Late in the fall season, Benjamin and his wife Sheila were given permission to use a friend's remote cabin situated a little over a hundred yards off the Susitna River, upstream from the Deshka River mouth. Their friends escorted them upriver in a pair of skiffs to teach Benjamin the river channel and how to de-winterize the cabin before leaving the couple to enjoy an isolated anniversary getaway. That evening, as high winds picked up and a fall storm set in, both were gripped by an intense, unnatural feeling of being watched. While inspecting the perimeter with a flashlight after hearing a large cottonwood tree crash down near the cabin clearing, Sheila noticed eyes reflecting in the beam from the opposite side of the fallen trunk. Leaning in, Benjamin watched in shock as the glowing eye shine elevated well over six feet off the ground and shifted colors from pure white to brilliant green, and finally to deep red when he shouted into the dark.
Terrified, the couple retreated inside, bolted both the outer and inner entry doors, and drew the curtains. When their portable generator ran out of fuel outside in the pitch black, Benjamin scrambled in the dark to switch the cabin's electrical system over to the auxiliary battery bank, while an uncharged satellite phone left them completely cut off from help. The moment the backup lights clicked on, violent, rhythmic pounding slammed against the exterior walls, shaking pots, pans, and silverware across the cabin. Benjamin whispered frantically for Sheila to quiet her panicked reactions, noticing that the aggressive banging seemed to intensify every time she cried out. The thuds continued circling the exterior walls through the night, migrating from the bathroom to the bedroom partition and directly beneath the main front window.
At daybreak, Benjamin peered out the front window and spotted an immense, lean, pitch-black silhouette standing over ten feet tall at the edge of the tree line. To his astonishment, the creature reached the fallen cottonwood and effortlessly rolled over the six-foot barrier like an agile stuntman before moving away into the timber. Grabbing only their shotgun and sidearm, the couple abandoned their uncharged electronics and made a tense, tactical dash down the brush-lined path to the riverbank. As Benjamin struggled to warm up the skiff's outboard and push off into the current, Sheila watched the dense foliage along the shoreline, spotting the massive dark figure sprinting silently through the thick brush. The shaken couple navigated back down to Deshka Landing, where the cabin owner later admitted to experiencing unexplained activity in the area over a decade earlier.
