The Cabin

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. My friends and I always loved this time of year. We could go walking through the woods in the back of our property and enjoy the sights because the leaves have fallen off the trees. The grass has turned brown and the leaves crunch underneath our feet. We have gotten a lot older and just enjoy the walking and talking we can do without a curfew. We’ve walked for about 2 hours before we get ready to head back but we hear a scream, a blood curdling scream. We all stop and look at each other. Because it is in the woods we can’t figure out which way it came from. We grab our cells but there is no reception. We hear a low howl and take off running. We all run in different directions. I start to peak around the tree but I hear footsteps coming towards me. It sounds like whatever it is, is dragging something. I try to hold my breath because the smell is overpowering. Whatever it is turns and walks away from me. I look around the tree to make sure the coast is clear and I see a trail of blood down on the leaves. I make the sound of a bird like we used to when we were younger and my friends come out of their hiding places too.

We speak in soft tones so as not to be heard. It looks like whatever it is, is walking towards the path back to my house so we don’t want to go that way. As we all think, I remind them that there is an abandoned cabin, not far from where we are. We can go there and see if we can get a signal at least for the night. We walk towards the cabin and that is when we hear the howling again. We walk faster, when we get there we notice there is a candle in the window. We knock on the door but no one answers. We call out, “Anyone home?” and no one answers.

We turn the knob and it opens. As we walk in, the first thing we smell is the stench of rotten flesh. My friend Cain throws up immediately. Now we have the stench of vomit. We look around and it is dark except for the candle. We start to walk in and as we walk you can hear something sticky underneath our feet. Because it is so dark we can’t see what it is. I use my cell phone light and shine it ahead of us and on the floor. We all scream when we notice the floor is bathed in blood. How does someone have this much blood on the floor and where did it come from? We can't leave because we don’t know what is out there. We all notice the furniture is not fit to sit on as it has been ripped to shreds. The cabin only has 3 other doors outside of this living room. Sam walks ahead and opens the first one. He steps back and shakes his head. I walk over to him and look inside, my eye get big as saucers as I see what is hanging on the wall. It looks like a person has been skinned alive and nailed to the wall. This can’t be real. Nick walks ahead and opens the next door, he vomits then. Me and Sam walk over to the room and we see piles of animal bodies, deer, raccoons, a bear, and a coyote. Cain hasn’t walked towards us yet. I think it is safe to say he is too scared to move. The last door has to be the bathroom. I open that door myself. The only thing we see is blood in the shower and sink. There are words on the mirror written in blood. It says, “Save yourself”.

I turn back to the others and try to figure out our best plan. My cell phone still isn’t working. We don’t know who was here and if they are coming back. That thing outside could come this way and it has gotten dark outside. We could probably find our way back but do we want to chance it? I look at everyone and walk back towards the front of the house. We need to figure this out quickly. “So what do you guys want to do?” Cain looks to me and so does Sam and Nick. No one wants to be the one to lead us to our deaths. “Let’s look for weapons first.” Glancing around I can’t find anything but when I open up the cabinets in the kitchen, I find a gun, bullets, and a couple of knives. I show it to the guys. Everyone has a weapon but me. I keep looking and find an ax in the closet. It seems really weird to me that this place has been vacant but there are weapons here. This looks like a brand new ax. The knives appear new as well. I tell the guys that if we have these weapons we could stay here and fight our way out together. They look at me and agree. So I take first watch. I listen for any movement near the cabin and glance outside and through the window to make sure there is nothing out there. During my last check outside I saw light and then movement. I run to knock on the door where the guys are and then we hear a loud crash. The thing is probably 8 feet tall and hairy. It had red eyes and blood on the front of it just dripping. We all scream and shut the door. We push the dresser in front of it. Sam has the gun and he has it pointed at the door. But now we don’t just hear one howl, we hear two. Oh God there’s more! Everything goes silent but I don’t think they left. We hear a noise behind us and we see them at the window. All of a sudden the glass breaks and we are trying to move the dresser. Sam drops the darn gun and is scrabbling around for it. The thing reaches inside and tries to snatch Cain. Cain has his knife and cuts the thing's arm. We hear an unbelievable loud noise that hurts our ears. The other thing tries to climb in the window. Sam has the gun and pulls the trigger. It stuns the thing for a moment but then it still tries to come in. Me and Nick are still working on the dresser. Then I hand the ax to Cain. That has a longer reach and can do more damage. This time when the thing tries to grab one of us and Cain swings the ax he cuts off half of the thing's arm and a green liquid squirts out. That stops both of them and they scream and run away. We finally have the dresser from in front of the door. We open the door and look out and it appears the coast is clear.

We leave the room with our weapons in hand. We don’t hear any more noise. We step out on the porch and don’t see anything or anyone. Just then we hear a ringing noise. Nick pulls his phone out and answers. He talks to his father and tells him what is going on. Of course, he yells for us to get home immediately. He isn’t worried about calling the police until we get there. We walk back through the woods slowly but paying close attention. We had no idea what we expected when we got home but it was all of our parents gathered at my house. Everyone got hugs and when we asked about calling the police our parents said not to worry about it. We all looked at each other. We listened to them but we knew there was more to this story. They had warned us about the abandoned cabin, which is why we never went there. They said they would explain when we were older….sounds like a Big Secret to me.