Beware the Truth So Grim

The cabin had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Carl was very frustrated by what he was seeing. It wouldn’t be the first time that a trespasser tried to hide out in the cabin and it most likely wouldn’t be the last time that he had to run them off.

This was private property and Carl worked for the owner to keep an eye on it since the owners lived half way across the country. That cabin had originally been a homestead for the owners’ ancestors. However, since none of the current family live nearby anymore it had slowly gone into disrepair and really wasn’t safe for anyone to be in.

Carl had lost count of how many times he had to run off teenagers trying to have a party in there, homeless trying to squat in the cabin, or some other crooks trying to do illegal activities. No matter what he did they just kept coming back. Well let’s just get this over with, he thought to himself and made his way up to the cabin.

When he got close to the cabin he noticed that there was new damage to the outside of it. There were claw marks from some large animal, probably a bear. However, upon inspection of the damage Carl saw something odd.

They didn’t look like normal claw marks. It looked like they had been burned into to wood. Not only that, but they didn’t look like bear claw marks. He wasn’t sure what made those marks. I’ll have to get a better look at these later, Carl thought. He had more pressing matters at the moment. He then proceeded to bang on the door.

“Hey I know you’re in there! This is private property you need to come out and leave the premises immediately,” Carl shouted at the cabin door. He always announced himself like this before entering the cabin. He learned pretty quickly a few years ago that just barging in to remove trespassers could lead to some massive trouble in more ways than one. Ever since, he always made it a point to announce his presence.

He didn’t get any response from inside. He did hear what sounded like someone crying. Carl really hoped that it wasn’t someone that was under the influence. He checked to make sure he had his pistol on him. He always prayed that he’d never have to use it and, so far, he never did. He hoped that this would be no different. He carefully opened the door and what he saw next sent chills down his spine.

All over the walls of the cabin were crosses and what appeared to be Nordic runes drawn in what he thought was chalk. All the symbols went down the walls to the floor and extended across the floor to the middle of the room where a circle had been drawn. In the middle of that circle was a young man huddled into a ball with his head buried in his knees. He was trembling and mumbling something that Carl could not make out.

Carl had seen some very strange people try and hide out in this cabin, but this was a first for him. He was pretty sure that this guy was on something and what ever it was he was not handling it well. Better take this slowly and gently, Carl thought to himself as he walked over to the man.

“Hey there,” Carl said, “Are you all right?”

The man stopped mumbling and slowly looked up at Carl. He seemed confused at the fact that there was another person there. But then he looked behind him to the open door.

“SHUT THE DOOR!!!” The man came flying up off the floor and shoved Carl backwards as he ran for the door. Carl lost his balance and fell hard on his back on the floor. The wind got knocked out of him and he was slightly dazed. Before he could regain his bearings or his breath the man was dragging him up off the floor and screaming into his face.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU MORON!!! Do you want that THING to get in here and kill us!”

“What are you talking about,” Carl croaked out once he caught his breath.

“It can’t get in here. Do you understand me? So long as the door is closed IT can’t get in,” raved the man. It was at this moment that Carl saw the door was closed. The man had jerry-rigged a lock with a rope around the doorknob and a hook sticking out of the wall. He was now trapped in this unstable cabin with an even more unstable man.

“What do you mean by IT,” Carl asked.

“You…You didn’t see it,” the man asked very confused.

“See WHAT?”

“The d..d..dog.”

“A dog?”

“Not just any dog a huge black one with red eyes!” Carl just stood there and stared at the man for a second. This guy was definitely on something, he thought to himself. How was he going to get out of this mess? He had to handle this situation cautiously.

“I’m telling you it’s out there! Go look out the window if you don’t believe me,” the man insisted. Reluctantly, Carl moved toward the window with the candle in it and looked out. He just saw the darkness of the woods and the shadows being made by the light of the candle.

He turned back toward the man and asked, “Are you sure you didn’t just see a normal dog or maybe a wolf?” The man never answered as his face had a look of pure terror on it. Carl turned back to the window and a pair of enormous, red eyes looked back at him.

He jumped back from the window in shock and let out a yelp. Where had THAT come from, he thought to himself. The dog was so massive a person could have ridden on it like a horse. It was covered in shaggy black fur and it’s physique was like that of an Irish Wolfhound.

Both men could see that this dog had a human arm in it’s mouth and they could hear it give a very deep low growl that shook them both down to their souls. The man started crying and collapsed onto the floor and started whimpering the word ‘No’ repeatedly.

Carl couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had spent most of his life in the area and heard all the local urban legends. But this, he had never heard of this in the area before.

The dog snorted at the window and seemed to disappear, like smoke. “Is it gone,” Carl asked to no one in particular.

“No, it’s not,” replied the man through tears. “It seems like it’s gone, but it’s still around.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Two days. This is the only time where I have been able to find a halfway decent shelter.”

Carl went to the window again and looked out. He saw that the dog had dropped the arm. He turned back to the man. “You weren’t the only one it went after, are you.”

“There were five of us,” the man replied, “We we’re camping and having fun like you’re supposed to. Then one night, while we were enjoying the fire, we heard a growl come from the edge of the campsite and there it stood glaring at us. The next thing we knew it was on top of us ripping everyone to shreds.”

The man had to stop and compose himself. He was very close to breaking down again. “We tried everything to fight it off, but nothing worked. It couldn’t be injured! There was nothing any of us could do. I did the only thing I could do, run.”

He went on to describe how the dog would be practically on top of him and then disappear like smoke. The dog would then reappear a little while later and continue the chase. This went on both day and night for those two days until he found the cabin. He put up the symbols all over the place for protection with chalk he found there.

“Do you have any idea where it came from,” Carl asked.

“No,” replied the man, “It just showed up out of the blue. I don’t even know how a dog that big can sneak around without making any noise! I would even think a demon dog that size would make noise!”

“Do you know if any of your friends are still alive?”

“None of them are alive. I did circle back to the campsite at one point to see if I could find anyone, but…”

“None of them survived.”

“No,” the man started to cry. Carl couldn’t even imagine what this guy saw. Especially, if that arm was any indication of what the dog did.

It started scratching at the cabin and then Carl could smell it, burning wood. That dog caused the claw marks and it wasn’t just scratching the wood. It was burning the wood.

It would scratch one place and then move to another scratching at a different spot. All the while the smell of burning wood was getting stronger and stronger. The smell almost made it hard for the two men to breathe.

They could both hear the dog giving a low growl as it was doing all of this. Carl noticed it wasn’t a threatening growl, but a growl of frustration.

“I’ve got another question,” Carl said, “Did the dog go after anyone else besides you and your friends?”

“Not from what I can tell,” said the man. “Now that I think about it, every time I tried to head somewhere that I thought there were people that dog would cut me off and heard me away from them.”

Carl became very uneasy at this bit of information. This dog didn’t just come after this guy and his friends because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of them, but especially this guy, was targeted specifically.

Something didn’t add up. Carl thought that was a little too coincidental that the dog would just show up out of nowhere like that. Also, if it made quick work of his friends then why did it not do the same with this guy. “Okay, I’ve got one final question,” said Carl, “what did you guys do to make it mad?”

“WE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!!”

“Well, you guys either did something to make it mad or you went somewhere you shouldn’t have. Now which is it?”

“All of us are innocent! I swear!” As soon as the man said that the front door started shaking violently as the dog was scratching furiously at it. The growling and the snarling intensified as did the burning wood smell. The man jumped up off the floor and stumbled away from the door.

“Well, he seems to think otherwise pal,” Carl yelled. “Now, I’ll ask again. What did you guys do?”

The look on the man’s face changed from terror to rage despite the dog still tearing at the door. “Look you jerk! We did nothing wrong. We were just having a good time and celebrating our huge haul when…”

Carl cut him off, “Haul? What haul?” The man had a look of shock on his face when he was asked this. He just screwed up, Carl thought. “You don’t need to know about that,” the man said to him nervously.

“Right, look you might get out of this alive if you admit what you did.”

“Screw you old man!” The man was more angry than scared now. It was almost like he couldn’t hear the dog going crazy outside he was so focused on Carl.

“You know what, I’ve got a proposition for you.” The man walked up to Carl and got right in his face. “We can help each other out here,” that man said in a low almost sinister tone. “You help me get away from that thing out there and I’ll give you a nice share of my haul. From what I can tell, it’ll be life changing for you.”

Just from that, Carl figured out pretty quickly what this guy had been up to prior to this mess. Innocent, what a joke, Carl thought to himself as he vaguely recalled hearing about a series of bank robberies lately.

“Look,” the man started. “Whether you take my offer or not, we need to figure a way out of this or we’re both dead.”

“You mean ‘You’ need to figure a way out of this or ‘You’re’ dead.”

“What are you talking about, old man? You’re in here with me now! This involves both of us!!”

“I don’t think so,” Carl stated. “I walked in here with no issues. I never even saw the dog when I was coming up to this cabin. I’m pretty sure that it’s just after you and you alone. As for me, well I think I can just walk out of here since it seems he has no business with me.”

The man glared at Carl and said, “You know what I think? I think you’re full of it and that the dog would kill you as soon as you open that door.” He then reached back and pulled a large Bowie knife that the man had been keeping out of sight. “Let’s test that out!”

Carl didn’t even get the chance to pull out his weapon before the man got to him and put the knife to his throat. “Don’t move and don’t speak,” hissed the man, “Drop it now!” Carl dropped his pistol on the floor. The man motioned for Carl to get up.

He forced Carl to the door with the knife to his back. The dog must have sensed that someone was coming outside because it had stopped tearing at the door. The man flung the door open and shoved him outside.

Carl stumbled to the ground and when he stood up he was face to face with the enormous black dog. Staring into those red eyes made Carl mentally berate himself for getting so cocky. “Take him,” the man shouted, “ take him instead of me!” He then slammed the door shut and left Carl for dead.

The dog and Carl just stood there for a minute staring at each other. He didn’t dare move. The dog’s breath was so hot it felt like it could have melted iron. It’s teeth were so sharp it was no wonder that it had made quick work of the man’s friends. His mind was racing to figure a way out of this.

But, the dog just snorted and walked around Carl to the cabin. He slowly turned to look at it. It walked up to the door, stopped and reared back on it’s hind legs. It came down with all it’s weight on the door and forced it open.

It could have gotten into the cabin at anytime. It had just been toying with the man. Carl could hear the man shouting something and what ever it was the dog didn’t like it. It’s fur stood on end and, before Carl could blink, it charged into the cabin. The symbols did nothing to stop it.

He heard the man scream and, just as fast as it had charged in, it charged back out. Carl could see the dog had the man by his arm and was dragging him into the woods with no effort. The man screamed one last time before both of them vanished.

He was stunned. It had all happened so fast he wasn’t sure if he was having a nightmare. He collapsed onto the ground and passed out before he could think about it anymore.

It was almost dawn before Carl woke up. The light was just starting to creep up over the horizon. He was stiff from laying on the ground for so long. He sat up and was trying to remember what had happened when he heard a loud crunch come from the cabin.

He looked over and saw the black dog laying in the doorway to the cabin. It was eating the arm it had dropped earlier like it would a dog treat. When it saw Carl looking at it, the dog picked up the arm in it’s mouth and went inside the cabin.

The door shut on it own with so much force it actually shook the cabin. Carl had no idea what to do. So, he got up and, as soon as he had his footing, walked away.

After a few days passed he went to check on the cabin again. He was nervous about going there since he had come to terms with the fact that it hadn’t been a nightmare. He prayed that the dog would not be there.

There was no sign of it outside. However, when Carl looked in one of the windows he could see scratches all over the walls. He took a quick look behind him to make sure it wasn’t sneaking up on him, but it wasn’t there.

When he turned back to the window there it was staring back at him with those red eyes like it had just a few nights ago. Carl gasped, but didn’t move. They didn’t stare at each other for long. The black dog snorted at the window and walked into the bedroom. Oh great, Carl thought, what do I do now?

Over the next few months he would check on the cabin and every time he found the dog was still there. He never did figure out how to get rid of it and started to just accept it. He even gave that thing a name, Ol’ Grim.

During that time he found out that the man’s name was Hank Rogers and that he was the leader of some bank robbers. They had made off with a huge amount of cash before they disappeared and no one could find the money. That was before they found Hank’s mutilated body.

It was found in the graveyard of an old abandoned church. When the authorities were investigating the scene they discovered that a number of the graves had been disturbed. Hank and his friends had dug up some of the graves to hide the stolen money, but when they did they caused a lot of damage and they had found something unusual.

One of the holes that was used to hide the money was located on one of the edges of the graveyard. Inside that hole the authorities found the bones of a very large dog. So that’s what those idiots did, Carl thought to himself when he found all this out. What he couldn’t figure out was why that dog decided to stick around the cabin.

He didn’t know what Grim was going to do if someone else were to try to get into the cabin. What worried him more though was how he would explain it if Grim did hurt someone else. No one could have known how sick and horrified he felt when that first homeless man came running into town screaming about a demon dog.

This man, who called himself Smooth Jazz and had a history with Carl, ran to the authorities for help. Carl was notified later about the incident. Rumor had it that the whole thing was chalked up to this guy hallucinating since he had been known to use drugs. However, Jazz wouldn’t drop the subject.

One day, Carl ran into him in the street and he knew there was going to be trouble.

“HEY! What the hell is up with that dog you psycho,” yelled Jazz. “I know you have something to do with it!” Carl’s original plan was to play dumb about the whole thing, but in that moment he remembered how many times he had to run Jazz out of the cabin and how many times he caused him so much trouble. Then he got a very devious idea.

“You mean Ol’ Grim?”

“I KNEW it! I knew it was real,” exclaimed Jazz, “What’s the deal man? I knew you were lame about anyone getting into that cabin, but I didn’t think you’d do something like this. Pulling a Hound of the Baskervilles prank, are you still in high school or something?”

“I didn’t pull any kind of prank Jazz. He just showed up one night.”

“You lyin’ I know that this is a stunt!”

“No, it’s true and he really is something otherworldly. Hear me out.” Carl then proceeded to tell Jazz the story of that night. At the end of it, Jazz was pale and more than convinced.

Carl told Jazz to ‘warn’ everyone about Ol’ Grim and what he might do to trespassers. Without hesitation, Jazz ran off and started spreading the story and Carl looked very satisfied with the results.

It didn’t take long for the story to spread. Before too long it started to have the effect that Carl was hoping for. People stopped trespassing on the land and breaking into the cabin.

Some time had passed and Carl decided to go on a camping trip of his own. He went to a campsite that was hundreds of miles away from home. He was sitting next to his campfire and enjoying a cup of coffee when he heard some younger campers talking not too far away.

He could tell that someone was telling a campfire story. Carl chuckled to himself as he was glad that people were still telling stories like this. He went to take a sip of coffee when he heard the name Ol’ Grim come from the storyteller.

He almost chocked on his coffee. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He listened in more carefully and sure enough they were telling the story that he told to Jazz so long ago.

Carl was completely stunned. He had no idea that the story had spread so far. All he wanted was to stop trespassers and make sure that Grim didn’t hurt anyone else. He wasn’t expecting this at all.

As he sat by the fire listening to those campers telling the story, he reflected on everything that happened that night and since then. Ever since he told Jazz to spread that story he never again saw a candle lit in the window. Now the only thing that could be seen in that window was a pair of enormous red eyes always watching.