Nightmare at Miller Cabin

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

“Did someone buy the old Miller cabin?” Mya asked, squinting to try and get a better look.

“No, it’s still completely condemned,” Josh said.

“But there’s a light on in there, a candle” Mya pointed.

“Probably just some dumb kids” Josh said, twisting open his beer.

“Maybe” Mya said, uncertain “I don’t think we should try it after all, though.”

“You watch too many scary movies, weirdo. It’ll be fine.” He smirked at her. Mya rolled her eyes but smiled.

Josh and Mya had just finished setting up their tent for their annual camping trip. They came every year for Josh’s birthday. Just up the hill, outside the official campgrounds was an old, now abandoned cabin. It used to belong to the Miller family, who had an unfortunate tragedy causing the cabin to be condemned by the county, never to be used or sold again. It was condemned over 20 years ago and had been empty ever since. Josh and Mya had been camping out here for the last 10 years, always at the same site, the old cabin almost like a beacon. Seeing it emerge into view always meant it was that time of year. It had been the backdrop of many memories there: giggling together around the fire, petty arguments, fooling around in the tent, listening to True Crime podcasts beneath the stars. But tonight was different. Tonight they had actually planned to go up there, but now Mya wasn’t so sure.

Josh unfolded their camping chairs and set them both next to the fire pit. Mya opened up the cooler and grabbed a beer for each of them. Soon it was dark, and the only light around was their campfire. Mya had given Josh a brand new telescope for his birthday. Knowing that for the past decade, the cabin had been abandoned, they planned to hike up there with the new telescope. It sat up on a hill and even had a raised deck that would be the perfect spot.

They drank and chatted for a couple of hours. Josh looked at his watch - 10:30pm. It would take them about 20 minutes to hike up to the cabin. They gathered their things: the telescope, some flashlights, a few more beers, a blanket, and a can of bear spray and headed for the trail that would lead them out of the campsite and into the wilderness beyond. They each carried a flashlight, gnats and dust shimmering in the narrow beams of light bouncing along their path.

“Do you remember the story of what happened up here?” Mya asked

“Vividly.” Josh said

“My mom and I hadn’t moved down here yet” Mya said “and besides, I was 12. I didn’t watch the news and my mom tried to keep me from stories like that.”

“I was a sophomore in high school and it was big news. Luke went to my school and was supposed to graduate that year.”

“Luke Miller?!” Mya shouted in disbelief. Ahead, the candle in the window of the cabin flickered, but neither Mya or Josh saw this. “You went to school with him???”

“Yep. We didn’t talk but I had him in some classes. He was new to the school. After it happened, grief counselors came to school that week. It was really surreal.”

“Shit. Okay, well tell me the story. The details are all fuzzy for me.”

“The story goes that John moved his family here from somewhere in the Midwest. They were kind of recluses and liked this area since it’s out in the forest with not much around. John built the cabin from the ground up. They had 2 kids, Luke, who was a little older than me, and a little girl named Abby who was about 8 or 9. She was homeschooled, and Luke had been too until they moved here and he convinced his parents to let him go to traditional school. The mom, Beth, was strange, quiet. Legend has it no one but her family ever heard her speak. She didn’t work and never, never left the house. They were all a little weird, a little off.

Weird things started happening in the cabin. Things easy to write off, at first. Lights turned on or off randomly. Faucets would turn themselves on, or the water would turn ice cold at a moment’s notice. Maybe electric issues, maybe plumbing issues. But then it got more strange. They would hear footsteps up in the attic when they were all downstairs. They heard their names being whispered to them when no one else was there. Luke and Abby would be dead asleep and be awoken to someone, something, pulling at their covers from the foot of the bed.

These kinds of things ramped up until it all came to a head. John snapped. It was a Saturday night, the first Saturday in July. John made dinner for the family that night and poisoned his wife and kids. He took them into the foyer, doused the whole house in gas and then went back to sit with them and lit a match.”

“Crap, that’s - that’s awful. But the house, it’s…”

“Still mostly intact, yep. Somehow, the fire was contained to just the entryway. The front door, the foyer, and their bodies burned. But nothing else. That’s part of how they gathered most of what happened. John kept a journal and had documented everything that was happening along with his descent into madness, I guess.”

“That is so freaking sad and scary. I can’t believe I never knew all of that. So, then what happened, when were they found?”

“Some campers noticed the fire and called for help. But the fire put itself out before the firefighters could even get there. They found 3 charred bodies and minimal damage to the cabin.”

“3 bodies?!”

“Mhm. Beth, Luke, and Abby. John left a note indicating his plan to die with his family, and they found evidence he burned there too, perhaps worse than the other 3. It’s a closed case but most people believe he escaped. Some say he returns every year at this time to mourn his family.”

“Josh! You’re messing with me,” Mya said, nerves evident in her voice. Josh laughed.

“About the last part, yes. But they really didn’t find a fourth body.”

Josh and Mya stopped walking. They had reached the property. The cabin loomed up at them. They shined their flashlights across its exterior. From here, they could clearly see the charred and brittle wood surrounding what used to be the front door. But the rest of the building looked completely untouched by fire.

Josh began to head inside.

“Wait, look” Mya pointed to the side of the building, the window in which she saw the candle burning earlier that night. The candle was out, and no longer visible.

“Well, let’s explore. If there’s really a candle in there, we’ll be able to tell if it was lit recently, right?”

“You saw it too.”

“I don’t know what I saw. But let’s go check it out. If it’s there and was clearly recently extinguished, we’ll get out of here. If there’s nothing there, we’ll head to the deck and set up the telescope.”

Mya thought about it. Her curiosity outweighed the nagging feeling in her gut telling her not to enter. She nodded.

Josh and Mya entered through the destroyed doorway. Josh scanned his flashlight across the room, looking for any sign of life. Although the burned down doorway exposed the cabin to the outdoors, somehow it was colder inside. Significantly colder.

The foyer was indeed ruined by fire - the wood floor boards were charred, black and brittle. Smoke damage ran up the walls alongside the entrance, covering the faded wallpaper in dark black smoke stains. But beyond that - just outside the perimeter of the entryway, the rest of the cabin was entirely untouched by fire damage. The rest of the cabin appeared to be locked in time: plates on the dining table, an empty pot on the stove, dolls laid out on the living room floor. But it was all covered with layers of dust and spiderwebs, completely untouched in a decade.

“Creepy,” whispered Mya.

A rustling from upstairs interrupted their inspection of the lower level. Josh pressed his finger to his lips and put his hand in front of Mya. They both looked towards the upstairs level, trying to decipher where the noise came from.

The rustling continued and was then followed by hooting. An owl. They heard flapping and Josh shone his flashlight upstairs. The large brown owl was briefly illuminated as it flew across the interior balcony to somewhere else upstairs. It appeared to fly into the room where Mya had seen the candle.

“Josh, you know how I feel about owls, let’s just get out of here.”

“It just got spooked because it heard us. That’s all that’s here.” He headed for the stairs leading upstairs. Mya faltered at the bottom of the steps.

“Would you prefer to stay down here? Alone?” Josh shone the flashlight at his face when he said it, and grinned extra wide. Mya smiled.

“I hate you.” She said, “But, fuck it I guess, let’s go.”

She followed him up the stairs. The energy noticeably shifted. She felt a heaviness on her chest but Josh didn’t seem bothered, so she continued behind him. They slowly investigated upstairs, peeking into what used to be the kid’s bedrooms. Posters were still half-up on Luke’s wall, partially hanging off peeling wallpaper. A guitar lay across the bed with broken strings. Abby’s room had yellowing drawings beginning to curl and crumble strewn across a small desk. A teddy bear sat on the bed, tilted over, waiting for an owner who was never coming back up to hold him again.

“Hmm?” Josh said out of nowhere, turning towards Mya.

“What?” Mya asked.

“You said my name.”

“No, I haven’t said anything.”

“You just whispered my name. I heard it.”

“Are you messing with me again?” Mya asked, annoyed.

“Are you messing with me?” Josh asked, clearly getting frustrated too.

“No. I didn’t say anything,” Mya said. “You really heard your name?”

“Yes, whispered right into my ear.” They looked at each other for a moment, understanding and fear settling in. Josh shook his head.

“Maybe I imagined it. Let’s just keep looking around.”

They finished looking around in Abby’s room and then headed across the hall to John and Beth’s bedroom. The room with the candle. And now the owl. They hesitated at the door to the room while Josh scanned it with the flashlight. He hit every corner and then the window. No candle.

“See. It’s all good.” They entered the room and Josh peeked into the closet, looking for a sign of the owl, or a nest. There was nothing to be found.

“We didn’t imagine the damn owl, Josh. We saw it come in here.”

“Well, it’s not here now.”

They approached the window and peered outside. They could see warm light coming from the campgrounds, other campers with their firepits. It felt far away. Like a memory. Suddenly, the door to the bedroom slammed shut.

“It - uh, must be the wind” Josh stammered, and approached the door. He grabbed the doorknob and turned but the door would not budge.

Mya didn’t even seem to notice. She was fixated on something she saw outside the window.

“Josh, look.”

“Mya this door won’t open.”

“Come here and look!” She shouted. She pointed at something downstairs. Josh joined her at the window. He could see it too. Although it was very dark, they could just make out the shape of a person standing below them. It appeared the person was looking up at them, but they couldn’t be sure. Josh fumbled with the old latch on the window and managed to push it open. He shone the flashlight down at the person below them.

Looking back up at them was the burned and scarred face of John Miller.

Josh and Mya screamed in unison and ran for the door. This time, Josh was able to open it and they ran down the stairs. As they ran, all the bedroom doors upstairs slammed open and shut. Downstairs, they were barraged with the sound of hundreds of whispers.

They ran for the doorway and felt the intense heat of fire as they passed through it - but there was no fire in sight. They didn't stop running until they were halfway down the path back to the campgrounds. They stopped to catch their breath and looked back towards the cabin. Again, there was a candle burning in the window.

They made their way back to their campsite and silently packed their things. They kept looking at each other, opening their mouths to speak and then looking away, unsure of what to even say.

That was the last year they would camp there, but they would forever be plagued by nightmares of what happened at the Miller cabin.