The Invitation

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

***

"Go on then, tell us a campfire story," Blake says somewhat belligerently.

"Who, me?" Kate asks, having just finished setting up her tent and settling around the fire.

"Who else?" Blake says, reaching into his pack and pulling out another PBR. It's a wonder he had room to pack anything else in there with the amount he'd already gone through. "You're the local. Aren't you supposed to have a bunch of creepy tales and warnings for us?"

"Do I have to?" Kate pleads, disliking being the centre of attention.

"Yeah, can't we just talk about something nice?" Lily pleads, disliking most things that aren't 'nice'.

"How's this?" Blake says, "If you genuinely scare me, I'll carry your pack tomorrow. Beth, you can be the judge."

I scoff. "I hate to agree with Blake, but he's right. You are the local, yet you haven't foreshadowed anything or spat chewing tobacco even once. Plus, I would love Blake to be so tired from carrying your pack tomorrow that he can't annoy me, so you know I'll probably judge it your way."

"Okay, okay, fine then." She clicks on her torch and holds it under her chin, her fine features made gaunt by the shadows. "A guy once came into these woods on a hiking trip. He packed nothing but Pabst Blue Ribbon and Skittles. He died of malnutrition, and his friends just left him because he refused to lift a finger around the campsite."

"Hey! I've lifted a finger." Blake very deliberately raises his finger and cracks open his can of PBR.

I can't help but chuckle. "While Blake's choice of nutrition on this trip is somewhat concerning, I wouldn't call it outright scary."

"Kinder words have never been uttered," Blake says, raising his can to me.

"You're welcome. Kate, surely you've got some creepy stories to share. I mean, look around," I say, gesturing to, well, everything, "this place is pretty much every horror movie ever."

Lily shudders. "Can we not?" she asks, her eyes flitting around the trees. "I'm all for ghost stories, but can we not make ourselves the main characters?"

"Don't worry, Lil," Blake says. "I would be the first to die for sure."

"Because you couldn't outrun the killer?" Kate asks, a wry grin cracking her usually serious demeanour.

"Well, that, yes. But also because I've already committed two of the three cardinal sins of horror stories. And besides, Lil would be the only one of us to survive."

"And why is that?" Lily asks.

"It starts with a V," Blake says with a smirk.

"Alright, alright," I say before Lily can get her rebuttal in. "Kate, tell us a story so we don't have to listen to Blake project onto Lily anymore."

Kate sighs. "Fine then. But let me start by saying that I'm not the local around here; my cousin is. He's been a ranger out here for a few years, and he has some stories about these woods that have stuck with me. They're not necessarily ghost stories, but they're pretty creepy nonetheless."

"Ohh, yes, please!" Blake says, scooting closer to the fire.

"Have you guys heard of the Monroe Country Five?"

"Ohhhh, no, but do tell," Blake says, nearly leaping into the fire.

Kate can't help a grin, feeling heartened by the enthusiasm. She flicks the torch on and holds it under her chin, her gaunt features pooling shadows.

"Okay, well, there were these five guys that went missing, all in their mid-twenties, all perfectly well adjusted. They were hiking in these mountains when a storm hit and got hopelessly turned around. They were missing for weeks. It was my cousin's first month here, and he said the mood was pretty grim. Usually, if you get lost in these mountains for that long, you've no chance."

I glance at Lily, who is looking none too pleased with the realistic direction this ghost story was taking. I want there to be some ghosts too. Not for the same reason, Lily does, but because I don't want the ghost story to be something I can hear on a true-crime podcast when I get signal again. But Kate looks like she's settling into the storyteller role, Blake grinning like an idiot and Lily looking scared as hell. That's about par for the course for a good ghost story. I reach into Blake's pack and grab a PBR.

"So," Kate continues, "the rangers hike all the way up into the mountains, my cousin with them. Eventually, they get to this abandoned cabin. Now when I say abandoned, nothing is really ever abandoned. No matter how remote, if the rangers know about shelter, they will stock it with some non-perishables, some water, a compass, thermal stuff, you know, stuff that can keep you alive long enough for them to find you. There were some tracks leading in the direction of the cabin, so the rangers figured they might find them up there. The supplies would last 5 men a few months with good rationing, so they were optimistic, if not outright practical. But what they found up there got them good. My cousin couldn't even tell me on the first try."

"Please don't say a serial killer," Lily begs. "I don't want to be thinking about that any more than I already am."

"Not a serial killer," Kate says, "just nature. Three bodies were found. Two had died from exposure, one from starvation. Now, finding a dead body is never easy, let alone three. But the thing that stuck with my cousin, the thing that sticks with me, is how they were found."

We all lean in. We can't help it.

"The two that were found dead of exposure. They had never even gone inside, and their tracks led away from the cabin. Strange, considering that when the rangers checked the cabin, the supplies were fully stocked. Creepier still is the one that was found completely emaciated. He was barely ten feet away from the cabin, propped up against a tree just looking in."

"Why wouldn't they go in?" Lily asks.

Kate shoots her a look. "You're asking the wrong question. You should be asking, 'what happened to the other two?'"

"I'll bite," Blake says. 'What happened to the other two?"

"Well, that's what makes this such a good ghost story, and that's what's gonna make Blake carry my pack all day tomorrow," she flicks off her torch and back on again, pointing it into the woods, searching frantically behind Blake. "Because they're right behind you," she screams, her terror seeming so authentic that it sends shivers down my spine. Just as Blake shoots up and spins around, Kate flicks off the torch, leaving Blake to imagine what could be in the darkness.

She flicks it back on a few moments later, leaving it off long enough to be mean but not long enough to be cruel. Still, she has a wicked grin as she stands up from the fire.

"Best get some rest now anyways," she says, stretching her long body, "Blake especially, seeing as he'll be carrying two packs."

***

We're up just after dawn and on the trail. Lily is at the front as she likes to be, map in hand. She's got the way to Crystal Pool and Rainbow Rock meticulously planned, down to the inch and minute. I trust her enough to follow along, hoping she doesn't lead us off a cliff. Blake is lagging behind as Kate was making him pay every minute of his bad bet, and Blake is too stubborn to ask for a reprieve. And so I finally have Kate by herself to talk. But instead of the casual, flowing, easy conversation, I was hoping for, I find myself unable to shake her story from last night.

"So, you said that Lily asked the wrong question last night."

"Huh?" Kate says, a little ahead of me, a little distracted.

"At the end of your story, Lily asked why they wouldn't go into the cabin. Your cousin said the cabin was fully stocked, so why would one guy just sit there staring at it, and why would two others run away from it?"

Kate gives me a sideways glance, the corner of her lips beginning to curl upwards, making mine do the same.

"You have no idea how often I've thought about that. I always thought my cousin was just a bit shellshocked from being so green and seeing those dead bodies. But even after there had been other missing hikers, ones that had been half-eaten or found at the bottom of a cliff, he still wouldn't talk about those three. You're right, though. It's the most unsettling part. Why wouldn't they just go in?"

"The mind wanders," I say, starting to let mine and not liking where it treads.

***

"Hey, guys! Guys! Come over here and check this out!"

It's Blake. Kate has taken her pack back, treating the moment with the benevolence it deserved, and his hangover seems to have cleared up, so he's pretty far ahead of us.

"What is it?" I yell back. He's around the next bend, and I am too sore and unintrigued by what might interest Blake that I barely pick up the pace. Lily rolls her eyes at me, obviously feeling the same way. Kate, however, picks up her pace, almost running by the time she gets to the bend.

"Blake!" she screams. "Get off! NOW!"

Lily and I both start running then.

"What?" Blake sounds confused. "Ow! You get off! Beth, help! Lily!"

We round the bend to see Kate standing over Blake, trying to pull him from what looks like… an armchair. And not like an old armchair that you think you'd see out in the woods that teenagers might sit around and smoke weed on, but a brand new couch. When I say brand new, it looked like it belonged to a 70s sitcom. I mean brand new in the sense that it's in perfect condition. Once my shock at seeing this chair wears off, I see that Kate is trying to heave Blake from his lounging on this chair.

"Get off, get off, get off," Kate says. Her eyes are shut, and her body is positioned as far away from the chair as she can be while still being able to grab Blake.

"Jesus Christ, Kate!" Blake stands up, but Kate still doesn't let him go. She drags him back to the trail.

"We have to GO!" she says. I'm about to pull her up for acting like an idiot – I mean, it's just an armchair – but when she makes eye contact with me, they're full of a fear so genuine that I grab Lily myself and start to follow them. Eventually, Blake shoves her hand away but keeps following regardless. We walk a brutal marching pace in silence for at least half an hour, Kate refusing to let up and also refusing to answer any of our questions. Eventually, she stops, and the three of us round on her. We've all seen her face, so we know not to be mad, but we all would like to know what has gotten into her.

"This is going to sound really stupid," she says, giving us all an earnest look.

"You reckon?" Blake says. Kate offers him an apologetic smile, which seems to placate him somewhat.

"Okay, so my cousin Ben is a pretty serious guy. Like, more serious than me."

"That's saying something," I say, throwing Kate a smile to let her know there are no barbs in it.

"Exactly," Kate continues, still somewhat out of breath from her march, "so when he tells me something, no matter how outlandish it seems, I take it to heart. He told me about some creepy stuff, like finding random furniture out here."

"That's not that creepy," Lily says, "People dump stuff all the time."

"But it's not old abandoned furniture. You saw that chair. It's nice furniture, new furniture. Ben says sometimes he will see a coffee table, sometimes a whole living room set, just sitting in the middle of the woods."

"What does he do with it?" I ask.

"That's the thing. According to him, the protocol is to ignore it. To not even look at it, and definitely not to touch it. He told me that the older guys there don't even talk about it, and they'll chew him out if he brings it up."

"Look," Blake says, "If you're trying to mess with me again, firstly, it's kind of working, and secondly, screw you!"

"I promise you I'm not messing with you. I would have put another bet on if I were. I'm sorry if I overreacted. I didn't think it was real until I saw that chair, and it scared the shit out of me because of what Ben said, and I just reacted."

"Why did it scare the shit out of you?" I ask. "The only people that should be afraid of that chair are interior designers."

She laughed a little bit, obviously seeing the humour in it all.

"You should know why it scared me so much. It's the same as the Munroe Five. Why were they walking away? Why didn't they touch the supplies? Why can't the rangers even look at the furniture?"

"Are you telling me I sat in a cursed chair?" Blake says, holding in a laugh.

"No," Kate says, "I'm telling you, I don't know why you shouldn't have sat on that chair. But I know you shouldn't have."

***

We reached Crystal Pools just after lunch that day, and for the most part, everything seemed to be returning to normal. Kate and Blake were still a bit icy, but everyone seemed to mellow out once we got in the water. I had to remind myself that this is why we came on the hike, not to tell ghost stories and drink beers in the dark, but to enjoy the nature with my friends and maybe drink a few beers during the day. I towel myself off and head over to the packs, where Lily is sitting, pouring over her map.

"How much longer to Rainbow Rock there, Lil?"

She looks up from her map, frowning. She opens her mouth and then shuts it, looking back at the map.

"We're not at Crystal Pools," she says, pointing to the map as if I would have any idea how to read it without Google telling me exactly where I am, where I'm going and how to get there.

"Where are we then?" I ask. Lily can be my Google Maps.

"We should be south of Rainbow Rock, but we're actually a bit further to the north." She exhales quickly and composes herself as Blake and Kate head over. "No worries, though. We just might have to do a little bit more walking tonight to make up the ground."

Blake wraps himself in his towel and takes a swig out of my can.

"That's fine by me. Honestly, after that swim, I feel like I could walk forever."

***

Even with Blake's optimism, the walk takes its toll. Twilight hangs over the forest for what seems like a day in itself, which is a blessing, I guess, because it means we don't have to walk in complete darkness. I completely lose track of time, walking in silence next to Kate, staring at Lily's back as she leads us along the winding, forking path. Eventually, the night sets in, and we try to go a little further by flashlight, but we're spent. I'm about to drop my pack when Lily calls out from behind us. How did she get there so quickly?

"Guys," she says, fear touching the edges of her voice. "Guys, how long have we been walking?"

"It's just past sunset, so maybe a few hours. I don't know. I was following you."

She shoots me an accusatory look but then shakes her head. "It's not just past sunset. It's past midnight."

I look down at my watch. 12:41.

"And don't try to blame this on me," Lily says, nerves frayed.

"Blame what on you?" I ask, still trying to comprehend how we had skipped half a night.

"I wasn't leading us. You and Kate were. I was at the back with Blake."

I frown. Obviously, it wasn't ideal that Lily marched us through half a night, but surely she wasn't trying to deflect this onto us.

"Lily, we were one hundred per cent following you," I say. Not annoyed that we got led on for so long, but starting to get peeved that she would so blatantly lie to us about it.

"Guys," Blake interposed, "Lily was at the back with me. Look, Kate even has the map."

Kate looked down, and poking out of her top pocket was the map.

"We camp here the night," Kate says, immediately gathering sticks and starting to light a fire. "Hurry up, help me!"

"What is going on?" I ask her. I ask Lily and Blake. I ask myself. I ask anyone that can answer.

"I don't know, but I will explain what I can when we light a fire. Now hurry up and help me!"

***

We sit around the fire, each wanting to be close but staying in a square so each of us could watch the others' backs. Kate wrung her hands a moment, jaw tensing, before relaxing a touch and looking around the fire.

"Now I have no idea what is going on. Honestly, all I know is that my uncles, and later on Ben, would have these rules for when we went hiking in these mountains."

"What rules?" Lily asks. "And why haven't we been following them?"

"Because they're stupid," Kate says, going back to wringing her hands. "Childish. I didn't even think to bring them up because I thought it was more about me not wandering off as a kid or getting kidnapped or something."

"What are the rules?" I ask.

"To never follow them unless I know it's them."

"They're pretty standard rules," Blake says, "Don't talk to strangers, don't take candy from strangers, don't get into vans with strangers. Basically, anything to do with strangers, really."

"But the rule wasn't about strangers. It was about them, my uncles and Ben. Don't follow them unless I know it's them. Don't go after them if they call me. Don't go after them if they wave in the distance or if I can only see their back. They told me not to follow them unless I can see their face."

"What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?" Blake asks, his cocky scepticism finally failing him.

"I have no idea," Kate says.

***

I wake to the sound of movement in the trees. It's still dark, and the fire is almost out, so I flick on a flashlight. The sound wakes up Kate, who is immediately by my side.

"What is it?" she asks in a hushed voice that does more to terrify me than the rustling did.

"I don't know," I say. "Maybe an-"

"Guys," Lily says, the fear in her voice giving me an overwhelming sense of dread. "Blake's gone."

I shine the light on where his sleeping bag is. He's gone. There's another rustling, further off this time. I shine my light towards it, but nothing is there.

"Beth, help!"

It's Blake. He's over where the rustling was. I jump to my feet, but Kate grabs hold of my arm.

I turn on her. "What the hell are you doing?" I yell, "we have to help him!"

"Just wait," Kate says, "listen.

I'm about to tell her to shove it up her ass until Blake cries out again.

"Lily! Kate! Beth, help!"

I look back at Lily, who seems to have had the same thought as me. It just sounds wrong. I shine my torch back to see if I can get a glimpse of Blake, to validate what I'm hearing, but no one is there.

"Hey, guys! Guys! Come over here-" The end of his sentence cuts off.

Kate still has a hold of my arm. She pulls me back towards the fire.

"It's not him," she says. "It's using his voice, but it's not him."

"Beth- Kate. Lily. -help!"

She's right. It was like a faked video. Like someone had cut out snippets of things he said to make it sound like something else. It was what he was yelling when… he was sitting on the armchair. My breath catches in my throat, and I let Kate drag me back to the fire, keeping my torch on where it seems like Blake's voice – the voice - is coming from.

"Beth- Lily. Kate. Come over here -help!"

***

Kate and I take turns keeping the fire lit while the other huddles together with Lily while she sobs. Every now and then, when the Blake voice comes around, we have to hold onto her to keep from running off. When the sun finally rises, we grab only the essentials and head back the way we came. I leave Blake enough supplies that if he is okay, he will be able to make his way back. It was a debate Kate, Lily, and I had in Lily's more lucid moments. This isn't a horror movie where someone goes missing, and the characters disregard all personal safety and reason to go after them. The fact of the matter is Blake is gone, and we are three women alone in the woods with something terrorising us. Blake would understand. He would want us to go. That's what I said ad nauseam last night, and that's what I'll tell myself until we're safe. He would want us to go.

***

We tied ropes around our waists and connected them, walking in single file as if we were on thin ice. That couldn't have felt closer to the truth as Kate led us, and I held up the rear, Lily in the middle, because we didn't trust her not to bolt. Dawn was hours ago, but still, the day hasn't gotten any brighter. I check my watch. 9:32. It should really be brighter. But that isn't something I can concern myself with. We just have to keep walking. One foot in front of the other until all this is behind us. One foot in front of the other. One foot-

I almost crash into Lily, who has stopped abruptly.

"Guys," Kate says, looking past Lily to me, concern shining through her fatigue. "What time is it?"

For the second time, I look around to see that the forest is dark. I look at my watch. 10:56. At night? 12 hours couldn't have passed since I last checked it. I don't remember any of it. All I remember is following along after Lily and Kate. A sudden panic rises that I have followed strangers, but looking at their faces and talking to them alleviates those worries. All I feel is hunger, deep in the pit of my stomach. When was the last time we ate?

"What's that?" Lily asks, her dejection and fatigue stifling her panic. She gestures to something in the woods.

I flick my torch on and shine to where Lily gestured. A coffee table. A perfectly fine coffee table, with an empty vase and coasters and everything on it. I groan. This can't be happening. It can't be real.

"Can you see that?" Kate asks.

"Of course, I can see it."

"Can you see something off about it?"

"It's a damn coffee table in the middle of the woods where it absolutely should not be! Of course, there's something off about it."

"No," Kate says, moving slowly towards it, "something else."

"I don't think we should get any closer," I say, but I'm moving closer myself, almost seeing what is so off about the whole thing -apart from the obvious- but not quite getting it.

"Turn off your torch," Kate says. I reluctantly do so.

"There," Kate says. "Can you see that?"

I can see it better with the light off, but still, my mind can't put a word to what it is.

"It's-" I try to make a guess, hoping my mind will snap to the answer, but Lily beats me to it.

"Flickering."

It's flickering. I can see the movement of light against the table, almost as if it's sitting in a room lit by candlelight.

All of a sudden, Lily rushes forward and heaves the table over. "We're going to die!" she screams. "We're going to die. We're going to die."

She's kicking at the table. Stomping at it. It takes every last bit of energy that Kate and I have just to pull her away.

"We have to go," Kate says, "now!"

And we pull Lily off into the night. I take one last look back at the table. Still, the light is flickering.

***

My watch has stopped working. The nights last so long, and the dawns never move to day before going to dusk. We walk through the nights now. We walk always, just trying to get back to something we can recognise. But it never comes. I'm so hungry. The food in our packs has been eaten, but I can't remember eating it. All I can remember is walking and staring at Lily's back. How long since Blake went missing? A day? Two? A week? We pass furniture every so often, a footstool, a rug, but we ignore it. Lily is in the front now, so I try not to look anywhere but at Kate's back because looking out into the woods would mean I might see more furniture. Or worse, where it's been coming from.

I stop. Kate and Lily aren't quick to notice and drag me along for a few more paces. I have to physically pull on the rope to get them to pull up.

"What is it?" Kate asks.

"There's a cabin there," I say. My eyes might be playing tricks on me, and even if it's not, it's probably haunted as all hell. But I remember what Kate said about the rangers stashing food in these abandoned cabins, and I'm too hungry to care.

The girls seem to feel the same way as I can feel the tug around my waist as they move towards the cabin. As we get closer, I notice something before the others do. I notice it because of how long it took me to notice the other night with the coffee table. Flickering. There's a candle on in the cabin. I feel an overwhelming sense of dread. I stop, but again Lily and Kate drag me forward. I try to pull on the rope, and eventually, Kate pulls up and turns around. Her lips are dry and cracked, and she has black rings around her eyes these past few days, weeks, months, having worn her down to the bone.

"What?" she asks.

As I try to answer her, I look over her shoulder. I see the window the candlelight is coming from, and inside the window, I see the answer to my question. Why would the two men be running away from the cabin? Inside the window, illuminated by the candlelight, is me and Kate, grinning back at us. But it's not us, not quite. Their mouths are too wide, stretching from ear to ear like a slit throat. And they have no eyelids, their unblinking stare too wide, showing too much white. They beckon us in, a welcoming smile on their awful lips.

I turn to run, but I can't because I'm tied to the other two. Kate must have seen what I had or was just shocked into running by my reaction. Either way, we can't move as we're still tied to Lily, and she won't budge.

"Lily, we have to go!" I scream, but she's not moving, and she's impossible to budge.

Slowly but with inevitable sureness, Lily starts walking toward the cabin, dragging Kate and me along behind her no matter how hard we try to pull away. She tilts her head back unnaturally far, and I hear Lily's voice come out of her throat, but I know it doesn't belong to Lily.

"We're going to die. We're going to die. We're going to die!"