Woodside

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The bodies of its last Air Bnb guest hacked to pieces cooking on the stove.

The scene was grotesque, extremely disturbing. But not a single news outlet reported on the happening, not even the local newspaper. That same night the people in the neighboring town of Somerville watched on as convoy of military vehicles hastily made their way through the Main Street heading towards the cabins in the woods. Somerville Police were already at the scene, but the minute the government arrived they were removed and the entire area was blocked off. When I say “blocked off” I mean the whole of 5 cabins known as Woodside and a radius of 45 miles have been off limits to the general public since then. It’s been 20 years.

When the Somerville police officers returned to the station they were expressionless, quiet, and a somber feeling overtook the air. They didn’t speak. No one in Somerville did, not a word of it, till now.

I was 24 years old when it happened. My friends were the unfortunate guests at Woodside. I’d lived in Somerville most my life. A small prominent lakeside town surrounded by vast wooded areas. Eventually at 22 I applied to college out of State and was accepted to a prestigious university in Massachusetts, where I ended up moving.

Spring Break was about week away, late one afternoon, my roommates and I were lounging about the living room of the house we leased near campus. Mind you, a house any one of us alone couldn’t afford, but between the 5 of us, it was easy rent.

The sound of their bored conversation drowned in the background as I lay on the couch watching the sun set and basking in the last bits of sunlight. I was really looking forward to returning home to Somerville during break. I hadn’t seen my parents in months and home cooked food, a slower pace and boat rides, just hit the spot.

My roommates on the other hand, had no plans. They were originally set to go down to Cabo but the travel agency that had offered them such a “great deal” turned out to be a total scam and they lost all their money.

I was nearly drifting away to sleep when I heard Genevieve ask me what my home town was like. “It’s beautiful” I replied. “It’s basically a much smaller version of East Hampton, and much, much lesser known. All the cool little shops and restaurants are at the center of the village and most the houses are along the coast. Ours in particular sits near the edge of town so we have a great view of not only the lake but also the woods across the water.

“Woods?” - Genevieve

“Ya, woods, as a matter of fact there’s a group of cabins not too deep in that they call Woodside. They were built back in the late 70’s for tourist, but alot of people went missing and there were reports of really crazy things happening. So the owner closed them off, moved away and they’ve been abandoned ever since.” “We all knew to stay far way from Woodside and to never linger too deep into the woods”

I should’ve never mentioned it. They all became obsessed over it. Genevieve immediately scoured the Internet for any information on Woodside. And to all our shock Woodside was actually listed on an AirBNB website. “Quaint cottage nestled deep in the woods near the thriving lakeside village of Somerville” I couldn’t believe it, my whole life living in Somerville that place has been off limits and now for some reason there it was, at 130 dollars a night anyone willing to pay the price was welcome to stay.

“We’re going. you guys all in???” “We’ll take my SUV and drive down there with Blair” - Genevieve

Morbidly curious, Everyone agreed. Gray, Aiden, Ramona they all said yes.

“How about you Blair, you up to staying a night with us in the cabin?” - Genevieve

They all laughed it was clear I was a little more than scared of the idea. My wide eyed doe in the headlights look gave it away. “Ya, sure, maybe one night, we’ll see. ”

She booked Woodside for a week.

I called my mom that night, we talked for a bit about how excited she was to see me and how good it’ll be to have me home. “ A couple friends of mine are gonna be making the trip to Somerville with me“

“That’s great honey, The more the merrier, there’s plenty of room here in the house and of course the guest house out back, how long are they gonna be staying?”

“A Week mom, but they’ve already made arrangements to stay someplace else “

Where?? She responded, laughing “There’s hardly any place to stay here”

“They found a new bnb just outside of town” I couldn’t bring myself to tell her it was Woodside, She’d give me grief over it, she was always adamant about us staying as far away from that place as possible.

“Ok, well if they change their mind”

I was surprised she didn’t mention Woodside had reopened, I figured news like that would’ve spread like wild Fire.

We chatted a bit more then said our love you’s, see you in a week then ended the call.

The next Friday we packed our stuff into Genevieve’s Jeep and hit the road to Somerville.

We’d been driving for about 5 hours when We began drifting off to sleep, everyone except Aiden who was driving. My eyes grew heavier, it began to rain and the sound of the drops hitting against the window lulled me to sleep. I really wish I hadn’t because that night I had one of the worst dreams.

I dreamt we were on the road just as we were, heading home for spring break. But there was something awful on the road with us. Leading us to Woodside. The air felt cooler it was dark and there was no noise, it was eerily quiet, only the sound of the tires rolling against the asphalt. Then suddenly a very loud guttural growl, The jeep came to a sudden halt and just ahead in view of the headlights was a demonic humanoid looking “thing” it stared from afar in through the windshield then flew over us and disappeared into the night, The sound created by the flap of its massive leather like wings resonated in the air. I woke up in a panic.

Aiden struggling to take control of the jeep. “I think I hit something!” “It was just standing in the middle of the road!”

He pulled over, we all got off to look for damage to the SUV, sure enough something sharp had cut into our front left tire. It was nearly sliced open. We didn’t have a spare. Genevieve called for roadside assistance.

“I swear, whatever it was I didn’t see it until I was seconds from hitting it “

“Don’t worry Aiden, it happens, it’s dark it was probably a deer or some other animal, and clearly it got away just fine “ - Ramona

“What I saw wasn’t a deer.” Aiden

There was complete silence for a moment then Gray spoke, his voice shaky, hesitant to continue..

“Did.. it look like some type of really tall.. upright.. gargoyle?”

“Gray and dark slimy skin? - Genevieve

At that point I asked if it Flew, it was then we realized we had all seen the same thing. Turns out we had the same dream expect for Aiden who was driving and saw it in the flesh.

The cold rain started coming down hard, we ran into the Jeep to wait for help.

I swear we had literally Just waited for about a minute when the headlights of of a tow truck came up behind us. A good looking man in a raincoat who looked to be in his 40’s came up to the drivers side. Gray lowered the window.

“You kids ok? Your sense Of direction is wayyy off, you’re about 4 hours from where you claimed to be “ he laughed, then continued.

“Lucky for you dispatch sent out an alert to the neighboring state drivers to keep an eye out for your jeep, the plates matched, jackpot!” “ you guys fall asleep or something? They’ve been trying to reach you for the past hour?”

We explained to him that it hadn’t even been 15 min since we pulled over, Genevieve looked down at her phone, and just like the man said, there were 12 missed calls all within the last hour. We had somehow lost an hour of time and even stranger, we had already travelled 4 more hours than we were aware of.

We were confused but chalked it all up to exhaustion and frankly we were very happy to basically already be about 20 min from Somerville.

We rode into town with him our Jeep in tow. His carefree attitude comforted us and lightened up the whole situation. I couldn’t help but notice his truck, it was an older model but in pristine condition. He clearly took great care of it. Aiden made a comment on how it was a classic. “ it’s a 78” he responded. They continued on with small talk.

It was 1 a.m when we arrived. The repair shop was closed till the following morning. He offered to drop us off wherever we needed to go. I told him my friends were all headed to Woodside but I’d be dropped off right before, at the edge of town.

I expected a reaction when I mentioned Woodside assuming he was local, he looked so familiar, but nothing.

I called my mom explained what happened and let her know I’d be home in about 15 minutes. She and my dad were waiting for me when I arrived. They dropped me off at the entrance to the property and I walked down the path to my house. I didn’t know it then but that was the last time I’d ever see any of my friends again.

Around 3 a.m I got a text from Genevieve saying they made it to the cabin. I called her and asked what the vibe was, how the cabin looked. I could hear Aiden, Ramona and Gray messing Around in the background.

She said Woodside was really cool, “Very Retro” She went on about how everything was really old but looked brand new. I thought of the guys truck.

She was very excited. “Nothing Creepy Yet…” she laughed.

“Just a throwback to the 70’s, besides there are other people here their cars are parked by some of the cabins. They must party pretty hard because everyone’s lights are still on and we can hear music blasting from one of the cabins.

She walked outside so that I could hear it too. I did. I started feeling a little better about them staying there. So I let her know I was gonna catch up on some sleep and I’d see them later that day. Before I hung up she said “Hey! Before I forget, that hot older guy, The tow truck driver, he turned out to be the owners son. His parents own Woodside “

I’ll never forget the blood curdling screams I heard right after, she dropped the phone and the call dropped. I desperately tried dialing her back, no answer.

Then a facetime call from her phone came in, I accepted. I was terrified. I don’t know who made the call or who was holding the phone but through the cabin window I saw that thing, The one we dreamt of on the road, The one Aiden saw. It peered through the window, then the camera turned to the stove where pots with lids boiled I could see blood, and she was right everything looked new. Then the signal went out.

I called the police, they immediately headed to Woodside, when they arrived there was nothing more than the old abandoned cabins with a single candle lit by the window, everything was old and delapitated, and even though there was no gas, my friends bodies were chopped pieces in pots cooking on the stove. The rest I told you when I started this story. I don’t know what happened, but every couple years my phone rings and it’s a FaceTime call from Genevieve. I don’t pick up.