Sedatephobia, monophobia, cabin fever… These are the terms I searched up a day or two ago- a possible explanation for what’s been happening to me the past three days. Now that I’m on my third, and last, day however- I realize just how wrong I was. This is real… it’s real to me.
When I told my mother I was going camping, she was beyond skeptical to say the least. It took a long while, but after enough convincing, she surprised me by telling me I could stay in a cabin her and my father had built back in the 2000’s. It was located in Monongahela National Park in West Virginia. She had one request for me- to bring the chickens and feed them for her. When I agreed she handed me the keys and I continued planning. I once drove up to it to check it out.
Turns out, I had to stop my truck and hike maybe a mile on foot before coming upon it. It looked five years old instead of twenty. It was brown, wood, and basically what you expected from a cabin in the woods. Except this cabin had two floors. The upstairs was actually just a set of stairs leading up through an open doorway. Through that doorway was a small room. It felt more like a closet than a room, with the bed against the wall and the window to the outside below just above it. Then I checked out the chicken coup to the far left of the cabin- I learned the hard way by searching for a couple hours that unlike the cabin, it was right next to the road.
Writing this is actually calming my nerves… so I’m going to continue writing. As the days kept coming closer, things kept becoming more normal: everybody became supportive of my future stay. Contrary to what you’d normally expect, there were no red flags. Nobody spoke of monsters, the paranormal, weird encounters on the property. My parents remarked how their time spent there has always been amazing, so any nerves associated with going there dissipated. When the day finally came, I loaded the chickens into the wooden crates, and put them in the backseat of the truck. The ride was peaceful, but extremely barren the closer I came. Valley head was the last collection of buildings I drove through until there was nothing but road. I came onto a side road. Off the side road, was another side road that led directly into the woods. The forest was dense, and I discovered I was forty miles west from Monerville. It was here that I discovered I somehow managed to have a cell signal from here, though it was rather slow.
My first day in the cabin was completely normal, I had to walk the mile through the woods twice a day to feed the chickens. It wasn’t that bad for me, as exercise has been part of the reason I came in the first place. I discovered a gorgeous river, and eventually realized it was one of many around here. I spent the day taking photos of the landscape, showing off the cabin online, and even purified some river water using a flame- something I learned from my father. I had brought a tent with me, but decided on sleeping in the cabin at first. I wanted to get a feel of how night felt in the cabin. Night came- and I walked up the staircase to the small closet-like room. The bed was to the right against the narrow hallway. The window sat just above it. I then laid down and closed my eyes.
I laid in bed for maybe 10 minutes, then I opened my eyes. I just stared forward in the dark hallway and the open doorway, and it finally hit me just how eerie I felt. I’m not afraid of the dark, but something about a door not being in the doorway creeped me out. From my position in the bed I could not see through the doorway- or down the staircase to the first floor, and something just felt really eerie about it. It could have been how quiet it was inside the cabin. It was so quiet I could almost hear my heartbeat. That’s when I decided I was being a little too ridiculous and got out of bed. I took a glance outside the window, and the trees silently stood completely still. It wasn’t windy that day so I didn’t think much about it, but it’s weird how all the little things can combine to create a weird feeling environment.
I decided that I’d feel less creeped out if I did what I originally planned to do- sleep outside in my tent. After walking downstairs I reached into my bag and pulled out my tent. I also took my pocket knife with me because let’s be honest- who wouldn’t? I finally stepped outside the cabin and looked around. There were still trees everywhere, the only difference is that now… I wasn’t in the cabin. I slowly set up my tent which made more noise than I was comfortable with, and finally got inside. That first night in the tent was terrifying. Not terrifying because of what happened, but because of what didn’t happen.
As I layed down, I couldn’t close my eyes. I instead stared blankly at the top of the tent. I never thought silence could be so horrifying. I just silently begged for any sort of noise outside- leaves, animals, wind- any sort of noise. However being outside the cabin… finally brought a new feeling… I felt watched, from every single angle. I couldn’t see outside the tent, and I didn’t know if I preferred or hated that. I felt like something was gonna jump and snap the tent walls in half at any moment.
It was here when reality finally sunk in, the sheer realization of what I was doing. If I had to escape from something- I’d have to run a mile through trees just to reach my truck. If I needed help, it’d take people over thirty minutes to reach me. I quickly but silently shot up in my tent. I couldn’t take this tense feeling anymore, and I slowly approached the closed tent opening. I remember pausing, it was so horrid. I felt there was something just outside the tent. I couldn’t open it, but why? Nothing had happened, and if there was something outside the tent, I would have seen the silhouette of it. I finally took a deep breath and counted to three. I then bolted out of my tent and towards the cabin. As I sprinted through the pitch black forest, the only noise I heard was my feet crunching the leaves. Somehow, this made me run faster. Once I finally reached the cabin, I closed the door behind me so fast I was afraid the oak door would shatter. I locked every lock on the door and took a moment to gather my composure. I finally decided to just leave all the lights on and sleep slouched on the couch I sunk into.
Despite having difficulty falling asleep, once I did it was rather peaceful. My second day I woke up to a completely sunny sky outside the windows. Once I woke up, I remembered in far too vivid detail the events, or non events, of the previous night. Despite the cabin using lanterns for light, it did have electricity. As such I was able to charge my phone and contact my parents. I told them everything over text, and their reaction actually did reassure me. They told me about how nothing like that had ever happened to them and that I might be terrified of the isolation, or be suffering from cabin fever. I thought back and ended up believing their theory. I won’t lie, when it was time to feed the chickens, I was very hesitant to walk outside despite the sunny day. Nevertheless I walked the mile to the chickens and back without an issue. The only weird thing was the chickens. Even they were far quieter than usual, almost as if none of them wanted to make a sound. A couple hours passed and I started slowly feeling at ease with the cabin once more. I stayed inside a lot more than the first day however, as I still felt weirdly uncomfortable outside. When the time came to feed the chickens for the second time, I scanned outside the windows just as the first time. I was rather paranoid… and rightly so.
I scanned the woods in extreme detail before I froze and stared at it. Maybe two hundred feet away, I saw something. Setting itself apart from the green and brown constant trees, was something black. It was too far to make out what it was, but one thing became certain… it is alive. I saw it move back and forth between the tree- I think it was peeking out at the cabin. I cannot tell you if it’s a person or not- but I think it is. Just one problem… I am over forty miles from the nearest civilization, and maybe 10 miles from the nearest publicly used side road. There is absolutely NO reason for ANYONE to be this deep in the forest for ANY reason unless they were specifically here for the cabin. It disappeared behind the tree- and I immediately grabbed my gun and headed outside.
I fired maybe four shots into the air, my shots ranged so loud I physically cringed. I don’t remember what I was feeling- it just seems I dissociated and my body moved on its own. I immediately regretted firing the gun, for some reason the fact that I had broken the pitch silence terrified me more than what I had seen. I stood there for a minute gathering myself. I decided after I fed the chickens I was gathering my things and heading home. I don’t really remember the walk to the chickens… except me constantly watching my surroundings. I started wondering if it had been a hallucination. I know fear can cause hallucinations in people, but that still brings the question on why I was so scared in the first place. When I finally reached the chickens, I remember being so in shock I dropped my gun and fell to my knees. There was blood… everywhere. A shovel that had not been there before was shoved into the neck of a chicken burying itself in the ground. All of them were dead. There was blood splattered on the ground, the walls, and even some on the ceiling.
I immediately picked up the gun and spun around. I frantically searched the woods, finding nothing. I just wanted them to show themselves. They could have been 10 feet away and I don’t think I could have known. I pulled out my phone and immediately phoned the police. It took them almost an hour to arrive, the whole time I stayed inside my cabin refusing to even look outside. When they arrived I told them everything, and they took me very seriously. They sent out a search of the surrounding area, but I could tell they were hiding something from me. They kept suggesting that they could take me home. For some reason… I refused. I didn’t want my parents to feel they had lost the safety of the cabin. The cops had also reassured me they would be patrolling the woods throughout the night until the following morning. I assumed the cops searching the area probably scared off whatever was here. So I preferred to leave the next day so I could prepare a story for my parents. But… as afternoon fell, then dusk, and then night, I saw no sort of patrolling officers- no sense of security that I was promised.
Now… six hours later. I regret not leaving when I could have deeply. I grabbed my gun and went outside to ease my nerves by firing shots into the woods. I regret doing that deeply… A humid evening followed a cloudy afternoon. When I went outside at around seven pm, a haze filled the woods. You know the way snow creates a silent atmosphere? That wasn’t the case here. In the already dead silence that I was almost getting used to… the fog almost seemed to make noise- a soft static that only seemed to increase as night came closer. I refused to stay outside in the fog- but I had finally considered bolting to my truck.
By the time I wanted to leave, it was too dark for me to feel safe taking the mile walk to my truck. I took a long nap before nightfall- as I am staying wide awake the entire night. The silence returned. It was so silent it was agony. I can feel and hear my heartbeat. Everything is watching me… I looked outside. There was nothing- no light, no trees, no outside… Just a pitch black void- a foggy void… then I heard something. I heard… creaking. It was sudden, sharp, and in the deathly silence… It was loud. The type of creaking slowly opening a door makes- or stepping on old wood.
I sprinted upstairs with my gun and cornered myself beside my bed. I have my gun held tightly beside me, and I’m cowering, aiming straight at the doorway. I just posted a short version of my story on reddit, and someone told me to stay up the entire night armed, that’s exactly what i’m doing. I’m staring down the open doorway, and I swear to god if anything pokes into the doorway, I will not hesitate to blast a hole in the cabin’s walls… because I finally heard something else- a soft rhythmic thumping against the front door… and a feeling of being watched behind me- through the second story window.