PART 5: What Bigfoot Really Is…David Paulides Reveals the Evidence
THE THING BENEATH THE CABIN — PART 5
The darkness lasted only three seconds.
But to David, it felt like an hour.
He heard Marcus breathing somewhere beside him.
Then came another sound.
A slow scrape beneath the floor.
Wood against wood.
Something was moving underneath the cabin.
David reached for his flashlight.
The beam flickered once.
Twice.
Then came on.
The floorboards in front of the fireplace were beginning to bend upward.
Not break.
Bend.
As if something underneath them was pressing against the entire structure.
Marcus backed toward the wall.
“David…”
“I see it.”
Another scrape.
The boards lifted higher.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Then everything stopped.
Silence.
David kept the flashlight trained on the floor.
Nothing moved.
Marcus whispered, “Maybe it left.”
David shook his head.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it wants us to think that.”
A deep vibration passed through the cabin.
It wasn’t a sound exactly.
David felt it through his boots.
Through his bones.
The flashlight flickered again.
Then a voice came from beneath the floor.
“David.”
He froze.
Marcus stared at him.
“Was that—”
“Thomas.”
The voice came again.
“David, don’t look underneath.”
David slowly lowered the flashlight.
“Why?”
No answer.
Then the voice whispered:
“Because it can see you.”
David’s hand tightened around the flashlight.
Marcus grabbed his shoulder.
“We’re leaving.”
They moved toward the front door.
David unlocked it.
Pulled it open.
The forest outside was completely different.
The snow had stopped falling.
The trees were motionless.
No wind.
No insects.
No birds.
Nothing.
Marcus stepped outside.
Then stopped.
David nearly walked into him.
“What?”
Marcus pointed.
The footprints.
There were hundreds of them.
Massive tracks covered the clearing.
They surrounded the cabin in every direction.
Some were fresh.
Others looked ancient.
Some were partially buried beneath the snow.
Others appeared to have been pressed into the ground years earlier.
But all of them pointed toward the cabin.
David slowly stepped outside.
His detective’s mind immediately began cataloging the evidence.
Stride length.
Depth.
Direction.
Number of individuals.
He stopped counting after fifty.
Marcus whispered:
“How many?”
“At least thirty.”
“Thirty?”
David nodded.
“But that’s not the strange part.”
“What is?”
David pointed toward the forest.
Every single track ended at the same distance from the cabin.
Twenty feet.
Not one creature had stepped closer.
Marcus looked around.
“Why?”
David didn’t answer.
Because he already knew.
They weren’t afraid of the cabin.
They were afraid of something inside it.
Behind them came a loud crack.
Both men turned.
The cabin door had closed by itself.
Marcus ran back.
He pulled the handle.
Locked.
“David!”
David rushed over.
The lock wouldn’t move.
Marcus kicked the door.
Nothing.
David tried the windows.
Every one was sealed.
Not physically.
Something had changed about the glass.
It looked thicker.
Almost black.
Then the recorder inside the cabin began playing.
The same voice.
Thomas.
“Don’t fight it.”
David stared through the window.
“Thomas!”
The voice continued.
“You have to understand what you’re seeing.”
Marcus shouted:
“Where are you?”
Static.
Then Thomas answered.
“Not where you think.”
David’s eyes narrowed.
“Are you inside the doorway?”
Silence.
Then:
“No.”
David felt a chill.
“Then where?”
Thomas whispered:
“Between.”
The recorder went silent.
Marcus looked at David.
“What does that mean?”
David stared at the forest.
“I don’t know.”
Then something moved between the trees.
A figure.
Tall.
Hair-covered.
It stepped into the clearing.
David raised his flashlight.
The beam hit its chest.
The creature didn’t move.
It was at least eight feet tall.
Broad shoulders.
Long arms.
Dark hair.
But unlike every Bigfoot encounter David had investigated, this creature wasn’t trying to hide.
It walked directly toward them.
Marcus reached for the rifle.
David stopped him.
“Don’t.”
The creature continued forward.
Ten feet.
Five feet.
Three feet.
Then it stopped.
David could see its face.
And something about it was wrong.
Not monstrous.
Human.
Its eyes were dark and intensely focused.
It looked at David.
Then at Marcus.
Then it raised one hand.
Its palm faced upward.
David suddenly felt something inside his mind.
A memory.
Not his own.
A forest.
Thousands of years ago.
Humans walking through snow.
A group of enormous figures watching them from a ridge.
Then fire.
Screaming.
Running.
The images vanished.
David staggered.
Marcus grabbed him.
“What happened?”
David couldn’t answer.
The creature lowered its hand.
Then it spoke.
Not with its mouth.
Inside David’s head.
You have seen the door.
David swallowed.
“Yes.”
You have seen the other side.
“Yes.”
The creature stared at him.
Then you understand.
David shook his head.
“No.”
The creature tilted its head.
You still think there are two worlds.
David felt his stomach tighten.
“What?”
The creature stepped closer.
There are not two.
A pause.
There are many.
David looked at Marcus.
Marcus had gone pale.
“You heard that?”
Marcus nodded.
“Yes.”
The creature turned toward the cabin.
Then something unexpected happened.
It bowed.
Not deeply.
But unmistakably.
Respectfully.
Toward the building.
David followed its gaze.
The floor inside the cabin began glowing.
A faint red light appeared beneath the boards.
The creature backed away.
David realized it was afraid.
For the first time in twenty years of investigating these encounters, he saw fear in one of them.
Then the cabin shook.
A massive crack appeared in the floor.
Marcus shouted.
“Get away!”
David pulled him backward.
The boards exploded upward.
Something emerged.
It wasn’t a creature.
It was a hand.
Huge.
Pale.
Five fingers.
Each finger was nearly as long as David’s arm.
The hand gripped the edge of the broken floor.
Then another hand appeared.
The creature outside immediately dropped to its knees.
David stared.
“What is that?”
The creature looked at him.
And the message entered his mind.
The reason we hide.
The thing beneath the cabin pulled itself upward.
David couldn’t understand what he was seeing.
It had a vaguely humanoid shape.
But its proportions were wrong.
Its arms were too long.
Its shoulders too narrow.
Its head was almost completely smooth.
No hair.
No visible ears.
No obvious mouth.
Just two pale eyes.
It climbed through the floor.
Marcus raised the rifle.
The creature outside screamed.
Not with anger.
With warning.
The sound was so powerful that the windows shattered.
Marcus dropped the rifle.
David covered his ears.
The thing inside the cabin turned toward them.
For one second, David thought it looked directly at him.
Then he realized something much worse.
It wasn’t looking at him.
It was looking through him.
As if David were transparent.
As if it could see something standing behind him.
Something David couldn’t see.
The creature whispered.
This time aloud.
“Open.”
The red light beneath the cabin intensified.
David suddenly understood.
It wasn’t trying to get out.
It was trying to open something.
Marcus grabbed David.
“We need to run.”
They ran.
The front door suddenly opened.
They sprinted into the forest.
Behind them, the cabin shook violently.
A roar echoed through the trees.
David didn’t look back.
Neither did Marcus.
They ran for nearly five minutes before stopping.
David bent over, gasping.
Marcus leaned against a tree.
“What the hell was that?”
David looked back.
The cabin was barely visible through the trees.
Then he noticed something.
The creatures surrounding it hadn’t followed them.
They were still standing around the cabin.
Watching.
Waiting.
Protecting something.
David slowly straightened.
“That’s not what I think it is.”
Marcus looked at him.
“What?”
“The Bigfoot.”
David pointed toward the cabin.
“Those creatures aren’t protecting themselves.”
Marcus stared.
“Then what are they protecting?”
David looked at the dark forest.
“The door.”
Suddenly, his radio came alive.
Static.
Then a voice.
A woman’s voice.
“David?”
He grabbed the radio.
“Who is this?”
“David, this is Agent Miller.”
His expression changed.
Miller had been a federal investigator who worked with David years earlier.
But she had retired five years ago.
“What are you doing on this frequency?”
Her response was immediate.
“We’ve been monitoring the site.”
David froze.
“What site?”
“The cabin.”
Marcus looked at him.
David pressed the radio.
“How long?”
A pause.
“Seventeen years.”
David’s blood ran cold.
“That’s impossible.”
“We knew someone would eventually come back.”
“Who?”
Static.
Then Miller answered.
“The people who built it.”
David looked toward the cabin.
“What do you mean?”
“David, listen carefully.”
Her voice became quieter.
“That cabin was never a cabin.”
David stared.
“What?”
“It was built over an access point.”
“Access point to what?”
Miller didn’t answer immediately.
Then:
“Whatever you saw through the doorway.”
David looked at Marcus.
Marcus shook his head.
Miller continued.
“We’ve been studying that location since 2009.”
David remembered the date.
Thomas.
His disappearance.
The cabin.
Everything connected.
“You knew about Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“He’s alive.”
Silence.
Then Miller said:
“David…”
“What?”
“Thomas isn’t alive.”
David’s face hardened.
“I heard him.”
“I know.”
“Then explain that.”
“We can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas has been dead for seventeen years.”
David felt his stomach drop.
Miller continued.
“We found his body three days after he disappeared.”
David stared at the radio.
“You never told me.”
“We couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because his body wasn’t normal.”
David’s hands began shaking.
“What did you find?”
“His body was discovered eleven miles from the vehicle.”
“Cause of death?”
“Unknown.”
“DNA?”
Another pause.
“That’s why I called.”
David waited.
Miller spoke slowly.
“The DNA from the body wasn’t entirely human.”
The forest seemed to grow colder.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Thomas Avery wasn’t the only thing that came back.”
David looked toward the cabin.
A red glow was beginning to rise behind the trees.
Miller’s voice came through the radio again.
“David, you need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because the access point is opening.”
David stared at the glow.
“How long?”
“How long for what?”
“Before it opens completely.”
Miller didn’t answer.
David repeated the question.
“How long?”
Finally she said:
“About six minutes.”
Marcus looked at his watch.
“We’re leaving.”
David didn’t move.
Marcus grabbed him.
“David!”
David pulled away.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because Thomas told us to come.”
Marcus stared at him.
“Thomas is dead.”
“I know.”
“And whatever spoke through the recorder isn’t Thomas.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you still standing here?”
David looked at the cabin.
“Because something brought us here.”
The radio crackled.
Miller whispered:
“David.”
“What?”
“We’ve been watching the site for seventeen years.”
“Yes.”
“There has never been a second opening.”
David frowned.
“What are you saying?”
“This is the first time.”
“First time what?”
Miller’s voice trembled.
“The first time the door has opened from the inside.”
The radio went dead.
David and Marcus stood frozen.
Then a deep sound rolled through the forest.
Not a roar.
Not an animal.
A horn.
Long.
Low.
Ancient.
The creatures surrounding the cabin began moving.
For the first time, they were not watching the cabin.
They were watching the sky.
David looked upward.
The red light had spread across the clouds.
But it wasn’t a circle anymore.
It was a massive opening.
And something was descending through it.
Marcus whispered:
“David…”
David stared.
The object was enormous.
Too large to be an aircraft.
Too slow to be falling.
It looked almost like a shadow.
A shape moving behind reality itself.
The air distorted around it.
Trees bent away.
Snow rose from the ground.
Every electronic device began malfunctioning.
David’s radio turned on by itself.
Miller’s voice returned.
But this time, she wasn’t speaking from somewhere far away.
She sounded terrified.
“David, whatever happens, don’t let them take you.”
David raised the radio.
“Who?”
Miller answered with three words.
“The human ones.”
Then the transmission ended.
David looked at Marcus.
“What does she mean?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
He was staring behind David.
David slowly turned.
A line of figures had emerged from the trees.
They were human.
Completely human.
Men and women.
Some carried weapons.
Others wore dark uniforms.
All of them were walking toward the cabin.
At the front was an old man.
David recognized him.
He had seen his photograph in a classified document years earlier.
A scientist who had supposedly died in 1987.
The man stopped.
Looked directly at David.
And smiled.
“Detective Pites.”
David couldn’t move.
The old man raised his hand.
Behind him, the red doorway opened wider.
And beyond it stood hundreds of creatures.
But now David saw something he had missed before.
The creatures weren’t alone.
Humans stood among them.
Watching.
Waiting.
And one of those humans stepped forward.
Thomas Avery.
Except this time, David could see him clearly.
He wasn’t seventeen years older.
He wasn’t dead.
He looked exactly as he had the night he disappeared.
Thomas stared at David.
Then slowly raised one finger to his lips.
A warning.
Silence.
The old scientist smiled.
“You’ve spent twenty years asking what they are.”
David stared at him.
The man continued.
“Now you’re finally going to learn who we are.”
Behind him, the doorway expanded.
The forest disappeared.
The world beyond became visible.
And David realized the most terrifying possibility of all.
The Bigfoot creatures had never been the ones opening the doors.
They had been escaping them.
The old scientist stepped toward the opening.
“Welcome back, Detective.”
David’s heart stopped.
“Back?”
The scientist smiled.
“You don’t remember.”
David felt a sudden pressure behind his eyes.
Then a memory surfaced.
A memory he had never known existed.
He was a child.
Standing in a forest.
Snow beneath his feet.
A massive creature beside him.
A glowing doorway ahead.
And a man telling him:
Don’t forget what you see.
David stumbled backward.
Marcus caught him.
“David?”
David looked at his own hands.
Then at the doorway.
Then at Thomas.
And finally at the creatures.
One terrible realization settled over him.
He had been investigating Bigfoot for twenty years.
But perhaps Bigfoot had been investigating him.
The doorway began to close.
Thomas shouted something.
David couldn’t hear the words.
The old scientist turned toward him.
And smiled.
Then everything went white.
When David opened his eyes, he was lying in the snow.
The cabin was gone.
The creatures were gone.
The people were gone.
Marcus was unconscious beside him.
The forest was silent.
David slowly sat up.
He checked his watch.
Only three minutes had passed.
But something was wrong.
His hands were covered in blood.
Not his blood.
He looked at Marcus.
No wounds.
Then he noticed something in the snow beside him.
A footprint.
But this one wasn’t enormous.
It was human-sized.
David stared at it.
Then another appeared.
And another.
The prints were leading away from them.
Toward the forest.
David followed them with his eyes.
At the edge of the trees stood a small figure.
A child.
The child turned.
David couldn’t see the face.
Then it spoke.
Not aloud.
Inside his mind.
You finally remembered.
The child disappeared.
David stood frozen.
Marcus began to wake.
“Where are we?”
David didn’t answer.
He was staring at the footprints.
Because he recognized the pattern.
They were identical to the prints from the oldest case in his files.
The 1891 case.
The case that had started everything.
But there was one difference.
These prints were facing the wrong direction.
They weren’t coming from the forest.
They were leading toward it.
And at the end of the trail, scratched into the snow, were four words:
WE HAVE BEEN WAITING.
David looked toward the dark trees.
Somewhere beyond them, something enormous screamed.
Then another voice answered.
Then another.
Soon the entire forest seemed to be speaking.
And among those voices, David heard one that he recognized.
His own.
Calling his name.
From somewhere deep inside the forest.
David took one step forward.
Marcus grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
David looked at him.
“Why?”
Marcus pointed at the snow behind David.
There was another footprint.
Fresh.
Human-sized.
But it had appeared directly behind him.
And beside it was a second message.
Four words.
DON’T TRUST THOMAS.
David stared at the warning.
Then the forest went completely silent.
Something moved between the trees.
And this time, it wasn’t a Bigfoot.
It was a man.
Wearing David’s old police uniform.
Walking toward them.
David stared at the impossible figure.
Marcus whispered:
“Who is that?”
David couldn’t answer.
Because the man approaching them had his face.
And he was smiling.
