The Cabin in the Woods

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years but one night a candle burned in the window. Kowhai was standing at her door, frozen by the sound of the chaos behind her. The faint whisper of a scream snapped her eyes to the horizon, and she saw a light illuminating in the dark forest. As a child, she had heard the tale of the macabre truth of what had happened there years ago. The cabin was hidden well into the forest but the town surrounding it could see it clearly through the small trees. It sat frozen in time. Many tried to find the path to the cabin, but all just returned home hungry and cold from their travels.

Kowhai heard a sound behind her, and she knew that her father was coming for her. He was intoxicated and after he was done hurting her mother, he always found her. The bruises on her body were covered with layers upon layers of clothing but her movements still hurt. She was strong and often took the brunt of the abuse but today, something called to her and rather than wait for him to find her she stood up and started to run towards the trail that led to the forest She could hear her father calling her name behind her, but she ignored him. As she kept running, she tripped on a red scarf. She picked it up and examined it, it had the initials T. E. on it. A loud sound echoed behind her, frightened she stood up and looked around to see what it was, nothing but darkness. Suddenly, the sound of falling rocks blasted through the forest and Kowhai ran. Suddenly, a bright light was before her. Intrigued, she followed the light until she tripped and fell forward, onto a book. Kowhai picked it up and could barely see the cover but made out the words “burning”, The book felt brand-new, as if it had been accidentally left there recently.

But nobody ever dared to enter these woods. Or did they?

As she held the book to her chest and kept walking, she saw a pair of golden boots. She bent down to pick them up and, on the boot, there was the initial T.E. again. Just as she was examining them more clearly something grabbed her from behind and threw her against the branch of a tree. But when she looked up. Nothing was there. Now terrified, she jumped up and started running as fast as she could towards the light, praying for sanctuary. As she got closer to the light, the cabin came into view. The light that she was seeing all through the darkness was a candle burning brightly in the window near the front door. As Kowhai reached for the handle, hoping someone was inside that could help her. An axe flew out of nowhere and landed in the front door, smashing it to pieces.

Kowhai took cover, landing on the deck leading up the stairs with thud. She heard her father's voice above her. He was screaming at her for running away and as he went to pull her back towards their house. He was suddenly lifted into the air and sucked into the cabin. Kowhai could only watch in horror as the wood pieces on the ground suddenly came back together and formed a door that clicked back in the place and locked. Her father on the other side, screaming as he is thrown against the walls of the cabin.

Kowhai began crying, clutching her chest in fear when suddenly the light in the window started to get brighter and brighter until it formed the shape of a young women with bright red blood in her golden hair. Her black eyes wide, her expression strange as she stared straight into Kowhai’s soul and somehow made her feel safe for the first time in her life. Her eyes morphed into the softest blue and she smiled. She walked barefoot forward, draped in white silk, reaching out she touched Kowhai’s forehead where bruises were forming from when she hit the branch. The young womans pale skin turned bruised, a sight Kowhai knew all the well. Suddenly, the women looked up and her eyes were stone cold again. Black as night. She turned to Kowhai’s father, who was watching everything play out through the window. She touched the wood and it caught fire. The cabin began to burn, her father fell back and screamed, trying to find a way out.

As Kowhai watched the cabin go up in flames, she stood frozen on the spot her eyes staring only at the figure before her. Was this real? Was this an illusion? Kowhai came out of her thoughts as the young woman approached her and pointed to the path that suddenly showed a perfect way back home. Kowhai looked back for only a second before she felt the fire near her skin and this set her in motion, she ran. She didn't look back. She just ran until she reached her front door, where she ran to her room and hid in her closet. She shut her eyes and hoped to wake up from what she hoped was a dream. But when her eyes opened again. She was facing her mother. She asked where her father was and if he found her. Kowhai said, “Yes” and told her mother what had happened. “The Cabin isn’t burned down, It’s still there.” Her mother said. Walking outside she looked to where the cabin stood down the hill. It was perfectly intact. Confused, she walked slowly to her father's room. She opened the door, and he wasn’t there. She went outside, his car was still in the driveway but her father…he was gone. Days turned into weeks, and she reported him missing, never telling anyone what she had seen. One day, she heard a knock on the door. When she opened the door, nobody was there. She looked down and there, on her welcome mat was a red scarf, golden boots and a book titled “The Burning Man.”

Kowhai was terrified and showed her mother. They opened the first page and out fell an article written decades ago. The title, “The Baron’s Daughter.”

“The tale begins with a mistreated baroness who escaped her abusive family. When she was far enough away, she took shelter under a log and when morning broke, she continued her journey but in the light of day things became quite strange. A path seemed to open on its own, leading her towards a clearing. There stood a rundown cabin. She stayed there for days before venturing out and finding her way to the local town. There she found work caring for the children of the village and begun to fix up the cabin and make it a home. The baroness spent years living at the cabin until one day, her father came looking for her. As she slept, he crept in and raised the axe above her head. She opened her eyes just in time to see the axe come down. Her father buried her body next to the cabin and abandoned it, telling the tail drunkenly to anyone who would listen of how he found his traitor daughter and made sure he was the last person to ever see her sky-blue eyes again. He died mysteriously in a fire a week later.

Kowhai flipped the pages of the book not believing, not understanding, until she got to the last page and saw the picture of the girl killed by her own father, with a small axe. Her name read Tallulah Evans and her picture showed a smiling young woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a red scarf and golden boots holding a book titled, “The Burning Man.”