The Vanishing Cabin

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Even from where they stood in the field Lizet and Marco could see it flickering through the trees.

"That's not possible." Marco stuttered taking a step backward, closer to the edge of the field and the safety of the dirt road that led back to civilization.

Lizet grabbed his arm. "You've heard the stories...you know what's inside."

"That cabin burned down before we were even born."

She smiled and started walking towards to the woods. Dragging him in her wake until he started to walk of his violition. "Mad George Mahoon set his cabin on fire taking him and all his riches straight to hell."

"They say he made a deal with the devil Lizet we can't go in there. It shouldn't even be there...we've been out here before. Last time there was only a pile of old bricks. All of this is wrong, you know what happens in the stories to the people who try to go inside."

"They either dissapear or leave fabulously rich." Lizet replied evenly. Her eyes glued to the cabin in front of them. Taking in every beam that hadn't existed even hours before. It was fantasitic in the extreme, a haunted house, where the ghost was the house.

She knew that Marco was right, they hadn't known anyone who dissapeared but there were rumors. Especially the ghost hunters that used to come down in droves. Until many of them started to go missing.

At the time State Police feared a serial killer but the locals knew that the cabin had appeared and they wandered inside. Just like how Lizet also knew that not everyone dissapeared there was old Mike Teavors who supposedly bought his house with gold. And then there was Mary Foley who was Lizet's older sisters age who seemed to vanish one day, only to be seen years later driving through town in a Ferrari.

With or without Marco she was going inside. The cabin had appeared before them, had chosen them and she wasn't going to dissapoint it.

Marco didn't protest any more knowing it was a lost cost, he didn't leave her side either as they walked through the field to the front door of the cabin. On the outside it seemed like a perfectly fine cabin.

The candle flickering in the window even seemed inviting. Until of course you looked closer and realized that the candle lit nothing inside the cabin, beyond the window was an almost impenatrible darkness. Thought Lizet.

She licked her lips which were suddenly dry and before her nerves left her altogether she gripped the handle of the door knob and turned it. Grabbing Marco with her other hand she pushed the door open and walked inside.

At first there was nothing but darkness but as soon as the door shut behind them the cabin was bathed in a warm light. All over the floor was gold. Gold and bones.

Coins that looked like dubloons and some even older sat in piles next to gold bars. Every where she looked there was more gold than they could carry.

"Lizet did you close the door?" Marco asked from behind her. He hadn't even taken another step into the cabin.

"Of course not." She said. "Stuffing gold into her pockets."

"I wouldn't do that." A voice rasped. She looked up startled, there sitting in what looked like an old recliner. Well, more or less molded into an old recliner underneath a mounted deer head was a dessicated corpse. One that was so charred it was all but mummified and the sex of it was impossible to tell.

At first she thought she'd misheard, but then it spoke again his skeletal jaw working on it's own accord and it's eyeless sockets looking over at her. "There's always a price for it and if you try to take some it'll wake up."

"What will wake up?" Marco asked looking around the cabin still clearly too afraid to venture any further in. Lizet was suprised he hadn't toppled at the sight of a talking corpse.

The corpse shook it's head. "That would be telling...and I was never a generous man. If you try and steal my gold it'll come for you as it came for me, maybe you survive and make it out of here rich beyond belief...or you suffer a fate worse than death. Leave now while you still can."

"Your George Mahoon." Lizett said shaking her head. "This is your treasure?"

"Treasure? This is my hell! I did all it asked even gave my family to it and still it wanted more."

Marco was practically crying at this point but Lizett didn't even look up. She didn't care about the moldy old ghost. All she cared about was the gold in front of her, as soon as her hand reached out and grabbed one of the gold bars they heard a slithering sound deep in the cabin.

"Lizett." Marco said hurriedly, she grabbed more until her jacket pockets bulged and she could barely stand. Marco was screaming her name at this point and looking at something behind her.

"I warned you." The corpse of George Mahoon chuckled. "I always warn them."

As she stood something came around the corner. Something reptilian, that smelled of rot and death, it had too many eyes and muliple mouths. Too many tongues flickered in her direction as it sought her out. Lizett froze her mind falling apart just looking at the horror getting closer to her.

Marco grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the door. With effort he got it open and rushed into the forest. "Marco help!" Lizett yelled as something grabbed her on the other side.

Marco held on with both hands gripping her jacket and pulling. On the otherside Lizett screamed as a bone jarring crunch seemed to shake her body. There was a sound that Marco could only think of as multiple hungry mouths tearing into flesh.

On his side of the door he couldn't see in the cabin. Couldn't witness the absolute horror taking place in there and so he pulled harder. There was a tearing sound and he fell on the ground. Lizet's jacket or what was left of it in his hands.

"Marco!" Lizet screamed in pain and fear as the cabin door slammed shut.

He scrambled to his feet, but before he could even take a step towards it the candle flickered and went out. One minute the cabin was there in front of him clear as day. The next it was the same old pile of bricks that he'd seen there all his life.

Marco blinked and rubbed his eyes, not knowing what else to do he knelt down and scooped the fallen gold back into Lizet's torn and bloody jacket.

Without looking back he walked through the field and back to the road, vowing never to return.