The Candle in the Cabin

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The Cabin has been Sally's neighbor for as long as she had lived there. "It was there long before me and will be here long after me" Sally would tell anyone who listened. Everyone knew that the cabin had a dark past and would not go anywhere near it.

On Sally's thirteenth birthday is when it all started for her. The day was a usual day, spending time with her family and then having a party with her friends and family. She was having a wonderful day, after supper she went to her room to enjoy her gifts that she had received and after so much fun she was already getting tired. She had gotten a new journal for her birthday and she was thinking of all the adventures she was going to write about in her journal.

When she looked out her window she saw it was dark, she had lost track of time and it was almost ten o'clock. It had been a long and fun day so she was thinking of going to bed early. She went to tell her parents goodnight and turned off her light to her room. As she was walking to her bed something caught her eye out the window. It was a light, she was certain it was coming from the cabin, but that couldn't be right, no one went there.

She went to the window and looked out, there was a light coming from the cabin she was sure of it. She watched the light for a few minutes more trying to make sure of where it was coming from. But the light never moved from that spot and she was certain it was in the cabin. She decided to tell her parents so she went downstairs and told them what she saw, they went to her bedroom window and saw nothing. Sally then looked again out her window and it was still there.

"Its right there!" she said as she pointed out the window. Both parents looked again and said she must have seen a firefly, because there was no light out there. "Just go to bed, sweetie, I think you've had to much excitement for one day" Dad said as he patted her head. "I think she had to much sugar" laughed mom.

She rubbed her eyes as they walked out the room, and looked again. The light was still there. "I don't understand" she said quietly to herself. But she went to bed just in case her parents where right.

The next day, she took her new camera outside to take some pictures, at least that is what she told her parents at breakfast. She laid awake most of the night thinking of that light in the cabin. So she was determined to go to the cabin today. She took pictures along the way so she wasn't really lying to her parents. She reached the cabin and stood there for several minutes. She was just staring at it, she snapped out of it when she heard a crack from inside.

"Hello, anyone there?" Sally asked quietly. She found her voice and tried again, "Hello" She said more loudly. "Hello" came the reply from within the cabin. Sally almost ran when she heard it. Her heart was thumping, her brain was going in circles, why did she come here in the first place, what an idiot she was.

Then she heard creaking again, someone was walking around, then she heard the voice say "Sally, come inside, we won't hurt you"

"Huh!" said Sally, "We?"

"Yes, there are five of us here" said a sweet young voice.

"How do you know my name?" questioned Sally.

"We have been watching you for a while now" said the voice.

"Who are you?" Sally asked, not sure she really wanted to know.

"We have been waiting for someone to come, Please come inside so we can talk" Said a deep voice.

"Come out here" Sally said with a tremble in her voice. As she was speaking she moved so she could see in the old window. She could see a table still standing in the room and on the table was a candle. It was a white candle and it stood out against the darkness of the rest of the room.

A young girl of five or six stepped out onto the porch, she had blonde pigtails and a yellow dress on. Her feet were bare, her face was dirty. She was shy and seemed afraid. She said, "Hi, my name is Jenny, I have watched you for so long, are you going to help us?"

"How, how can I help you?" Sally shook her head " I don't know who you are or how you got here, but you shouldn't be here"

"You are right, we shouldn't be here. That's why we need your help" begged Jenny.

"How"

"By coming inside and listening to our tales of how we got here" Jenny said so sweetly. "We want to move on, please help us" she said with a tear in her eye.

Sally felt so moved by the young girl and she was starting to understand why her parents couldn't see the light. She wasn't sure too many people would even see the little girl. She had come to realize she was seeing a ghost. Sally was always able to see things that others could not. When she was ten she learned to keep it to herself, because kids would make fun of her. But, she still saw them but she always would walk away from them. This time seemed different, they needed her help. She wondered if listening to them really could help them move on. What would it hurt if she did listen to them? So, after much thought Sally decided to enter the cabin.

Upon entering she saw the cabin how it must have looked when it was first built. The floor was clean and sturdy, the table looked new and well made. Sitting around the table were four other individuals. The first one that she saw was of a woman about twenty five years old, she had on a dress just like Jenny, in the same yellow print. She must be Jenny's mom, Sally thought. Then there was a large male sitting across from the lady, he had blood on the side of his head and it was in his beard and mustache. He seemed very scary so she kept her distance from him. There was a woman there who was dressed like the twenties. She kept her head down most of the time. The last person Sally saw was a teenage boy, he looked to be about fifteen and he was wearing blue jeans and a red t shirt. He seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't remember why.

"Please sit down" Jenny said. There were two empty chairs around the table. Jenny took the one next to her mother. That left one chair between the woman in the twenties outfit and the teenage boy. Sally slowly went to the chair and sat down. When she looked at the lady in the twenties outfit she noticed blood on her dress, she must have died from a stomach wound, Sally thought.

The woman, looked at Sally just long enough to say "I'm Dotty" and then she looked back down again. Sally was sure she saw fear in her eyes.

"I'm Rob" said the teenage boy, very quickly. Sally barely heard what he said. She looked at him but didn't see any signs of how he died.

"How did you get here" Sally asked, hoping she sounded concerned not nosey.

He glanced at Jenny, then said "I was poisoned"

"Oh, I'm sorry"

"I am Brenda, Jenny's mom, we have been watching you from the window ever since you moved in."

That left just one, Sally was afraid to look at him. He was so strong looking and the blood on his face just made him look that much more frightening. She heard him clear his throat, so she made herself look. "My name is Roger. I am sorry you are here"

"What?" Sally said with a trembling voice.

"Don't mind him, he doesn't like company" Jenny said

"So what do I need to do to help you all?"

Brenda smiled and said, "Honey, you already are helping us, you have made Jenny happy, and that is all we need right everyone"

"Yes" everyone said in unison. Sally noticed none of them looked up. They were all staring at the table.

"Well I can't really stay long"

"Please, don't leave yet, we need you!" Jenny pleaded. "I'll get you some tea"

Sally knew she should leave, run and not look back but she felt frozen in place. The fear on everyone's faces chilled her. Then Jenny put the tea in front of her, she didn't want to be impolite so she thanked Jenny and took a drink.

How can I leave with them so afraid, what if I am the one to help them and I run away and they stay lost in this world? Sally thought to herself. The room was so cold and was it getting darker? It was, some how it was already getting dark outside, but she had only been inside for a few minutes. Everything started spinning, and the faces at the table started getting blurry. What was wrong with her? She tried to stand but could not feel her legs.

Sally looked at Jenny, who was wearing a very large smile.

"You won't be leaving now" she said. "you belong here with us"

Sally looked around the room, though everything was blurry, she could see the fear on their faces. With her vision fading, she all of a sudden remembered who the boy Rob reminded her of. There was a missing child poster hanging in the supermarket of Rob, the picture was fading and you could not make it out very well, but now she knew who he was, there was no doubt about it.

Fear was rising in Sally, her heart was pounding so fast. She was having trouble thinking now.

Jenny came closer to her "have you figured it out yet? Have you figured out that I am the one that has killed everyone here? My mother was the first person I killed, she was being mean to me, paw had run off or died we don't know for sure, but he never came home from the cattle drive." Maw wanted me to help her with the chores, there were so many of them. I hated doing them and I told her that. She told me we still had to do them and to be quiet and get them done.

Later that night I knew my maw would drink her tea, she always does before bed. Sally looked at the cup of tea that she had drank from. Jenny had a smile on her face. "it was easy, Maw always kept some arsenic around to kill the rats. I didn't use enough the first time and she was real sick in the morning when I woke up, so I offered to make her some tea, this time I put everything that was in that bottle in her tea, she went to sleep and never woke up. I laughed at her and said now I don't have to do any chores."

"I left her in the chair that she died in and we would talk and talk, she always said exactly what I wanted her too. She started to stink though, and I couldn't handle the smell anymore so I had to drag her outside and I put some dirt on her body and some rocks cause that's what paw did when our dog died. "

"I started getting hungry, we didn't have much food in the house so I had to go out and pick some food from the garden. I hated that, but I was hungry so I did it. One night I went to bed and when I woke up I wasn't hungry anymore and I could fly. It was so cool, then I saw maw in her chair, I realized soon that I had died too."

"It was really boring around here with just me and maw. Then one day Dotty showed up with some other folks. I really liked the way Dotty was dressed, maw thought it was too scandalous for a woman to wear. She was so beautiful I had to keep her here. Her friends were going to leave and I knew I couldn't let that happen so I grabbed a knife from the counter and I stabbed her with it two times, she fell to the floor and the others ran away."

"They ran so fast and I just laughed and laughed cause I knew Dotty would stay with us now. You did, didn't you Dotty?"

"Yes, yes I did, I didn't understand what had happened to me until I saw my body"

"It was really strange after she died, all these men showed up and took the body, which I was glad for because then I didn't have to bury her. They kept saying how strange it was and they said something about they didn't understand why she would kill herself like that. Her friends told these men they saw the knife float to Dotty and then stab her. The men thought that the others were drinking or something. That made me laugh even more."

"No one would come to the cabin after that. I was really mad because Dotty was getting boring and maw and her would talk behind my back. I hated that. Then one day, here comes a man, and he came into the cabin to rest. I was so excited to have a man finally around, I missed paw all the time. So I decided he wasn't going to leave. I grabbed a frying pan that was by the fireplace it was really heavy and hard for me to hold on to but I had been practicing and I was able to pick it up and I swung it at his head. He was still moving and making all kinds of noises so I swung it again, and just to make sure I did it one more time after I rested a few minutes. When I saw him rise from his body I knew he was dead."

"I made maw and Dotty take his body out back where I buried maw. I didn't want to do the work." Jenny said with a evil grin.

"Then there was Rob, sweet Rob. He is so cute when he is scared. I mean look at him, he is cute, right?"

Jenny kept staring at Sally, until Sally finally said "yes he is cute"

"See Rob, I told you." Said Jenny. "I didn't want to mess up his cute face so I used another bottle of arsenic that we had stored under the counter. I really liked you too Sally that's why I wanted this to be easy for you. You will go to sleep and then when you wake up you will be like us, won't that be fun?"

"Sally, Sally" Jenny smiled as she realized that Sally was dead. A few minutes later Sally rose from her body and in the distance she could hear her name being called, she tried to leave the cabin but she was trapped there by a force she didn't understand. Her parents were calling for her, but they could not here her calling back.

Jenny was so happy she was jumping up and down. "I could make it so they stay too, if you wish, Sally."

"No, please don't hurt them, please" begged Sally

"Fine" said Jenny, "I am too tired right now anyway"

"We will have fun, Sally, you'll see" Jenny said smiling, they will come and get your body and then they will leave and we can stay together for all ways"

The cabin in the woods is still abandoned with a candle that glows at night for those who are able to see it.