Balkan in the Cabin

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

It was the first weekend of July, but there was a light breeze coursing through the trees outside. Causing the rustling of leaves. And in between the humming of the old A/C cooling system, Leonardo Balkán could hear the palm trees brushing up against the cabin. The noise sounded like an intruder was right outside of the cabin. Leo’s mind and body went into survival mode, as his killer instinct kicked into overdrive. Leo had arrived at the cabin when it was half past 9PM and looked inside every room to make sure nobody else was there.

Leo was in one of the rooms upstairs, when suddenly all the lights went out. One of the tall palm trees directly outside had fallen over onto the electricity powerlines above. He had heard an odd creaking coming from the floorboards at the foot of the stairs just before the blackout. Lucky for him, there was the lit candle in the room. He knew that the sound could not be one of his friends. If so, he would have seen headlights shining through the window or heard their car engine. Nobody had arrived at the cabin since he got here.

His friends would be arriving in about half an hour. They had booked the cabin on Airbnb. The cabin initially got listed on the site only 6 months prior, and they would be the first guests to spend a few nights here.

Leonardo decides to ignore the creaking sound from earlier and prepare for a shower. He places his luggage on the bed and begins unpacking until he finds a lone towel. He drapes it around his hips as soon as he gets undressed. He hears the strange noise again. This time, it’s coming from the living room directly downstairs. He walks out into the hallway with only the white towel wrapped around his waist and the candle in his hand.

The hallway is pitch black. He can only make out the A/C at the end of the hallway. He turns the corner to go downstairs. The darkness does not allow him to see as far as the bottom step.

As he is making his trek downstairs, he catches sight of a beautiful light fluttering through the window, but the moment is instantly ended when he notices a dark silhouette in the corner of the room. Leo shudders as the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“Fuck Merc! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

Merc is short for Mercutor. And Leo is momentarily relieved that one of his friends is finally here. But when did Mercutor get here?

“When did you come in, Merc? Did you bike here? I heard no cars pull up or anything. And I thought you were going to drive up here with Jeanmarie.”

The silhouette hasn’t moved from where it is standing, and Leo waits for him to respond. The figure motions for Leo to give a little twirl and points directly behind Leo. It’s in their shared language to enact gestures of guidance and surprise each other with ditzy gifts. Leo turns around to see what surprise Mercutor has waiting for him. Leo notices nothing in the wall or room behind him. Perhaps something in the light fixtures.

Before Leo turns back to where his friend Mercutor is standing, the figure is already right behind Leo. The figure is draped in a cloak with a hood, making it hard for Leo to verify that it is indeed his friend.

“What did you expect me to see, man? And where’s the rest of the crew. I didn’t even hear you guys arrive.”

Leo found it strange that Mercutor was not speaking. He soon realized that it was not Mercutor who was in the room with him under the hooded cloak.

Before Leo could say another word, the figure cut out Leo’s tongue, and Leo gave a shriek all the way from his diaphragm, but no noise came from his mouth. The agony could only be expressed by his face. The pain was too much to bear that Leo’s mind defaulted to auto-pilot mode. His consciousness soon felt hazy, and he was left dazed and confused. Leo lost control of his body and succumbed to the stranger’s power.

The hooded figure snatched him from the ground and threw him to the couch face-first. His body fully exposed, Leo tried to get up. But it seemed he was under a spell and was unable to move.

The figure proceeded to fondle Leo’s body. The stranger moved hands all over. Not a single inch was left untouched. Leo’s mind was on the verge of blacking out from the trauma that came from getting touched against your will. This moment had escalated quickly, and Leo believed that the horror in his mind reached a pinnacle and that things could not get any worse.

Leo felt harrowingly violated when the stranger finally ended the whole unsolicited fiasco. The stranger moved their hand up to their head, knocking Leo to the ground. Leo stood still like a statue waiting, still horrified and shocked from being caught off guard by a stranger in the house. His mouth felt numb. There was so much blood in place of his tongue.

The hooded figure’s hand slipped to the hem of the hood, pulling back on it…

The person beneath the hooded cloak turned out to be Leo’s other friend, Clandes.

Clandes’ face morphs into that of a scary-looking witch. The witch’s sinister smile and the flash from her red eyes cause Leo to stumble backward.

“At last, you are mine, Balkán. Hahaha!”

The skin from the witch’s face then begins to melt off, followed by other tissues, blood, and flesh. All tissues and flesh dissipate into thin air until just a skeleton is left sitting on the couch.

Leo’s eyes go bloodshot, and his mouth gapes in shock. His gag reflex begins to act up. The sight is too much for him to handle that Leo takes to scratching at his face, mainly his eyes. He cannot stop himself. His hands are rapidly scratching his face off. Leo is hysterically hyperventilating the whole time. His hands continue the same motion until he can scratch off no more skin, no more blood, no more flesh.

-Mercutor