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The Isolated Cabin

Submission for Weekend Getaway Challenge

By ElsaPublished about a year ago Updated about a year ago 14 min read
4
The Isolated Cabin
Photo by Bryan Walker on Unsplash

We drove up the snowy, winding road towards the cozy A-frame cabin. The GPS kept glitching but the comfort of seeing the final stop filled us with ease.

“Thank God we made it before dark.” Lenny said with relief.

“It’s dusk. It’s dark to me. Let’s get there quickly and get inside and lock ourselves in.” I told her in a breath.

It’s not that we’re paranoid. It’s that we’ve been listening to scary road trip stories on youtube for the last 4 hours. Before that, we listened to Sword and Scale, a great but gruesum podcast. This is a hobby my friend and I share, true crime. This was the last stop on our road trip. I felt it was a good idea when we said yes to staying here but now that we have been driving through an empty forest for the past hour, I feel it might not have been the best choice. We left the highway for what seems like hours ago but in reality it’s only been an hour. When the GPS told us to turn into this decelet road, I told Lenny to text her boyfriend and send him our location. She did the same with my phone. Just after that the GPS started glitching, all the pine trees I’m guessing.

We love adventure and trying new things. We have a goal that before we turn 30, we travel to half of the states. Colorado is our 22nd state to cross off our list. As we finally pull up to the cabin, I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I brush it off and shut off the engine.

“Come on, let’s get inside.” I tell Lenny. Her name is Lenore, but she’s known as Lenny. We’ve been friends since high school and even went to the same college, now we travel together.

“Alright. You got the code?” She says while grabbing her bags from the back seat.

“Yes.” I say and pull it up on my screenshots.

I grab my bags from the backseat and we both close the doors.

“Should we get the cooler down?” I ask her but hoping she says no.

“Nah, we can get it out in the morning. It’s freezing, lets get inside.” She says as she bundles her scarf around herself.

I stop and stare at the cabin. Thick red logs with tan lining that form a tall A. There’s a bench by the entrance that has engraved deer on it. A huge wind chime hangs by one of the windows. The chimes look like little white curved sticks surronded with feathers.

“Come on Elle!!” Lenny yells while shaking up and down. “It’s here!” She points to the key lock box that holds our key.

I pull up the screenshot and read the very short description to get in. We’ve always booked through Airbnb but we try to always book “Superhost”, those that have tons of reviews. Unfortunately , everything was booked but my boyfriend, James, asked his family and we were able to stay here for this part of our trip. This cabin belongs to one of his uncles.

“Type in 5-8-9-1 on keypad. Two keys inside.” That’s all James wrote.

I punch it in and the key box unlocks. A small silver key is in the box with only a thin cord on it. Hmm, guess they only included one key this time. I unlock the door and we walk inside. I lock the door behind us and we do our usual ritual when we arrive to a place.

We check the rooms, under the bed, and in closets. We make sure all windows are locked and if there is a backdoor. I promise, we aren’t paranoid, just aware. The final thing we do it place something in front of the doors that lead to the outside. One armchair at the front door and a heavy chest to the back door. I try to open the chest to see why it’s so heavy but Lenny calls me.

“Elle!”

“Okay. It’s now dark. I’m sorry to say this but I’m hungry.” Lenny says with a sheepish look on her face.

I must admit, I’m hungry too. “Let’s get the cooler fast.” I tell her while I mess with the chimney.

We move the armchair away and both step outside into the freezing Colorado air. I notice something quickly and grab Lenny’s arm.

“What?” She asks quietly.

I signal with my finger to be quiet and gesture her to the car.

“The backdoor is open.” I say with fear in my throat.

Lenny’s eyes go wide. “I closed the door.” She whispers.

I pull her back inside and lock the door behind us.

“I know. I remember we both closed our doors.” I say with a bit of panic.

We are alone in a remote cabin in the Colorado woods. I run to my bags and she does the same. I look through my backpack and pull out my bear spray and my hunting knife. Not really my knife, it’s my dad’s, but he makes me carry some sort of weapon when I travel.

Lenny is fumbling through our camping duffle. Before this, we were camping in Arizona. She pulls out our tiny foldable axe. We’ve only used it once when we had to break down some wood. Another gift from my dad.

Lenny’s eyes are still and as wide as moons.

“What are we going to do Elle?” She says with a tremble. “Someone had to open that door, right? Or maybe we didn’t close it?” She says while looking at me and unfolding the tiny axe.

We could have forgotten to close it, I think to myself. It was freezing and all we wanted to do was get inside.

“Maybe. Maybe we didn’t close it.” I say to her while pulling out my phone. “Check your phone for signal.”

Lenny pulls out her phone and we both aim them towards the ceiling to try to get some bars.

“Nothing.” She says

“Me either.” I reply

“Okay, let’s stay quiet and if we hear anything moving outside, we’ll know we are not alone. Let’s not panic yet. Okay?” I look at my friend and she’s as pale as the snow outside. She nods her head in agreement.

We stand as quiet as possible with our useless weapons in our hands. We stand for what seems like forever but we hear nothing but the beating of our scared hearts.

Lenny starts chuckling, and it grows louder. I start to join her. Before we know it we are both laughing at us holding a knife, axe, and bear spray scared of an open car door. The laughing subsides and Lenny wipes tears from the corner of her eyes.

“I think we just left that door open, Len.” I say with a chuckle. “Come on lets get the cooler. Keep your axe though, just in case.” I tell her while holding the spray under one arm and my knife in the other. I grab the doornob and slowly open the door, Lenny at my heels.

In the time of our fright it started to snow again. The door is still open. I make her close the door behind her and she keeps her eyes on the door while I keep my eyes on the car. We don’t want anyone sneaking in while we are focused on the car. I guess we really are paranoid? Too much true crime perhaps. I survey around me with only the light of the cabin illuminating the car.

“Hurry!” I whisper to Lenny.

We run to the car and pull out the cooler from the open door. I close the car door and we both grab opposite ends of the cooler and walk the fastest I think we’ve ever walked in our lives. Just as we get to the door and Lenny opens it. I hear a large snap coming from around the car.

We rush into the cabin and push the cooler to one side as we lock the door and place the armchair in front of it.

Our breathing is fast and loud. I look at her and as she catches her breath she says. “Did you hear that? The snap? Maybe it was an animal, right?”

I catch my breath and respond, “yes.”

“It’s okay Lenny, we are inside and safe. Lets look for a phone. James said there was a landline.” I tell her. She nods and we look around the cabin. It’s a small two bedroom cabin with one restroom, living room, and a small kitchen.

“Here!” Lenny shouts from the main bedroom.

She picks up the phone and all we hear is a busy signal. She looks at me confused as I am.

“Maybe it’s the snow that’s messing it up?” I ask not really knowing what to say.

She nods as she places the phone back on the reciver. “We’ll try again later. Let’s get a fire started.” She says still holding her axe in one hand.

We leave the bedroom and head back to the living room. There are logs next to the fireplace and I start to place them inside to get the fire going. I hear Lenny click on the tv and click through the channels. She lands on a rerun of Friends and heads to the kitchen. The fear we have been feeling seems to subside a bit as we hear the laughing track of the 90s.

“You want some tea?” She asks while grabbing a kettle off the stove.

“Yes please. I’ll make us sandwiches.” I say as I grab a ziplock bag full of dryer lint from our camping bag, it makes great kindling. I walk back to the fireplace and jam the lint between the logs. I then light a match and light the dryer lint on fire. It doesn’t catch. I place more lint and light a second match. This time it slowly starts catching around the logs. Perfect, I think to myself.

I join Lenny in the kitchen as I rummage through our cooler. I take out some smoke turkey and a bag of cheese. Lenny grabs the bread and mayo. We place our dinner fixings on the counter while watching Friends. It’s the one with Phoebe’s wedding, one of my favorites.

The kettle starts to whistle and Lenny pulls it off the heat. I finish up our sandwiches with the thoughts of moments ago fading as the chuckles of the tv fill the room.

“You want honey?” Lenny asks while putting our tea bags in each mug.

“Yes. You want chips?” I say grabbing our bag of Doritos. She nods and I serve her some on her plate.

Just as I’m about to clip the Doritos bag, there’s a loud knocking on the front door.

Thump, thump, thump

Lenny looks at me with wide eyes holding our hot mugs of tea. A chill runs down my body as I look at the time on the stove clock. 9:02, it reads.

Thump, thump, thump

I gesture to my scared friend to grab her axe. I tip toe to where I left my bear spray and knife.

Thump, thump, thump

At this point, I’m getting annoyed more than scared.

“Yes?!” I shout with might towards the door. “Who is it and what do you want?!” I say with annoyance and a hint of fear. Lenny is standing right behind me.

Thump, thump, thump

“What the heck do you want?!” I yell with anger. I turn to my friend and she is shaking with fear. The only windows to that side of the woods are covered with curtains. We have the kitchen light on and the tv but those are the only light sources. I tip toe to the window as Lenny grabs my hand. I turn to her and she shakes her head feverishly.

“I said, what the heck do you want?!” I yell again while tip toeing towards the window.

Thump, thump, thump

The knocking getting louder, just then the doorknob starts to shake as if someone is trying to open it.

“What do you want?!” Lenny shouts next to me. I unclip the safety of the bear spray, and Lenny unfolds her axe.

“I just want to watch Friends with you.” A voice from behind the door says. It’s deep and harsh and my stomach is a giant hole gaping with fear.

Lenny looks at me and starts shaking even more. How does this person know we are watching Friends? I make a face at Lenny trying to signal to her that it’ll be okay.

“Nah homie, you better get out of here. We’re from Texas and we’re armed. We don’t want guest. Now get.” I say with as much bravery as I can muster. At this moment I wish I had listened to my dad. He always has pushed me to bring my small gun with me. I in return push back because it scares me to cross state lines with it. Oh how I wish I had it now.

Thump, thump, thump

“I said, I want to watch Friends with you both. LET ME IN!” The voice now shouts at us.

I rummage towards our camping gear again. My dad always helped me back before my big trips. At his moment I prayed for something, for a miracle. Lenny follows me and kneels besides me.

“What are you looking for?” Lenny asks with fear. Tears streaming down her face.

“I was hoping there was something else in here that could help us.” I say with defeat as I only came up with pots and spoons. Just then, we hear something moving around..inside.

The chest that we placed in front of the back door starts to bang from the inside. It starts to move as if something is trying to get out.

Thump, thump, thump

Now we hear the knocking from inside and outside.

“Elle and Lenny, please let me in.” The outside voice starts to sing. This stranger knows our names. The panic starts to rise as bile starts to reach my throat. I swallow and try to reassure myself we will be okay.

The banging from inside the chest starts to intensify. I look at Lenny.

“We are going to open that chest and deal with whatever is inside. Do you understand? I’m going to spray the heck out of it.” I tell her as she nods and wipes her tears away.

As we step closer and closer to the chest it stops moving. A voice comes from out of it.

“I’m sorry y’all, please let me out. It’s Matt.” The voice says, it’s a voice I recognize. I look over at Lenny and I see as her fear turns to anger and then to seething hate.

“Matt!!?!” She screams as she marches towards the chest. She takes the lock off and swings the lid open.

Just then her lanky boyfriend unrolls himself from this acrobatic ball he was in. I drop my weapons and jump on him. It was both anger and joy but at the time I was filled with rage that I start punching him as Lenny shouts and curses at him. Then it subsides to relief. Thank God it was him.

“Sorry y’all, it wasn’t my idea. James talked me into it. He wanted to get y’all back for what y’all did to us on Halloween!” He said in a pleading voice.

So it was James idea. I was so upset I could break up with him right now. “So James is the one outside banging on the door?” I ask with sweat dripping from my temples. It’s freezing cold but I’m here sweating in anger.

Matt nods with remorse. “I’m really sorry y’all. It’s sucks more for me seeing I have been in this here trunk for hours.” He says while rubbing his shoulders.

Lenny sighs with relief but gives Matt a quick shove.

“So y’all started all this with opening our car door huh?” I say while I head to the front door to let James in.

“Car door?” Matt scrunches his face, “what you mean? Alls we planned was him knock on the door and scare y’all and then me pop out of the chest. But the dummy locked me in. What car door?” He asks again.

Lenny looks at me, her eyes again widening into large orbs.

Thump, thump, thump

“I said, I want to watch Friends with you both, you too Matt. Now open this door for me.” The voice says again, a voice that is not James.

I look at Matt and he starts to go into the kitchen. He opens and closes drawers as if looking for something.

“What are you doing?!” Lenny asks, “let James in.”

“That’s not James y’all.” Matt says as he grabs a pot from the cabinet.

Just then the door starts to shake and shake as the voice starts to shout, “OH LET ME IN!” The person bangs and bangs their body towards the door. The armchair flings away as the door swings open as the cold Colorado air flashes inside.

That’s not James.

Horror
4

About the Creator

Elsa

Teacher, traveler, fur baby mom, reader, and writer. I enjoy writing historical fiction stories, fiction, poetry, true crime, and nonfiction.

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