Never trust anyone

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

This was the first thought that popped in your head as you passed the old cabin nestled in the woods. You have passed it many times over the years, always dark and cold as you passed it on your many hikes through the forest, what makes this night different and why is there a candle burning? “what’s wrong Arthur?” Sadie asks as you near the old building. “You act as if you’ve seen a ghost”. You and Sadie have been dating for several years and have fallen deeply in love with each other, but this is the first time you have ever brought her on one of your private walks through the forest since you first met, is it some strange coincidence that the candle burns now?

You turn to Sadie and say “I have been hiking this trail for years and passed this cabin more times than I can remember and there has never been a candle burning. I mean, there shouldn’t be a candle burning at all. This cabin has been abandoned for almost a decade, no one should be here.” Sadie looks back at you and asks “why has it been abandoned so long, what happened here?”

I tell Sadie “rumor has it that a brilliant inventor owned the cabin and he would retreat up here when he was working on a new invention. He would often bring his wife and daughter up with him, and that was the case the last time anyone saw them. The story goes that He went mad for whatever reason and killed his family, since no one has ever saw them again and no bodies were ever found. What’s even more mysterious is that his business partner also disappeared around the same time.”

Sadie looks at you and says “that’s terrible, and no one has ever found any trace of any of them?” “no” you tell Sadie “and what’s even more mysterious is there were rumors that he was on the verge of a major announcement that was going to be a shock to everyone apparently”

“Oh” Sadie says “You are talking about Heinrich Marshall, I remember hearing about him and his disappearance. So, this is where it was supposed to happen” “yes” I say “and it has been abandoned ever since, which makes no sense why a candle would be burning now”

You decide to enter the old cabin and investigate. As you enter, you notice several things amiss inside. You notice several scrape marks on the dusty floor as if some wild animal has been crawling around, as well as several small dead animals that look like they were eaten raw. The table where the candle burns is covered in dust, yet the candle and it’s holder looks relatively clean. You leave the main area of the cabin and enter one of the two bedrooms. It is eerily quiet inside, but oddly there seems to be a light emanating from a drawer in the dresser. You open up the drawer to find a first generation ipad, AND IT WORKS and is holding a charge. This is really eerie and mysterious, as your own current generation ipad doesn’t even hold a charge for an hour. What manner of science is going on here?

You pick up the Ipad and swipe it on, and a video starts playing. It is Heinrich Marshall, but how? He has been missing for almost a decade? The video starts and Heinrich speaks “It is almost time for me to announce to the world my greatest discovery, one which has been right in front of me all along. I told Josef my intentions, and he does not approve of my decision, but was willing to come up to the cabin this weekend and discuss it [off camera a knock is heard and a voice, possible Josef’s is heard] I am in here josef…josef what are you doing…put that down…” suddenly the video goes fuzzy then stops. That was quite odd and strange, you wonder what josef had that made Heinrich ask him to put something down.

Sadie speaks up and says “that doesn’t look at all like the murderer we have all been led to believe he is. In fact, with what he said, it makes me wonder about his partner, josef.” “let’s check the other room, this is interesting to say the least. Suddenly, you realize, other than the bathroom, there are only two rooms in this cabin. Where did Heinrich work on his inventions?

As you enter the other room, you both think you see figures moving then disappear, were they real or has this whole incident fogged your senses? You realize as you enter, with all the dolls and toys, that this was probably the family’s daughter's room. Even more eerie, the bed looks like it might have once been covered in blood. Was the family actually killed by Heinrich or did something more sinister happen.

As you step into the middle of the room, you notice the floor sounds hollow as you walk across. Strange, from the outside, it looks like the cabin is built on a slab, the floor shouldn’t sound like that. As you and Sadie look at the floor, you make out the outline of what appears to be a trap door. You reach around the outline and find finger holes that allow you to pull up the trap door. As you open the door, a foul stench of decaying flesh and meat fills your nostrils and almost makes you throw up. You notice a set of stairs going done, but since you have only your phone lights and a small pen light, you are hesitant to go down. Suddenly, Sadie goes to the other room and grabs the candle.

You descend the stairs and are standing in what appears to be a workshop of some sort, and as you enter a shadow leaves the room and goes down what appears to be a hallway across the room. You instinctively grab a screwdriver off a worktable to use as a weapon, then you suddenly think to yourself, what is this screwdriver doing here? This place was abandoned! Suddenly, you hear scraping noises coming from down the same hallway the shadow went, and out lunges a disheveled man in tattered clothes and matted hair trying to attack you and Sadie. Sadie gets behind you as fend off the wild man before you. He lunges again and scrapes your arm with his nails, but you manage to fend him off with the screwdriver. Suddenly, the shadowy figure returns and takes on an ethereal form. You recognize the figure as Heinrich. He speaks and says “josef stop this!” Shocked, the wild man before you stops, is this Heinrich’s former partner? “josef” the spirit spoke again “enough pain, hasn’t there been enough suffering?” “Heinrich…” the wild man says “you’re dead, I killed you! You can’t be real” “yes” answered Heinrich “I am real. My spirit is trapped here, just as you have self-imposed yourself looking for something that doesn't exist”

“what do you mean, I know you Heinrich, you were a brilliant inventor, I know you secretly hid your greatest discovery here, I know you would not simply walk away from all that you had done” replied Josef. “no, josef, I had told you what I had discovered, but you chose not to be believe because it wasn’t something tangible, something you could sell or exploit. All you were driven by was money, so you couldn’t even fathom what I had learned could be real” “no, Heinrich, I didn’t believe what you told me, because it isn’t real” replied josef. “and now, I’ll have to kill two more victims to hide what has happened here”. With that, josef lunges at you, but in so doing trips and falls on the screwdriver you held in your hand and dies. You push the dead body to the side and give Sadie a hug, knowing that you are both safe. You both turn to the spirit of Heinrich, his face showing a sad and tormented expression. You ask Heinrich, what happened that night you recorded the video?

Heinrich’s spirit speaks and says “when josef came that night, he was furious at my decision. I was going to walk away from everything at what I had discovered and he felt I was betraying him, so in his rage, he brought a knife to kill me. But before he could get that chance, my wife Maggie and daughter carrie who were in the next room heard the commotion and burst in. In his rage, he attacked and killed them both before turning to me and finishing the job.”

“but why was he still here? What was the discovery you had found?” I asked. “love” Heinrich said “I had discovered, or rather re-discovered love. The love I was almost losing, you see being such a busy inventor, I had almost totally alienated and ignored my wife and daughter, to the point she was going to leave me. But Josef thought I was breaking our partnership and going on my own and my discovery of love was just some cover. He tortured and drove himself mad searching in vain for something that was never here.”

“But Heinrich, why are you still here” we asked. “I cannot leave, I failed my wife and daughter and now I must pay for that mistake by being trapped here forever” Suddenly, two other ghostly figures appear, and the older looking spirit tells Heinrich “no my love, you will not be trapped here. It’s time to cross over into what lies next”

“Maggie, carrie is it really you?” says Heinrich. “yes, my dear, it is us. We are the reason these two people are here, we felt their great love, the love we once shared, and we were able to channel our spirits into the candle to bring them here and break the hold this terrible place has had on you” “so” you say “it wasn’t chance we were here tonight?” “No” Maggie says “Your gift of love allowed us to be able to free ourselves of this place, for that we thank you. And now, Heinrich my love, it is time for us to go to that which awaits next”

As Maggie says this, you see the three figures hold hands and slowly walk away and disappear. You and Sadie both look at each other and say “boy no one is ever going to believe this”

The End