Escape

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

“I needed to escape,” she thought. The anxiety, the fear, the perpetual sense of unease, the disquiet of her mind.

Upon lighting the candle, she sat down at the desk by the window and looked around the cabin, hoping that the soft lighting of the candlelight would help her to feel at ease and unwind. After suffering an embarrassing panic attack at work, she decided to take some time off and get away from the stress of her job, away from the stress of life in general. She hoped to finally get some peace of mind by coming to this off-grid cabin in the middle of the woods, in the middle of nowhere, in order to disconnect, to escape from it all.

The cabin was not accessible by road and as such, one had to hike for over a mile, along a small dirt path, through steep, hilly, wooded terrain, and cross over a stream by way of a small, rickety wood footbridge that was in serious need of repair, in order to finally arrive at the cabin, which sat at the very end of this path.

Entering the cabin, the air was thick and musty, stagnant and heavy with the weight of years of abandonment. However, it still had its furnishings. After arriving at the cabin late that afternoon, she had done some dusting and cleaning before settling in. It was now getting dark and she diligently went around the cabin, lighting each of the various candles and lanterns that had been left behind.

After lighting the last candle atop the desk, she crashed down into the chair in front of the desk and let out a deep sigh. She could finally put her feet up and enjoy the quiet of the cabin. The desk sat at the far corner of the front of the cabin, to the left of the front door. Looking around the cabin, she admired the old stone fireplace which sat along the wall behind the desk, with a loveseat sitting in front of it, making it a cozy living area. However, she noted that the kitchen area, on the opposite corner in the front of the cabin, looked a little rough, but she figured she could make do. The kitchen area consisted of a small counter, cabinets whose doors sat off-kilter at odd angles, and a gas stove, with a small unsteady table and off-balance chairs. The bed sat in a dark corner at the back of the cabin, beyond the kitchen area and across from the living area, which seemed like a smart spot to put it, as it was furthest from the door and furthest away from any morning light intruding in from the front window.

As she sat at the desk, the gears of her mind began turning and churning, and soon she was fraught with worry again as she reflected on her troubles: work troubles, career troubles, financial troubles, family troubles, relationship troubles, troubles regarding her future, troubles regarding her past, and troubles regarding the present and her ever-present anxiety, fear, and self-doubt.

Now feeling restless, she got up and decided to heat up a small prepackaged meal on the stove. Suddenly, she heard a loud, high-pitched, blood-curling scream. Her eardrums rattled and she jumped, nearly knocking over her food. “What the hell was that?” she wondered. It sounded like it came from outside the cabin, but nearby. She quickly darted over to the window and peered out into the darkness, but saw nothing. Trying to calm herself, she thought, “It was probably just an animal.” Still feeling a little shaky and on edge, she quickly scarfed down her food while listening for any further sounds outside.

After finishing her meal, she thought that maybe she just needed some rest and so she unpacked and set up her sleeping bag and travel-sized pillow over top of the yellowed blankets that covered the musty old bed. While it wasn’t exactly a five-star hotel, or even a one-star motel, the cabin still offered shelter and an escape from the world, and it was free. Her coworker had offered it to her to use as a getaway after she had the panic attack. However, the coworker warned her that the cabin had been unused for some time following the mysterious disappearance of the coworker’s uncle after he had gone away to the cabin.

After blowing out the candles, she climbed into her sleeping bag and laid down in the darkness.

Soon after she nodded off to sleep, she was jolted awake by a loud banging on the door, as if someone was furiously trying to get in. “Bang, bang, bang!” As the pounding continued, again and then again, she lay frozen in fear, her heart racing. “Bang, bang, bang!” Suddenly, the door burst open, and crashed against the cabin wall. For a brief moment, she thought she saw the silhouette of someone standing in the doorway, before it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

Finally, she coaxed her muscles to move and grabbed a flashlight, frantically scanning the cabin to try to see whoever had burst in. She shakily called out to whoever was there, wondering if it might be that missing uncle her coworker had told her about, and stated that she had been given permission to use the cabin and that she wasn’t trying to intrude. There was no response. She continued to scan the cabin, and upon failing to see anyone, she got up and quickly ran over to the door, slamming it shut again. She then locked the door tight, double and triple-checking the lock to make sure that the door was secured this time. She had felt pretty certain that she had locked it before going to bed, but she started to doubt her own memory and gradually convinced herself that maybe she hadn’t, and figured that she must have forgotten. She could hear wind howling outside and tree branches rustling in the wind, and so she figured that it must have been a strong gust of wind that caused the door to burst open.

She lay awake for most of the rest of the night, barely getting any sleep. The next day, she groggily stumbled out of bed and made her way to the kitchen area and made coffee. She sat uneasily on one of the wobbly chairs and held the warm cup of coffee carefully in her hands. While she sat and quietly sipped on her coffee, she noticed that chair across from her slowly started to wobble back and forth on its uneven legs. She felt a chill and goosebumps appeared while the hair on her arms stood upright. She tried to calm herself and dismiss this as perhaps a draft, perhaps an uneven floor, or perhaps she was just overly tired and seeing things.

She got up and went over to the loveseat across from the fireplace to sit down instead. However, after an unrestful night she readily nodded off to sleep. Hours later, when it was almost evening, she was slowly starting to wake when she heard deep heavy footsteps walking on the wood floor. “Thump, thump, thump.” The wood boards creaked as weight was pressed upon them, and she could feel the vibration of each step through the floor. As her eyes began to focus, she noticed a shadow figure moving in the corner of the room. Upon noticing the shadow, she suddenly bolted up off of the couch, her heart suddenly pounding. However, just as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone. “Seriously, what the hell is going on?!” she thought. “Wow, I must really be losing my grip!” She knew that the past few months had been stressful, but perhaps she’d underestimated just how much of a toll it had taken on her.

It was getting darker and so she went around the cabin lighting the candles again. She got out a book and sat down at the desk with the candle by the window, in an attempt to try to calm herself down and relax. This was supposed to be a relaxing getaway, but instead one thing after another had happened to frighten her and she’d hardly gotten any sleep. She had come here to escape, but instead found herself as anxious as ever. As a result, she had trouble focusing on the book and instead found herself watching the rain run down the window as the drops pitter-pattered on the window sill. Eventually the sound of the rain calmed her a little, allowing her to start enjoying her book. Unfortunately, this joy was short-lived.

She briefly glanced up at the window, and saw reflected in the glass a tall shadow figure standing right behind her. She jumped out of the chair and whipped around to face the intruder, only to again see no one there. “That’s it!”, she thought. “Tomorrow, I’m leaving.” She was so worked up at this point, she was almost hyperventilating. However, she started to do some breathing exercises that she had learned to combat anxiety, and gradually her breathing returned to normal.

She was still a little shaky and figured that maybe she should eat something. She hastily heated up some food, but chose to eat standing up, with a sharp knife set on the counter next to her in case she needed a weapon, because every time she sat down somewhere she seemed to see something weird. Exhausted and anxious, she decided to simply go to bed and try to get some rest so that she’d be able to complete the arduous hike back to civilization the next day.

She lay in bed and listened to rain outside. The rain sounded like it was coming down even harder, the raindrops vigorously hitting against the cabin, and blasts of light flashed in the window, followed by the deep rumbling bass of the rolling thunder. She slowly nodded off, but at some point she suddenly woke. A tall shadow figure in the shape of a man was standing at the foot of her bed, staring down at her. She tried to scream, tried to move, but to no avail. She was paralyzed. The shadow slowly walked to the side of her bed, right next to her, leaned over and put its arms out, grabbing hold of her neck with its long cold fingers, and started to choke her.

The world faded around her and everything went completely dark.

She spent most of the next day passed out in bed. She finally woke up and upon looking at her watch, she was startled to see that it was already late in the afternoon, almost evening. “No!”, she thought. She had hoped to leave that day. She staggered clumsily out of bed and dashed over to look out the window to see the conditions outside. It was still fiercely pouring rain and thundering. She then noticed that the stream in front of the cabin was overflowing and had washed out the small footbridge that was needed to cross over it. Between the overflowing stream and the muddy, slick conditions of the steep hilly terrain, there was no way to safely leave.

“I need to escape,” she thought. The anxiety, the fear, the perpetual sense of unease, the disquiet of her mind. She broke down and cried, her tears mimicking the rain outside. She went back over to the bed to lie down, and hoped that if she could just sleep through the night, sleep through all this misery, then she could wake up tomorrow and the rain would be gone, and the stream would be calmed, and she could make her escape then.

As she lay in bed, through the blurred tears of her eyes, she again saw the shadow figure. She screamed, a terrible, high-pitched, blood-curling scream. She shadow figure bolted towards her, grabbing her neck, choking her, wrapping itself all around her, enveloping her in darkness, until the darkness swallowed her whole, and she became one with the darkness.

No one ever figured out for sure what happened to her; she had seemingly disappeared without a trace. Some hikers claim to have seen a candle lit in the window from time to time. However, upon looking in the cabin, they found no one there; all they saw was a shadowy cabin, containing a heavy, oppressive, almost tactile darkness within.