It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the bird calls and the trilling of streams in the forest. It started to rain. As I approached the cabin, I noticed it had a new look since it was last occupied. It seemed darker than the last time I had visited.
The side door of the cabin was open. I walked in, paused, and called out, "Mr. Mattingly?"
I heard a noise coming from the rear of the cabin and it was not a reassuring sound.
Maybe Mattingly has food. Or maybe a bottle of whiskey.
I stood and walked toward the rear of the cabin. I came upon a door. "Hello?" I called out.
I opened the door on the far side of the living room to see a huge bear sitting hunkered over in the corner. I backed away and slammed the door shut with a bang.
Turns out it was just an old grizzly bear rug on the floor of the living room. I did a quick once over of the whole cabin. Nothing. No sign of Mattingly. No sign of anyone else. I think I may have been the first one there.
After I got a fire going, I went to take a shower. The place was in bad shape. It dripped with spider webs and cobwebs. As I was toweling off, a big black spider scuttled across my towel. I screamed and threw the towel at it. I quickly grabbed my towel and ran outside where there was a stone bench. I sat there with my towel wrapped around me. I noticed some pine cones that had fallen out of tree on the bench. I had a strange feeling that I was being watched. I kept the towel in place. I noticed a few pine needles of the same type, color, and size, scattered around the bench. I grabbed them in my hand and ran back into the cabin and dropped them on the floor.
I was just in the process of putting some clothing on a bed when I heard something outside. That's when I discovered that this cabin had a glass sliding door which faced the forest. I slid the door open and stepped outside. I looked up the mountain in the direction of the noise. Nothing. I looked down at the stream. Nothing. I heard something growling then something large moved through the bushes. I screamed and ran back into the cabin. On the other side of the cabin over by the window a mountain lion was scratching and jerking at the window pawing to get inside. I noticed that the bathroom window was rolled open. This was one of the reasons that I chose this cabin over the other one. I went back to the bathroom and shut the window. I stepped into the shower again. I looked around and noticed that this time there was only one spider in the tub. My guess is that the first one was male and the spider in the tub was female and she didn't want to share her tub.
I stayed in the shower until my feet were wrinkled. I stepped out and pulled out my towel. Everything seemed fine. I dried myself off, dropped my towel on the floor, and started dressing. That's when I heard something in the bathroom. I stopped what I was doing. I listened. I was barefoot. I put my dress shoes back on. It seemed like an eternity before I heard it again, but it was just one of the cabin's many creaky joints.
I stopped for the night when I ran out of firewood and food. I slept really good that night. The bears don't come out at night.
It was the following day when I ran into my first mountain lion. I had two mountain lions in the span of two hours. I was really beginning to wonder about Mattingly.
I searched the cabin again, but was unable to find a phone book. I got dressed and headed into the back seat of my car. Under the passenger seat, there was the key pad for the trunk. I opened the lid of the trunk. Mattingly's body was in there with his eyes bulging out of his head. I slammed the trunk shut. I got back in the car. I sat there looking at the trunk. It did not look like anyone else had entered the trunk since Mattingly was there. I was just sitting there looking at the trunk when a very loud scream came from the rear of the cabin. I grabbed my keys and my gun and ran to the back of the cabin. I heard it again. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" It was definitely coming from the back of the cabin. I ran around the back of the cabin. I jumped over the back of the bathroom and looked out to the back woods through the opening at the far end. I saw a mountain lion. It was on its side and was pawing at the ground.
"Shoot it! Shoot it!" I screamed. I picked up my gun and fired at it. I missed but I hit the bear rug.
I noticed that the bear rug was starting to writhe. I realized that I was not alone. I looked to my left and noticed another mountain lion and it's paw sticking out of the bear rug. I ran back into the cabin and jumped in the bathroom and shut the only window. I slid the door of the bathroom in front of it. It did not seem to be keeping the mountain lion out, so I stood in front of the door and waited for it to come in. It didn't.
I got dressed and waited for the mountain lions to give up, knowing that I was going to have to leave if they didn't. It didn't take them long to give up and I opened the bathroom's door to check out the situation. They bolted into the woods and I closed the door. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a pot on the counter. I threw it at the bear rug and it caused the bear rug to jump straight up in the air. The bear rug hit the wall, causing the glass to shatter.