Horthorn Lodge

Blackthorn Lodge

Rain hammered the roof of Blackthorn Lodge hard enough to sound like footsteps.

Ava sat curled beneath a blanket near the fire, trying not to look at the window. Beyond the glass, the Scottish Highlands vanished into darkness- endless trees, thick fog, and winding roads that seemed to disappear the deeper you drove.

The lodge had looked charming online.

Remote.

Peaceful.

Private.

Now it felt buried.

“ your thinking about murder already, aren’t you?” Mia teased from across the room, sipping the cheap wine they had purchased on the way up.

“This place literally looks like every horror movie setting ever.”

Jordan pointed dramatically toward the ceiling. “If someone gets axed tonight, i’m leaving a bad review.”

That finally got a laugh out of everyone.

There were six of them together: Ava, Mia, Jordan, Tyler, Becca, and Noah. University friends trying to squeeze in one last trip before life scattered them in different directions.

The first night had been easy.

Music blasting from someone’s speaker.

Cards spread across the coffee table.

Tyler loosing every drinking game imaginable.

Even the storm outside felt cozy at first.

Until the power went out.

The cabin dropped into darkness so suddenly Mia screamed.

“Oh my god!” she snapped. “Warn people before you summon demons, electricity!”

Tyler laughed somewhere in the dark. “Relax, Generator probably tripped.”

Lightening flashed through the windows, illuminating the room for half a second in cold blue light.

Ava felt her stomach tighten.

The front door was slightly open.

Not enough for everyone to notice immediately.

Just enough for rain and freezing wind to creep inside.

“Did someone go outside?” she asked quietly.

Noah looked up from his phone. “No signal, by the way, Completely dead.”

“The Door”, Ava said louder.

Everyone turned.

Tyler frowned. “I locked that.”

For a moment nobody moved.

Then Jordan walked over and shoved it shut. “Congrats, We survived the haunted breeze.”

The jokes returned after that, but weaker now.

Uneasy.

The generator kicked back on ten minutes later, lights flickering overhead.

Outside , thunder rolled across the hills.

And deep in the woods beyond the porch, something moved.

Ava noticed it first.

A shape standing between the tree’s.

Tall.

Still.

Watching the cabin

“Guys,”

Everyone looked toward the window.

“There’s someone out there.”

Tyler immediately stood up. “Properbly another cabin nearby.”

But even he sounded unsure.

The figure didn't move.

Lightening flashed again.

For the briefest second Ava saw something pale where its face should’ve been.

Then darkness swallowed it.

When the next flash came, the figure was gone.

“Absolutely not,” Mia whispered.

Jordan grabbed the flashlight from the kitchen counter. “Okay, horror movie rule number one-if we stay scared, we die scared.”

“No,” Ava said immediately. “Horror movie rule number one is don’t go outside.”

Too late.

Tyler and Jordan were already pulling jackets on.

“We’ll check the generator and look around,” Tyler said. “Two Minutes,”

“You’re idiots,” Becca muttered.

Rain exploded against the porch as the two disappeared outside.

The cabin fell silent except for the storm.

Ava kept staring at the tree line.

Something about the way that figure stood bothered her.

Not wandering.

Not lurking.

waiting .

Minutes passed.

The ten.

Then fifteen.

Mia stood up. “Where are they?”

As if answering her, the front door bust open.

Jordan stumbled inside alone, drenched and panicked.

“Oh my god,” Noah said. Where’s Tyler?”

Jordan could barely breathe. “He was behind me.”

“What do you mean behind you?”

“We heard something in the woods.” Jordan gasped. “Tyler went to look and then-”

He stopped.

His face turned ghost white.

“There was screaming.”

The room erupted instantly.

“What screamed?”

“Where is he?”

“What happened?”

Jordan shook uncontrollably. “I don't know!”

Ava grabbed his arm. “What did you see?”

“I didn’t.”

That somehow felt worse.

No blood.

No attack.

No explanation.

Just Tyler gone.

Thunder rattled the cabin.

Then came three slow knocks at the door.

Everyone froze.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

Mia began crying immediately. “Tyler?”

Nobody answered.

Another three knocks echoed through the cabin.

Jordan backed away from the door. “Don’t open it.”

“But what if he’s hurt?” Becca whispered.

Noah grabbed a kitchen knife from the counter. “Tyler, if that’s you, say something!”

Silence.

Then-

SCRAAAAAPE.

Something dragged slowly across the porch outside.

Ava’s chest tightened.

Against every instinct screaming in her head, she stepped toward the window beside the door.

Lightening flashed.

Her breath caught.

Tyler’s body hung from the porch railing by a thick chain wrapped around his neck.

His eyes stared blankly through the rain.

Mia screamed.

Becca collapsed backward.

Noah swore violently.

And then the lights flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Out.

Darkness swallowed the cabin again.

Ava heard breathing somewhere nearby.

Not one of theirs.

Heavy.

Slow.

The lights snapped back on.

A man stood in the middle of the room.

Tall and broad beneath a dripping brown raincoat.

His face hidden behind a cracked deer skull mask.

Nobody moved, or so they thought.

Nobody breathed.

The axe in his hand gleamed wet red beneath the lights.

Jordan barely managed. “Run-”

The axe buried itself in his chest before he could finish the word.

Blood sprayed across the wall.

Chaos exploded.

Mia shrieked.

Becca ran down the hallway.

Noah had left somewhere between Jordan being killed and mia's shriek.

Ava stumbled backward as Jordan collapsed twitching onto the floor.

The killer tilted his head slowly, almost curious.

Then he stepped forward.

Everyone scattered.

Ava sprinted upstairs two steps at a time while screams echoed below her.

A door slammed somewhere downstairs.

Glass shattered.

Then another scream cut short abruptly.

She locked herself inside the upstairs bathroom and clamped both hands over her mouth to stop herself from crying out.

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.

Below her. Footsteps creaked through the cabin.

Slow footsteps.

Unhurried.

The killer wasn’t chasing them.

He was hunting them.

Ava scanned the bathroom desperately.

No windows big enough to escape through.

No weapon besides a tiny pair of scissors near the sink.

The footsteps stopped directly outside the bathroom.

Silence.

Ava stopped breathing.

Then-

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Something wet slid beneath the door.

Blood.

Fresh and Dark.

A soft voice drifted through the wood.

Calm.

Almost gentle.

“Found you.”

The handle began to turn slowly.

Ava backed against the bathtub. Gripping the scissors so tightly they cut into her palm.

The door creaked open inch by inch.

The deer skull mask appeared first.

Then the axe.

The killer stepped inside carefully. Rainwater dripping from his coat onto the tiles.

Up close, the mask was worse.

Animal bones stitched together with wire.

Human teeth embedded into the jaw.

Ava’s entire body shook.

“Please,” she whispered.

The killer tilted his head again.

Studying her.

Then he reached up slowly and removed the mask.

Ava felt the blood drain from her face.

Noah.

"but how," Ava asked.

He smiled softly.

"i killed the, guy in the raincoat he owed me, did a great job except he left a witness, You shouldn’t have looked out the window,” he said.

The the axe rose again.