The Reducers

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

Sarah couldn’t figure out what possessed her to come here in the middle of the night. Something drew her in. It was the overwhelming urge to find out what happened to her sister. There is nothing left to fear if the worst has already happened. At least, that’s what she would like to believe. So when she heard a voice call out to her in her sleep, she had to act. It only occurred to her now, that perhaps, she should not have done so without concern for her own safety.

It all started five years ago. It was the first day of summer. Holly, who was Sarah’s sister, had planned a weekend together with her boyfriend Dan and their friends, Bridget and Connor at the cabin by the lake. They couldn’t believe they had this place all to themselves. A paradise, in the middle of nowhere. As they unpacked, the group was startled by a loud scream. It was Bridget. There was a large insect crawling up the entrance to the cabin. Dan jumped to her rescue but paused when he realized how silly it was to panic over such a harmless creature.

Dan: “Hey, Connor! Come check this out. Do you know if this is a mantis?”

Connor walked over, and before anyone could say anything, he immediately stomped on the helpless insect. He lifted his sneaker up to find its remains smeared all over his heel.

Connor: “Sorry, bro… I don’t think there’s enough left for me to identify anything. I’m sure it was a mantis, though.”

With that problem solved, they finished unpacking. The rest of their day was filled with the usual activities, swimming in the lake, grilling their food, drinking beer. By nightfall, they found themselves lounging by the warmth of a bonfire. Talked drifted towards the lack of privacy in the cabin since there are no partitions to separate the space inside into rooms. There were just two large beds on opposite sides of the cabin.

“That could get awkward,” Dan joked. The rest burst into laughter. As it got late, the couples thought of turning in for the night. As they settled into their respective beds, Holly felt the need to comment on a situation developing on the other side of the cabin.

Holly: “Ew, gross! I can hear you guys kissing, you know!”

Bridget: “Connor, cut it out!”

Connor: “Gawd… can we get some privacy around here?”

Quiet eventually fell over the cabin. Then, suddenly, Connor was jolted awake by a bright light and then a hand over his mouth. It was Bridget, holding a flashlight over his face, telling him to hush with her hand over his mouth. She took his hand and they both quietly snuck out of the cabin to get some much needed privacy.

They found a nice spot behind some trees and they resumed the kissing that they were doing earlier that night. Bridget’s hand brushed against something rough that was clinging on to her nightgown. She tried to ignore it at first but when she felt it again, she was forced to pause their activity to check it out. What she found almost made her scream if Connor hadn’t put his hand over her mouth to avoid waking up the others. It was a large insect-like creature that looked like a shrimp with bulging eyes but was flat like a cockroach. Its legs and body were red in colour but the rest of it is black. It seemed harmless at first until she found another one sticking to a different part of her gown. Then she found another one. There were now three stuck to her gown. They slowly started making their way up her body. She desperately tried to brush them off but they hooked themselves well to her clothing. Connor helped too, but they just wouldn’t come off. Not only that, but there seemed to be more and more of them coming. Finally, Bridget felt one crawling up her leg and she lost it. Her panic made her claw away at the creatures, scratching her own skin in the process. Her entire lower body was now covered with them, all making their way up her body, around her chest and they were now almost on her neck, on their way to her face. She screamed and shrieked, eyes wide as the creatures have swarmed her face and have started crawling inside her open mouth. She gagged and choked but they kept crawling into her mouth, almost a hundred now, covering her entire body. At this point, Connor was nowhere to be found. He had gone back to the cabin to wake the others for help.

When Connor came back with Dan and Holly, Bridget was gone. Not dead, but missing. There was no trace of her where Connor had left her. They ended up searching for most of the night but with no luck. Exhausted, they decided to head back to the cabin just as dawn came. There was no cellphone reception in the area around the cabin so both Dan and Holly decided to walk closer to the entrance of the trail leading to the cabin to see if there would be reception there. Connor was left in the cabin all by himself, where he involuntary fell into a deep sleep due to exhaustion.

When he woke up, it was dark. And the cabin was still empty. Dan and Holly hadn’t returned. It was eerily quiet. Connor decided to resume the search for Bridget all by himself. As he opened the door to the cabin, he noticed a figure shuffling in the woods a few yards from where he was standing. He squinted his eyes to get a better look and sure enough, it was a figure of a young woman. It was Bridget. He was sure it was her. But something was off. She was moving slowly. She was still wearing the gown from when she disappeared, but her stomach protruded slightly, as if it was bloated. Connor called out. She did not reply. She kept shuffling towards him. Slowly, and silently. When Connor was close enough, he noticed something was off about her. She had a blank stare and she looked pale. He immediately carried her back to the cabin to give her some water. Her mouth kept opening and closing as if she were attempting to speak. Water was getting into her mouth but she wasn’t swallowing. The water just ended up splashing all over the floor. Her mouth continued to open and close.

Five years later, Sarah was in the cabin in the middle of the night, trying to piece together what had happened to the campers. It seemed impossible for four people to just disappear without a trace. The police investigation turned up nothing. All they could find were the campers’ belongings, still untouched inside the cabin. Just then, a chill ran down Sarah’s spine. She could hear something. A soft, but audible moan. She couldn’t tell whether it was coming from outside. She grabbed the lone candle lighting the cabin and held it in front of her. In the window was a dark figure smiling at her. Before she could scream, the candle went out. She immediately ran towards where she last remembered seeing the door and ran out. She couldn’t see anything because it was pitch dark. She kept her hands in front of her and felt her way forward. She didn’t know where she was going, just that she wanted to get away from whatever that thing was. Finally, her eyes adjusted to the dark and she could now partially see. She found a trail and ran as fast as she could. At the end of the trail, she found a road and continued running. There was a light coming. A car. She was saved. She shouted and frantically waved her arms to flag the car down. It slowed and came to a stop in front of her. The headlights were blinding. She couldn’t see the driver. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and she is surrounded by four figures. She screamed at the top of her lungs and slammed her hands on the hood of the car, begging the driver for help. But there was no response. She looked back to check behind her in time to see the mouths of the four figures dropping open. From their mouths spilled large insect-like creatures which proceeded to crawl up Sarah’s legs. As they made their way closer and closer to her face, she closed her eyes, perhaps, for the last time.