Is the sun up where you are? Good.
Are your doors locked? Fine, but that doesn't matter because the story I am about to tell you goes way beyond such things as require doors.
Let me tell you something true. Some of it I know for a fact and other parts I am connecting with context. But I will leave it to you to decide what to keep, and what to leave.
I was on assignment along the east coast in 2017. I got to stay in a beautiful cabin on a hillside with several miles of woods and only a few people. My host family was amazing. When I arrived, I was told that the family owned the hill and I was free to walk wherever I chose. I was told that there was a pond at the bottom of the hill where the property line ended, but the beavers had disappeared and now the pond had dried up. No one knew what happened to the beavers...
On most days, after I finished my shift at the clinic, I would go exploring in the woods. One day, I ended up in the back yard of a home and a man and his wife came up to me to say "hello". I introduced myself and they did the same. He explained that they had a very nice pool and I was more than welcome to come and swim in it as it is very refreshing and the only place to swim now that the pond is dry. I thanked them very much for that offer and explained that most weekends when I wasn't working at the clinic, I was usually upstate doing weekend coverage for urgent care clinics, but that I would keep that generous offer in mind. I didn't think much about it and continued my usual walks most nights.
A week later after working at the clinic, I got home and was waiting for a phone interview. My recruiter person filling in for my regular contract specialist still hadn't called by 6:15 pm and I needed to get in a workout before it got too late, so I went outside to start my circuit. My phone rang at 6:22 pm making me stop and come inside to sit down in order to focus for the interview. I finished the interview and decided not to do the workout circuit and just took off up the gravel road towards the highway, jogging. It's about a mile one way, so....ok, this would do for exercise tonight.
On a previous day, I went this same way for one of my regular walks and I consider myself to be a pretty observant person when it comes to my surroundings. Like when all the black marks weren't on the wall at the hotel; and then they were. Anyway, as I was moving along the road, I noticed something that wasn't there the other day. Glass bottles.
"Now this is different," I think to myself as I stop and look closely at the very old, but unbroken bottles positioned carefully on the top of the stump (see picture). One has the word "Clorox" embossed in raised letters. Where did they come from? Who set them there? When? Why? I continued my run after taking a quick picture.
I wouldn't have thought much about that by itself, however in the past 2 weeks, there had been a shovel that had been propped up against a tree by the road and it is now missing.
I got back to the cabin and as I entered the yard, an older woman called out to me. Since I know that the owners are gone and his sister is house sitting, I assume that this is her.
She has a mixed drink in her hand and swirls it periodically. She offers me a "vodka and peach tea" and I politely decline. She offers other concoctions including Jack and Coke and Wine. Again, I politely decline stating something about calories and putting in time at the gym. She seems to accept that explanation.
She has gray, wiry hair that is combed and clipped with barrettes. An old house dress is her clothing with the outfit completed with slippers. She smells like this is not her first drink tonight, but she is nice enough and trying to be a good hostess, so I continue the conversation.
She asked how the house is. I assure that it is amazing - just as amazing as the woods that surround it. "Oh, I would stay out of the woods. Or, you should take Zane if you do go", she states. Zane is the full-sized poodle she is caring for. "Oh?" I say. It's a question; one that I am not 100% sure that I want the answer to. She begins to say something but lost her train of thought.
The bugs are beginning to bite now. She asks if I have been in the big house. I tell her I have not, but that it is not necessary. She says that she stayed in the cottage for 10 days before I came, just to be sure that everything was good. She remembers that there is a vacuum in the house that I am supposed to have in the cottage and asks me to follow her inside. I'm a little nervous as this feels like a "trap" but I don't want to offend my hostess, so I follow her inside.
"Did they tell you about what happened over there?" She points to the cottage as she asks the question.
Me: "nope, but I didn't ask."
Her: "It's just so sad. But I didn't get any strange vibes or see anything odd."
At this time, we are near the vacuum cleaner, and she is trying to remember what part she needed. So while she thinks about it, like a child with ADHD, she says "O yeah! come and meet the 'Jersey Girl'!" She walks swiftly to a corner of the living room and stops short of two chairs in the room - - - each one has an oil painting on it of two older ladies and some personal items that I am guessing belonged to each one respectively. She introduces me to each of them as if they are there. She tells me which one is "Jersey Girl" which is the one that must have lived in the cottage since there is a sign above the sink in the cottage that bears the same title. It feels odd. She tells me about them.
She remembers the vacuum that we came in for and scurries back to it. The, she remembers that it needs a Hepa filter. She stands and says she'll have one by the time return from my trip to Kansas City this weekend. She asks me to let her know if notice anything "strange", however she is pretty sure everything will be ok....."just be aware".
I don't want to know what that means, so I didn't ask for details. Instead, I thank her for being a great host family and I leave for the cabin across the driveway where I am staying.
A few nights later, my diffuser nightlight turned off by itself at 0312. I remember because I woke up when it got super dark. The cabinet in the kitchen is always opening. I can close it and it will stay for a moment and then it pauses, then slowly reopens. The air is set at 74 F which during the day is almost too cool but at about 0400 is too hot.
Now, we have the beavers who have been eliminated mysteriously, a neighbor who wants me to swim in their pool since the pond has dried up in the absence of the beavers to maintain the dam. Add to that the fact that the shovel from out by the road is now missing. Three bottles have appeared on a stump. There is a shrine to two people I know are dead and miles of woods with ravines that are perfect to dump a body into to get rid of it. With the beavers missing, there are not witnesses. We also know that something tragic happened to "Jersey Girl" in the cottage.
I'm still piecing it together, but I'm pretty sure the beavers killed the old lady. In retaliation, her family did revenge killing of the beavers. After all the bloodshed, they became so addicted to killing that they kicked out the pond dams as a way to give people desperate to get out of the heat an option (swim in their pool) which they could then capture innocent people to feed their thirst for murder......
Unless you can think of a better theory? I'm going with this one because that's totally plausible.....right?
Add comment
Comments