I had a bit of a break down from stress at work. So to regain my mental health, I decided that I was going to spend the next weekend off alone in the one story, one room cabin my grandfather had owned. We had been trying to sell it for years since he died but with no buyers. Probably the cabins remoteness and lack of electricity or running water scared potential owners off.
When I swung open the cabin's squeaky door, I was happy to find that it was in decent shape except for a little dirt and some leafs that I had no trouble sweeping up with the broom I brought from home. The cabin didn't take long to clean due to its small size and the lack of furniture besides a table with two chairs and an old metal wood stove. But what I had found a little strange though while sweeping, was the center of the floor was a little cleaner than the rest of the cabin and there were little drops of wax everywhere. Almost like that section had been cleaned more recently than the rest of the floor and someone has been burning a candle and dripped it all over the wooden boards.
I brushed off these subtle oddities, and once the cabin was somewhat clean, I placed my sleeping bag in front of the stove and the electric lantern I had also brought on top of the table. The cabin had no windows, so it got really dark inside during the day and especially at night, and the lantern would provide me all the light I needed.
With the cabin livable again, I put my backpack on and spent the rest of the day hiking in the woods and just enjoying being away from the pressures of the world outside these woods. I also took a gun along with me, but it was only for warding off grizzly bears that populated these parts.
I returned to the cabin when it started to get dark outside, and placed my backpack on one of the chair and the gun near my sleeping bag for peace of mind and enjoyed my meal of nuts and energy bars at the table by the bright light of the lantern. Once finished, I carried the lantern to my sleeping bag and read a book I had brought with me for a little bit, before I drifted off to a restful sleep, which was something that I had been missing from my life for a while.
I was awakened suddenly in the middle of the night by a noise, but I wasn't sure what kind of noise it was until it happened again. There was the rhythmic sound of pounding and the squeaking of boards of something moving across the length of the cabin above my head. It would walk across the entire roof before it would change directions and move back to the beginning and start all over again.
I listened some more while I tried to identify it. The footsteps were too loud and heavy to be that of a small animal like a raccoon and the pattern it followed was that of something that walked on two feet instead of four. It was then I came to a chilling realization. Someone was pacing back in forth on the cabin's roof!
Now scared out of my mind and still in my sleeping bag, I fumbled for the gun I knew was close by. I found it in the dark and clutched it tightly to my chest while I continued to listen to the thudding above my head, which now was rivaled by the thudding of my heart.
My car was parked just outside, but my car keys were packed somewhere in my backpack which was still on the chair across the room, and I knew I didn't want to go out there unless my keys were securely in my hands and ready to go in the ignition. I would have to find them before I would make a break for my car. Whoever was crazy enough to come out to this cabin in the middle of the night and walk on my roof wasn't someone I wanted to give enough time to climb down and meet me on the ground, even if I did have my gun. I was convinced that the loud squeak of the old wooden door would alert them of my presence, and I would only have minutes to get in my car and drive away.
The sounds of walking stopped directly above me and the thought that it might mean my uninvited guest was getting ready to climb off the roof and attempt to come inside the cabin propelled me into action. I had to get some light in here so I could find my back pack, find my keys, and get out of here.
Still, on my back in my sleeping bag, I reached over and turned on the lantern which barely illuminated the small room enough for me to see the cabin and the pale face looking down at me. Someone hadn't been pacing back and forth on the roof. It had been pacing on the ceiling.
