On the last day of our summer trip, my friend Rick had gotten it in his head to do cheese fondue on top of a mountain. Yes, you heard that right.
I knew the particular spot and wasn’t too thrilled about carrying a pan up there. We had been hiking in Switzerland for a week, and to tell you the truth: I was beat.
“Can’t we just do it close to the cable car?” I asked hopefully, as we arrived at the foot of the mountain.
“Of course not!” he exclaimed. “The view is shitty there. It’s going to be me much more rewarding when we take the climb!” I’ve had known Rick for ten years. I knew that if he got something in his head, it was going to happen, one way or another. So I gave in. It turned out to be the worst decision of my life.
We took the cable car up and started out from the station. The road was demanding, but at least the sun was shining merrily and warm through the trees.
“You checked the timetable for the cable car, right?” I asked, panting for the steep ascent.
“Yeah, yeah”, Rick replied, a couple of feet ahead.
“And we’re gonna make it back for the last one, right?” The spot where he wanted to do fondue was a 45 minutes walk from the cable way.
He nodded, and we continued in silence, the rhythmic crunch of our boots accompanying us. We were maybe 20 minutes in when I started hearing footsteps.
We hadn’t run into many other hikers, somewhat peculiar in Switzerland during summer. Now, it appeared we were not alone after all.
The footsteps sounded heavy, which was nothing out of the ordinary. You weren’t supposed to do these kind of trails without proper boots.
Still, they seemed… too loud. As if they drowned out all other sounds. I peered at Rick, who didn’t seem to notice.
The footsteps echoed closer by now and I glanced over my shoulder, half-expecting to spot the other hiker. I didn’t see anyone. Then again, this was a winding road, the view mostly obscured by trees. This person could be just around the bend.
I zoned out, trying to ignore the painful sting in the side of my gut. My gaze wandered over the gravel road as I steadied my breathing.
It all happened in a heartbeat.
A tall man roughly shoved past me, propelling me awfully close to the ravine side of the mountain. “Hey, what the fuck!” I cried out.
Rick looked back surprised. “What?”
“This guy…” I started saying. But except for my friend, the trail was deserted.
I opened my mouth again, but felt I didn’t know what to say. If someone had passed, Rick should have seen him. The path we followed was too narrow to hide in the cover of trees.
“Never mind”, I mumbled. But as we continued walking, I thought I heard vague, cackling laughter, somewhere close.
“You heard that?” I asked Rick.
“Heard what?”
I said nothing, blaming my fatigue.
We reached our destination 15 minutes later – a breathtaking spot. The elevated, grassy clearing offered a stunning view of the lake and village below, embraced by a backdrop of snowy peaks. It was beautiful. It was also the last time I would look at mountains again.
“Let’s do this!” my friend said excited, as I heaved a sigh of relief.
“I told you this would be rewarding, right?” my friend said with a smile, gazing out over the postcard landscape. Although I was tired, I felt happy for him.
He hadn’t had the best year, and that’s putting it mildly. His father lost a brutal battle against cancer, and now his mom was diagnosed too. The prognosis wasn’t good.
On top of that, Rick’s boss had told him last week that his services were no longer necessary. This trip had been the first time in months I’d seen him remotely happy.
I didn’t want to take that feeling away from him, so I returned his smile. “Let’s bring out that cheese then. And you brought beers, right?”
We got a fire going on a disposable gas stove, and I have to admit the primitive meal was a treat. My friend toasted with me, and said: “This was a good week, man. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it”, I said, as his eyes shifted away from me.
During dinner, he had gotten more withdrawn. Not surprising. Our hiking trip was coming to a close, and he had to go back to a life treating him horribly.
As the sun was sinking, I took my camera gear out. After a while, I noticed my friend didn’t follow my example. He had gotten quiet after dinner.
“You’re not gonna take any photos?”
He shook his head, looking out over the mountains. “No, no. Not tonight.”
With a shrug I pointed my lens in the direction of the trail. I had taken two shots already when my visor found the antlered figure, just in the shadows of the trees.
“What the fuck!” I cried out, almost dropping my camera.
“What’s wrong?” my friend asked surprised.
Staring at the trees, my stomach was as cold as ice. Nothing there. “I thought I saw…” I fell silent, not sure what to say next. “Just a bizarre-looking tree, I guess.”
But it hadn’t looked like a tree. Or a deer, for that matter. It had been a tall man with antlers, and the incident of an hour ago was suddenly fresh in my mind.
I browsed through my camera roll, but there was nothing. At least, nothing I could catch on the small screen. Darkness was creeping in fast now, and I was instantly ready to head back down.
“It’s getting late”, I said, standing up. “Let’s head back, before we lose that cable car.”
My friend checked his phone and cursed. “Fuck! I totally forgot! It’s leaving in five minutes.”
I looked at him incredulously, and felt anger flare up. “You told me you checked the timetable!”
“I did. I just… lost track of time”, he said. “Don’t look at me like that! You have been taking photos for twenty minutes!”
“I thought we had time!” My voice sounded too loud in this desolated wilderness. Softer, I continued: “Now we have to walk down. That’s at least two hours. In the dark!”
“We can do it”, my friend said. “You brought headlamps, right?”
I did. The problem was, they wouldn’t turn on. “This is impossible”, I muttered, fumbling with the switches. “I replaced the batteries at home. I tested them. They were working!”
“We use our phones.”
“How much battery you have left?”
Rick checked, and groaned. “2 percent.”
“Perfect”, I grumbled. “Mine is around 20. Let me go in front and you illuminate the path. You are more steady than me. When your phone goes dark, we use mine.”
The sun had diseappeared as we headed out. Besides the scarce phone light, we just had the pale moon to guide us, and that moon was gone once we entered the trees. I tried not to think about antlered men as we scrabbled down.
Although the trail was slippery and we made slow progress, it was not going bad. After a while, I thought I could spot the dark outlines of the cable car station. From there on, it was still a long way down to the village, but to my recollection, a big part of the road was paved.
“This is not too bad”, Rick said, echoing my thoughts. “And the phone is holding out longer than I…” Instantly, everything went pitch dark. “Well, shit.”
I reached in my pocket and held out my phone. “No worries, take mine. I think we’ll make it.” Rick didn’t grab the phone. “Come on man, let’s go!”
No response came and I turned around. He was gone.
“Rick?” I cried out, instantly regretting it. My voice came back echoing from all sides. And with it… something else.
Cackling laughter.
My heart was pounding so fast I could hear it. This was bullshit, I told myself. He had just been standing there. He can’t be gone. He can’t be just gone. But everything was dead silent around me.
After peering through the dark for what seemed like an eternity, I saw Rick again. He was just a few feet away. “Shit man, I thought I lost…”
That was not Rick. A tall figure with antlers was regarding me. He tilted his head slightly and took a step forward.
“Fuck!” I almost dropped my phone, but managed to catch it before it slid down the mountain. I don’t know where I found the courage, but I turned away from the figure, and switched on the light of my phone.
I scrambled down the steep trail, irresponsibly fast. Within twenty seconds, I slipped and dropped over the edge.
But instead of breaking my back and ending my life, I landed on a soft forest floor. It seemed I was deeper into the woods now. The enormous, mossy trees around me didn’t look like anything I ever saw in the Alps .
Footsteps were coming closer. Heavy footsteps. When the cackling laughter cut through the dark, I scrambled up and started running again.
My entire body hurt and I knew I couldn’t keep this up for long. I hadn’t been in good shape to begin with, and the hiking had taken a toll on me.
Then I saw the pale light, shining through the trees. Hope flared up inside me. Some secluded cabin, maybe?
But when I stumbled upon a clearing, I knew I wasn’t saved. The light originated from a couple of candles, positioned on some kind of shrine. I saw movement in the trees. From every side, antlered men approached. I still couldn’t make out their faces. I searched for an escape, but there wasn’t one. They had surrounded me.
The cackling laughter again. It sent shivers down my spine. Then, a voice. I couldn’t understand the language, but somehow I understood what it was saying. “Young one. There is a decision to make.”
Silence. Then I realized it was waiting for me. “Decision?” I uttered with a creaking voice, no more than a whisper.
“Your companion begged us. To save his mother, offering you as a bargain. Pray, are you in accord with these terms?”
I seemed to recognize some amusement in the voice as it spoke next. “We thought it only fair to ask you.”
I was speechless. “W… What?”
The voice returned, sounding more brusque. “The choice is clear. Your life, or his mother’s. Speak now.”
“My life?” I muttered confused. “I don’t understand… I don’t want to die. Please!”
“It is clear then”, the voice spoke relentlessly, and with that, it was as if a light switch flicked off. I passed out.
I woke up in the same spot as where I had lost Rick, my backpack and phone neatly beside me. It was still dark. Not much time seemed to have passed.
Conflicting emotions of fear and confusion raced through my body. I considered calling out for my friend, but couldn’t find the courage or willpower.
Instead, I sunk back down on the ground, crying uncontrollably. Finally, managing to get up and find my footing, I did the only thing I could do. I went down to the village and reported a missing person.
I can tire you with the aftermath. The obscure books they found in his apartment, of ancient rituals. The strange stories I found about that trail.
And I had been thinking about one night, earlier on our trip, when I thought I heard the door of our cabin. It had seemed like a dream, and Rick had been in his bed the morning after.
Now I wondered if he had made a stop at a certain trailside that night, and got at the raw end of a horrible deal.
They found his mangled body deep into the mountains, two days after I reported him missing. A bear attack, the authorities concluded. Bears were a rare sight in the Alps, but attacks happened occasionally.
I attended two funerals in the span of a month. His mother passed away not long after they found him, refusing treatment.
I haven’t visited the mountains since, and I’m not sure I ever will again.