They had many acres on their farm, so she planned to explore them all with enough time. She walked past the barns and other structures on their property until she was met with the tree line. She started down the trail keeping her head up, taking in the scenes around her. She thought to herself about how she'd always dreamt of living in a beautiful home such as this one. Even though her kids were not the easiest and her husband had to work a lot she was content, she had everything she could have wished for. She kept walking, for 5 minutes, then 10 then 20. Finally she realized she had to go back before her husband started to worry. She turned back in the direction that she had come from and started to walk. As she did though she noticed a structure to her left that she hadn't noticed before. It was some sort of bunker. She walked towards it and saw that it was a set of steps with a metal railing and a door on the downside. She walked closer and up to the door. She yanked on the metal handle and it opened easily. It was dark inside, complete inky blackness was all she saw. She pulls out her phone and shines her flashlight into the abyss. The floor looked dirty and so did the concrete walls. She was curious, as she shined the light around she saw that this was a room that led into a hall with a few other rooms. She tapped her back pocket, she grabbed her husband's hunting knife before leaving the house so that she could cut the twine on the hay for the animals. “Thank god,” she thought to herself. If anything went wrong, she had something to protect her. She walked into the bunker and looked around. It was silent here and, even though the door was still wide open, and she could see the outside, there was no noise.

Cindy continued on down the hall and came across the first metal door. She pushed it open and despite its look it was the lightest door shed ever opened. She shined the light around the room, nothing but another concrete box. She then backed out of the room and went to the next. Something was compelling her, she had to open this door. Cindy shoved the door open with the flashlight pointing inside. She expected the same scene she was met with the last few times. When she pointed the light towards the bottom corner of the left side of the room, she saw a man, crouched down. He was facing the wall and muttering. His long black dirty hair grazed the floor. “Hello?” Cindy said. She immediately regretted that though because the man started making a horrific noise. It was as if the man was using his raw vocal cords to make these inhumane noises. She slammed the door closed and ran out of the concrete structure. As she ran, she realized she could now feel eyes on her, she started to sprint. Speeding up as fast as she could, she was certain she would not make it out of this forest if she stopped. So Cindy kept running, and running, and running until she could finally see their farm, and, when she finally did, she sped up even more.

The feeling of eyes on her did not cease until she slammed her shoulder into the door, pushing it open, then shoving it closed. She fell to the floor taking deep breaths. Her husband came to her side after hearing the commotion. “What's wrong?” she heard him ask. “Cindy?” She was now crying, terrified the man would come to their house. The house on Linn Road that Cindy had been in love with for years and up until 20 minutes earlier, had turned into a dark and twisted horror house in her mind.

“Dan there's a homeless man or something in the woods, I saw him in a bunker thing.”  She caught her breath and told him the entire story, knowing she probably sounded ridiculous. Dan had a look of shock on his face but knew he had to offer some sort of solution. 

“We will call the authorities, and I'll check all the windows and doors tonight. Everything will be okay.” Cindy nodded, not reassured, but not because her husband had failed to comfort her, but because she had a horrible feeling of dread that laid in the pit of her stomach. They called their police department and reported the odd incident. The police arrived and collected statements from both Cindy and Dan. 

They filed all of this into the report, then they asked Cindy to show them exactly where she saw this structure and man. Dan stayed inside with the children as Cindy led the police to the site. They walked for 15 minutes until she saw the tree. She knew it was the same tree because it had a sort of twist and curve about it on the left side. She was astounded because there the tree stood with no building beyond it. The officers were eyeing her suspiciously “Miss, you're sure this is the tree?” The oldest and seemingly leading officer asked. 

“Yes of course I'm sure. This is the tree. It was here not even an hour ago” Cindy said with a sense of urgency in her tone, she pulled out her phone to show the officers a picture with the tree and taken right before she noticed the building. They agreed with her, “My theory,” Said the older officer, “ Is that this person may be homeless or on drugs, found an abandoned structure, and made it his home.” Cindy thanked the officers and they walked back to the house. She could not shake the dread she was feeling though. The officers explained what they had explained to Cindy to Dan as well. He nodded through it and thanked them. The officers left, all but a younger looking officer whose main duty was to watch the farm, who now sat in his armored patrol car out front. 

Dan made dinner while Cindy played with their children. Cindy tried to ignore the feeling as she played with her children. Dan finally called them all for dinner. They ate and Dan conversated with children as he always did during dinner, it helped keep them at the table. Everything was normal in the children's eyes and both Dan and Cindy knew that it should stay that way. After dinner Dan read the children their stories, and, after only 15 minutes, they were both peacefully asleep. Dan and Cindy went through the house and checked every door, window, and latch to make sure there was no entrance for a mad man. 

Even this did not ease Cindy's nerves. Long after both of them had settled into bed and Dan had fallen asleep, Cindy still tossed and turned. When she couldnt take it anymore, she got up. She opened their blinds just a crack and peeked out. Everything was still, she squinted towards the patrol car, where she saw the officer playing a game on his phone, which was turned up to full brightness, a tactic to keep him awake and alert she supposed. She headed downstairs to check the locks again. She needed to ease her worried mind. Cindy slowly walked through the house, eyeing all the locks as she did so, making sure nobody was getting in. She approached the front door and tapped the security monitor screen. Armed, in bright white letters shown across the screen, she sighed with relief. Cindy glanced out the window next to the front door at the police car once again. This time she saw the officer outside his vehicle with a flashlight shining towards the direction of their big white barn. He started towards the barn after a second of shining the flashlight into the void of darkness surrounding them. Cindy turned on her heels, she decided that if she heard a gunshot she would wake her husband up. As she tiptoed back up the stairs towards her room, the feeling she'd had earlier came back and it was stronger than ever. She rushed the rest of the way up the stairs and into her bedroom then into bed as quietly as she could. Cindy laid awake that night for hours listening intently, barely even breathing, as she could miss something if she did so. Finally, when the alarm clock read 3:12 am in bright red numbers, she drifted off to sleep. 

When Cindy awoke the next day, the bright light flooding through her windows blinded her. The chirping of the birds outside only intensified her already splitting headache. She squinted over at her clock which read 12:00 pm. Dan was not next to her in bed when she rolled over, she sighed and dragged herself from the bed. She changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt, before heading downstairs. The officer's car was there, but he was not inside. Cindy’s heart skipped a beat. She trotted down the stairs and into the kitchen, the house was silent. The light breeze blew through the windows pushing the curtains into the house and waving them around. “Where is my family?” thought Cindy. She made her way to the front door and out of the house looking around their property, scanning carefully. Then she heard something, a sound like a small girl coming from their barn. Cindy didn't take another second before she took off, sprinting towards the barn. All she could think about is if that was her little girl's scream or not.

Dan watched as Ben and Beck ran around pushing and playing in the ‘redneck rigged’ -as his momma might say- slip and slide that he'd made for them this morning. He felt as though the children had absorbed Cindy's worry. Even though they didn't know exactly what was going on, they sensed something was wrong. Dan had wanted to cheer them up, and it seemed to be working – until they heard an ear-piercing scream. Ben and Beck immediately stopped what they were doing, looking towards the direction of the scream and then back to their father. Dan grabbed both of the children's hands and led them towards the house. When they got to the back door, Dan crouched down in front of his children, “Okay guys, I know you're both very scared, but there's nothing to be scared of, it's just a game.” Dan smiled at Ben and Beck trying to show no worry. “The rules to this game are simple: you're gonna go lock the front door, I'm going to lock the back, and all you guys have to do is go hide in our closet and call 911 and tell them to get here as soon as possible.” 

Ben and Beck nodded. He stood up and escorted the children quickly to his and Cindy's room. He then locked the door from the inside before exiting. “I'll be right back, call 911 right now; the game started!” Dan said. He heard the quiet chatter of the children talking to a 911 operator. He thanked God his children were obeying him right now. He ran towards the barn yelling Cindy’s name. He was armed with only the pocket knife he always kept with him. He bursts through the big barn doors, entering into a scene most could never even imagine. Blood was everywhere–  the doors, the walls, even the horses, whom, to Dan’s surprise, were spooked but not harmed. There was a corner in the back left corner of the barn that isn't visible from the entrance as there is hay stacked up very high in front. He cautiously made his way over to the stacks of hay. He was now standing in front of them, he took a deep breath and peeked his head around them. Nothing. He turned around quickly and expected a jumpscare. Nothing again –  what was happening? He didn't know. Then, Dan felt a drop on his head, then another; he touched the top of his head and pulled it back to the front of his face. Red is what he saw. He looked up, there strung up like a sick and twisted display of Christmas lights, was the police officer. Dan's eyes drifted, Cindy was curled up in the corner covering her head. He just stood there and stared in horror for a second before rushing to Cindy’s side. She had started to scream before noticing it was only him at which point she hugged him tightly, sobs racking her body. “He’s in the barn Dan.” Cindy whispered through tears.

The sound of sirens snapped him out of his trance. Soon there were officers rushing into the barn followed by shouting orders for Dan and Cindy to put their hands up and get on the ground. They did as they were told and both lowered to the ground slowly. Shots rang through the air and Dan heard a thud about 5 feet away from him. Cindy was already looking in the direction of the noise with wide eyes. He turned his head to the left, panting, he squinted through the tears in his eyes. There, next to him, lay a scraggly looking man he'd never seen before. Whose eyes were wide and blood shot. Dan soon came to the realization that this was the man Cindy had seen yesterday. Blood freckled his dirty face and poured down his head from where the metal lodged between his now dead eyes. The next few hours were a blur. Dan, Cindy and the children went to the station so that they could give their statements. After that, the nice deputy they'd met on that first day took them to the hotel they would be staying in for the foreseeable future. 

Cindy was much different after that day, but, after a lot of reassurance, safety precautions and medications, she got better. After a few months of staying in the hotel, the family decided they were moving far away from Linn Road. Over the next couple months they packed up the house. On the last day, they loaded the rest of their things onto the moving truck, Dan smiled at the house then turned and pulled Cindy and their kids into a hug. “Onward!” Ben said and they loaded into the truck. As they drove off, the man watched the truck smiling his disgusting rotted smile as he waited for another family to arrive.