The Cabin with a Metal Door: Wendi is Mad

One night, a park ranger employee had recently started working at the ranger station. One year ago, he had experienced a day he would never forget in the woods called the Devil's Tramping Ground.

One year ago, on August 31, 1998, a new employee started working his fifth night at a North Carolina Park Ranger Station. His name was Phillip Granger. He was a quiet, hardworking 29-year-old man of slender build. He had one of those faces that were forgettable, a loner type that is mostly always in the background. Phillip had the night shift. The station manager hired him to replace another employee who unexpectedly quit out of the blue. The station manager said it's standard for new employees to leave because they would get freaked out about how spook this part of the woods is.

Devil's Tramping Ground is known for its legends, satanic rituals, and ghost stories all over town. Sometimes, local kids or teenagers would go overboard and scare and pull pranks, and sometimes the recipient of said prank would get so scared and call the station, usually at night. Phillip has worked for five days with his partner, old Ben, who is more experienced and has been working on the job for ten years. So, old Ben has seen every prank, seance, ritual, and that one idiot kid dressed in a white sheet saying he's a ghost; nothing out of the ordinary except tonight was different. At 9:50 pm, Phillip was at his desk reading comic books and eating a Slim Jim and a coke, waiting for the backup replacement of old Ben, Ben was in the hospital due to a slipped disk and had taken a week off, and a replacement would be coming to help out. Before old Ben had left, he told Phillip that the camping ground would be closed today. However, the camp would be open-back tomorrow morning on September 1, and no matter what I hear or see, don't go outside the ranger station at night under any circumstances and tell the replacement the same.

The new replacement was late and wouldn't be able to make it until 10:30 pm. While waiting, Phillip fell asleep and woke up to a high-pitched scream from the woods. Disoriented and confused, he grabbed his flashlight and a pistol and ran towards the woods. Phillip ran towards the continuous screams. It kept getting louder and louder and louder, and then it stopped, no more screaming. He didn't know where it had come from or which direction to go. Phillip looked around and saw nothing realizing that in his panic, he forgot the one rule that old Ben had told him "No matter what I hear, or see, don't go outside the ranger station at night under any circumstances."

Scared and horrified, Phillip turned to go back to the station when he heard crying. He pointed his flashlight towards the sound, and in the corner were two little girls crying in front of a large oak tree. He called out, asking if they were alright. They continued to cry. Where are their parents? They continued to cry. Phillip feeling a bit nervous, stepped closer, closer, and closer each time, asking if they were hurt; when he was a little closer, both girls suddenly stopped crying and stood up. Slowly both girls turned to face him, they were identical pale-looking twins around 4 or 5 years old, and they said to Phillip, "Wendi is mad." Phillip asked, "who is Wendi? Is she lost too?" He flashed his light around to see if another little girl named Wendi had also been lost in the woods. When he turned back, the little girls were gone. He called out to them, asking where they went, but no one answered. He looked around with no sign of them anywhere; he also noticed that the little girls didn't leave any footprints; feeling uneasy about the disappearing little girls and the warning that old Ben had told him, Phillip decided to rush back to the cabin. He would wait for the other park ranger to arrive and devise a plan to find the little girls and their parents later. Walking along the path he thought he had come from, three minutes of walking felt like ten minutes, and Phillip didn't remember the run was that far from the station, but he kept walking. About a few minutes later, Phillip realized he was lost because the giant oak tree was in front of him. Panicking, he started to run, run, and run, and he had seen the big oak tree one, two, or three times. Phillip giving up, started to panic and screamed at the top of his lungs for help. Scared, Phillip's legs gave out; he sat down under the giant oak tree, exhausted from all the running. After closing his eyes and taking three long breaths, he opened his eyes and screamed. In front of him were the two pale-looking little girls from earlier repeating the same sentence.

"Wendi is mad."

Phillip asked them for help, and if they had found their parents so they could lead him to get back to the ranger station, the two little girls nodded, held hands, and started to walk away. Phillip followed the two little girls into the forest to an area he had never seen before. The thick fog began to appear out of nowhere. With a quivering voice, he asked the girls if they were there yet, but they said nothing, just kept walking hand in hand. Suddenly the girls stopped; up ahead, there was a tiny abandon-looking cabin with a lone candle on the windowsill and a grey metal door with strange carvings. But what made Phillip's blood run cold was a familiar marking of a pentagram carved into the metal door. Finally, he looked at the girls and asked, "Do their parents live there?" All they did was point towards the small cabin. Freaked out, he told the girls that this wasn't funny and that it was an emergency to get their parents. I think this was all a prank by some kids to scare him. He stared angrily and started to yell at the girls that this wasn't a game; the little girls did not react. They just kept pointing at the abandoned cabin. Forgetting his fear, he marched to the abandoned cabin and held his hand to bang on the metal door. When a loud rattling bang came from the other side, startled, he jumped away, fell to the floor, and scrambled back from the door. All was then quiet; no sound of the cricket or birds, even the rustling of small critters, couldn't be heard, only the thumping sound of Philip's heart pounding in his ears. He turned to question the creepy pale twin, but no one was there again. He pointed a flashlight all over; no sign they were ever there, not even a footprint. Another loud rattling bang came from the metal door a second time, and the candle on the windowsill burned brighter than before. The curtains started to catch fire, and the cabin was engulfed in seconds. A loud, piercing roar came from the other side of the door. The sound brought Phillip to his knees and covered his ears, shaking with fear and tears streaming down his face. He felt something wet against his hands when the roar stopped. He uncovered his ears; blood was on his hands, blood turning to run away. There stood the two little girls; their heads bent and sobbing. Phillip said with a shaky voice, "please, why are you doing this?" and all the creepy little twins said was, "Wendi is mad" Slowly, the little girls showed their faces, and their faces melted, their arms and legs covered in red boils and their eyes melting from their eye sockets, and they let out a high-pitched scream. Screaming himself, Phillip took off towards the woods the girls initially took him through; he heard another loud rattling bang a third time, the door hitting the ground, and a piercing roar that brought him again to his knees. When he looked back, something came out of the burning cabin, something big and grotesque, something not of this world, a demon. Its head was that of a deer's skull with big thick antlers, the creature's eyes were sunken into its sockets and pitch black with white glowing pupils, with sharp teeth with extended fangs, and it stood on its hind legs. It had a hunched figure. It looks to be at least fifteen feet tall. Its whole body was shaped like a gorilla, its skin pulling against its bones.

Screaming and whimpering in terror, it stalked behind the two little girls and ate and mauled them. Phillip ran screaming, stumbling, and begging for help. In what felt like hours, Phillip finally saw a clearing with bright light but was afraid to go near it for fear he would see the ghostly twins and hideous creature again. Suddenly he heard a crunching sound; the creature had found him a hand gripped his shoulder and spun him around, he fell to the ground and covered his face in terror a man's voice said the name he looked and saw a man wearing a park ranger uniform asking if he is alright. Phillip continued to shake and whimper. The ranger asked what had happened to him. All that came out of Phillip's mouth was, "WENDI IS MAD! WENDI IS MAD!" the next day, Phillip was sent to the institution of the insane. Old Ben came back from the hospital, putting in a request for another new employee park ranger.