The Perfect Couple

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

It was a school night.

Tommy and Katie weren’t supposed to be out this late but they wanted to be alone tonight, just this once.

The football star and the head cheerleader.

The perfect couple.

The only problem was they had nowhere to be the perfect couple outside of school.

Neither Tommy nor Katie’s parents approved of their little romance.

Tommy’s dad was living vicariously through his son via the football career he never had.

Having a girlfriend put that football career in jeopardy.

At least that’s how Tommy’s dad felt.

A girlfriend required time and attention, time and attention that Tommy should be putting towards practicing because who knows when colleges would start scouting the local high schools!

Tommy’s mom ran off with her yoga instructor years ago.

Maybe it was the divorce that really made Tommy’s dad so bitter about Katie coming around after school, but Tommy was expected to eat, sleep, and breathe football.

No exceptions.

Katie’s parents were still together but were just as controlling.

Katie’s older sister Margaret was the family disappointment.

Margaret dropped out of college after one semester and currently lives in a studio apartment with a 30 year old aspiring grunge revival rockstar named Skunk.

Whenever Margaret came home to visit she reeked of marijuana and incense, sending her parents into a chastising frenzy.

Katie thought her sister was cool and fun despite having polar opposite lifestyle choices.

Katie was bubbly and popular and loved being a cheerleader.

Her parents, who refused to have another wayward child, were very strict about her curfew and having friends over so she could stay on track.

Anytime Tommy came over it was almost completely supervised and only allowed to last until 8PM.

Luckily Katie and Tommy would usually have football and cheerleading practice at the same time so after they were done with their respective engagements they would find a quiet spot beneath the bleachers to be alone together.

But tonight Tommy knew of another place they could go.

Somewhere they could really be alone.

He’d known about it all his life.

The cabin in the woods.

He knew there was a dumb urban legend that parents would tell their kids but that was just to keep them out of the woods at night.

Tommy had friends who had only found the cabin but never went inside because they were too scared.

But no one lived there.

As far as anyone knew no one even owned the cabin.

It was the perfect place to get away from everyone.

So Tommy told Katie he was taking her somewhere special tonight.

“But it’s a school night!”, Katie protested.

“I know, I know,” Tommy replied while caressing Katie’s hands.

“It’ll just be for tonight and the worst our parents will do is ground us for a week which can’t be worse than what we already deal with.”

They were sitting in Tommy’s old pickup truck in the parking lot at their school.

Practice had just ended but they didn’t want their night to.

Katie looked down at her anxiously tapping feet.

“I guess I could break curfew just this once,” she said meekly.

“My dad is going to freak out if he knows I broke it with you though.”

Tommy lifted Katie’s hands to his mouth and kissed the back of each one.

“Don’t even worry about that. It’ll all work out just fine.”

No words were spoken the whole drive to the woods.

Katie had tried to spark up a few conversations with Tommy but he only made the occasional grunt in acknowledgement or an empty chuckle to anything she said.
He wasn’t acting like himself.

“Hey, you never really said what this ‘special place’ was. Where are we even going?”

Tommy kept his eyes on the road ahead as he replied.

“You’ll see.”

Something in his tone made Katie a little uneasy.

Maybe he was actually worried about being out past their curfews.

She knew Tommy’s dad was super strict, even worse than her parents were.

Supporting Tommy was very important to her but his dad seemed to only think of her as a distraction.

She wanted them both to have successful athletic careers, but they weren’t machines that never needed rest.

They rarely had enough time for fun, let alone each other.

More importantly, the high school sweethearts were in love.

Their parents couldn’t see it but it was real love, not a distraction from their goals or a teenage infatuation.

They talked about their future together after high school, even after college.

Katie would keep cheerleading and major in sports communications.

Tommy would be the star QB at whatever college Katie wanted to go to.

His grades weren’t the greatest but it wouldn't matter anyway with how good he played.

Anything to be near Katie.

Then they would graduate and Tommy would go on to play in the NFL and Katie could be a broadcaster.

With her love of sports and sunny personality there’s no way she couldn’t land a job in sports entertainment or something of the like.

Anything to be near Tommy.

He wasn’t like the other guys on his team.

They all jokingly called him Thomas Shakespeare on account of his penchant for poetry.

Tommy loved reading and writing poems.

Especially poems about love.

When Katie and Tommy started dating in junior year he wrote a poem about how happy he was.

Then he wrote another one the next month and the month after that.

He wrote a new poem for Katie every month since they became a couple.

Katie was due for a new poem soon and she couldn’t be more thrilled to receive it.

Maybe that’s why he was acting so weird, he was nervous about giving her his new poem!

Or maybe he was going to break up with her…

No, why would he do that?

He loved her.

They were happy and they already made plans for their life together.

Everything was going to work out just fine, just like he said.

It was the end of a chilly September, quickly turning into an even chillier October.

The sun had set by the time Tommy and Katie got to the cabin.

They had driven a full hour away from the school to get there.

Half of that hour was down a dirt road only wide enough for one car to go down.

The trees that surrounded them were giant and creaked loudly in protest to the autumnal wind.

Goosebumps formed all over Katie’s skin.

This was not the romantic cabin she was expecting.

It was small and looked condemned.

The right side window was boarded up with wooden planks.

The front door was wide open.

The window on the left had a baseball sized hole in it.

Through the jagged broken glass Katie could see a dim light.

A small flickering flame.

Once Tommy put the truck in park and turned the engine off, Katie gasped softly as everything went dark.

Everything but the flame.

Tommy sat silently and motionless.

Katie was too creeped out to say anything.

The sound of the wind sweeping through the trees became louder in the silence between them.

Suddenly Tommy grabbed Katie’s left hand and she gasped again.

She could barely see Tommy’s smiling face as he said,

“I can’t wait to show you what’s inside.”

Before Katie could respond Tommy was getting out of the truck and walking over to the passenger door.

He opened the door and held her hand as she hopped down.

The sound of the car door slamming behind her made her gasp once again.

“You’re so jumpy.” Tommy whispered.

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms reassuringly.

His rubbing slowly got firmer as he gripped her arms and started pushing her gently towards the cabin.

“I…I don’t think I like it here, Tommy. We’re really far from home and it’s getting really late.”

Katie fumbled around in her purse for her cellphone.

“I should at least call my mom and let her know I’m okay.”

As she pulls her phone out of her purse Tommy grabs her hand and pulls the phone from her fingers.

“Tommy!” Katie exclaimed.

“What the hell, Katie? You want to call your mom in the middle of my surprise for you? I did all of this for you and now you want to ruin it?”

He threw the phone down hard onto the leaf covered ground.

Katie started backing away, every step bringing her closer to the cabin.

“I’m sorry, Tommy. I wasn’t trying to ruin anything.”

She kept walking backwards towards the cabin, slightly tripping as she stepped awkwardly onto fallen branches atop the uneven terrain.

“You’ve just been acting strange the whole way here and I’m honestly getting a little scared now.”

Tommy stopped walking.

Katie stopped too.

“Scared?” Tommy said quietly.

“Am I scaring you? Why would you be scared of me? I love you. Come here.”

He reached his arms out to her.

Katie stood for a few seconds, unsure of how to feel.

This was Tommy.

The love of her life.

Why was she so scared?

He’d never hurt her.

She walked slowly into Tommy’s open arms.

His arms draped over her petite frame ever so carefully.

The soothing comfort of being in his embrace dropped Katie’s defenses and she felt safe and happy again.

She wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him closer to her.

Tommy’s warm and safe arms tightened a little.

“Tommy?” Katie asked shakily.

His arms tightened around her even more.

“Tommy, you’re hurting me.” Panic started entering her tone.

She looked up and met his eyes.

Even in the darkness she could tell the face she looked into was not Tommy’s.

All of the white of his eyes seemed to be gone.

He was smiling but he showed no teeth.

The most sinister looking smile she had ever seen.

She started to pull back hard from his arms, trying to yank herself from his embrace but he held onto her tightly.

She started screaming and pulling back even harder, frantically thrashing against him.

Once she finally felt her body free from his grip she ran into the cabin and slammed the door behind her.

Tears streamed down her face as she started to sob uncontrollably.

She was so utterly confused and scared.

Is this what he had planned all along?

Why was he doing this?

“Mmmm.”

There was someone behind her.

Was it Tommy?

It couldn’t be.

How did he get in?

Was there another door?

All of these questions ran through Katie’s head as she trembled, refusing to turn around.

Then the sound of a floorboard creaking.

Katie was clinging to the front door for dear life.

She couldn’t decide if she should open the door and run or stay inside and fight whoever was behind her.

Whatever was behind her.

Another floorboard creaked.

They were getting closer.

It was time to decide.

Katie turned around.

It was Tommy.

Smiling without showing teeth and no white in his eyes.

Katie was too frightened to scream as he stepped closer and stopped.

The black eyed Tommy turned his head away from her and looked at a spot behind him.

Katie followed his gaze and saw her Tommy, the real Tommy lying on the floor in his letterman jacket.

He was lying on his back, eyes wide open and lifeless.

There was a giant hole in his chest and dried blood spilled all around his body.

Katie fell to her knees, sobbing.

“Why?” She wailed.

Black eyed Tommy knelt down in front of her, still smiling.

“He did this for you.”

The voice that came out of him was awful.

It was Tommy’s voice but it was cracking at every word, like another voice was trying to come out.

A sad deep voice.

“He came last night. He brought this.”

Black eyed Tommy gestured at the lone candle still flickering on the windowsill.

“He didn’t know I was here. None of them know I’m here. I’ve always been here.”

Katie was shaking and sobbing.

She wanted to run to Tommy’s lifeless body and hold him just one more time.

Before she could even try, black eyed Tommy lifted his arm towards her, a bloody piece of folded paper in his hand.

“For you.”

Katie kept her eyes on dead Tommy as she shakily grabbed the bloody paper from him.

She slowly opened it.

In big black blood smeared letters it read,

Sweet Katie.

My Love So True.

There Is Nothing I Wouldn’t Do.

If It Meant Forever,

Surely,

I Would Die For You.

“Would you do the same?”

Katie looked up at the monster, and the candlelight blew out.