Everett

“The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window…”

A twelve-year-old boy named Everett with jet black hair, and bright emerald eyes, walked along the path he always takes after school just before the woods to get to his house. The sun sets just as the bus drops him off, so he gets home just before the pitch-black night falls. However, something about tonight was different for Everett. On his way home, the night sky seemed to come quicker than any other night. He was only halfway through his usual walk; however, the stars were already poking their heads out for the first time tonight. Everett thought it strange for the stars and moon to already be appearing brightly above his head like that, not to mention, the sun already saying its last farewells before disappearing from the horizons. The mixture of purple and pink hues of the skies suddenly turned pitch black into nighttime.

The hairs on the back of Everett’s neck stood as he picked up his pace, wanting nothing more than to get home, and get rid of this lurking feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew with certainty that something wasn’t right. His breath became heavy, and slowly turned into a pant as he quickly walked towards home. Everett turned his head left and right, and up and down, looking all around him to make sure he wasn’t being followed by whatever it was making him feel this awful. He kept looking and looking until he noticed something in the distance that captured his attention.

There was what seemed to be a flickering light far off in the forest that no child ever wondered before. One thing that Everett remembers as his eyes hovered towards the light was his parents telling him, “Whatever you do, always avoid going into the forest on your walk home! It’s dangerous, and you can get lost!”. The boy never disobeyed his parents before, nor did he ever ask questions about their strict rules to never wander into forest. Tonight, however, no matter how hard he tried to walk forward and ignore the flickering light that caught his attention, his curiosity was too strong for him to resist. He no longer had control over his body or his mind. It was as if the light was beckoning him over; daring him to find it.

The soft crunch of dead leaves, and twigs could be heard under Everett’s feet as he made his way over to the source of the light. With each step he took, the light flickered more and more intensely than the second prior. Finally, Everett found the source of his curiosity. A candle in a windowpane of what seemed to be an abandoned cabin. The smell of old wood, and moss infiltrated Everett’s nose as he tried to grasp the reality of an empty cabin standing proudly in front of him. He felt confused, but also fascinated by what he discovered in the middle of the forest. He never knew this cabin sat here while he walked past it every day. He wondered why he hadn't noticed it before, or more importantly, why he never saw the light of this flickering candle until tonight. Has it burned brightly every night? He questioned.

Everett wanted a closer look, so he stepped forward to inspect the candle burning brightly on the other side of the windowpane of the empty cabin. Just then, another question popped into his head… just who lit the candle, and why couldn’t he seem them inside? There was no one there. It was pitch black inside, and though the candle burned brilliantly, it lit up nothing inside. Everett couldn’t even see the floor inside the cabin. Everything was utterly pitch black. All that Everett could see as he peered through the window was his own reflection. Even his reflection seemed as unfamiliar to him as the cabin did. Even though he recognized his own face, something about it was odd. The feeling of looking at himself in the reflection of the window was somehow different, but why? He wondered curiously.

It was the same jet-black hair, and pale face he’d always known. He took a closer look at his face wondering why it had seemed so different, what was it? The mole under his left eye, and doll-like nose all looked the same as they did before, however the longer he stood there watching his own reflection, he noticed his emerald eyes looked as though they were glowing. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His eyes shone so brightly in his reflection that they almost didn’t look real. He tried to get a better look to see what was really going on, but he couldn't understand it no matter how much he tried. He started touching his face and pulling on one side of his eye. He even pinched himself to see if he was dreaming. Nope, it wasn't a dream. Then what was going on with his eyes?

Everett had mixed emotions, but what stood out the most was his excitement when thinking he possibly acquired a superpower! A discovery of a lifetime for a twelve-year-old boy. He stood there in awe of his reflection. As his gaze lingered for a little longer, Everett then noticed something behind him. It was a dark silhouette of a man. Everett wasn’t alone anymore. The sight of this shadowy figure sent a chill up Everett’s spine as he gasped and quickly looked behind him to see who was there. There was nothing. No one was behind him. Slowly, he turned towards the cabin again while trying to calm his nerves. His tightened chest began to loosen as he relaxed. Maybe I should go back home for now, it’s gotten pretty dark, he thought to himself. With his mind made up, Everett decided it was time to get back onto the path that led to home, but he couldn’t move. He looked down at his feet to see why he wasn’t able to budge even a single muscle, and that’s when he noticed his legs were sinking into a puddle of mud below his feet. He looked around for something to get him out of this quicksand, and as he looked up, he saw his reflection in the window of the cabin again. His eyes were still glowing a brilliant green, but this time, his mouth was twisted upward in a sadistic smile, one he has never seen on a human before. Though it was his face, it was definitely not his smile. The person in the reflection looked like Everett but he was howling out in laughter watching Everett sink deeper and deeper into the mud below him.

Some time passed, and Everett regained consciousness. The first thing he noticed was himself in the reflection of the cabin’s window. However, something wasn’t right. What seemed to be his reflection looked more like a person on the other side of the window with Everett’s face. They stood in front of Everett still smiling sadistically. This time, however, they were talking to Everett. They told him, “Thanks for taking my place kid… I’ve waited a long time for someone dumb enough to walk up to this cabin and let me out”, they cackled as they started walking away from Everett. “Wait! What’s going on? Who are you? Where am I?”. That feeling in the pit of Everett’s stomach began again as he tried to wrap his mind around what was happening. The figure turned back one last time and told Everett that if he ever wanted to get out of there, he would have to wait for the next victim that would be curious enough to come looking for this cabin in the woods. “For now, I will live your life with your parents and memories… good luck to you, you're an unfortunate boy” and disappeared into the darkness.

“Every night, Everett waited patiently, flickering the candle in the cabin window in hopes that some poor unfortunate soul would be curious enough to seek out the source of the light in the middle of the woods as he did on that fateful day…”

Everyone around the campfire looked terrified by the story just told to them on their camping trip in the middle of the woods. “Don’t worry guys, it’s just a story” the instructor told his group in order to relieve some of the tension still lingering in the air. Everyone ended up laughing nervously after realizing the scared looks on each other’s faces.

“Alright, that’s enough scary stories for one night, let's go to bed everyone!”

All the kids started towards their tents, except for one curious looking boy.

“Yes, Isaiah? You looked like you had something you wanted to ask?”

The boy, embarrassed of getting caught, looked up and asked, “Sir, isn’t your name also Everett?” He paused listening closely for the answer.

“Ah, yes. You caught that, huh? You’re very clever” Everett snickered and assured the boy that it was only a story.

As the man watched the last child settle down in their tent, he looked back into the forest surrounding them. There, he saw a flickering light in the distance, and smiled to himself.

“Sorry Everett… the next victim may come sooner than you think though.”

The man then laughed to himself, and retired to his tent as well, and a new day was about to begin again.