The House Deep in the Woods

It was in my 27th year that I first came upon the house. I was hiking alone in the Alder Creek forest. Rumor had it that there was an old abandoned village deep in the woods. A village whose prosperous years ended some hundred years ago when Shaniko became the wool capital of the world and no one needed the wool from the town of Alder. Same thing happened to Shaniko a few years later when people found wool cheaper elsewhere. But that is not this story. That isn't my story. My story is about the first time I searched for Alder. A place I plan on going to again tomorrow. But before I go, I felt I should write up my experience in case I don’t make it back.

Like I said it was in my 27th year that I last ventured into those woods. I’m now 39 and hope that enough time has passed since I was last out there that it will now be safe. I hope… I am in desperate need of what I found out there because my wife has become ill. Only for her would I ever think of venturing in those woods again. Only the love I have for her. I’m scared, oh how scared I am. Even to write this down I’m trembling. But I must get this over with as the night is passing so quickly and soon it shall be time to go.

It was bright sunshiny days when I entered the woods and I was feeling quite optimistic about my journey. I was using a map I found in an old book called “Ghosts Towns of the Northwest” I mention the town of Alder, but I never actually found Alder. I got lost and got way off track, miles and miles away from any known civilization. I worried that I was lost as I had been walked for at least six miles past the distance I was supposed to be walking. It was getting near full dark when I came across something peculiar. All the way out here, deep in the woods, where no man would need to wonder I came across a freshly carved Jack-o'-lantern.

It was deformed Jack-o'-lantern, which was taller than it was round, much like a human head but larger. It was oddly shaped and more bulbous on the left then the right. Which make its single tooth smile look like the grotesque rotten mouth of an elderly man who has suffered a stroke. Inside I could see something shiny.

My curiosity got a hold of me and I bent down to give the pumpkin a closer look. First thing I noticed was the eyes were unlike any eyes I have ever seen on a pumpkin. Each spot where an eye would be was made of four holes, giving the pumpkin the appearance of having eight eyes. After examining the mouth and then the eyes, I looked upon the nose with greater concentration, not only looking but touching. The nose was normal. Then I noticed some moment behind the nose. Before I could react, I realized what it was but it was too late. The pumpkin was home to a nest of spiders that quickly ran up my arm. I ripped off my coat and threw it as far as I could and then started the task of wiping off the remaining spiders from my arm. Then I stopped, because I was stunned, I had glanced at the pumpkin and seen that the top of it was rising up and then off. I was in such a state of fear that I just stood there while what must have been the queen spider came out. The spider had to squeeze out of the pumpkin it was so big. Imagine a black spider the size of a baseball glove, covered in orange slime from the pumpkins guts. Then the spider turned and looked right at me. I must have run two miles before I finally felt safe enough to stop and then only long enough to catch my breath. I headed in the direction I had come when I had started running. I figured three more hours of hiking and I would be back to where I entered these woods. I had only walked maybe a hundred feet more when the fog rolled in all around me. I would be a fool to try to find my way back through this fog. So I gave up on trying to making it out of the woods that night. I would wait until morning, then walk out of the woods and try to forget the image of that giant spider. I set up my small tent and climbed inside and right before I went to sleep I remember thinking, God, please don’t let that spider find its way to me.

I woke up in the middle of the night, when I heard a sound much like a door being slammed. Am I that close to the road? Am I so lost that I’m nearly out of the woods?

I put my tent back in my pack and I head towards the noise. Luckily the fog has lifted, for the moment at least. I started to think that maybe it was all in my head until I seen a light in the distance an orange light and then I could smell it, a fire. Oh my god the woods are on fire, they must be. I’m way too far out in the woods for there to be someone one else out here, but of course there was that horrible pumpkin, someone had carved that. I walked slowly in the direction of the fire. Step by step I listened until I got to just outside of the clearing and the blaze of the fire.

The fire drew my attention for a while and its heat felt good on my now coatless upper body. As I stood there warming up I noticed the other queer things around. There was a chair made from a log with the back support made from twigs nailed to the log. Behind the big flames of this bonfire I could see a house. Well a house is an overstatement. It was somewhere in-between a shack and a house.

I walked around the tree line to get a better view of the house. The house was old, extremely old. Architecture he has never seen. The roof was completely flat and the house had more windows then walls, windows that have fogged and cracked from age. Some of the cracks in the windows were filled with dirt. The place gave me the creeps and a feeling of dread swept over me. I was ready to leave the place when I seen more of the jack o Lanterns. Afraid of the spiders, they could contain more giant black spiders? God, I may never sleep soundly again after such a sight. Instead of running I found myself approaching the house, thinking that maybe the occupant could help me find my way out of these woods or at least provide a shelter for the night where I wouldn’t have to worry about giant spiders. Before knocking I decided to peak through the window. Inside was nicer then I would have imagined. It was filled old furnishing, but not as weathered as the outside of the house. An antique collector would be ecstatic to come across such a find.

There was a beautiful old couch and chairs both cover in velvet, with detailed carvings in the wood and what looked like a solid oak table inside. But what really drew me in was an old truck it was covered in tan leather, much like the color of human skin. It wasn’t made with the same craftsmanship of the other furnishing. The seams were big and black and went all over the place, like it was made from scraps of skin. I was about to walk to the door when I seen the inhabitant enter the room.

The man looked as old as that trunk with skin that looked just as leathery. He had unkempt hair and an even longer beard. The right side of his face was sloped just like that pumpkin. He walked over and opened that trunk and inside it was full of gold and silver coins.

I stood there aw struck until he turned to me and smiled revealing his one tooth and eight eyes. I have never been so scared in my life. Not until a moment later when his extra two arms and two legs sprung out of his body tearing apart his fake skin suit revealing him to be an giant ugly black spider.

I ran. I ran Olympic medal winning fast out of those woods. When I finally got out of the woods I was miles from my car. I never went back for that car and I never went near those woods again. I hitched hiked out of there and spent the next year drinking trying to get rid of that image. I know bigger men would have gone back for all that gold. But it wasn’t worth losing my life, or even just seeing that thing again was enough of a deterrent. But my wife is sick and the operation is more then I can afford so this is my only choice, really it is no choice. I love her more than myself. Hopefully I make it back. Hopefully this is not the last sentence I ever write.

10-20-1999 The last entry in John L. Price’s diary. © Bruce Haney 2013