Cabina di Pelle

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

The Second friend curled up on the log they sat upon. "I don't know if I want to do this tonight guys."

"Oh come on, it's just a little campfire story," replied the Third friend.

"Yeah, but, I don't know. I'm kind of tired, and I-I'd rather just get this night over with." The Second started to bury their chin into their knees as they curled up tighter.

"Why? We've never had a night out like this. It's supposed to be fun!"

"For you guys, maybe."

"Are you scared?" said the First in a tone that was surprisingly not coy.

"Well, I mean, I don't know if I'd say scared but -"

"Oh, you're scared!" interjected the Third in a tone that was not surprisingly coy. "What? Afraid of the woods?" They started to do a playful impression of a ghost hollowing. "Tonight's slumber might be your last!"

"That's not funny," said the Second, angrily. "You'd be scared too if you knew what's happened in these woods."

"Please, I've heard every story. They're either made-up to scare or just some stupid rumor."

"I disagree," said the First. "I think these woods are haunted. I'm certain of it."

The Second and Third both turned to the First in astonishment.

"Then why are we here?" The Second said, their eyes widening as they looked directly at the First. "Aren't you scared?"

"Sure I am. But that's what makes it interesting. It's like getting on a rollercoaster - I wouldn't ride one if I thought it didn't excite me." The First picked up a nearby stick and started poking at the fire. They managed to knock over a log, allowing the fire to spur back to life. "And, you know, it's kind of like a test of bravery. If we can make it through this night, what else is there to scare us?"

The Second and Third looked back towards each other. The Third gave a child-like smile and the Second returned an awkward grin.

"Well, I wasn't scared anyway," said the Third confidently. "The only thing out here are bugs and squirrels. All those stories are just make-believe."

The Second loosened their posture as they slowly rose from their curled-up position. "I guess, well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to hear some stories." They looked at the First in anticipation.

"Great," Said the First. "I'm gonna start over. The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. During that same night, a young couple - a man and a woman - thought it romantic to take a late-night stroll into the woods, where they saw the candle lit in the cabin. They had walked by it many times before, not once noticing a candle or any kind of light. They thought it peculiar, but they decided to continue walking anyway. Suddenly, as they moved past the cabin, something shifted in the bushes nearby. The man thought it was just a rabbit, and continued to walk forward. He was stopped in his tracks once the woman grabbed his arm and urged him to look again. The man reluctantly went to investigate the bush, leaving the woman on the trail alone."

"Idiot." The Third said, chuckling.

"Should never split up. Rule number 1." The Second added.

"Guys, please," Said the First. "Once the man had found nothing in the bush and returned to the trail, the woman was gone. He called and searched around, but there was no trace of her. Panicked, he went to the cabin nearby in hopes that whoever resided inside might have seen her. He peered into the window as he approached the door, noticing the candle light gone, and the inside dark. As he rose his hand to knock on the door, he realized he could hear strange noises coming from inside. As he pressed his ear to the door, he could hear the sound of a saw, cutting back and forth against something solid and soft. Surely, he thought to himself, that was not wood being cut. He took his ear off of the door and contemplated knocking. His hands shook as he stared blankly at the wooden surface. He looked back on the trail and thought about leaving, until all of a sudden he could hear muffled screams accompany the sound. He quickly turned back to the door and began slamming his fists against it, yelling for her name and begging for it to stop. He used all his strength to try and force the door open, cracking the skin off of his knuckles, nearly breaking his leg to kick it, and then using the full force of his body to tackle it. The door stood still, and he collapsed against the dirt, sobbing.

"The screaming stopped. The man looked up from the ground towards the cabin. From the window, the candle began to burn once again, and the door's locks clicked open one by one. The man lifted himself up to his knees and watched as the door slowly opened and revealed the silhouette of a woman. It was her. The man stood up, ready to embrace her, but stopped himself. She looked different. Her skin looked as if it hung off of her face, her clothes were ripped apart, her hands appeared rough and covered in red. The man stared into her eyes, confused and worried, and realized the eyes looking back at him were not hers. She smiled, her lips drooping and displaying a set of crooked yellow teeth with points at the end as if they were sharpened by hand. She raised her hand to grab him, but with his remaining strength he ran - ran as fast as he could back into town. He had survived, but would he ever truly be the same?"

"Damn man," The Third said. "That's not bad."

"Jeez." Said the Second. "Did the man not go to the police? I feel like he should have."

"No one really knows." The First replied as they returned their gaze to the fire, poking at it with a stick once again. "Some say he did go to the police, but they found nothing in the cabin or the woods. Others say he left town as soon as he could."

"I would have done both." The Second said somberly. "Maybe we should leave - too much has happened here."

"Alright, calm down." The Third said. "There's no way we're leaving - these stories aren't real! Nothing like that has happened in these woods."

"Not in years, at least." Said the First.

"What?" Said the Third. "You can't honestly expect me to believe that that story happened."

"People have actually gone missing in these woods. Like I said - it's been years since, but it could be related to all the stories. They seem to share a common theme."

"Oh my God." Said the Second.

"Please," Said the Third. "You guys are so easy to fool. Every place has an urban legend - a myth - 'El Chupacabra' is only found in, what, Puerto Rico? Loch ness monster in lakes? It's just a regional thing - of course the stories are going to be similar. We have creepy woods guy. But, I think it's fun that each story is a bit different. I have one I'd like to tell actually."

"Oh wait," Said the Second. "Can't we be done with the stories? I'm still uneasy over the last one."

"I'd like to hear it, actually." Said the First.

"Then it's two to one!" The Third shouted in excitement. "Alright, so, my story starts with some kid going missing - I think his name was something like Ryan - so Ryan is missing in the woods and so people get a search party going -"

"Whoa whoa," Said the First. "You need to slow down a bit. It's not really as effective if you fly through it."

"Right, right," continued to Third. "Right! I should say more about Ryan. Ok, so, Ryan was something like, eleven-years-old, and he was trick-or-treating on Halloween. Ryan was a loner type, didn't have a lot of friends, so he was traveling with his older brother's group. Near the end of their trip, they thought it'd be a little funny to bring Ryan to the cabin in the woods and give him a little scare. It's Halloween, you know, so why not? So they get to the cabin, try to open the door, door's locked, and they're all like 'well this isn't fun' so they decide to leave. But, they weren't paying attention to Ryan. Ryan had disappeared! Now they're all like 'Oh shoot! we gotta get help!' And they all run back to their homes and start getting a search party together. They had gotten a total of six people to go into the woods -"

"Again," interjected the Second. "Why didn't police get involved? How come it's only six people?"

"Yeah, and does the search party include Ryan's brother and his friends?" Asked the First.

"I'm sorry, who is telling the story here?" Said the Third, a little heated. "But no, Ryan's brother and his friends were just kids too - older kids, but still, they were spooked by the whole thing so it was a group of adults who went. The police though... I think they didn't take the whole thing seriously. It was Halloween and all, so spooky stuff happens all the time. Anyway, so the search party of six goes out into the woods, everyone's got a flashlight, and they're all calling little Ryan's name. The night gets darker, and still no sign of him. They search and search - nothing. One of the group members, I think a friend of Ryan's dad - Spencer! His names Spencer - runs into a guy who claimed to be apart of the search party. They ask each other if they've had any luck, but of course, neither had found anything. Get this though - Spencer wasn't sure if he had seen that guy before. He thought maybe he just missed him when they started. But then, the search party regroups for a moment. Everyone reports that they haven't found any sign of Ryan, and while they're talking about what to do next, Spencer counts heads. Together, their group had seven people total. Spencer thought that couldn't be right, the group started with six, did someone pick this rando at some point? But before he could ask, they dispersed again and started searching."

"Again with the splitting up." Said the Second, curling back into a ball.

"Hush! Let me finish. Ten minutes pass, search party regroups, suddenly they're back to six people! Spencer points the fact out, but he's completely ignored, saying that they started with six and always had six. Spencer looks around, and sure enough that new guy is still there. He eyes the new guy, trying to place his face. He swore he never saw him before, and yet he looked so familiar. Meanwhile, the group worries it's getting too late and they might not find Ryan. So they start again. Another ten minutes, and now there's five of them. Spencer points this out, and now everyone's getting nervous. I mean, the missing people list is just getting bigger. But maybe they just got lost for a bit - surely they'll come back. So they go again. Another ten minutes and regroup. Four people left. Ryan's dad - did I say he was apart of the search party? I meant to say he was - who's basically the leader here, says that maybe its not a coincidence. Maybe something's going on here. Spencer points out the new guy, asks where he came from, and he just says he was with someone from earlier who's now missing. Unfortunately Spencer didn't know anyone except Ryan's dad well enough to argue, so they searched again. Three remained. Spencer and Ryan's dad were freaking out - talking about whether it was a good idea to keep going, all while the new guy stood there, completely calm.

"Spencer looked at the guy. The guy started to smile, showing some ugly, dirty teeth. Spencer asked why he was smiling, and then the guy reached for something in his back pocket. So Spencer shoved that guy, grabbed Ryan's dad, and ran. They were both freaking out, but then Ryan's dad pulled off of him, yelling about how Ryan was still out there in the woods - but Spencer didn't think so. He begged him to leave with him, but Ryan's dad ran back into the woods. He was never seen again, along with the rest of the search party."

"Huh." Said the First.

"Pretty good, right?" said the Third. "My mom's boyfriend told me that one."

The Second started to sweat. Their eyes darted back and forth between the First and the Third. They stood up and started to pace close to the fire.

The Third raised their eyebrows in surprise. "Hey, whoa, you alright? Look I know it was creepy but it's not real -"

"Yes it is." Said the First. "Well, the whole group of people disappearing is. Don't know about the creepy guy. You botched the delivery, but I've heard the story before - the kid's name is actually Brian. That search party disappeared around thirty, maybe forty years ago. "

"Wait, what?" The Third replied sheepishly, their face turning pale. "No, you're messing with me."

"Oh no I'm serious. But I mean, that was so long ago. I think that was, if anything, the most recent thing to happen in the woods."

"No," Said the Second. "It wasn't."

The First and Third stared curiously towards the Second.

"We need to leave. It's not safe here." The Second continued. "It all makes sense now."

"What makes sense?" Said the First.

"I can't believe I had forgotten about it." The Second said inwardly.

"What are you talking about?" Said the Third.

"When I was young," The Second began, "my grandmother came to visit. She was - she is, from Italy, so it was a big deal for us. She was... she was always so energetic - she liked going on walks, and she loved our dog Arty." They began to shake, their lips quivering as they spoke. "One night, my dad forgot to walk the dog, so she insisted she would. She took him to the woods. She - she saw the cabin. The inside."

"Are you alright?" Asked the First.

"What about the cabin?" Chimed in the Third. "A lot of us have seen the inside of the cabin - it's just some old wood."

"No." Said the Second, as if to answer the both of them. The Second held back tears and spoke with more authority in their tone. "You haven't been there when the light was on. That must be what the candle was in the first story. The light she saw that night. She... she..." The Second began to break down in tears, falling apart like a broken dam.

"You don't have to tell us, it's ok. We can just go to sleep." Said the First.

"No!" Shouted the Second. "We need to leave. We could die out here. Our skin... we could be next."

"What are you talking about?" The Third asked, masking their own fear.

The Second panted, as if to exhaust all tears in order to talk. "When my grandma came home, she was distressed. Screaming. Terrified - she spoke only in Italian at that point, screaming 'cabina di pelle' over and over again. I had no idea what that meant. My mother refused to tell me what it meant. But I overheard her talk about it with dad one night. I think it was... skin. I don't know much Italian, but 'cabina di' means 'cabin of,' but 'pelle?' What if it meant skin? A cabin full of peoples' skins. Wh-what if, someone out here - something, takes the skin off its victims? That sound in the first story, the appearance, blending in with the search party - it has to be the same killer! We could be next!"

"Wait," Said the First. "What about your dog? What happened to it?"

"We thought he had gone missing... but now -" The Second put their hand over their mouth as their tears returned.

The three of them stood in silence for a moment. The only sound accompanying them were the crickets of the night and the crackling of the meager flame between them as it danced softly on its smoldering sticks.

"Ha!" Said the Third, abruptly ending the silence. "You really had me going there. Woo! I mean, you're crying really sold it."

"You think I faked this?" The Second glared at the Third. "I'm serious! We need to get out!"

"I'm sure your grandma was just seeing things," Said the First. "That cabin has always been abandoned. Trust me, someone would have seen it before hand if it was really full of... that."

"You too?! But you, you said you believed in the stories." The Second began to breathe heavily.

"Alright, fun's over, you can quit it," The Third said, waving their hand as if they were holding a white flag. "Both of you, really, none of these are real. There will always be over exaggerations and whatnot."

"I-I can't believe this. Neither of you will really leave?"

"Nope!" Said the Third. "Got this far."

"I'm sure everything is going to be fine." Said the First. "And I agree, we've gotten this far -"

"Well I'm leaving." Said the Second, grabbing their bag from off the ground. "I-I can't risk it. I want to go home." They then stormed off into the night, the sound of crunching leaves and branches fading as they retreated further away.

The campfire began to subside, leaving only the First and Third's feet visible in the light.

"Hey," Said the Third, now turning to the First. "You didn't really believe any of that stuff right?"

The First shrugged. "Who am I to say the story is fake? People see things. Doesn't mean it'll happen to us though."

"Right. Yeah. We'll be fine. No reason to worry." Said the Third.

"No, we'll be fine." Said the First.

"Yeah. We have nothing to worry about." Said the Fourth.