All In Due Time

The sound of voices floated to her like dust moats, hazy and meandering. More local kids coming to tell ghost stories about the cabin, she thought. It happened every so often and it always distorted the peace she felt, a dissonant chord in the melodic melody of her afternoon. She lay back and tried her best to tune them out. They’d move on soon, they always did.

The sunbeams filtered in through the broken slats in the roof, painting the loft with a far more holy light than it likely deserved. She always loved the loft area. Up here, it felt like the rest of the world was far away, like she was a step closer to heaven. She could while away entire days or weeks just enjoying the way the shadows moved and changed up here. But the old cabin was falling apart–pieces of the roof littered the ground, and soon she feared it would crumble completely or someone would tear it down. Where would she go then?

The sound of voices outside the door snagged her attention back to the present moment. Perhaps they wouldn’t be moving on so quickly. She crept to the edge of the loft and peered down toward the main floor. It sounded like a group of boys. There were gaps in the outer walls that allowed cats and other animals to enter, but none of the openings were large enough for a person. Were they going to try to enter? She wondered if they’d pull at the boards to make a wide-enough opening. She narrowed her eyes–she didn't like it when people hurt the cabin.

The sound of wood scraping on wood brought her eyes to the front door, which was stuck with age and broken hinges and hard to move. The door shuddered and moved an inch, maybe two. The voices became clearer. “On the count of three. One, two, three!” The door shuffled open a bit more, but it was still stuck with age.

“I don’t think we should do this. What if the door breaks and falls on us?” one of the voices asked.

Another voice taunted, “Are you scared, Dillon? Wanna wun home to mommy?”

“I’m not scared! I’m just not stupid.”

“Who are you calling stupid?”

A third voice sounded. “Will you both stop? Let’s try once more and, if that doesn’t work, we'll leave.”

She smiled from where she hid–this could be fun. She watched the door and willed it to open. “One, two, three!” The door moved swiftly over the tangled weeds and she heard the boys crash to the ground. She giggled silently.

“Shit, that hurt!”

“We must have gotten it past whatever was blocking it.”

The three boys entered the cabin and looked around. She knew what they saw–bits of roof strewn across the floor, tangled masses of underbrush that had grown through the rotting floorboards, which had been appropriated as nests and homes for various creatures. The floorboards sat atop packed earth, so that at least was safe, but the rest of the structure could fall down on them at any moment. She’d often worried it’d do just that to her.

She watched from the loft, hidden, as the boys investigated the area. One of them carried a box, something wide but not too large. Another poked at piles of wood. A mouse scurried out and the boy screamed as he jumped back. The third boy started laughing. “Now who wants to wun home to mommy?”

“Why you…” The second boy ran at the third–Dillon, wasn’t it?–but the first boy got between them. “Christ, Bobby, calm down!”

Bobby glared at Dillon. “You’ll pay for that.”

The first boy rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who went poking around. Let’s just get this started.”

“Where’d you even get a Ouija board?”

The first boy glanced down at the box he was carrying. “It’s my sister’s. She bought it and my parents got pissed.”

“Where are we doing this?” Dillon smiled mockingly at Bobby. “We need to be sure there aren’t any scary mice around.”

Bobby lunged toward Dillon, but was stopped again by the first boy. “Damn it, Bobby!”

The look Bobby sent Dillon was full of sharp promise. “Let’s just get this over with.”

The first boy knelt in the center of the main room, as far from any debris as they could get, and opened the box.

“Why are we here again?”

The first boy looked up for a moment. “This cabin is supposed to be haunted. Someone died here years ago and people hear strange sounds all the time.”

Bobby snorted. “Really? Strange noises? That’s all we’re going on? This place is falling apart, Nicky. Of course it’s going to make noises.”

Nicky looked up from where he’d set up the Ouija board. “My dad said he saw a ghost here when he was young, ok? You know my dad, he wouldn’t lie about that shit.”

She shook her head. The legend about a ghost in the cabin had been around for decades, but the story was always about the friend of a friend. She doubted Nicky’s dad had ever stepped foot in the cabin before.

Dillon laughed. “He was probably just trying to get you to stay out of here.”

“Whatever. Just sit down and let’s see if anything happens.”

The girl smiled. Oh, yes, this would be fun. She silently got up from her hiding spot and made her way to the main floor. The sun was low in the sky and the inside of the cabin was cloaked in shadows–they wouldn’t see her if she didn’t want them to.

The three boys sat around the board with their fingers lightly touching the planchette. Nicky asked, “Is anyone there?”

The planchette moved violently and Dillon let out a startled scream. Bobby started laughing and Dillon punched him in the arm. “Ow!”

“Enough!” Nicky yelled. Both boys turned to him with wide eyes. “Will you take this seriously? Let’s actually find out if this place is haunted. Stop trying to mess with each other.” Nicky sighed. “Look, if this is a dud then you get to make fun of me for it. But I don’t think it is. This place is...eerie.”

The prospect of having something to hold over Nicky’s head was apparently enough to put Bobby and Dillon in line. They settled in at the board once more. “Is anyone here?” Nicky asked again.

Silence. The girl crept along the back of the cabin at ground level now.

“If anyone’s there, show us a sign.”

She turned toward a corner and made a low oooo sound, knowing it would travel throughout the space.

The boys jumped and looked around. “What was that?” Dillon asked, trying his best not to sound scared.

“It’s just the wind. This place is drafty as hell.” Bobby did a good job of sounding tough, but she could hear the uncertainty under his words.

She crept closer to the boys, keeping herself draped in shadows.

“Who are you?” asked Nicky.

The wind outside picked up and whistled through the broken slats. The boys looked around cautiously but still tried to look unconcerned. She giggled as she crept closer, and the three boys jumped and looked around again with wide eyes, not trying to hide their fear anymore. But they didn’t see her as she continued to creep closer.

“The fuck was that?” Bobby sounded like he wanted to jump up and run away.

Nicky shook his head. “I don’t know.” They settled in with their hands on the planchette once more. She had reached them finally and hid in the darkness behind Bobby. “Is anyone there?” Nicky asked.

The wind whistled through the walls once more and the boys looked around. Perfect timing. She carefully reached forward and pushed the planchette to YES, then quickly settled back in the shadows again.

The boys startled and looked down at the planchette. She giggled silently as their faces went white.

Dillon channeled his fear into anger. “Nicky, what the fuck?”

Nicky looked at Dillon with wide eyes. “I didn’t do it!”

Bobby decided that anger was better than fear, as well. “Bullshit! You just don’t want us making fun of you for thinking this place was actually haunted!”

Nicky looked at them with honest fear. “Guys, I swear, I didn’t move it!”

They must have seen that Nicky was telling the truth because they settled in with their fingers on the planchette once more. “OK, one more time. Are you a ghost?”

She reached out and moved the planchette to YES. The boys stared in horror at their hands. They hadn’t seen her move it because she hadn’t let them. She smiled–she was having more fun than she’d had in many, many years.

“Did you die in this cabin?”

YES.

“When?”

She spelled out, LONG AGO.

Bobby pulled his hands back from the planchette. “This is bullshit! One of you is moving that thing.”

The other boys pulled their hands back and shook their heads, looking around the cabin with wide eyes. The sound of the planchette scraping lightly over the board made them all look down. It appeared to move on its own as she spelled out, I AM HERE.

She leaned forward between Bobby and Dillon and finally let them see her. She didn’t know what she looked like anymore, only knew she didn’t look alive. Was she transparent? Did she look more like a corpse than the girl she had been before she’d died? No one ever stayed around long enough to tell her. The three boys stared at her, frozen in fear. She smiled. “Boo!”

That got them moving. All three screamed, jumped up, and ran out the front door, not even bothering to pick up the Ouija board. She laughed and followed to watch them run away. She wouldn’t be surprised if one of them had pissed their pants.

It was a shame they hadn’t stuck around longer, but it was for the best. She could remember this and enjoy it for years. Part of her wished she could follow them and find out what they did next, but it was no use. She was stuck in this cabin.

She looked at the open door and sighed. No reason to invite people in where they might get hurt. She exerted a little will and closed it firmly. It was one thing for cats and mice and other small creatures to come in. Humans were far more fragile.

She made her way back to the loft and watched the changing colors of the sky as night fell. She heard another piece of the roof fall somewhere, but she didn’t look away from the bare portion above her as the stars glinted into life. Soon, she knew, the cabin would be gone, either torn down by humans or slowly dismantled by time. Where would she go then?

She didn’t fear whatever was next, but she was curious. Would she cease to be or would she finally be able to move beyond the small area she’d lived in for so long? Although “lived” wasn’t exactly the best term. Inhabited? Haunted? She sighed and closed her eyes. She’d find out eventually.