Ainsley hiked alone through the woods. She enjoyed the fall foliage; the bright yellows mixed with the bluish evergreens... this part of the trail looked magical. She smiled as she walked down the hill, even as her breath fogged in front of her face and her ears stung pink with the cold. She loved this kind of weather.
At the bottom of the hill, Ainsley stumbled upon an old fence, collapsed in some places and covered in twigs that crunched under her feet as she stepped onto it to get a closer look into the place. The area contained only pine trees, but lots of downed wood and orangey pine needles that made the slope strangely soft, crunchy, and slippery at the same time. Being a curious person and somewhat of an explorer, she went into the mini-forest.
At the bottom of the hill, she saw a little building. At first, she thought it was only a wood shed, but as she got closer, she realized it was more of a hut- not big enough to live in; the kind of thing one would use for extra storage space. But it was run down, ruinous. Green mold ate at the original pink paint and moss grew on the rusted tin roof. As Ainsley rounded the corner, she saw cobwebs in the windows, one of which stood open (strange- none were broken, as the windows of most abandoned structures were) and a wooden door made of thin boards that seemed to have somehow evaded the claws of time. The door was the only thing about the hut that wasn't crumbling into oblivion.
Ainsley peered into the open window, but it was too dark. She walked over to the door and tried to pull it open... locked. Sighing, she went back to the window. Only one way in...
As soon as her feet hit the ground inside, she stumbled away from the window and whimpered, swiping desperately at the spiderwebs now coating her body. She hated spiders. When she was certain she'd gotten all the nasty spider-silk off of her, she squinted at her surroundings. Still too dark. It smelled like mothballs in the hut, like caves. She was probably the only person in the world that liked that smell- it reminded her of her childhood.
She grabbed her phone from her pocket and turned on the flashlight. The cracked stone walls were painted red, although it was hard to tell through the fading and mold and- writing? Yes... someone had crazily scrawled their terrors all over the walls. But it was in German, and Ainsley understood very little.
Attention... here... risk of death... wait, what? She knew the word from bridges with electric cables running beneath them- "Achtung," the signs would say, "lebensgefahr." But what was it doing here? Suddenly afraid, Ainsley became hyper-aware of her surroundings. Spiders scuttling across the cold cement floor. Old, broken furniture and small stacks of wood that had long ago been hollowed by termites. A desk in the corner, the kind that had a space for the feet on one side but appeared solid and smooth from the front.
She was suddenly sure that someone- or something- was hiding behind that desk. Yes, she could hear them breathing now... their fingernails tap, tap, tapping on the wood... Ainsley's heart started to pound. She approached the desk, not being one to cower away from situations like this. It was probably a stray dog or a run-away child, right? It couldn't be a monster- that was just her overactive imagination... right?
She rounded the corner, her muscles tensed, she prepared for the worst... nothing. There was nothing there. She began to laugh hysterically. She was so ridiculous! Why did she always do this to herself? Finally, she relaxed and caught her breath. She began to turn around to leave, but then... cold breath on her neck. She could see it in the cold, like white plumes of crystallized smoke. It smelled foul. She slowly turned her head to see who was behind her. She caught the barest glimpse of coarse, grimy black hair before she heard him say three words: "ICH. BIN. TOT."
The last thing Ainsley was aware of before she died was the smell of pine trees, thick and overpowering but sweet and warm and friendly. Home, she thought as she took her final breath.
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This story was based off this hut I saw today on a hike. You're welcome.
