Hey everyone... sorry for the late update... the last 48 hours were extremely harrowing and it’s taking a lot of my energy to recount the events. This will be my final update; after this I need to focus on recovery.
So as per my comment in my last post, I had made it to the main road and was starting to get better signal. I text a friend but hadn’t heard back yet, my calls were still dropping. At this point I still hadn’t quantified the danger enough in my head to justify calling 911 - that seemed like overkill.
I had been walking for miles when at last I saw a small farmhouse down the road. I’ll admit I didn’t run to it; I was exhausted at this point, so I kept up my even pace, glad relief was likely just ahead. That was when I heard the roar of an engine behind me - the first car I had heard the entire time I was walking. I turned around and my stomach dropped when I recognized Ryder’s blue truck. Before I could even think to react he roared past me, turned the truck to block the road and stopped in front of me.
“Get. In. The. Truck. NOW!” He screamed, his face beat red with anger. I started backing up, I was hoping to stall for time, surely the people in the farmhouse would hear him and come to investigate? But the moment I took a step backwards he flung the truck door open and stalked towards me. He grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked me into the truck, pushing me past the driver’s seat and into the passenger seat, before crawling in after me. I tried to open the passenger door but he must have had the child safety lock on because it wouldn’t budge. Then he slammed his palm into my head so that my skull hit the window, hard. My head began to throb with pain and I began to cry. This only seemed to infuriate him more.
“Shut the fuck up!” He threw the car into drive and sped all the way back to the cabin.
Once there he grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the truck with him. By now I was begging him to let me go, but it fell on deaf ears. He pushed me to the ground by the pile of wood he’s been working on for days and went off.
“You think you can just abandon me?” He started saying, but as he spoke his voice sounds jumbled and distorted, cracking and deepening in random places. He twisted his neck around in odd ways and his fingers were twitching and stretching at his sides. “We still have eight more days out here. You agreed to this. You can’t leave. Not now, not ever.”
That was when he reached for his axe. The next few moments are a blur, I remember I jumped to my feet and sprinted for the cabin, but how I made it inside before him I don’t even know. Pure adrenaline? The grace of God? Regardless the next thing I remember is standing inside the cabin with the door locked as he pounded on it. I vividly remember the way the room was illuminated with the setting sun, and that I felt very cold.
Isn’t that so strange? That in a moment like that... I could remember feeling cold?
I had my phone out and was frantically trying to get a call to go through when I heard the first thunk of the axe against the door.
“No!!! Stop! Stop!” I think I screamed, and I bolted to the bathroom, locking that door too. I could hear him continuing to slam the axe into the wooden door, growling in anger.
“You’ll regret, you’ll regret, you’ll rot, you’ll rot.”
I heard wood splinter as I went to the bathroom window and yanked it open. The drop from the window to the ground was probably about eight feet, as it’s on the back of the cabin without the porch, but I didn’t even hesitate as I lifted my short, 5-foot-nothing frame out the window. I dangled as far down as I could and then dropped. I didn’t land gracefully, but I wouldn’t even feel the bruises until later. In that moment I simply stood up and sprinted into the woods, looking for a place to hide. I could hear Ryder making short work of the bathroom door with his axe.
As I ran I chanced one last glance behind me, and that’s when I saw the massive, deep scratches along the back of the cabin from the night before.
I didn’t look back again. I ran down a small embankment and found a cluster of boulders by a creek. I wedged myself in between two, in a small crevice and nestled into the dark space, praying I wouldn’t find myself sharing the spot with a snake or deadly spider.
I barley dared to breathe. In the distance, from the direction of the cabin, I heard an inhuman roar, sharp and ragged. A few moments later, I hear the crunching of leaves, and could see Ryder’s silhouette emerge at the top of the embankment, the setting sun glowing behind him.
I’ve never been so still, I’ve never held my breath so long. I heard him come down the hill and begin to walk across the stone. The chilling sound of the axe, scraping the stone as he dragged it behind him, filled my ears.
“Where are you?” He said, and my heart lept because it was his voice - Ryder’s voice. He sounded normal, concerned even. “Come back, gumdrop. I’m sorry I got so mad. I just love you so much. Let’s go to town and have dinner together?”
I didn’t respond, and after a moment I heard a thud and then his heavy footsteps as he continued on. I listened as he walked through the creek and then shuffled down the second embankment.
I counted to 60 and then carefully emerged from my hiding place. I looked around and the second I realized he was out of sight, I booked it as fast as I could back towards the cabin. I was pretty sure Ryder had left the keys in the ignition when we got back, all I had to do was make it to the truck.
I ran faster and harder than I ever knew I could. I burst through the tree line and then took a sharp turn around the cabin. I saw the truck! I ran towards it, when suddenly I heard Ryder’s scream echoing as he lunged out of the woods next to the cabin and ran straight at me.
At the time I was in too much shock to question it, but now I can’t wrap my mind around how he could have even gotten back so fast, and from that angle of the forest... regardless, before I had time to think I grabbed the driver’s side door and yanked it open - just in time to stop the axe he swung from connecting with my chest. Instead it smashed into the door. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to climb inside as his next move was to let go of the axe, still wedged in the metal, and come at me. I tried to run but only made it as far as the truck bed. He slammed me against it and lifted me off my feet with his hands around my neck. I couldn’t pry him off me. For a moment, I was sure I was going to die. Then I started to kick and flail, and as he bent me over the side of the truck bed, my hand connected with something heavy in the back.
I swung...
The crowbar made a sickening crack. He stumbled back, releasing me, as a trickle of blood began to run from his temple. In the moment he was dazed I jumped into the driver’s side of the truck, slammed the door shut (the axe fell out), started it and slammed the gas pedal down.
I burst into tears as he disappeared from view in the rearview mirror. He had dropped to his knees, and was just kneeling there, watching me go.
I didn’t stop driving until I reached the police station in the nearest town. By then it was nightfall. The next few hours were a blur. I remember bursting in there sobbing and telling them I needed an ambulance for Ryder. They immediately dispatched one to the cabin and then tried to calm me enough that I could tell them what happened. Finally, I went with an officer in his car back to the cabin. I needed to see Ryder now that I was safe - I needed to know I hadn’t killed him.
When we got there, he had vanished. There was some blood in the spot where I had hit him, and the crowbar sat next to it, untouched, but Ryder was gone. The only trace of him was a set of impossibly deep, heavy footprints leading into the woods, and the trail of an axe being dragged besides it.
That was almost 48 hours ago, and still no trace of Ryder has been found. I’ve spent most of that time in the police station, answering questions and filing a missing persons report. After seeing the bruises on my neck and the destruction to the doors of the cabin, they won’t be pressing charges against me... even though I admitted to bludgeoning him with the crowbar. They asked me about the scratches next to the door but I didn’t know what to tell them...
My dad is on his way to get me and should be here any minute. I could barely tell him what’s going on... I can barely tell myself.
How did I get here? My sweet, loving boyfriend is gone... and the worst part is I still don’t understand what happened. Was he taken by insanity? Some dark, evil ceature of the forest? Possession?
Or worse... was this monster always lurking inside of him... just waiting for the right moment to emerge?
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