"What kind of things?" Amanda asked in a low, shaky voice. Her seat was scooted close to Tony's own chair, and she still clutched onto his arm.
"Like bags and food. Stuff nobody ever remembered leaving up there and the owners never claimed."
"If people really went missing, weren't there ever any cars in the parking lot or people coming by looking for their loved ones?" Tony pointed out.
"Most people hitched a ride into the woods, but we had some folk who came up looking for people. Unfortunately with them sneaking up there they didn't want to be seen by none of us so we couldn't help those people looking for them. Sometimes we'd show 'em some bag or other and they'd recognize it. Then there'd be a search of the place and nothing would come up. The reputation of the cabin was pretty low when that feller I told you about got sucked into that hole. Well, that was the last of anybody wanting to stay up there, so everyone around here stopped talking about it and it was all forgot about until it was sold a few months back."
The couple leaned back in their chairs and tried to soak in all the information they'd been given. It was a long line of hearsay and second-hand stories, but the old man spoke with such overwhelming conviction that they couldn't help but believe the tales themselves. By this time Amanda's eyes were shut tight, but she could not keep away the images of that thing pouring out from the floor. She wondered why it did not kill her outright, as was suggested in many of the stories the old man had just told them.
"I think we'd better go," Tony spoke up upon seeing and feeling his girlfriend's quivering form. They all stood from their seats. "Thanks so much for answering our questions. We really appreciate it."
"Keep your thanks and instead promise me you won't come back here," he countered.
"Yes, well, if we do come back here it won't be voluntary," Tony joked, but no one was up for humor and it fell flat.
He led Amanda to the car and in a moment they'd driven off. The old man stood in the doorway of his small store until they were out of sight, and then he shook his head.
"Poor fools don't know what they've started," he muttered, and then he went back inside to attend to his own business.
Both Tony and Amanda mulled over what they had been told by the old man. Amanda for her part reminisced over the ancientness of the creature. The original settlers had encountered it from the first existence of that cabin, and the natives had warned against trespassing on that lonely, desolate ground. That cabin where the wind mournfully howled and the floor boards creaked with warning of some very old monster. Those thoughts caused a shiver to rock her body and she wrapped her arms around herself. She kept going back to the attack, and when she had faltered in her struggles against the thing's advances. There was no way she could forgive herself for giving in, and no way she could tell Tony about everything that had happened.
Tony's thoughts were stuck on those people who went missing. He just couldn't see why whatever it was up there hadn't done the same to Amanda. His eyes glanced over to Amanda, who was still deep in thought. She was a normal enough girl. Not perfect, but definitely not bad. Someone maybe he planned to marry in a year or two if they kept together, but he couldn't fathom why the creature would want to make out with her and then let her leave. She didn't even have a scratch on her except for the cuts she'd gotten from the window, while that thing had apparently dragged others down or away to some god-awful fate.
"That was some story, wasn't it?" he finally spoke up. The silence between them was getting more uneasy by the minute. She nodded her head, but her face was still turned away from him and out the passenger side window. "You ever hear anything about this when you were looking up about the cabin?" Amanda gave a small, bitter laugh.
"The owners probably weren't going to tell anybody about all this stuff," she pointed out. "And I didn't find anything in the records about anything the guy just told us." Tony found her comment very interesting.
"So maybe he made it all up," her boyfriend quietly mused aloud to himself. "I guess he could have, but he certainly believed everything he was telling us. You could see it whenever he started telling the bad parts about those people being taken. He wasn't being all dramatic by dropping his voice too far, but saying it hesitantly like there really was this big secret he shouldn't be telling." Then Tony suddenly snapped his fingers and that startled Amanda out of her deep thoughts. She jumped in her chair while a grin spread out across her boyfriend's lips. "Maybe that's why you didn't find anything about all those tales! It's like some sot of a secret, like a Children of the Corn meets some old horror story!"
"I think you've been reading too much books and watching too many movies," Amanda commented. She also didn't want to think about her experience being connected to incidents which frightened her even more because of their horrifying imagery. Now ghosts and goblins danced through her mind, and she shook her head to get them out. "And I don't think telling me I'm that special to have those comparisons isn't exactly a compliment."
"You're relationship with that thing you saw is pretty special, isn't it?" he brought up. She didn't like how eager he was with the whole incident. It was like he wanted to brush aside the horror of it and try to solve the mystery, as if she hadn't had enough consequences from the ordeal. "Damn, I forgot to ask that old guy if there'd been any survivors like you."
"I think we heard enough from that guy, and definitely enough about that thing. I don't want to hear any more about it for as long as I live," she told him. She turned away from him again and he suddenly heard her sniffle. That's when he realized how much of a selfish, heartless jerk he'd been.
"I didn't mean it like you're taking it, honest," he promised her. Tony wasn't quite sure how she was taking it, but it must have been badly. She kept giving him the cold shoulder. "Come on, Amanda, you know I'm just wondering all this stuff because I want to figure it out for you." That was a partial truth. He was also curious in his own right. The minute they got back to his place and he had some alone time, he was going to start looking on the internet for information on that place.
Amanda sighed and her shoulders slumped.
"I know, I guess I'm just so tired after going up there and then listening to what that guy had to say."
"And seeing the place," Tony added. He remembered quite clearly how terrified she'd been of the lonely building. She had looked like a scared rabbit about ready to bolt at any moment. He was curious about what she'd felt up there, though, and if it was the same as that eerie feeling of wrongness that he'd noticed. "So what did you feel up there, anyway? That thing again or something different?"
"It was that thing again, but I...I think it was stronger." Amanda hated to admit it to herself, but she swore the thing had been trying to draw her back in through that cavernous door. "I don't want to talk about it anymore. You said we were just going to go up there and then forget about it."
"That was before I knew there was this big a mystery," he defended his curiosity. She scowled at his broken promise. The change in circumstances didn't sway her from keeping him to his word. He sighed and nodded. "Fine, fine, no more about this for today. When you've had a few days to sleep it off, maybe then you'll feel better about talking it over."
"I doubt it," she grumbled, but at least for now she'd gotten her way.
"So where were you wanting to stay, anyway?" Tony asked her. "After that-which-should-not-be-spoken-about, were you wanting me to drop you off at your home or have you stay at my place."
Amanda paled at the thought of being alone in her apartment. She lived a couple blocks down from Tony in one of the less fashionable but cheaper sections of town. The neighborhood was quiet, but right now she didn't want that. She wanted to hear the noises of human life so she could block out the memories of that thing, at least until she fell asleep.
"Can I stay with you?" she pleaded, and he laughed.
"Of course. It's not like I'm going to refuse a pretty lady sleeping in my apartment." Tony gave her a wink, but she couldn't return the gesture. She kn
ew he wanted some fun time with her, but she couldn't muster up the energy to do anything other than go to sleep once they got back. Her boyfriend noticed her long face and realized any fun time was put on hold. That would at least give him time to look on the internet while she took a break. "Or maybe you can just stay in the extra bedroom. Would that work?"
"I'm sorry about spoiling your plans. I'm just too tired to do anything but collapse when we get back." He brushed aside her worries with one hand.
"No problem. I'll just get us something to eat from one of the fast-food places, we eat when we get back and then you take a break. There's some stuff I wanted to do anyway."
Amanda appreciated his understanding, and the conversation turned away from their ghoulish experience to the safe topics of the forest itself and the weather. The sun had shined brightly on them all day, but as they made their way back to the city the conditions changed. The clear skies were replaced by clouds and rain was threatening to drench the streets by the time they'd made it back to their home town. After they grabbed a bite to eat at one of the local eateries, the clouds did just that. They opened up and let loose a small but impressive storm. While there was no lightning or thunder, but the wind and rain was enough to make the companions grateful for the quiet and dryness of Tony's apartment.
Amanda slumped down on the couch and breathed a deep, loud sigh of relief. Her hair was a little damp from running out of the parking lot and into the building. She took off her worn boots and wrinkled her nose at the stench which arose from her socks. Doing twenty miles of hiking was harsh on untrained feet and clothing. Tony passed by, and he, too, smelled the distinct odor coming from her feet. He teasingly waved his hand in the air to brush away the scent of sweat.
"Somebody needs to take a shower before we all die?" he recommend as he plopped the bag of hamburgers on the coffee table.
"Not until after food." She dug into the bag and grabbed one of the burgers. All that fear and worry she'd felt all day had made her really hungry, and she scarfed down the meal.
"I'm just going to check my e-mail." Tony grabbed some food for himself and wandered into his bedroom. He had a laptop for his internet usage, and he went straight to it.
Tony typed in keywords into the search bar of his browser and started investigating the mysterious area. What he found was both enlightening and frustrating. There was an online archive of the papers for the area, but the scanned editions only went back to the early 1950s. All other previous years were missing and had only a promise of being posted some time in the future. The message with the promise had been posted six months ago. He wouldn't hold his breath that they'd be posted anytime soon, but at least he had a few decades to investigate the area.
He was just working on getting the hang of the site layout when Amanda stuck her head into his bedroom.
"You get that much spam while we were gone?" she quipped.
"Hunh? What was that?" When she'd entered he'd suddenly noticed a link to a part of the sight which featured articles on old legends.
"Somebody send you some good porn or something?" Amanda went to glance over his shoulder and he minimized the window. That made her suspicious. "What are you up to?"
"Just reading some mail from the office, that's all." Tony didn't like to lie, but he also didn't want to get into an argument with her over his interest in the mountain and cabin. He thought of it as a research assignment of sorts, but he knew she'd treat it as an unhealthy curiosity. He glanced behind her toward the open door. "Did you eat all the hamburgers?"
"I left a few more for you, and some fries at the bottom of the bag," she teased. She wasn't entirely convinced he was reading office work so intently, but if he wanted to keep it a secret she'd only make a mess of their moods by insisting on seeing it.
Amanda couldn't help it nagging at her mind, though, and she didn't exactly feel comfortable doing this dance around Tony. It was like they were both trying not to step on one another's feet while they danced to different tunes, but they ended up knocking into each other one in a while. It made for a very uncomfortable interaction, and it made her tired.
"Well, maybe I'll go take a shower and get ready for bed." It was dark outside and the rain softly pelted against the windows. The sound was enough to lull anyone to sleep, and she found the promise of rest most welcome. "You going to stay up much longer?"
"Not sure, but I'll try not to wake you," Tony promised. She could tell from his tense smell that he wanted her out so he could continue whatever he'd been doing.
"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."
"I'll be up pretty early to get to work. You still have the day off?" he asked her.
"Yeah. I don't have to get back to work until Wednesday, so that'll give me some time to, well, to get over everything that happened." He nodded his head. He understood perfectly. "So I might be able to crawl out of bed to say goodbye before you leave." She went over to the door, but Tony stopped her with one final request.
"Could you shut the door when you leave? I don't want my bedroom light keeping you awake." The beam of light from the door wasn't really all that strong, but Amanda wasn't going to argue with him right then about something as trivial as that.
"Sure, no problem."
Amanda left to get that shower taken care of, and the minute the door closed behind her Tony brought back up the search window. He clicked open the link to the page about the old legends, and he was not disappointed in his find. There were several dozen posts detailing local stories dating back to the period of settlement, all collected and neatly arranged for him to read. He glanced over the titles of the articles and noticed a pattern among them. Missing. Lost. Vanished. His curiosity salivated at the idea of some big, juicy story surrounding that dark, lonely mountain.
The biggest reason for that was because he worked at the city's newspaper. Tony happened to be one of the younger reporters who tracked down the stories and wrote the headliners for the people who took all the credit for the scoop. Now this practically falls into his lap, what with an eyewitness to the creature and even an old timer to interview about the happenings.
Then Tony paused in his eager thinking when two problems arose. The first was about Amanda. He didn't really want to drag her into this by name, especially considering how emotionally jittery she was already, and that was without her face being plastered on the tv for all to see and know about her personal experience. He couldn't imagine her, or most anyone else, taking that very well. He would have to figure out a way to make his source anonymous while still keeping the story believable.
That came to his second problem. The old man, he hadn't even caught his name, wasn't likely to want to be interviewed, at least not on camera. That lens made enough people jittery, but that storyteller wasn't likely to take kindly to a reporter digging his nose into the mountain's horrible secrets.
"It's not going to be easy making him look sane without some solid evidence," Tony mused. He leaned back in his chair and glanced at the screen. These old newspaper stories helped his case, but not as much as a physical specimen. He almost cursed himself for not trying to get a peek beneath those boards and seeing what was down there.
The reason he didn't curse himself was because even now, in the safety of his bedroom, a chill still slid through his body when he thought about that place. It certainly was creepy with a capital C, and the thought of going back raised the hairs on his arms. There was definitely something wrong with that place, and going back there with a full camera crew was going to be a relief, even if it was going to be one hell of a hike with all that equipment.
First, though, he had to dive into this newspaper research and see if there was enough to present to his boss at the paper. That person was the chief editor, and the man was a hard-nosed, intimidating s.o.b. who wanted a large pamphlet of proof before he'd even consider the story. That meant Tony had a week or two for Amanda to recover, and then he'd let her in on it after the boss gave the go-ahead or the shot-down. There was no s
ense bothering here if the story was never going to run. With his mind made up and the beginnings of a plan forming in his mind, Tony got to work.
Meanwhile, Amanda got to her showering and general cleaning up. The extra bedroom had a separate, full bath for her use, and use it she gladly did. The young woman was relieved to get that feeling of sweat and exhaustion off her skin and out of her muscles. Then she slipped on her nightshirt, a long shirt Tony had given her as a birthday present on his own birthday. She always laughed when she saw herself in the mirror. The shirt went down only to mid thigh and was white. The cloth was so thin it was almost transparent, and she had no trouble seeing why he'd insisted she accept his gift and wear it whenever she went to bed.
Tony's extra bedroom had a large, full-view window opposite the wall which held both the door and the bed. On sunny days and clear nights it allowed a lot of natural light to stream down into the room. However, tonight was a different story. Amanda wandered over to the window and peered out into the dark, stormy skies. She pressed a hand against the glass and felt the small tremble of the raindrops as they hit the window. Down in the streets people hurriedly passed through the heavy moisture and the lamps glowed in the dim, foggy air.
The city sounds and scenes were so much different from her harrowing adventure in the mountains, and yet she didn't feel any comfort in that realization. There was a part of her she felt was still stuck in that small cabin, still trapped by the grotesque, subterranean creature. She wrapped her arms around herself and shut her eyes. The world was blotted out, and yet she couldn't blot out the memories of that monster wrapped all around her.
"That shower so did not work," she murmured to herself. Amanda opened her eyes and sighed. The world was still below her, and it was still raining outside.
Amanda found she was immensely tired, however, and she went over to the comfortable bed. She had never slept in this particular bed before, and found it to be much like Tony's own. Gleefully she slipped beneath the covers and settled down for a long sleep.