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

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Let's get into it. My name's Jonah's out. A few

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years ago I spent a weekend I still think about

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way too often out in this forgotten patch of eastern

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Kentucky col Keenan Holler. Our great uncle Ruddy had passed

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a week before, and the property he left behind was

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sitting out there like some kind of forgotten time capsule.

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Dad wanted it cleaned up so he could get it

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on the market before winter hit. The plow was simple.

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Mason's Dad would drive us out, drop us off with

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some supplies, and we'd clear out of the shed and

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get a feel for what kind of shape the place

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was in. He said he'd be back the next night

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before sundown. Now, Ruddy's house wasn't awful, just old. The

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roof sagged a little on one side, and the porch

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steps were warped, but it was standing, which is more

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than I can say for a lot of places out there.

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The real issue was the shed. It sat a good

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fifty maybe sixty yards behind the house, tucked just enough

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into the trees that it was half hidden from the

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back porch. It looked like the woods were trying to

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eat it. Tick lines called around the siding, and the

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door was nearly fuse shut with ivy. We had to

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yank and cut at it for solid five minutes just

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to get it open. Inside was what you'd expect, a

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pile of broken fishing raws, rusted tackle boxes, old milk crates,

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full of screws and tills, with the handles falling apart.

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It was like a gower's sail for ghosts. We weighed

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back behind a stack of what plywood? We found something

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we weren't expecting, a shrap door. It was built right

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into the floor, wood stained dock with an old iron

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ring handle. Not the kind of thing you accidentally build.

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It was hand cut and reinforced, like someone really didn't

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want it getting opened by accident. We both just kind

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of stared at it. Mason knelt down and gave it

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a tug. It was heavy, but it opened. The hinges

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creaked like you'd imagine, and we both leaned over the

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edge to look down. Narrow concrete stairs disappeared into black.

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It smelt like damp earth, an old mouldy cloth. We

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couldn't see the bottom, not even with the flashlight. Nope,

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Mason said, standing up fast. That's to morrow's problem, and

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that was that. We shut it, left it unlocked, and

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got back to sorting through the rest of the mess

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we crushed at the house that night. The electricity worked barely,

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so we had a couple lamps in the space heater running.

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We made dinner out of cann chili and saltines, and

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spent most of the evening playing cards and jerking about

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how much Uncle Ruddy must have hoarded you now, trying

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not to think too hard about that trap door. Then

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some time after eleven, we heard the first knock. It

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was muffled, three doll thuds, not loud, but solid, like

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someone knocking from inside the walls. We froze. Did that

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come from under us? I asked? Mason didn't answer. He

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grabbed the flasklight, flicked it on, and went outside. He

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checked the porch, walked round the house, even shined a

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light under it. Nothing. When he got back inside, we

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both sat down again, trying to act normal. Maybe it

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was pipes or animals or something settling. All houses make

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words sounds right. Then came the second set of knocks,

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three again, same rhythm, but this time it was clearer,

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like it was coming from inside the floor. I didn't

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even pretend to be come. We need to leave, I said,

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walk to town. Mason looked at me like I had

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suggested jumping into the Ohio River. It's ten miles through

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pitch black woods. We've got one flashlight and no cel signal.

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If something's out there, we're better often here. So we stayed.

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Around midnight. The knocking stopped. Then the scraping started. It

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wasn't frantic, it wasn't loud, just this low, steady drag,

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like someone was pulling something heavy across the floor. It

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made my skin crawl. The house didn't have any wooden floors.

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It was linoleum over concrete. There was nothing underneath to

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drag anything cross. I remembered the trap door. We'd never

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locked it. We sat there, flashlight off, the propin heat

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to hissen quietly in the corner. I felt every sound

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like it was happening right next to me. Once, around

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two in the morning, I thought I heard whispering, not

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voices exactly, more like distant noise filtered through water. I

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lean my head against a wall to try to catch it.

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The surface was cold, not just chilly. I see. Then

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something touched the other side, just for a second, like

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a breath at dawn. We grabbed our boots and bolted

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to the shed. The air outside felt safe for somehow,

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even though I was shaking the whole time. The shrap

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door was wide open. There were handprints on the underside,

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smudged in dirt, long streaks were fingers had clawed upward.

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I didn't want to go down there. I wanted to

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turn and run, but Mason was already at the stairs.

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He didn't say anything, just started descending. I followed. The

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cellar wasn't big, six by six Maybee packed dirt walls,

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old wooden beams holding up the ceiling. A few old

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jaws broken in the corner. But the carvings with the

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worst part, circles with little vertical lines inside them, carved

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into every beam over and over again, like someone had

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done them in a trance iron. In the middle of

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the floor was a pile of bones. Some were clearly animal,

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but a few not so much. One of them looked

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like a femur, then too straight to be from anything

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with hoofs. Then Mason whispered, don't move. I turned and

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saw him staring past me. Up the hill. There was

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some one there, a man, shirtless, barefoot, skin pill like

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candle wax. He was standing perfectly still between two trees,

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staring straight at us, no movement, no blinking, just locked

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on to us like he was waiting. I called out, ah, nothing,

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not even a twitch. We back toward the house, slowly,

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Mason holding that krubolike he'd actually use it. I kept

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glancing over my shoulder, afraid to take my eyes off

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the guy for more than a second. By the time

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we reached the back steps and looked again, he was gone.

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Not walked away, not brown, just gone. We hadn't heard

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a sound that night. We did everything we could, locked

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every door, prop chairs into handles, pulled furniture in front

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of the windows. It didn't matter. At two point four exactly,

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the screen door creaked and then came the knock, three

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of them, slow, measured, measured, but this time it was

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in the front door. We didn't answer, move I could

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hear Mason breathing shallow next to me, both of us

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pretending not to exist. It never opened, the knox never repeated.

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We just waited until sunrise. Mason's dad pulled up around

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it the next morning, we were already packed, standing on

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the porch like kids waiting for the school bus. He

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asked if we were okay. Neither of us answered, We

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just got in the truck. He made a joke about

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us being jumpy city kids. Then he went to look

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at the shed. He came back different, didn't say a

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word the whole drive home, never board it up again.

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Back in November, I was staying with my uncle Robin

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at Tiany, half forgotten town in southern a polish cold

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Tanner's Creek. The place barely showed up on maps anymore.

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Rob had been living out there alone for a while,

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tucked away in this old leaning trailer, just off a

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crack gravel road with no street sign. A whole area

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felt like it had stopped moving decade ago. No cell

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reception for miles, no neighbors within shouting distance. Closest one

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was a retired guy named Darby about a mile down

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the hill, and even he was hardly year round. Rob

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didn't mind the soliditude. He liked things quiet, said it

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helped him think better. He few things before the coal

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set in, mainly fixing some busted plumbing and patching up

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the skirting around the trailer. Last winter had nearly frozen

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his pipe solid, and he wasn't trying to repeat that.

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I figured, sure I had time, and to be honest,

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I kind of wanted to break. City life had been

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grinding me down, and I thought maybe a little rural

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quite would do me some good. Most nights followed the

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same rhythm. We'd eat something simple, Rob made a kel

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of corn bread and beans, maybe play a few rounds

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of rummy, or just sit by the wood stove with

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mugs of vincetent coffee. By nine point thirty we were

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usually done for the day. It was the kind of

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a routine you fall into without noticing. But this one night,

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Rob stood up after dinner and said we needed to

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take a walk. Something had messed with the fence near

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the back edge of the property. When I asked if

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it was coyotes, he gave a small shake of the head.

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You'll see, was all he said. He grabbed two glass

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lights from the drawer by the door, handed me one,

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and we stepped out into the cold. It took sharp

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and sudden, the kind of cold that makes your teeth

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thick if you breathe in too fast. Wind cut through

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my jacket carried this musty, dead leaf scent that smelled

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like the woods themselves were rotting. We followed the path

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behind the trailer, cutting through the patchy grass toward the

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tree line. The fencing ran along the back, marking where

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his property dropped off into the ravine below. When we

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reached the spot, I crashed down to get a better look.

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The wire wasn't pulled or chewed. It had been clipped

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clean and straight through, like someone had taken bolt cutters

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to it. No frayed edges, no teeth marks, just a

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precise break. The fence posts was still standing, but the

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line had been peeled back and tossed aside, almost carefully.

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I was still staring at it when I heard something

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behind us crunch, just one step, loud, deliberate, like a

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heavy bee pressing down on frozen leaves. I spun around,

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flush light, jerking wildly across the trees. Nothing just branches

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and shadows. My heart gave a hard thud. Rob straightened up.

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We're going in, he said, already stepping past the broken fence.

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I hesitated, then followed. The wood swallowed us pretty quickly.

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No trail, just uneven ground and tangled brush. We didn't speak.

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Rob lad moving slow but steady, flasklight scanning from side

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to side. I kept glancing over my shoulder, not because

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I saw anything, just couldn't shape the feeling. That we

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went lower. It got quite to the farther we went.

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I've been in forest plenty of times, but this was different.

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No wind through the trees, no rustling, no chirping, nothing,

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just our own breathing and the occasional crunch underfoot. It

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was the kind of silence that presses on your ear drums,

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makes you feel like you're underwater. About a hundred yards

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in the ground dipped when we reached the edge of

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the ravine. Thus, when rob light caught something up ahead

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out of us, it looked like a pale log or

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rock dusted with frost. But then I saw the legs.

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It was a deer lying on its side, but the

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way it was positions stopped me in my tracks. The

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legs were stretched out perfectly straight, like someone had taken

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time to arrange them. The head was turned slightly, just

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enough that it looked posed. The torsa had been cut

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open straight down the middle, clean, precise a, almost like

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it had been done with a scalpel. The ribs were untouched,

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perfectly intact, but the cavity was completely empty. No blood,

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no mess, just a hollowed up body resting on and

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disturbed ground, and no drag marks, no paw prints, no

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indication it had been killed or even moved, just placed there.

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Rob crouched down beside it, flashlight trembling slightly in his hand.

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This ain't the first, he said, it barely audible. I

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didn't get a chance to ask what he meant. There

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was another crunch, this time from higher up on the

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ridge above us. We both looked up. That's when I

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saw it. It was standing just between two popple trees,

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maybe eight feet up the slope. Its eyes called the

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light greenish reflective animal. Like with everything else about it

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was wrong. It stood upright, but not in any way

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that looked natural. Its limbs bent in strange places, legs

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too long and angled backward, like the joints were on

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the wrong way. Its torsa was stretched skin tight and pale,

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like stretched plastic, and it was weighing subtly, like someone

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trying to stay balanced on narrow beam. It didn't make

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a sound, just shifted slightly, like it was thinking about moving.

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Or maybe waiting for us to. I reached for Rob

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without taking my eyes off it. He was already stepping backward.

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Don't run, he whispered, don't turn. We backed our slow,

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one step at a time. My light kept flicking between

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the thing on the ridge and the path behind us

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every few seconds. I glanced back up, but it didn't move,

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just watched. Then suddenly it wasn't there. I stopped, instinctively,

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looking around in every direction. Nothing. I turned to Rob,

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but he wasn't looking at me. His flashlight was aimed

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to our right, toward a thick tree trunk, maybe ten

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feet away. There was something behind it, smaller this time

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human sized, just a sliver of a head and his

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shoulder peeking out. I lifted my light and a jerked,

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a sudden twitch. He movement like a puppet yanked on

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a string. Its head tilted way too far, as if

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the neck had no clue word was supposed to stop.

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Its mouth was hanging open, not wide, just enough to

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show teeth, blunt, spaced too far apart, not sharp, not monstrous,

236
00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:02,000
just wrong. Then it made this sand half a waz

237
00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:05,000
half a laugh, like someone trying to mimic giggling without

238
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knowing how it works. I couldn't move, couldn't speak. Rob

239
00:12:09,639 --> 00:12:14,000
lean in close, go he said. Now. We didn't run.

240
00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:16,960
We just walked steady, straight toward the brake and the fence.

241
00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:20,360
Every step felt like a to canire. I was sure

242
00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:22,480
if I turned round something would be right behind me,

243
00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:25,480
breathing down my neck. I held the flashlight so tight

244
00:12:25,559 --> 00:12:28,399
my hand cramped. When we finally reached the fence, I

245
00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:31,399
reached for the latch and fumble dropped my flashlight. Bent

246
00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:33,639
down to grab it, hand shaking so badly, I could

247
00:12:33,639 --> 00:12:37,039
barely hit the wire. Back inside, we slammed the door,

248
00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,000
locked everything. Rob let the wood stove back up and

249
00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:41,840
sat in the old recliner by the window with his

250
00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:44,799
shotgun across his lap. He didn't say a word, just

251
00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:48,200
stared outside. We stayed up the whole night. When the

252
00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:51,039
sun finally came up, Rob insisted we check the spot again.

253
00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:54,279
I didn't want to, but he was going alone. The

254
00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:57,320
dear carcass was gone. We patched the fence before noon.

255
00:12:57,840 --> 00:12:59,759
By the end of the week Rob had listed the

256
00:12:59,799 --> 00:13:02,720
train for sale. I was twenty six when this happened.

257
00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:05,639
Lived in a quiet town called Dorsey, Falls right up

258
00:13:05,679 --> 00:13:08,679
against the edge of White Hollow Forest. Not much goes

259
00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:11,480
on out there. I wasn't into any of that. Didn't hunt,

260
00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:15,000
didn't fish, didn't even drink much. My job was part

261
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,440
time delivery driver for holes water done in the valley.

262
00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:20,399
Thursdays were my lawn hall days, where I'd loaded up

263
00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:23,159
the back of the truck with belts, pads, alternators, and

264
00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:25,360
whatever else people needed, then wind my way through the

265
00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:27,519
back roads deliver into mechanics that seemed to live right

266
00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:30,080
at the edge of nowhere. That Thursday was one of

267
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:32,039
those colt of Ember days where it feels later than

268
00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:34,639
it is. The sun dips down behind the hills around

269
00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:36,840
four point thirty, and by five it might as well

270
00:13:36,879 --> 00:13:39,639
be midnight. I was already on my last regular stop,

271
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,440
Corver's Garage, just off Split Rage, when Mitch asked if

272
00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:45,159
I could squeez him one more, said some guy called

273
00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:47,279
earlier that morning needing a set of brake pads and

274
00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:49,759
a serpentine belt for a ninety nine f mineres one

275
00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:53,039
hundred fifty. Mitch had already rung up in everything, but

276
00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:54,840
none of the other guys wanted to dry out that

277
00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:58,440
far Milner County line, he told me, which was unusual.

278
00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:01,679
I'd been up there plenty of times, said The guy

279
00:14:01,799 --> 00:14:04,559
left a name something like Craig's, but Mitch didn't know him.

280
00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:07,600
Personally offered me forty bucks cash and a six pack

281
00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:11,240
if I dropped it off. I've figured sure still sunlight left,

282
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:13,080
and I'd driven every twist and turn in that county

283
00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,440
a hundred times, or so, I thought. I made the

284
00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:18,519
turn off er at nineteen and started the slow climb

285
00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:21,240
up on the ridge. It was quiet, that kind of

286
00:14:21,279 --> 00:14:23,399
un settling quiet, where even the birds seemed to have

287
00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:26,519
called a day. About fifteen minutes in, I noticed I

288
00:14:26,519 --> 00:14:29,440
hadn't passed a house in a while, or a mail wox,

289
00:14:30,279 --> 00:14:34,120
just trees, leafless, bony things that clattered softly in the wind.

290
00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:36,360
The fog was starting to pull and low along the

291
00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:38,720
tree line, thick enough in spots that it looked like smoke.

292
00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,559
That's when the g B has quit. No signal, just

293
00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:44,759
a frozen screen in the little arrow stock in place.

294
00:14:45,519 --> 00:14:47,080
I hit the dust a couple of times, like that

295
00:14:47,159 --> 00:14:50,440
was going to do anything. It didn't. I was already

296
00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:53,039
too far in to turn back, so I slowed down

297
00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:55,279
and kept going. I scanning for any numbers and the

298
00:14:55,279 --> 00:14:57,320
mail boxes that might match what Mitch had written down

299
00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:01,240
in the receipt. Nothing matched, a few didn't have numbers

300
00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:04,519
at all, some were barely upright. Then I saw a

301
00:15:04,519 --> 00:15:07,559
guy standing just off the shoulder. I hadn't seen him

302
00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:10,120
until I was practically next to him. He was just there.

303
00:15:10,159 --> 00:15:12,279
Roll of a sudden like he stepped out from behind

304
00:15:12,279 --> 00:15:16,519
one of the trees. Tall, thin, maybe late forties, wa

305
00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:19,080
as dirty blue coat and jeans that looked stiff with mud.

306
00:15:19,639 --> 00:15:21,759
He was standing by rusted out red mail books that

307
00:15:21,759 --> 00:15:24,039
looked more like scap metal than anything used for mail.

308
00:15:24,679 --> 00:15:27,639
His hand lifted in the slow, almost lazy wave. I

309
00:15:27,679 --> 00:15:30,840
pulled over and rolled the window down halfway. Hey, I sat,

310
00:15:30,879 --> 00:15:34,519
holding up the box. He waiting on these. He didn't

311
00:15:34,519 --> 00:15:37,159
speak right away, just gave me a stiff nod and

312
00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:38,960
pointed up a gravel path to my left. Ded I

313
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,919
swear hadn't been there two seconds earlier. It wasn't a

314
00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:44,360
driveway in the usual sense, more like too muddy ruts.

315
00:15:44,399 --> 00:15:47,840
The curve sharply upilled between the trees. Up there, he said,

316
00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:51,600
I hesitated. You want me to leave him here? He

317
00:15:51,639 --> 00:15:55,799
didn't blink. Up there, he repeated. Then he turned not

318
00:15:55,919 --> 00:15:59,559
up the path, but into the woods, no hesitation, just

319
00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:02,200
walked in like it was nothing, branches swaying around him.

320
00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:04,240
I sat in a truck for a solid minute, trying

321
00:16:04,279 --> 00:16:06,720
to make sense of that. Thought. Maybe he was taking

322
00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:08,519
a short cut or didn't want to be seen getting

323
00:16:08,519 --> 00:16:12,279
stuff delivered. People around here are private, some don't even

324
00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:16,039
WANTEE knowing where they live. I'd seen weirder, so I

325
00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:17,879
put the truck and gear and started up the path.

326
00:16:18,399 --> 00:16:21,360
The incline was steeper than it looked. My tie spun

327
00:16:21,399 --> 00:16:23,639
a couple times before catching, and I had to swerve

328
00:16:23,679 --> 00:16:25,720
slightly to avoid them that crossed one of the tracks.

329
00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,320
Trees crowded on both sides. The higher I went, the

330
00:16:29,399 --> 00:16:32,440
darker it got. My head lights barely cut through the fog,

331
00:16:32,679 --> 00:16:35,279
just lit up a mess of trunks and brambles. Then

332
00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:37,279
the path opened up into a small clearing, and the

333
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:39,080
truck coasted to a stop in front of an older

334
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:43,399
frame house. It looked abandoned, not decaying, not ruined, just

335
00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:47,279
left behind boards gray with age, shatters hanging loose, and

336
00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:50,200
a sagging porch that looked one got storm away from collapsing.

337
00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:52,480
There were no lights, no movement, but there was a

338
00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:55,399
blue pick apart crooked in the grass, driver's door wide open.

339
00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:58,279
I left the engine running, sat there for a few seconds,

340
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:02,080
just staring at the house. No one came out. Eventually

341
00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,759
I grabbed the box and stepped out. The air was

342
00:17:04,759 --> 00:17:07,720
called to up here. Heavier porch steps creaked and gave

343
00:17:07,759 --> 00:17:09,960
slightly under my weight, one of them dipping like it

344
00:17:10,039 --> 00:17:13,119
was nieled them right. I knocked on the door light

345
00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:16,799
at first, then louder. Nothing. That's when I noticed the

346
00:17:16,839 --> 00:17:20,200
door was fully closed, just hanging there open maybe an

347
00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:22,640
inch or two. I should have set the box down

348
00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:25,160
and walked away. That would have been the smart thing

349
00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,960
to do, but instead I leaned in and gave the

350
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:32,160
door a nudge. Hey, I called not stepping inside, bought

351
00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:36,000
your part. Here. The smell hit me, not wrot, not mold,

352
00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:41,000
something wetter for all, like wet fur and iron. It

353
00:17:41,079 --> 00:17:43,039
clung to the back of my throat shop and run.

354
00:17:43,599 --> 00:17:46,160
I didn't go in, just bent down and slid the

355
00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:50,240
box inside with one hand. That's when I heard it upstairs,

356
00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:54,400
a slow scraping sound, something heavy dragging across the floor.

357
00:17:55,079 --> 00:17:58,200
I stopped breathing. The sound went on four or five seconds,

358
00:17:58,240 --> 00:17:59,759
long enough for me to know it wasn't the house

359
00:17:59,759 --> 00:18:02,759
set ling, and then at jus stopped. I backed off

360
00:18:02,759 --> 00:18:04,680
the porch one step at a time and nearly slipped

361
00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:07,119
off the last board. My boots hit gravel and I

362
00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:10,039
bolted for the truck. Paddin sanned the door, locked at

363
00:18:10,039 --> 00:18:13,519
horror pounding. As I shifted into reverse, the headlights caught

364
00:18:13,559 --> 00:18:15,960
something at the edge of the woods. Same guy, but

365
00:18:16,039 --> 00:18:18,119
he wasn't standing any more. He was crouched low, arms

366
00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:20,279
resting on his knees. He had tilted, watching eye froze.

367
00:18:20,279 --> 00:18:21,839
He moved just a twitch, but it was wrong, like

368
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:23,880
his limbs didn't quite know how to function. Jerked and

369
00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:25,680
staid of foe. Then he rose slow and steady, and

370
00:18:25,759 --> 00:18:27,480
his arms I sweat to ye. They didn't stop, or

371
00:18:27,559 --> 00:18:29,759
arms I supposed to stop. They just kept going, elbows

372
00:18:29,799 --> 00:18:32,240
too high, fingers at HM, way way too low, almost

373
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,920
brushing his knees. That's when I panicked. I slammed on

374
00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:38,680
the gas tires, getting before they caught. The whole truck

375
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:41,039
bucked and I knew litt lost control going down that hill.

376
00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:44,680
Didn't care. I bounced and slid and braked just enough

377
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:47,359
to avoid flying off the path. When the tires hit

378
00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:49,559
the main road. I didn't stop to check for damage,

379
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:53,079
just kept driving, didn't look back. Once I got to

380
00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:55,920
town and parked behind the shop, killed the engine, and

381
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:57,920
just sat there until Mitch came out with a smoke

382
00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:00,720
in his mouth, asking where I got. When I told

383
00:19:00,759 --> 00:19:03,960
him what happened, he looked genuinely confused. Said the guide

384
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:06,640
just left the name in number, didn't know anything about

385
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:10,240
a house. I couldn't sleep that night, kept ripling it

386
00:19:10,279 --> 00:19:13,079
in my head, over and over, the smell, the dragging sound,

387
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:17,279
those arms. Next morning I called the Sheriff's office, gave

388
00:19:17,279 --> 00:19:19,759
them the address Midch wrote down. They said there were

389
00:19:19,759 --> 00:19:22,720
no homes listed past the thirty mile marcmmel the county line.

390
00:19:23,319 --> 00:19:25,119
Sad dear frame that used to sit up there had

391
00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:29,200
burned down back in ninety three. Faulty heater. Apparently the

392
00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:33,559
whole thing went up overnight. No survivors. The blue pickupmashed

393
00:19:33,559 --> 00:19:36,480
the description of a missing person's vehicle. A man named

394
00:19:36,519 --> 00:19:39,680
Hartly Griggs went missing twelve years ago. Left for work

395
00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:42,960
one morning, never showed up. Last ping on his phone

396
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,559
came from somewhere near the rage. I turned in my

397
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:48,160
notice a few days later, told Mitch I appreciated the work,

398
00:19:48,279 --> 00:19:51,000
but I was done driving the ridge routs. He didn't

399
00:19:51,039 --> 00:19:54,400
ask questions I've left in doors. He falls my whole life.

400
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:57,160
I've been on every back road from here to Green Hollow,

401
00:19:57,359 --> 00:19:59,279
but I haven't been up Millner since, and I never

402
00:19:59,319 --> 00:20:02,640
will again. A high school out in Eastmbian County didn't

403
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,759
offer much once the bell rang. No clubs, no theater,

404
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,480
nothing that held my interest. So I picked up a

405
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:10,799
side job through a family friend, clearing out old hunting

406
00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,559
cabins tucked into the hills. I got and used to

407
00:20:13,559 --> 00:20:16,200
working alone, especially in late fall when the brush thinned

408
00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:18,680
out and the snakes went a problem any more. One

409
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,599
Sunday in early November, a guy named Marshall, he handled

410
00:20:21,599 --> 00:20:24,440
property management for a few absentee owners, dropped off a

411
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:26,880
key and a hand sketch map. He always drew his

412
00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,240
map's hands Sair GPS couldn't be trusted out there. This

413
00:20:29,319 --> 00:20:30,880
one was for a cabin about a mile off the

414
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:32,960
old gas line near Ruger Doot. The owner left for

415
00:20:33,079 --> 00:20:35,680
Arkansas or Missouri or somewhere years ago and just abandoned it.

416
00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:37,559
But the land was finally going up for sale. I'd

417
00:20:37,559 --> 00:20:39,039
have to do a full sweep and get it ready

418
00:20:39,039 --> 00:20:41,160
for a photographer. He warned me his truck couldn't make

419
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:42,720
it all the way and said the last half mile

420
00:20:42,799 --> 00:20:44,720
was due chewed up from spring runoff and dan lembs.

421
00:20:44,759 --> 00:20:46,599
I'd have to walk, and I left after lunch. Hit

422
00:20:46,599 --> 00:20:49,079
the rage Around to that time of year, the air

423
00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:52,000
already had that sting to it, not snowy yet, but

424
00:20:52,039 --> 00:20:54,519
you could smell a coming. The trail curved around a

425
00:20:54,519 --> 00:20:56,759
few overgrown turns and dropped into this little hollow where

426
00:20:56,759 --> 00:20:58,920
the cabin sat, leaning hard to one side like it

427
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:00,839
was giving up half so runk into the earth, like

428
00:21:00,839 --> 00:21:03,119
it didn't want to be there any more. The windows

429
00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:05,079
were streaked with grime and the door barely held on.

430
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:07,480
It was the kind of place that looked like if

431
00:21:07,519 --> 00:21:11,920
you coughed hard inside something would fall off. Nothing unusual, honestly,

432
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:15,440
Inside it looked like someone had been living there. Torn

433
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:17,960
sleeping bags bunched in a cornered, empty cans of beans,

434
00:21:18,039 --> 00:21:21,160
some cigarette butts mashed into the floorboards. It wasn't the

435
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:24,079
worst I'd seen, but it made me pause. The air

436
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:26,759
was thick and sire, old sweat and meldew, maybe a

437
00:21:26,759 --> 00:21:29,319
bit of something else. I couldn't place. I made a

438
00:21:29,319 --> 00:21:31,480
mental note to tell Marshall, maybe see if he wanted

439
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,599
the locks changed. Ied the trash, swept up and cranked

440
00:21:34,599 --> 00:21:38,039
open two side windows. The air inside was thick, damp,

441
00:21:38,079 --> 00:21:41,039
smelt like meldew and old flannel. Every time the wind

442
00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:43,319
kicked up, the back door creaked open, so I dragged

443
00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:45,240
over a rock from outside in whiched it behind the

444
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,279
bottom corner. While I worked, I kept thinking about those

445
00:21:48,279 --> 00:21:51,680
sleeping bags. There were three of them, all flatten, dirty

446
00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,359
and arranged in a weird kind of triangle. It didn't

447
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,480
seem like just one person had stayed here, but if

448
00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:59,240
there were more, I didn't see this stuff. No packs,

449
00:21:59,279 --> 00:22:02,799
no clothes, not even extra cans, just those three flattened

450
00:22:02,799 --> 00:22:06,119
backs and a few scattered cigarette ends. Sweep went fast,

451
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,640
one big room, two little side rooms. One had a

452
00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:12,599
busted cat, the other was mostly empty except for a

453
00:22:12,599 --> 00:22:15,039
small desk and an old standing coat rack in a corner.

454
00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:18,000
That room made me uneasy, though I couldn't say why.

455
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,640
There was something off about how clean it was, like

456
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:23,880
someone had recently been using it, but only briefly. No

457
00:22:24,039 --> 00:22:26,880
des settled, no foot prints, just barewood and that coat

458
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,759
rack standing stiff as a person. I was just about

459
00:22:29,759 --> 00:22:33,160
finished when I noticed something strange on a wood floor.

460
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:35,240
There were deep drag marks leading from the main room

461
00:22:35,279 --> 00:22:38,480
into the back one. Not scratchy or ratic clean lines.

462
00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:42,279
Why too wie for a person, too straight for an animal,

463
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:46,039
noticabrelye scattered, no sign of what made them. They ended

464
00:22:46,079 --> 00:22:48,119
at the far wall, beneath the window, like something had

465
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,359
been pulled there and disappeared. No saines, no scratches on

466
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,039
the wall itself, just the marks. I stared for a while,

467
00:22:55,079 --> 00:22:57,920
trying to make sense of it. Thought maybe furniture had

468
00:22:57,920 --> 00:22:59,839
been moot but nothing in that room matched the width

469
00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,880
of the tracks. I even measured it against the coat rack,

470
00:23:03,039 --> 00:23:05,839
thinking maybe someone had dragged it, but the marks were

471
00:23:05,839 --> 00:23:08,599
wider than its base. I turned to leave, and that's

472
00:23:08,599 --> 00:23:10,799
when I noticed the back door wasn't cracked open any more.

473
00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,720
It was shut, not just push shut, latched from the inside.

474
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,400
My first thought was that I'd somehow bumped to close,

475
00:23:18,519 --> 00:23:20,400
But the latch was one of those old metal hooks,

476
00:23:20,599 --> 00:23:22,960
and it was hooked through the eye. You can't latch

477
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,680
that from the outside, and the rock I'd wedged behind

478
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,559
it was gone, just gone. I stood there in the

479
00:23:28,559 --> 00:23:31,599
doorway for a while, listening. Didn't even realize I was

480
00:23:31,599 --> 00:23:33,160
holding my breath until I had to let it out

481
00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:36,960
in a slow miss. The cabin felt suddenly heavier, every

482
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:39,720
creak of the old wood seemed louder. I checked every

483
00:23:39,799 --> 00:23:42,720
room again, opened the closet, looked under the cot, even

484
00:23:42,799 --> 00:23:46,720
checked behind the desk. Not then no footprints in the dust,

485
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,400
no signs anyone was hiding. I've tried to tell myself

486
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:53,440
I just missed someone earlier. Maybe they slipped out, but

487
00:23:53,559 --> 00:23:57,160
it didn't track I would have heard them. I stepped outside,

488
00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:00,640
and that's when I realized how quiet it was. No birds,

489
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,680
no wrestling, not even that usual wind sound through the pines,

490
00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:09,240
just stillness, flat, un heavy, like the woods were holding

491
00:24:09,279 --> 00:24:13,160
their breath too. Then I saw the footprints. They went mine.

492
00:24:13,839 --> 00:24:15,519
They came in from the right side of the clearing,

493
00:24:15,519 --> 00:24:19,960
bare feet, no shoes, no tread, just long, narrow princes

494
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:22,759
in this softrt toe spread white like someone had been

495
00:24:22,799 --> 00:24:26,000
sanding there a while, watching the windows. They curved around

496
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,519
the back of the cabin and then just stopped. I

497
00:24:28,559 --> 00:24:30,839
followed them a few steps, hot thudding, trying to see

498
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,440
if I missed something, but there was no return trail,

499
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,000
no scuff leaves, just a sudden dead stop, like the

500
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,079
person hemid them had stepped into the earth or been

501
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:41,880
lifted out. That's when the hair on my arms went up,

502
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:44,720
not like fear, more like something warning me to move.

503
00:24:45,319 --> 00:24:47,920
I didn't argue with it. I went back in, grabbed

504
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,000
my pack and stuffed the key into my coat pocket.

505
00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:53,319
Didn't bother trying to wedge the door again. Jes pulled

506
00:24:53,319 --> 00:24:55,279
it shut and locked the front, even though I knew

507
00:24:55,279 --> 00:24:58,519
that latch was keeping anything out. The trail back fell longer.

508
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:01,440
About ten minutes la. I heard movement to my right.

509
00:25:02,039 --> 00:25:04,960
At first it was soft branches, shifting under brush, crunching

510
00:25:05,039 --> 00:25:09,279
just enough to notice I slowed down. It slowed down too.

511
00:25:09,599 --> 00:25:13,599
I stopped walking. It stopped. I waited, turning slowly, trying

512
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:17,440
to catch a glimpse. Nothing, just words. I called out,

513
00:25:17,559 --> 00:25:20,519
said something like hey, I'm still here, but even I

514
00:25:20,559 --> 00:25:23,720
didn't believe the confidence in my voice. Then I started

515
00:25:23,759 --> 00:25:26,440
walking again, and it picked up with me, same pace,

516
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:29,640
thin distance, just out of view. I told myself it

517
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,279
was an animal, maybe a coyote, a deer, but the

518
00:25:32,279 --> 00:25:35,880
steps were too steady, nut scurrying or dotting, just matching me.

519
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:39,240
I yelled that I had a weapon. I didn't. The

520
00:25:39,279 --> 00:25:41,079
only thing in my bag was a folding knife and

521
00:25:41,079 --> 00:25:45,799
half a bottle of gateryriad. Nothing moved, nothing answered. I

522
00:25:45,839 --> 00:25:49,880
picked up speed. The sound picked up too, still parallel,

523
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:53,039
still close. It didn't stumble, didn't break sticks or crushed

524
00:25:53,039 --> 00:25:55,240
through the brush, just glided along with me, like it

525
00:25:55,279 --> 00:25:57,720
knew the line better than I ever would. That's when

526
00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,599
I broke into a joke. My heart was hammering, not

527
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:02,480
from the run, but because I could still hear it,

528
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,160
not behind me, nod a head right beside me, keep

529
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:10,119
in pace without try. Then came the sound. It was different,

530
00:26:10,759 --> 00:26:16,599
whit ebby, like something being dragged through leaves, slow, sticky.

531
00:26:17,319 --> 00:26:21,039
I didn't look curdn't. I bolted down the hell, not

532
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:23,000
caring how steep it got or how easy it would

533
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,839
be to trip. I saw the pipeline gate and didn't stop.

534
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:29,440
Climbed it in two steps, scraped my knee on the top,

535
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,920
didn't care. Ran down the gravel road until I saw

536
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,359
Marshall's truck park crooked near the bend, engine running window correct.

537
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:38,640
He looked up when I got close and let out

538
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,480
this laugh like he thought I was being dramatic, said

539
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,759
something like, what see a bearer or something. I didn't

540
00:26:44,759 --> 00:26:47,559
say anything, just opened the passenger door, climbed in and

541
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,039
slammed it hard enough that he jumped. I think he

542
00:26:50,079 --> 00:26:53,000
figured something'd spook me, but he didn't press it. Two

543
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:56,119
days later he called said some one had broken into

544
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:59,440
the cabin, asked if I had gone back. I told

545
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,599
him no. It was early November, the start of dear season,

546
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:04,480
and I'd taken two weeks off work to stay at

547
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:07,279
my uncle Cal's old trailer out near Windlow. That part

548
00:27:07,319 --> 00:27:09,799
of the mountains doesn't really have street signs left alone

549
00:27:09,799 --> 00:27:13,079
neighbors cow died about four years back, and no one

550
00:27:13,079 --> 00:27:16,079
in the family ever bothered to sell the place. Honestly,

551
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:18,400
I don't think anyone really wanted to deal with it.

552
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,480
The roof sagged, one of the porch rails was busted,

553
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:23,880
and the propin heater made this god awful wheeze when

554
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,160
it kicked on. And after the year, I had two

555
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:28,559
deaths in the family, a break up and a department reordered.

556
00:27:28,559 --> 00:27:30,720
That left me answering to a twenty three year old.

557
00:27:30,759 --> 00:27:34,039
I needed quiet. First three nights were fine, nothing spooky.

558
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:36,960
I split firewood. Went out hiking during the day. It

559
00:27:37,079 --> 00:27:40,200
badly and didn't care. I brought a generative a power

560
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,160
and I rotated between watching all dvdyum reading paperbacks I

561
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:46,119
hadn't touched in years. I think I slept twelve hours

562
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:49,519
a night. It felt good. Only strange thing in that

563
00:27:49,559 --> 00:27:52,119
time was this black and white photo. I found. It

564
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:53,960
was in the bottom drawer of a desk COW used

565
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,119
to keep in the spare room. I was looking for

566
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:58,480
matches and came across a bunch of odds and ends,

567
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,279
paper clips, thumb tacks, one of those old plastic rulers

568
00:28:02,279 --> 00:28:04,920
that always smell fintly of cigarette smoke, and underneath its

569
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:07,920
stuff was a frame photo. It showed a boy, probably

570
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,400
eight or nine, standing near the tree line, dressed in

571
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,359
all clothes of rolls and touched flannel. Something about the

572
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:16,240
picture looked off though. His head was turned slightly and

573
00:28:16,319 --> 00:28:18,319
his face was blurred like he moved just as the

574
00:28:18,319 --> 00:28:21,400
picture was taken, not super unusual for old film, but

575
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,440
the blur didn't look like motion. It looked smeared, like

576
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:26,960
someone had rubbed it with their thumb. I figured it

577
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:28,720
was just some old hunting by his kid or something.

578
00:28:29,039 --> 00:28:31,839
Maybe even col himself. I put it back and didn't

579
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,880
really think about it again until later. Fourth night, things

580
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:37,799
got weird. It had started to drizzle that evening and

581
00:28:37,839 --> 00:28:40,920
a temperature dropped fast. I had the heat up, the

582
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,599
generator chugging it on in its box outside, and I

583
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,440
was curled up in the old couch reading a Clive

584
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:47,480
bark and novel. Around nine, I heard what I thought

585
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:49,079
was an animal at side, some faint sound and a

586
00:28:49,079 --> 00:28:51,759
potch real soft dabholese. Listened again and realized it didn't

587
00:28:51,759 --> 00:28:54,039
sound like an animal at all. It sounded like footsteps,

588
00:28:54,079 --> 00:28:56,000
not the heavy thump of boots, mole like bare feet, blight,

589
00:28:56,039 --> 00:28:58,599
slow spaced out pacing, almost like someone was trying not

590
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:00,400
to be heard. To porch creaked a little on the way,

591
00:29:00,519 --> 00:29:03,440
just once, like a board shifting. I didn't move a first,

592
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:05,960
just sat there listening, holding my breath without meaning to.

593
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:08,720
Then I leaned forward, picked up the short gun from

594
00:29:08,759 --> 00:29:11,640
beside the couch, and stood up. My hands were shaking

595
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,119
a little, not from fear exactly, but from adrenaline, that

596
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:16,319
old instinct waking up in the back of my spine.

597
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:18,599
I opened the front door. No one was there, not

598
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:20,880
even tracks in the wet leaves, just a sharp pan

599
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,039
smell and the sighing sound of wind between the trees.

600
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,279
I scanned the woods, waited a full minute, then went

601
00:29:26,319 --> 00:29:28,960
back inside, locked the door, double checked the windows, told

602
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:30,920
myself it was a raccoon or a bear, maybe even

603
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:34,119
when pushing branches against the siding. Next morning, though, I

604
00:29:34,119 --> 00:29:37,480
stepped outside and saw something strange just off the porch,

605
00:29:37,559 --> 00:29:39,839
in a little patch of barreth near the steps. Someone

606
00:29:39,839 --> 00:29:42,119
had laid out a small spy or using smooth white stones.

607
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:44,759
Not natural placement. This was arranged tight and deliberate, culling

608
00:29:44,759 --> 00:29:46,519
in perfect The eye stared at it for a long minute.

609
00:29:46,559 --> 00:29:49,079
It didn't look like something inanimal. Would you look careful? Patient?

610
00:29:49,119 --> 00:29:50,880
I crouched and brushed it away with my brute and

611
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,000
stood up fast. Looked around again. Still no one knows.

612
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,119
Signs of other people, No tire trucks, no wrappers, no

613
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:58,279
ber canes. Nothing. That afternoon, I was taking through the

614
00:29:58,279 --> 00:30:01,000
closet in the back bedroom, mostly boorard, and found something

615
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,400
else I hadn't seen before. A portable seedy player, real

616
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,359
old school, the kind with the clunky buttons and the

617
00:30:06,359 --> 00:30:09,440
lid that baily stayed shut still had batteries in it.

618
00:30:10,079 --> 00:30:12,000
Next to it was a cracked jeal case with Otis

619
00:30:12,119 --> 00:30:15,559
nineteen seventy two deno written in smuch black mark. I

620
00:30:15,559 --> 00:30:17,839
thought maybe it was something col had recorded, like an

621
00:30:17,839 --> 00:30:21,039
old garage bandemmer. He used to mess around with guitars,

622
00:30:21,039 --> 00:30:23,599
so who knows. I figured I'd give it a listen.

623
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:26,319
So I laid down on the couch, had phones in

624
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,839
press play. It started with static. Then this low, dragging

625
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,200
organ came in, deep dissonant notes that didn't follow any

626
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:36,200
rhythm I could pin down. After about thirty seconds, the

627
00:30:36,279 --> 00:30:40,920
voice joined in mail scratchy, kind of low and sleepy,

628
00:30:41,079 --> 00:30:44,039
almost like someone singing through a bad dream. The words

629
00:30:44,039 --> 00:30:46,880
were wrong, some of them in English, some nott They

630
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,000
sounded like children's songs almost but twisted the kind you

631
00:30:50,039 --> 00:30:52,680
forget half way through and stopped making up lines to finish.

632
00:30:53,119 --> 00:30:55,519
One track started with silence, then a pop, and then

633
00:30:55,559 --> 00:30:58,400
I heard a child's voice, clear and close. Don't tell

634
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,559
him no, don't tell him no, don't tell him no,

635
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:07,000
over and over, same tone, falm, repetitive. I've RiPP the

636
00:31:07,039 --> 00:31:11,000
headphones off, didn't listen to the rest. That night's sleep

637
00:31:11,039 --> 00:31:14,759
didn't come easy. Every sound made me sit up. Around two,

638
00:31:14,799 --> 00:31:20,039
I had to use the outhouse, took my floshlight, stepped outside, colder,

639
00:31:20,079 --> 00:31:22,960
punching me in the chest. The woods were thick with fog.

640
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:26,799
Everything felt slow, like I was moving under water. As

641
00:31:26,839 --> 00:31:28,920
I came back across the clearing, I swept the beam

642
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,920
of the flasklight across the trees and froze. Something was

643
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:35,079
standing just inside the edge of the woods, small, still

644
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,400
watching me. It looked like a kid couldn't have been

645
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:40,759
more than four feet tall, but the way it stood,

646
00:31:40,839 --> 00:31:44,079
arms loose, had tilted slightly, completely motionless, made the hairs

647
00:31:44,079 --> 00:31:47,200
on my arms stand up. I shouted, hey, no movement

648
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:49,960
for a second. Then it stepped back into the trees.

649
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:52,519
Not fast, just go and I didn't follow. I went

650
00:31:52,599 --> 00:31:54,200
and side locked every dwn door set up in the

651
00:31:54,279 --> 00:31:56,599
archer till the sky lightened the next morning. I didn't

652
00:31:56,599 --> 00:31:58,960
even hesitate. I packed everything up. The whole place suddenly

653
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,079
felt run, like I'd stayed in a place I wasn't

654
00:32:01,079 --> 00:32:02,920
supposed to be. I loaded my gear into the truck,

655
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:04,559
trot not to think about the foot of the music

656
00:32:04,599 --> 00:32:06,319
the figure in it was. Then I runded the back

657
00:32:06,319 --> 00:32:09,359
of the trailer and stopped cold. Another spiral, but this

658
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:14,880
time not stones. It was bones. It was bones, dear bones,

659
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:18,119
by the look of it, Cleay Mike vertebrae spiraled out carefully,

660
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:21,480
almost artfully. Two small hoofs were placed right in the center,

661
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:26,400
like punctuation. No signs of a caucas nearby, no blood,

662
00:32:26,759 --> 00:32:30,759
just the bones. It felt like a message or a warning,

663
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,119
maybe birth. I didn't even lock the door behind me,

664
00:32:34,319 --> 00:32:37,519
just drove until the trailer disappeared in the mirror. That night,

665
00:32:37,559 --> 00:32:39,920
I crashed at a cheap motel Nickingsworth, kept the TV on,

666
00:32:40,039 --> 00:32:42,880
didn't even bother brushing my teeth. I lay on top

667
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:45,680
of the covers, fully dressed, shock and propped against the wall,

668
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,039
barely slept. Next morning, as I was repacking my bag,

669
00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:51,039
I found the CD player right there on top of

670
00:32:51,039 --> 00:32:53,680
my clothes, which made zero sense because I was absolutely

671
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:55,880
certain i'd left it from the counter inside the trailer.

672
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,160
I started at it for a long time, then, without

673
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,440
really thinking, I opened the lid. Inside was a different

674
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,079
to snow label, just a shiny black surface with a

675
00:33:05,119 --> 00:33:07,720
single scratch down the middle. I don't know what made

676
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:10,440
me do it, but I hit play the Kid's voice again.

677
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,440
Don't tell him no. Don't tell him no, don't tell

678
00:33:14,519 --> 00:33:19,720
him no. Then a pause, then another voice whispery lo,

679
00:33:20,599 --> 00:33:24,359
almost like it came from behind the headphones. Bokhere. I

680
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,839
stood up, walked outside and dropped the whole thing into

681
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:29,720
the motel dumpster. Didn't even look to see if anyone

682
00:33:29,799 --> 00:33:33,279
was watching, just turned and walked back in. Drove home

683
00:33:33,279 --> 00:33:36,079
without stopping again. This this trail that cuts through the

684
00:33:36,079 --> 00:33:40,079
woods behind my parents place. Nothing official, no signs or maps,

685
00:33:40,319 --> 00:33:43,039
just something the locals know about. I've been walking it

686
00:33:43,079 --> 00:33:45,400
since I was a kid. By the time I hit

687
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:47,880
my teens, I probably knew every tryst and bent better

688
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:50,319
than I knew our own back yard. That morning was

689
00:33:50,359 --> 00:33:54,279
called early November, the first weekend of dear season. If

690
00:33:54,319 --> 00:33:56,680
you're not from a place like mine, that probably doesn't

691
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,519
mean much, But around here it's a whole event. Parked

692
00:33:59,519 --> 00:34:03,240
along grounds, guys in orange wandering into the woods before sunrise,

693
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,559
the whole deal. I was going out to hunt. I

694
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,039
just needed to be alone. We buried my uncle a

695
00:34:09,039 --> 00:34:11,239
week before, and since then the house had been stuff

696
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,360
walked to wall with family castle rolls, mammon prayers, and

697
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:17,719
too much silence between the talking grief makes people weird.

698
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:20,480
They either don't talk at all, they talk too much.

699
00:34:21,199 --> 00:34:23,039
I needed to breathe there that hadn't passed through some

700
00:34:23,079 --> 00:34:25,679
one sobbing, so I slipped at early. Didn't even tell

701
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:28,559
any one, just took my thermos, a sleeve of crackers,

702
00:34:28,599 --> 00:34:31,440
and my pocket knife, the kind of clips onto your belt,

703
00:34:31,599 --> 00:34:33,599
not meant for much more than whitling bark or peeling

704
00:34:33,599 --> 00:34:36,880
an apple, but it made me feel better heavy. My

705
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:39,960
phone was useless up there anyway, no service. That was

706
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,760
the point. I walked slow, took the long path, let

707
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,199
the quiet settle in. It was nice for a while,

708
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:48,719
leaves crunching, frost still clinging to the grass, and the shadows,

709
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:50,400
the kind of cold that stings a little when you

710
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:53,239
breathe too deep about an eyere in I came up

711
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:55,880
on the thaird shack, the one I never liked. I

712
00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:58,400
stopped there, not sure why, may be just curious to

713
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,000
see how much worse it had gotten. It looked the same,

714
00:35:01,199 --> 00:35:02,880
like something had tried to claw its way up from

715
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:05,960
underneath and then given up halfway through. I was standing

716
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:08,440
beside it, sipping coffee and staring at the collapsed roof

717
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,360
when I noticed the boot prints. They were fresh, still

718
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:15,320
sharp around the issues, big two like warp boots, and

719
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,159
they wore mine. They cut behind the shack and headed

720
00:35:18,199 --> 00:35:20,320
straight into the woods, off the path, in a direction

721
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,119
no Saint hunter would go. I just stood there looking

722
00:35:23,119 --> 00:35:25,719
at them. The prints were deep, like the person had

723
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:28,239
been carrying something heavy or just moving with real purpose.

724
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,320
I told myself it had to be another hunter, probably

725
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,239
someone taking a shock out or chasing after something. I

726
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,840
tried not to let it get to me. Still, I

727
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:39,880
didn't follow. Instead, I took the long way around the

728
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:42,559
ridge loop, thinking the walkward clear my head. But the

729
00:35:42,559 --> 00:35:44,440
whole time I couldn't shake the feeling that I had

730
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,360
seen something I wasn't supposed to. It wasn't just the Prince,

731
00:35:48,079 --> 00:35:49,480
it was how wrong they felt out there in a

732
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:52,199
place I'd always had to myself. And then I saw

733
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:55,760
the marker. It was maybe twenty minutes later. I just

734
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:57,519
come down a slight slope when I saw it, off

735
00:35:57,559 --> 00:36:00,519
to the right side of the trail, five stones, neatly

736
00:36:00,639 --> 00:36:03,599
balanced way too precisely, with a small rabbit skull placed

737
00:36:03,599 --> 00:36:08,840
carefully on the very top. It looked recent clean. I froze.

738
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,159
I hadn't passed it earlier. I knew that for sure,

739
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:14,519
there's no way it would have missed something like that.

740
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:17,719
Trail isn't wide, and I'm always paying attention when I'm

741
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:21,360
up there. That stack was there before. For a second,

742
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:23,800
I just stared at it, like maybe I was misreading it,

743
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:26,320
like maybe some kid had built it. But it wasn't

744
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:29,719
a game. That skull was too clean, too perfect. It

745
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:31,880
wasn't just a pile of rocks. It was a message.

746
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:36,239
I turned around right then, no slow walk, no second thoughts,

747
00:36:37,159 --> 00:36:39,039
just turned on my heel and started back the way

748
00:36:39,079 --> 00:36:41,599
I came. My heart wasn't pounding yet, but I was

749
00:36:41,639 --> 00:36:45,360
locked in focused. Every twenty steps I started hearing something

750
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:49,280
behind me. Nothing I could point to. No snapping branches,

751
00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:54,159
no voices, just little movements like leave shifting, like someone

752
00:36:54,199 --> 00:36:57,199
trying real hard not to be noticed. At first, I

753
00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:00,239
told myself it was just my nerves. I kept walking

754
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:03,199
faster now, but the sands didn't stop. They matched me

755
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:05,760
step first step. By the time I reached the fort

756
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,559
near the ravine, I was on edge. I glanced down

757
00:37:08,599 --> 00:37:11,199
the slope and that's when I saw them again, BeO prints,

758
00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:13,639
but this time they were heavier, deeper and they were

759
00:37:13,679 --> 00:37:17,199
overlapping mine. Whoever it had been behind me, not beside

760
00:37:17,199 --> 00:37:20,000
the trail, not somewhere else directly behind me, walking where

761
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,119
I just walked. I didn't think. I just ran. I

762
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:26,199
veered off the main path and cut into a narrow

763
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,000
gully that did down toward a dry stream bed. I

764
00:37:29,039 --> 00:37:30,960
knew the area well enough to think I could loop

765
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:33,719
around and reach the road without being seen. It was

766
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:35,920
the perfect plan, but I figured I'd be harder to

767
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:39,360
follow that way. Big mistake. The moment I hit the

768
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:42,039
bottom of the gully, I saw them more markers, not

769
00:37:42,199 --> 00:37:45,000
Stone's time. These were made of sticks tied together with

770
00:37:45,079 --> 00:37:47,920
rough twine, jammed into cracks in the rock face, three

771
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,159
of them, all different. One had something dangling from it,

772
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:53,960
a little strip of denim in a single human tooth,

773
00:37:54,039 --> 00:37:57,519
threaded like a bead. My knees almost gave out. I

774
00:37:57,559 --> 00:37:59,760
stumbled back a step and just stared at it, trying

775
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:01,920
to make sense of what I was seeing. There was

776
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:05,960
no good explanation none. I scrambled back up the slope.

777
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:08,559
My legs were shaking so badly. I slipped twice and

778
00:38:08,599 --> 00:38:11,159
tore my pums in the loose gravel. I didn't care

779
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:13,920
I didn't even look behind me. I just got to

780
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:16,800
the top and ran. Then I saw him. He was

781
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:19,400
standing just off the trail, near the old deer blind,

782
00:38:20,159 --> 00:38:22,840
still a stone. He had a thick canvas jacket on

783
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:26,519
the hood, pulled up green pants, no gloves. His face

784
00:38:26,599 --> 00:38:28,800
was raw red, like it had been scraped with sand paper,

785
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,679
except for this one pale strip around his eyes. The

786
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:33,800
skin there was in touch, clean, like it had been

787
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,960
protected like goggles or something. His mouth was shut, but

788
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,519
his jaw kept moving, twitching, grinding, like he was chewing

789
00:38:39,559 --> 00:38:42,039
something over and over again. We locked eyes, and I

790
00:38:42,079 --> 00:38:45,039
didn't wait. I just bolted into the trees, crashing through

791
00:38:45,079 --> 00:38:47,159
brush like a deer with a bullet in it. I

792
00:38:47,199 --> 00:38:51,960
heard him move, heavy steps, breaking branches. I didn't think

793
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:54,280
about where I was going. I just ran in the

794
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,679
direction of the only place I knew, the third leven shack.

795
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,440
I dove through the doorway, half clapsed as it was,

796
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:01,920
and curled up behind the old stove, tucking myself into

797
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:04,599
the broken timbers like I was trying to disappear. My

798
00:39:04,639 --> 00:39:07,639
whole body was buzzing with adrenaline. My hands were shaking

799
00:39:07,639 --> 00:39:10,159
so hard I nearly not my thermis over. Then I

800
00:39:10,199 --> 00:39:14,159
heard him outside, slow, steady footstep circling the shack, not rushing,

801
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:18,000
just facing, listening, waiting. At one point he leaned against

802
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,519
the wall. I saw the shadow of his boots through

803
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:23,079
a gap between the boards. He just stood there and

804
00:39:23,159 --> 00:39:26,480
then nothing. I didn't move for a long time. It

805
00:39:26,519 --> 00:39:29,639
felt like iurs, but it was probably twenty minutes when

806
00:39:29,639 --> 00:39:31,719
I finally called out the back. I didn't go near

807
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,320
the trail. I stuck to the trees and stayed low,

808
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:36,199
cutting behind the rodg until I hit the edge of

809
00:39:36,199 --> 00:39:40,599
the neighbor's pasture. My station was a profab shed metal walls,

810
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:43,480
one tiny window propin heater that only worked when it

811
00:39:43,519 --> 00:39:46,559
felt like it. Inside. I had a chair, clip board,

812
00:39:46,599 --> 00:39:49,400
a seabe radio and not much else. No Wi Fi,

813
00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:51,679
barely a signal on my phone unless I hiked a

814
00:39:51,679 --> 00:39:53,480
pill with both arms out like I was praying to

815
00:39:53,519 --> 00:39:56,760
the sky. The point of the job was basic. I

816
00:39:56,840 --> 00:40:01,039
logged anyone who came through the area, hikers, ranger, maintenance crews.

817
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,559
If they showed up, they signed in. If they left,

818
00:40:04,639 --> 00:40:07,760
they signed out. I kept a paper, look radioed in

819
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:10,840
anything unusual, and that was about it. By mid November,

820
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:14,199
Traffa dropped off almost completely. The weather turned, the casual

821
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:16,880
hikers stopped coming, and the hunters stuck to more interior rotes.

822
00:40:17,639 --> 00:40:20,880
I started bringing books, crosswood puzzles, even the sketch bed,

823
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,880
just to stay busy. Then about half way through the month,

824
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,039
I noticed something off. There was a signature in the loebook.

825
00:40:27,079 --> 00:40:31,920
I didn't remember writing k hole, just that write above mine,

826
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:35,880
same handwriting every time, perfect uniform block letters, like someone

827
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,840
was using a stencil. At first, I figured maybe a

828
00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:41,280
ranger had passed thure early and didn't bother checking him

829
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:43,880
with me, which wasn't unheard of. But when I brought

830
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,320
it up with Dale, my supervisor at the main outpost,

831
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:48,719
he said, nobody by that name had clearance for our sector,

832
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:53,039
not even across the broader region. I got word about it,

833
00:40:53,079 --> 00:40:56,119
started double checking everything. I kept the clipboard of me,

834
00:40:56,159 --> 00:40:57,960
even when I woke the thirty feet to the outhouse,

835
00:40:58,639 --> 00:41:00,800
lock the shed behind me. Every time I left, even

836
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:04,159
just to stretch my legs. Still the signature kept showing up,

837
00:41:04,159 --> 00:41:06,760
always before mine, always neat, never smuged a rushed. One

838
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:08,880
morning I decided to get in early. I don't even

839
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:10,360
know where. I just had this an easy feeling. It

840
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:12,079
was still pitch black out when I got the snow

841
00:41:12,119 --> 00:41:15,000
had fallen overnight, light and powdery. I remembered that clearly

842
00:41:15,039 --> 00:41:16,840
because I was thinking how and toutch It all looked

843
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:18,920
except it wasn't. There were bootprints coming from the woods

844
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,480
straight to the shed, no side trails, no signs of

845
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:25,480
an animal, no scoff marks, just clean, deliberate tracks heading

846
00:41:25,519 --> 00:41:27,320
to the door and then heading back the same way.

847
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:32,559
Only one set. They weren't mine, smaller than mine, but deep, heavy,

848
00:41:32,679 --> 00:41:34,639
like you ever made them, was carrying something or wasn't

849
00:41:34,639 --> 00:41:37,280
walking quite right. I stood there for a while, just

850
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:39,599
stirring at them, feeling that cold, creepy get when your

851
00:41:39,599 --> 00:41:43,000
body figures something up before your brain does. Inside the shed,

852
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:44,840
the clipboard was right where I had left it, and

853
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:48,000
the lock had a new entry Kayhall seven point thirteen

854
00:41:48,039 --> 00:41:51,800
a m. I checked my watch it was seven point fifteen.

855
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,119
I hadn't even unlocked the shed until two minutes ago.

856
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,519
That night, I brought in one of my old trail

857
00:41:56,599 --> 00:41:59,239
cams from home. I didn't tell Dale, didn't mention it

858
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:02,119
to any one. I mounted it under the awning, facing

859
00:42:02,119 --> 00:42:05,800
the door. It was low profile, nothing fancy, but it worked.

860
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:08,559
I'd use it for dearer tracking before, and it had

861
00:42:08,559 --> 00:42:11,719
picked up everything from herccoons to hickers with GoPros. Three

862
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:13,960
days later, I took the st card home to check.

863
00:42:14,599 --> 00:42:17,480
What I found wasn't just blank footage. It was like

864
00:42:17,519 --> 00:42:20,519
the camera had never been there. No birds, no wind

865
00:42:20,519 --> 00:42:23,760
in the trees, no crutters, no images of me unlocking

866
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:27,519
the door or walking pass just motionless still frames iOS

867
00:42:27,559 --> 00:42:29,239
of them. But the locks eyned again. K hall Ate

868
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:31,679
forty two a M. K Hole nine hundred six a M.

869
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:34,480
I finally called Dale Dale tolt in. Something weighed was happening,

870
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:36,039
that some one might be tampering with the shade of

871
00:42:36,159 --> 00:42:38,760
the logs. As response, probably some local screwing around changed

872
00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:40,920
the lock. If it bothers you, that was it. So

873
00:42:41,039 --> 00:42:43,559
I did. Bought a new padlock the next day from

874
00:42:43,599 --> 00:42:46,440
a hardware store out in Dry Branch, made sure it

875
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:50,079
was sturdy. Only two keys existed, mine and the backup

876
00:42:50,079 --> 00:42:51,679
that went straight into the lock books at the main

877
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:56,079
station twenty miles out, nobody else. Next morning I pull

878
00:42:56,159 --> 00:42:59,880
up and something's already wrong. The lock is different, like

879
00:43:00,119 --> 00:43:04,119
totally different, not just tampered with, replaced. It was now

880
00:43:04,159 --> 00:43:07,000
one of those keeped locks of no keiol I didn't

881
00:43:07,039 --> 00:43:10,079
own one, I didn't install it, and I know for

882
00:43:10,119 --> 00:43:11,920
a fact Dale wouldn't have driven out in the middle

883
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:14,519
of the night just to swap hardware. The shed door

884
00:43:14,559 --> 00:43:16,639
was cracked open, like it had been left in a hurry.

885
00:43:17,199 --> 00:43:21,000
Inside every single document was gone, the hiker logs, the maps,

886
00:43:21,039 --> 00:43:23,800
the maintenance notes, even the emergency checklist I had pinned

887
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:26,599
to the court board in their place tip. Dead center

888
00:43:26,639 --> 00:43:28,559
to the window was a single sheet of printed paper,

889
00:43:28,599 --> 00:43:33,239
plain white black text, you're not logging out. I left,

890
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:37,159
didn't shut the door, didn't call it in, just walked

891
00:43:37,159 --> 00:43:39,920
to the truck, got in and drove. I don't even

892
00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:42,840
remember most of the drive out. I didn't stop until

893
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:44,800
I cut cell service again and pulled off the road

894
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:47,480
nearer Dinah to Coldale. He said some one would go

895
00:43:47,519 --> 00:43:49,840
out and look. Told me to take the rest of

896
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:53,480
the week off. I didn't argue. That weekend, I stayed

897
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:56,039
at my cousin lives place in Crossbind She had a

898
00:43:56,079 --> 00:44:00,000
two bedroom house tucked near the Ridge Good Privacy. I

899
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,000
I didn't give her all the details, just said I

900
00:44:02,039 --> 00:44:05,480
was feeling burnt out and needed a break. Saturday night,

901
00:44:05,599 --> 00:44:07,800
she went out with some friends and I stayed back.

902
00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:11,519
Around eleven, I stepped outside for a smoke. It was

903
00:44:11,559 --> 00:44:14,239
cold when I remember that pop because I was just

904
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:16,719
standing there, kind of zoning out when I saw someone

905
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:20,719
near the tree line, not close, maybe fifty yards back,

906
00:44:21,559 --> 00:44:25,199
just standing there. I froze, thought maybe it was a

907
00:44:25,199 --> 00:44:30,119
neighbor or someone lost. I called out nothing. I tried again.

908
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:35,559
Still nothing. Then they moved not toward me, not toward me,

909
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:40,360
just sideways, real slow, almost like they were floating, just

910
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:42,800
along the edge of the woods, weaving through the gaps

911
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:46,119
in the trees. I flipped the porch light on do

912
00:44:47,079 --> 00:44:49,440
I checked the trail camp I'd brought it with me

913
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:51,400
just in case, and set it a pointing in to

914
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:56,559
live's back out. I pulled the card. Nothing again, no footage,

915
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,280
like it hadn't even turned on. I barely slept them night.

916
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:02,679
Every time the wind moved, I got up to check

917
00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:06,000
the window. Nothing out there, but I couldn't shake the

918
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:09,239
feeling that something was watching. The next morning, Lift came

919
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:12,000
back around ten. First thing she asked was if I'd

920
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:15,320
gone into her room. I told her no. She paused

921
00:45:15,320 --> 00:45:17,280
for a second, then said some one had written something

922
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:21,760
on her bedroom mirror, just one word stay. She wiped

923
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:25,440
it off without thinking, but it rattled her, rattled me too.

924
00:45:25,639 --> 00:45:28,000
We left that afternoon, packed our bags, and drove to

925
00:45:28,039 --> 00:45:31,360
a motel in Freighton, three towns over nowhere near the forest.

926
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:34,360
Back then, I was renting this narrow little dupleix just

927
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:37,639
outside a town called Crossford in western Pennsylvania. If he

928
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:40,679
blinked while driving through, he'd missed the exit. The place

929
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:43,199
was bowed between wooded ridges and sat maybe two hundred

930
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:45,880
feet off an old state highway that hadn't seen proper maintenance.

931
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:48,800
In News. I found it through a friend of a friend. Cheap,

932
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:51,199
barely insulated, and not the kind of home you'd invite

933
00:45:51,199 --> 00:45:54,719
people over to, but for me it worked. I worked

934
00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:57,000
swing shifts at a machine shop about forty minutes away

935
00:45:57,000 --> 00:45:59,239
in Slatonville, and all I really needed was a quiet

936
00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:02,920
place to crash an half way decent water heater. My neighbor, Everett,

937
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:06,840
lived on the other side, retired maybe late sixties, kept

938
00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:09,960
his grass short and his blinds closed. We didn't talk

939
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:12,920
beyond the occasional nod he gave this slow little wave

940
00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:14,599
if he happened to be outside. When I pulled an

941
00:46:14,599 --> 00:46:18,480
after work. That was pretty much our entire relationship. The

942
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:21,760
weird stuff started around the second week of November. I

943
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:23,840
came home after a long shift closed to midnight and

944
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:27,440
noticed his porch light was on just his side. Mine

945
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:30,639
stayed dock unless I flipped the switch. His light wasn't

946
00:46:30,679 --> 00:46:33,960
just on, though, it was pulsing, like he couldn't decide

947
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:36,719
whether it was dying or trying to stay alive, just

948
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:39,760
the slow, irregular flicker. I stood in the driver for

949
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,880
a second watching it, waiting for movement inside, but his

950
00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:45,480
place looked silled up tight, not t he be glow,

951
00:46:45,679 --> 00:46:49,360
no sand. Eventually I just shrugged it off and went inside.

952
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:52,079
Heated up some left of resteer and crashed on the couch.

953
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:54,960
The next morning, when I stepped out to head to work,

954
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:57,880
I noticed something weed right outside my front door, A

955
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:00,400
circle of dump leaves maybe three feet wide. I laid

956
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:02,280
out neatly, like someone had taken their time with it.

957
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:05,440
Right in the middle was a dead bird, a little

958
00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:09,679
bound thing, completely intact, no signs of trauma, just lying

959
00:47:09,679 --> 00:47:11,599
there with his feet cold and like it had been placed.

960
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:14,199
I checked a round for any sign that someone had

961
00:47:14,199 --> 00:47:18,320
been there. Everett's place was still shut. Tight curtains drawn,

962
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:21,639
porch light off. I ended up backing the boat in

963
00:47:21,639 --> 00:47:23,920
a grocery sack and tossing it in the bin out back.

964
00:47:24,639 --> 00:47:26,360
Kicked the leaves away with my boot and choked it

965
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:28,480
up to some neighborhood kid being weird, or maybe even

966
00:47:28,519 --> 00:47:30,639
ever it playing some kind of quiet prank that it

967
00:47:30,679 --> 00:47:32,920
didn't fit what little I knew of him. But the

968
00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:36,880
next morning another circle showed up, smaller this time, no bird,

969
00:47:37,119 --> 00:47:39,480
just a cluster of smith stones and a torn but page.

970
00:47:39,559 --> 00:47:42,320
The paper bloated with moisture. It looked like it had

971
00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:45,199
been ripped out of a dictionary or an encyclopedia. Most

972
00:47:45,199 --> 00:47:48,559
of the print was mudge, but one word stuck out, murmuration.

973
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:51,199
That word rattled around in my head all day, even

974
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:52,679
though I couldn't have told you what it meant at

975
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:55,280
the time, it just felt pointed like it was meant

976
00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:58,199
for me. After that, I stopped cleaning the circles up.

977
00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:00,400
I think some part of me wanted to see if

978
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:03,519
they'd keep coming, like testing a pattern, and they did.

979
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:08,400
Every day, just before sunrise, a new one, bits of twine,

980
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:11,760
old keys, dried fruit buttons. One morning it was a

981
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:14,559
row of flatten bottle caps all lined up like a spine.

982
00:48:15,039 --> 00:48:16,960
That same day, ever, it came out for a smoke

983
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:20,000
while I was locking up. I figured maybe you'd seen something,

984
00:48:20,079 --> 00:48:23,199
so I called over, Hey, you notice any one strange

985
00:48:23,199 --> 00:48:25,840
walking around that night? He didn't even glance at me,

986
00:48:26,039 --> 00:48:28,840
just exhaled in mutter. He didn't tell them to stop.

987
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:31,960
Then he turned and went back inside without another word.

988
00:48:32,599 --> 00:48:34,159
That night was the first time I felt real and

989
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:37,920
easy in that house. Not fear exactly, just that deep

990
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:41,000
stomach not kind of alertness, like when you're walking through

991
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:43,320
a parking garage and realize you're the only one there.

992
00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:45,920
I kept the TV on while I tried to fall asleep.

993
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:49,920
Around two in the morning, I heard footsteps outside, slow,

994
00:48:50,079 --> 00:48:53,800
deliberate steps on the gravel driveway, not hurrying, not trying

995
00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:57,159
to sneak, just walking. I slipped out of bed and

996
00:48:57,159 --> 00:48:59,400
crept to the window, pulling the curtain back just a

997
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:03,599
little nothing, but the steps kept going, passed under the window,

998
00:49:03,719 --> 00:49:07,079
paused near the porch. Then I heard it, this light

999
00:49:07,119 --> 00:49:10,519
scraping sound across the front door, like something rigid, maybe

1000
00:49:10,519 --> 00:49:12,920
a nail, maybe a stick, was being dragged across the

1001
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:16,719
wood in one lawn careful stroke. I didn't move, I

1002
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:19,840
didn't even breathe. The scraping went on for thirty seconds,

1003
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:22,719
maybe more, then stopped. I stood there in the dark

1004
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:25,320
for ten minutes before I turned in the lights. I

1005
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:27,280
kept every bulb in the house burning and left the

1006
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:30,519
tee bee running all night. I didn't even pretend to sleep.

1007
00:49:31,199 --> 00:49:34,679
Next morning, the circle on the porch was made of coins, rusty,

1008
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:36,559
tarnished things, all laid heads up, like some one had

1009
00:49:36,599 --> 00:49:39,280
flipped them on purpose. That's when I booked a room

1010
00:49:39,280 --> 00:49:41,559
at a motel. There was a place and level about

1011
00:49:41,599 --> 00:49:44,320
twenty miles out, just behind an old diner. They have

1012
00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:46,519
one of those neon signs with most of the letters

1013
00:49:46,519 --> 00:49:48,920
burned out. I paid for three nights and brought a

1014
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,039
duffel bag in my work clothes. The first night there,

1015
00:49:52,079 --> 00:49:53,760
I had a dream that I was lying in a field,

1016
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:57,360
flat on my back. All around me were birds, not flying,

1017
00:49:57,679 --> 00:50:01,239
just sitting watching, their heads turned light eyes fixed on me.

1018
00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:05,320
They weren't dead, and they weren't moving, just waiting. I

1019
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:06,840
woke up a round free to find the t B

1020
00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:09,199
in the motel room, playing some love budget kid's cauto

1021
00:50:09,199 --> 00:50:11,159
in with a squeaky voice, bare hopping through a forest.

1022
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,079
I hadn't turned the tee be on. I got up

1023
00:50:14,119 --> 00:50:15,840
and plugged it from the wall and didn't sleep again

1024
00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:18,480
until morning. When I got back to the duplex three

1025
00:50:18,519 --> 00:50:21,639
days later, ever, it was gone, no car in the driveway,

1026
00:50:22,159 --> 00:50:25,960
no light, mail piling up in his box. A knocked

1027
00:50:26,039 --> 00:50:29,239
just to be sure nothing. I ended up calling the landlord.

1028
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,320
He said, ever, it hadn't given any notice, hadn't contacted

1029
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:35,440
him at all, just disappeared. That night, the colt came

1030
00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:38,920
back hot. I was lying in bed, half dozing when

1031
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:41,239
I heard it again. Three sharp knocks in the back window,

1032
00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:46,360
then silence, then softer, this time a kind of heston tapping,

1033
00:50:46,679 --> 00:50:49,159
like someone using just the tip of a finger. I

1034
00:50:49,199 --> 00:50:51,960
stayed frozen in place, listening to the household is breath.

1035
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:55,280
Sometime around four I heard the front door lush press down,

1036
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:58,480
just the latch, not the dead bolt, like someone testing

1037
00:50:58,519 --> 00:51:02,239
it gently. I got up, walked quietly to the door

1038
00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:06,039
and looked through the peep hole. Nothing. I flipped the bolt,

1039
00:51:06,119 --> 00:51:07,880
said the chain, and went back to bed with the

1040
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:10,719
hallway light still on. I didn't sleep, just waited for

1041
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:13,360
light to come. The final time it happened was maybe

1042
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:15,920
a week later, during the first real snow of the season,

1043
00:51:16,519 --> 00:51:19,599
just flours, nothing sticking yet. I was in the basement

1044
00:51:19,679 --> 00:51:22,199
doing laundry when I heard distinct footsteps up stairs, just

1045
00:51:22,239 --> 00:51:25,760
across a kitchen, heel to toe. I froze. It was

1046
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:27,639
the kind of sound that leaves no doubt some one

1047
00:51:27,679 --> 00:51:30,000
is up there with you. I stood by the driver

1048
00:51:30,119 --> 00:51:33,559
what felt like forever, just listening, not even breathing. Then,

1049
00:51:33,599 --> 00:51:36,360
after a long stretch of silence, I heard burst on outside,

1050
00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:39,280
a soft, distant flutter. It was the only reason I

1051
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:41,960
let myself go up. When I stepped into the kitchen,

1052
00:51:42,079 --> 00:51:45,320
every single drawer was open, not ransacked, just open, pulled

1053
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:49,320
out to full extension, neat, almost surgical. On the counter,

1054
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:51,280
on a white in a plate was the berth that

1055
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:53,920
same stiff, dried up bird I had thrown out weeks earlier,

1056
00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:58,000
same cold feet, same ingle, same size. I didn't stay.

1057
00:51:58,679 --> 00:52:02,320
I didn't stay. I grabbed my bag and laughed, drove

1058
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:04,400
to my cousin, Marla's place in Akron, and slept on

1059
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:07,000
her pilot couch for a month. I didn't tell how why.

1060
00:52:07,679 --> 00:52:09,920
She just said I needed to clear my head. When

1061
00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:11,440
I went back to get the rest of my staff,

1062
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:14,719
the place felt hollow, no sign of anything missing or moved.

1063
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:19,400
Everett's side was still empty. Never saw him again. My

1064
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:22,440
uncle Aaron had a stroke the week before Halloween. It

1065
00:52:22,519 --> 00:52:24,519
hit him out of nowhah while he was chopping wood,

1066
00:52:24,559 --> 00:52:26,159
and for a while it looked like he might not

1067
00:52:26,239 --> 00:52:29,159
make it. While my parents ran back and forth between

1068
00:52:29,199 --> 00:52:31,719
hospitals and we have centers, they decided I'd stay with

1069
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:34,159
my grandma for a bit, not just for a night

1070
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:36,199
or two. They packed my duffel and said ividare for

1071
00:52:36,239 --> 00:52:39,480
a little while. Grandma Almah lived way out in Wilburn Hollow,

1072
00:52:39,519 --> 00:52:41,519
about an hour outside of town that barely had a

1073
00:52:41,519 --> 00:52:44,559
grocery store. Her house sat past the old Strip mine.

1074
00:52:44,679 --> 00:52:46,679
Way backward, a pavement turned to gravel and then to

1075
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:49,360
nothing at all. The last sign I remember seeing was

1076
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:51,920
half rusted and crooked, just a green arrow pointing to

1077
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:54,760
Gilby Fork. I named nobody ever actually said out loud.

1078
00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:57,679
Almah was already waiting on the porch when we pulled up.

1079
00:52:58,199 --> 00:52:59,639
She had her coat on, even though it wasn't a

1080
00:52:59,719 --> 00:53:02,840
cold yet, just stood there with her arms folded, squinting

1081
00:53:02,840 --> 00:53:04,360
at the road, like she already knew what we were

1082
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:08,079
going to say. She barely spoke, just nodded when one

1083
00:53:08,079 --> 00:53:09,719
told to thank you, and gave me a quick pat

1084
00:53:09,719 --> 00:53:12,760
on the shoulder. Then they were gone, the car disappearing

1085
00:53:12,800 --> 00:53:14,320
in a trail of dust that hung in the air

1086
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:17,400
for way too long. Inside the house hadn't changed since

1087
00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:20,840
I was little, still smelled like woodsmoke and dried herbs.

1088
00:53:21,239 --> 00:53:23,079
She had strings of what I thought were old bean

1089
00:53:23,079 --> 00:53:25,599
pots hanging from the ceiling, and jaws of pickled vegetables

1090
00:53:25,639 --> 00:53:28,559
lined up like trophies along every window sill. A horse

1091
00:53:28,559 --> 00:53:30,599
shoe hung above the door, nailed in with three big

1092
00:53:30,599 --> 00:53:33,840
iron spikes. She pointed me to the front room. It

1093
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:36,559
had the big cast iron stove, a colt covered couch,

1094
00:53:36,639 --> 00:53:38,920
and that old Winchester rifle over the fireplace that no

1095
00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:41,719
one ever touched. The kind of place where you noticed

1096
00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:45,320
the silence more than anything else. No hum of appliances,

1097
00:53:46,079 --> 00:53:50,599
no distant traffic, not even when through the trees, just stillness,

1098
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:53,719
the kind that presses in on you. I didn't fall

1099
00:53:53,719 --> 00:53:55,960
asleep easily that first night, but I must have eventually

1100
00:53:56,039 --> 00:53:59,239
dozed off. What woke me was to sound. It was

1101
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:02,000
a feeling, the kind nut gets you before your brain

1102
00:54:02,039 --> 00:54:04,559
catches up. I opened my eyes to see the door

1103
00:54:04,559 --> 00:54:08,400
cracked open, just a hair moonlights built across the floor,

1104
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:10,960
and something was moving out in the porch. I couldn't

1105
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:13,320
see it clearly, just a shape shifting behind a curtain.

1106
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:16,400
But what really got me was the window. The frost

1107
00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:18,320
and the glass had started to melt in this narrow,

1108
00:54:18,440 --> 00:54:21,119
perfect streak, like some one had leaned in close, face

1109
00:54:21,199 --> 00:54:23,480
pressed to the pane. I could see the trail of

1110
00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:26,960
condensation slowly sliding downwards, still wet, like it had just happened.

1111
00:54:27,559 --> 00:54:29,280
I sat up and stared at it for a long time.

1112
00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:32,199
Next morning, Alma was already in the kitchen when I

1113
00:54:32,239 --> 00:54:34,760
came in. She was stirring cornmeal mash in a big

1114
00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:37,440
black pot, steam fogging up the window behind her. I

1115
00:54:37,519 --> 00:54:40,079
told her what I saw I thought I saw. She

1116
00:54:40,159 --> 00:54:43,440
didn't blink, didn't even turn. She just said if a knox,

1117
00:54:43,519 --> 00:54:47,000
don't speak to it. No explanation, no concern, just that.

1118
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:50,280
I wanted to ask more, but she didn't offer anything else.

1119
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:53,119
So I sat down and it quietly, trying not to

1120
00:54:53,119 --> 00:54:55,679
think about it. That evening, the wind picked up just

1121
00:54:55,719 --> 00:55:00,519
before sunset, not a normal breeze. It came all at once, loud, strange,

1122
00:55:00,679 --> 00:55:03,840
like something had snapped loose from the ridge. Branches scraped

1123
00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:06,280
across the roof, and something heavy knock against the siding.

1124
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:10,159
The boorge groaned under the strain. The house felt smaller somehow,

1125
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:13,480
like the pressure outside was pushing everything inward. I tried

1126
00:55:13,519 --> 00:55:16,239
reading a book I brought, but I couldn't focus. The

1127
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,400
noises just wouldn't stop. Right after I crawled into bed,

1128
00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:25,000
I heard it knocking, not banging, not pounding. Three soft,

1129
00:55:25,039 --> 00:55:28,920
careful knocks. They came from the front door. I didn't move.

1130
00:55:29,599 --> 00:55:31,440
My hand went clammy, and I felt every inch of

1131
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:34,199
the colt wrap tight around me. My body went cold

1132
00:55:34,199 --> 00:55:36,880
all at once, like the warm had been sucked out

1133
00:55:36,920 --> 00:55:40,760
of the room. I remembered Almah's voice. Don't speak to it,

1134
00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:44,800
so I didn't. Next morning she asked if i'd heard anything.

1135
00:55:45,400 --> 00:55:48,639
I lied, I said no. She looked at me for

1136
00:55:48,679 --> 00:55:51,440
a long second, then said, then it ain't interested yet.

1137
00:55:52,079 --> 00:55:54,039
She said it like she was testing me, like she

1138
00:55:54,079 --> 00:55:57,880
already knew the answer. We spent most of that day outside.

1139
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:00,519
She and me help chopkinnink, sweep out the smoke, and

1140
00:56:00,559 --> 00:56:04,000
clear some debris near the garden fence. The woods felt different,

1141
00:56:04,639 --> 00:56:07,559
everything was darker, even though the sky was clear. The

1142
00:56:07,639 --> 00:56:09,519
leaves were in golden or cursed like they should have been.

1143
00:56:10,119 --> 00:56:13,400
They look water logged, bruise, already half rotted. There was

1144
00:56:13,440 --> 00:56:16,039
no smell of autumn, just this damp, metallic scent in

1145
00:56:16,079 --> 00:56:18,719
the air. Nearer the edge of the woods as all

1146
00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:23,199
them stacks of rocks, little towers, maybe a foot tie,

1147
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:26,599
balanced in weird shapes, too precise to be random, but

1148
00:56:26,679 --> 00:56:29,320
too messy to be decorative. There were five or six

1149
00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:32,199
of them, all arranged just before the tree line. I

1150
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:35,760
asked Alma what they were markers. She said for what.

1151
00:56:36,679 --> 00:56:40,679
She didn't answer, just kept walking like the question didn't matter.

1152
00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:44,400
That night, I heard the knocks again, same soft tapping

1153
00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:49,559
three times, then after a long pause, three more, slower,

1154
00:56:50,239 --> 00:56:53,280
like it was giving me time. I stayed absolutely still,

1155
00:56:53,880 --> 00:56:56,079
my chest barely moved with each breath, and I kept

1156
00:56:56,079 --> 00:56:58,599
my eyes shut tight, even though I wasn't asleep. I

1157
00:56:58,639 --> 00:57:01,639
counted in my head, counted past a hundred before I

1158
00:57:01,719 --> 00:57:06,280
drifted off. I dreamed again. This time I saw a man, tall, bony, baffed,

1159
00:57:07,000 --> 00:57:10,280
skin like bark, rough and splitting in places. He had

1160
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:13,360
no eyes, just smooth gray skin where they should have been.

1161
00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:16,079
He stood inches from me, close enough to feel something

1162
00:57:16,199 --> 00:57:20,880
radiating off him, not heat, something else. He leaned down

1163
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:23,119
and moved his mouth like he was whispering, but I

1164
00:57:23,159 --> 00:57:27,199
didn't hear words. I just felt hollow. The next morning,

1165
00:57:27,239 --> 00:57:29,840
the door was open, the frost had crept half way

1166
00:57:29,880 --> 00:57:33,239
into the house, almost had nothing. By the fourth night,

1167
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:35,840
it wasn't just a front any more. I heard knocks

1168
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:39,079
from the back too free up front, then a pause,

1169
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:42,239
then three behind the house, like it was circling. I

1170
00:57:42,360 --> 00:57:44,920
lay there still, a stone swept pulling under my arms

1171
00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:47,800
and along my spine. The room felt too quiet, like

1172
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:50,679
it was holding its breath with me. Then came the slap.

1173
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:54,119
One shot hit against the side of the house, wet, heavy,

1174
00:57:54,199 --> 00:57:56,760
like a handful of mud hitting the boards. The next

1175
00:57:56,800 --> 00:57:59,599
morning I told all I wanted to leave. She just

1176
00:57:59,599 --> 00:58:01,679
looked at me and said, it's November. You brought it

1177
00:58:01,679 --> 00:58:04,079
with you. I stared at her, waiting for a joke

1178
00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:06,400
or anything, but she turned and walked out the back door.

1179
00:58:07,079 --> 00:58:09,840
Later that day I went to the outhouse when I

1180
00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:12,760
saw the prince coming from under the house lawn, narrow,

1181
00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:15,679
bare feet pressed deep into the mud. The toes looked

1182
00:58:15,679 --> 00:58:18,639
too far apart. Each step left a gouge, like it

1183
00:58:18,679 --> 00:58:22,039
was dragging something behind it. That night, no knocking, but

1184
00:58:22,079 --> 00:58:26,440
I heard something worse. Whispers, not outside, from inside the walls.

1185
00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:29,599
They weren't loud, but they were clear, and they said

1186
00:58:29,599 --> 00:58:32,599
my name. Only it was my name exactly. It was

1187
00:58:32,639 --> 00:58:34,960
like someone trying to say it, stretching it out, pulling

1188
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:37,280
the syllables too long, like they didn't quite remember how

1189
00:58:37,360 --> 00:58:41,360
words worked. I screamed. Almah rushed in with a shotgun.

1190
00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:44,599
She saw me pointing at the wall. Didn't even ask

1191
00:58:44,639 --> 00:58:48,480
what happened, She just said, come on. We walked barefoot

1192
00:58:48,480 --> 00:58:50,400
out into the cold hern just her shawl, me and

1193
00:58:50,440 --> 00:58:53,960
my pajamas. She didn't bring a flashlight. We went to

1194
00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:56,760
the family sanitary at the bottom of the hill. Fog

1195
00:58:56,840 --> 00:58:59,000
was rolling in from the creek, hugging the ground like smoke.

1196
00:58:59,679 --> 00:59:02,519
The girl us had gone gray, dead, quiet. She knelt

1197
00:59:02,519 --> 00:59:04,280
by one of the oldest graves and took out something

1198
00:59:04,280 --> 00:59:08,360
from her coat, a dried corn husk. She whispered into it, soft,

1199
00:59:08,440 --> 00:59:10,760
like she didn't want the fog to hear. Then she

1200
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:12,800
buried it in the frozen ground and stood up without

1201
00:59:12,840 --> 00:59:16,119
a word. We didn't speak the whole way back. I

1202
00:59:16,159 --> 00:59:18,320
slept through the night and sweared to never look back.

1203
00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:20,599
At the time, I was crashing in the speed up

1204
00:59:20,599 --> 00:59:22,400
old hunting trailer on the edge of a timber site

1205
00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:24,800
near Downley County, way out where the trees had numbered

1206
00:59:24,800 --> 00:59:27,280
people by a few thousand to one. My cousin Mark

1207
00:59:27,320 --> 00:59:29,800
at a small time logging operation going, and he needed

1208
00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:32,679
help clearing some plots before the ground froze up. I

1209
00:59:32,760 --> 00:59:34,400
figured it was a good way to make some cast

1210
00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:36,360
before winter, and maybe get a bit of breathing room

1211
00:59:36,400 --> 00:59:38,920
from the usual chaos back home. Mark lived a good

1212
00:59:38,920 --> 00:59:41,360
twenty minute drive away, but I liked staying closer to

1213
00:59:41,400 --> 00:59:44,480
the job site. Gave me a break from people. It

1214
00:59:44,559 --> 00:59:46,599
sat on a narrow patch of clearing, just off a

1215
00:59:46,639 --> 00:59:49,159
back trail, surrounded by pintenbirch so thick he could lose

1216
00:59:49,159 --> 00:59:52,000
sight of it ten feet out. Inside was bare bones

1217
00:59:52,079 --> 00:59:54,199
or cat a small folding table, a couple of hooks

1218
00:59:54,199 --> 00:59:56,639
on the wall for jackets and gear. Marked set it

1219
00:59:56,719 --> 00:59:58,800
up years back for deer season, but no one had

1220
00:59:58,800 --> 01:00:01,079
really used it in a while. You could tell by

1221
01:00:01,079 --> 01:00:03,239
the way everything had a faint dust to smell, like

1222
01:00:03,320 --> 01:00:05,960
dry bark in old wool. The first couple of weeks

1223
01:00:05,960 --> 01:00:10,039
went by without anything strange. It was early November. The

1224
01:00:10,119 --> 01:00:13,079
mornings were crisp, afternoons just warm enough to sweat through layos,

1225
01:00:13,159 --> 01:00:14,960
and nights cold enough that you could see your breath

1226
01:00:14,960 --> 01:00:18,199
inside before the fire got going. I got into a rhythm.

1227
01:00:18,719 --> 01:00:21,039
Wake up early, whole brush and cut logs with Mark

1228
01:00:21,079 --> 01:00:23,960
all day. Get back to the trailer after dark, heat

1229
01:00:24,039 --> 01:00:26,280
up a kin of super beans, maybe listen to the radio.

1230
01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:29,119
Then crash hard, that kind of tide where your body

1231
01:00:29,159 --> 01:00:31,880
doesn't give you the option to stay awake. Then came

1232
01:00:31,920 --> 01:00:34,840
the tenth night. I remember checking the old wristwatch I

1233
01:00:34,920 --> 01:00:37,400
kept hanging on a nail near the stove. It' said

1234
01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:40,559
two point fifteen. I hadn't heard anything, and I didn't

1235
01:00:40,599 --> 01:00:44,280
remember dreaming. I just opened my eyes and felt chop.

1236
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:49,880
Not anxious, not scared, just typer aware, like my brain

1237
01:00:49,920 --> 01:00:52,199
had flipped to switch on its own, the kind of

1238
01:00:52,199 --> 01:00:54,159
waking where you don't know what's wrong, but you're damn

1239
01:00:54,199 --> 01:00:55,880
sure something is. They sat up on the cot and

1240
01:00:55,960 --> 01:00:58,519
glanced out the small window over the stove. There was

1241
01:00:58,559 --> 01:01:00,559
a light in the woods. We all maybe a few

1242
01:01:00,599 --> 01:01:04,199
hundred feet out. It was faint, barely visible through the branches,

1243
01:01:04,280 --> 01:01:07,719
but it was definitely there. It pulsed slowly, reddish, like

1244
01:01:07,719 --> 01:01:10,800
an old brick light stuck blinking in the distance, except

1245
01:01:10,800 --> 01:01:12,639
there was the road that way, not even a trail,

1246
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:16,360
just solid forest. I stared at it, trying to figure

1247
01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:19,199
out what it could be. A lost hunter, maybe, but

1248
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:21,079
no one else was supposed to be out there. Mark

1249
01:01:21,119 --> 01:01:23,920
would have told me maybe a reflection, but from what

1250
01:01:24,719 --> 01:01:26,519
There was no moon that night, and I didn't keep

1251
01:01:26,519 --> 01:01:29,400
any lights on inside the trailer. I watched it blink,

1252
01:01:29,480 --> 01:01:32,800
slow and steady, one pulse every few seconds for nearly

1253
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:35,920
ten minutes. It just kept going, never moved, never got

1254
01:01:35,920 --> 01:01:39,039
brighter or dimmer. Eventually I pulled the curtain shut and

1255
01:01:39,159 --> 01:01:41,760
lay back down. I don't think I fell asleep again

1256
01:01:41,800 --> 01:01:44,719
until some time around dawn next morning. I hiked out

1257
01:01:44,760 --> 01:01:47,320
in the direction of the light. Took me about fifteen

1258
01:01:47,360 --> 01:01:50,280
minutes to reach the general area. I was expecting to

1259
01:01:50,320 --> 01:01:52,599
find much, but I figured i'd at least spot something,

1260
01:01:53,159 --> 01:01:55,639
maybe a flashlight some one left behind, or a fire pit,

1261
01:01:55,880 --> 01:01:59,280
or even just tire tracks. But there was nothing, no

1262
01:01:59,400 --> 01:02:03,440
signs of anyone, no light source. The ground was indisturbed,

1263
01:02:03,559 --> 01:02:06,679
covered in old pine needles and patches of moss. I

1264
01:02:06,719 --> 01:02:08,400
was just about to head back when I noticed something

1265
01:02:08,440 --> 01:02:11,199
up in the trees, about thirty feet off the ground.

1266
01:02:11,320 --> 01:02:13,800
Wrapped tied round a thick branch was a piece of twine,

1267
01:02:13,960 --> 01:02:17,760
just dangling there, swaying a little. It looked old, faded, frayed,

1268
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:20,519
like it had been there for years. No idea how

1269
01:02:20,519 --> 01:02:22,920
anyone would have gotten it up there. It was tied

1270
01:02:22,960 --> 01:02:24,760
in a tight loop, almost like a use, but I

1271
01:02:24,800 --> 01:02:27,440
didn't want to dwell on that idea. That night, I

1272
01:02:27,440 --> 01:02:30,519
barely slept. There were no lights this time, but around

1273
01:02:30,519 --> 01:02:33,559
midnight I started hearing something moving outside the trailer. Not

1274
01:02:33,719 --> 01:02:37,280
crashing through the brush or anything loud, just slow, careful footsteps, pacing, circling,

1275
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:39,199
the kind of movement that says someone's trying not to

1276
01:02:39,199 --> 01:02:41,000
be heard but isn't quite pulling it off. I stayed

1277
01:02:41,000 --> 01:02:42,840
in the caught hot thudding, listening. At one point I

1278
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:44,960
sat up, broad my flask light and swung the door open.

1279
01:02:45,039 --> 01:02:47,039
Nothing but cold air and trees. The steps stopped as

1280
01:02:47,079 --> 01:02:49,400
soon as I moved. I stood there for a long time, watching,

1281
01:02:49,559 --> 01:02:52,320
but there was nothing. Two nights later, I got back

1282
01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:55,280
after work and something fell off. It was small stuff,

1283
01:02:55,400 --> 01:02:58,480
but noticeable. My thermos, which I always left on the

1284
01:02:58,519 --> 01:03:02,039
table by the stove, was gone, just gone. The cot

1285
01:03:02,079 --> 01:03:04,199
had been shifted slightly, a couple of inches at most,

1286
01:03:04,239 --> 01:03:06,880
but I knew exactly how I left it. I told

1287
01:03:06,920 --> 01:03:09,159
myself maybe Raccon got in, But the latch and the

1288
01:03:09,199 --> 01:03:13,039
door was still hooked. Nothing else was disturbed. My pack

1289
01:03:13,079 --> 01:03:15,760
was untouched. The food I'd left in the cool oa

1290
01:03:15,880 --> 01:03:18,400
was still there, just the thermis missing, and the cought

1291
01:03:18,440 --> 01:03:21,400
a little out of place. I didn't say anything to Mark.

1292
01:03:22,039 --> 01:03:24,400
What was I going to tell him that my coffee

1293
01:03:24,400 --> 01:03:27,360
thermost ghosted me. I just started latching the door tighter

1294
01:03:27,360 --> 01:03:29,199
and wedging a piece of fire behind it at night

1295
01:03:29,880 --> 01:03:31,960
made me feel a little better, even if it probably

1296
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:35,400
wouldn't do much. That night, I heard it again, the

1297
01:03:35,480 --> 01:03:39,400
pacing a little after three this time, but then it stopped,

1298
01:03:40,039 --> 01:03:42,960
and I heard three knocks, soft, deliberate against the far

1299
01:03:43,039 --> 01:03:45,760
wall of the trailer, near where the propin tanks sat outside.

1300
01:03:46,440 --> 01:03:50,440
Then nothing. I didn't move, didn't breathe just sat there

1301
01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:53,519
staring at the paneling. A minute later, three more knocks,

1302
01:03:54,199 --> 01:03:56,519
same rhythm, and then silence again. By the fourteenth I

1303
01:03:56,559 --> 01:03:58,760
was praying physically mentally, I wasn't sleeping more than a

1304
01:03:58,760 --> 01:04:00,679
couple ears, and that eye was just be scattered. I

1305
01:04:00,719 --> 01:04:02,320
nearly took a chunk out of my iron hand with

1306
01:04:02,360 --> 01:04:04,480
the chain soil that morning because I wasn't paying attention.

1307
01:04:04,559 --> 01:04:06,360
Lock cast if I was sick. Eye told him I

1308
01:04:06,440 --> 01:04:08,320
was just tired. He nodded, but gave me that looked

1309
01:04:08,360 --> 01:04:11,679
like he didn't quite buy it, but wasn't gensbrush. That night,

1310
01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:14,599
I didn't even bother changing. I left my boots on

1311
01:04:14,639 --> 01:04:16,280
and kept the axe from the wood pald next to

1312
01:04:16,320 --> 01:04:19,519
the cot, just in case. Round midnight, I woke up

1313
01:04:19,519 --> 01:04:21,800
to the sound quiet, breathy humming, like someone trying to

1314
01:04:21,800 --> 01:04:24,280
sing a lullaby. While struggling to remember the tune, short

1315
01:04:24,320 --> 01:04:28,719
broken gasps between the notes, I froze. It wasn't outside,

1316
01:04:29,360 --> 01:04:32,840
it was inside the trailer. I couldn't see anyone the

1317
01:04:32,920 --> 01:04:35,239
darkness and there was thick like it was pressing against

1318
01:04:35,239 --> 01:04:38,639
my eyes, but I could feel it. I wasn't alone.

1319
01:04:39,000 --> 01:04:42,480
The humming moved closer, then stopped. My mouth was dry,

1320
01:04:43,119 --> 01:04:46,440
I couldn't even swallow. Then I felt it. The cot

1321
01:04:46,519 --> 01:04:49,079
shifted just slightly, like someone had eased down on to

1322
01:04:49,079 --> 01:04:53,480
the other end. I didn't think. I just moved, rolled

1323
01:04:53,480 --> 01:04:55,760
off the cot, grabbed the axe and yanked or open.

1324
01:04:56,360 --> 01:04:59,519
I ran barefoot through the coal, stumbling over roots and rocks.

1325
01:05:00,199 --> 01:05:02,280
I didn't stop until I saw Mark's porch like glowing

1326
01:05:02,280 --> 01:05:05,000
between the trees. My feet were bleeding by the time

1327
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:06,559
I got there, and I couldn't get the words out

1328
01:05:06,599 --> 01:05:09,480
for a solid minute. When I finally told him what happened,

1329
01:05:09,519 --> 01:05:11,719
he didn't laugh, just handed me a towel and told

1330
01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:14,199
me to sit down. We went back the next morning.

1331
01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:18,320
The trailer door was still lutch. Everything looked pretty normal,

1332
01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:21,159
but inside the ice melbourne like singed hair and plastic,

1333
01:05:21,239 --> 01:05:23,039
and carved into the wall above the cotton jag of

1334
01:05:23,079 --> 01:05:26,559
that ourse was a single word stay. I didn't. I

1335
01:05:26,679 --> 01:05:29,159
packed my things that saon afternoon, tossed everything into the

1336
01:05:29,159 --> 01:05:32,360
truck bed and didn't look back. And that is the end.

1337
01:05:32,960 --> 01:05:34,679
Thank you for listening, and I will see you in

1338
01:05:34,679 --> 01:05:43,280
the next one.