Cabin

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

Well, at least I thought it was a candle… It was hard to make out through the trees from my truck. Nonetheless, something in my gut said I needed to check it out. This cabin had been abandoned for years. Most people avoided this part of the mountain altogether. I pulled off to the side of the road, trying to avoid sliding into the ditch. The streets were freshly plowed as we anxiously braced for another winter storm. The last one sat on us for almost two weeks; we even had thunder snow for a few days, a rare but fascinating weather phenomenon. I paused for one more warm moment. Then I hesitantly pulled my hands away from the heater vents, zipped up my jacket, and turned off the truck. I was immediately slapped with the bitter cold when I opened my door.

With my jacket pulled over my face, I set off on the 100-or-so-yard trek to the cabin. Forging into the misty fog under dark skies and heavy winds, I grew more and more on edge. I couldn't help but think about all the stories I had heard as a child. The rumors and wives' tales of this mountain's foreboding, maleficent past left even grown men a bit wary about treading here. Moving toward the cabin, I felt myself shiver as if something or someone had lightly brushed the back of my neck. It was cold, but this was…different. There was absolute darkness to it. I felt my skin crawl, and a distant chant became audible as I crept closer to the cabin. At first, it sounded like monks chanting in perfect, harmonious unison. I sucked for more of the crisp winter air, trying to find my nerves and fill my lungs now fighting, but at this elevation, it's no surprise. Oxygen or not, I don't recall a time that I've been so shaken; still, I pushed through, my curiosity getting the better of my judgment. I reached the tree line breathing hard, almost panting as I fought the elevation. Now I could hear new sounds, and the chanting got louder, becoming dark and broodingly ominous in its tone.

As I inched still closer, a hellish screeching joined the choir. It was a sound I'd never heard, like the wailing of terrorized souls. "What the hell am I doing?" I thought. My instinct was to turn back and run to the road. I could almost make out my truck from here. Suddenly, I smelled sage smoke, and I heard the voice of seduction itself whisper my name: "Evan, Evan." I felt my feet moving involuntarily toward the dilapidated cabin. I might as well have been drunk. Some part of me knew this wasn't wise, but that part of me seemed far away. Seduced out of my right mind, I was near the cabin door. Three steps away, three short stairs, and a door that looked like it hadn't been open in decades. I wanted to run, but I had no choice; I felt that distant part of me scream, "Stop!" but it was even further away. Much, much too far away. I reached for the door handle.

The lock cracked and popped as I twisted the copper patina knob. I timidly pressed forward, greeted by the pungent odor of decaying wood and the creaking of old rusted hinges. As I examined my surroundings, I realized the cabin was markedly deceptive. It had not appeared to be at all large from the outside. However, once inside, it revealed a large empty room and long, dark casket-shaped hallway that seemed to go on forever. At the end of the musty hallway, I saw a barely visible light. "This can't have been the same candlelight I saw from the road," I thought. The candle had looked much closer to the window from where I once stood outside. As I stood there contemplating how this was possible, I heard my name again. "Evan."… my feet begin to move toward the hallway.

Surely this must be where the noise was emanating. As I made my way into the darkness, quiet chanting and screeching echoed off the walls. I walked as cautiously as I was allowed, only to notice that what was once a slight decline was now a rapid descent into an abyss. "How long does this go on," I asked myself. Just then, I felt something flit between my feet. I stumbled on, powerless against these darting shadows. Plunging further into my fears, I stepped down into cold blackness. I felt my socks grow wet beneath my boots. For a moment, my mind became apparent, and I started to panic… Then that voice again.

Racing now in my mind's eye to the lusty curves and bedroom glares that complimented this sultry, breathy utterance; with contempt, she roared, "turn back now…… I dare you." This voice's authority made me feel trembling, fear, lust, desire, and beauty. Dark reds and blacks now seduced and led me into the crypt of the boudoir. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a soft wrinkled hand was running fingers through my hair; this faceless hand squeezed tight with rage taking a fistful of my hair. It left only the hooded, shadowed outline of its devious owner within my view. I closed my eyes, thinking, "this must be a bad dream; at any moment, I have to wake up." I was startled and alert, but my pinch did not wake me. I thought to myself, "what if this isn't a chant…what if it is some sort of ritual?" In the grip of my fear, snatching me up like a hungry beast, instinctively I heaved, only to realize I was bound, hand and foot, both figuratively and literally. Suddenly the silence was shattered…….. that seductive voice, seemingly enraged, demanded my attention. Now that I was closer, I realized it was not one but six voices. I counted six slightly-varied voices presenting as one, in flawless harmony with flawless tone. Sounding off eerily on their desires as one dark presence, "You should not be here, but since you are, we will put you to good use." The short breath of silence was violently broken by the sharp whistle of a flute. "What the fuck! a flute!!!!"

Suddenly the most horrifying sound I had ever heard accompanied the flute; it must've been hundreds, if not thousands, of sharp, grisly rat feet screeching towards me, moving like water across the floor. With a quick bite on my left foot and then on my right, I began to feel the leather from my shoes falling off my feet as the rats aggressively snarled for a position. In agony, I was acutely feeling the sharp disease-laden teeth like razors, cutting, tearing thru my wet swollen flesh. I looked down, only to see a long pointy bone with stringy ropes of meat and ligament where my fleshy toe used to be. In excruciating pain, I screamed with everything I had, hoping for some relief, some sympathy, just something. But nothing, more pain, sharper, more frantic by the second as I felt it getting closer now, more flesh stipped from the bone. They were working their way up my legs; I could feel my warm blood trickling as they moved up. I didn't have long, I struggled with the bindings, but they were too tight. Everything inside me was now screaming out; I felt myself beginning to go into shock. Suddenly the flute stopped….and immediately with it, the feeding frenzy that left my feet and legs torn to bits of flesh, bone, and ligament. As the hiss of night's venom set in, the once small dim candle exploded with roaring flame like a bonfire, now exposing the bitter cold faces before me. Hideous intentions equally scarred the five before me as their wicked laughter cut the stale, heavy air that now smelled of blood, iron, and newly opened flesh. "Wait a second…….Five, I count five now, but there were six; unless I'm in shock, that could be possible, but if it's not, where is the sixth?" Just as I realized what was missing…..it was missing no longer. The sixth figure began to emerge slowly and glide towards me, becoming more significant with every movement feeling its morbid intent as it quickened its gate to close the gap. Now close as skin, lording over me, the figure bent. Leaning in closer so that I could feel its foul warm breath threatening my existence as it whispered ominously in my ear, "we will not let you heal before we continue." I screamed, begging for a sooner end. "Silence," the stoic figure demanded as it leveled a twisted finger in my face;

"naughty naughty lost one

now with vision, you must pay

we will take but one good eye

and one good eye will stay

but another peep and blind you'll be

forever darkness stay

for if you make another sound

with your other eye, you'll pay."

Immediately I felt my left eye burn with pain as the graven finger bone was instantly thrust deep into my skull. I wanted to scream, but I wanted to be able to see even more….. now deeply tortured in silence,, I wondered what was next for me. The sixth figure chuckled,, wanting more, but I was silent, if for no other reason than to refuse the satisfaction of my other eye. Suddenly the figure was behind me, hand on my throat like a sickle on wheat, ready to do the reapers harvest. I braced and drew a deep breath… this might be the end. As the hand-squeezed tighter on my throat, hell's minions broke into an uproarious seizure of laughter. My legs tried to kick as I gasped for air,, pressing, pulling, straining for just a gasp; light-headed, I began to go limp when I heard it.

Terror's shrill ran down my spine, and I was allowed to gasp for air just as the wicked sound of the witch's flute rang deathly in my ear. The nerves remaining in my mangled feet immediately reacted with a sharp recollection of the impending doom before me. The painfully familiar sound of rats flooding in shrieked through the air. I wanted my end, but it would not find me. I turned for just a second to see the face belonging to this voice; it was almost a distraction from the sharp pain of the rodents feeding again. My knees were not far. I was freaking out. I already had this thing about my knee caps, then the flute suddenly stopped, and everything went completely black. With a flash of light, I woke up, unsure how long I had been out, "Holy shit," I think to myself …… I was back at my truck, looking down at my feet,, shivering from the cold nipping at me from every direction. I had never been so thankful for winter's chill; I had never been so grateful to see my feet or even my boots. Terrified, near out of my right mind at what seemed so real, I fumbled in a rush for the icy door handle, jumped in the cab, and began to get the hell out of there. Pulling away in a frenzy, I naturally began questioning my sanity, "did that happen? How could I have imagined all that? It doesn't make "….and there it was, whispering in my ear again, the seductive voice. I looked in the rearview; I looked everywhere, frantic,, but nothing… just a haunting whisper softly echoing, "you'll be back again,, Evan…we have plenty of time."