The Mysterious Cabin

I began subletting a rental house cabin for a couple months in 2023 when my dad and I were bucking heads and I needed to move out. The actual renter of the apartment was having his own personal issues causing him to leave the apartment, and I'll just refer to him as my landlord to make it easier. The cabin was an entire unit rental, and it was paid month to month which was ideal for my temporarily shitty situation.

It was two floors technically, a small kitchen, decent sized living space, and one bedroom that you had to climb a little flight of stairs to get to, and there was a quirky hatch type door that you'd have to open to get to the upstairs bedroom. I had already been there for a month, I'd paid for the second month's rent already by this point, so I was fully situated there. The cabin sat at the end of a dirt road with a few other similarly sized cabin type houses.

One was vacant as far as I knew because I never saw cars parked out front or lights on. The other houses, well I never met the neighbors, but I knew people lived in them. I work 12 hour shifts sometimes, and when I get home I'm completely exhausted and will just go straight to bed and watch TV until I fall asleep.

This was one of those nights. I got home, made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a protein shake as my late night dinner, then went to bed. I always shut the door on the floor every night.

I find myself to be uncomfortable at night, having the entrance to your bedroom opened. Something about it makes me feel exposed or vulnerable, though this door on the floor didn't have a lock. This cabin was made for one person or a couple.

I was watching TV in bed when I heard it, a voice from down below saying, Who's up there? I instantly felt my heart stop for a second as I shot up to an upright position. It sounded like it came from inside the house, but it also could have maybe come from outside. I grabbed the TV remote to turn off the TV.

I crawled over to look at the circular window above the bed. I didn't see anyone out there, but it was also very dark. I said, Who's there? And the deafening silence that followed afterwards led me to getting off the bed and putting my hand on the handle to the door.

I lifted the door and looked down the staircase. I actually said my dad's name, thinking maybe he came over, and there was no response. I walked downstairs.

I was extremely scared. I flicked on the first light switch I passed. The living room lit up.

As I expected in the back of my head, there wasn't anyone down there. I was still chalking this up to someone from outside. I turned on the front outside light and looked out the windows, and there wasn't anyone in front.

By this point, I was really confused. I turned off the living room light and climbed the stairs back to my bedroom, shutting the door and the floor. I was pretty awake now, so I turned the TV back on.

Not even five minutes later, I heard Pounds on the bedroom door from below. They sounded angry or like they were supposed to scare me. If there was any doubt before, this confirmed it.

Someone was in the house. I left the TV on this time and just stayed completely motionless because I was genuinely too scared to move an inch. The scariest part was whoever was down there could easily open the door as there was no lock.

I laid silent for about twenty minutes, and once I felt comfortable to move, I looked for my phone, and of course, of all times, it wasn't on my nightstand. I couldn't find it. I may have left it downstairs.

So I opened the door of my bedroom and looked down the stairs. With the constantly changing light from the TV screen, I could see just a little bit down the stairs to the living room. So I went down the stairs quietly, and when at the bottom, instead of turning on any lights, I ran out the back door barefoot and ran to the nearest neighbor's house where I knew people lived, and I saw their lights were on.

I knocked on the door a bunch of times, and then I noticed someone at the window next to the door, looking at me. I didn't know how long they had been watching me. I yelled through the glass, explaining what happened, that I'm his neighbor, and that I need a phone to call the police.

He definitely heard me, but he just stared at me. It was unsettling, and I started to back away from the door as I realized he wasn't even responding to me, just creepily watching me. I looked around the road, and saw no other houses in the distance with their lights on.

Momentarily, I had a thought, what if that guy had something to do with it? I went back to my rental through the back door, which was closed just like I left it. I went inside and locked it, and turned on every light in the tiny house. I looked not only for an intruder, but my phone downstairs, and I finally found my phone in my car when I thought to look there.

I was so tired earlier that I left it in the center console. I went back inside. The TV was still on up in the bedroom.

I climbed the stairs, and when I got to the top, I saw someone sitting on my bed, staring at the TV. It was a man. I screamed, and he turned his head slowly to look at me, and before I could see anything else, I ran back down the stairs and outside, and now with my phone, called 911.

I sat in my locked car watching the house on the line with 911, and I saw someone walking past the backyard of the house, disappearing into the woods. I told the operator this. When a police car arrived, the one officer checked the house and upstairs room after I told him that I saw someone, most likely the intruder, walk away into the woods.

He asked if I had any other places to stay that night, and so I swallowed my pride and went back to my dad's house for the night after packing some of my important stuff. I returned to the house the next day and stayed another night, then collected the rest of my stuff. Luckily, the landlord agreed to giving me some of my money back.

He asked me what the man looked like, and after that, he didn't ask any more questions, which to me is pretty sus. Something was unusual in that situation, from that creepy neighbor ignoring me to the landlord's random urgent need to move out to someone full on breaking into the house. Maybe it's all connected, or maybe I'm overthinking it.