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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Embarrassed-Bug5392 on 2024-10-19 12:42:56+00:00.

I wasn’t going to write this. I mean, who would even believe me? But it’s been a week since I got home, and I can’t shake the feeling that something is still… watching me. Maybe sharing this will help. Or maybe I’m just hoping that if someone else reads this, they’ll avoid the mistake we made.

It was supposed to be a quick road trip. Just me, my girlfriend Lisa, my best friend Ryan, his girlfriend Megan, and Danny—our goofy, comic relief friend who kept us laughing even when we shouldn’t have been. We were driving through the mountains for the weekend, a much-needed escape from city life. We didn’t plan on going off-route. But you know how it is when you’re with friends and feeling adventurous. When Danny suggested we take a detour to this old, abandoned ski resort he’d heard about, we thought, “Why not?”

I wish we’d said no.

It started off as a joke, all of us piling out of the car and into the snow, making ghost sounds as we approached the rundown resort. The place looked like it had been forgotten for decades. Windows boarded up, snow covering everything like a thick blanket, and this eerie stillness in the air. You could almost feel the weight of history there, like the place was holding onto its secrets.

We should’ve turned back the moment we saw the first set of footprints. Fresh ones, leading into the building. But we were curious—hell, we were stupid. Ryan was the first to go in, shining his phone’s flashlight into the darkness. “Come on, guys, it’s just an old building!” he laughed, stepping inside. One by one, we followed.

The inside was even worse. Dust coated everything, the walls were lined with faded photographs of people who probably hadn’t been seen in years. There were some half-burnt candles in the lobby, like someone had been there recently. And that’s when it hit us—someone might still be here.

We heard the first noise an hour later. It was just a shuffle at first, like someone dragging their feet across the wooden floor upstairs. Danny joked that it was a raccoon or something. But then we heard it again, louder this time. Lisa gripped my arm, and we all stopped laughing. Something felt off, like we were being watched.

“I think we should leave,” Megan said, her voice shaky. For the first time that night, we all agreed on something. We turned to head back to the car, but when we stepped outside, our hearts sank. The car wouldn’t start. Ryan checked the engine—someone had ripped out wires. Who the hell would do that in the middle of nowhere?

We were trapped.

We decided to spend the night in the lodge. It was better than freezing in the car, right? We found a room with old mattresses, and tried to make ourselves comfortable. We barely slept.

Around 3 AM, I woke up to a sound that will haunt me forever: footsteps. But this time, they were closer. Right outside the door. Ryan, always the brave one, stood up and opened it, shining his flashlight into the hall.

Nothing. Just empty, creaky floorboards.

But then we noticed it. Megan was gone.

At first, we thought she’d just wandered off, maybe gone to the bathroom or to get some air. We searched the whole lodge—no sign of her. Lisa started crying, but Ryan… he was in denial. “She’s fine. Maybe she went back to the car.”

But deep down, we all knew something was wrong.

The next day, we split up to look for her. Ryan and I went deeper into the woods behind the lodge, while Danny and Lisa stayed behind to check the lodge again. That’s when we found it: a small wooden shed, hidden behind snow-covered trees. The door was slightly ajar, and inside… we found Megan’s scarf. It was tied to a chair, along with other signs of struggle. Blood. But no Megan.

I looked at Ryan, and for the first time in my life, I saw true fear in his eyes. We raced back to the lodge, but when we got there, Danny was gone too. Lisa was hysterical, saying he’d gone to check the basement and never came back. We ran downstairs, but the basement was empty—except for an old diary we found in a pile of rubble.

I’ll never forget what was inside that diary. It belonged to the caretaker of the lodge… from the 1960s. He wrote about strange disappearances, sacrifices, and a dark entity that the lodge was built to contain. The final entry said, “The ritual must continue. If it stops, it will come for us all.”

That’s when the lights went out.

In the pitch black, I heard Ryan scream. I felt Lisa grab my arm, and we ran—blindly, desperately, through the hallways. I don’t even remember how we got out, but when we finally burst through the front doors into the freezing night air, Ryan was nowhere to be found.

It was just me and Lisa.

We made it back to the car. Don’t ask me how. The wires were still cut, but somehow the engine roared to life. We drove. We didn’t speak. Just kept driving, faster than I’ve ever driven in my life, until we reached the nearest town. I don’t even know how much time had passed.

The police never found Ryan, Danny, or Megan. They searched the lodge, but there was no trace of them—or the diary. They called it a “tragic accident,” but I know better. Something in that lodge was waiting for us. Something ancient. And I have this horrible feeling that it’s not done with me yet.

Lisa hasn’t spoken since we got home. She just sits there, staring at nothing, like she’s still trapped in that place. And me? Every time I close my eyes, I hear footsteps outside my door.

I don’t know how much time I have left.