Widower's Peak

"The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window." The shopkeepers face was a map of the world; crisscrossing laughter lines slashed through gorges created by worry and anger. He drummed his large, blunt-nailed hands on the counter as Iain set up the camera and narrowed his flinty eyes, tan face puckering around them as if considering whether to continue.

-

07:12 01/09/93

Shopkeeper [Barnett]: "The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window - at least that's how most people tell it," eyes flit to the camera, "just one candle, and it was burning low when Jem O'Shaughnessy poked his head in. There weren't no one there, he says, but there was a right powerful smell. He reckoned a hunter must have got stranded and took 'is kill in there for the night. Maybe left the door ajar to go drain the pipe, so he left."

Julia: "But it was Kinbuck?" [Chews her bottom lip, straightens up]

Shopkeeper [Barnett]: "Ayuh -" [clears throat and looks at camera] "well, earlier that day he'd found his wife screwing the milkman," he shook his head, "she never was too creative. So instead of leaving he shot the bastard with a crossbow and took her up to that old cabin. Maybe he thought she'd come around and realize he loved her, or maybe he meant to kill her, but when the sheriff arrived she was gone and he was half-mad. She took his eye out before she went." [Clicks tongue, clears throat] "he went to jail, two years if you can believe it but that was '47, so... well, when he got out he started saying he was haunted."

Julia: "And this is where the story comes in, right? The Ghostlight of Widower's Peak?" [Shopkeeper nods curtly, jar rattles as he fishes out a stick of liquorice]

Cameraman [Iain]: "Sorry, my friend's a scholar, she don't mean it the way it sounds Mr..."

Shopkeeper [Barnett]:"Barnett."

Cameraman [Iain]: "Mr. Barnett, sir, is that right? Is that where the ghost stories come from?"

Shopkeeper [Barnett]: "Ayuh, for most it started because old Jud Kinbuck started babbling about how Reenie, that's what we called his wife, about how she were haunting him. Said he heard scratching on the walls and whispering in the night. Then it was dead rats on the porch. Eventually, he said that she was waiting in the cabin for him and reckoned he'd go up and apologise. Didn't come back. A week later old O'Shaughnessy's son went up to get wasted with his friends and found the body halfway up a tree with 'is guts down to knee height."

Julia: "Oh my God," [Gasps, covers mouth with hand] [Barnett frowns, brown face puckering like a crumpled bag]

Shopkeeper [Barnett]: "God didn't have nothing to do with that, Miss," [silence, Barnett stares at Julia and scratches his throat] "well, the kids told the story to people who told the story now there's a dozen 'journalists'" [makes air quotes] "still wet behind the ears come up to poke around." [Cameraman chuckles]

Julia: "But there have been other murders?"

Shopkeeper [Barnett]: "Ayuh, name got started for a reason, didn't it?" [No further movement or answer. His eyes look to the door as if trying to ignore the camera and Julia]

Julia: "If you could have the final say on the matter, set the story straight as you see it, what would you say about the rumors?" [Tucks hair behind ears, shuffles. No answer from the old man]

Shopkeeper [Barnett]: "I'd say," [clears throat] "I reckon I'd say that the murder of a bad wife by a piss poor husband ain't news, but it is a tragedy. Too many people chewed this fat, time for it to rest." [Bell over shop door jingles, muffled greeting, Barnett turns away].

-

Julia burst into the sunshine like a whirlwind and turned to look at Iain as he lowered the camera. Her honey-coloured hair whipped around her face as a sudden gust of wind whistled down the hill,

"Oh my God," she hissed and jumped on the spot, grocery bags rattling, "Iain, Oh My God."

"Easy, Julia," he said and ruffled his brown curls. Serena and Erik waved from the truck,

"It's perfect, to find someone who was alive then - how could we have planned that better? Tell me?" She hefted the bags into the back of the pick-up and clambered in after them. Iain hopped in and slapped the roof,

"Let's go," he called, "ok, alright, we couldn't have planned it better, but it sounds like this has been covered before."

"Well sure, the original murder has been covered-"

"So have the copycat killings-"

"But no-one has connected the dots," she shouted as the truck sped up, "no-one's thinking about this as a story. It's not journalism, Iain, it's-" she grimaced as they took a sharp corner, "it's anthropology!"

"Ok?" He held tight to the hot metal, eyes watering, guts churning; he should have insisted on riding in the cab,

"What do you mean 'ok'?" She called and made air quotes,

"Nothing - journalism, anthropology, what's the difference? It's still a documentary."

"For you three! It changes everything for me - when we come off the mountain on Sunday, I'm booking a room for a week."

"What?" A bullet-riddled sign whizzed by, Iain closed his eyes, "is that a good idea?" The truck slowed and turned down a dilapidated country road. A mouldering farm loomed in the distance. The ground around it was overgrown and a stench seemed to rise from the ground,

"Of course it is," she said, "I'll get some more interviews with people of different ages. The story isn't the murders - it's the story." She turned her head to look at the outbuildings as they passed,

"You're basing your thesis on a ghost story?"

"No! The story of the myth. The living, breathing story that built up as the community processed the trauma," she almost gasped it, hands spread as if she could cup them and catch it in the air. Iain smiled,

"Then maybe I'll stay on with you? Sounds like a better angle for the documentary, too," he said and she met his eye with a radiant smile as the truck ground to a halt. Only Serena's half scream as she stretched broke the tension. Erik drummed his hands on the truck,

"Well, let's see what this boogeyman has hidden in his old crash pad." He gave a lopsided grin and wrinkled his broad nose.

-

07:40 01/09/93

[Camera slides in and out of focus]

[Shapes shuffle in front of the lens. Creaks and cracks sound in the room. A grunt is followed by a flood of dusty light. The room is grey and grainy - old furniture covered in dust sheets loom from the darkness like ghosts.]

Julia: "This is the house where Jud Kinbuck found his wife, Dora Kinbuck, better known as Reenie, having an affair with the local milk man. Married for just eight years' at the time, the couple reportedly had problems from the start - it was a shotgun wedding prompted by a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Shortly after this Jud was sent to fight in France. According to Fuller County records the couple had a second, successful pregnancy that ended in the birth of a son just a year after he returned, but the baby, dubbed john, died within three weeks." [She steps towards the stairs, a mic dips into shot] "Psychological advances now suggest that Jud Kinbuck was not, as some of his peers claimed, evil but in fact that he was sick. Serena?"

Serena: "Yes, research based on the experience of veterans from the first and second world wars have been a large part of the basis for psychological understanding of phenomena such as shell-shock and PTSD. Based on his symptoms after leaving prison and certain medical notes, it's reasonable to suggest that Kinbuck was suffering from psychosis, paranoia, and PTSD." [She straightens her shirt self-consciously. Julia nods.]

Julia: "S0 Kinbuck killed his wife because he was sick?"

Serena: "There's no way to know, but it's certainly possible that the stress and upset of finding his wife in bed with another man exacerbated underlying mental health issues and led to a violent outburst."

Julia: "Thank you..." [she starts to step away then stops] "...obviously we can't speculate about the reasons behind later copycat killings, or even the murder of Jud himself..."

Serena: [hesitantly] "Well, other than potential revenge from Mrs. Kinbuck's loved ones, no. Of course not."

Julia: "But the formation of a legend around these occurrences, the formation of a rural "urban legend", so to speak, can psychology tell us anything about this?" [Serena hesitates, looks at the camera]

Serena: "Perhaps, but that's not my field of expertise..." [Julia starts to move away. Serena clears her throat] "but the actual sightings, the people who claim to have seen the ghost lights?" [Julia nods] "The human mind is a powerful machine that runs on imagination. It's possible they saw a light on the hill precisely because they believed the stories."

Julia: "So, they tricked themselves?"

Serena: "No, it's not... not that simple. The dark plays all kinds of tricks on the human mind and eyes. We fill in details based on what we expect - someone who really believes the legends might actually see a ligt on the mountain as their mind tries to compensate for the darkness. It's not deception, it's brain chemistry."

-

12:27 01/09/93

[Sunshine and grass. Wildflowers. A forest looms in the near distance as the camera pans to look back at the pickup truck at the bottom of a rocky path.]

Erik: "Keep up!" [Scenery blurs as the camera turns. Erik hefts the bag with his tent and sound equipment].

Cameraman [Iain]: "Coming." [Out of breath. Panting].

-

They found a clearing just before the forest thickened and the slope started to point up at a steep angle and set up their tents in companionable silence. Huddled around a fire as the lukewarm day died and a crisp, early autumn night started to draw in, they placed a heavy iron skillet onto the hot stones by the fire and dropped soft, pink hamburger patties into it, waiting until the fat leeched from the meat before adding eggs and onions.

Dusk came late in the day despite the looming specter of autumn - they ate and drank as the shadows grew long. The sun dipped below the trees and nocturnal animals began to call and yowl in the twilight. The group huddled closer together, releasing a steady cloud of blue-tinged smoke as marshmallows melted and hit the scalding hot rocks with sugary sizzles.

Iain stood in the darkness and stretched,

"I'll be back," he said, and when Julia wrinkled her brow he sighed, "gotta pee."

"Oh." She laughed, eyes hazy and soft as she took another drag on the cigarette, "ok... have fun, I guess." The group descended into giggles as he loped away, long legs stretching to traverse the tufts of grass and encroaching roots. Head lolling back, he looked up at the spackling of stars draped across the sky above as he undid the buckle of his belt with drink-dulled hands. A ripple of crack tugged his attention to the hill. Iain craned to look and jumped, staggering to keep his balance; there seemed to be a light flickering further up the hill.

-

00:03 02/09/93

[Camera zooms in and out of focus on a hand. Pans to blackness. Crackling, crunching. Whispers, inaudible]

Cameraman [Iain]: "Can you see that?"

Julia: "No, where?" [Screen remains blank]

Serena: "I see it, up there! Look."

Erik: "I don't see shit... Jesus.." [Screen remains blank] "Is it showing on the camera?"

Julia: "It won't, it's too far away, but there's a light up there."

Serena: "I don't like this, let's go back to the fire."

Erik: "Someone's messing with us."

Serena: "Either way, I don't like it. Let's go back." [Crackling, crunching] [Campsite appears on screen] [Hand covers the lens]

-

9:00 02/09/93

[Julia hefts her back pack and smiles] [Serena stands further up the hill with her back to the camera, turning a large map]

Julia "According to local knowledge and our map, the Kinbuck cabin is at the top of this hill. Though a straight road would let us get there in less than two hours, the grueling, winding hunting trail that leads up this 'mountain'" [air quotes] "crosses a small river that bubbles up from within the rock and a treacherous, 20-foot deep gorge. All in all the walk will take us eight hours... how long must Jud Kinbuck have taken to bring his unwilling wife along this path?"

-

12:42 02/09/93

[Erik smiles and waves, leans into the camera]

Erik: "We're a little behind - the girls keep wandering off the path to pick pretty flowers." [Serena shouts in the distance] "Good thing we planned to stay at the cabin anyway, hey?" [The camera stops moving and pans around to show the scenery]

Cameraman [Iain]: "The town is just beyond that treeline." [hand comes into view, pointing] "If we were on a flat plain we could see it and be seen, but the hills and forest make the cabin completely hidden and almost impossible to find without some knowledge of where the trail starts. Even if Reenie could have gotten away from him, Jud Kinbuck was a hunter. She had no chance."

Erik: "Yeah..."

Cameraman [Iain]: "Hard to imagine how desperate she must have felt. Or how alone and scared the other victims found on the mountain must have been." [Nervous laugh from Erik]

Erik: "Very atmospheric, man, now can you lighten the fuck up?"

-

The cabin stood alone, seeming to lean into the wind that whistled through the trees. Unmoved and staunch, it felt watchful. Alert. Like a ragged beast waiting for the right moment to strike; its hungry aura both beckoned and repelled the group from their position at the edge of its clearing. They mumbled and laughed together, but it was nervous and muted. They crept towards the gaping maw of the door almost fearfully, eyes flitting up to the sun. Already beginning its descent, it cast a strong, yolk yellow light that should have warmed the boards and shingles of the structure.

Instead, the clearing felt cold and blue.

The stairs did not creak as they entered the cabin, the door swung smoothly. Erik placed his backpack on the floor by the door and rolled his thick shoulders,

"Looks... pretty ordinary," he said after a few seconds, brown eyes raking the room for remarkable details, "shitty, but ordinary."

"Yeah," Serena said and cleared her throat, fingers tangling and smoothing her fine, red hair reflexively. The furnishings were simple: a standalone wooden stove, a mouldering double bed, a wobbly table and two chairs. A dark brown stain pooled in one dingy corner, "is that...?"

"It's probably damp," Iain said, "I think we should pitch outside. If there's mold in here it could induce hallucinations - don't want the integrity of the project in question." Julia laughed but nodded,

"Sure, that's why you think we shouldn't stay in here," she said and stuck her tongue out when he rolled his eyes and flicked his middle finger in her direction. Slowly collapsing stairs led up to an open-faced upper level that seemed ready to fall in on the cabin, "what's that, the second bedroom?"

"It's for hanging kills, I bet," Erik said, "or herbs or wood. Anything you want to keep but not sleep near."

"Don't they usually have separate buildings for that?" Serena asked,

"In a permanent homestead, sure. This is more of a way house. It wasn't uncommon for owners to leave these places unlocked when they left, in case stranded hunters needed shelter. That's why you won't find much of value in them." Erik scratched his head and then flushed under the sudden attention from the group, "what? My uncle lived in Alaska, ok?"

"Ok," Julia said with a laugh and then frowned, "does that mean that's where he-" She stopped and shuddered,

"Probably."

"Then we better go up," she said, "carefully!" An edge of panic entered her voice as Erik made a beeline for the stairs, "walk close to the wall, and go slow.

-

17:03 02/09/93

[Erik stands before the camera looking unsure. He tugs his shirt and shuffles]

Erik: [Clears throat] "We're standing in the upper level of the Kinbuck hunting cabin where, according to local storytellers, Kinbuck hung his wife from a hook using a..." [cough] [stammer] "a harness made of rope. A navy man, Kinbuck was adept at knot tying and used this to restrain Reenie for, supposedly, as long as two days before she was able to escape and a fight ensued. The post-mortem report suggests that she fought hard as she was covered in bruises and had broken bones as well as torn and broken nails. However, there were also older wounds and lacerations that imply she may have been... uh, tortured." [Erik stops and frowns, cranes his neck]

Julia [off-camera]: "What?"

Erik: "Nothing, I thought I saw something in the woods, but it was an animal."

Serena: [Panicked] "Are you sure?"

Erik: "Yes." [Silence] [He sighs] "I'll go check." [He walks off screen and Julia takes his place].

Julia: "This grisly tale has been told by children and teens around campfires for decades, but in the fifty years that have passed, more or less, since this event, the story has evolved. Jud Kinbuck himself was murdered less than five years after he left prison, and his body was found hanging from a tree near this cabin. A spate of copycat killings in the early eighties added to the mystique, and today teens and superstitious adults talk about there being a 'ghost light' in this cabin at night." [she walks slowly to a hanging hook]. "Reports of a body found hanging from a hook in this cabin in eighty-nine were sensationalised thanks to two facts. First, the man was found in a rope harness not unlike the one people suggest Jud used to restrain his wife. Secondly, Peter Holland was a cousin of Jud Kinbuck's, though he himself may not have been aware of that." [A shout rings out in the woods] [The image blurs and the audio crackles and hisses] [Flashes of wood and greenery pass].

[The image refocusses] [Erik is on his back, cursing]

Cameraman [Iain]: "What the fuck?"

Erik: "I fell in the mud, fucking bastard hill." [Julia and Serena laugh]

Julia: "Was it the boogeyman, then?"

Erik: "No, it was a fucking fox. Help me up." [Camera feed buzzes and loses focus as Iain drops his hand to hold it by his side] [Now upside down, it focuses on the cabin] [A shape moves in the window] [A light flickers in the open doorway]

-

Erik cursed and muttered with every tent peg and pole put in place. When the first shelter was finished he ducked inside and changed clothes. The night that fell around them seemed to come more quickly than it had at the bottom of the hill, and its hand was more oppressive. Serena shuddered and scooted closer to the fire with every shriek and crack in the woods,

"Careful, you'll fall in," Iain said, but the smile was half-hearted. The looming shadows of the trees looked like grasping fingers, clawing at the earth. The cabin watched, growing hunched and sharp in the dull light, it almost looked ready to pounce,

"What do you think happened to him?" Serena asked suddenly, "Kinbuck, I mean. Do you think he killed himself or..."

"Maybe animals got him? There were a lot more big predators up here fifty years ago," Erik said, "if he tried to climb to get away from a bear or a lynx..."

"He was hanging from the tree, Erik," she replied with a reproachful glare,

"From a branch, not a rope. His clothes were tangled in a branch, the report says." He blew on his cup of coffee and stared at the grey expanse of the forest, "I think it was animals, and if it wasn't it was a relative of his wife's making a point."

"So you don't believe in ghosts?" Iain asked,

"No."

The silence drew out like the sharp edge of a blade. Iain laughed,

"Well alright then." The tension around the campfire snapped. Serena relaxed, her shoulders drooping with an amused huff, and unpacked the greasy iron skillet. Rich, smokey scents and the sharp pop and crackle of fatty bacon and burger meat banished the specters from the fireside.

-

00:01 03/09/93

[Blackness] [Screaming, distant but growing closer] [Shaky breaths]

Julia: "Iain, Iain - what-" [Shuffling, the sound of a zipper]

Cameraman [Iain]: "Stop!" [Sounds of a struggle] "Shh."

Julia: "Someone's in trouble."

Cameraman [Iain]: "Why's the forest quiet?" [Screaming restarts, increasing in pitch]

Julia: "Quiet? Iai-"

Cameraman [Iain]: "The forest, Jules, there's no-" [Scream stop] "no twigs," [starts to whisper] "no forest sounds."

Julia: "What?"

Cameraman [Iain]: "Julia..." [sighs] "if someone" [whispers] "if someone's running-" [Cracking around tent] [Shaky breaths] [barely audible whisper] "why couldn't we hear them running?"

Julia: [whispering] "Where are Erik and Serena?"

[Silence]

[Rustling]

[Silence]

Unknown female: [Quietly] "Help me." [Rustling cracks] "Help me." [Voice drops in pitch] "Please-" [cracking, growling] "help" [voice becomes deep and manly]

[silence]

Unknown male: [whispering close to camera microphone] "Help me."

[Screaming] [Tent zip rips] [Fuzzy view of camp site, blurring as the camera moves from side to side] [Erik and Serena's tent comes into view, ripped and torn] [Shoes invade upper edge of image] [Camera pans up focus on Erik, jacket tangled in sharp tree limbs].

[Screaming]

Julia: "Erik!" [She runs to the tree] [Camera turns to look at the cabin] [A candle burns in the open door].

[Camera drops, facing away from the cabin] [Boots, running away from the cabin]

Julia; "Iain wai-" [Crunch] [Boots disappear into the darkness]

[Silence]

[Rustling, cracking in the distance and a sharp scream]

[Silence - animals pass by] [Dawn breaks slowly] [A figure approaches the camera slowly] [ A gnarled hand reaches for the camera - Barnett frowns at the lens before he looks around the clearing and sighs]

[Video ends]

-

The cabin in the woods is abandoned, but a light still burns inside from time to time. Vines creep up its sides, branches have landed on its roof, and the remnants of a campfire scar the earth before its front door. In the upper level, a hook swings slowly from side to side. Only the animals hear screaming at night, and they have the sense to stay away.