The Fortified Cabin

The Fortified Cabin

Chapter 1: Ain't Safe

"Ain't safe."

The old man scuffed his worn leather work boot along the dusty driveway, following a scrap of tree bark, reluctant to make eye contact. "Summer is fine. Just the winter, like. Make sure you have plenty of supplies in. Food. Firewood. Once it's dark, lock them doors. Don't go outside for no reason. Never on a winter's night."

Initially I thought he was talking about the weather. But we'd seen snow all our lives. And why did we need to lock the doors? Jake rolled his eyes behind the old man's back. He tried his best not to sound patronizing. "We promise we'll be careful, Mr. Kennedy. Have a safe trip down south to your daughter's place."

"They'll see when they go" I thought I heard Mr. Kennedy mutter to himself as the engine started, but I could have been wrong. The rented moving van crunched softly down the gravel drive, leaving me and Jake alone with the log cabin that we had just bought.

The June sun beamed down from a cobalt blue sky and a gentle breeze whispered through the branches of the dense mixed forest crowded around our clearing. It brought the earthy scent of damp rock and fresh pine. High overhead, a hawk wheeled and soared, its lonely cry echoing over the vast green wilderness that stretched to the north of us. Jake slipped his muscular arms around my waist, the soft stubble on his cheek tickling my neck. I ran my fingers through his copper-blond hair, feeling the warmth of his embrace, enjoying the early summer sunshine.

"Go where? The poor old guy is a nutcase" Jake muttered into my ear. So he'd heard it too.

I'd known Jake since high school, since a mutual friend figured out that we were both gay and shoved us together, in a manner of speaking. Jake was the star athlete with the muscular build and irrepressible grin, blue eyes always twinkling with good humour. I - Brian - was the more studious and naturally cautious of the pair. I was a good few inches taller than Jake, but where he was husky and muscular, I was smooth and lean and built like a runner. Where his hair was blond and unruly, mine was dark and always neatly trimmed short. I tended to khakis and polo shirts for work; he donned well-worn jeans and t-shirts that stretched tightly over his thick arms and broad shoulders. Clothes kind of draped over me... but they bulged in all the right places on Jake like a model in an underwear ad. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't unattractive. I was tall and lean and fit and well groomed. But I always felt that Jake was somehow in a different league than me.

Looks aside, it seemed that Jake and I were made for each other. I could hide my social unease behind his extroverted personality; he relied on my quiet insight to avoid the inevitable stumbling blocks in life. Our personalities enhanced the best in each other. Every day of our relationship still felt as fresh as that day when, as teens, we'd first given each other breathless and shaky hand jobs in my parent's basement.

"I'm not so sure," I replied, thoughtfully. "He believed what he was saying. It feels like there was something he wasn't telling us."

Jake slid his hand just inside my shorts and boxer briefs, lightly scratching at my well-trimmed pubes. It was a thing he liked to do when we were alone. "Maybe he meant bears."

"Only one bear around here" I retorted, running my hand across his broad chest under his shirt. Jake was naturally hairier than me; sometimes I teased him about it. I often had to help him stay trimmed, his chest hair a shade darker than the wavy mop atop his head, his pubes a shade darker still. I liked to keep his pubes fairly natural, but thankfully his shoulders, back and ass stayed hair-free. I wasn't ready for that much bear!

We'd gotten the heritage log cabin at a great price, the aging owner no longer wanting to keep up with the chores associated with a country property - or so we'd been told. Set well back from the unpaved side road amid heavily wooded hillslopes, it was a short drive to the small rural town where I'd recently found work in the local law office and Jake had landed a job driving a truck for the public works department of the township.

A row of crooked wooden poles supplied electricity from the main line along the road, so we were connected to the modern world despite our location on the very edge of the northern wilderness. A deep well supplied ample water. The cabin walls were well-seasoned pine logs, hand planed, aged to a soft shade of grey by years of weather, and solidly chinked with lime mortar. Freshly red painted window frames complemented a nearly new red metal roof. Window boxes below the front windows were bursting with bright red geraniums. A large, attached carport with a concrete floor had been added in a more modern era.

Inside the cabin was a spotless country kitchen, a walk-in pantry, a cozy living room with a wood stove, a compact spare room that I planned to use as a home office, and a nice white and grey tiled bathroom with a glass shower. Stairs led to a snug loft under the sloping roof which was the main bedroom. Some of the interior walls were original pine, others had been drywalled and painted in neutral tones. The effect was modern with a cozy country vibe. I gathered from the realtor that the old man's daughter was an interior designer down south and had arranged the upgrades. She had been planning on moving in with her husband, but plans had changed for some unspecified reason and the family had decided to sell instead.

We'd both fallen in love with the cabin at first sight. The downpayment would have been a bit of a stretch for our modest savings, but both Jake's and my parents had come through with sizeable gifts so we'd been able to make our dream of a first home together come true.

Exploring our new home at our leisure, with Mr. Kennedy's strange warning still in mind, we couldn't help noticing something else. Each window was equipped with heavy wooden shutters that could be closed and secured from inside with thick cast iron hardware. They looked as old as the cabin. The upstairs dormer windows had sturdy latches. The front, side and back doors were unusually thick and equipped with two locks and a stout bar each. The carport had wood and iron gates which could be secured from the inside. The outside facing wall of the carport had only a few narrow slit-style windows; the rear was totally enclosed with a solidly overbuilt wall of board-and-batten siding over cement blocks. The firewood lean-to adjoining the cabin had a locking door, and inside the living room was a clever little trapdoor beside the wood stove. Firewood was loaded from the outside, but the wood pile could be accessed from inside the cabin.

The more we looked, the more subtle security features we noticed. Someone in more recent times had installed bright spotlights on each side of the cabin and a backup diesel generator in the carport that seemed to power only the fridge, the well pump, and oddly, the spotlights.

"It's almost like this cabin was constructed fortified" Jake wondered aloud. "And always kept that way, even by Mrs. Designer Daughter on the latest round of updates." It was a surprisingly perceptive observation, coming from Jake. But I'd been thinking the exact same thing.

"But fortified against what?" I was puzzled. "The realtor said it was built over ninety years ago. There was almost nothing going on around here then except for some timber cutting. It's hardly a high-crime area; there's only a few houses along this road. And why did they maintain it that way all these years? Bears just eat your garbage. You don't need three locks on your doors for that."

"What would only be a danger in the winter?" Jake mused, his hand straying inside my khaki shorts and scratching at my pubes again. "Besides the weather?"

I shrugged, running my finger around the wide waistband of his stretchy black boxer briefs before reaching lower inside his underwear and cupping his rapidly swelling package in my hand. "At least this bear seems to be friendly! As for the rest, I guess we'll have to wait until the winter and see."

Luckily, our cabin didn't need any major investment. We made sure that we had heavy window curtains, cozy rugs, and thick blankets, ready for the cooler months ahead. We built up a large pantry by stocking up on all the essentials as things went on sale in town. Our garden would supply all the root vegetables we needed, and there was even a raspberry patch and a pair of neatly pruned apple trees. My boss suggested that I work from home (like he did) anytime I needed once the winter weather arrived, and Jake wasn't trained to operate snow removal equipment at his work yet, so we figured we'd both be spending a lot of time in the cabin the first winter.

Summer passed quickly, followed by a glorious and bright autumn, but the dense and tangled woods surrounding us seemed to take on a solemn and almost forbidding air as the trees shed their bright leaves and the twisted black branches dripped in the late fall rains. The carefree calls of the hawks were replaced by blood-curdling shrieks and screams of owls, hunting their prey in the dark woods. The warm summer breezes gave way to fitful gusts from the north moaning through the tops of the pines and bending the creaking branches of the hoary old oaks and maples. On windy nights, the same unsettling dream kept returning to me. I'd imagine I was hearing a band of native warriors stealthily falling upon a camp of their rivals in the darkness, and slaughtering terrified men, women and children as the victims scattered through the trees, the distant war cries and death laments borne faintly upon the wind to my trembling ears.

Jake and I began to ensure that our vehicles were parked inside the carport at night, securing the heavy gates behind them. There was no compelling reason to do so, but somehow it felt right. Once the last root vegetables were harvested, we locked away the garden tools and outdoor chairs in the shed, almost as if we were removing all traces of our presence outside the sturdy cabin. Even Jake drew the curtains at dusk, and that was not the type of chore he'd normally pay attention to. And it didn't seem such a bad idea to lock the shutters on the two big living room windows, if only to keep the heat inside at night.

Neither of us mentioned it, but I felt a slight twinge of uneasy anticipation every day at twilight and I'm sure that Jake did too. Doing any outside chores late in the afternoon was somehow vaguely uncomfortable. I'd catch myself glancing at the still and silent forest every few minutes. Perhaps we just weren't used to living in such a sparsely populated area. Nights weren't just dark on our property... they were impenetrable blackness. Let's just say that going outside at night wasn't high on either of our agendas, notwithstanding any vague warning we'd received from the old man.

Chapter 2: Adam

It might have been the wolf howling that saved Adam's life.

It was early in November and although it hadn't snowed yet this season, it was a chilly Saturday evening. All week long there had been almost an expectant hush over the little town huddled on the fringes of the great boreal forest. This was probably our last snow-free weekend before winter gripped the hills and woods in an icy embrace. Deep purple shadows filtered across our little clearing by the end of the afternoon, and it was dark by the time I served our evening meal of braised steak and root vegetables.

Later, Jake and I were lounging in the living room idly watching the crackling fire with mugs of hot cocoa spiked with rum when we heard the distant, lonely howl. "I promised my brother I'd record the wolves for him" Jake remembered, reaching for his cellphone. "The sound carries so well in colder weather."

The woodstove heated the solidly built cabin very efficiently, so generally we just wore our underwear inside in the evenings. Jake was clad in only thin black cotton boxer shorts and I was wearing loose grey boxers and a tight white tank top.

"You'll shrink that beautiful cock of yours" I jokingly protested as Jake opened the back door in his underwear and the night air flooded in.

Jake flipped the switch of the little porch light and stepped outside onto the bare deck, fumbling with his phone. "Nothing your mouth won't fix! Just a quick second I'll...."

His voice tailed off as a terrific crashing of the underbrush echoed from the tree line. Then we heard a desperate sobbing. A person stumbled into view. It sounds like a cliché, but even in the feeble glow of the porch light there was no doubt in either of our minds that the unfortunate soul was running for their life.

Jake and I both froze. A chill of fear reached the very core of my body. Jake recovered first. "Over here!" he yelled, flicking on the powerful outdoor spotlights. As if guided by base instinct, with all capacity for rational thought gone, the person changed direction and stumbled headlong toward us.

It was then that I saw it in the shadows at the tree line. Just a glimpse. Impossibly tall, painfully thin. Long, long arms that ended in claws. Inhuman. A loping walk. Antlers? Was that a deer skull? The temperature seemed to plunge. Ice crystals swirled through the air, obscuring the strange figure. An unearthly guttural howl transfixed my soul. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. I took an involuntary step backwards.

Jake took a couple steps forward off the deck to catch the runner as he stumbled towards us, sobbing in fear. "It's a young guy!" Jake exclaimed as the runner's face came into view in the porch light.

We didn't have time for introductions. We'd lost sight of the creature in the sudden unnatural ice fog but I had an awful feeling that it was still approaching, and quickly. "Shutters!" Jake commanded, propelling the boy inside in front of him and frantically securing the heavy door with both locks and the bar.

I flung myself from window to window, throwing back the curtains to ensure each set of shutters was securely fastened. At each window I half expected to see something terrible looking back at me, but all I saw was the ice fog. Without thinking, Jake turned off the spotlights. Almost immediately a loud thump reverberated through the cabin and the door shook as it was raked by a ferocious claw.

"Lights!" I screamed, but Jake was a step ahead of me. Another howl split the night air, but waning as if the creature was retreating to the tree line in the renewed glare of the spotlights. I raced up the stairs to the loft, pressing my face against the cold glass of the back dormer window. Nothing. A few swirling eddies of ice fog traced across our clearing, and the dark and tangled forest at the perimeter seemed to absorb the rest of the light. As quickly as it had appeared, the creature had melted into the shadows.

"Do you see it? What kind of animal was that?" Jake called up the stairs.

"Nothing's there now" I called down. But I wondered if Jake was being too hasty. I wasn't sure that it was an animal! With a shudder, I drew the curtains tightly shut and raced back downstairs.

We turned our attention to our guest, huddled on the floor, violently shaking, chest heaving, eyes wild. He was about the same age as us, in his twenties, dark hair buzzed short, rather an athletic build. "Ccccchasing me. It makes it colder. Colder!" he stammered. "Once, I turned around. It almost caught me!" His voice rose to nearly a scream. "It was reaching for me!"

Jake physically pulled the boy to his feet and removed his coat, hat and gloves. Our guest was wearing a thick navy blue fleece sweater and muddy and soaked khaki hiking pants with multiple small rips and tears.

"What's your name?" I tried. "What were you doing in the forest at night?"

"It was chasing me!" the boy babbled. "I was totally lost!"

"It's no good, we won't get anything out of him like this" Jake said in concern, pulling off the boy's hiking boots and socks. As usual, he jumped into action in difficult situations. "Let's get him upstairs to bed."

Together we half-dragged, half-pushed the boy up the stairs. "Help me strip him off" Jake ordered.

I unbuttoned the torn and wet hiking pants and dragged them off the boy's slim legs, while Jake eased off his sweater and t-shirt. Clad only in his damp black thermal long underwear, our guest began to shiver as he teetered unsteadily beside the bed. Jake firmly took hold of the boy's long underwear and pulled them down in one steady tug. We both raised our eyebrows. Our guest was wearing very stylish, very modern Hugo Boss black briefs with a downy soft treasure trail disappearing down the front.

"Nice" Jake muttered in appreciation. "Let's leave those on him but get him into bed."

Jake dropped his own boxers and climbed into bed totally naked with the shivering boy. He motioned me to do the same. "What are we doing?" I hissed as I complied.

"We gotta get him grounded back into reality" Jake muttered to me, pulling the heavy quilt over us all. "Or he may never snap out of it. He could die from shock like this. He needs skin-to-skin warmth. He needs intimacy."

The boy was sandwiched between us as we both embraced him tightly. Slowly, the trembling subsided and the sawing, jerky breath calmed down. We rubbed his icy feet with our own bare feet under the weight of the thick quilt.

"Safe." Jake whispered into his ear. "You're safe now. This cabin has withstood the creature for a hundred years. You're safe here."

A shiver ran down my spine as I realized Jake was probably speaking the truth. I pressed my naked body tighter against the boy's underwear-covered ass and burrowed my head under the quilt like I was trying to hide. I tried to breathe calmly and deeply, in and out, my breath on the boy's neck.

"That's it," Jake encouraged me. "His nervous system will pick up on our signals. Slow and deep and calm. He'll start to mirror us without even knowing it."

It took half an hour, but it worked. The boy's breathing slowed to match ours as his tension ebbed. "My name is Adam" the boy eventually volunteered in a groggy voice.

"I'm Jake and this is Brian. You're safe in our cabin, in our bed."

"I wanna be naked like you guys." Adam slurred, struggling to slide down his briefs. "Safe and warm all together."

Jake's surprised eyes met mine. We hadn't expected this! Nevertheless, we helped Adam kick off his briefs and reposition himself. Adam ended up facing me, our bare groins and chests pressed together, faces nose to nose, holding each other tightly, Jake's muscular body protecting Adam from the back with a heavy arm thrown over top of us both. I think Adam dozed for a short while like that. I remained awake, straining to hear any sounds from outside.

Not a creature. I must stop calling it that. An animal, then. All I had to do was think. But I couldn't focus. What animal native to these forests looked like an emaciated scarecrow? What animal would track and hunt a person? What could scare the boy in our bed half to death? Was this why our cabin was so stoutly built? And the way it had pounded on our door! A picture was beginning to form at the fringes of my mind, like the first whisper of an approaching storm, more sensed than seen. The old man's warning. The unspoken unease I felt as winter approached. The dreams I had. Something was terribly wrong.

Adam stirred slightly. "I left my car in the little hiker's lot down on Indian Grove Road" he recounted in a stronger voice. "Only car there. I was going to hike up to Pine Bluff. Something went wrong; I must have missed the trail. Slipped down a steep ravine on my ass, ended up in a stream. Lost my compass. Couldn't climb up, the wet leaves and mud were partly frozen and too slippery, so I tried to work my way around the ravine, heading north. I hiked for hours. I realized I was lost. Then it started to get dark."

I shuddered, imagining the dense, rocky woods in the looming nightfall.

Adam rolled onto his back, safely cocooned between us. "I realized someone - something - was in the forest with me. It was behind me at a good distance, but it was getting closer. I didn't want to run. I thought if I ran it would chase me for sure. But as it got closer, I realized it was making the air colder somehow. Waves of cold behind me. I couldn't help myself, I started to run..."

"Some kind of bear?" I tried, ignoring the temperature drop that I couldn't explain. "But it had horns, I think? A deer or moose?"

"It wasn't natural" Adam stated flatly. "And it stank like death!"

"It seemed pretty hostile when it hit our door" Jake chimed in.

"There's probably a perfectly normal explanation" I tried, rather unconvincingly.

"It never ran" Adam shuddered. "It kind of loped between the trees, never losing its footing, never breaking a branch, always gaining on me. It was almost close enough to touch me when I broke out into your clearing."

"I know what we need" Jake said, rolling out of bed and padding downstairs for a bottle and three glasses. The fuzz on his broad chest shone amber in the dim lamp light, his smooth firm ass was the colour of honey, and his heavy package swung from thigh to thigh, the hood on his dick pulled slightly back. I watched Adam's eyes following Jake's muscular form all the way to the stairs and back.

Without modesty, Jake stood naked in front of us and poured a finger of neat Scotch into each glass. Adam swallowed his drink in a couple of gulps, his eyes fixed on Jake's dark blond hairy package the whole while. "You said this cabin has withstood it for a hundred years" Adam looked up at Jake's face, with some effort. "You know what it is, don't you?"

"No" Jake admitted, climbing back into bed and allowing his arm to slip around Adam's smooth shoulders. "I was hoping that you knew! Me and my boyfriend just moved here this summer. As he was leaving, the retired guy who lived here before us hinted that it wasn't safe outside at night in the winter. We thought he was just a little eccentric, but as we studied the place we realized that this cabin was deliberately built in a very strange way almost a hundred years ago. It's as secure as a bank vault. Triple locks and stuff. Up until now we've been wondering why."

The blanket started to move slowly, rhythmically, in the vicinity of Jake's dick. Adam was feeling up my boyfriend. I slipped my own hand down Adam's flat stomach and into his tangle of soft pubes. I felt his foreskin retract as his dick hardened under my touch. Adam briefly kissed my mouth before turning to Jake. Their mouths met, open, as I nuzzled Adam's neck and my hand stroked his smooth balls. I ran a finger over Adam's tip, gathering a few drops of precum, before reaching deep under Adam's ballsack with my slippery finger.

Adam turned back to me again with a gasp as my finger rimmed his asshole. Jake arched his neck and moaned, his eyes closed, so I had a fair idea that Adam was mirroring my actions and fingering my boyfriend's hole at the same time. Adam rolled on top of me, our lips locked, our stiff dicks rubbing together, his ass in the air. I spread Adam's smooth ass cheeks wide apart with both hands, feeling his sudden shuddering intake of breath as Jake accepted the tacit invitation to rim Adam deeply with his tongue.

The quilt was thrown all the way back. We were all warm now, with our arms and legs entwined. Adam and I moved down to Jake's thick uncut cock, standing proud of its dark blond bush, fully skinned back, as we took it in turns to suck and lick it until Jake's spurting release into Adam's eager mouth. Then it was my turn, Adam joining Jake at my dick, the two of them kissing and licking their way up and down my shaft. I felt Jake's powerful suction and flicking tongue as he expertly brought me to a burning orgasm, before he pressed his lips to Adam's and shared my copious load.

Eagerly, Jake and I slid down to Adam's cock. His pubes were dark and natural, his balls smooth, and his uncut cock was long with a perfect pink helmet head, rock hard and twitching in time with his pounding heartbeat as he surrendered himself to this new experience. Jake straddled Adam's face, presenting his hairy balls and spit-slicked cock to Adam's eagerly waiting lips. I approached Adam's package from below, the best position for tonguing his sack. Jake and I vied with each other for Adam's precum and licked up and down his veiny shaft. I held Adam's dick firmly by the base, his foreskin pulled far back, my fingers squeezing tightly like a cock ring, keeping Adam rock hard. With a deep groan, Adam's dick convulsed as he fired his load into Jake's eager mouth. Just as he had shared my jizz with Adam, Jake jammed his mouth against mine and shared Adam's sweet bounty with me.

Our need for warmth and comfort satiated, we pulled the quilt back over our naked bodies and fell into a sound sleep, Adam kept protectively between us, nestled into Jake's side.

Chapter 3: Ancient Hunter

"Yesterday didn't start out so well for me" Adam admitted the next morning, sipping his coffee, wearing only a borrowed pair of Jake's Calvin Klein boxer briefs and one of my tight white undershirts, his hair damp and tousled from the shower. "But I won't deny I enjoyed the way it ended." His dick seemed to tent the pale blue Calvins slightly at the recollection.

"Let that be your main memory of yesterday, then," Jake suggested, adding a heaping spoon of sugar to his steaming coffee. "And if it felt good, felt right, maybe come back to visit us again?"

Jake was wearing white gym shorts, sagging a bit to show the broad red band on his tight black trunks. His fuzzy chest was bare and his thick arms still bore the remnants of his summer tan. I caught Adam glancing at him a few times. I felt a bit frumpy dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, but I was going to cook breakfast and experience had taught me that bare skin and bacon grease didn't mix!

Adam nodded thoughtfully, a slightly rueful smile on his lips. "Maybe I over-reacted when I got lost. Scared myself. It was probably my imagination. Lost in a dark forest. Could happen to anyone. It was probably a deer or a bear like Brian said. And yes, I'd like to come back."

In the light of day after a solid night's sleep, it was difficult for me, too, to believe what I thought I had glimpsed emerging from the forest. Something was nagging at the fringe of my memory, but I couldn't put my finger on it. There must be a rational explanation. An animal, yes. An aggressive animal. It does happen, doesn't it? Beyond that, a trick of the shadows. Tree branches mistaken for horns. An unusual four-legged gait mistaken as a two-legged loping walk. A lost boy who panicked. Who wouldn't in those circumstances?

I studied Adam in profile sitting at our table as I prepared plates of bacon, eggs, homefries and toast for everyone. He really was an attractive guy. Sculpted chin and perfectly proportioned nose. An honest and intelligent face. Chest better defined than mine but tapering into a narrow waist. Slim and smooth, but with a bit better muscle tone than me. I undressed him with my eyes, recalling him naked in our bed, illuminated by lamplight. Just a dusting of hair in the centre of his smooth chest. That beautiful treasure trail. Downy soft pubes, not too thick, none on his balls. His long dick, uncut like Jake, whereas I was the only one circumcised.

So far, Adam hadn't mentioned his sexuality or his living situation (at least not to me, anyway). But those stylish black briefs he'd arrived in had triggered my gaydar. Last night didn't seem like his first time with a guy, but he also didn't have practiced air of a party boy. The fact that he'd stayed out all night without needing to call anyone suggested that he lived alone. Jake was the social extrovert. I'd let him figure it out.

"When you're ready today, I'll drive you down to your car." Jake offered. "I know exactly where you parked it. Only thing is, the road has gotta go around Pine Bluff and not over top of it, so it'll take us a while. You hiked pretty far so it'll take us a bit longer to get back than it took you to get here sliding down on your ass."

Adam didn't seem to be in any hurry, so the boys got onto Jake's Xbox after breakfast. It was my bread-making day and I also wanted to make a pie, so I left them to it, popping my head into the room now and again to be sociable. It was early afternoon before they decided to head out. Jake's old truck only had two seats, so I said my goodbyes and gave Adam a tight hug at the door. Jake had enough time to make it there and back before dark - even if their goodbye was a little 'enthusiastic.' I suspected it would be. I trusted Jake, but I'd noticed the undeniable chemistry between those two. Jake and I didn't have an open relationship, but we'd all sucked each other's dicks last night and shared Adam's cum. At least that helped me to feel included.

The cabin suddenly felt empty with both boys gone. Having a third person in our bed had felt different... exciting in fact. I had only met one other guy in high school before Jake, and our teenage fumbling hadn't really counted as sex. And I was the only boy Jake had ever been with. All our big sexual milestones were with each other. First kiss, first blowjob, first top, first bottom...

I busied myself with the chores and getting the dinner started. We were having coq au vin tonight, the tender chicken in red wine being one of Jake's favorite meals. I suppose subconsciously I was making a childish point. Jake couldn't boil water without an instruction manual. I may not spring into action during a crisis and rescue a boy in distress, and I may not be as strong and hot as Jake, but I still added some value to this team, didn't I?

I was probably overthinking things, I realized. I couldn't help it if Adam had a bit of a crush on his main rescuer. It was only natural. And I knew why I felt the way I did. I was supposed to be the thinker. I was the guy who'd written the bar exam. People paid me to think. Jake relied on me to think. And I wasn't pulling my weight this time. I had no idea what had chased Adam, or why. I had no idea why our cabin appeared to be fortified against it. Damn it, I was still hung up on whether to call what I'd seen an animal or a creature!

With a little time on my hands as dinner cooked slowly, I threw on my coat and went outside for some fresh air. I wandered across our clearing to the tree line, roughly in the direction that Adam had come from last night. It was a gloomy late afternoon, and an occasional flake of snow drifted down. I don't know what I expected to find. The ground was now frozen; there would be no footprints. Twilight was just starting to gather in the depths and hollows of the silent forest.

There. A snapped tree branch. And another. Coarse and dry grass, flattened underfoot. I took one step into the darkening trees, and then another. I'd follow it just to the little ridge I could see ahead of me, not very far at all. Nightfall would come quickly, but there was just enough daylight for a few minutes of investigation and a brisk walk back to the cabin.

I had never known the forest to be so quiet, the air so still. I paused, realizing for the first time how loud the human body actually is, even at rest. Every beat of my heart thudded like an old war drum. Every breath I exhaled was a raging torrent of air. My blood coursing through my veins made a chorus of tiny murmurs, like a spring rainfall coursing down a windowpane. A lazy snowflake kissed a dry leaf stubbornly clinging to a branch just at my eye level. I realized that I heard it land, that I was also hearing untold thousands of snowflakes drifting to the ground, gently caressing the forest's carpet of dried pine needles and fragile brown leaves.

I hoped that Jake would return home soon, otherwise I'd have to turn on the spotlights and open the carport gates so he could safely drive right in. An image flashed through my mind of Jake and Adam in the truck with their mouths locked together, pants slid down to mid-thigh, erections straining against damp spots on their underwear, oblivious to the deepening twilight...

I firmly dispelled those thoughts, grasping a branch and ducking under a low pine bough to crest the rocky little ridge. Another departure of a sort slipped into my mind. They'll see when they go, Mr. Kennedy had said. When they go where, old man? When they go?

When they go.

Windigo.

My blood turned to ice in my veins. The Indigenous legend flooded back to me. A gaunt giant, loose limbed, sepulchral, doomed to roam the forests in winter, never able to satisfy its appetite for human flesh. The stag skull and antlers. The claws. Rotting flesh hanging in tatters. The Windigo. Exactly what I saw last night.

They'll see Windigo.

Not real. Not possible.

Have you ever walked down a baking hot sidewalk in the height of summer, and been right there when somebody opens the door to a well air-conditioned building? You know that wave of coolness that billows out? Just then, I felt the same sensation on my face. But this was no summer's day.

It makes it colder.

A barely perceptible breeze murmured through the tops of the pines. My every sense was on heightened alert. I thought I heard a twig crack softly. A sudden odd smell wafted faintly through the tangled black trees, sickly sweet, rank, rather unpleasant.

It smells like death.

Suddenly I realized the terrible danger that I was in. I turned and ran headlong for the cabin. My foot caught a root and I cannoned off a tree trunk. An iron band of fear clamped my chest; I could scarcely draw breath. My arms flailed through the branches. A thorny bush grabbed my sleeve, like the forest itself was holding me back. Another branch whipped against my head, stinging me, punishing my foolishness. I risked a glance behind me at the edge of the clearing. It was close, dangerously close. It loped easily around the trees, never breaking stride.

Much like Adam had, I ran for my life, sobbing in fear. It was an ancient hunter of the forests. I was its prey. I had to get all the way to the front door of the cabin across the frozen clearing. I'd never make it. I tensed myself for the rake of the sharp claws, the tearing of the skeletal teeth.

Just then, Jake's pickup truck appeared on the driveway, followed by a small car that I didn't recognize. Jake saw me running and reacted instantly, gunning his engine and veering onto the frozen ground, heading toward me, blasting his horn and flashing his lights. I skimmed past the front fender of Jake's truck with inches to spare and dove into the carport, using the few seconds of reprieve that Jake's quick action had granted me. The unfamiliar car had already pulled inside and lurched to a stop. Adam flung open the car door and brushed me aside, holding a long brown rifle, a terrible expression on his face. There was a loud crack, followed by an animal shriek of rage. Jake hastily reversed back onto the driveway and accelerated for the carport in a spray of frozen gravel as Adam levered another shell into the rifle and fired again, before slamming and bolting the heavy iron gate behind Jake's truck.

Snow suddenly swirled through the gate and the narrow window slits of the carport, splattering against the metal roof in hissing waves.

I scrabbled frantically at the carport door into the house. It wouldn't open.

"The bar's down on the inside!" I yelled. "What are we gonna do? We can't get in!"

"Nothing can get inside the carport" Jake said soothingly as he climbed out of his truck. "But I'll make a break for the front door while we hopefully have it confused. You left the front door unlocked, right Brian?"

Shakily, I nodded acquiescence. Adam levered another shell into the rifle and motioned to Jake, grim faced. "Keep behind me in case I get another shot."

Jake drew a deep breath and nodded firmly. In one quick move, Adam opened the carport gate to let Jake slip out. Thankfully it was only a few steps to the front door as we could see little except for swirling snow. There was another sharp crack from the rifle as Adam fired at the shadows, then a thud a second later as the front door closed securely. The outdoor floodlights flared on. Adam slammed the carport gates and hastily bolted them just as Jake flung open the side door to the carport from inside the house.

Something scrabbled at the sturdy carport gates, rattling them fiercely. A horrible stench of decay assailed us. I shouted in fear, I couldn't help myself. Adam shoved me through the door into the cabin, dumping me unceremoniously on the floor, as he and Jake raced around the cabin to secure the heavy window shutters.

'I winged it on my first shot. I saw a spray of blood" Adam panted triumphantly.

"Nice shot!" Jake agreed. "You bought us the time to get safely back inside."

"Nice move with the truck" Adam grinned at Jake. "It was almost like we practiced that."

Jake turned to me with an expression of concern on his face. "What the hell were you doing, Brian? Outside, at the tree line, almost at dusk! With a blizzard starting! And that... thing! We nearly lost you!"

I shivered briefly, the sour taste of spent adrenaline in my mouth. "I just stepped outside for air. Still a bit of light. I only took a few steps into the trees. It makes the air colder. It brought this snow, you know. But I know what it is."

The wind rose to a high shriek, howling over the vast northern hills like a thing tormented, the first serious blizzard of the winter. The ancient forest thrashed and groaned under the onslaught, the occasional branch breaking with a sharp crack. Snow rattled against the metal cabin roof, the heavy shutters creaking under the icy blast.

"It heard my heartbeat. It heard the blood running through my veins." I suppose I sounded delirious, although it made perfect sense to me. I jumped in alarm as a log shifted in the woodstove, sending a cloud of sparks up the chimney.

Next thing I knew, Jake and Adam were stripping me and shedding their own clothes. Adam yanked my white sports briefs down and propelled me naked into bed. This time I was in the middle. I lay facing Jake, his lips just brushing mine, crushed in his powerful embrace. Adam, suddenly strong and deadly, embraced me tightly from behind. I could feel his hard dick grinding my bare ass crack.

More than anything, I wanted this new Adam inside me.

"Yes" Jake said simply to us both. There was no need to explain further. I rolled onto my stomach and arched my back, legs apart, feeling a sudden warmth and fullness as Adam's cock slipped inside me, guided by Jake's hand covered in our slippery lube. I turned my face towards Jake, lying on his back beside me, and our lips met. Adam thrust hard, his smooth balls slapping my ass, as Jake hushed my moans with his lips while slowly jerking himself. My dick leaked onto the bed. Adam grunted and I felt his dickhead stiffen and convulse inside me as his seed spread its warmth throughout my body.

Next it was my turn. I rolled onto my back, exposing my stiff pole freely to the boys' view. Adam stroked my dripping cock, his hand a blur of motion. Jake leaned in with his mouth open. Adam grabbed a fistful of Jake's hair and pushed Jake's face onto my cock. I had never seen my powerful boyfriend dominated like that. It was strangely erotic and I writhed with Adam's relentless jerking of my dick as I shot my load deep into Jake's throat with a moan of delight.

Finally it was Jake's turn. Growling with lust, he effortlessly flipped Adam onto his back and firmly grasped each of Adam's slim calves, lifting them up and away. Adam's knees were almost pressed against his chest, his legs spread wide apart. I caught a glimpse of Adam's pink hole, lightly dusted with fine hair, before Jake lowered himself and drove his thick dick home in one slow, steady motion as Adam whimpered. Jake had never dominated me this way. Adam looked so vulnerable with his legs raised and spread. I was a mere spectator to Jake's tight ass thrusting back and forth as he jackhammered Adam until finally Jake grunted and sagged forward, pumping his cum deep inside our new friend's ass.

Our lust spent, we lay in a tangle of sweaty limbs, our groins slick with sweat, lube and cum. As our breathing returned to normal, we caught up on the details. Adam had decided to stay one more night and followed Jake back to our place once he retrieved his car. The rifle had been safely stored in Adam's trunk. Considering the circumstances, Adam had loaded it and laid it on the back seat under a jacket. Yes, he had a hunting license for it, and yes, he clearly knew how to use it.

Jake hadn't seen much except for a fleeting glimpse of something emerging from the forest, he'd simply reacted to me running in obvious fear.

Adam was tight-lipped. He'd obviously seen enough to know it was the same thing that chased him last night and that it was not human, something he could safely take a shot at. But like me, he was probably still vainly searching for a rational explanation.

Next, it was my turn. I had an explanation, and to hell with being rational.

"Jake, remember when we thought we heard the old man mutter something as he was leaving about 'they'll see when they go?' Well, I think he was saying something else. Not when they go, but Windigo."

"What's that?" Jake asked innocently. "They'll see Windigo?"

I could tell by the way that the colour suddenly drained from Adam's face that he knew what Windigo were and his own experience of the night before started to make terrible sense. Together, we enlightened Jake.

"But it can't be real!" Jake protested. "An evil, cannibalistic spirit-being from Indigenous legend?"

Adam shrugged. "It sure matches the description of what Brian and I saw. I did a course on Indigenous mythology in school. Some legends say the Windigo expands in size with each human it eats, which is why it can never satisfy its appetite. Instead of a heart, it has a lump of black ice in its chest. It's a lesson about greed and gluttony and the ultimate taboo - eating human flesh!"

Adam propped himself up in bed on one elbow, the sheet falling back to reveal his treasure trail. "That was no bear I just took a shot at. The forests around here date back to the end of the last Ice Age. The hills are so steep and parts are so densely forested that there are places nobody has ever set foot upon. Native people were on this land long before we were. There is often some truth in tribal legends. Who knows what's in these forests? Who knows what ancient knowledge has been lost?"

I shivered, despite the two warm naked bodies pressed against mine and the glow from my stretched asshole. "We're the last cabin on this sideroad, and it's the furthest sideroad from town. Draw a line straight north from our cabin and you could go forever without seeing signs of other people, except the occasional overgrown logging road. We're at the very frontier of the settled land."

"But the people who built this cabin knew something. The old man and his family knew something" Jake countered. "Something about this place just feels... off"

"There have been stories," Adam recollected, "Of hunters and trappers being seized with an overwhelming desire for human flesh. They call it Windigo Psychosis. I remember reading about one guy who was only a few miles from a food supply and yet he still butchered and ate his wife and not one but five children! To make it worse, there was no evidence he'd been starving when he wandered into town. The authorities hung him. He went to his death tormented by nightmares and believing he was possessed by a spirit of a Windigo."

Adam sat up fully in bed. He'd gone soft, but his foreskin was still retracted and his plum-coloured dick head was still glossy with lube. "That wasn't the only case. Was it a genuine psychosis brought on by extreme starvation, a desire after the fact to explain away a horrible act driven by desperation... or something else entirely?"

"The only good news," I added, "Seems to be that if we respect its territory - follow the old man's advice - we are probably safe here for years. He apparently was."

"Unless some poor hiker gets lost." It was Adam's turn to shiver.

The smell of the savory coq au vin reminded us it was dinnertime. We rose and slipped loose-fitting boxers and t-shirts back on. Jake threw more wood on the fire while I sliced up some of the crusty bread I had baked earlier.

The deep moan of the blizzard was punctuated by an occasional shrill shriek as the relentless winds battered the stout cabin. Snow hissed and seethed around the tightly shuttered windows and triple-locked doors. The blizzard was like a living thing, probing our defenses. We ate mostly in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. I didn't think Adam would be going anywhere tomorrow if the storm remained this strong.

Partway through dinner, Adam put down his fork. "Have you guys ever seen a spring house?" he asked.

"Go on..." I said thoughtfully.

"You find a place where a cold spring emerges from a hillside, and you build a little stone hut over top of it. Sometimes you make little channels across the floor or build a basin to channel the cold water" Adam began.

"Plenty of little rock crevices, caves and cold springs around these parts" I added. "Some of the ponds are pretty deep and cold, too."

"Exactly" Adam continued. "A spring house keeps dairy and meat cool all summer. The old-time settlers built them."

Adam pushed aside his plate as he warmed to his subject. "Now imagine a part of this forest, maybe higher up on a north-facing slope, trees so thick that the sun never really reaches the forest floor. Put a deep cave right there, just a crevice in the rocks is all you need, with a cold spring running through it."

"A natural spring house!" Jake realized, picking up where Adam was going with his topic.

Adam nodded. "Now do you suppose, just possibly, deep enough inside our natural spring house, buried in layers of moss and dead leaves, that frost remains all summer?"

"You might have just solved where our cold-loving Windigo goes in the summer" I said slowly.

"And how something from the distant past has stayed alive all this time" Jake added. Another thought struck him. "What if it hibernated for years but global warming is thawing its cave and it isn't sleeping so well anymore?"

Adam smiled. "That's some next-level reasoning. But sure, why not?"

"So we know what it is, and how it survives. What do we do about it?" Jake queried, always ready for action.

"Find it's cave in the summer and burn it out" Adam suggested. "Put a few rounds in it." He had come a long way from the terrified boy sprinting across the clearing last night.

"Easier said than done. There's a lot of thick forest to search through. What about telling the police or even the museum? Catch it and study it?" Jake suggested eagerly.

"We do nothing" I said decisively. "We saw something that resembles a creature from Indigenous legend. But it could be anything. Even something perfectly natural."

"You felt it near you, too" Adam said to me, quietly. "You know it wasn't anything natural."

I had to agree he was right, even if I was too stubborn to admit it.

"Ok, if it truly is what we think it is, we have no proof, no pictures, just a completely speculative theory how it might have survived out here. So we tell people that we are being stalked by a spirit- creature that has somehow survived for over a century - perhaps much longer - by hibernating in a natural spring house? And we have no proof, because every time we see it, it disappears into an ice fog or blizzard of apparently its own making? We'd get laughed out of town! Old Mr. Kennedy lived here safely for years. If we don't wander in the woods after dark in the winter, we should be quite safe. We do nothing. For the sake of our own reputations. And my career."

I got up to clear the table. "And we can't go running around in dense woods chasing a creature whose strengths and abilities we have no understanding of. I've seen it glide effortlessly through those trees. And as we have all felt, it can alter the weather!"

The boys sat silently, eyeing each other. They knew that I was right.

Jake broke the silence by grabbing the bottle of port and three glasses from the sideboard. "Makes sense. Our routine is simple. Secure the doors and shutters at dusk, flip on the outside lights, and just mind our own business indoors, concentrating on each other." He tipped his glass to Adam in acknowledgement. "And I hope you will come and visit often to be part of it."

"As long as you guys will have me." Adam replied, gesturing to each of us in turn with his glass. "Both of you."

"Just arrive before dark" Jake said with a mischievous grin. "In a car."

Adam playfully stuck out his tongue. Still thinking, I walked back my original statement a bit.

"We can always research things a bit more. See what's at the library about local history. Talk to some old-timers in town in general terms without letting them know what we have seen."

"Then maybe in the summer we'll see about some exploring" Adam suggested.

I let that comment pass. We'd cross that bridge when we came to it. I had a feeling we could search the dense forest for years and never find it. I wasn't sure I wanted to find it!

"It kind of feels like we are letting the Windigo - assuming it really exists - dictate how we live our lives" Jake mused.

I found an unexpected ally in Adam. "The precautions we need to take here are no different than those routinely taken by people who live further up north where there are polar bears. You think anybody walks around Churchill, Manitoba late at night with a bag of beef jerky? Sometimes living in harmony with the world means acknowledging that humans are not always the top dog."

I smiled a bit at Adam's mixed metaphor. I also noted his continual use of the word "we". I wasn't sure what he had in mind for the future. I genuinely liked him. I knew we could make room for him in our lives. But this was our life first - Jake and me. This was our dream.

"Let's watch a movie or something" Jake suggested, rising from the table. "It's a little early for bed... isn't it?"

Chapter 4: Amber Lamplight

I slowly became aware that for some time I'd been hearing Jake and Adam having passionate sex. They were moaning each other's names through gritted teeth, and I could hear the big bed in the loft creaking. I pictured their naked bodies writhing under the white sheet in the dim amber light of the little bedroom lamp sitting on the ledge of the dormer window. It would be powerful, athletic sex. They were strong, while I was weak. Jake's thick dick would be thrusting into Adam's tight ass, but Adam would be pushing back to meet it, clenching it firmly, forcing Jake towards orgasm, not merely lying there taking the pounding. And when it was Adam's turn, I knew he'd be equally as demanding. Jake would get fucked hard. Nobody would submit; they negotiated as equals.

I was lying on the sofa downstairs in the dark. The fire had burned down to dull embers; the room was cool. I sensed an overwhelming feeling of loss and sadness. I knew that I always slept here now, alone. I was lonely. My heart ached. Eventually the noises ceased and I pictured them falling asleep in each other's arms, warm under the quilt. Everything the bedroom lamplight touched was warm and cozy. Everything else was cold and dark. The bedroom vignette faded from my mind. My mood switched from sadness to a slowly rising dread.

It was time.

I pulled on my boots and coat, sensing a new sound - snow hissing against the walls of the cabin, buffeted by the occasional gust of wind. I soundlessly eased open the back door of the cabin and stepped outside into the storm. I did not feel the cold. Trance-like, I walked into the darkness in the direction of the silent trees. It was almost like I was floating. The only light visible from the cabin, the soft glow of the lamp in the bedroom window, briefly recalled my sense of loss and loneliness before it faded from view in the storm. I knew there was no turning back. I'd never find that pinprick of light in the storm. The cabin was lost to me now forever. Jake was lost to me now forever. Dark trees loomed ahead of me. I entered the forest, never looking behind me, never looking up, trudging forward, feeling hollow inside. I walked. I waited. Eventually, I felt the air behind me get colder. I felt the evil presence behind me. I smelled the rank stench of death. I heard its ragged breathing. I didn't look back. I waited for the long, bony talons to reach out. I waited for the teeth. Suddenly I was flooded with terror...

"Brian!" Jake grunted softly, still more asleep than awake. "Bad dream." He rolled over on his side, toward me, his weight pressing comfortably into my back, his thick arm protectively draping over me. His forehead was against my neck, his breath warm. Adam, on the other side of me, arched his naked back slightly to press more closely against me, remaining deeply asleep.

Snow hissed gently against the metal roof. The soft amber glow of the bedroom lamp shone through the little bedroom window; a tiny spark of warmth quickly lost in the storm. Uneasily, I drifted back into a fitful sleep.

Outside, where the tangled black forest met the frozen clearing, the Windigo slowly raised its ancient head, scenting the air. The terrible hunger burned deeply inside, as it always did. Three pieces of meat. It could sense each one, hear three warm hearts beating. It had already come close enough to two of them to smell their fear. Silently, it bared its yellowed fangs against the wind-whipped snow before slipping back into the dark woods.

Author's Note:

For more details of the macabre events Adam recants, please search for Swift Runner and Windigo (some spellings, Wendigo) on your favourite search engine. It's a strange but true story.