My name is Audrey, I help my mom run her roadhouse called “Safe Haven”. In the quiet and secluded outskirts of our one red light town. The place was built from the ground up by my great grandfather. If you were to stumble upon the old building and come inside, you’d see deep, impossibly large claw marks in multiple spots throughout the walls and scuffed up hardwood floor, A lot of furnishings that look older than Willie Nelson. And that all three of the antique pool tables arranged near the far wall have stains on their felt that you’d think look an awful lot like blood. Also, I hope you don’t mind firearms because not only do we have an ammunition reloading table, more often than not you’d see at least one of our patrons at a dining table field stripping and cleaning their guns.
The people we serve here are rough around the edges to say the least. Their rugged appearances and shitty attitudes are completely understandable though when you’re aware of what they do for a living.
You see, here at the Safe Haven Roadhouse, we cater to the selfless unsung heroes who hunt down the things that most people only ever see in nightmares or horror movies. We provide these hunters with a safe place to let their guard down, sleep, and unwind. Without having to keep one eye open.
I think now is a good time to say that regardless of what most people believe, many things from mythology and folklore are very real.
David Paulides, the author of the Missing 411 books, estimates that there are over 1,600 unexplained disappearances in North America. Let me add to the gravity of this phenomenon by stating that over 13,000 unidentified body cases remain open in the United States alone. All of that is largely due to the beings you’ll learn about throughout my post’s.
Last Saturday night when every normal bar was probably packed with people having a good time. We had a grand total of four people at our establishment. Which is pretty common here. We don’t really have regulars like other places. Sometimes we’ll see the same hunter three or four times a year if whatever they’re hunting causes them to pass by. That’s about as close to a regular we have.
A tall muscular man had just went in to the bathroom after choosing to play a Johnny Cash song from the jukebox. An older weathered looking man wearing a cowboy hat was sitting at the bar babysitting a glass of whiskey. While a bruised up man and woman that I’ve only seen once before, racked up a game of eight ball. Earlier, when the couple first came in, they told me that they were celebrating after a successful skin walker hunt. I was sweeping behind the bar when I heard a thump I looked up and saw the cowboy passed out cold at the end of the bar. I chuckled and shook my head. This kind of thing happens A lot, I squatted down to sweep my pile of dust Into the dust pan. When I stood back up, the man who had been in the bathroom was sitting on the stool right in front of me on the other side of the bar, which caused me to gasp.
“sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you.”
He said laughing while placing his empty glass on to the counter and sliding it towards me.
“oh no, It’s okay, I needed to wake up and that did the trick.”
I said chuckling while pouring him another shot of whiskey. He looked at me and smiled
“Well, if your bored, I could tell you about the wendigo that bit off my big toe last night.”
He winced while slipping off his boot and sock, then he raised his leg to prop his foot up on the bar.
I resisted the urge to scrunch up my nose at the horrific sight and smell of his dangerously infected rotting foot.
“Good lord man! Why haven’t you cleaned the wound!?”
I said, holding my nose, stepping backwards until my rear-end bumped into the liquor shelf.
His smile disappeared as his brow furrowed,
“well, Ofcoures I cleaned it! And with my good whiskey too!”
He said, while sliding his leg off the of the bar.
“So the only thing you’ve done to treat the wound is pour whiskey on it?”
“Not just any whiskey sweetheart, Bushmills 21 year old Single Malt Irish Whiskey.”
He raised his glass in the air laughing, then brought it down to his lips and gulped down its contents.
“Oh don’t worry now, I plan on going to the hospital when I’m done here.”
“You better! You have a serious infection. It’s too far along for me to fix At this point but hobble on back here to the storage slash patch up room and I’ll clean it THE RIGHT WAY for you.”
I said, already walking towards the storage room door, waving For him to follow me.
He directed a defeated sigh at me and hobbled his way to the old cot we have situated in the corner of the room. He must’ve been more intoxicated than he thought because as soon as his head hit the pillow he was passed out snoring! I sighed and smiled while shaking my head.
“what a character,” I thought.
After putting a pair of gloves on and plugging my nose with a clothes pin, I treated the wound the best that I could. He needs actual medical attention for this though.
I heard the bell above the door ring. which ment someone had just left, or a new patron was here and I was needed at the bar. So I quickly pulled of my gloves and left Mr Wendigo toe to sleep it off.
When I turn around after closing the storage room door, I was taken aback by the man sitting at the bar. His clothes were stained to the point of looking like he’d just been buried Alive during a rain storm. There was dried mud caked in his hair he had cuts and bruises all over his arms and face to top his unnerving look off, he had a disheveled look on his face while staring straight ahead at himself through the mirror that serves as the liquor shelves back board. I took my time walking over to him from behind the bar and when I did approach him I made sure not to obscure his view of himself in the mirror. Wasn’t sure if that would set him off.
“Welcome to the Safe Haven Roadhouse, I’m Audrey, can I get you anything?”
I asked, softly, he slowly turned to look at me, once his eyes met mine it was like he had just woke up and didn’t know where he was for a few seconds. I watched the confusion clear on his face as he came back to reality.
“Audrey, wow look at you, you’re all grown up, I know that you don’t remember me, my name is Bill Higgins. Your mother and I go way back, is she here?”
“Your Bill Higgins? My mom talks about you from time to time. Well, actually, pretty much anytime vampire’s are brought up. According to her your one of the best hunters out there when it comes to killing bloodsuckers. I’m sorry to say that she’s gone on a hunt right now. Is something wrong?”
I made him a tall glass of ice water. He took the glass and gulped down every drop in seconds.
“That’s unfortunate, I didn’t want to put this on you But you two need to know.”
He glanced over his shoulder, then leaned over the bar towards me.
“Your great grandfather, Colter Fray, just saved my life.” He whispered
I stared at him blankly.
“Are you feeling okay Bill? Colter Fray is long gone, what do you mean he saved your life?.”
I’m going to tell you what he told me verbatim.
While tracking the goat man deep in the Appalachian mountains he wondered upon a pond that was gorgeously lit up by the moon. The water was calm and the air was thick. He was taking In this extraordinary piece of nature when he saw a horned silhouette on the other side of the pond.
“I raised my rifle quietly and mumbled, Gotcha now you son of a bitch.“
Bill shook his head.
“Got to cocky, got too excited” he said.
The figure extend its arm slowly and pointed its unnaturally long finger towards me. That’s when I heard something whisper in my ear.
“Gotcha now,” In my own voice…
Every hair on my body stood up right then and there. I didn’t even have time to turn my head in the direction the voice before it clutched the side of my head with a force so powerful that my skull crashed into the mud before the rest of my body. Everything went dark for a while. When I came to, a horned, pale, hairless, humanoid creature was dragging me by my ankle through the forest. I screamed at it, told it to let me the hell go! While trying to kick myself free that’s when I noticed, two more of these things where trailing behind me, one of them was… wearing a sinister grin on It’s face that revealed the creatures jagged sharp teeth.
“How many of these things were out there?”
I thought, I’ve never seen anything like it, and I thought I’ve seen it all.
It had to have dragged me at least a half mile before we got to a large clearing. They tied me to a large branch using some sort of braided vines. I watched as they built a fire and I knew as soon as I seen them push two more perfectly straight forked branches into the ground using nothing but their sheer force that they were about to cook me alive. All I could do was watch them. Now, I’ve always known that my life was probably going to end painfully, being eaten alive was always a possibility I knew that, but I never even once thought that any of the evil things I hunt would COOK me alive. I lost hope, and accepted my fate. The flames grew bigger, bright enough to see the tree line now.
I thought I was seeing things. I perked up and strained my eyes trying to make sure I really saw what I thought I did. I couldn’t believe it, a man walked out of the forest and was standing out in the open at the tree line, he whistled and all three beasts turned there heads towards him simultaneously, the man cupped his hands around his mouth then yelled,
“Names Colter Fray, you can run or die fighting, It’s up to you.”
what happened next still doesn’t make any sense to me… it was as if they recognized him or something, because after they looked his way, they bolted, within seconds there frantic sprinting hoofs were no longer audible
He walked over and untied me. The strangest part? He hasn’t aged a day. He looked exactly like he does in the photo on your wall right there except now there’s a large scar running down the left side of his face. Bill pointed behind me to the old black and white photo of my great grandfather.
I thanked Bill for telling me his Strange story… This is a lot to take in, if Bill’s story is true, then my mom is going to lose her shit. I should probably call her. I hope she answers im a little worried because she didn’t yesterday. I’ll update you all soon, thanks for reading, stay safe out there everyone.