The Abandoned Cabin

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

Melissa must have arrived already you think as you pull up outside the cabin. The woods are beautiful in the golden autumnal sun that’s just about to slip over the horizon. There are old pines and ferns, and woodland mushrooms with their caps peaking out of the undergrowth. The wind is picking up and screams through the trees and vines causing them to whip around the mossy windows of the dilapidated cabin. It does not look like your normal choice of holiday destination.

Well, it has been abandoned for over 20 years, you say to yourself, but you know if anyone is going to do a great job of restoring it will be Mel. Just like it had been at school Mel was the kind of person who had a way of making the most of life. When she was left this old cabin in the divorce most people would have been insulted. Mel saw it as an opportunity to create her own countryside retreat, and, just as it had been since school, you would be coming along for the ride.

You enter the cabin, weekend bags in hand and are taken aback by what you see. The place looks surprisingly cosy.

‘You’re here early! I thought you weren’t coming until later.’ You say with a smile as Mel comes in for a huge hug.

‘I wasn’t going to be, but I had to pick up these antique lamps on the way, so I decided to leave the office early.’

‘They are gorgeous’ you say pressing the switch just below the bulb.

‘Oh, there is no electricity yet.’ She says.

You look in disbelief.

‘What? You know I was doing the place up.’ She says busying herself with pillow plumping and blocking out any complaints.

Doing the place up and getting a cheap weekend away yes, not staying in the middle of nowhere in a place that doesn’t have a working bulb, you think. You give a forced half smile ‘Where did you park?’ you ask noticing her car was not out the front, but she doesn’t answer, she’s lighting more candles around the cabin and humming.

‘Please tell me we have wine glasses or am I going to have to drink it straight from the bottle.’ You shout finding the kitchen.

You find some glasses and get settled on the sofa with drinks and talk about life, and the plans for the cabin, and it unavoidably descends into what an arsehole her now ex-husband has been.

‘You know earlier today when I was in town getting the lamps? The guy in the antique shop told me with creepiest story about this cabin’ says Mel changing the subject. ‘Hey, remember when we would camp as children and tell spooky stories around the campfire’, she says grabbing hold of your shoulder. ‘Let’s do that.’ She clears her throat and gets settled onto the floor cross legged putting some candles in the centre like a campfire.

‘Oh ok!’ You join Mel taking care not to spill your glass of red wine, knowing that there’s not much point in arguing with her.

‘So according to the guy in the shop there were a series of disappearances here around 20 years ago that all had links to the cabin. If it is true, assume that’s why Roger never mentioned the place when we were together.’

Apparently, when you start sleeping with someone 10 years’ your wife’s junior you no longer care if stays in a haunted cabin or not.

‘Hallucinogenic mushrooms.’ Mel starts again, a bit louder this time. ‘That’s what the only know survivor of the cabin said it was.’

It was starting to get darker now and with only the candles to give off some light you start to feel a bit freaked out. You see leaves flying past the window as they wind starts to blow harder, and a branch rasps at the outside of the cabin.

‘He claimed that the cabin draws people in to see what they want to see. First, they would be enjoying a holiday with their friends or family but soon enough they would start to hear the ‘snap, snap, snap’ like a branch clawing away at a window. And as soon as they heard that the evil would start to unveil itself, but by that point it is too late. You are trapped and the world you thought you knew starts to tilt slightly and become… other.’

‘One horrifying trip that must have been.’ You say recalling a few experiences of hallucinogens yourself.

‘Like boiling a frog’ Melissa raised an eyebrow for dramatic emphasis and a smile came across her face, which alleviates some tension.

‘No wait, this is actually scary!’ you shout holding a pillow over your face the way a child would.

‘So, this survivor, his name was Charlie, he managed to escape and went straight to the police station. He told them what had happened, first the hallucinations and next that his girlfriend’s insides were sucked clean out of her body by vines, right in front of him. He said she was left just a sack of skin hanging in blowing in the wind.’

‘Ouch.’ You respond to add some levity. Giggling somewhat more that usual you think that the wine must have started to do its job.

‘But when police came to check out the cabin, they could not find anything to back up his story. Charlie was later arrested and charged with the disappearance of his girlfriend. It was suspected by people in the town he had murdered those that went missing in the cabin the years prior, although their bodies have never been found.’

The branches rasp at the window again, but this time it’s softer and maybe wet. More cartilaginous than a dry branch. It seems to be echoing around the cabin.

‘But according to the guy in the antique shop Charlie is now out of prison. Maybe he knows were here!’ says Mel trying to amp up the spooky factor.

‘Hold on’ you say grabbing hold of the candle. ‘What is that? I thought there wasn’t anyone for miles around here’.

You see headlights in the distance heading towards the cabin. ‘That’s weird, the only place that road goes is straight to this cabin.’

‘Maybe it’s Charlie,’ Mel laughs a bit too wildly.

‘That looks like your car Melissa. Where did you park again?’ you ask as you turn back to Melissa, but you do not get an answer. The words you are speaking repeat and echo in your mind.

The ground is no longer the dusty floorboards of the cabin, but it is thick with black undergrowth and filled with slimy mushrooms bulging out of every cranny. You look over at Mel for help, but her face is distorted. Her mouth long and her eyes black. Her cruel laughter rings through the cabin.

You are dizzy and disorientated. You run to the door, but no matter how hard you try you cannot grip the doorknob. You scream for help. Panic sets in as your body begins to feel numb. First your hands and face, then your arms. You try to run but it is like one of those bad dreams you used to have as a child where your legs just will not move. Writhing vines pulsate towards you from all angles, and there is nothing you can do.

You are lifted into the air and last thing you see is see what the noise really was. That cartilaginous noise. You see that it was the remains of bodies hanging all around you. Bodies with nothing much left but their aged yellowing skin.

***

Melissa pulls her car up at the front of the house and without noticing steps in several small mushroom caps in the undergrowth. She takes a deep breath of the countryside air and gathers her weekend bags. Oh, look she thinks there is a candle already lit in the window.