:58:04,559 --> 00:58:07,199
scattered up the trunk in no real pattern. Some of

1164
00:58:07,239 --> 00:58:10,639
them were shallow and old, faded into the bark, but

1165
00:58:10,760 --> 00:58:15,119
others were fresh top sat still wet round the edges.

1166
00:58:15,800 --> 00:58:18,679
It unsettled me, not because they were there, but because

1167
00:58:18,719 --> 00:58:22,039
of how deliberate they look. There wasn't anything random about it.

1168
00:58:22,679 --> 00:58:26,119
Some one had been keeping count of what I didn't

1169
00:58:26,159 --> 00:58:29,400
want to guess. I kept walking, maybe a hundred feet

1170
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:32,320
and saw another tree, same marks, but more of them.

1171
00:58:32,880 --> 00:58:35,880
Then another tree was even more. They felt like following

1172
00:58:35,880 --> 00:58:38,280
some one's ongoing count, moving deeper into the woods. With

1173
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:40,880
every stroke of the knife, the f started to feel

1174
00:58:40,880 --> 00:58:42,800
thicket like it clung to me. I shooged it off,

1175
00:58:42,840 --> 00:58:45,760
told myself to focus a gun who fought to turn

1176
00:58:45,800 --> 00:58:49,039
back without finishing the job. My feet started hitting patches

1177
00:58:49,039 --> 00:58:50,960
of ground that felt soft in the wrong way, like

1178
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:53,719
I was walking on hidden layers. And then the land

1179
00:58:53,719 --> 00:58:56,719
dipped again, deeper than the map suggested I should have

1180
00:58:56,719 --> 00:58:58,960
been on a gentle slope, but instead I found myself

1181
00:58:58,960 --> 00:59:02,000
stepping down into a hall. That's when I saw the rocks.

1182
00:59:02,639 --> 00:59:04,639
They were sticking out of the ground like broken teeth,

1183
00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:07,599
arranged in a square, roughen and even, but too symmetrical

1184
00:59:07,639 --> 00:59:10,039
to be natural. At first I thought they were just

1185
00:59:10,079 --> 00:59:14,199
old stones, maybe a collapsed wall. But the closer I looked,

1186
00:59:14,239 --> 00:59:17,239
the more it resembled the outline of a foundation. Whatever

1187
00:59:17,280 --> 00:59:20,400
had stood there was long gone, no wood, no metal,

1188
00:59:20,440 --> 00:59:24,079
but the shape remained. Then I saw the boots. Inside

1189
00:59:24,119 --> 00:59:26,599
the stone square. Lined up side by side, were four

1190
00:59:26,599 --> 00:59:30,480
pairs of boots, warm weather beaten but operate. They were

1191
00:59:30,639 --> 00:59:33,840
randomly dump or scattered. They were placed there carefully to his,

1192
00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:36,679
all pointing forward, like some one had arranged them. I

1193
00:59:36,719 --> 00:59:38,920
stared for too long before I realized there were more

1194
00:59:39,559 --> 00:59:42,039
behind me, half buried in dead leaves. I spotted a

1195
00:59:42,079 --> 00:59:46,239
child's size pair further back, others big or smaller, different styles,

1196
00:59:46,239 --> 00:59:49,920
but all similarly aged, not fresh, but also not rotted,

1197
00:59:49,920 --> 00:59:53,480
the way leather usually gets after years. Outside, my scalp prickled,

1198
00:59:53,480 --> 00:59:55,360
the kind of unease that creeps and slow but doesn't

1199
00:59:55,400 --> 00:59:58,000
let go. I backed away, not sure what I was

1200
00:59:58,039 --> 01:00:00,719
walking through any more, but I couldn't leave yet I

1201
01:00:00,719 --> 01:00:03,800
hadn't found the marker. I turned to follow the creek again,

1202
01:00:03,840 --> 01:00:05,880
though at that point I wasn't entirely sure I was

1203
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:08,880
even walking in the same direction. The trees had shifted.

1204
01:00:09,519 --> 01:00:12,000
I recognized the fallen look I'd passed earlier, only now

1205
01:00:12,039 --> 01:00:13,679
it was split down the middle, a break I swore

1206
01:00:13,719 --> 01:00:16,199
hadn't been there before. My map might as well have

1207
01:00:16,239 --> 01:00:18,960
been a napkin sketch. None of it matched what I

1208
01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:22,159
was seeing. Then, just as I was about to turn around,

1209
01:00:22,280 --> 01:00:25,079
I saw a roof line through the trees. A cabin

1210
01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:28,960
not marked in the map, not mentioned in the job notes.

1211
01:00:29,679 --> 01:00:32,559
It leaned slightly to one side, the boards dark with

1212
01:00:32,599 --> 01:00:36,119
age and rain, No windows, just two squirre holes where

1213
01:00:36,119 --> 01:00:39,920
they probably used to be. No door either, just a frame,

1214
01:00:40,599 --> 01:00:43,400
No sign of smoke or human life. I should have

1215
01:00:43,440 --> 01:00:45,920
walked away. Every part of me knew better, but a

1216
01:00:45,920 --> 01:00:49,239
step closer, I called out just a simple Helloa, and

1217
01:00:49,320 --> 01:00:52,840
felt ridiculous when my voice I could too loud. Nothing answered,

1218
01:00:53,559 --> 01:00:58,119
No birds, no bugs, not even the creek. The floor

1219
01:00:58,159 --> 01:01:00,880
creaked as I stepped in, but it held. The smell

1220
01:01:00,960 --> 01:01:06,239
hit me instantly. Dam board meled you, something faintly metallic.

1221
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:09,360
The floor was covered in clothing, not just a shirt

1222
01:01:09,440 --> 01:01:14,880
or two piles, layers, folded jackets, trousses slumped in corners,

1223
01:01:15,519 --> 01:01:20,000
oldcoats hanging limply off nails, none of them modern wool vests,

1224
01:01:20,679 --> 01:01:24,559
clay patterns, high collars, stuff you'd see in black and

1225
01:01:24,599 --> 01:01:27,480
white photos from fifty years ago. I felt like I

1226
01:01:27,559 --> 01:01:30,159
was walking into a closetfrozen in time. Then I saw

1227
01:01:30,199 --> 01:01:34,039
the names. They were carved into the walls, knot scrupled,

1228
01:01:34,719 --> 01:01:40,559
carved deep, deliberate first names, mostly some repeated two or

1229
01:01:40,599 --> 01:01:45,079
three times, some unfinished, the night strokes cutting off mid letter,

1230
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:48,880
hundreds of them. There was no space left on some boards.

1231
01:01:49,519 --> 01:01:51,559
I remember following the line of names with my eyes,

1232
01:01:51,599 --> 01:01:53,440
trying to figure out if there was a pattern, some

1233
01:01:53,599 --> 01:01:55,440
kind of lists. When I heard the faint a shift

1234
01:01:55,440 --> 01:01:58,239
behind me, and when I turned around, she was there,

1235
01:01:58,440 --> 01:02:01,159
standing in the doorway. I don't know how to describe

1236
01:02:01,199 --> 01:02:03,920
her without sounding crazy. She looked like a woman, tall,

1237
01:02:03,920 --> 01:02:07,840
pale dress, lawn baque hanging straight down, but she didn't

1238
01:02:07,840 --> 01:02:11,639
seem real. She didn't move, didn't speak, just tilted her

1239
01:02:11,639 --> 01:02:14,719
head slightly like she was listening for something. Her arms

1240
01:02:14,800 --> 01:02:17,840
hung loosely, palms facing me. There was nothing frittening in

1241
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:20,840
her posture that somehow made it worse. My whole body

1242
01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:24,719
locked up. I didn't breathe didn't blink. I just stared.

1243
01:02:25,480 --> 01:02:28,280
Then something in me snapped and I bolted. I ran

1244
01:02:28,360 --> 01:02:30,800
straight through the doorway past her, half expecting to feel

1245
01:02:30,840 --> 01:02:33,239
cold fingers brushed my skin, but there was nothing, just

1246
01:02:33,280 --> 01:02:36,599
a tree swallowing me again. I crossed through branches, tripped

1247
01:02:36,599 --> 01:02:39,360
over roots, scraped my arms and face, but I didn't stop.

1248
01:02:39,960 --> 01:02:41,639
I kept my ears trained, and the sound of the

1249
01:02:41,679 --> 01:02:44,599
creek the only god I trusted any more. The compass

1250
01:02:44,639 --> 01:02:46,760
on my chest bounced wildly, the needle spinning out, like

1251
01:02:46,800 --> 01:02:49,519
it had given up trying. After what felt like I

1252
01:02:49,599 --> 01:02:52,519
os but was probably minutes, I broke through the tree

1253
01:02:52,559 --> 01:02:55,639
line and stumbled into the clearing. My truck was still there,

1254
01:02:56,280 --> 01:02:58,519
same as I left it, some like glinting off the hood,

1255
01:02:58,559 --> 01:03:01,000
like it belonged to a different world. I threw my

1256
01:03:01,079 --> 01:03:03,400
pack into the bed and didn't bother checking what fell out.

1257
01:03:04,000 --> 01:03:05,880
My hands were shaking so bad I dropped the keys

1258
01:03:05,920 --> 01:03:08,199
the first time, put them in a second try, and

1259
01:03:08,199 --> 01:03:10,199
peeled out so fast I let the trail of just

1260
01:03:10,239 --> 01:03:12,840
behind me. It took ten minutes of climbing a ridge

1261
01:03:12,880 --> 01:03:17,039
before my throne buzzed back to life. One bar enough,

1262
01:03:17,760 --> 01:03:19,679
I called the office and told them I was done,

1263
01:03:20,079 --> 01:03:23,840
didn't care about the money, didn't want another assignment. I

1264
01:03:23,880 --> 01:03:26,639
didn't give them an explanation, just hung up and kept

1265
01:03:26,679 --> 01:03:29,880
driving Joan up. My cousin had this idea that summer

1266
01:03:30,000 --> 01:03:33,159
something bigger than our usual hikes. He wanted to push

1267
01:03:33,199 --> 01:03:35,400
deeper into the Appalation back country than either of us

1268
01:03:35,400 --> 01:03:39,519
had ever gone, like really deep past them maintained trails,

1269
01:03:39,559 --> 01:03:42,159
past the spots with cairns or old blaze marks past

1270
01:03:42,199 --> 01:03:45,480
even war hunters usually bothered to room. That was just Jonah.

1271
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:48,400
He was always chasing something unspoken, like the age of

1272
01:03:48,440 --> 01:03:51,119
a map. Wasn't just a limit, it was a challenge.

1273
01:03:51,760 --> 01:03:53,400
I was more of a nowhere or an next meal

1274
01:03:53,400 --> 01:03:55,320
in shower a kind of guy. But I went with him.

1275
01:03:55,840 --> 01:03:58,599
I usually did. Maybe it was the way he talked

1276
01:03:58,599 --> 01:04:00,519
about it, or maybe I just didn't want to be

1277
01:04:00,559 --> 01:04:02,280
the guy who said no one then heard he got

1278
01:04:02,280 --> 01:04:06,000
lost at there alone. We planned for three nights, packed freeze,

1279
01:04:06,079 --> 01:04:09,519
ride meals, water, filters, a compact stove, a weather proof tent.

1280
01:04:10,280 --> 01:04:12,760
I brought a GPS looker, a little device about the

1281
01:04:12,840 --> 01:04:14,719
size of a match books that maps your trail as

1282
01:04:14,760 --> 01:04:17,159
you go. It had this feature where you could review

1283
01:04:17,199 --> 01:04:19,159
the route on a tiny screen oplug it into your

1284
01:04:19,199 --> 01:04:22,000
laptop later to overlay it on a map. I used

1285
01:04:22,039 --> 01:04:25,679
it before, never failed me. The morning we set out,

1286
01:04:25,719 --> 01:04:27,719
the ranger at the check and station barely looked up

1287
01:04:27,719 --> 01:04:30,280
from his crossword. We filled in the log book sind

1288
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:33,800
our names. Just before we left, another ranger, older guy,

1289
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:37,119
deeply sunburnt nose, smelled faintly of tobacco, looked over and said,

1290
01:04:37,360 --> 01:04:40,360
not really loud he boys be clamed no map bottles

1291
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:43,239
with He kind of smirked, but the tone was weird.

1292
01:04:43,519 --> 01:04:47,119
It stuck with me, Dome. He just grinned like someone

1293
01:04:47,159 --> 01:04:49,280
had paid him a compliment and walked out the door.

1294
01:04:49,920 --> 01:04:53,039
By noon, we'd left the last recognizable trail. The brush

1295
01:04:53,039 --> 01:04:55,320
closed and fast, and the forest started doing that thing

1296
01:04:55,360 --> 01:04:58,480
where feels like its closing ranks behind you. Dense stands

1297
01:04:58,480 --> 01:05:01,159
of hammock takets of road day that swallowed the sun.

1298
01:05:01,760 --> 01:05:04,400
We had to scramble up blue green spots weighed through

1299
01:05:04,440 --> 01:05:07,079
nee deep mud and others. It was slow going, but

1300
01:05:07,159 --> 01:05:09,800
Jonah didn't seem to mind. He said, that's how you

1301
01:05:09,880 --> 01:05:12,599
know it's real, when the land stops pretending to be convenient.

1302
01:05:13,119 --> 01:05:17,079
I started noticing at that first evening little things. A

1303
01:05:17,119 --> 01:05:20,079
tree at didn't match the elevation, moss growing in a

1304
01:05:20,119 --> 01:05:23,079
direction that didn't match the sun, a chunk of hillside

1305
01:05:23,079 --> 01:05:25,639
that looked recently disturbed, like a landslide had passed her

1306
01:05:25,639 --> 01:05:28,000
and then been erased. But I chalked it up to

1307
01:05:28,039 --> 01:05:31,159
being tired and sore. That always messes with your perception.

1308
01:05:31,760 --> 01:05:34,039
We set up camp at a hollow between two ridge lines,

1309
01:05:34,679 --> 01:05:39,079
nice spot plot grand They can be above a clear

1310
01:05:39,159 --> 01:05:41,880
little creek about thirty feet away for water. We made

1311
01:05:41,880 --> 01:05:43,679
a fire pit from some nearby rocks and had a

1312
01:05:43,719 --> 01:05:47,760
quiet dinner. No wildlife to speak of, no deer, no squirrels,

1313
01:05:48,039 --> 01:05:50,599
not even a raccoon trying to raid our packs. But

1314
01:05:50,719 --> 01:05:54,039
it didn't feel empty, just restrained. That night, I woke

1315
01:05:54,119 --> 01:05:57,400
up all at once, you know, that sudden, bone deep alertness,

1316
01:05:58,000 --> 01:06:01,039
No dreams, no tossing, just awake, and it took me

1317
01:06:01,079 --> 01:06:04,239
a second to realize what was wrong. Silence, not just

1318
01:06:04,239 --> 01:06:06,679
the absence of noise, the kind of silence that presses

1319
01:06:06,719 --> 01:06:09,880
on your ears, like your underwater or in a vacuum.

1320
01:06:10,199 --> 01:06:13,079
No crickets, no breeze, no waters sounds from the creek.

1321
01:06:13,639 --> 01:06:16,119
It was like the walls had been muted. I sat

1322
01:06:16,199 --> 01:06:20,400
up slowly, blanketpoltide. I was its wedding. I was freezing,

1323
01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:24,079
which didn't make sense. Summer in those mountains is humid, warm,

1324
01:06:24,119 --> 01:06:26,199
even at night. But the colts clung to me, sharp

1325
01:06:26,239 --> 01:06:30,079
and dry. Jono was still out. I could hear him breathing.

1326
01:06:30,639 --> 01:06:32,440
Iron zipped the tent as quietly as I could and

1327
01:06:32,480 --> 01:06:36,039
stepped outside. The air had that heavy pre thunder storm stillness,

1328
01:06:36,079 --> 01:06:38,880
but there were no clouds. I looked around the camp,

1329
01:06:39,039 --> 01:06:41,440
just trying to reassure myself everything was where we left it,

1330
01:06:41,559 --> 01:06:44,159
and that's when I saw it. The tree line had shifted.

1331
01:06:44,760 --> 01:06:47,480
I didn't even realize it at first. I was looking

1332
01:06:47,519 --> 01:06:49,559
at the poplar that had been on our east side earlier,

1333
01:06:49,599 --> 01:06:51,760
only now it was behind the tent on the west.

1334
01:06:52,400 --> 01:06:54,920
A clump of saplings I remembered near the fire, big gone,

1335
01:06:55,360 --> 01:06:58,159
and the fire pit itself. It wasn't right. The rocks

1336
01:06:58,159 --> 01:07:03,079
were scattered, no hush, no charred would just to stir dirt,

1337
01:07:03,239 --> 01:07:05,599
like we haven't built anything at all. I reached for

1338
01:07:05,679 --> 01:07:09,440
my phone, hoping to check the time dead. No response,

1339
01:07:10,159 --> 01:07:12,960
not even the low battery screen. I clicked the power

1340
01:07:12,960 --> 01:07:16,480
button a few times, then held it down. Nothing. I

1341
01:07:16,519 --> 01:07:19,039
walked over to where the creek had been. No sound,

1342
01:07:19,760 --> 01:07:22,719
no shimmer of water through the trees. When I got there,

1343
01:07:22,800 --> 01:07:26,599
the bet was dry, not damp, not reduced try. The

1344
01:07:26,679 --> 01:07:29,400
rocks were dry, the leaves and touched. It looked like

1345
01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:32,199
water hadn't touched the ground in years. I turned to

1346
01:07:32,199 --> 01:07:34,559
go back, and then I saw it. A pale light

1347
01:07:34,639 --> 01:07:38,280
was seeping up from the forest floor. Not moonlight, not

1348
01:07:38,440 --> 01:07:41,280
even close. It was low and cold, and it pulled

1349
01:07:41,280 --> 01:07:43,480
in weird places, like water might if the ground dipped

1350
01:07:43,519 --> 01:07:47,239
in odd ways. It moved, not flickering, not swaying, moving

1351
01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:49,559
like it was alive, sliding around the roots and trunks,

1352
01:07:49,599 --> 01:07:52,239
careful not to be seen too quickly. The air began

1353
01:07:52,280 --> 01:07:54,639
to vibrate. I could feel it in my teeth, this

1354
01:07:54,760 --> 01:07:57,199
low broken from layer under a high pitched wine. It

1355
01:07:57,320 --> 01:07:59,280
reminded me of an old engine trying to turn over

1356
01:07:59,320 --> 01:08:02,000
after sitting in it garage for a decade. I backed

1357
01:08:02,039 --> 01:08:04,039
up toward the tent, but something shifted in the glow,

1358
01:08:04,119 --> 01:08:07,960
a shape. I stopped moving. It was tall, really tall,

1359
01:08:08,079 --> 01:08:10,280
lank kap, but not like a human. Its proportions were

1360
01:08:10,320 --> 01:08:13,239
off too long in some places, too short in others.

1361
01:08:13,920 --> 01:08:16,800
And it didn't walk. It hitched like it was jerking

1362
01:08:16,840 --> 01:08:19,960
forward in tiny bursts every time it moved the light

1363
01:08:20,000 --> 01:08:23,640
around it walked lightly. I didn't think. I just turned

1364
01:08:23,640 --> 01:08:25,640
and ran up the slope, except the slope wasn't there.

1365
01:08:26,199 --> 01:08:28,319
My foot went down on what should have been solid ground,

1366
01:08:28,359 --> 01:08:31,439
and it fell hard. Only I didn't hit anything, just

1367
01:08:31,520 --> 01:08:34,319
dropped like gravity had let go of me. Cold air

1368
01:08:34,399 --> 01:08:37,800
rushed past him. I couldn't breathe couldn't scream. My arms flailed,

1369
01:08:37,880 --> 01:08:40,760
but there was nothing to grab on to, and then nothing.

1370
01:08:41,399 --> 01:08:42,960
I woke up to the sound of my alarm. The

1371
01:08:42,960 --> 01:08:45,560
digital trip had set before bed. I was back in

1372
01:08:45,600 --> 01:08:48,960
the tent, wrapped in my sleeping bag. Jonas knowed beside me.

1373
01:08:49,560 --> 01:08:55,039
It filtered to the nilon. The creek was back rushing, cheerful, alive.

1374
01:08:55,800 --> 01:08:59,880
I got out, slowly, checking the camp, higher pit intact,

1375
01:09:00,680 --> 01:09:04,960
same rocks, blackened wood, even a bit of unburned marshmallow

1376
01:09:05,039 --> 01:09:09,640
on a stick. Everything looked untouched, except it wasn't. I

1377
01:09:09,720 --> 01:09:13,159
grabbed my GPS tracker and checked the overnight look. It

1378
01:09:13,199 --> 01:09:15,880
had been running just like I left it, but the

1379
01:09:15,960 --> 01:09:19,079
date told a different story, with starts between midnight and

1380
01:09:19,119 --> 01:09:21,800
free eh em like some one had turned it off

1381
01:09:21,920 --> 01:09:25,720
and on again and again. Then nothing, a blank spot,

1382
01:09:26,399 --> 01:09:29,920
three hours of missing data. I didn't say anything to Jerna.

1383
01:09:30,520 --> 01:09:32,800
I just walked down to the creek. That's where I

1384
01:09:32,800 --> 01:09:35,800
found the worst part. Right along the edge, parallel to

1385
01:09:35,840 --> 01:09:39,199
the water was a strip of bone, dry ground, perfectly straight,

1386
01:09:39,359 --> 01:09:44,880
maybe four feet wide. Leaves brittle, unbent, no moisture, no dew.

1387
01:09:45,560 --> 01:09:48,000
It was like something had been there, something massive, and

1388
01:09:48,079 --> 01:09:52,159
then disappeared. We packed up fast. Jonah didn't ask why,

1389
01:09:52,720 --> 01:09:54,960
he moved like he felt it too. We made it

1390
01:09:55,000 --> 01:09:57,560
back to the range of station by early evening. Didn't

1391
01:09:57,560 --> 01:10:00,119
say much on the hike out, just kept walking. I

1392
01:10:00,119 --> 01:10:02,399
thought maybe I was losing it, that it was some

1393
01:10:02,560 --> 01:10:06,560
kind of dream or hallucination, lack of sleep maybe. But

1394
01:10:06,680 --> 01:10:09,239
then the next morning, Jonah looked at me over breakfast

1395
01:10:09,319 --> 01:10:12,239
and said, hey, did you smell it? I just stared

1396
01:10:12,239 --> 01:10:15,079
at him. He rubbed his arms, made a face like

1397
01:10:15,119 --> 01:10:18,119
Bert marshmallows, sweet and kind of chemical. It was all

1398
01:10:18,159 --> 01:10:20,479
over my clothes when I woke up. He didn't know

1399
01:10:20,520 --> 01:10:23,760
I'd smelled it too. I hadn't told him. I'd washed

1400
01:10:23,800 --> 01:10:26,520
my shirt twice and still caught the scent. We never

1401
01:10:26,560 --> 01:10:30,880
went back, and that is the end. Thank you for listening,

1402
01:10:30,960 --> 01:10:40,359
and I will see you in the next one.