Too Dark

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. No one was there to see when it lit up, but it was felt. There was a chill in the air. The forest grew silent. Ground animals went into their burrows and the birds nestled tighter in their nests and a few miles from the cabin a group of hikers trudged uphill slowly.

Only one of them, Jessica, stopped and took notice of the change. "Did you guys feel that?" she asked, wiping her sweaty red hair from her face.

"Come on Jess," Will tapped her shoulder, "if you can't take it, just say that."

"No, I'm being serious," she whispered, "listen..."

Everyone stopped and listened to the sound of the wind blowing softly, Courtney spoke up, “I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly,” Jessica said, “no birds singing, no squirrels chittering, no frogs…”

“We get it,” Will said, he put his hand on his hip, and blew some of his short curly black hair off his forehead, “so what?”

“They just stopped, all at once,” she said. Will scoffed and turned to keep walking up the hill with his hiking stick. Jessica looked at her best friend, and Will’s girlfriend, Courtney for support. But she just shrugged, then followed Will up the hill. Cody, who was Courtney’s twin brother, just stared off into the distance.

“Cody,” Jessica said, he didn’t seem to hear her, so she said his name louder, “CODY!”

“Huh?” he looked at her blinking rapidly. For being identical twins, he and Courtney were complete opposites. She was loud, opinionated, athletic. He was none of those things, he was quiet and thoughtful. Of course, they shared blonde hair, olive skin and green eyes, they even kept their hair about the same length, at their shoulders. They were both attractive, but Cody didn’t put effort into his appearance, he was a slacker through and through. And he was in love with Jessica, who despite liking her best friend’s brother a lot, didn’t want to make it awkward so she tried to pretend she had no idea.

“You felt it too, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Felt what?” he asked, confused, or pretending to be.

She sighed, “never mind.” She followed her friends up the hill and felt his eyes following her. This made her grin a little but only a little.

“You know it’s pretty dark out here,” Courtney said, taking Will by the arm, “shouldn’t we have set up camp by now?”

“We don’t need to, according to the legend there is a haunted cabin out here,” he said drawing out the word haunted for effect.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re serious,” Jessica scoffed.

“What?” Will held up his hands defensively.

“Come on man, is this a joke?” Cody asked.

“What? It’s not really haunted; you’re telling me you wouldn’t rather camp in a cabin under a real roof than in a couple of leaky tents?” Will said.

“Well that actually does sound kind of nice, maybe even romantic,” Courtney said.

“Do you even know who owns the cabin? I mean are we going to get arrested or shot at for trespassing?” Jessica asked.

“Calm down carrot top, it’s abandoned, no one owns it, no one cares, kids come out here all the time… probably,” Will said.

“Well, we better get there soon, is all I’m saying…no offense babe,” Courtney said.

“It’s just up ahead,” Will said.

It was not in fact, just up ahead. The group walked for more than another hour before they got to what could only be assumed to be near the top of the mountain. The way was steep and torturous to hike. They were all so tired when they saw the top of the cabin coming up over the hill, lit by moonlight, they all cheered. Not realizing they should be wondering why there was a single burning candle inside. Will had assured them that no one lived in it and that no one would mind if they stayed there. Seeing how far up the mountain it was, it became more and more believable to them that it was abandoned. And in a few seconds when a boom pierced the night silence, it didn’t matter anymore.

Thunder and lightening came from behind them, and they all shot forward in a mad dash for the cabin. Never mind that the night sky had been cloudless only minutes earlier. The rain started as they screamed and ran soaking on a small porch at the front of the cabin. Will opened the door and ran in first, shaking the rain from his hair. The girls followed him in, but Cody stayed on the porch.

“Get in here,” Will scoffed at him.

“I’m just gonna wait out here for a minute,” he said. The cabin was dark, save for a single candle lit in the corner in front of a map hung on the wall. No one mentioned it or wondered who had lit the candle. They were busy trying to find other sources of light and heat. By the time anyone would have thought of it, a bunch more candles and the fireplace were lit. Cody stayed out on the porch the whole time, Will said it was because he didn’t want to have to work.

The cabin was only one room. There was a fireplace in one corner with two wooden chairs that looked about a hundred years old. There was a table and chairs in the opposite corner. They also looked like they would fall apart if the wind blew. There was a door Jessica assumed was the back door, given the size of the cabin, opposite the front. Beside it, there was the map on the back wall and a small table in front of it with the lit candle on it. Will had placed other candles he’d found in the windows and on the table and mantle. The place was pretty well lit.

There was nowhere to sit so they all took their gear out of their bags and made a spot in front of the fire with their sleeping bags. Cody shivered in the doorway and smoked a cigarette.

“If you’re not coming in, at least close the door so we can get warm,” Courtney said.

“Come inside Cody, you’ll freeze out there,” Jessica said smiling at him. This worked and he finally came in and sat beside her as close as he could get. She leaned toward him and smiled. It was still storming outside, and this made Jessica shiver. Cody offered her a jacket from his bag, and she took it. Courtney rolled her eyes.

“Aren’t you guys glad I suggested we come here? Listen to it rain, imagine if we were caught out there in tents,” Will said.

“How did you know about this cabin anyway?” Cody asked.

“Ahh, you know,” Will said.

“No, I don’t know,” Cody said back. Jessica could feel the tension building between them.

“Fine alright listen, some of the guys I met in town were talking about it and how it’s haunted and then, they sort of bet me that I wouldn’t stay out here… so I took the bet,” Will said.

“Great so you’re making money off of us? How much?” Courtney said.

“Wait… so it’s just a cabin so why would they be willing to pay you to stay here?” Jessica asked, “I mean what’s the big deal?”

“Someone… or several people may have… been found dead here,” Will said.

Cody stood up instantly, “umm no, I’m going.”

“What? Ew when?” Courtney stood up too.

“Relax it was like fifty years ago,” Will said, “it’s just a local legend teenagers use to scare each other when they are bored.”

“What about those guys, I saw them, they weren’t teenagers,” Jessica said.

“They’re idiots, they probably got told the story too many times as kids and now it’s like…” he pointed to his head, “stuck in there ya know.”

“What’s the story?” Jessica asked.

“What?” Will asked casually trying to avoid the question.

“The legend, the story, what happened here?” Jessica asked.

“No, I don’t want to know,” Courtney paced around the room biting her nails.

Cody walked over and sat down by Jessica again, “I do.”

“Alright two against one,” Will said, “Courtney you can go outside if you don’t want to hear it.”

Right then lighting struck a tree right outside the window and they all screamed, Courtney ran over and cuddled up under Wills arm. Will laughed and pulled her in tight. He looked at Cody and Jessica.

“You really want to hear it?” he asked, they nodded so he continued, “okay, well you see that door over there,” he pointed to what they assumed was the back door. Jessica nodded and Cody just stared at Will.

“That’s not the back door,” Will said.

“Oh sure, what is it then?” Jessica asked.

“The door to the basement,” he said.

“This place has a basement? Look at it, it’s barely standing,” Jessica scoffed.

“I’m serious go look,” Will said almost sounding unsure himself. Jessica laughed and stood up. Cody started to stop her, but she rolled her eyes to reassure him it was ridiculous to worry about it. She walked over to the door. She put her hand on the knob and hesitated. Something made her not want to open the door.

“What’s wrong?” Will teased.

“Nothing,” she said and swung the door open. Sure, enough there was a set of stairs that only went down about five steps then turned at a landing. It looked as though the stairs did a full one-eighty at the landing meaning they lead to directly under the cabin. The wood of the stairs looked like it would crumble under someone’s feet if they attempted to walk down them. Jessica felt something wrong, like she shouldn’t be looking down there. She quickly shut the door and rubbed her hands together like it was no big deal. She walked back to the pile of blankets they were all huddled up on and sat back down next to Cody. She almost wanted him to put his arm around her the way Will had his around Courtney, but only because the basement had freaked her out.

“Okay it’s a basement, so what?” she asked.

“That’s where he did it,” Will said.

Cody rolled his eyes, “just spit it out, stop the cryptic stuff and tell us what happened.”

Will glared at him, “alright, it was the seventies, the height of serial killers. A man named Michael Blackwell lived a nice life, worked at a factory, was married to a nurse, and had three kids. Michael had a dark secret, he liked to kidnap little kids, he built this cabin out in the middle of nowhere, even brought his family out sometimes because they never went down to the basement. See that’s where he took his victims, he would hurt them and torture them for months and then when they were finally dead, he would bury them under the ground down there. One day his kids got curious on one of their family getaways to the cabin. They crept down to the basement and found a boy who was dead, but Michael hadn’t buried yet. Legend says the boy wasn’t fully dead and that he talked to them. Michael caught them down there, killed them all, and his wife then turned the gun on himself. Police eventually found them all out here, and several off the bodies under the basement though they really don’t know how many there were possibly out in the woods, they found thirty right down in the basement.”

The others sat enraptured by the story, and right as soon as Will was done the wind blew a window open. It crashed against the wall. The wind blew all the candles out. Only the fire in the fireplace stayed lit. They all screamed.

“Dang it Will,” Cody yelled.

Courtney slapped his arm and Will scoffed, “I didn’t do it, I can’t control the weather,” he rubbed his arm where he’d been slapped, “or maybe it was Michael.”

Jessica stood up and so did Cody, she crossed her arms, “that’s not funny, those poor innocent kids…”

“If it’s even true,” Cody said, they both went and started relighting the candles one by one.

“Oh, it is, trust me,” Will said.

“And how would you know you only met those guys today that told you about it,” Courtney said.

“I looked it up on the internet,” Will said.

“A reliable source of information,” Jessica rolled her eyes.

“Hey I read the news reports, it’s real you can look it up yourselves if you don’t believe me,” Will said.

“Okay I will,” Jessica said, digging her phone out of her bag. When she looked at it, she realized she didn’t have any service. She tossed it down, “no service.”

“What? All the way up here?” Cody said, he looked at his own phone and shook his head.

“Oh no, I’m not staying here without cell service,” Courtney said.

“What choice do you have? You gonna hike back to the car in this storm?” Will asked.

“I just don’t get how we are practically on top of a mountain and still have no reception,” Cody said.

“It’s probably the storm,” Will said, “come on lets just go to sleep and figure it out in the morning.”

They all reluctantly agreed, mostly because they didn’t really have a choice. It was either stay in the cabin or hike a whole day’s journey back to the car in the storm, and the middle of the night. The trial could be dangerous in the best of conditions, going back in this weather would be a death wish. They all piled up in the floor by the fireplace in their sleeping bags. Courtney refused to join hers with Will’s even though he begged her. Jessica was relieved they wouldn’t have to pretend not to hear them hooking up for the next half hour. Surprising almost all of them, they fell asleep very quickly. They had let the candles burn out but left the fire burning for warmth. They were lined up in a semi-circle around it. Will, Courtney, Jessica and then Cody. Cody was closest to the door to the basement. So, it was extra confusing to Jessica when he slept through the noise that woke her up a couple hours after she fell asleep.

She knew it was coming from the basement, it sounded like metal banging against metal. She looked around at her friends to see if it would wake any of them. It didn’t. She sat up and listened. She shivered uncontrollably even though it wasn’t cold.

“Cody,” she whispered. A candle lit itself by the basement door. She gasped. She heard a whimper from downstairs. It sounded like a child in pain. She could feel her bottom lip quivering. Again, she whispered, “Cody.” She put her hand on his shoulder and shook him. He shot up to a seated position.

“What, I’m up,” he announced with his eyes still closed.

“Shh!” she put her hand over his mouth, he opened his eyes and looked at her confused, almost like he didn’t know why she was there. “Listen,” she whispered. The clanging noises had stopped for the moment, but she could still hear faint whimpering. It sounded like it was right beneath them.

“What is that?” Cody asked. Jessica shook her head and shrugged. Then they heard it grow louder.

Then, “help me, it’s too dark.” Jessica grabbed Cody’s arm and leaned into him. She was shaking all over but numb at the same time.

“Let’s go,” Cody whispered.

“Go where?” Jessica asked.

“We have to leave,” Cody said.

Suddenly Jessica felt a chill and heard a small voice say, “don’t leave me.” She muffled a scream into Cody’s arm then spun around to Courtney who was still asleep. She shook her arm violently.

“Wake up,” she said.

Courtney moaned and rubbed her eyes, “what is it?”

“We have to go!” Jessica shouted.

Will heard the commotion and woke up, “what are you talking about, it’s the middle of the night, we aren’t going anywhere.”

“Yes, we are,” Cody said standing up and pulling Jessica with him. He took her hand and they walked to the door. The rest of the candles which had been blown out started to light up one by one. Cody yanked the door open, but it flew out of his hand and slammed shut. The girls screamed and Courtney ran to her brother. Cody stared at the door in shock.

“I said no,” Will said slowly, he sounded strange, and they all turned to look at him slowly. He looked the same but also somehow different.

“What is wrong with you?” Courtney asked him. He smiled at her and didn’t say anything. She walked over to him, “Will, answer me, tell me what’s going on right now!”

That moment the basement door crashed open causing them all, except for Will to jump. Courtney huddled up to her brother and Jessica. They backed up against the front door as they began to hear heavy footsteps on the stairs up from the basement.

Jessica whispered back to Cody, “open the door.”

He tried it and it wouldn’t open, “I’m trying to,” he said. He continued to try as both the girls got more and more frantic as they yelled at him to open it. The footsteps seemed to grow closer and closer as Will walked over to the basement door and looked down.

“Hi dad,” Will said.

Cody, Jessica and Courtney were so shocked that they stopped yelling and fighting with the door for a second to all say, “what?”

“Don’t ever trust an unreliable narrator,” Will said turning to smile at them, “the story was all true, except for the year it happened and the part about Michael killing both of his children, one of us took after dad too much…”

“So, your dad isn’t dead?” Courtney asked almost hopefully.

“Oh no he is,” Will said stepping out of the way of the door exposing a gruesome and awful sight, too horrible to describe. It was Michael and he was coming at them. All three of them began trying to open the door. They were screaming and kicking and banging on the door. Will grabbed Courtney and he and the Michael creature began dragging her down to the basement. Cody and Jessica grabbed her arms and tried to hold her, but they were too strong. She was screaming as they carried her kicking and screaming down the steps. Cody ran toward the basement, but the door slammed shut. He couldn’t open it. He tried to ram into it with his shoulder, but it wouldn’t give. Jessica tried the front door again, but it wouldn’t open either. They could hear Courtney screaming from the basement. Cody tired himself out trying to get through the doorway. Jessica did the same with the front door. It was useless.

“They are going to do this to us one by one,” Jessica said. She fell back against the door and slid to the floor sobbing.

“The windows,” Cody said, “go out the windows.” He ran over to the window and opened it, it opened to their surprise.

“You wont fit,” Jessica said.

“I know, but you can, go get help,” he said.

“No there isn’t time, by the time I even get to someone…” she started.

He grabbed her shoulders, “if you don’t go, they’ll get us both, go!” he shouted. Jessica started to climb out the window as the basement door opened. They stopped and turned as several bleeding children walked out the basement door.

Cody turned to her, “get out of here, now!”

Jessica whimpered and hugged him quickly before letting him pick her up and put her feet through the window. She jumped out and landed on the front porch. She turned back to Cody.

“Come on, you can try to get out,” she said. He started the try to fit out the window. Jessica couldn’t just stand there so she ran to the front door and tried to open it. It opened easily.

“Cody,” she called into the room. She stuck her head inside and saw nothing. She looked back to the window and Cody was gone, the children were gone. Everything was gone even the fire in the fireplace was out. She grabbed a large branch and propped the door open. She walked through the doorway and saw the basement door was now shut. She hesitated for a moment but then opened it. What she saw shook her to her core. It was the back of the cabin, she stepped out and was outside again. She whirled around confused. She called out for Cody and Courtney a few times. She started to go back inside but she heard a voice.

“Don’t go back,” a woman said. Jessica spun around and saw a woman standing in the yard in a bloody white dress.

“Who are you?” Jessica asked.

“I’m Michaels wife, you are being tricked with an illusion, you have to get out of here,” she said.

“My friends,” Jessica said.

“It’s too late for them,” the woman said, “get out while you can.” Jessica stood there for a moment trying to figure out what to do. She wasn’t even sure she could get back to Cody or Courtney. The ghostly woman floated toward her quickly and yelled, “run!”

Jessica saw that Will was coming out the back door. She took off sprinting through the woods as fast as she could. She had only run a little way when she saw the Michael creature up ahead on the trail. He held out his arms as if to catch her. The ghostly woman appeared and pushed him out of Jessica’s way. Jessica ran past her. She could hear Will’s heavy footsteps running after her. The Michael ghost appeared trying to stop her a couple more times but each time his wife came and saved her. The last time she said, “we can’t go past this point.” Jessica was relieved to be away from them, but she still had Will following her. He was a lot faster than her, and she couldn’t understand how she’d gotten away from him. That’s when she dared to look back, she saw Will with a bunch of the children ghosts holding on to him slowing him down. And not far behind that she saw Cody.

She stopped, “Cody,” she shouted.

“Keep going,” Cody yelled out. She didn’t know how much longer they could all keep this up. It was rough going downhill anyway because if one of them fell and rolled the wrong way, they could roll right over the side of the mountain. This gave her and idea. She stopped and started to go back.

“What are you doing?” Cody yelled; he had almost caught up with Will.

“Children, push him that way,” Jessica yelled to them and pointed to the side of the mountain. The ghost wife appeared again.

She watched with a sad look on her face, she turned to Jessica, “he’s my son,” she said.

“But he’s going to keep doing this, he keeps supplying more victims,” Jessica said. Will’s mother just nodded. The ghost children dragged Will kicking and screaming over to the edge of the mountain and threw him over. Then they all faded away.

Jessica looked at the woman who was beginning to fade as well, “thank you,” Jessica said. The ghost nodded and faded away. Cody caught up to Jessica and they were both out of the range of Michael harming them. They sat on the ground and rested until the sun came up. During the daylight they went back to the cabin to look for Courtney. They searched the basement which had a large metal table in it. There were bloody chains attached to the table. The place smelled more horrible than anything Jessica had smelled before. They didn’t find Courtney anywhere, not even her body. They had no choice but to leave. As they were leaving Cody lit a match and dropped it in the floor. Then they started their journey down the mountain back to Will’s car. Cody had taken the keys out of Will’s bag before he set the cabin on fire.

By the time they got back to the car it was dark again. They got into the car, and both breathed a sigh of relief. But then Jessica looked up into the rearview mirror. Will was sitting in the back seat. \

She screamed.