The Prank

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. From inside, you can hear music and chattering laughter.

"Stop it!" Ashley giggles as she shoves Brody away from her.

"Ah, come on baby, just one kiss??" Brody says leaning in making loud smooching noises.

Very annoyed, Sarah loudly says, "You guys are so gross. You should just fuck and get it over with!" Sarah is leaning against her boyfriend, Adam, but she has always secretly been in love with Brody.

The four of them had stumbled upon the cabin while driving through the woods, looking for a place to get high and drink beer. It appeared to be an old hunting cabin. Inside there were old antler sheds and an icebox that no longer worked. Adam had hauled out an old dusty loveseat from his garage and Ashley hung up posters. Brody would sometimes steal his dads' generator so they could have lights and listen to music. Together, they made it their secret place.

"I'm bored! Let's play a game." Sarah whines.

"What game?" asks Adam. "Anyone bring any cards?"

Suddenly the lights flicker out and the music stops. "Goddammit..the genny is out of gas." Brody says. "..and I forgot to fill up the can before we left town." The cabin becomes dark and the only light left is the candle flickering in the window. The black candle had always been there and never seemed to melt, despite a lot of wax that had melted down the sides and pooled at the bottom.

"I know what we could play!" Sarah whispers excitedly in Brody's direction and then gets up and whispers in his ear. Brody nods and then Sarah whispers in Adam's ear. Adam nods and Sarah walks over to her bag.

"I don't like being out here when it's this dark and quiet. It's creepy!" Ashley puts her arms around herself and shivers. "I think we should just go home."

"But first!" Sarah pops up with a beer in her hand, "We are going to play the warm beer game!"

"I don't know how to play..." Ashley starts to say and Sarah quickly interrupts, "Oh, it's easy. First, I get this beer good and warm." Sarah holds the beer over the black candle. "Then, we sit in a circle and I draw a symbol on your face with my finger, and then you have to draw with your finger the same on Brody's face and so-on. Whoever messes up has to drink this warm beer!" Sarah rips the candle away from the windowsill and brings it over, setting it in the middle of the four.

"That seems kind of stupid, but okay..." Ashley says as she takes a seat on the floor next to Sarah. Sarah is first and draws a big black cross on Ashley's forehead. Ashley is unaware that Sarah us using the soot on the bottom of the beer can and Brody stifles a laugh. Ashley copies the same cross on Brody's forehead with her clean finger, rolling her eyes. This goes on for about 5 turns until Ashley finally says, "This is fucking stupid, Sarah! No one is going to mess up when there are only four of us!!"

"Okay, Okay, but first let me get a picture!!!" Sarah pulls her camera out of her bag, "Lean in you guys!!!"

After Sarah snaps the picture, Brody spits and sputters and rolling with laughter, "Your face, Ash! Look at your face!!" Adam starts laughing too, plopping down on the loveseat.

Ashley wipes her face and sees the black soot on her hand, "What the fuck, Sarah?!

Brody says, "Oh Ash, it's just a stupid joke! Sarah didn't mean anything by it, right Sarah?"

All of them look over towards Sarah and Brody says, "Right, Sarah?..." Sarah is standing, turned away from the other three, holding the black candle. Brody gets up and puts his hand on her shoulder and immediately jumps back, "What the fuck! Wha...what is wrong with your eyes?!!..you guys??!.."

Ashley and Adam get up and Ashley gasps and covers her mouth. Sarah is standing completely still. The candle is dripping it's melted wax directly onto the sides of her palm in black pools, Sarah's eyes are completely rolled to the back of her head showing nothing but white. Adam grabs her shoulder and shakes her, "Sarah! Sarah, wake up! What the fuck, Sarah!!!" Adam turns on Brody, "Dude, what the fuck did you give her?!?!"

"Nothing! I didn't give her a fucking thing, Man!!" Brody says and shoves Adam in the chest.

Suddenly, Sarah throws her head back and lets out a scream. A loud, terrifying, guttural scream. The other three jump and cling to each other, staring in horror. The scream stops, but Sarah's head is still flung back, her mouth open much bigger than it should naturally be, the skin tearing at the sides. Her white eyes are also still open and blood starts to pool from around them, the top of her head is touching her back between her shoulder blades.

Ashley lets out a whimper and a growling noise comes from Sarah's grotesquely agape mouth. "What the fuck! What the fuck is happening!!!" says Brody. The growling noise gets deeper until it almost sounds like a deafening hum. Ashley suddenly says, "Ow, my face...my face..." and she starts clawing at it. "It burns!" Ashley starts screaming and Brody tries to hold her hands. She pulls her hands away from him and is slapping and scratching at her own face so frantically that it starts to bleed.

"Grab her arms, Man!!!" Brody yells at Adam over the deafening growling sound that is still coming from Sarah, but Adam is too stunned or in shock to move.

Ashley is still fighting with Brody to get at her own face and is now screaming in terror to make it stop. She pulls one of her hands out of Brody's grasp and plunges her fingers deep into her own eye socket at pulls out a bloody eyeball. Brody pulls away, retching and vomits. Ashley is still scratching and pulling chunks of flesh out of her own face. Brody grabs Adam's arm and says, "We gotta go, Dude! We just gotta get the fuck out of here! We gotta get help!" Brody pulls Adam towards the door and grabs the door knob, but the door won't open. Brody lets go of Adam's arm and starts yanking on the door, but it won't budge!

Suddenly, Adam starts laughing. Brody turns around in shock and Adam is just standing there laughing like he just heard the funniest joke. "Dude, come on!! Don't do this to me, Man!" Brody shakes and pleads with Adam as his own voice cracks and he stifles a sob. "We gotta get the fuck outta here!!!!"

Then, Adam looks right at Brody and it all just stops. Brody looks up and Adam is just staring at him. He looks over and Sarah is staring at him, turned with her wide, white eyes and head still thrown back, mouth open and her neck broken. Ashley is also staring at him with her one, wide blue eye; the rest of her face bloody and unrecognizable. The silence is now deafening and Brody breaks down with a sob, "Guys?..." he takes a step back, his back against the door and he cringes as his three friends now start inching towards him.

The black candle that Sarah is still holding suddenly starts to smoke profusely and Brody starts to choke. He grabs at his throat gasping and clawing at the door as his friends are closing in on him. He frantically looks wide-eyed towards the candle because it sounds like the candle is laughing. "Fuck me..."

[Three days later]

Sheriff Bill O'Neal slams the door shut on Adam Riley's '01 Pontiac Grand Prix. "Well, there's no sign of a struggle or anything here. The keys are still in it." He says to Deputy Jacobson. "The only thing that seemed out of sorts was this camera outside of the cabin, but other than a few beer cans, it's like they just disappeared. No blood, no footprints or markings in or out of here other than the tire tracks. Not much to even send to forensics, other than to confirm all four were here."

"What do we tell their folks, Bill?" Jacobson asks.

"I guess that we will just put out an MP APB on them and hope they just hitched a ride somewhere and get a tip that way. But the car started up right away, so I am just stumped on this one. But someone has got to know something..."