Siberian Freezer

      It has been quite some time since I visited my hunting cabin in Siberia, but after the last series of storms that swept through this remote wilderness, I knew I must return to the cabin to examine the damages.  The journey is never easy, but my old age has not helped make this journey any easier.  Seven days and seven nights was what it would take by foot, but thankfully, the roads were still clear on the path to the cabin.  I made my way up to Siberia and drove through the wilderness to the cabin.  Making my way through the trees as I would have in years past, something felt off.  The snow had fallen greatly this year, but the path to the cabin remained clear.  The trees nearby were almost clear of snow.  But most strange of all was the light I found coming from the cabin itself as I approached it.

     I have never left any lights on at the cabin before, especially months between visits.  I must proceed with caution.  There is no telling what could have been done in my absence.  Dear god...what has been done to my cabin?  The moment I opened the front door, I was greeted with a brightly illuminated room, courtesy of the fireplace, and upon the walls were disfigured faces and skins made out of human skin.  The skins were fresh and had yet to dry out, as is custom with other animal skins.  The faces were what horrified me the most.  Blood had dried around the edges of the mouth and had immortalized their horrified expressions.  What on Earth had motivated someone to come into my cabin and do this?

      Amongst the defiled bodies and skins were statues made entirely of bone.  Someone had used the bones and carved horrific structures, displayed prominently along the walls of the main seating area.  The cabin had been turned into a nightmare, one by someone who felt killing was an artform.  I steeled my nerves and proceeded with a firearm in my hands, ready to kill the madman who killed all of these people.  Whoever had done this had done this many times.  I counted 30 skins all along the walls and roof of the cabin.  They had taken their time and were careful at their craft.  I was dealing with a true psychopath, and I could not be more careful in any time of my life if I was to survive.  I made my way throughout the house, looking for the madman, keeping my senses perked at every turn.  I checked the refrigerator and found meat inside, meat I did not recognize at first until I saw the shapes of it.  The man who had killed these people had preserved the meat...despicable.   But, there were more horrors to explore.

     I proceeded throughout the cabin, looking for any signs of human life and proceeded upstairs to the bedroom and looked for any signs of people.  I made my way to my bedroom and found discarded plates and blood stains across the floor and my bed was a mess.  There were trails of meat all over the floor, never having made it to the trash.  The horrors that laid throughout my cabin were all but complete, until a single thought crossed my mind.  I had been through every part of this cabin except for the freezer.  Most people would overlook such a thing, but in a case like this, I couldn't think of any place else the killer could be hiding the bodies.  I had to make my way down to the freezer and see if the killer still had bodies in there.

     To little surprise, there were several bodies that were strung up on meat hooks, but the body that surprised me the most was of my nephew, Sven.  He had hung himself inside of the meat locker by a rope and hook and kicked a chair out from underneath himself.  I saw there was a note on the floor next to him.  I picked it up and removed the light frost that covered it and read out what my nephew had left me.  I had sent him up three weeks prior to check on the cabin, but he had never returned.  I now understood why he was absent, but I knew not of why there were dead bodies in my cabin.  Determined to discover the true cause of the transformation of my cabin from a welcoming home to a house of horrors, I read the note.

     "Uncle Viktor, 

      I apologize first of all for the mess, but I could not contain my desire to hunt anymore.  There was a desire beyond me to hunt after the largest game I could find, but my desires eventually fell on the forbidden animal, humans.  I have killed many bears, wolves, and large, strong beasts, but had never killed a human.  I questioned whether or not I could do such a thing, but found the desire to hunt too strong.  I had become a shadow of my former self and had killed so many people.  I knew not where to hide the bodies, so I brought them to the cabin.  The longer I kept them in the freezer to preserve them, the more I wanted to do something with them.  Instead of going out to hunt, I started to consume the meat of the people to preserve myself, out of a respect to the people.  As you told me before, 'We must eat what we hunt, less we become less than what we kill.'  I dried out the skins and left them around the cabin to dry off for you and set the bones up into manageable structures.  I know it is not the prettiest display, but it was the best I could make.  Over these last few weeks, I knew that I had changed too much to return back to normal society.  I leave this note for you, knowing that you will be disappointed in me and I regret my choices, but I know in the end you will forgive your only nephew.  I apologize for my actions and shall pay for them in the afterlife.

With love,

Sven."

      My own nephew had left me such a grisly display.  He murdered dozens of people, hung their skins in my living room, stacked bones in piles along the walls, left meat in my own bedroom, froze the bodies in the freezer and hung himself.  It was too much to take in all at once.  I could not believe how much carnage my only nephew brought upon the people of Russia.  The horrors he caused in my absence are what drove him to end his life, and part of me rejoices in that fact.  But...another part of me is somewhat proud of him.  In all of my years, I had never hunted down as many animals in my life, and people are animals of sorts.  I could not believe that he had orchestrated this series of murders, but I should expect nothing less of him.  He was always a great hunter, but was weak at heart.  He took his life after committing the atrocities he reaped, but still tried to do right by him.  Such a shame such a young man like Sven could not manage himself better.  He should know that there is always a price to pay when hunting the highest prize.  No prize ever hunted down will ever escape my Siberian Freezer, and I shall preserve the legacy of Sven.  Although, it will be a short one, as I am not a man to be outdone by a boy.  The old saying I used to say to myself still rings true I suppose.  Once someone enters my Siberian Freezer, they will forever stay, frozen in time and their bodies mine.