It was mid-November and I was going out to the family cabin for a few days of quiet hunting. My cabin was about 2 hours from the nearest town and was so far out of the way that I couldn’t get all the way there with my truck. I keep an ATV at the nearest cabin about 8 miles from my property. I left my truck on my neighbors property and headed off on the ATV.
When I finally arrived, it was about 5:45pm and the sun was making its long trek down the horizon. I took my rifle and checked the immediate area around the cabin, carefully making my way in the door checking for anyone who shouldn’t be there. The place was empty, as usual, and I went about setting up lanterns and starting a fire in the wood burning stove. It was freezing cold and all I could think about was getting the place heated up.
I unloaded my gear and began preparing to spend the next day hunting in the surrounding wilderness when I heard a noise from outside. You get used to the sounds of wildlife in the woods and after a while you usually don’t even notice much of it. But this was different. It was a heavy thud, followed by a soft metallic scraping. I got uneasy because there are no roads up here, there are game trails but many are overgrown and wind in a maze through the forest. I grabbed my flashlight and sidearm and carefully went outside. Circling the cabin in growing circles until I was assured that no one was out there. Strange, but I am tired from a long trip and sometimes silence can make you on edge, so I chalked it up to nothing more than me needing a good night’s rest. So I finished getting my pack together, ate some rice and jerky, and went to bed.
The next morning I set out at dawn, my plan was to make for a small clearing by the stream where my uncle built a stand in the tree-line. I had been at it a couple of hours when I heard a soft thud. I looked in the direction of the noise, and about 15 meters from where I sat, there was an arrow in the base of a tree. I was super annoyed and shouted out for whoever shot it to show themselves. Our property bumps up to other popular hunting areas and we often have hunters on our land. It usually isn’t a problem, but it infuriated me to have someone shooting off arrows willy-nilly through the clearing for no reason. Kids maybe, or drunks. Putting on the orange vest I brought in my pack, I scrambled down and away, cursing to myself about amateurs.
I decided it would be a good time for a cup of coffee and a lunch break, so I went to my favorite spot in the woods and sat on the fallen tree, like so many times before. After boiling my water and steeping the grounds, I sit, eating my rice and sipping my coffee, enjoying the peace, when suddenly I get the eerie feeling that something isn’t right. Goosebumps suddenly run up my arm as I scan my surroundings. Was that arrow there when I arrived? Did I just not notice it? The dark gray shaft and broad, black tip were very familiar. It was the exact same as what I encountered earlier that morning. About 10 meters away. Anxiety gripped me. Was someone following me? Was this a joke? Was that arrow meant for me? I frantically tried to convince myself that I was just being overly dramatic, that it was crazy to think someone was out here hunting me. But still, I couldn’t shake the feeling. I gathered my things and headed back to the cabin, I suddenly found myself in need of a whiskey, and the safety of four walls.
After getting warm enough and in the comforts of a good book, I wasn’t thinking too much about what happened, it was surely just a coincidence after all. I closed my eyes and drifted off into a nap.
I don’t know how much time passed, but when I suddenly woke up it was dark outside. There was a loud tapping at the window, I was frozen where I was, not able to comprehend what was happening. The tapping stopped, and a few moments of silence before a big bang on the door, so hard that it shook on it’s hinges, I jumped up and shouted “who is it?” while I chambered a round in my rifle. I was answered with a deep silence. Creeping to the door, I unlocked the latch and slowly opened the door to find nothing there. As I slowly walked to the outside of the window, I see the glass had been scraped up and down with something sharp. How long had that tapping noise been happening before I woke up? I fearfully ran back to the door, all I wanted was to have a locked door between me and whatever was here.
I ran into the cabin, but before I could even shut the door I noticed it; sitting in the middle of the table, a dark gray arrow with a broad, black tip. My mind spun. Our cabin was small enough to see the whole space from where I was standing, the table, the old sofa, the set of bunk beds and the kitchen area with a few small cabinets; nowhere for someone to hide. I turned quickly to look back out of the door, and that’s when I saw him. A tall man looming just outside the tree line, maybe 15 yards from my door.
The moon was bright enough for me to make out the long recurve bow in his hands. I slammed the door shut just in time to hear a heavy thud on the outside. That’s when I remembered the sound from the night before. This man has been messing with me since I arrived! I shouted through the door, “What do you want?!”, but the man didn’t respond.
I knew I had to get out of there, but there was no way I was going to make it in the dark, I would have to wait until dawn. Frantically, I pushed everything I could in front of the door and made sure the window was locked and the drapes closed.
No sleep was to be had, I huddled in fear all night in the back corner of the cabin with my rifle in my hand, shivering from cold and fear. The same questions kept running through my mind. What does the man want? Is he alone? What will he do to me? Why isn’t he trying to break the window if he wants to kill me? Every half hour or so, there would be that same heavy thud on the outside of the door.
I knew dawn would be coming soon so I grabbed a few things but when I went to the key to the ATV, it was gone. The man took it so I couldn’t leave. A brand new wave of fear rushed over my body. I grabbed an old tackle box off the top of the cabinets, my dad used to keep a spare key in here in case we lost one. ‘Please be in here, please be in here, please be in here’, it was so cold but sweat dripped into my eyes. YES! There it was. I peaked out of the window but didn’t see the man. I took a deep breath and threw open the door with a dozen arrows now sticking out of it, running as fast as I could to the ATV. Jumping on and shoving in the key, it took a few seconds for the engine to turn. As soon as it started I drove off, an arrow driving its way into the small pack on my back, barely missing my side by centimeters.
Driving as fast as the terrain would allow, I got to my neighbors safely and retrieved my truck. As soon as I reached cell service I called the police. They never found anything, but I doubt they looked too hard, with the cabin that far out of the way. Even now, I often find myself wondering who that man was, and why he was terrorizing me. Did he want to kill me, or just scare me? Either way, I haven’t gone back to that cabin since, and I don’t think I ever will.