Wes Coffey

I could not see the ladder.

I could not see anything below me except black.

But I could hear breathing.

It was not panting.

It was not heavy breathing from exertion.

It was slow, deep, in and out.

the kind of breathing you hear from something large at rest each inhale lasted three or four seconds each exhale the same and with every exhale i could hear the leaves on the ground move like a bellows pushing air across the forest floor

This went on for a long time.

I don't know exactly how long.

My phone had died sometime around 5.

I hadn't charged it because I hadn't planned to need it.

I had no way to check the time.

I had no way to call anyone.

I had a compound bow, a headlamp I wouldn't turn on, a grunt tube, a knife on my belt, and a 16-foot ladder between me and whatever was standing at the bottom of it.

At some point, the breathing stopped.

I didn't hear it walk away.

It was just gone.

The sound cut off like someone turning off a recording.

I sat there in total silence for what I estimate was another 30 minutes, waiting for the footsteps to start again.

They didn't.