The Light in the Window

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The Elliot Family cabin had been deserted since the late 2000’s when the father of the family, Marty Elliot; an easy going family man that coached his sons little league team, became possessed and attempted to murder his family in the cabin with a three foot crowbar. When they escaped and fled in the mother’s car, Marty pursued them in the family van before being apprehended by the police after a pursuit where Marty tried to run the cops off the road. When the police tried to cuff Marty, he lunged for an officer's gun. He was shot, but he survived and now resides at the state psychiatric hospital in a catatonic state... or so the story goes.

In the present day, friends Jeff and Vance approached the cabin. They took notice of the candle shining in the window, lightly illuminating the vegetation outside the cabin window in a warm glow. Their first thought was local teens using the cabin as a hangout spot to drink, maybe even a kid taking a girl to the cabin for a scare and a half assed attempt to get laid. Regardless of the fact the cabin was a few miles off the main trail and only accessible by the fire road that ran through the woods, the cabin was well known to locals who, for the most part, stayed away from it. There were whispers it was haunted. How could there not be? A man went into the cabin normal and came out of it possessed and trying to kill his family and himself. No matter who it was, the duo planned on investigating the cabin overnight and this was throwing a giant wrench into that plan.

They stood in front of the dilapidated cabin and wondered how they should proceed. Do they turn around and head back? Proceed in with caution? Proceed in aggressively? It was already night and they had no intentions on giving up, so turning around and heading back was out of the question. They decided to try and call out anyone who was in the cabin.

“HELLO??” Vance called out to the abandoned building.

“Anyone in there? We’re coming in!” Jeff followed up.

Vance stood and stared at the flickering candle in the front left window that lit up just enough of the exterior of the cabin to show the flaking white paint that was exposing the weathered, greyish wood underneath.

“That candle feels pretty foreboding, doesn’t it?” he asked Jeff.

Jeff just shook his head, unimpressed with the candle.

“Not in the least bit. It’s just some dumbass kid who didn’t bring a flashlight. Assholes could start a fire.” Jeff said.

Vance shook his head in agreement. They were standing in front of a building that had been abandoned for over 10 years. The entire structure was kindling just waiting for a match. The pair made their way to the ground level porch and walked to the illuminated window. They both gave each other a look before peering into the cabin through the grimy window pane. Upon first glance, there appeared to be no one. They looked in for a few more moments before walking to the front door, which was already ajar. Jeff put his hand on the old wooden door and slowly pushed it open.

“Hello?” he called out into the vacant cabin. “Anyone home?”

The pair crossed the threshold and entered into the cabins’ candle lit living room. In front of them, a staircase with a torn runner led to the black upstairs. To their left a tattered sofa, overturned end tables, and broken lamps were strewn around the floor. On their right was the dining room where a china cabinet laid face down with shattered dishes around it. The far wall of the dining room had a short hallway that led to another bedroom, the bathroom, and kitchen. Jeff and Vance began walking towards the hallway when they were interrupted by the sound of shuffling above their heads.

“Might be an animal, might be the person who lit the candle.” Jeff said.

Vance shook his head in agreement and bellowed a loud HEY that seemed to echo through the woods outside. The two stood motionless for a moment, staring at the ceiling and listening intently for the noise to happen again. After a few seconds of silence, the shuffling noises started again, only this time louder; making Jeff and Vance turn around and walk up the stairs to investigate. They reached the second floor and were met with only three options: Right into a bedroom, left into a different bedroom, or turn around and go back down. Cautiously, the pair split and went into separate rooms to investigate. They slowly pushed the bedroom doors open to find then completely empty. No sign of a person or animal, no signs of life, not even enough debris on the floor to account for the sounds they had heard.

“Nothing.” Jeff said to Vance.

“Nothing.” Vance responded. “Head back downstairs?” he asked. Jeff simply nodded his head and began walking down the steps. Vance followed, stopping a couple of times to turn around and shine his flashlight at the top of the stairs. He had sworn he heard the shuffling sound coming from behind him, but shined his light on nothing.

“This fucking place...” Vance muttered under his breath as he descended the stairs.

Upon landing on the ground floor, the pair were greeted by a loud slam that came from the hallway off the dining room. Jeff cursed and quickly shined his flashlight down the hallway to see the bedroom door slowly opening and shaking. He told Vance to check outside as he ran to the bedroom in an attempt to catch the person moving the door. Jeff burst through the door to find the bedroom completely empty. No debris or litter on the floor, no overturned furniture, nothing. Jeff walked with purpose across the room to the closet and peeked in. Empty as well. There wasn’t a soul in the room, and Jeff started to get a bad feeling. He saw the light from Vance’s flashlight scanning the area outside the bedroom window.

“Anything?” Jeff asked Vance, sticking his head out of the window. “Vance?” he asked again. He could see the silhouette of Vance against the backdrop of the darkened woods shining his flashlight, scanning the trees. He called out once more when Vance turned and shined his light directly in Jeff’s eyes. The light was so intense that for a moment it temporarily blinded Jeff.

“Dude! Come on, that’s too bright!” Jeff called out to Vance.

"What is?” was asked to Jeff directly behind him.

Jeff screamed and turned around, ready to fight whoever it was that had entered the room with him. He ended up face to face with Vance, who had also screamed because of how startled Jeff had become.

“Dude, what the fuck?!” Vance screamed. “What’s happening?!” he demanded.

“You were literally just outside! You shined your flashlight in my eyes like an asshole! How the hell did you make it in here so fast??” Jeff asked of Vance.

"Look man, I was in the dining room. I didn’t see or hear anyone outside. I looked out of the side window of the dining room. No one’s out there. It’s just us.” Vance said to Jeff in an attempt to calm him down.

"I told you to go outside, you didn’t go? You were out there shining your light around in the trees looking for someone! You were out there!” Jeff reiterated to Vance.

“Are you kidding?? Did you hear that fucking bang? I wasn’t going out there by myself!” Vance explained when he began to take notice of Jeff’s eyes. It began to look like Jeff had burned his eye lids, the skin turning bright red and his eyes began to water. Jeff pulled out a bottle of water and poured it into his eyes, hoping for some quick relief.

“What the hell is going on?” Jeff asked Vance. “AHHHH, my fucking eyes are on fire!!” he exclaimed in pain.

Vance had no reply because he had no clue what was happening, but he knew he had seen enough. He looked into the living room and noticed the candle, once burning brightly in the window, now had a small flame that barely lit the area in front of it. The room looked ominous and screamed ‘go away’. Vance turned to Jeff, now doubled over with his face in his hands and not speaking. Vance tried to comfort Jeff, but received no response. Jeff was stiff as a board and actually felt cold. Vance shook Jeff a couple of times trying to break him out of whatever had taken over him when Jeff’s left hand shot out and grabbed a hold of Vance’s right forearm, squeezing so holding on to it so tightly that Vance couldn’t shake Jeff off of him. As Vance tried in vain to get out of Jeff’s grip, he noticed Jeff’s hand was a shade of green he’d never seen on a human body in his entire life. A sense of panic came over Vance as he knew he was no longer dealing with Jeff, that something had come over him. Vance exclaimed that it was time for them to go, when Jeff finally lifted his head and looked in Vance’s direction; only the burns around Jeff’s eyes had gotten significantly worse, to the point Jeff could no longer open his eyes. However, even with his eyes closed shut, he was staring directly at Vance; right into Vance’s very soul. Jeff smiled at Vance; his teeth severely discolored to the point they looked black.

“You just got here, stay a while.” Jeff said in a voice Vance had never heard before.

Vance was finally able to free himself from Jeff’s grip by violently pulling his arm away and pushing Jeff down at the same time. Vance turned to run out of the cabin only to see the front door slam shut.

“FUCK!” Vance screamed as he desperately tried to open the door.

“Vance... what happened?” came from the dining room. The voice was 100% Jeff’s, but Vance was afraid whatever got to Jeff was trying to trick him.

“Vance... help me up man.” Jeff pleaded in a low voice.

Vance slowly made his way over to Jeff and saw his eyes were open and the skin color of his hands had returned to normal, and that was good enough for Vance. As he reached down to help Jeff up, he caught a dark figure move through the dining room hallway from right to left out of the corner of his eye. He helped Jeff up to his feet and the pair walked to the front door. They tried and tried to open the door, but it felt like it was welded shut. They tried to open the windows, but those too felt like they had been sealed. They knew there was one busted out window in the bedroom off the hallway where Jeff was blinded and Vance saw a dark figure moving around. Not wanting to go back there again, the pair returned to the living room to find the candle extinguishing and relighting itself. Jeff, finally boiling over with rage, picked up the candle and threw it into the back bedroom. The candle landed underneath the curtains and relit itself, immediately engulfing the room in flames that quickly spread into the living room.

“Son of a bitch! Let’s get the hell out of here!” Vance yelled while Jeff watched the flames glide across the ceiling and down the wall. “Jeff!!! Snap the fuck out of it!” Vance started shaking Jeff until he came to his senses. The pair ran for the dining room hallway to make their escape. As they approached the bedroom with the busted out window, a gust of ice cold air blew past them. As soon as the cold air had passed, the bedroom door slammed shut in their faces. The duo pounded on the door and tried to break it down, but it wouldn’t budge an inch. They saw the flames begin to engulf the dining room when Vance ran over to one of the over turned end tables and hurled it at the side window in the dining room, shattering it and giving the pair the exit they desperately needed. They kicked put what remained of the frame and jumped out, making their way to the front. As they turned to watch the cabin burn, they were horrified to see... nothing happening. The cabin was not on fire. In fact, the cabin looked exactly as it did when they approached it, minus the lit candle. Jeff and Vance looked at each other, then back to the cabin. As they looked in disbelief, the candle that had originally given Vance the foreboding feeling relit itself. The flame starting low until it worked its way up to being fully lit. As they watched in disbelief and horror, they heard a click on the front of the cabin. The front door had opened itself, and slowly opened until it was slightly ajar; just as it was when they went in.

The pair shook their heads, turned around, and left the Elliot Family cabin as they had found it. As they walked down the path to pick up the fire road, Jeff looked down and saw a three foot crowbar rusting away in the grass. As he looked at it, his eyes began burning again. He reached down and picked up the crowbar, then looked at the back of Vance’s head, unbeknownst to Vance who had continued walking. The longer Jeff held the crowbar and looked at the back on Vance’s head, the less his eyes burned. Jeff walked down the path and caught up to Vance. As he slowly raised the crowbar over his head, the candle in the window slowly extinguished itself; completely going out for good when Jeff swung the crowbar down.