I Stayed with an Old Woman in the Mountains

The sun was down for nearly two hours when I came upon a gas station. The highway had been long and bare, so the station’s lighting was much more jarring than usual. Parking, I read the paper given to me, containing the details of the bed & breakfast, as well as their directions which I only then realized were too vague. My exhaustion and impatience got the better of me, and despite the late hour, I called the number.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Marie?”

“Yes…”

“Hey, I’m Cal. I’m supposed to be staying with you tonight?”

I paused for some form of confirmation, which didn’t come immediately. Her silence led me to believe either that she didn’t hear me or the line dropped, but when her tired and thin voice returned, she seemed more surprised than anything.

“Right… Okay.”

“Ya, it was booked by a woman named Carla Henning. I’m sorry that I haven’t gotten there yet, I’m just having a bit of trouble with the directions. That’s actually why I’m calling.”

She was silent again, but for a shorter time, which was followed by a sigh.

“Where are you?”

It was a fair question, but one I was unprepared for. I frantically checked my phone for my location before relaying it to her as best as I could.

“I’ll be right there.”

I was taken aback. I had expected her to explain the directions in more detail, or to possibly stay on the line while I drove. Instead, I felt a little silly that she was coming to get me, but before I could say anything to dissuade her, she hung up. Not wanting to call her back, I could do nothing but wait. A low sputtering reached my ears before I saw her, but eventually a truck drove up, red with faded paint and rust.

Marie slowly rolled down her window, allowing me to see her face for the first time. From her voice, I had guessed that she would be around seventy or eighty years old. When I saw her though, I admit I was a little shocked at exactly how ancient she looked. The creases in her face seemed to force her expression into that of a permanent scowl, and her hair was sparse, and yet curiously shaggy. She hunched over the steering wheel, with one arm on it, and the other resting on the bottom of the open window.

“Are you Cal?”

“Yep, that’s me. Sorry that you had to come and get me, especially this late.” I said, trying to sound as repentant as I could.

“Oh it’s no trouble at all. The roads around here seem to have a mind of their own if you don’t know where you’re going. Just follow me.” She gave me a small, but friendly smile as she rolled her window back up. I got back into my car and felt a twinge of guilt, not only for bringing her out there, but also my misjudgment of her. Her truck rumbled louder as she exited the gas station, and not wanting to betray her kindness any further, I quickly followed.

She drove faster than I expected, but I was sure to keep her in my sights all the while. After turning off of the highway, the road slowly became steeper and more winding as we entered the Goliath Mountains. Pine trees rose up on either side of the narrowing road, and even if they weren’t so dense, the moonless sky kept me from seeing much beyond the road. About half an hour passed before Marie slowed down and turned into a large clearing. I parked beside her and looked around as much as I could with my headlights as the only light source.

Straight ahead was an average sized, two story house. From what I could make out, the walls may have once been yellow, even if they seemed to have forgotten it. Shingles were missing from the roof, and the chimney was falling apart, but with the lights on inside I couldn’t help but feel some sense of comfort. On the other side of the clearing was a smaller bungalow, with many of the same features and defects, but no light from within, making it appear all the more decrepit. The slam of Marie’s car door brought me out of my observations and I turned off my car before stepping out.

“Well, that’s your house over there. Sorry it isn’t the bigger one.” Marie said with a chuckle, “I’ll unlock it for you.” She strode ahead through the unkempt grass towards the guest house, and I quickly grabbed my bag before catching up. Reaching it, she placed a key into the deadbolt and turned, opening the door and switching on the light. I stepped in and looked around the one large room, along with the furniture and decor, that no doubt had existed long before either house. A dead fireplace lay ahead of me, and to my right a small table with a wood-burning stove behind it. On the other side of the room was a large orange couch, and in all the corners sat strange, but beautiful plants. Someone else may have been relieved to find such a cozy place, but I could sense that something was off.

“Where’s the bathroom?” I asked.

“You can use that bucket there.” She responded, pointing to a corner that indeed held a large, silver bucket. I thought she might be joking, but her expression suggested otherwise. My disbelief must have been evident, since she was quick to offer something else.

“You can also use the bathroom in my house if you need to. I’ll leave the back door unlocked. That’s the pull-out bed there, and if you need anything else you can come get me. I’m a pretty light sleeper.” She then bade me goodnight and left.

A wave of fatigue washed over me as soon as I was left alone, so rather than stay up any longer to read or watch something, I decided to go to bed. After wrestling with the pull-out bed and eventually pinning it, I turned out the light and laid down. A window sat to the right of the front door and directly across from my face. Through it, a quarter moon stared right at me and, realizing there were no curtains, I turned over and wondered how long it would take me to fall asleep.

I woke up after seemingly not long at all, as judged by the brightness of the moonlight still streaming into the guest house. I hadn’t changed positions while sleeping, so I was still staring at the back wall, and the silhouetted cross of the window’s frame. In the frame’s bottom corner, I noticed a round shadow and assumed it was probably a spot of dried paint or some other blemish. My exhaustion was winning me over once again, when a chill ran through my body as I saw the shadow move.

It was only for a second, so my mind ran wild with rationalizations. I thought it was possible that I hadn’t seen it move at all, and if I did, that the shadow may actually be from a swaying bush outside. I hadn’t noticed any bushes before, but I was extremely tired so perhaps I missed them. Ten minutes passed by my guess, and I found myself still awake. The shadow remained, and I knew that if I didn’t investigate, the next time I slept might be during my drive the next day. I decided to turn and look, hoping that all that came of this act would be a second of solitary embarrassment. Eventually, after a few moments of self-persuasion, I spun around and the thing in the window moved out of sight.

I froze, propped up on my elbow, and heard nothing but my heartbeat. I had seen the source of the shadow for barely an instant, so I had only made out one detail. However, it was all that was needed to send my fear over the edge. For when I turned and stared at the window, someone’s eye had stared back at me.

I immediately jumped out of bed and desperately ran through scenarios. My instinct was to turn on the light, but I stopped myself, knowing that it would only give an advantage to whoever was outside. I ran to my phone but, fulfilling my worst expectations, I had no service. I searched for a landline, but once again found no such relief. Feeling more and more without choice, I summoned up a sliver of courage to go out and confront my night stalker. Grabbing a fire poker, I marched to the door and threw it open before I could convince myself otherwise.

I turned right as soon as I crossed the threshold, anticipating the scariest person imaginable, but what I found terrified me more. There was no one. I was certain of what I had seen, so I frantically looked in every direction, hoping to avoid an ambush. When this attack did not come, I let out a sigh before quickly stifling myself. I began to think more clearly, and deduced that the watcher may have slipped around the back. Turning left, I slowly walked around the side of the guest house, hugging the wall. As I approached the rear, my guess was confirmed, and I saw the back of someone just around the corner. Whoever they were, they were cloaked and crouched, possibly waiting for me to come around the other side. I held my breath and felt grateful for the overgrown lawn, as it allowed me to creep up to the person. When I was a footstep behind, I raised my makeshift weapon and swung it at the figure's head. I stayed only long enough to watch them fall to the ground before I sprinted to the main house.

Running through the back door, I immediately called out to Marie. Without response, I began to search the house for her, heading upstairs first. After looking into a bathroom, and a cluttered storage room, I finally opened a bedroom door, but the bed was empty. I came to some conclusions, but was distracted by a collection of scattered pages on a table in the corner. Turning on the light, I looked through the notes and found almost nothing but illegible scrawls. What I could make out were the paranoid ramblings of someone far less sane than how Marie first appeared.

Supposedly she had found something undisclosed in the mountains, but with her fear, there was also a deep regret in her writings. Clearly, she longed to return what she had taken, but was unable to for reasons unknown. She expressed a constant dread, stemming from the knowledge that something was coming for her, which she allegedly learned from a dream. She did not know what it was, only that it would come in ten years, and find her wherever she went. This was all I could read, and I turned towards the door, only to feel a chill that was becoming all too familiar. There in the doorway, in a ragged and dirty cloak, stood Marie.

The wrinkles of her face were contorted to mirror her psychosis, now reflecting the woman I had found in the papers behind me. A red trickle ran down her forehead, no doubt from the fire poker I still held. Noticing the kitchen knife in her hand, I became frozen once again. We stared at each other, waiting for something to happen, and my sight moved to the wall on her right. A calendar hung there, with an impressionist painting of an ocean, and a circle around today’s date.

“Marie, listen…” I tried to mediate, but she immediately interrupted by charging with her weapon first. Quickly, I jumped onto the bed and leapt around her to the doorway. She turned and came at me again, so I swung the fire poker once more, but only succeeded in embedding it into the wall. With my fruitless struggle to get it loose, and my rampaging host before me, I decided to leave my only defence and flee.

I practically flew down the stairs, but I felt her bounding close behind me. Busting through the front door, I ran to my car and opened it. I almost went in before realizing that my keys were still in the guest house, along with my bag and other belongings. I barely had time to curse before Marie was upon me again, and I was forced to run in the other direction, into the forest. Branches whipped my face, and I stumbled over nature’s uncounted and unseen obstacles as I plunged further into the dark of the wood. I’m not sure how long it was before I checked behind me, but once I did, I was punished with a large stump that sent me landing flat on my face. I quickly scanned my surroundings and found that Marie was nowhere to be seen, and I heard nothing of her strangely energetic chase. After getting up and making sure I wasn’t seriously injured, I dusted myself off and weighed my options. Going back was the obvious worst idea, but I struggled to think of much else. At last I decided to walk further into the forest, hoping to discover a ranger station or another cabin.

Either due to the cover of clouds or the density of the trees, the moon provided only a glimmer. I still had my phone, and although I couldn’t make calls, I could still use it to light my way. With its battery at less than half though, I tried my best to feel my way around, now that I could move slower and think clearer. I should say though, that once I calmed down, staying that way was not an easy feat. It wasn’t enough that the forest was dark and alien, but like most other forests, it was loud. All around me, trees creaked, wind whistled, and wild animals called out to each other. More than once, the otherworldly cry of an elk sent me into a cold sweat before I realized what it was. However, most nerve-wracking of all was the persistent twig-snapping that I could have sworn came from behind me. Surprisingly though, and thankfully, none of my frequent stops to look around me ever came up with anything.

After travelling like this for a time that no doubt seemed longer than it was, I found that the trees and clouds began to thin slightly. Looking up, I saw the outline of a fire tower, looking over the trees. A spark of relief warmed my body, and I made my way towards the structure. In my desperate state, I almost walked into the supports, but I quickly found the narrow staircase and began my ascent. After only a few steps, the metal beneath me started to groan and shake. I felt the craggy rust of the railing, and shuddered as chips of paint fell away. Sixty-five steps later, I arrived at the top and even though I was high up, it felt good to have a floor beneath my feet.

As if by some providence, the clouds slowly cleared away and moonlight filled the place. There wasn’t much furniture, but what was there seemed to be old and heavily used. I noticed then, a wide corkboard, hung on a wall between two of the large windows lining the tower. Plastered across were a variety of flyers, notices, and other papers from a previous time. One such paper appeared to be a poorly drawn map, which depicted a cave, carved into the rock on the shores of a lake. A small note was also pinned to the map which read, “I’ve left with the radio”, and showed an arrow pointing to the drawing.

Dismay overtook me, and I looked around in the hopes of finding some way to call for help, but there was nothing. My mind spiralled, wondering how long the tower had sat vacant. If my assumptions were correct, whoever manned it last had gone to a cave along with the only form of communication, and presumably hadn’t returned. While that thought certainly gave me hesitation, the prospect of finding a working radio urged me to follow in their footsteps. With continuing to wander the forest as my only other option, I resigned to my quest and looked out each of the tower windows. At last I found the lake, but right before I looked away to leave, something caught my eye. In that split second, I had seen something large move in the forest below. When I looked back however, there was no sign of it.

At the end of an easier descent, I dove back into the woods towards the lake. The moon lit my way, and even though it was undeniably a blessing, it created many shadows which too easily startled me. Before long though, the shimmering blackness of the lake lay before me. The cave entrance to the right was smaller than expected, and was so close to the shoreline that I needed to sidle along the water’s edge to enter. Once I did, I was met with a steep slope downwards that almost got the better of me. Slowly and carefully though, I began to climb down, thinking that I would stop if it became too dangerous for my subsequent exit.

The moonlight reached about halfway down, so once I reached the bottom, I was in complete darkness. It was at this point that I gave in, and sparingly used my phone light to examine my surroundings. Before me was a narrow hallway stretching forward into unseen depths. The suffocating shadow made pressing on difficult, but I still held onto my sliver of courage. With the hallway seeming perfectly straight, I tried to keep my light off as much as possible. However, the fear of walking into something horrible or falling into some unknown pit did not keep me blind for long. The minutes ticked by, and the only sounds were of my footsteps and breathing, echoing through the passage. The rhythm they formed only amplified the feeling of solitude that I was trying very hard to fend off. Of course, when that feeling disappeared, it turned out to be all the worse.

It started out slow, a barely noticeable noise that likely occurred a few times before I became aware of it. Eventually though, my foot had scraped the cave floor, and at the same time, a heavier dragging sound came from behind. I turned around immediately and heard nothing, so I was unsure if my mind was playing tricks on me. Unfortunately, the disorienting blackness stretching out on either side did not instill further trust in my psyche. After listening for several moments without result, I turned back and continued. The noise seemed to have the ability to mock, seeing as right when I felt slightly comfortable again, it returned. Like before, I spun around and listened to the emptiness. Silence once again.

I was about to continue on, when a far worse rendition of the noise came at me. I could hear with certainty that it sounded like something heavy, and rough being dragged on the ground in short repetition. I did not have time to analyze it further, since after a pause, it abandoned its short spurts of movement for a continuous slither. It grew louder and echoed around me while my heart raced almost as fast as whatever was approaching. Without hesitation, I turned and fled, praying the hallway would finally end in safety.

My legs burned and I started to think the hallway might have indeed been endless. Finally, my hand left the wall I was feeling as I entered a new area. Turning around, I could make out a door, so as my pursuer grew closer, I rushed to close the door and leant all my weight onto it. The horrible dragging became louder and louder, and my confidence in that thin barrier waned. Right when it sounded as if the thing was about to crash through, a silence came instead.

I pressed my ear to the wood, holding my breath to hear the slightest indication of something on the other side. After waiting long enough that I felt it was gone, I stepped away. I thought about opening the door again and making sure, but a second thought convinced me otherwise. Instead, realizing my phone light was still on, I used it to look around. The first thing I noticed was the circular room I was in, which was about fifteen feet in diameter. The second was that my phone’s battery had dropped to nine percent. I would have turned it off right away, if something on the wall didn’t catch my eye.

There a mural of swirling designs formed odd shapes, and strangely menacing figures, despite the fact that they seemed completely abstract. I followed the fresco along the wall until it culminated symmetrically across from the entrance. A series of patterns pointed down at a short pedestal against the wall, with an indent carved into the top. I assumed it would hold some sort of object, but there was nothing there. I searched the floor in front, as well as the rest of the room, initially finding only dust and stone. Eventually though, my light shone upon two things that I had seen many times before, but in that moment had terrified me to my core.

My shivering light shone on a pair of shoes, which as it travelled upwards, I found were attached to none other than Marie in the open doorway. She looked far worse, with dried blood on her face, and both her clothes and hair caked with mud. Her eyes burned with a rage that seemed to make my light obsolete, and a kitchen knife was still clutched in her hand.

“Of course you’re here,” she croaked out. Then with a cry, she prepared to lunge at me, but at that moment something stopped her. Behind her, the heavy dragging returned, and Marie turned to face it. It grew louder as it filled the chamber, and right before I expected to see it’s source, my phone died. What followed was a symphony of screams, both human and not, that I still cannot recall without shuddering. I did not feel anything myself, but from what it sounded like, Marie would be no more in a few seconds.

Sure enough, the screaming stopped, but it did not yield to silence. The noise that had chased me now filled the room, as whatever the thing was seemed to slither around. I tried to stay as still and quiet as possible, praying it would leave and that I would finally be able to as well. Evidently this was fruitless, since something rough touched my leg before latching on in an instant. I soon felt my entire body immersed in this texture, no matter how much I fought. Though it was dark, I could tell that my vision was becoming cloudy, and my consciousness was growing thin. I wondered how long I would be able to stay awake before I was finally consumed.

A car horn startled me awake, and a brightness blinded me from all sides. Regaining my sight, I realized that it was sunlight, and I was sitting behind the wheel of my car. Outside were the familiar features of a gas station, and as I fidgeted in my seat, I felt I had been asleep there for a long time. The details of the horror I had experienced faded quickly, and it would have seemed only a dream, were it not for one detail. No matter how much I searched my pockets, my car, or the ground outside, I couldn’t find my keys.