A search team spent the night in an abandoned fire-watch cabin above Cranberry Wilderness — West Virginia, December 1987. (Based on a True Story)

Something circled that cabin for hours.

It hit the door twice, hard enough to bow the wood inward. It breathed through the gaps. It dragged something slowly along the outside wall, from one end to the other, the way you drag something when you want the sound to carry.

Feel the cold. Feel the dark. Feel the walls shaking.

In this episode Wallace Cole presents the account of Eddie Mercer — experienced tracker, seasoned back-country man — who spent a night in an abandoned West Virginia fire-watch cabin that he has never been able to fully leave behind. A blizzard. A search team. Something outside that circled for hours, hit the door hard enough to bow the wood, and its frosty, stinking breath came through the gaps when the hitting stopped.

They never found the hunter they went in for. He was recovered the following spring, two ridges over. The official cause of death was "exposure."

If you enjoy Appalachian horror, wilderness encounters, dark folklore, and immersive narrated storytelling — follow Stuff That Scares Me for new episodes weekly.

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