The damned and the doomed

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Jake and I had been coming to this part of the woods together since we were kids and never once saw the glowing orange flame in the front window until now. More curious than scared, we proceeded towards the cabin, our footsteps crunching the leaves and branches on the forest floor. It was dusk, and we would normally continue our way through and out of the woods, but not this time.

Slowly, we crept closer to the cabin, both staring at the upstairs window lit with the white candle. It flickered and danced so beautifully but the feeling we got in the pit of our stomachs was not so pleasant. Suddenly, footsteps behind us! Those loud crunches were not coming from below our feet. Both of us turned back to see a deer had made its way onto the same path. “Phew” Jake muttered. Moving forward, we started to wonder who had lit the candle, and when? We had not seen anybody around, surely it hadn’t been lit very long.

Once we arrived at the foot of the porch, we both looked at each other and decided to crack open the door to the old dusty abandoned cabin. The door creaked loudly. “Hello?” I shouted. The cabin was just as dirty and empty as the last time we entered when were younger. The door was still open as we stood just a foot inside. Footsteps behind us again, but this time when we looked back, it wasn’t the deer. A tall dark figure levitating in the trees stared at us with glowing red eyes! Jake and I screamed, and the front door of the old, abandoned cabin slammed shut.

We didn’t know what to do, we ran up the stairs where there was one large room, completely empty except for a table in the front window with one single burning candle. Our breathing was heavy, hairs stood up on our arms. We slowly walked over to the window to peer out and see if the tall, dark, levitating man was still there. Nowhere to be seen. We looked as far and wide as we could through the window and did not see the scary figure. Jake and I looked at each other, both terrified and confused. What do we do? “We need to get out of here” I stammered. “We can’t stay here, and we certainly can’t stay in the woods with that…thing! We must try and make a run for home”.

Jake agreed. We made our way down the stairs, walked across the same floor that led to the same front cabin door. It opened. Jake and I ran like crazy towards home, the way we knew that would lead us back to safety. Home isn’t more than a 15-minute walk from the old cabin, but on this night, there was no end to our running. We ran longer than we felt we should have and still did not see the lights of our cozy neighborhood. We thought maybe we were so frightened that we had missed our trail back home.

Jake and I walked and walked. Night-time fell upon the woods. Eerily, we started to then see in the distance the old cabin again. How could this be? Had we gone in a big circle? “This isn’t happening right?” I cried to Jake. As we approached, the candle still flickering in the front window seemed more evil than curious now. Again, we ran and ran. We continued even though each path we took continued to lead us right back to the cabin. Hunger, thirst, and exhaustion set it. We needed a break.

Given the nightmarish games that the woods were playing on us, we decided that our best option was to take shelter for the night, inside the cabin. I had a snickers bar and half a bottle of water in the small backpack I had been toting around. “Here,” I said to Jake as I handed him half of my snickers bar. I tried not to chug all of the water, so Jake had plenty, but I had never been so thirsty in my life! “Save me some!” Jake yelled at me and reached for the bottle. As he raised his hand towards me, a loud “thump, thump, thump” averted our attention. It was coming from the porch outside.

Jake and I were still, silent. We stopped breathing and you could practically hear our hearts jumping out of our chests. “Thump, thump, thump,” on the front cabin porch. The door slowly started to creak open. Jake and I took off up the stairs to the one large dusty room above. Once to the top, we hid under the window, next to the table with the dancing devilish candle. Thumping again, this time it was headed right up the stairs! We shook with fear, there was nothing to do, no where to go. The thumping grew closer and closer.

There it was! The terrifying, tall, dark figure, now floating at the top of the stairs. Its glowing red eyes were burning right through our skulls! I had never been more terrified in my life, and I was praying to God that I would just wake up but I knew nightmares, and this was no nightmare. This was real. I was frozen almost to death, unable to look away from the piercing red eyes. Jake suddenly let go of my hand and in a panic, he threw himself out of the second story cabin window.

There was a loud crash when his body tore threw the old glass. It happened in slow motion, and for a split second I forgot about the demon stalking us. His body left the room and I never even heard him cry or hit the forest floor. My attention was brought back to the tall dark figure. It bolted towards me and like an owl after a rodent in the night. I knew I could not outrun it, I stood there like a statue. Long black wings opened, and the figure dropped down onto me and swallowed me whole.

I was engulfed in a dark, nothingness. Silence and darkness were all there was. Suddenly, I wasn’t scared. I was cold but it didn’t bother me. I felt no hunger and no pain. I was almost…at peace. I looked around with my new glowing, red eyes. The candle to the old cabin was no longer dancing and flickering, it had been put out. Was I now the tall dark figure in the woods? Who was I? Whoever I was, it felt like I belonged. Jake was nowhere to be found. I levitated with my new identity in front if the broken window. I knew it was now my turn to light the candle.

Time was not real anymore; I was in a different dimension. It was then that I understood my new duty to fulfill, my new purpose. I then became one with the forest, hidden in the trees, the deer unbothered by my presence. I hear screaming again, it’s Jake. I knew now that he had ended his life the moment he hit the ground from jumping out of the second story window, leaving him in an endless loop of the dimension that he was now trapped in. He would remain as a ghost, forever in these woods unseen by humans, except maybe by a select few who could catch a glimpse of his doomed soul running through the trees.

Some time had passed, and my attention was diverted by a young couple who was walking through MY woods. They were laughing, playing around, and throwing leave at each other. They were about to stumble across the lit candle in the front window of the old cabin. It was my time to shine, or shall I say, glow.