WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:01.040 Now one of your pudding. 2 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:04.200 I got a string going on here, something. 3 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:07.320 Just because my dog. Something killed your dog. My dog. 4 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:08.960 We're flying through the air, over the tree. 5 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:09.599 I don't know. 6 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:14.400 How it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm really confused. 7 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:16.480 All I saw was my dog coming over the fence 8 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:18.000 and he was dead. And once you hit the. 9 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:19.839 Ground like, I didn't see any cars. All I saw 10 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:21.320 was my dog coming over the fence. 11 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:38.960 Sat, what are you putting? 12 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:43.759 We got some wonder or something crawling around out here? 13 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:52.240 Did you see what it was or was it was? 14 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:54.719 Standing enough, I'm out here looking through the window now 15 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.479 and I don't see anything. I don't want to go outside. 16 00:00:58.240 --> 00:00:59.560 Jesus Quice, you better. 17 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:06.079 Hello, get the boddy out here, quin, I'm out there. 18 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:06.640 I thought of a. 19 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:08.480 Bitch about text forty nine. 20 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:10.159 I don't know easy ann out there? 21 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:11.480 Yeah, I'm walking right head. 22 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:15.000 Well, well, well, look who decided to join me by 23 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:18.200 the fire on this cold December night. Pull up a chair, 24 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.879 pour yourself something warm, and let me tell you a 25 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:24.400 little Christmas story. Now, I know what you're thinking. You 26 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.840 tuned in expecting one of my usual tales, maybe a 27 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:30.599 Bigfoot encounter story to get you in the holiday spirit, 28 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:35.359 and honestly, I considered it. I really did. I've got 29 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.239 a charming little yarn about a family in Washington State 30 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:41.280 who claimed they spotted a sasquatch wearing what appeared to 31 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:44.480 be a Santa hat trudging through the snow on Christmas 32 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:48.120 morning back in nineteen seventy eight. The father swore up 33 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:50.519 and down that the creature was carrying a burlap sack 34 00:01:50.599 --> 00:01:53.319 over its shoulder, and when it noticed them watching from 35 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:56.400 the kitchen window, it raised one massive hand in what 36 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:59.959 could only be described as a friendly wave before disappearing 37 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:05.400 into the tree line. Sweet right, heartwarming, even the kind 38 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:08.080 of story that makes you smile and wonder if, maybe, 39 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:11.439 just maybe, even our big hairy friends in the forest 40 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:15.159 celebrate the season in their own way. I've told stories 41 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.919 like that before, Tales of strange lights in the winter sky, 42 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:23.439 of mysterious gifts left on doorsteps and remote mountain communities, 43 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:27.199 of unexplained footprints in the snow leading to and from 44 00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:31.639 isolated cabins where children reported seeing something large and gentle 45 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.080 peering through frosted windows on Christmas Eve. Those stories have 46 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:39.599 their place. They remind us that mystery doesn't always have 47 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.520 to be terrifying that the unknown can sometimes bring wonder 48 00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:47.919 instead of dread. But tonight, tonight is not that kind 49 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:50.759 of night. Tonight, I'm going to tell you about something 50 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:54.439 that happened in the winter of nineteen eighty five, something 51 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:57.560 that took place in the deep forests of South Carolina, 52 00:02:57.759 --> 00:02:59.960 in a cabin that had stood empty for nearly three 53 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:02.719 years before a young family decided it would be the 54 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:07.560 perfect place to spend Christmas. They were wrong, so very 55 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:11.360 very wrong, because what visited that cabin on Christmas Eve 56 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:14.840 wasn't jolly old Saint Nick with his bag of presents. No, 57 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:19.280 what came to that cabin was something far older, something 58 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:23.080 that existed long before Christianity wrapped its tinsil around the 59 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:27.039 winter solstice and called it Christmas, something that had been 60 00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:29.479 doing its dark work in the forests of Europe for 61 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:33.319 centuries before the first settlers ever set foot on American soil, 62 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.080 Something that came over with those settlers hiding in the 63 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:40.759 shadows of their ships, feeding on their fears, waiting for 64 00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:44.039 the right moment to remind humanity that the old ways 65 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:48.000 never really died. They just learned to be patient. So 66 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:50.599 settle in, my friends, turn up the lights if you 67 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:54.039 need to check the locks on your doors, and whatever 68 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:57.759 you do, don't look out the window, because tonight I'm 69 00:03:57.759 --> 00:03:59.919 going to tell you about the Christmas Eve when Crampus 70 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:04.560 came calling. The story begins, as so many horror stories do, 71 00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:09.439 with a death in the family. Gerald Hutchins received the 72 00:04:09.479 --> 00:04:12.000 news of his great uncle Amos's passing in the summer 73 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:14.879 of nineteen eighty five. He hadn't seen the old man 74 00:04:14.919 --> 00:04:17.639 in over a decade, hadn't even thought about him much. 75 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:20.920 If he was being honest, Amos had always been the 76 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:24.680 black sheep of the Hutchins family, a strange and solitary 77 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:26.959 figure who had retreated to a cabin in the South 78 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:31.000 Carolina wilderness sometime in the early nineteen sixties and had 79 00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:34.800 rarely been heard from since. The family whispered about Amos 80 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:38.079 at reunions and holiday gatherings. They said he had gone 81 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:41.079 strange after the war, that he had seen things in 82 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:43.839 the forests of Germany that had broken something inside him, 83 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:48.120 that he had come back different, haunted, prone to muttering 84 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:51.279 in languages no one recognized, and drawing symbols on scraps 85 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:54.160 of paper that he would immediately burn in the fireplace. 86 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:58.240 Gerald's father had always dismissed these stories as the usual 87 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:02.360 family gossip, kind of embellishments that grow around anyone who 88 00:05:02.439 --> 00:05:05.839 chooses to live differently. Amos was just a hermit, he 89 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:09.040 would say. Some men come back from war wanting to 90 00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:11.800 be alone. There was nothing more to it than that. 91 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:15.959 But Gerald remembered something his father had said once, late 92 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.319 at night, after too many beers at a family barbecue. 93 00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:22.800 He remembered his father's voice going quiet, his eyes getting 94 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:25.879 distant as he recalled the last time he'd visited Amos 95 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:28.600 at that cabin in the woods. He said the old 96 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:31.120 man had grabbed his arm with surprising strength and had 97 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:34.439 pulled him close. He said Amos's breath had smelled like 98 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:39.360 whiskey and something else, something bitter and medicinal. And he 99 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:42.720 said Amos had whispered four words that had haunted him 100 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:47.199 ever since. It knows we're here. Gerald's father had never 101 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:49.800 gone back to that cabin. He had never spoken to 102 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:52.920 Amos again, and when the news came that the old 103 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:56.560 man had died alone in his bed, apparently of natural causes, 104 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:00.240 Gerald's father had refused to attend the funeral. But the 105 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.240 cabin was part of the estate, and because Gerald was 106 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:06.160 the closest living relative willing to deal with the paperwork 107 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:10.160 the property fell to him. Gerald was thirty four years 108 00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:13.720 old that summer. He worked as an insurance adjuster in Columbia, 109 00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:17.079 a job he found mind numbingly dull, but which paid 110 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.879 well enough to support his wife, Ellen and their son Marcus. 111 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:23.800 They lived in a modest, three bedroom house and a 112 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:26.879 suburb that looked identical to every other suburb in America, 113 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:29.920 and they spent their weekends doing the same things every 114 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:35.199 other family in that suburb did, backyard barbecues, little league games, 115 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:39.439 church on Sunday mornings. It was a good life, a 116 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:42.720 safe life, the kind of life that Gerald's parents had 117 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:45.399 never had, and the kind of life he was determined 118 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:48.199 to give his own family. But there was something else 119 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:53.399 in Gerald, something he rarely acknowledged, even to himself. A restlessness, 120 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:56.319 a sense that there had to be more to existence 121 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:59.759 than quarterly reports and mortgage payments and watching the same 122 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:02.800 time television shows every night while the years ticked away. 123 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:05.800 When he first saw the cabin in the photographs the 124 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:10.040 estate lawyer sent him, something stirred in his chest, something 125 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:14.600 that felt almost like recognition. The cabin was isolated, certainly. 126 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:17.879 The nearest town was almost twenty miles away, and the 127 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:21.240 property itself was surrounded by hundreds of acres of dense forest. 128 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:25.319 But it was beautiful in a rugged, untamed way, the 129 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:28.040 kind of place where a man could breathe, the kind 130 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:30.120 of place where a family could escape the noise and 131 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:33.240 chaos of modern life, if only for a little while. 132 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:36.480 Gerald made the drive down to see it in person 133 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:40.120 on a weekend in early September. He went alone, telling 134 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:43.079 Ellen he needed to assess the property's condition before they 135 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:46.160 decided whether to sell it or keep it. But the 136 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:48.959 truth was he wanted to see it for himself first. 137 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:51.759 He wanted to feel whatever it was that had drawn 138 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:54.319 his great uncle to this place and kept him there 139 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:57.560 for over two decades. The road to the cabin was 140 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:00.480 barely a road at all, more like a suggngestion of 141 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:03.160 a path carved through the wilderness by someone who hadn't 142 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:07.240 wanted to be found. Gerald sedan bounced and scraped along 143 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.879 the rutted track for almost forty five minutes before the 144 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:14.000 trees finally parted to reveal a small clearing, and there 145 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.079 it was. The cabin was larger than he had expected 146 00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:20.959 from the photographs. Two stories built from logs that had 147 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.439 weathered to a dark gray over the years. A wide 148 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:27.319 porch wrapped around the front and one side, and a 149 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:30.360 stone chimney rose from the roof like a finger pointing 150 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:34.320 accusingly at the sky. The windows were dark, many of 151 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:37.600 them covered with heavy curtains that hadn't been opened in years. 152 00:08:38.200 --> 00:08:40.759 Gerald sat in his car for a long moment, just 153 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:43.759 looking at the place. He couldn't explain the feeling that 154 00:08:43.799 --> 00:08:47.559 came over him. It wasn't fear, exactly. It was more 155 00:08:47.639 --> 00:08:52.000 like the sensation of being watched, of being evaluated, as 156 00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:54.679 if the cabin itself was taking his measure and deciding 157 00:08:54.679 --> 00:08:57.679 whether or not he was worthy of entering. He shook 158 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:00.159 off the feeling and got out of the car. The 159 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:05.519 air was different here, cleaner certainly, but also heavier, somehow dense, 160 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:08.039 with the smell of pine and rotting leaves and something 161 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:12.000 else underneath it all, something animal, something that made the 162 00:09:12.039 --> 00:09:14.240 hair on the back of his neck stand at attention. 163 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:18.240 Gerald walked up the porch steps, slowly, noting the way 164 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:21.960 the boards creaked under his weight. The front door was unlocked, 165 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:24.919 of course, it was who was going to rob a 166 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:28.279 place this far from anywhere. The inside of the cabin 167 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:31.000 was exactly what he had expected and nothing like it 168 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:34.720 at the same time. The furniture was old but well made, 169 00:09:35.159 --> 00:09:38.519 covered in sheets that had turned gray with dust. The 170 00:09:38.600 --> 00:09:41.440 walls were lined with bookshelves, and the books that filled 171 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:46.000 them were in languages Gerald didn't recognize, German, certainly, but 172 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:50.039 also something older, something that looked almost like Latin but 173 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:54.759 wasn't quite right. The fireplace dominated the main room, a 174 00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:57.799 massive stone construction that could have heated a space three 175 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:01.919 times this size. The mantle hung a collection of items 176 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:06.440 that made Jerald's breath catch in his throat. Chains old 177 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:11.639 and rusted but still solid, heavy iron chains with manacles attached, 178 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:14.120 the kind that might have been used to restrain a 179 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:17.759 prisoner or an animal. Beside the chains hung a collection 180 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:21.440 of switches and birch rods, their surfaces stained dark with 181 00:10:21.480 --> 00:10:24.879 something Jerald didn't want to think about too carefully. And 182 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:27.279 in the center of it all, mounted on a wooden 183 00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:31.159 plaque like a hunting trophy, was a mask. It was 184 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:35.080 carved from dark wood, maybe oak or walnut, and it 185 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.879 depicted a face that Gerald had never seen before, but 186 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:41.720 somehow recognized. On an instinctive level, a face that was 187 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:46.039 almost human but stretched wrong. The nose was too long, 188 00:10:46.360 --> 00:10:50.039 curving downward like a beak. The eyes were hollow sockets 189 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:52.519 that seemed to follow him as he moved around the room, 190 00:10:53.240 --> 00:10:56.080 and the mouth was twisted into a grin that contained 191 00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:59.360 far too many teeth. Jerald stood in front of that 192 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:02.480 mask for a long time. He told himself he should 193 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:05.080 take it down. He told himself he should throw it 194 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:07.879 in the fireplace and burn it along with everything else 195 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:11.080 in this god forsaken place. He told himself he should 196 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:13.440 get back in his car and drive away and never 197 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:17.279 think about this cabin again. Instead, he reached out and 198 00:11:17.320 --> 00:11:21.279 touched the mask's cheek. The wood was warm, not room 199 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:25.600 temperature warm, but blood warm, the warmth of living flesh. 200 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:28.799 Jerald jerked his hand back as if he had been burned. 201 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:32.360 He stumbled backward, nearly tripping over a sheet covered chair, 202 00:11:32.919 --> 00:11:35.480 his heart hammering in his chest so hard he could 203 00:11:35.480 --> 00:11:38.200 feel it in his temples. And then he heard it, 204 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:41.960 a sound from somewhere above him, from the second floor 205 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:44.960 of the cabin, a sound like hoofs on hard wood. 206 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:50.200 Jerald ran. He didn't remember making the decision to flee 207 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.720 one moment he was standing in the main room, staring 208 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:54.759 up at the ceiling, and the next he was in 209 00:11:54.840 --> 00:11:58.399 his car, gunning the engine, tearing back down that rutted 210 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:01.039 excuse for a road, so fast that he was certain 211 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:03.919 he was going to wrap himself around a tree. He 212 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.000 made it back to the main road, and then to 213 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.039 the highway, and then all the way home to Columbia 214 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:13.200 without stopping once. He didn't tell Ellen about what had happened. 215 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:16.480 He didn't tell anyone. He told himself it had been 216 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:20.399 his imagination, a combination of the strange atmosphere and the 217 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:23.840 unsettling decorations, and the stories his father had told him 218 00:12:23.879 --> 00:12:25.639 about crazy old Uncle Amos. 219 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:26.799 That was all. 220 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:30.639 There was nothing supernatural about an old cabin in the woods. 221 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:34.279 There was nothing to be afraid of. Three months later, 222 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:37.039 Gerald suggested to his wife that they spend Christmas at 223 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:40.480 the cabin. Gerald didn't tell anyone about the mask or 224 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:43.320 the sound of hoofs on the second floor. He didn't 225 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:45.600 tell anyone about the way the cabin had felt alive 226 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:50.159 around him, watching him, testing him. He went home to Columbia, 227 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:52.440 and he went back to work, and he told himself 228 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.080 over and over again that it had been nothing that 229 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:59.159 old houses made strange sounds, that his imagination had simply 230 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:02.960 gotten the better of it in an unfamiliar environment. But 231 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:06.679 something had changed in Gerald Hutchins, something that his wife noticed, 232 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:09.840 even if she couldn't quite name it. He was distracted, 233 00:13:09.879 --> 00:13:12.840 now prone to staring off into space for long minutes 234 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:15.799 at a time. He had started researching things on his 235 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:20.320 lunch breaks at the library, strange things, things about Alpine 236 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:24.200 folklore and Germanic traditions, and creatures from the Old Country 237 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:27.000 that parents used to frighten their children with before the 238 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:30.759 world became too modern for such superstitions. He had learned 239 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:34.679 about Crampus, not the sanitized version that occasionally appeared in 240 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:39.840 novelty Christmas cards, the real version, the ancient version, the 241 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:43.320 creature that had been terrifying European villages for centuries before 242 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:47.039 anyone had ever heard of Santa Claus. Gerald read accounts 243 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:50.759 of Crampus knocked, celebrations gone wrong, of children who had 244 00:13:50.759 --> 00:13:54.320 disappeared during the festivities, of families found dead in their 245 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:58.399 homes on Christmas morning, with expressions of absolute terror frozen 246 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:01.440 on their faces. He read about the chains the creature 247 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:04.840 carried forged in hell fire used to bind the wicket 248 00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:08.480 and drag them down to damnation. He read about the switches, 249 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:11.879 made from birch soaked in holy water by some accounts 250 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:14.679 and in blood by others, used to beat the naughty 251 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:17.960 children before they were carried away. He read about the 252 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:21.440 basket on the creature's back, the basket that was always hungry, 253 00:14:21.799 --> 00:14:25.360 always empty, no matter how many screaming children were stuffed inside. 254 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:29.039 And he read about the masks. In some traditions, the 255 00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:32.840 crampis masks were carved by the creature itself, made from 256 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:36.200 the bones and skin of its victims, worn as trophies 257 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:40.519 of past hunts. In other traditions, the masks were portals, 258 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:43.840 doorways that allowed the creature to see into our world 259 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:48.480 from whatever dark dimension it normally inhabited. The masks watched 260 00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:52.279 and waited, the story said, they called to their master. 261 00:14:52.919 --> 00:14:54.960 They marked the homes that would be visited when the 262 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:58.559 winter solstice came. Gerald had read all of this, and 263 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:02.159 he had convinced himself that it was nonsense, fairy tales, 264 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.639 the kind of primitive superstition that had no place in 265 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:10.120 modern America. And stay tuned for more sasquatch ott to see, 266 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:17.240 we'll be right back after these messages. His great uncle 267 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:21.039 had clearly been disturbed, driven mad by his years of isolation, 268 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:24.120 and the mask above the fireplace was just a piece 269 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:28.320 of folk art, nothing more. But somehow, despite all of 270 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:32.159 his rational explanations, Gerald couldn't stop thinking about the cabin, 271 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:36.320 couldn't stop dreaming about it, couldn't stop feeling deep in 272 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:39.159 the marrow of his bones, that something there was waiting 273 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:43.080 for him to come back, that something there was calling him. 274 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:46.600 Ellen had her doubts about the plan. She expressed them 275 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:49.840 repeatedly in the weeks leading up to Christmas, pointing out 276 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:52.840 all the sensible reasons why spending the holidays in an 277 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:57.480 isolated cabin with no phone, no television, and questionable heating 278 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:01.039 was a bad idea. What if Marcus got sick, What 279 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:03.759 if there was an emergency, What if they ran out 280 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:05.840 of food, or the car broke down, or any of 281 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:08.240 a hundred other things that could go wrong when you 282 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:10.480 were twenty miles from the nearest town in the middle 283 00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:14.399 of December. But Gerald was persuasive. He talked about the 284 00:16:14.440 --> 00:16:17.360 magic of a real Christmas, the kind they used to 285 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:20.919 have before everyone got so dependent on technology and convenience. 286 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:24.240 He talked about cutting down their own tree and making 287 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:28.200 popcorn strings and telling stories by the fire. He talked 288 00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:31.159 about how good it would be for Marcus to experience nature, 289 00:16:31.559 --> 00:16:35.639 real nature, not the manicured parks and carefully maintained hiking 290 00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:40.759 trails they usually visited, and eventually Ellen agreed. Marcus was 291 00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:44.639 thirteen that year, caught in that awkward space between childhood 292 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:49.000 and adolescence where everything his parents suggested was automatically suspect. 293 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:52.519 He wasn't thrilled about the idea of spending Christmas without 294 00:16:52.519 --> 00:16:55.519 his atari, or his friends, or the television specials he 295 00:16:55.559 --> 00:16:58.519 looked forward to every year. But there was something in 296 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:01.519 his father's eyes when he talked to the cabin, a 297 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:05.240 excitement that Marcus hadn't seen in a long time, and 298 00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:08.279 despite his complaints, some part of him was curious about 299 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:12.920 this mysterious inheritance that had dropped into their lives. They 300 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:16.240 left Columbia on the morning of December twenty third. The 301 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:18.839 weather had been mild for most of the month, but 302 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:21.680 the radio was warning of a cold front moving in 303 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.359 from the north. Temperatures were expected to drop well below 304 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:29.720 freezing by Christmas Day, with a possibility of snow. Gerald 305 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:30.799 had prepared thoroughly. 306 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:31.880 The back of the. 307 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:34.559 Station wagon was loaded with enough food and supplies to 308 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:37.799 last them through New Years if necessary. He had brought 309 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:42.359 extra blankets, flashlights, batteries, a first aid kit, and several 310 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:45.319 containers of gasoline for the generator that powered the cabin's 311 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:49.039 few electrical outlets. He had even brought a small chainsaw 312 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:51.960 for cutting firewood. Though we hoped there would be enough 313 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:55.319 already stacked beside the cabin to see them through, The 314 00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:58.559 drive took longer than expected. The roads were good until 315 00:17:58.599 --> 00:18:01.400 they turned off the main highway, but then the pavement 316 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:04.559 gave way to gravel, and the gravel eventually gave way 317 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:07.759 to dirt. The track that led to the cabin was 318 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:10.880 even more overgrown than Gerald remembered, and he had to 319 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:14.680 stop twice to clear fallen branches from the path. They 320 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:17.039 arrived at the cabin just as the sun was beginning 321 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:20.359 to set. The light was wrong, that was the first 322 00:18:20.359 --> 00:18:23.400 thing Gerald noticed as they pulled into the clearing. The 323 00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:25.839 sunset should have been painting the sky in shades of 324 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:28.880 orange and pink and gold, but instead the light had 325 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:31.920 a sickly quality to it, a pale and washed out 326 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:36.240 yellow that made everything look slightly diseased. The shadows cast 327 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:40.400 by the trees seemed too long, too dark, stretching across 328 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:44.759 the snow dusted ground like grasping fingers. Ellen's first reaction 329 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:48.359 was silence. Gerald watched her face carefully as she took 330 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.799 in the building, looking for signs of approval or disgust. 331 00:18:52.599 --> 00:18:55.640 He couldn't read her expression. She simply sat in the 332 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:58.720 passenger seat, staring through the windshield at the cabin and 333 00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:02.200 the forest that surrounded it, her hands folded in her lap. 334 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:05.759 Gerald noticed that her knuckles had gone white, and he 335 00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:08.000 wondered if she was feeling the same thing he was, 336 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:12.039 that sense of being observed, that feeling of stepping into 337 00:19:12.039 --> 00:19:15.519 a place that didn't want them there. The cabin itself 338 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:18.839 looked worse than Gerald remembered. The logs that made up 339 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:22.279 its walls had seemed merely weathered in September, but now 340 00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:25.759 they looked almost rotted, the dark gray wood streaked with 341 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:28.200 something that might have been mold, or might have been 342 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:32.559 something else entirely. The windows were black mirrors that reflected 343 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:35.559 the dying light without revealing anything of what lay within. 344 00:19:36.519 --> 00:19:39.799 And the porch, that wide porch that had seemed almost 345 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:44.400 welcoming before. Now looked like a mouth, a dark, gaping mouth, 346 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:48.640 waiting to swallow anyone foolish enough to step inside. Gerald 347 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:51.839 shook off the thought. It was just a cabin, just 348 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:55.279 wood and glass and stone, just the inheritance of a 349 00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:58.599 crazy old man who had lived alone too long. There 350 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:01.599 was nothing supernatural about it. There was nothing to be 351 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:06.200 afraid of, he almost believed himself. Marcus was less reserved. 352 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:08.480 He was out of the car before his father had 353 00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:11.359 even turned off the engine, running up the porch steps 354 00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:14.079 and pressing his face against one of the windows, trying 355 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:17.279 to see inside. Gerald wanted to call out to him, 356 00:20:17.720 --> 00:20:21.200 wanted to tell him to come back, but something stopped him, 357 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:23.920 some reluctance to break the silence that had settled over 358 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:27.559 the clearing like a shroud. The cabin was different in winter, 359 00:20:28.119 --> 00:20:32.039 starker somehow, its dark wood standing out sharply against the 360 00:20:32.119 --> 00:20:35.880 white birch trees that surrounded the clearing. The porch was 361 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:38.359 covered in a layer of fallen leaves that no one 362 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:41.279 had bothered to sweep away, and the windows were even 363 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:45.039 darker than Gerald remembered, their curtains drawn tight against the 364 00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:48.640 fading light. Gerald had made arrangements to have the power 365 00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:51.799 turned on and some basic cleaning done before their arrival. 366 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:54.519 But as he climbed the porch steps and pushed open 367 00:20:54.519 --> 00:20:57.759 the front door, he realized that whoever he had hired 368 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:01.039 had done the bare minimum. Sh sheets had been removed 369 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:04.400 from the furniture, and someone had swept the floors, but 370 00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:07.839 the cabin still had an abandoned feeling to it, a 371 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:10.839 sense of long emptiness that no amount of quick tiding 372 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:14.640 could erase. And the mask was still there, hanging above 373 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:18.319 the fireplace. Jerald had hoped someone might have taken it down. 374 00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:22.279 He had even considered asking for it to be removed specifically, 375 00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:26.279 but something had stopped him, some reluctance he couldn't explain. 376 00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:30.319 Ellen saw the mask immediately. She walked into the main 377 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:33.480 room and stopped dead, her eyes fixed on that twisted 378 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:36.720 wooden face with its empty sockets and its too many teeth. 379 00:21:37.559 --> 00:21:38.400 What is that? 380 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:41.519 She wanted to know. Gerald told her he wasn't sure, 381 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:45.440 some old European folk art, maybe something his great uncle 382 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:48.319 had picked up during the war. He tried to sound 383 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:50.880 casual about it, but he could hear the false note 384 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:53.880 in his own voice. Ellen continued to stare at the 385 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.519 mask for a long moment. Then she turned to look 386 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:59.039 at her husband, and there was something in her eyes 387 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:03.119 that Jerald didn't look like, something that looked almost like recognition. 388 00:22:03.880 --> 00:22:06.480 She asked if they could take it down. Gerald said 389 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:10.359 he would, but not tonight. Tonight they needed to focus 390 00:22:10.359 --> 00:22:14.200 on getting settled in, making the place comfortable, building a 391 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:16.880 fire to ward off the cold that was already creeping 392 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:21.759 in through the walls. He would deal with the mask tomorrow, tomorrow, 393 00:22:21.799 --> 00:22:26.240 he promised. Ellen didn't argue. She simply nodded and turned away, 394 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:29.079 and Gerald could see the tension in her shoulders as 395 00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:33.359 she began unpacking their supplies. Marcus, meanwhile, had discovered the 396 00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:37.119 stairs to the second floor. Gerald heard him calling from above, 397 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:41.519 his voice echoing through the cabin's empty spaces, talking about 398 00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:43.680 all the rooms up there, and the old books and 399 00:22:43.720 --> 00:22:45.160 the weird drawings. 400 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:45.400 On the walls. 401 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:48.519