I’d made a reservation for a cabin a day before Halloween was to fall. I guess watching little kids in costumes years after my divorce and my kids grown up left an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach, so decided to avoid that this year. What pissed me off was the state park’s placement of my cabin on the very outer edge of the cabin sites and a long way off the nearest lamp post so that lighting from the street was very bad. I expected kind of like a tract home set up of cabins all reasonable close to each other, but nope, that didn’t happen. When I got in and checked with the park ranger’s office I didn’t know yet where I’d be located, but when I found out, I called them up and bitched about it. They just told me they had a lot of cabins already booked and that a number of cabins had been shut down for maintenance and repairs! Oh Boy!

Anyway, it had been a long drive and a full day. I brought food for the first day. It was a one room living area cabin. Queen bed in one corner, TV in another, kitchen sink and dining table across from them and the bathroom in another corner. Only a micro wave, small fridge, and coffee maker, and I don’t even drink coffee! Damn! I checked out back on the privacy patio and there was an old smoker barbeque so that was where I’d fix dinner! Luckily, I’d brought along a bottle of whiskey and found a shot glass in the cabinet. Wow, talking about curb service! So I had my first gulp before starting my dinner. I had a couple of marinating steaks and some frozen veggies so I’d steam the veggies in the micro wave and grill the steaks. Meanwhile, I couldn’t put my finger on it but there was a bleak and gloomy feeling about my cabin location and through the window, only the dim lighting from the distance street lamp. Another shot of whiskey might numb me to that.

I flicked on the TV just to find that it has a limited number of cable channels, so once again, burned by my own impulsive choices, but by the time I made a reservation it has been too close to the holiday, and apparently there were people like me that the trick or treating just brought back the good old days and memories of family long gone. Then I found a weird channel that seemed like live TV so I let that set while I was preparing dinner. The steak came out nicely, the veggies were tender and a good helping of butter made them tasty. Another jigger of fire water and whoopee there went my case of the blues! I settle down in the recliner and began eating like a beaver at the base of a tree trunk when I thought was some cheap budget horror flick that I was watching.

Suddenly, there was this beastly bastard staring right at the TV screen as it if were looking right at me! It was bizarre! It was if it were glaring at me to the point where I felt like I was actually being watched! Wow this was the weirdest type of movie I’d ever seen before. Give credit to the director, I thought, this guy was another John Carpenter! Still it looked at me now as it seemed to be stalking another cabin and now it broke that eerie stare and began focusing on the cabin it was interested in.

As if a live camera feed was being broadcast I saw this tall, hairy, figure, peaking in one the windows of a cabin and thought that seemed odd! While, apparently someone’s wife was preparing a meal. The creature went over to the privacy fence of that cabin, which intriguingly looked like my cabin having the same set up, and tore a plank from the fence like it was nothing then walked over to the window and smashed through the glass with it! Wow, what a bizarre flick, I thought. As the thing attempted to crawl through the window while the wife and family inside screamed, suddenly, several shots rang out! Here’s the thing. I heard those shots coming from the same direction as my nearest neighbor to the right of my place! From outside! I was watching what was happening for real and it was taking place here and now! Was this damn place haunted?

I went outside and saw it was really happening! I called the park ranger’s office, wondering just what the hell was going on! Was this a reality TV enactment or something? I began walking over to the cabin, warily, and cautious when all the sudden came the sirens and park ranger jeeps! I stopped in my tracks and waited to see what they would do! The vehicles swarmed the house with armed rangers rushing onto the premises! I walked to the broken in window and looked inside. There was what looked like a huge bear rug at first sitting on top of a pool of blood while the family looking as if in shock as they simply stared, things were suddenly quiet now, but bewildering to say the least!

I slowly backed away from the window when a park ranger approached, “What did you see?” he asked rather aggressively.

“Looks to me like some damn Bigfoot got its ass shot off if you ask me,” I answered.

“Maybe you just think you saw that,” he replied.

“Hey! I’m the one who reported this incident! Don’t tell me what I saw!” I snapped.

“We don’t need someone creating a panic here! Everything is under control now. There are other people here and who don’t need to become hysterical over this!” The Ranger continued.

“You act like this shit goes on all the time or something!” I shouted irritated.

“Just calm down, okay,” The Ranger lowered his tone.

“Calm down?” I said, “You tell me what the hell just happened then.”

“A fatal wildlife incident. That’s what will be reported.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, this isn’t exactly how I planned on my three day vacation going, I’ve been drinking, and I damn sure can’t just drive out of here now! What am I supposed to do? What if another one of those things shows up looking for its buddy?”

“We’re going to set up a night vigil and heavily patrol the area to make sure nothing else happens!” The ranger blurted out, now angry that I was resisting his false assurances. “So, you’ve been drinking?”

“Oh, you going to try that public intoxication bullshit on me?” I replied probably a little too brash after 6 shots of whiskey.

“No I’m not,” the ranger assured me quietly. “Now just go back to your cabin and settle down and rest assured that we have this situation under control!”

“Hank, any problem here?” Another ranger cut in as he looked me over.

“No, this man was just about to head back to his cabin. Wasn’t that correct, Sir?” My favorite park ranger muttered in my direction.

“Yeah!” I nodded and started walking away irritated to no end, but what the hell could I do right now?

However, the more I thought about it, I stopped and said, “It’s clear to me that this is not an isolated incident and you people have handled this kind of thing before.”

“Be that as it may, please go inside, lock your door and check your windows, and we will be on alert all night long!” The ranger warned me this time.

“Fine, damn it!” I replied and walked back to my cabin.

Once I was inside I peeked through the window and watched the family hurriedly packing their vehicle and driving off, feeling sorry for them and how their vacation had turned out! I had a feeling that this was not simply a rare incident and that it was something the park rangers, the state wildlife commission, and maybe even the Department of Interior knew about! That was what bothered me the most! Perhaps our cabins were just too close to their territory and they were reacting to that? I could only tiredly speculate as the adrenaline rush began to wear off now. I looked at the TV channel I’d been watching and there were the park ranger vehicles still at the scene and beneath the imagery was a text that read “State Park Live Cam”.

I opened the curtains to watch now and here came a paramedic vehicle and two staffers came out and unfolded a gurney that they wheeled into the cabin entrance! I was totally flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was like this was just business as usual! By now, I’d had enough, walked over to my bed and collapsed into it! I was exhausted but also appalled at everything I’d seen and the way it had been handled!

When I awoke it had to have been between 3 AM and 4 AM. I could see my breath I the air. That cabin felt like it was freezing. Apparently, the temperature had dropped drastically and I had not thought to turn on the heater! I checked the thermostat and it showed 40 degrees! Damn! I turned on the heat and smelled that telltale whiff of heating elements burning off the dust that had settle on them since the last time they had been turned on. I peered outside again and just as the rangers had said, there was a jeep, engine not idling but the headlights were left on. I thought that guy’s battery would go dead, maybe he was just sleeping. I decided to take a walk over to see if the ranger were asleep and maybe to make a little conversation, but as I approached I became even more inquisitive! What I thought was a ranger laying on the hood of his jeep maybe gazing up at the stars or napping but to my horror it was a body lying half in and half out of the jeep, smashed through the windshield with the bloody jagged edges of glass spread across the hood! As I gasped in total shock I saw another ranger lying on the ground next to the jeep looking in a mangled state like he’d been thrown into a meat grinder!  I bent over and wretched unprepared for such a sight!

I forced myself to check for a pulse on either of the bodies. Nothing. Then a crackle on the radio came through. “Unit 6 are you there? Grady, Tom, are either one of you there?” Suddenly I realized here I was alone, unarmed, and a sitting duck for whatever or whoever had just waylaid these two men! I looked over their battered bodies and found a pistol in one of their holsters and grabbed it! I’d had basic training and knew how to use one, but never thought I’d even have to again! In the headlights I made sure the handgun was loaded, had a bullet in the chamber, and made sure the safety was off! I was shaking like a leaf now! I began my way back toward the cabin to get my cell phone and call into the office to let them know what horrors awaited, but it was not to be!

There was movement! A large dark figure barely illuminated in the cold night air was coming my way! Is it hadn’t been for the jeep headlights I might not have seen it! I raised the revolver, a 357 magnum, from what I could see, and fired! The muzzle flash was almost blinding there in the darkness and I didn’t know if I’d hit the damn thing! Then there was a deafening squeal like you’d hear off a wounded animal but this was ear splitting! Still it came forward! I backed away, stumbled, and fell! Now I was laying on my back as the huge shape hovered over me about to pounce, out of nothing by reflex action I fired again and again then scrambled to my feet! Now I heard choking and a spluttering sound! It sounded like it was dying! To say quite truthfully that I regretted killing it as much as I would have regretted shooting another human being would have been!  The honest to God’s truth!

It lay there still convulsing as far as I could see as my eyes adjusted to the dark. Then I had a horrible feeling that maybe I’d killed the wife, another member of its family, or a teen aged one! How could I have felt any empathy for it after I’d seen what it had done to those rangers and it had obviously snuck up on them before they’d ever had a chance to shoot or even know what was going to happen to them! Why should I have even cared? I wondered! Guess I’m just not a killer, but I had killed now! I’d taken the life of some other being in self-defense! I just stood there over it as it pitifully died a slow death, sick to my stomach over all this!

“Jesus!” I sighed.

I trudged back to the cabin wary that there might be even more of them, but luckily I got to the door and then reached for my cell phone. I called in what I’d seen and that not only two rangers were dead but a creature that we’ve been told, doesn’t exist! That pissed me off even more, the lies we’ve been told for so long! I’d have to say that their response time may have been quick but they had botched this whole incident!

I reclined in the chair and out of exhaustion managed to snooze again, knowing I was in no shape to drive away in my present state. The there was a sharp at the door! I still had the firearm in my hands ready to use what bullets were left! “Who is it?” I demanded.

“Park Rangers, please open up!” One man announced.

There two of them standing there, both looking stunned but trying to maintain control. ”Did you witness what happened out there?”

“Damn right I did! I was damn near killed myself!”

The ranger reached slowly for the pistol I was holding, “You’re not going to need that anymore.”

I handed it to him wondering what the heel would happen next as the morning light began to show. I was tired and weak, sickened by the way my Halloween had turned out, and somehow feeling guilty! I could see in the background that the mess had been cleaned up and a second paramedical truck was now driving out with more victims. The two rangers stared at me for few seconds. “I take it you killed the animal responsible for attacking the two park rangers<” one of them murmured.

“Is this something you people see often?” I asked.

Both rangers looked at each other and nodded silently. “First time we’ve seen anything like this.”

“Well, I sure as hell never saw anything like this until I came here for my three day weekend!” I bitterly replied.

“I’m afraid we have a homicide situation now. The local sheriffs will be taking over and you’ll have to go through an interview from a federal special agent.”

“Why? What the hell did I do but defend myself?” I asked disbelievingly!

“Its routine procedure,” One of the rangers replied.

“Well, there was nothing routine about what the hell I’ve been through!” I responded back.

“We’re sorry about that,” One ranger apologized.

“How long will this take?”

“Probably about 24 hours for him to arrive,” The tall one with curly brown hair replied. “He’ll be opening a case file.”

“Just great!” I shot back. “I was almost killed goddam it!”

“Well, you’re sure better off than the three of those corpses,” The shorter pudgy looking one replied.

“So, what the hell am I supposed to do in the mean time? All I want to do is get out’ve here and forget all this shit ever happened!”

“Is there anything we can get you? Anything you need?” The taller ranger asked.

“Well, I was going to go to the store being that I’d brought enough food for one night, but apparently everything has changed now.”

“We’d be glad to bring you some breakfast and even a few groceries if you’d like,” The Pudgy ranger offered.

“At this point I’ll take whatever I can get. I’m just trying to forget what I saw,” I tiredly replied.

Day Two

After a fitful night’s sleep with rangers parked out on the road at the edge of the gravel driveway that led to my cabin. I was toweling off after a shower with my bathrobe on when a knock came at the door. I opened it and there stood a woman in a business outfit. “I’m special agent Laurel Randolph, may I come in?”

She was short, about 5 foot 3 inches, but looked powerfully built. Her movements were disciplined and precise as you would expect a special agent to be. She sat at the kitchen table with a vinyl lined notebook, camera, and her cell phone. Her long brunette hair was tied back and out her face. No makeup, no perfume, maybe she was fresh out of sniper school for all I knew! “Please have seat,” She gestured.

“How long is this going to take,” I asked tiredly.

“Perhaps an hour maybe longer, she answered as she adjusted her phone to record. “What I’ll need is some biometrics just your thumb print and a facial photo.”

“Look. Am I under some kind of fucking suspicion? Do I need a damn lawyer or something?”

“No-no-nothing like that.” She assured me.

“Let me ask you first,” I said. “What the hell does a state or national park need a federal special agent for?”

“Illegal activities, suspicious missing persons, drug dealers murdering hikers, pot growers, human traffickers, murders, and general felonies committed on park grounds,” She recited as if well-rehearsed.

I told her everything I had seen happen and all of the timing behind it to the best of my recollections. I reminded her that I got the impression that this kind of thing happened a lot more often than people were led to believe! When I said that, she gave me a funny look like I knew something I wasn’t supposed to know. I knew that right off the bat! She wrote it all down transcribing what we talked about. Then I asked just off the record, turn off the recorder, stop writing, and just answer a couple of my questions now. She complied, almost as if she was tired of denying the obvious!

I’d been sitting so long in my bathrobe it was almost dried. “What do you know about these kinds of incidents and how often do they really occur. Now you tell me what I want to know!”

Laurel cleared her throat uncomfortably looking down at her paper work, took a deep breath, and looked me in the eye. “I hate to admit this, but just as you suspect, these incidents are more common than we can allow the people to know, and they still go unsolved.”

“Why do I hear about special agents like yourself withholding files from investigators?”

“A question of government liability and maybe just not wanting to dig up old bones after so many years,” She muttered almost with a sense of guilt.

“So, how many people go into these damn parks to have a good time and relax not realizing that their lives could potentially be in danger due to the lack of disclosure over these incidents?” I demanded.

“Look,” Laurel huffed, “They’re already in a lot more danger than they can even imagine! Bear, cougar, wolverines, snakes, alligators, poisonous insects, dangerous terrain, unpredictable weather, criminals, they are in more peril than they can even realize and the illusion of safety is unfortunately tantamount to the park and forest system remaining in control! Have I put this plainly enough for you?”

“And what the hell about this situation that happened last night?”

“You are an unusual survivor who can live to tell about it, but we would urge you not to!” Laurel shot back.

“Are you saying I could be in danger if I open my big mouth?” I asked sarcastically.

“You would be surprised at what federal prosecutors or district attorneys can do like using every statute, ordinance, or infraction imaginable on the books once they want to silence someone or put them away. I do not condone this at all but in my years, I have seen it done, and I strongly advise you for your own sake to remain silent about this.”  Laurel’s face turned stone cold as if she was part of something she abhorred.

“How do you rationalize being part of covering up these incidents?” I asked in a less demanding tone.

Laurel stood up, smoothing the wrinkles in her suit and grimaced inwardly like she was not prepared to answer such a question. “It is with great regret that I would be part of a cover up that could cost human lives, but I’m like a soldier following orders I don’t approve of yet feel a duty to fulfill.”

I could hardly detect any femininely softness within her, but a sense of genuine guilt. Had she simply been hardened by her experience and training? I could only guess. Maybe she’d been a Tomboy all her life, grew up on a ranch learning to use rifles as a kid, who knew? It bothered me though, then as if reading my mind, she went further.

“You may think I’m insensitive and don’t care or that I’ve put aside all of my female instincts but it’s not true. You sitting there in you bathrobe, an attractive man, I can see the blonde hair on your chest, and I have to ignore my need to feel passionate and sensual, maybe under different circumstances things might be different, but because I do care about you, I advise you out of compassion. Please do not put yourself at risk going public with this, okay?”

“I have one more question. What happened to the family that was staying in the cabin next door to me? How are you doing to keep them silent?”

“Just before I came to your door I was notified by the state troopers that the family of which you are speaking were involved in a fatal accident, no survivors. A single care accident, apparently a blow out and their vehicle rolled into a ditch. Can I vouch for a complete ruling out of foul play? No, but if I didn’t care about you. I would not have said anything. Please understand this.” Laurel gave me for the first time, a pleading look on her face. Now she seemed humanly emotionally as though she knew a lot of things she was forced to hide. With that she gathered her things. I began to get up to show her out but she placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me brief kiss on the forehead, and walked out.

I got up from my chair, grabbed the whiskey bottle and filled a shot glass as a I listened to her car pulling away. The threats had been subtle but there also the sincerity that this agent still had a heart. I have remained silent all this time years later and only under anonymity am I even revealing any of this. There’s more, but I don’t want to further place rats in your skulls!

THE END