Missing

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. They say the last time that happened was thirty years ago. On that night, eight men went missing only one was found alive.

Each of the men seemed to have vanished without a trace. There didn't seem to be any connection between them. One went missing from the grocery store parking lot. One was in his own kitchen. Another got up from bed to use the restroom and never came back. If it hadn't been for the fact that they all disappeared the same night no one would have thought anything of it. The authorities were stumped until one came back.

He stumbled out of the woods a week later. He was dirty, barefoot, and deliriously muttering absolute nonsense. People say that man was the sweetest, gentlest person you would ever meet before that day. Not anymore, though, he ran screaming like a mad man through town. He attacked anyone that approached him. The authorities were forced to tranquilize the poor man to keep him from hurting anyone. The town was utterly distraught as the scene unfolded. It took three darts to put him down. When he woke up in the hospital, he tried to attack the doctor treating him.

Well, he spent weeks strapped down to the hospital bed. They wouldn't even let him up for the bathroom. He just had to go right there and wait for someone to come along and clean him up. They thought he'd be like that forever. The doctors were talking to his family about mental hospitals, but one day a nurse went in to check on him and he just said, "hello". Like it wasn't anything at all.

The nurse screamed and ran from the room. She came back with the doctor. Everybody said after that day the man acted perfectly normal. He was back to being the sweetest, gentlest person you'd ever meet. He became a school teacher and married a pretty lady. They had a bunch of kids and lived a happy, normal life.

Anytime folks would ask him what happened, he'd say the only thing he could remember was going for a walk in the woods and seeing a light come on in the old abandoned cabin. When he got close to see what it was, he saw a beautiful woman standing in the doorway as if she was waiting for someone. Then she smiled at him, and the next thing he knew, he was waking up strapped to the hospital bed with nurses screaming at him.

"Were the other men ever found," you ask, oh that's the best part. After that man stumbled out of the woods, they sent a search party in to see if the others were there as well. It wasn't until after the man woke up they thought to look in the cabin.

When people asked why they didn't look there from the start none of them could answer. In my opinion, it was probably instinct. Whatever the reason, they finally went in and found all seven men right there. Despite being there for weeks, they all seemed perfectly preserved. If it hadn't been for how still they all were, you would have thought they were sleeping.

They had each been tucked away in their own little beds, looking perfectly serene. Now, most people there that day won't admit to this part, but my grandaddy was there. He told me all about it. As they started investigating, it was like looking into one of those funhouse mirrors. The men seemed to decay in an instant. The room had seemed clean and pristine before and was suddenly covered in dust and cobwebs. The worst part was when they pulled back the blankets to remove the bodies and saw the gaping hole in each man's chest. The coroner said it looked like each man's heart had been ripped out of their chest. They never found the hearts, and they never found out who or what did such a horrific thing.