#1: The Kangalaree

"The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. - M."

The text message blurred and flickered as Kal's phone ran out of battery. The moonlight sprinkled through the canopy of eucalyptus trees. The frosty wind sent a whispering howl through the forest as leaves rustled amongst the Kooraringa forest floor.

"Damn it, Max. Why did you have to send such a creepy message this late at night. Not funny." Huffing to himself, Kal shoved his phone into his coat pocket. I hope I brought my phone charger with me. I didn't print out that recipe and I don't know if anyone else has been in touch with Abigail. It's been a while since I've seen her. I wonder how she's doing these days. Kal's thoughts only spun deeper into a rabbit hole of pointless topics.

He continued walking toward his great grandparents' cabin, trudging through the long, thick grass, with only the light from Kal's old Holden Commodore and the moon illuminating the overgrown path to the where his friends are already having fun.

Pushing through the thick, overgrown grass, Kal felt the skin on his neck crawl at the feeling of something watching him... someone watching him. Picking up his pace, he pushed through as much grass as he could. He could only hear the sound of himself rustling through the tall grass for a while, but now, now there's the sound of two beings rustling through grass. Not knowing what the thing was that was following his footsteps, he came to a stop, ruffled around some leaves and picked up a long, spear-like tree branch. Inching closer and closer to the sound of rustled grass, he could barely contain his breath. "This thing had better be ready to become dinner with all this rustling..."

What is that? It smells... metallic, and... fresh? Kal couldn't shake the odd smell from his mind. Stepping closer, and closer, and closer, and closer still... he ripped the grass apart. Blood was everywhere. Entrails scattered, limbs gnawed to the bone, and skeletal corpses formed a circle around a blood-soaked creature. Blood dripped down it's jaw and some entrails were caught in its teeth. The beady eyes rapidly darted between its meals before slowly trailing up Kal's body. Its fur spiked across its entire body as it hissed a deafening cry. The wild, monstrous jungle rat prowled around its hunt, scaring off any visitors or scavengers that might pass by.

Kal's mind was blank. Standing in a still-shot, he could barely make out the jungle rat as its eyes traced his body. The loud screeching of a jungle rat fighting scavengers away from its meal had shocked Kal back to his senses.

Tripping over himself, Kal ran as fast as he could through the overwhelmingly large trees and tangled vines, sprinting to the now lit cabin.

The thick, overgrown grass, the vines tangled around and between various trees and electrical poles, and the light mist settling down across the forest floor made the thought of such a creature hunting outside all the more terrifying.

One heavy, sunken step after the next, Kal struggled not to trip up the stairs to the cabin. Throwing the tree branch aside, he swung the door open and closed. Safe at last. Silence filled the cabin as he gingerly spread the curtains. Everything was dark. Even the lights from his car. Scanning from side-to-side to spot anything out of the ordinary, Kal landed his sights on a blot of fur. Dripping blood. A hulking mass of fur carrying one of the corpses he saw earlier. The tree branches moving with it. Raw bones clung to the trunk of the trees. A flash of blood splattered against the cabin.

*BZZT BZZT*

"The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. - M."

The text message blurred and flickered as Kal's phone ran out of battery. The moonlight sprinkled through the canopy of eucalyptus trees. The frosty wind sent a whispering howl through the forest as leaves rustled amongst the forest floor.

"Damn it, Max. Why did you have to send such a creepy message this late at night. Not funny," Huffing to himself, Kal shoved his phone into his coat pocket. Wait a second. I feel like I've been through this before... A bead of sweat dripped down his brow as he searched through his back seat for his steel baseball bat. "Alright. I'm not letting that happen. This time, I'll make sure I'm prepared." He said, reassuring himself. Kal placed the bat on the passenger seat as he stepped on the accelerator.

*VRRR* *CLACK* *VRRR*

Gently guiding himself down the overgrown road, he passed the place with the jungle rat and gradually sped up until he could see the other cars outside the cabin. "Oh, praise the Lord! Civilisation at last!" Kal cried out from within his car.

*Tap. Tap. Tap.*

"Wait... no. But I..." Frantically snatching his bat from the seat, Kal spun around, bat in hand, to see what was tapping on his window.

"Gah! Dammit Kal! You scared me." A young, brunette with ocean-blue eyes clung to her knees as she took deep breaths, trying to calm down. "What the hell are you doing with a bat in hand?!"

"Melanie, the strangest and scariest thing just happened. I was sitting in my car, then I got out and walked towards the cabin but heard some rustling. I went to have a look at what it was and there were dead bodies of something, I don't even know what they were, but in the middle was a giant jungle rat eating through them, and-"

"Kal, seriously? Save the *spooky stories* for after dinner. Honestly. Get your stuff and get inside." Melanie opened the back door, took one of his bags and started walking towards the cabin.

"But... I swear it was real..." Mumbling to himself, Kal picked up the rest of his stuff and started walking towards the cabin. Walking in here was a mistake. Melanie was lying on the floor next to the bag she just brought inside with a pool of thick red liquid around her head. A blonde lady stood in the kitchen with her eyes rolled back, blood dripping down her cheeks. A black haired guy hanging half over the rails of the second story.

"Oh... crap... wha- what... what the hell?!" A cry from the depths of Kal's stomach let loose. Hurriedly closing the door, Kal started running toward his car.

"Bwahahahahaha! Oh man. Kal! Kal, wait! It was just a joke!" Melanie burst through the door as he was trying to unlock his car. Abigail and Dan followed quickly after.

"Kal, I'm sorry man but he were just setting up for the night and thought we'd run a test-run on you to see if we could pull it off." Dan quickly told him, stifling back his laughter.

Letting out a deep sigh, Kal looked at the trio and slumped down his car door onto the thick grass. "Dammit guys. Are you serious? You gave me a heart attack and a half, you know?"

"I know, I know. We're sorry, man." Dan sat down next to Kal and looked towards the sky. "Come on man. You wanna get in on it? Max sent that terrifying message earlier so we were hoping to give him a fright."

*VRRR* *CLACK* *VRRR*

Gently guiding himself down the overgrown road, he passed the place with the jungle rat and gradually sped up until he could see the other cars outside the cabin. "Oh, praise the Lord! Civilisation at last!" Kal cried out from within his car.

*Tap. Tap. Tap.*

"Wait... no. But I..." Frantically snatching his bat from the seat, Kal spun around, bat in hand, to see what was tapping on his window.

"Gah! Dammit Kal! You scared me." A young, brunette with ocean-blue eyes clung to her knees as she took deep breaths, trying to calm down. "What the hell are you doing with a bat in hand?!"

"Oh damn. I swear... I'm tripping out right now" Kal mumbled to himself. "Hey Mel, you guys had better not be planning a prank on me. I swear my heart can't take that right now."

"You've got to be kidding me. Who would want to set up a prank this late at night and this far out in the middle of the outback?" Melanie huffed as she went to pick up some of Kal's bags.

Kal picked up the rest of his bags as he walked towards the cabin. Expecting Melanie to be on the floor, he closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

*THUD* *THUD*

Walking into Melanie's back, he dropped a bag and nearly tripped over. "Aye, come on. Don't stop in the doorway..." Trailing off his sentence as he followed Melanie's eyes. A humungous figure of fur... no, not fur, feathers. Trees spurting out from its head. Bare-boned arms and hands held one person each. Blood gushing out of its ashen beak. Giant leathery legs with human feet stood firmly through the wood and into the ground below. A ginormous kangaroo tail swayed, keeping balance and thumping loudly through the wooden flooring.

Melanie dropped as she passed out at the sight of such a creature. Kal stood frozen, unable to move. The creature slowly, one step at a time, moved towards Kal. The gushing blood poured across the floor and enveloped Melanie. Bubbles popped atop the surface where Melanie had been.

A slender arm gripped Kal's leg and Melanie's face burst through the blood. "Kal! Ru- Guh!" The blood gushed into every socket, leaving no room to finish her sentence, let alone, breathe.

The hulking mass of mismatched limbs and body parts inched ever closer to Kal. Crimson blood with streaks of black continued to gush out of its beak. Kal slowly shifted his head up from staring at where Melanie had once been and into the eyes of the creature that had devoured two of his friends already.

The creature stretched its neck out and lifted its head so its beak pointed toward the sky. A human mouth with tiny duck-like bills for teeth opened and whispered in a husky, reverberating voice, "What... do you... want?"

Snapping its beak back down in full view of Kal, the once slender arm that helped carry his bag and that clung to him for dear life flowed out of the ashen nightmare. "What do... you want?" Another mouth opened on the side of the creature's face with human fingernails for its teeth and a palm for its tongue spoke in a guttural, echoing voice, with the sound of clacking from nails tapping, echoing behind the voice.

The scalps that were once attached to three of his friends were spat out of three different mouths on this creature's face. The third mouth, on the opposite side of its face spoke with a higher pitched voice and tiny, gaunt human heads in the place where its teeth should be, and another mouth on the tongue itself with human teeth screamed at Kal. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" The reverberation shook the entire cabin as it collapsed around the creature.

*VRRR* *CLACK* *VRRR*

Gently guiding himself down the overgrown road, he passed the place with the jungle rat and gradually sped up until he could see the other cars outside the cabin. Kal began to shake as he gingerly pulled out his phone from his pocket to check the time, 8:44 pm. Okay, it's okay. I'm just having nightmares. I mean, I'm just remembering nightmares. Yeah. That's right. It's okay. Everything is okay.

*Tap. Tap. Tap.*

"GAH!" Kal leapt out of his seat and fell into the passengers seat, landing right on top of the steel bat. "OW! Ow, ow, ow. Dammit Mel! Don't sneak up on me like that." He pushed the car door open and fell flat on the ground.

"Woah. Kal. Are you okay?" Melanie rushed over and helped pull Kal to his feet.

Getting up slowly, he picked up his bat and turned off his car. "I'm fine now." Staring up to the cabin, he mumbled to himself the answer to the question that the creature had asked him. "I just want to enjoy my time here and go to sleep."

*THUD* *THUD*

Walking directly into Melanie, he didn't feel her back but walked directly into her, dropping one of his bags in the process. "Hey... Mel... why did you stop?"

"Kal! Come on. Watch where you're going." A cry of frustration escaped her mouth before stopping, looking at him and smiling wryly. "What are you trying to pull here in front of everyone?"

"What are you talking about? You stopped right in the middle of the doorway. I'm not trying to do anything." Quickly defending himself and pointing out the obvious.

"Yeah... right." Melanie leaned in closely to Kal's ear and whispered, "that's something to save for the bedroom, tonight." Biting his ear lightly as she slid around Kal to go back outside and wave to someone else.

"Max! Hey! Took you long enough. For the person hosting tonight, you sure do like to rock up late, don't you?" Melanie waved her hands from the porch of the cabin.

"Hey Melanie, yeah, sorry. It took far too long to get out of Sydney. Too much traffic for these holidays."

"Ugh. Dude, how many times do I have to tell you, stop calling me Melanie and call me Mel, please. It grosses me out."

"Yeah, yeah." Dismissing her with a wave as he grabbed his bags from his car.

"Kal, did you see what Max just did? He completely dismissed me."

Looking at the both of them, Kal let out a light sigh of relief. "I'm just glad we were able to make it here together in one piece."

Melanie cocked her head to the side. "Kal, why do you sound so... I don't know, pessimistic?"

"Yo! Guys! Did you all eat dinner already? Abigail and I made some snacks for the horror story night, as per tradition for every time we've come here." Dan and Abigail carried some bowls of chips and salsa, along with cheese, wine, and various other snacks to accompany the already varying snacks.

The fire already lit, crackling in the background, set up the scene for the five friends and their first night at the cabin in a long time.

*CRACKLE* *CRACKLE*

The light mist gradually grew in thickness until it started seeping under the doors. "The rustling of forest critters and the clear sky with the bright moonlight rapidly being covered by clouds definitely add to this spooky stories night. And this mist, man... couldn't have asked for a better night to do this." Abigail let out an excited peep before the night began.

"Alright. Last time, Max went first, and the time before that was Abigail, Dan, Melanie, and so now I think it's... my turn, right?" Kal asked the group sitting around the fireplace, a glass of wine in hand and snacking eagerly on the food.

"Yep! Your turn, honey-bun." Melanie called out.

"Seriously? Right now, right before I start?" Kal covered his flushed cheeks.

"Haha, sorry. I couldn't help it." Melanie snuggled up closer to him.

Looking down at her to give her a peck, he saw a candle that was lit on the windowsill was snuffed out by the mist. Looking back at Melanie, Kal couldn't see her eyes anymore. Melanie looked up towards Kal but where her eyes once were, Kal say spider legs reaching out from her eye sockets, reaching for something. "Gah! Mel, what happened?!" He leapt off the lounge and watched her drop. Slowly, looking around at everyone else, he saw each and every one of them were corpses with their entrails ripped apart and sprawled across the cabin floor, in a circle, with Kal in the centre of it all. The cabin collapsed around him, showing Kooraringa forest.

Looking up, Kal saw a being, far taller than any he had ever seen before. A huge spear of the night pointed directly at him. "AAAAAH!!!" He screeched as loud as his lungs could squeeze out. The giant being whispered and echoed a single sentence. "The Kangaralee asks for what you desire, and takes part of humanity in exchange - embrace of flee, that is your choice." With that sentence echoing around Kal, the giant left.

Looking around himself, he saw everyone's corpses sitting upright, paying attention to Kal. "Come on call, keep going." Everyone spoke in unison, clicking and cracking their necks as they rotated, yet always looking at Kal with their spider leg eyes.

Kal spun in a circle, seeing each and every one of his friends repeating themselves in unison as their heads spun. "I... I... I'm just dreaming. That's right. This is just a nightmare. It'll all be fine. This will be the best horror story for tonight. Everyone will remember the story of the... of the... why can't I remember?" Kal's voice trailing off, once again.

After a minute of Kal's thoughts swirling at a sickening speed, he looked at Mel. Not expecting much, he pat her head.

*FWOOOOOHAAAA* *FWOOOOOHAAAA*

Blood spurt out of every one of Kal's friends. Crimson blood with black streaks. A phone floated on the blood and tapped his foot. Picking up the phone, Kal opened it up and the screen opened to the group message he and his friends are all part of.

The hulking mass of feathers and mismatched pieces rose from the flood of blood. The bare-boned arms had a bony arm extend from each of them, four in total. Looking around at his friends, they only had one arm, there was no second. One arm for each of his friends. Each of its arms caressed Kal before gripping onto him tightly. All three mouths from the creature whispered, "we are the Kangaralee. What do you want?" The echo bounced through Kal's mind as he stood there, restrained, covered in blood, surrounded by his friends.

"I... I want to... I want to be sane. I don't want to be here anymore. I... I... I know what I want." Kal stopped. His face turned cold. He felt his neck stiffen and his head rotate the same way all his friends' did. He wasn't speaking anymore. This was something else. Someone else was using his voice, his lips, his body. I can't. I can't do this anymore! Get me out of here! A bead of sweat dripped down his brow as his mouth began to move and his voice began to speak. "I want this holiday to last forever."

Releasing Kal, the Kangaralee looked directly at Kal and the mobile phone. NO! DON'T! NOT THIS AGAIN! PLEASE! Kal looked at Max's phone, at the group chat, and his body began to type.

Before he tapped send, Kal looked through the cabin window. The candle that was snuffed out earlier was lit, once again.

The message was sent.

"The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. - M."