In the days following Simon's purchase of his getaway cabin, he began to feel uneasy. His imagination began to run wild as soon as he was able to discover the trapdoor. The only sign of life was his own ragged breath, which was the only sound in the silence.
There was just something about it he couldn't open. No, not yet.
Who hasn’t fantasized about finding a secret room in their home? Who hasn’t dreamed of discovering riches that have been secreted away for centuries? However, most of us -- after searching every nook and cranny -- will never find anything.
However, Simon did. The secret trapdoor in his cabin was certainly worth exploring, but he’d become paralyzed by fear.
Simon was thrilled to show his new cabin -- that he’d purchased for a bargain price -- off to his friends and family. He prepared coffee and snacks for his visitors in his kitchen, but his guests couldn’t help but notice that the table had been placed to cover the secret trapdoor.
They excitedly asked him what was down there, but he nonchalantly answered that he’d never bothered to look. Of course, he never told his friends the real reason.
Simon had moved from the hustle and bustle of the city to write his novel. Surrounded by nature and with only his dog by his side, he thought that he would be struck by some inspiration and be pulled out of the rut he’d been in. He loved his new life and did not want to uncover something that would ruin it all, so he’d moved the heavy table over the trapdoor in the floor.
Out of sight, out of mind. It had worked for a while. But now, he began to feel uneasy.
Every night when he closed his eyes, he saw the trapdoor. He’d have monstrous visions of unspeakable things lurking there, slowly crawling out and down the hall to where he slept. And every night, his curiosity gnawed at him, like an itch he couldn’t scratch.
What was really down there? Eventually, he’d had enough. But he wasn’t brave enough to do it alone.
Simon called a handyman named John to come out and open the trapdoor. When he arrived, Simon pulled out his camera, ready to document whatever they discovered in realtime on the social media site, Imgur. He felt safer knowing that Netizens would be right there with him.
“Never had the guts to open it… Handyman came by and was all too eager to have a look,” Simon wrote on the site,” he wrote. But as soon as the handyman pried the door open, he regretted it.
John the handyman propped the trapdoor open on its hinges and peered down into the darkness. He immediately noticed that the wooden slats underneath were completely rotten and decayed.
The stench hit him first, and then he jumped back, cursing. Shining in the beam of the flashlight were hundreds of eyes staring back at him.
The wood was crawling with them -- there were venomous funnel-weaver spiders everywhere. A bite from just one of these spiders can rot human flesh, but John forged on to explore further. The cellar beneath the floor smelled like damp and decay.
The rusted ladder and damaged concrete around the hole indicated that the trapdoor hadn’t been opened in years. The stench of mold and rusting iron combined with another smell that made John and Simon retch.
With one hand over his mouth, John shone his flashlight inside once more to get a better look at what lay inside. Suddenly, he saw something scuttle into the shadows.
Simon couldn’t help but think of every frightening story he’d ever heard about the woodlands that surrounded them. Particularly, the tales about unsuspecting hikers who had vanished without a trace…
Although Simon was frightened, the thought of killing spiders unnecessarily disturbed him. So, with John’s help, the pair carefully removed the funnel spiders one by one and gently released them in the woods outside.
Now that the spiders had been removed, their view was less obstructed. John began to venture deeper into the darkness and held his breath.
John held tightly onto the ladder and carefully descended into the pitch-black cellar below. He made his way around the few spiders that remained, and then his feet reached the damp earth, followed closely by Simon. Looking around the room, Simon gave his followers a live update: “Yeah, creepy…” he wrote in his post. “There seems to be a faucet.
And ventilation. A bomb shelter maybe? Or a cistern?” But, just moments later, the pair saw something so grotesque that they froze in their tracks.
Simon described what he encountered as “Unidentified gnarliness.” In the corner of the room, john’s flashlight revealed the cause of the stench -- a concrete trough filled with what looked like a gelatinous mass. The trough was big enough to hold a man, Simon noted with fright. The unidentified substance looked as though it had been there for years.
But what was it? And what was it hiding?
John tried to figure out exactly what the substance that was emitting the foul odor was, but all he knew was that it was organic -- not chemical -- and possibly alive. Simon surmised that it could be mold or fungus and tried not to think about the other horrendous possibility...
was it something far worse?
Simon was shaking with the fear that consumed him, and his imagination began to run wild again. And this time, he couldn’t stop it. Was the mass actually human remains?
The walls of the trough were also covered with the slimy substance, and then John noticed something that made his stomach turn. The “slime” had black, tentacle-like roots growing out of it.
At this new and revolting sight, John couldn’t take any more. He scrabbled back up the ladder. He and Simon were petrified of whatever was down there.
The men took a few moments to regain their composure, gulping mouthfuls of fresh air like drowning fish. But they had to know what they’d seen. Trembling, they descended once more and were swallowed by darkness.
Simon’s dream of owning a cabin in the woods became a nightmare. He loved the peace and solitude of being surrounded by trees and nature, but this was the opposite of peace.
He remembered that when he saw the perfect cabin for sale, he jumped at the chance to buy it. For the first time, he had regrets.
He was enjoying the cabin, it was exactly what he had always wanted. It was small and cozy, with a fireplace and a wrap-around porch.
But as he was exploring the cabin, Simon noticed something strange. Under a trapdoor in the floor, he saw a black, gelatinous substance.
Simon had no idea what the substance was, but he knew he needed help. He called a handyman named John, who was known for his skills in fixing anything.
John arrived at the cabin and together, they lifted the trapdoor and peered into the darkness below.
As they shone their flashlights down into the darkness, they saw something that made their blood run cold. It looked like human remains, covered in a black fungus with tentacles growing out of it.
They were both shocked and nauseated by the sight.
Despite their initial disgust, Simon and John knew they needed to figure out what to do with the fungus. They went back down into the darkness, trying to think of a solution.
But as they descended, the smell of the fungus became overpowering. They both knew they had to get out of there before it was too late.
As they hurried back up the stairs, Simon and John couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. They couldn't see anything, but they could feel the presence of the fungus all around them.
They were terrified and desperate to escape.
Finally, they made it back up to the cabin and stumbled out into the fresh air. They were both covered in sweat and gasping for breath. They were in a state of despair and disbelief.
What should they do next? They knew they couldn't leave the fungus down there, but they had no idea how to deal with it. Even their dog was barking and knew that something was wrong.
They sat on the porch for hours, trying to come up with a plan. They knew they had to do something, but they were both terrified of what might happen if they went back down into the darkness.
In the end, they decided that they needed help, but who could they trust..
Simon and John couldn't help but feel they were dealing with something completely foreign and unknown. They were terrified but knew they had to face the fungus head-on.
They needed severe assistance but needed help deciding which company to call. This was a life-or-death situation.
They went back down to the basement to try and figure out a plan. As they stood there, the smell of the substance became more and more overpowering. It was a sickly sweet smell, and it made Simon feel nauseous.
"We need to call a professional to deal with this," John said. "I have no idea how to handle something like this."
Simon nodded, relieved that John had a plan. He called a local company specializing in hazardous materials and waited anxiously for them to arrive.
They thought about what the workers would think upon seeing the alien mass. They did not want to get implicated in anything illegal.
When the professionals arrived, they suited up in protective gear and carefully removed the substance from the basement. Even they were surprised at what they found.
It was a slow and tedious process, but eventually, they could get it out of the cabin. The smell lingered; it would take much bleach to get the stench out.
As they left, Simon and John were both relieved and grateful. Dealing with a foreign body like that had been a stressful and frightening experience, and they were glad it was finally over.
The whole ordeal had taken its toll on the two. Now they had a real horror story to tell around the campfire.
Life is full of ups and downs. This was horrifying, but Simon handled it with patience and courage.
Now, Simon can enjoy his cabin in the woods without any more strange and unsettling discoveries. He can relax and unwind, knowing his home is safe and free from unnatural substances.
What happened to him was something you would see in a sci-fi movie. He was utterly shocked by this and would never have known how to deal with this. He had to keep his wits about him to control his internal fear.
At least, in the end, they could safely remove it and rid the cabin of its presence forever. Disclaimer: To protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblances to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.