That Way

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. It flickered to life, illuminating the dark silhouette of a tall man past the sheer curtains that remained – forgotten, dirty, but still intact.

If anyone from town had been in the woods that night and saw him, they may have recognized him as Mr. Drokit. That’s right, you might have heard of Todd Drokit – great grandson of the late big business mogul and richest man in the town’s history, Ernest Drokit.

Recently named the new owner of his great grandfather’s legacy, Todd was a well-known man. He was extremely handsome and charismatic and every woman in town seemed to have a crush on him. He remained chronically single, however, and there were whispers that he may not have actually liked women in that way.

Despite these rumors, Todd had an audience everywhere he went. He would toss out smiles and winks like they were as precious as gold, and women accepted them like they were. He was an ideal business-man – good with people and good with words, smart and tactful. And he was stinking rich, thanks to his old great grandpops, and with the freedom to do pretty much whatever he wanted in and out of his giant mansion, someone passing by that one night might have been confused. Why was Todd Drokit visiting a rickety, old, abandoned cabin?

Well, it might not be that surprising when I tell you that that cabin belonged to his older brother, Shaun. But you said it was abandoned, you might be thinking. And yes, at the time that this happened, it was.

You see, Shaun Drokit was the opposite of Todd – short and drawn into himself with a humped back that was speculated to be a birth defect, though it may as well have been a habit of poor posture that turned permanent. His eyes were said to be unsettling when they rested on you, not that they did often or for long.

It is said that Shaun was furious when he learned the family business would be handed over to his younger brother instead of him. They say he went mad, binging drugs and alcohol and forming violent tendencies. In his delirium, he decided to abandon the family that he felt had abandoned him. And he decided to take it a step further and abandon civilization; or, at least step away from it. So he chose to live out the rest of his years isolated in a cabin in the woods.

He was presumed dead after a few years, once his visits into town once every couple of months to restock on necessities dwindled down to never. And thus, his cabin and his few belongings left inside became abandoned.

No one felt the need to touch it after it was collectively decided that Shaun had died, because what valuables would Shaun Drokit the hermit even have? No one felt the need to claim it as their own when they had perfectly fine houses in town, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the occasional hobo wandered in there for a night. That’s right, it was left, surrendered to the forces of nature, and it was essentially forgotten and overgrown with vegetation by the time Todd decided to visit it.

So why did Todd visit that night? As far as anyone knew, he had never visited his brother or his cabin before, not even when he was known to still be alive. Maybe he decided that there could be some worth in this cabin, once he cleaned it up a bit. Was he a greedy man, planning to rent out his late brother’s final home to earn even more money?

No, Todd Drokit was worse than greedy.

He was vile.

He was a monster.

Because you see, he did visit the cabin that night, and the nights after, to fix it up. He did cut away the vegetation outside, and dusted off the cobwebs inside. He made it a livable space again, with electricity and running water and new pieces of furniture.

But he also made it unescapable. He did everything he could think of to soundproof it, in the off chance someone might travel past while exploring the typically untouched woods. He broke off the locks in the windows and every door except the main entrance, of which he had the only key that he kept close to him at all times, making them impossible to open. He covered the windows with planks of wood, preventing any sunlight or peeping eyes from entering. He filled the rooms with chains and handcuffs, carving knives and bottles of chloroform. He covered the floors with tarps for easy clean up. He made it livable again, sure, but he made it a prison.

A prison for the young teenage girls that he collected in the following years. Six, that we know of.

So I guess the rumors were true. He didn’t like women in that way.

It is said that he had lured the girls into trusting him with his dazzling smile and his family name, and when they got too close, he would snatch them away from their families and decide that they were now a part of his, and only his, housed in the cabin he had claimed for himself.

No one knows the full extent of what he did to his victims, the understandably traumatized teens refusing to publicly speak on their experiences. They wanted to try to resume the lives they had before he uprooted them with his twisted desires, and the rest of the people in town respected that, to an extent.

But there was still speculation, as one would always expect once a gentleman is revealed to actually be the devil’s incarnate. I’m sure you’re imagining what happened to them right now, aren’t you? Horrifying, isn’t it?

The people couldn’t believe it. They had loved him. He was like a celebrity in his own right; they always kept their eye on his every move. But not closely enough, apparently.

It took five years for the police to discover the cabin and the poor girls inside. A handful of missing persons cases gone cold months and years prior, and it took them that long to finally catch Mr. Drokit. Some believe the police had known the whole time, and they chose not to stop him simply because of who he was. Maybe they were even in on it, allowed into the “family” every now and then to keep their mouths shut.

Of course, it’s all alleged. When he was inevitably arrested, though, he wasn’t given the death penalty. The people rallied for it; evil like that shouldn’t exist in this world. But no, he was tossed in an insane asylum the next town over.

He had pleaded insanity, something to do with his brother “making him do it”. Because, oh yeah, Shaun was discovered with the girls, too. Or rather, his body was. Barely recognizable, having been slowly decomposing for years and years, long before Todd began his serial kidnappings. They say he wasn’t all there, like pieces of him had been carved off like a Thanksgiving turkey, and he was pinned to the wall by the front door like a scarecrow to keep the girls too frightened to try to pass him to escape. Presumably Todd’s doing, of course.

So maybe Todd was a little insane.

He’s in the asylum still, having only been in his early forties when he was caught, and he’s supposedly stuck there for life. But just the idea of him being alive after all of the horrible things he did is repulsive, isn’t it? And with all the prison breaks that’s been happening around the country – you’ve heard about that, right? – imagine what would happen if he broke out. I shudder to even think about it.

And so do you. Look at that shiver!

Oh, it’s not cold and you know it.

So you’re saying you’re not freaked out? Okay, but what if I told you it all happened in this cabin, the one behind you? Why they didn’t demolish it after what they discovered inside, who knows?

But if you want some advice, keep an eye on that cabin tonight. Maybe even sleep with one eye open.

Because if you see a light in the window, be prepared to run. It may very well be Mr. Drokit, newly escaped and on the hunt for more victims.