Cabin 17

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Sam noticed this and couldn’t break her gaze. The glass to the abandoned Cabin 17 looked like it had been vandalized.

The curtain slowly swayed back and forth as the breeze came in and out of the hole. Within an instant, it seemed that someone had quickly passed as their shadow casted on the wall.

“Boo!” shouted Darla from behind.

Sam jumped in her seat but noticed who it was, “Oh screw you, Darla! That wasn’t funny.”

“Bet you didn’t think that could happen. You boast all of the time about how you’re not scared.”

“That’s not true.”

“Says who?”

“Says me and I don’t have the time to bicker back and forth about it anyway.” Sam turned back around to look out of the window at the cabin. The candle had been blown out.

Darla came close to Sam’s ear, “Do you really think someone’s in there?”

“Not a chance.” Ramona ejected, “That Cabin is the throwaway cabin. It was just built as a model for the rest of ours.”

“No, that’s not true! I heard that it belonged to another group several years ago. That someone slept with a counselor and a love triangle ensued. One of them burnt the place down with the other two in it!” Curly blonde haired Taylor chimed in.

“None of you make any sense. Do you hear yourselves? It’s just a stupid cabin!” shouted Sam. Suddenly their lights went out. In the darkness none of them screamed. It was more of a shock than terror.

Moments later, they heard a knock on their cabin door. All of them were trying to be quiet while frantically trying to find something to protect themselves with. They anticipated their fate as they heard the door creak open.

With the glow of a flashlight, it was no one other than Dale. The camp maintenance man, “Oh, sorry girls! It’s just me. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to let you know that we got a power outage and we are on the money to fixing it.”

The feeling of relief filled the room and Dale passed out a couple of candles to keep the room lit until further notice.

“Dale, you nearly killed me.” Ramona laughed.

“Oh, I wouldn’t blame you. Everyone’s talking about it.”

“Talking about what?” asked Taylor.

“Oh you know, that thing that happened when I was a camper here. People make up all kinds of versions about what really happened just to scare each other.” Dale explained.

All of them had a look of confusion on their faces.

“About Danny—Danny Shaler,” Dale turned around for a moment to look outside and then came into the cabin, shutting the door behind him, “Danny Shaler was a good kid. He was a lifeguard, worked on his family’s ranch, was devoted to his loved ones and whatnot.

“The only sad thing about Danny is that he had a heart of gold. When the other kids would get bullied, if Danny saw it, he stopped it. He wanted to be a police officer, you know.

What happened to him was so sad.” Dale took a seat, sat down and wiped his nose with the end of his sleeve.

“I was by the lake with a girl who Danny apparently liked. I didn’t know that until he came up to us and joined our casual conversation.

I mentioned how pretty she was and suddenly she became sick. She continued to say very cruel things about my appearance, because of my skin condition.

Danny tried to make her stop. But she was trying to get him to side with her. When that didn’t work, she started backing me up down the dock, trying to make me fall in to the lake. I had a fear of the water and she wouldn’t stop. That’s Danny tried to grab her but she pulled away and pushed him. She didn’t realize that when she pushed him, he lost his balance and fell off. He hit his head on one of the rocks. We called for help and was sent to the hosptial. I heard that he didn’t come back the Danny we all knew and loved.”

“Where is Danny now?” Sam asked.

“Who knows,” Dale stole up from his chair, “He’s probably gone by now. By the way, I have to also get going. I’ll see you girls around.” He nodded and left the cabin.

About an hour later, they decided that it was their time to go to bed. Meanwhile, Sam was finding it hard to sleep because she couldn’t shake off the feeling that someone was watching her in the dark.

Tuesday, August 6, 1974

It has been one week since the black out and the shadow person in Cabin 17. Yet every night since then, Sam would hear a voice whispering her name outside of her cabin over and over again. It was too bizarre and creepy for her to tell the others, nor did she think anyone would believe her. Was she losing sleep? Having auditorial hallucinations? She didn’t know anymore.

That night Sam pulled out a chair, turned it backward and sat down to watch Cabin 17 determined to find something or someone.

“Back at it again?” Darla taunted, “Oh whatever, just leave it alone. It won’t bother you, if you don’t bother it.” She walked to her bunk and sat down to paint her toenails.

“I’m telling you, something is out there.”

“The only thing out there, is dirt and bugs and I like neither of them.” Ramona said, “I’m going to shower.” She threw a towel over her shoulder and walked into the bathroom.

“I’m going to go check to see if my towel dried on the deck.” Sam stood up and went outside.

During the summer, the temperatures dropped in the Adriondacks. Sam took a look at her towel and it was still wet, “Oh c’mon.” She sighed.

“Stacy.” A hushed male voice called out from the darkness.

Sam froze and looked around only with her eyes. She didn’t see anyone. Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks again because she over the feeling of being afraid. She brushed it off and walked around to the back of the cabin. From there she could see Cabin 17 all withered out with a collapsed roof and taken over by vegetation.

She turned around and looked up at the window above her head to see the girls up and about, like they hadn’t noticed her gone for so long. Looking back at Cabin 17, she carefully made her way through the trees to reach the front door. It didn’t have a lock, with one tap and you can swing most of it open.

Inside there was only one chair in the middle, an end table and a candle stick. The floors creaked and it smelled like mold. In one room that she passed by, there were empty food cans and flies buzzing around, she had to swat them away from her face.

The further she went, she noticed a staircase leading to another part of the cabin. Before going down, she took one look behind her then carefully went down the stairs step by step.

Halfway down at waist level, she squatted down, peaked from the top of the railing. There was a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.

Abruptly, a vile smell of something rotten hit her. She gagged and covered her nose and mouth with her hand to avoid making any noise. The closer she got, the smell intensitified.

When she reached the back of that room, it was poorly lit but she could make out something sitting upright on the floor in the dark. She felt around for a light switch and turned on the light.

The room was scattered with female human remains. Hammered to the walls were photographs and Missing Person posters of different women who looked similar to each other. They all had long, brown, straight hair and brown eyes and so did Sam.

She turned around to run out of there but when she reached the top of the stairs, the door shut and she was locked inside. Footsteps could be heard approaching from below. Same kept hitting the door with her shoulder to get out. She managed to crack the wood and forced the door open. She ran for her life out of that cabin. She turned around for a second and saw that the maintenance man was standing in the doorway, expressionless.

Sam didn’t stop until she reached her cabin. Fighting back her tears, she explained what she saw. The police were called in and they searched Cabin 17.

While Sam was giving a description of who and what she saw, she stopped talking to hear the boss of the maintenance team say that no one by the name of Dale worked on the camp. The camp still did not know what caused the blackout either the other week either.