This is my second post about weird things happening in my home state of Montana.
My friend Sarah and I had always loved exploring the nature near us each summer. One of us would find an abandoned building in the forest or a nice clearing and rush to show the other when we were both free.
We had found everything from abandoned decontamination buildings, to abandoned vehicles, to a clearing full of women’s clothing. There was a lot to be explored in the Montana wilderness.
On this day we were probably 3 miles into the forest near Sarah’s house, maybe more or less, the woods could really turn you around out here no matter how often you spent time in them.
We were looking for something one of our friend’s referred to as a “cult” sight or something along those lines. He said that there was some weird white face painted on a pulled tree stump that was shoved between two other trees and it looked like there had been a massive bonfire there. He was clearly exaggerating. He was known to do that.
“Something to pass the time” According to Sarah. I was still freaked about the man, the dead man, at work from the week prior so she was trying to take my mind off it or something like that. I’m not sure how well taking me to see a weird tree stump would work but at least she was trying.
It’s the thought that counts like my Ma always tells me.
There were things following us I think. Things with loud steps. I heard a branch break. What sounded like indistinct talking, possibly just animals. There were animals in this forest that could mock humans. I had heard it many times, so had Sarah.
Sarah and I didn’t talk much. She was too busy trying to read the directions our friend, Jace was his name, had jotted down on her hand.
I was focused on our surroundings, paranoid because of the noises behind us.
Sarah stumbled over a downed tree, almost going face first into the dirt. I rushed to her, helping her up from the ground.
“Are you alright?” I asked her. She glared at me.
Another branch snapped.
“Yeah… I’m good.” Her focus changed, it wasn’t on her bleeding left hand, or me, or even the things following us. Her gaze was on a white shard sticking out of the dried mud.
I leaned down to yank it out of the ground. It was a broken shard of a vertebrae.
Sarah wiped her hands on her jeans to get rid of the dirt and blood before reaching for the bone. I handed it over carefully.
“What the hell.” She rolled her eyes. “I could have cut my hand on anything but it just had to be a bone? This is some BS.” She flicked the bone to the side. It disappeared into a huckleberry bush.
“Better disinfect that good when we get back.” I held back my laugh. Sarah was always getting hurt one way or another. Of course she would cut her hand on a bone while looking for ‘cult sight’.
“Thanks doc.” She pushed past me and continued off the trail. I followed her, silently laughing at her annoyance.
At that point most, definitely not all, paranoia about being followed had been diminished, Sarah falling significantly boosted my mood. That’s just how we were. We could find comedy in almost anything when it came to each other.
We only had to walk for another 5 minutes before we found the place. The face painted on the stump was a dead giveaway that this was what our friend had been talking about.
There were empty beer cans and a big fire pit so it was probably more of a party spot then it was a cult spot. But like I said Jace was known to exaggerate.
Sarah sat down on a large rock next to the bonfire pit, cradling her hand.
“This was kinda a bust.” She mumbled, glancing at the trees around us. She dragged me out here and was already the bored one. Typical.
I hummed in agreement, walking the perimeter. My head snapped to the side as I heard more movement. The paranoia began to come back. There was definitely something out there.
My eyes and ears seemed to be playing tricks on me.
It looked like there were people hidden in the shadows of the trees. Dark cloaks covering their bodies.
Suddenly I stepped into a shallow hole, falling onto my knees, bruising them on the rocks, or what I first thought was rocks, below.
“Jesus.” I gasp, trying to crawl back as fast as I could. I heard Sarah running over to me.
“Oh my god.” She muttered in shock.
I stared at the white ‘rocks’ in front of me in disbelief.
These ‘rocks’ weren’t rocks. The hole was full of bones. Bones that were definitely not deer or mountain lion bones. Too many to just be one ‘animal’ or human or whatever the hell they were.
Vertebrae, femurs, jaw bones, hell even ribs, there were so many bones.
Sarah yanked me out of the hole by my hood, forcing me up.
It was time to leave.
The walk home was quiet. There wasn’t even movement behind us, or birds chirping, the river running in the distance even sounded like it had been silenced.
Sarah and I never talked about them again, whether it was to each other or anyone else. No one knew that we had seen them, those bones, besides for the things stalking us, ourselves, and god.
When I drove home that night I swore I could see them in the trees. Following me home. It felt like they were threatening me almost. Like they were telling me that If I told anyone I’d end up in that hole.
Even in my home I could feel their eyes.
They were watching. I wonder now if they had always been watching.
I could see one walking from tree lines, slinking in the shadows. I was too frozen move. All I could do was follow it with my eyes.
There was a knock on my door.
It knocked. I didn’t move to open the door, I couldn’t move to open it.
Then there was scratching. Maybe the person or thing was trying to scare me into facing it.
I stood in my kitchen, dead silent, staring out the window.
The scratching lasted what felt like an eternity, but I assume it was only a few minutes or even as short as a few seconds.
Eventually it returned to the shadows and then the tree line, and eventually I could function again.
That morning when I left for work there was something terribly scratched into that mahogany door, something that neither me nor my boyfriend could decipher.
I thought at they might have wanted me to be next.
Next for what? I’m not sure, I didn’t want to be sure.