00:00After my family died in a car accident last year, I needed to escape everything.
00:05I moved into their old cabin on the edge of the Appalachian forest.
00:09The cabin belonged to my grandparents, and being out here felt like the only place I could breathe.
00:14No traffic, no city noise, just wind and trees.
00:18Every morning, I go for a walk along the same forest trail.
00:21It became part of my healing routine, but last week, something changed.
00:25I was halfway down the trail when I saw them.
00:27A group of people, maybe five or six, standing off the path between the trees.
00:31They weren't hikers.
00:33Their clothes looked torn and handmade, like something from another century.
00:37One crouched low and stared at me.
00:39Another had a sack tied around his head.
00:42None of them spoke.
00:43They just watched.
00:44I forced myself to keep walking.
00:45My heart was racing, but I didn't want them to see fear.
00:48That night, I heard twigs snapping around my cabin, something brushing the back door.
00:53Breathing, low and steady.
00:55I didn't sleep.
00:55The next morning, I found a dead squirrel nailed to a tree near my window, and footprints in the mud.
01:01Bear.
01:02Human.
01:02Leading up to my porch and back into the woods.
01:05I haven't gone walking since.
01:06I don't think they were lost.
01:08I think they were waiting.
01:09Guys, let me know if you want the second part.
01:11I don't like to do.
01:12Let me know if I'm unsure.
01:12I've been honored.
01:13I don't think they were.
01:14I don't like to read.
01:15I don't think they were lost.
01:16I don't know nothing.
01:16I take care of.
01:17I don't like that.
01:18I don't know if I'm Galen.
01:18I don't know if I am losing a tree near my house.
01:19Here's a tree near the tree.
01:21I don't like these.
01:22I don't like it.
01:22I don't know if I am good.
01:23I don't like anything.
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