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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/lnr-phoenix on 2024-10-09 18:07:11+00:00.

Hopefully this is the right place for this, because I have no idea what else to do. The police are useless. No one I’ve talked to takes me seriously. I know this story sounds impossible but SOMETHING happened to my brother and my friend and I need to figure out what it was and how to get them back, I am so scared something horrible has happened to them. 

The cops found this typed up on Steph’s phone and asked me if I could explain it. (I can’t.) It looks like she was trying to post it here but couldn’t get enough of a signal for it to go through. I’m posting it now to see if anyone can actually help, because I can’t make any sense of it. 

I haven’t changed a thing, I even left the typos in case I missed something important. Steph didn’t mention the name of the town and I won’t either because I don’t think anyone should go looking for it. I certainly won’t be going back any time soon, not unless I have to.

Please, just read, and help if you can.

****

I’m sorry for any typos or if I leave stuff out, I’m trying to make this make sense but I don’t have long and it’s getting hard to type. I hope somebody can tell me what’s going on and how to stop it, I’m so fucking scared and I don’t know what to do.

I’m in this cabin in the mountains in Pennsylvania, I don’t even know what this fuckign place is called, I just followed my friend’s directions, please just help me.

I’m supposed to be dogsitting for my friend’s brother but shit started going wrong pretty much immediately.

My friend Amy, we’re 26 now but we’ve known each other since sixth grade, she knew I was strapped for cash and she let me know her brother needed a dog sitter this weekend. I’m not really a dog person–there was an incident when I was a kid, I still have the scar to prove it, it took me for-fucking-ever to mostly move past it–but I need the money. ANd I won’t lie, I’ve always kind of had a crush on her brother, so I jumped at the chance to get his number and maybe an in with him.

WHat she failed to tell me is that her brother, jason, lived in a creepy-ass cabin in the middle of the creepy-ass woods in the creepy-ass mountains. I knww it was rural, she’d said as much before, but I figured he was at least near a town of some kind. Nope. Miles from anything that could remotely be called a town. I probably should have guessed when Amy sent me typed-up directions instead of just giving me an address to plug into Google Maps, but I was toorelieved about the job and didn’t ask questions.

I’d been trundling along a dirt road for over an hour, maybe two, wincing every time I hit an unavoidable pothole in my crappy old car, before it happened. It was dark as hell, I couldn’t see more than  ten feet in front of me even with my highbeams on–no streetlights, and the trees blocked every last scrap of moonlight.

Anyway. I was creeping along, trying not to do any permanent damage to my car. I was munching on some of the french fries I’d picked up before I got off the highway–and thank god, since I doubted any pizza place would deliver out here, and I was too wiped to cook for myself.

I had rolled a window down since my AC was on the fritz and the weather was weirdly hot for this time of year. I always thought of the woods as quiet, butt he noise was ungodly–the crickets  were absolutely shrieking, to the point where I couldn’t hear half of what was bening said on the podcast I was listening to. It was honestly starting to creep me out, but I couldn’t put the window up or I’d boil to death in the car. 

Then I heard what sounded like a scream – a human scream – and hit the breaks. I realized pretty quickly it couldn;t be a person, not this far out in the wilderness, and on what must be Jason’s private property. I knew some animals could make a sound like that. A fox? A mountain lion? Whatever it was, I didn’t want to be anywhere near it. I hit the gas again.

Something streaked across the road in front of me and I slammed on the breaks and swerved, almost careening off the road in the process.

I threw the car into park, my heart pounding, hacking up the french fry I’d been chewing.

When I’d finally coughed it up and caught my breath, I heard the barking. I looked out, and there was a dog on the side of the road, barking and growling, hackles raised. It had a collar on, so it was clearly someone’s pet, not anything wild.

I was too scared to get out of the car in case the dog decided to lunge at me, so I rolled the window up until it was only open a crack and whsitled. It took a few tries, but eventually the dog turned to look at me.

Almost instantly, its demeanor changed. Ears went back, tail tucked between its legs, it crawled over to my car, jumping up and scratching at the window to be let in.

That’s when I saw the tag–it had the dog’s name, BARNEY, printed on it, alogn with the owner’s phone number. This was Jason’s dog.

I looked into the trees, wondering what he’d been barking at. Probably whatever I’d heard screaming. I needed to get out of here, with Barney.

I unbuckles myself, reached back and threw open the back door. Barney leapt in, panting and shaking, and I slammed the door shut.

The dog whipped around to look at me, and I swear for a second he looked ready to attack. But he sniffed my hand and calmed down again, laying down on the back seat. I turned and took off again, hands shaking. 

I turned a corner and saw Jason’s house. On top I saw the silhouette of what appeared to be a large fallen tree limb with gnarled branches sticking out in every direction. But the house was in a large clearing, no trees nearby. It wasn’t until I pulled up closer to the house that I relized what it was.

A mass of antenndas and satellite dishes covering basically the whole top of the house, with cables stretched and twisted between them to form one haphazard mass, making the whole thing look like the floor of an untamed jungle.

What the FUCK could that be for? Was that how jason had an internet connection out here? Or was he losing his mind from the isolation and building his own techie version of the Sarah Winchester house at the instructions of the ghosts in his head? Can’t say I’d blame him if he was, being out here by himself.

All the lights were on, and I could see his car parked around the side of the cabin. ANd, right in front of me, I saw the front door open wide.

Immediately, a million different horrifyign scenarios run through my mind–Did Jason have some kind of terrible accident? A heart attack? And run from the house for help? Did someone break in? Could that have been him screaming in the trees?

I checked my phone–no bars out here. I knew Jason must have wifi because he worked remotely from up here , but it must not extend outside.

I glanced at my mirror. Barney was quiet and still now, but his eyes were wide open, watching me intently.

Sighing, I got out of the car, walked up to the porch. I glanced through the open door, standing way back–everything looked okay from out here. I took one tentative step over the threshold. 

Still nothing out of place. No signs of a struggle. The furniture was all upright and where it should be. Jason’s big-screen TV and expensive looking speakers were still there and his car keys sat on the dining room table so I doubted it was burglars. I was still fucking freaked though.

Next to the fireplace, a glass-front cabinet contained a number of rifles. I thought having one might make me feel safer, but I had no idea how to use one,or even where Jason kept ammunition, so they were useless to me. Then my eyes moved to the fireplace, where two axes were mounted over the mantle. 

Perfect.

I took one down–it was heavier than I expected, but it would have to do.

I went from room to room quietly as I could, but everything looked normal.

Finally, I made my to Jason’s office. My heart was practically beating through my chest now. I turned the knob and pushed it open half an inch. I used both hands to hold the ax over my head, ready to strike, then kicked the door open and jumped back.

The room was pitch black, eprfectly dark. Somehow the light from the hallway didn’t seem to seep in there at all. Someone could be hiding out in there and I’d have no way of knowing. I tried to think what to do.

“Hey!” I said. “The cops are on their way, so you better not do anything stupid. Just…stay back. Or you’re in deep shit.”

My voice sounded high-pitched and shaky, not intimidating like I’d hoped. I inched forward and, against my better judgment, reached inside the doorframe to search for a light switch, holding the ax awkwardly in my other hand. Any second I expected something to reach out and grab me and yank me into the yawning black.

But it didn’t. I found the light, switched it on, d.

The light, first of all, was weird. Dense and orange-brown, so that I could barely see even with it on.

Inside the room, there was no one. But this place was weird as shit. I’d expected a desk, a chair, a computer–normal office stuff. There were a bunch of computer monitor, maybe a dozen? More? On a series of folding tables that wrapped around the room. Under the tables, a bunch of processors were stacked horizontally on top of one another, basically as many as could physically fit down there, and everything was connected with a tangle of cords and wires, some of which ran up the wall and into the ceiling. One long cord  stretched out of this mess and connected to a cube sitting in the center of the …

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