Anthony Andrews The Cabin

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. It flickered in the night breeze, casting a faint light onto the porch.

From high above, it came soaring down from the treetops. A beautiful, jet black raven, landing on the window sill and stared directly, with its soulless eyes, into the heart of the burning flame.

The floorboards squawk as a darkened figure walk slowly over, with a hand out towards the menacing raven. The bird opened its beak, then snatched at the hand, grabbing a morsel of rotten meat and flying back to the tree tops. The figure’s warm breath blew out the candle, sending the not-so-abandoned cabin back into darkness.

“What’s your issues?”, I asked. “You wanted a horror story, and this one happened not so far from here. You didn’t say it can’t be true”. “Sit down, put another log in the fire and crack open a tinny. Everybody’s ready. Come on Buddy, sit and listen”.

“Sit down, let Tony tell the story. I’ve had no TV for almost a week, and this shit is awesome!”.

Veronica leaned over and slapped Johny over the back of his head, “For real? You’ve had me all week, even at your beck and call!”. “But babe, TV!”, Johny insisted.

“But babe…”, Veronica rebutted. “No TV and now, none of this!”, as she stood and shook her goods as Johnny said, “But…”, with a heavy sigh.

“I’m ready, I’m ready!”, Buddy yelled out. “OK, proceed. Scare the pants off us”.

Sarah chuckled, “mmmm, wanna see that…”.

“Shhh!”.

The fire crackled when the new log was added. Ambers flew up and over the tents. The group was all ready now, to eat s’mores and be scared to death. Strange noise came from the dark woods that surrounded them, which just added to the ambiance of the moment.

“Well, where was I? That’s right!”. Tony thought out loud, and with a deep breath continued, “Much like us, even you Johnny, a group of campers were happily enjoying their night in the woods. And well, they were more… how do I put this? They were filthy rich”.

“She slipped her foot through her lavender G-string, then looked around for her tank top.

“Paul!”, she yelled, “Can’t find my top. Where did you throw it?”.

KNOCK KNOCK.

Paul opened the door. Jessica stood at the steps of the camper van.

“Finally finished, I see. You really need to oil this thing. We’re heading out, back into the woods. Looks like Jim and Amy have got themselves lost. They should’ve been back ages ago”.

“So, are we sure they are lost? Or are they just getting up to no good?”, Paul chuckled. “It’s Jim. A bottle of Purell, a couple of clean towels and fresh sheets is the minimum he would do”.

“In the woods? I think not!”.

“Like she said, LOST”, came the muffled voice of Ariel.

“She OK, Paul?”, asked Jessica.

“She’s under the bed looking for her top. So, give us about 10 to get ready. You head, we’ll catch up ASAP”. Paul shut the door and told Ariel what was happening.

“So, help me find my top!”

“Or…we could take five minutes and have a quickie”, as Paul put his hands around her waist and dragged her back onto the bed of messed up sheets.

“My top, I found it!”, Ariel smiled with delight. Paul grabbed it and throw it across the camper, and all Ariel could do was laugh.

“Did you hear that?”, Aerial stopped what she was doing.

Paul sat up, “Yes, l heard that”.

It was loud and sounded like finger nails down a blackboard, running right along the side of the camper.

“Go see who’s doing it”, asked Ariel.

Paul pulled on his trousers and headed outside.

“It’s probably Jessica. Tell her we’ll be there when we get there”. Paul nodded and continued outside.

It had gotten rather dark outside. No one had been keeping up the fire. Paul could still hear the noise coming from the other side of the camper. He stuck his head back inside and whispered to Ariel, “Come out. You go left, I’ll go right. Come on girl”.

Jessica was yelling out, “Jim! Amy! Where the hell are you? Told you not to walk off”.

“Jess, my torch, it keeps flickering. It’s freaking me out”.

“Come stand with me, Steph. Don’t need you getting lost too, and crap! I’ve lost sight of the boys”.

“What’s that over there? That’s a light. Is it them?”.

“Only one way to find out”.

The two girls headed towards the faint light. It didn’t look like a torch. Maybe it was Jim and Amy, and not the boys. Maybe. They could make out the shape of a cabin, the closer they got.

“Shhh! Stop yelling out”, said Steph, with worry on her lips.

“What’s wrong?”.

“What if it’s none of them? Who in their right mind would live so far out?”.

“Let’s find the boys first”.

“It could be the boys. Come on, stop being such a girl”.

“But, you know… look in the mirror. We are girls!”, Steph muttered.

There was a candle burning in the window. It didn’t give off much light. That was fine, Jess had her torch. They could see a raven rising to the top of the trees. It was so elegant. Then, the candle went out. “F@#K!”, yelled Steph. “I think someone just blew that out!”.

In the distance, flashing blue and red lights were coming closer and they could hear the sound of the car engine. It was the police, but no siren. The girls stopped, dead in their tracks. Jess dropped her torch. It fell into a puddle. A red, wet, sticky puddle. Jess picked it back up. She noticed that they were standing in puddles of what looked like blood. It was everywhere. The smell hit Steph’s nose and dinner came roaring up from deep down in her gut. It splashed all over Jessica’s shoes. Her expression was of disgust, with a tint of horror and a tad of excitement. Just the type of girl she is.

The police car came to a screeching holt, right next to them. A large, really fat, policeman hopped out of the car. He had his weapon ready to fire. The girls started to scream.

“Quiet, you two! Hop in the car, in the back”.

Another police officer hopped out, and both girls went quiet. He was your average six foot eight. Muscle bound, blue-eyed, clean-shaven boy next door in blue, holding a rather large gun.

“I’ll go around the back, meet you inside”, boomed his voice. The girls climbed into the back of the car, shut the doors, and watched with their mouths opened.

Paul went one way and Ariel went the other. Suddenly, the noise stopped. Paul quickly ran around to the back of the camper.

Ariel took her time. Not that she was scared, but her teeth wouldn’t stop chattering. As Ariel looked behind the camper, she saw Paul standing with his mouth opened. Then, watched as something pulled him to the ground by his ankles, and dragged him under the camper van in one quick motion. Ariel screamed a silent scream. The shock had devoured her voice. A pool of blood poured out from under the camper. Tears fell freely down her cheeks. She heard an eerie voice, “You could try running. They often do, try running”. Adrenaline took over her movements. She picked up a lump of wood. She held it ready to attack. She then heard the whisper of the voice in her ear, “Such a brave, pretty girl”, and then felt the cold of a steel blade slice across her tiny, fragile neck.

“Don’t move!”, yelled the officer as he moved into the cabin. “Drop your weapon!”. The huge officer swung open the door. The flash of moon light shined on the knife, being wielded in the hand of the darkened figure that was enough for them to open fire. Bullets rain inside the cabin, and THUD went the body of the so-called serial killer the police were after. Both officers were extremely happy with the outcome.

Police car after police car came rolling up. Policemen taped off areas, letting forensics take over. They came across body after body, more than was, well, expected. They found two boys hanging from trees out the back, more than a dozen under the floorboards in the cabin, three by the tents, and two next to the camper van.

The girls were now safe at the police station, in the warmth, with food and hot chocolate. Question after question were asked, but the police were happy they had wrapped up the case. Having a corpse on a slab that was found with the murder weapon made it a neatly and timely, concluded investigation .

So, the story didn’t end there. They couldn’t connect the knife to any of the deaths, and the man they shot dead was Herman Montgomery the third, better known as the ‘Birdman’ of the county. Half blind, mostly deaf, and he had a club foot. Not the most threatening of people on the planet”.

“HA HA! That’s it? That’s your scary campfire story? So now we are meant to believe the killer is still out here in the woods?”. Buddy laughed, “Really lame-O!”.

“Look, that’s how it all went down. It’s all true! Take a walk to the cabin, it’s just down that path. It’s behind us, seriously let’s go! Should be able to see it in the distance”.

“Let’s go, people”, said the skeptic Buddy.

That became consensus. We stood up, most with s’mores in hand ready to eat, and towards the cabin we go. Laughing and giggling, making fun of it all, but in the distance, a light flickered in the window of the cabin. We all stopped, s’mores fell to the ground, mouths dropped open. We then heard the sound of ripping coming from behind us. It was from our tents. Things weren’t that funny anymore.

I lifted my foot, felt like I stepped in a puddle.

“Is that blood on your shoe?”, Jen shined her torch down at my feet. “F@#K! That’s is blood on your shoe!”.

“Whose blood?! Or is it syrup?! Did you set this up mate?”, Buddy questioned in disbelief . Then Buddy heard the bone chilling voice whispered in his ear, “You could try running. They often do, try running”.

Authors footnote -

(This last section is true, it was Friday morning and I woke up at about 5. Made a cuppa, sat down, and started writing the ending to my story).

As I wrote the word blood, the time turned 6.15am. My cup of tea went flying and the iPad hit the ground, as I scrambled for my phone to turn off the alarm. So, even if this story doesn’t scare anyone else, it already fulfilled it’s desired effect on me. By the way, my iPad is fine. So, all good!