Footprints in the Snow

I begin to drift off to sleep in my remote ski cabin in the woods. The snow and winter wind are blowing strongly outside. Except for the storm, it is eerily quiet outside. This is because all of the woodland critters are hiding from the harsh winter weather. As I lay in bed trying to fall asleep after a long day of skiing, my mind wanders and I begin to ponder those footprints I saw near my cabin today. They were clearly human footprints, and were likely made from a man’s boot. And a large boot at that, likely at least a size thirteen.

It appears that the person came from the woods, circled around the cabin, and stopped right outside of my bedroom windows. I wanted to follow the prints into the woods to see where this person came from and where they went, largely because I was concerned for their safety. After all, approaching a random cabin this far out in the woods is not normal. Maybe they needed help and shelter from the storm. However, I was tired from skiing all day, a storm was setting in, and it was getting dark. So ultimately I decided against following the footprints.

After a while, I began to finally drift off to sleep. But when I heard a floorboard creak, my eyes snapped open. I quickly made a terrifying realization. I don’t know how I didn’t think of this before. There were no footprints going away from the house…