Ten

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The last time that candle burned was twenty years ago when the first little boy went missing. The family was only vacationing in the cabin for two weeks. By the end of the first week, the boy was gone. The mother did everything to search the woods. The father worked with the authorities for the search party. As the stay at the cabin increased, the number of people helping search diminished. All that was found was a jacket with blood on the second day. The father decided to return home, but the wife refused. As the lack of sleep and fear consumed her, paranoia began to set in. She would see her boy, but he'd disappear. When her husband returned for a weekend in the fifth month of searching, he found her sitting at the table with two bowls of soup. As she beamed that her boy had finally come home, her husband tried to convince her no one was there. The husband grabbed her to drag her to the car, but she scrambled to the kitchenette. The coroner determined he was killed by a blow to the head. Her death was determined suicide.

In the following month, another boy disappeared. For the next five years, two boys went missing a year. None of the boys were found, no suspects were located, people stayed out of the woods and stopped renting cabins.

The couple pulled up to the cabin in a struggle with nature to peak through the foliage, and casting its foreboding presence in the disappearing sunlight. "Maybe we should spend the night in a motel first and get a better look in the morning," the husband murmured as the wife climbed out of the car.

"There's no telling how long it will take for us to find a place," Alice said walking to the back of the vehicle and opening the hatch as he finally got out of the car.

As she dug for the emergency flashlight, he pulled out his phone, "No service."

"That was the point, Jack," she spoke while closing the hatch and checking that the flashlight worked. "Eliminate technology on vacation."

Alice stepped up to the cabin causing shadows and movement to force Jack to hesitate even more at entering. "I don't think I wanted to eliminate it. Maybe just limit."

She tested the wood of the porch as she approached the door. "We wanted the opportunity to get back to nature, which is why we learned towards this place," she smiled fingering the vine creeping up the door frame. Before he could make any comments, she opened the screen door then turned the knob on the door. When the door wouldn't budge, Alice rammed her shoulder into it.

"Are you sure you don't want to wait?"

She handed him her flashlight and repeatedly rammed against the door. "I don't think that is working."

With a roll of her eyes, Alice took back her flashlight and began to search for another entrance. Jack stayed put, but fear began to creep into his soul as her light left him alone. Turning around, Jack looked at the car again with longing then circled back round to the porch. Just as his light was about to illuminate the porch again, the light reflected on a man's face, that was filthy and looming. Jack yelled and tried to back away, but his heel caught on an uneven board and he fell backwards. The cell landed light down off the porch and his breath quickened as he tried to feel for any kind of solution.

His phone rose from the ground and turned over to reveal the man's face again. Jack increased the movement of his fingers to search, but was unable to take his eyes from the face illuminated by his phone. The man examined the device like he had never seen one before and his fingers bumped a button on the side. He touched the screen and the flashlight turned off, just as the front door opened.

He dropped the phone as Alice emerged from inside, "Another door was blocking it."

Jack scrambled to his feet and grabbed Alice's wrist, "We are going to a motel."

Before he could pull her down the stairs, she wriggled from his grip, "What are you talking about?"

"I just had an encounter with a woodsman," Jack explained while scooping up his phone, "and I am not interested in staying." He was about to touch the screen, "He touched this. Maybe we take it to the police to identify him. He was..."

"You're not making any sense."

"We're leaving."

"Staying."

"Leaving."

"Fine, you leave and I will stay."

"I can't leave you alone with that creep in the woods."

"Oh Jack, you didn't see anyone."

While she entered the cabin, Jack chased after her, "Yes I did. He had long, black hair that was all greasy. He had a couple days growth of stubble."

"It was probably just a bear," Alice defended.

"How is that any better?"

"It could have been a deer that looked black because of the dark. You didn't have your flashlight on..."

"He turned it off," Jack defended closing the front door and opening the closet door to create the blocked opening again.

Alice called from another room, "It probably automatically went out when you threw it at the animal."

"I didn't throw it at the animal."

"So you admit it was an animal?"

"What? No. I'm just saying I didn't throw it."

"How else did it get on the ground several feet from the porch?" Alice questioned as she entered the room again.

"I fell and it flew from my hand," Jack explained as he began to look for entry points.

Alice closed the closet door, "You're not making any sense."

She reached for the knob on the door, but as she moved to open the door, it snapped shut again, "What are you doing?"

"Getting some bags."

"The only way we are going back out there is if we are leaving."

"We are staying," Alice stated as she pushed his hand off the door.

She opened the door again and something whistled through from outside. Alice screamed as she clutched her bloody cheek while Jack fell against the door to slam it shut. They turned around to see a knife buried into the wall.

"I don't think a bear did that."

Alice pulled open the closet door as Jack started searching the cabinets. Finding an assortment of useless items, he shook out the dish cloth he found to eliminate some dust, dirt and whatever else was possible. He turned the handle on the faucet, but it only squeaked in protest. He handed it to Alice then rushed to the other rooms for options. He entered the first bedroom and froze at the face looking in illuminated by the lit candle sitting in the window. It wasn't the face of the first man he saw. The window glass busted and the man reached in to grab the candle. With a flick of the wrist, the candle landed on the bed. Jack backed out of the room and pulled the door shut with just enough time for a blade to fly, slice his cheek and land in a post outside the room.

"There's two of them," Jack called as he launched towards another door. He entered the bathroom and ripped open the medicine cabinet. "Did you hear me?"

Jack looked out the doorway and saw Alice's face of panic. Noticing something unrecognizable at her throat, Jack stepped back out of the bathroom to see a third woodsman standing to her side with a hatchet at her throat. "Why are you doing this?"

The man snapped his hand back and as he released the tension in his wrist, Alice dropped to her left and the hatchet cut off her ear and landed in the door.

Not giving herself a moment to register the pain, Alice pushed herself towards Jack. He grabbed her outreached hand and pulled her toward the back door only to slide to a stop at a fourth woodsman raising a machete over their hands. Jack yanked her forward and released her hand as the machete fell and Jack tackled the woodsman from the side. The woodsman dropped his weapon at the impact while Jack rolled off him. Jack grabbed Alice's wrist as he reached for the door. He pulled her to her feet and pushed open the door only to be greeted by an arrow in the chest. Falling back into the cabin and still grasping Alice's hand, she landed on top of him. Wrenching her hand from his and letting adrenaline fuel her, Alice kept low as she jumped over Jack to get outside.

Pushing through the brush, Alice hoped Jack left the keys in the car. She grabbed the corner of the building as she tried to make a rushed turn when someone grabbed her hair and forced her to stop with a yelp of pain. She looked up at yet another woodsman and muttered, "How many of you are there?"

"Ten," he spoke then proceeded to drag her out of the brush.

A flash from a movie in her mind and she jammed her elbow into his solar plexus, stomped on his instep, shoved her palm against his nose, and ended with a kick to the groin. As he released her hair and hunched over in pain, Alice raced to the car dodging another woodsman. She climbed into the car as an arrow shot through the passenger window and hit the side of the headrest. Alice started the car and sped away.