Footsteps in the snow

Last Christmas, me and my fiance, Jean, decided to spend Christmas with her parents in Montana.

They own a plot of land with a house, in a clearing, in the woods. A big reason for celebrating Christmas at Jean's parents home was the beautiful and thick layer of snow which they did end up getting, up in the north. 

Unfortunately, Snow is not really a thing down here in Dallas. Personally, i do think that a christmas with snow is important, since it does add to the magic. But obviously, the luxury of having snow was not going to be something we would really get down here in Texas, so we had to pack up our stuff and get the Ford F-150 ready.

We started the drive in the night of December the 21st. The Drive took us until the morning of December the 24th, when adding the shopping breaks and rest stops. The drive was pretty relaxing and uneventful.

As soon as we arrived, we ended up unpacking our stuff and helped out Jean's parents with christmas preparation. 

There were multiple people around there. Me, Jean and Jean's parents as previously mentioned, but also included, Jean's younger brother Tito, aka. Teeds, who still lived with his parents. Then, there was also Jean's older brother, Chris, who did already have a family, with a wife, two twin boys and an Alaskan husky named Marco. 

We went skiing during the day, where we did also meet Jean's cousin, Charlotte. She does also have a family, with a boy and a girl, who were in a similar age group as Chris's kids.

The kids got along well together and were pretty excited for the sleepover. 

When we came back home, Tito, me, Jean and the kids played some video games together in the basement, until food was ready.

After food, we decided to watch Home Alone.

Whilst watching the movie, we noticed that Marco was acting kinda strange and growling whilst facing the curtain covered window.

This led me to ask Chris if Marco was alright, until Jean's dad muted the movie and shushed us, as we were trying to figure out what was happening.

We could hear a distant set of footsteps in the snow. Jean's Mother was explaining that they were hearing strange footsteps from the outside during the last couple of weeks, but since they couldn't identify the footsteps during the following mornings, due to the heavy snowfall covering up the whole area, they did end up brushing it off as animals roaming around.

Whilst, it was possible to be animals roaming around, because they do live pretty much in the middle of nowhere, i did honestly kinda doubt that.

After the movie, we all went to go to sleep.

We got the game room, Teeds slept in his room and Chris went into his old room, whilst the kids slept in the living room.

The night went for the most part uneventful until we all heard crying from upstairs at around 1:30am. Everyone woke up from the sound and wanted to know, what happened.

Apparently, the kids couldn't sleep, so they decided to talk for a bit.

Until, they've heard the footsteps again and when one of them decided to open the curtains to check…

his blood ran cold, as his mind tried to take in the figure standing infront of him…

the silhouette of a man and him...

only being seperated by a thin layer of glass.

According to him, it was a tall, bearded, creepy looking man, who was holding an axe. He was just standing there, watching the kids.

This led to one of the kids crying, which led to everyone waking up and checking on the kids. But until everyone arrived, the man was gone.

Jean's father and Tito grabbed a gun and a flashlight, each. They decided to go outside to catch the man. I followed them and whilst investigating the area, I've found some shoe prints, in front of the windows and the back door.

This did confirm, what the kids were seeing.

But unfortunately, the man got away, so we couldn't do much, except let the kids sleep with us and Tito in the game room.

Next Morning, we decided to report the man to the Police. They told us that they will send a patrol car to our area.

When we described the man, they did also add that he fits the description of a serial killer roaming around the area, who has been seen by eyewitnesses and survivors killing families, home owners and hikers around the woods.

Apparently, he was also responsible for the disappearance of a local teenage boy, who went out with his friends, but never returned, just to be found dead in the woods, near his neighborhood.

His death happened, just a couple of days before we arrived.

Later that day, Jean's dad asked me and Chris to return a tool which he had borrowed from a neighbor, who lived in a nearby property. He had borrowed it a couple of weeks ago, but did not have the chance to return it. But as we arrived, the property seemed unusually empty and quiet.

The atmosphere felt uncomfortable.

It did not help with how quickly the sky became dark.

When i decided to ring the doorbell, no one answered, but there was a strange and nasty smell covering the area. I do not know how to describe it but it smelled awful.

Chris told me: "That's strange, they are usually home. Maybe they went to get something from the store quickly."

I told him: "Yeah, that's possible."

Chris said:"Maybe, i should try knocking."

I told him to go ahead.

As he attempted to knock, the door swung open, as if it was opened all along.

Now, that was suspicious and led to several red flags going off in my head.

Me and Chris were arguing if we should investigate and check if the neighbors are alright. Chris decided that we should and i followed. Chris yelled if someone was home but i told him to stay quiet.

Noone answered, but the smell grew stronger, the deeper we went in. It seemed to have originated from upstairs.

Me and Chris grew nervous as we made our way to the upper floor.

When we walked into the bedroom, our blood ran cold, as we froze in fear.

There were two bodies on the floor. A man and a woman. The man had a kitchen knife sticking out of his eye and the bodies seemed to have been laying there for at least a week.

As we starred at the bodies in fear, we heard footsteps in the snow.

Just outside of the house. This led to me and Chris trying to sneak out of the house and when outside, running through the woods back to our home.

We ran, until we were deep enough in the woods and then, we decided to walk the rest of the way, as we started growing exhausted and were pretty sure that we managed to lose him.

It was also pretty dark, so visibility was pretty much non existent.

But we couldn't brush off the feeling that we were being followed.

So, turning on the flashlights was not going to happen. We did not want to risk alerting our position.

It was also snowing by now.

As we approached the property, we could hear footsteps, behind us, from deeper in the forrest. As we heard them, getting closer, we decided to run again, until we've arrived on the property, opened the door and locked it, as we told everyone about what happened and that they need to make sure that everything is locked.

We've told everyone that they should prepare packing up their things, in case we needed to evacuate.

Whillst, i went to get my phone to call 911, I've noticed a figure, just outside of the treeline. He was just standing there, he was too far away to tell if it was the man. A few moments later, he started walking slowly towards the house. This is when i noticed the axe sticking out of his right hand. 

I've informed the operator that he was there, but as soon as we could hear the sound of the nearby patrol car approaching, the figure decided to run back into the woods.

As i saw this, i went outside and told the officer, where he went, whilst the officer and a couple of other cops started taking out their guns and searching the nearby forrest.

When the cops came back, they told us that he had not been found and they did advice us to leave the area, until it was safe again.

So, whilst we attempted to put our luggage into our cars, we realized that it was pointless because our tires had been slashed.

Fortunately however, one of the officers offered us to drive to a nearby town, so that we could get a rental, whilst our cars got towed to town to get their wheels replaced.

In town, we decided to stay at a motel and grab some food from a nearby Walmart and Taco Bell to at least celebrate Christmas for the kids. But the mood was already gone for the adults.

The Killer has never been caught and after that event, Jean's parents decided to sell the property and move to a retirement community in the outskirts of Miami because they did not want to risk a potential return or any of the other dangers lurking outside of civilization.