Hello everyone.
I don’t know if this is the right place but I really don’t understand what I saw. I’m typing this up from my living room after everything went wrong.
Four of my friends and I go on a trip each year. This year, Dave decided we should rent a cabin. We figured a cabin next to the lake, away from everything would be great. We could disconnect from the world, grill, kick back with beers and enjoy the wilderness. Unfortunately, something was there with us.
Dave and I have known each other since high school. During our senior year, his younger brother Tom started tagging along with us. Dave has always been the responsible one, while Tom is pretty much his opposite. If you tell Tom something is a bad idea, there’s a decent chance he’ll do it just to prove you wrong.
Max and Jake came into the group while Dave and I were in college. Max was always the one who couldn’t be serious, and Jake always kept us from killing each other. I don’t really remember when these trips became an annual thing, but we’ve all known each other long enough that they’ve become a tradition we look forward to every year.
We met at my house early yesterday morning to pack and set off on our long drive. We arrived a little after 2 pm. A long gravel driveway snaked through the dense woods before eventually opening into a clearing. The cabin was a lot nicer than I thought it would be. The lake was right behind it, close enough you could see it from the back porch. I wasn’t sure how far away any of the other cabins were, but we couldn’t see any of them.
After we arrived, we started to unpack the car. Max and Jake fought over who got what bed, while Dave and I did the most important thing: cracked beers and went to sit on the back porch. The back door swung open as Tom walked out.
“Glad you two are working so hard,” he said, carrying a fishing pole.
“It’s a tough job but someone has to do it,” Dave said with a smirk.
Tom headed down toward the lake while Dave and I stayed on the porch. We sat there drinking for a while, enjoying the view and talking about absolutely nothing important. Eventually, Max and Jake finished arguing over the rooms and came outside to join us.
We spent most of the afternoon that way. Tom would disappear down to the lake for a while, come back for another beer, then head right back down with his fishing pole. The rest of us stayed around the cabin, drinking and giving him shit every time he came back empty-handed.
As the afternoon started to fade, we finally decided we should probably eat something before the beer became dinner. We fired up the grill and eventually managed to drag Tom away from the lake long enough to eat with us. By the time we finished, the sun had started disappearing behind the trees and the temperature was dropping, so we grabbed what was left of the beer and headed inside.
As night settled over the cabin, we sat in the living room and continued to talk. At one point, Dave got up and started to walk back to the bathroom. He paused by the living room window and stared for a moment.
“Did anyone see that?”
“See what, Dave?” I asked.
“It was…there was a delay.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I…never mind, I must be seeing things.”
He just shook his head and continued down the hallway, glancing back at the window once, before disappearing around the corner.
“Okay, so Dave’s cut off,” Max said jokingly.
A few minutes later, Dave reappeared from the bathroom and sat back down, grim expression still on his face. We continued to laugh and talk about whatever random things we thought of. This went on for another hour or so. Eventually, I noticed that everyone’s drinks were almost empty, so I got up to get another round. I glanced at the window as I stood up, Dave’s words replaying in my mind. I just saw myself, nothing strange. As I started to turn away though, something felt off.
I went into the kitchen and grabbed the drinks, staring back at the window again as I came around the corner. My reflection was smiling. I was not.
I stopped in my tracks, trying to process what I had just seen. My reflection and I both stood there, beers in hand. Then it smiled again. I took one step backward, the reflection did the same. I forced myself to smile and then let my face drop. The reflection did the same…but the smile stayed for just a moment longer than I held mine. Dave’s voice broke my focus.
“You saw it, didn’t you?”
Dave was now standing right next to me, his voice no greater than a whisper.
“I don’t know what I saw,” I said.
“When I got up for the bathroom, the steps seemed out of whack. Like I stopped but my reflection took one more step,” Dave said, trying to remain calm. I started to tell him about the smile when Max spoke up.
“What are you two whispering about? Secrets aren’t nice, you know.”
Dave and I turned to the rest of the group and told them what we had seen. Jake and Tom sat there quietly, while Max couldn’t contain himself.
“You two have got to be kidding. Do you expect me to believe that? You’re drunk. That’s it. It’s just a damn window.”
“Look man, I don’t know what to say. I know what I saw though,” I responded.
“Fine,” Max said, getting up and walking to the window. “See, it’s just a reflection.”
He stood there facing the window, raising his left arm. His reflection did the same in perfect sync. Then he leaned to his right. Then he started to make silly faces as Tom started laughing. For a moment, the tension eased and we all started to chuckle. Everything matched perfectly.
Max turned to talk to us all.
“See, you two are just,” he started to say.
“Max,” Jake interrupted. He wasn’t looking at him though, he was looking behind him.
The reflection didn’t turn when Max did.
“Don’t move,” Jake said.
“Why?” Max said, the smile fading from his face.
Nobody answered him.
He slowly looked over his shoulder. His reflection was still facing the window. For several seconds, neither of them moved. Then the reflection turned slowly, until it matched Max again.
“It’s got to be the lights,” Tom said. “We’re just seeing shit, right? Turn them off.”
Jake reached slowly for the light switch. All of our reflections went away as the lights went out. At first, we could all just see darkness. I could partially make out the lake from where I stood but…something was blocking part of it. A figure.
Dave pointed at it as it started to shift slightly. Then another. Then another. There wasn’t just one. There were five.
“What the fuck?” Jake said, taking a step toward the window.
One figure took a step forward. Jake stopped and took a step backward. The figure did the same. We all just stood perfectly still, no one dared to move. No one would speak.
The figures started to race towards the house.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit!” Jake shouted, slamming the lights back on and backing away from the window.
Steady, slow footsteps came from the porch. Then the sound of scratching on the roof.
BANG.
A loud crash came from the front door like something had thrown itself into it. Dave sprinted to the door, throwing his weight into it and checking the locks.
BANG.
Another loud crash came from the other side.
I grabbed my phone and tried to dial 9-1-1 as Max ran into the kitchen, coming back with a knife. Jake ran to check the locks on the other door as Tom ran to Dave with a chair, wedging it under the door handle. Suddenly, there was just silence. No footsteps, no more banging on the door.
Silence.
“Damn it,” I said, “I don’t have any signal.”
“What the hell was that!?” Dave yelled.
“I don’t know, but we need to get the hell out of here, now,” Jake said.
Max pointed at the door, “Seriously? There’s no way in hell I’m going out there!”
“We need to get out of here, Max!”
“Jake, no one is opening that damn door,” Max said, yelling in Jake’s face.
Dave pushed the two apart. “Max is right. We can’t go anywhere right now.” He glanced back at the window. All of our reflections were back in perfect sync. He continued,
“No one’s going anywhere. We keep everything locked, we cover up the windows, and we stay here until morning. Then we can hop in the car and drive like hell. Okay?”
We all agreed, but I could tell it didn’t sit well with Jake and Tom. Both of them continued to stare nervously at the door.
We set to the task of ransacking the place. We grabbed every blanket and towel, anything that would block the windows. We shoved another chair against the front door and made sure to check that the chair wedged under the handle of the back door was firmly in place. I kept periodically checking my phone. Still no service. We sat there quietly, huddled up in the living room for the next couple of hours.
“Why haven’t they tried anything yet?” Jake asked, breaking the silence.
“Maybe they left?” Tom asked.
“Oh, come on, Tom,” Max replied, “you saw the same shit I did. Do you think they just decided to leave?”
Tom didn’t respond. He just stood up and started to pace around the room.
“I can look,” I said, walking slowly over to the window. My heart raced as my hand reached out for the blanket. “Turn off the lights.”
Tom hit the light switch, and I lifted the edge of the blanket. I didn’t see anything but darkness. I checked another window, same thing. Darkness. Everyone else got up and started to check the rest. Nothing. We saw nothing.
“See? Tom’s right, they left. Now is our chance. We have to get to the car,” Jake said.
Dave still refused, “Don’t be an idiot, Jake. We cannot go out there!”
Neither of the two would back down. It was clear we were all acting out of fear. They started to get closer and yell. Max and I tried to get between them as a punch from Jake landed squarely across Dave’s jaw. The scuffle breaking out distracted us long enough that no one noticed when Tom made his way to the door.
We all turned as we heard the door open.
“Tom? What the hell are you doing!?” Dave yelled.
He had made it about fifteen feet outside, the door hanging wide open.
“TOM!”
He didn’t turn back at all, he just kept running. He made it to the car door when Jake jumped up.
“See! I fucking told you!” he shouted.
That’s when Tom turned. He stared off in the distance, his eyes fixed on the tree line.
We didn’t see it take him.
One second, he was there, the next he was gone. All we could hear was his screams trailing off into the woods.
Dave burst up, trying to run after him. It took everything Max and I had to hold him back. Jake just stood there in horrified silence.
“Close the damn door, Jake!” I yelled, struggling with Dave.
He snapped out of his daze to slam and lock the door, shoving the chair back up against the door. Dave finally stopped trying to fight through us, trading it instead for sobs and pounding the floor with his hands.
Jake just stood there. Dave continued to sob. Max and I didn’t know what to do. No one spoke. Max slowly reached over and turned the light back on. During the altercation between Jake and Dave, the blanket had fallen away from the window. I hesitated to look but felt like I had to. I climbed to my feet and slowly walked over.
There were the reflections…all five of us.
I covered the window back up before anyone else could see. We sat there in silence for a while longer. Then it came, soft and quiet but the weight was as loud as a piano crashing. Something was back at the window.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Everyone froze.
Tap…
Tap…
Tap…
Followed by a soft, familiar, “Dave?”
Dave lifted his head and went completely still.
“Dave? Can you let me in?”
“Tom?”
“Yeah.”
Dave rushed to his feet and started for the door. I slammed against it as he reached for the handle. His eyes shot up to me.
“What are you doing? We have to let him in.”
“Dave, don’t.”
“What do you mean?” Dave said, tugging at the door.
I grunted and pushed against it harder. “That’s not Tom, Dave. There were still five.”
“Five what?” Max said.
“Reflections. When I went to the window, there were still five standing there. Tom was still standing there,” I said.
Dave’s face flashed with horror as he slowly let go of the door handle. From outside the door, we heard it again.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
“Dave?”
No one answered. Then we heard it again from the back door. Then the kitchen window. Taps started to come from every window. Tom’s voice repeatedly talking from multiple locations at once. We could hear footsteps on the roof as the voices got more aggravated.
“JAKE!”
“DAVE!”
The handle on the front door started to shake, as if someone was desperately trying to open it. A loud bang came from the back door. Then all at once, everything stopped. The house fell silent again. No banging or tapping. No footsteps.
We didn’t look out the windows anymore for the rest of the night. Eventually, slivers of sunlight pushed through the coverings we had on the windows. It was morning. I got back up and looked out the window to see an empty clearing. No reflections, nothing standing outside. Just the empty clearing.
It took us forever to convince Dave that we had to leave. He desperately wanted to go look for Tom. None of us wanted to go out into the woods though. We eventually were able to get him to agree that we would get the hell out of there and call the police.
The drive back home was painful. We had so many questions and yet, none of us had any answers. Worse yet, I’m sitting in my living room and I just looked up at the window. My reflection was smiling.
I wasn’t.
