The Kids Clubhouse

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. This cabin was seated back along the tree line on the property across from Lawrence’s house. Lawrence has been living here for the last forty years, living alone and retiring here away from the city. Not many people were around here, only a few neighbors that lived acres away from Lawrence. There were more chickens and cows around here than there were people. But once in a while. Lawrence would see hikers, travelers and visitors come by and a few would stop and peak into the old cabin.

One such visitor caught his attention. Lawrence began to notice a boy wandering around the woods by the abandoned cabin. This boy was long, lanky, and incredibly pale. Despite being on the taller side, Lawrence would pin the boy to be about nine or ten, but certainly no older than thirteen. The kid still had a lot of baby face hanging onto his cheeks and chin. The boy had a shock of messy blonde hair and pale eyes that he kept cast to the ground. Lawrence wondered if another family moved to the area recently, and this was their boy. There were plenty of hiking trails that connected to the cabins that sat by the forest and along the farmlands here.

Lawrence first saw the boy when he was sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of his nice home. He watched curiously as the boy wandered slowly around the cabin, and shuffled up to the windows of the abandoned place. Then he watched as the boy gently pushed open the front door, which was only holding on to the door frame by half a hinge. The boy disappeared inside, and did not come back out for a while. It wasn’t until Lawrence was back inside his own home and watching TV that he saw movement from his living room window. The boy came out of the cabin, gently shut the door, and then hurriedly shuffled back the way he came from behind the cabin.

After that, Lawrence would see this same kid come by almost every day, at all different times. Lawrence would be out milking cows or feeding chickens, and the kid would suddenly show, shuffling in and out of the cabin. The place was abandoned, it didn’t really bother Lawrence that he was going in and out of a house that no one owned. Kids had a habit of making forts, so maybe this old building was this kid's new fort or clubhouse? It would certainly be put to better use than just letting the cabin sit there empty. Lawrence was just curious of what the kid might be up to in there.

This kid started to come by during the night too, and if Lawrence was up, he would see a candle or two glowing in the window, and shadows would play on the inner walls of the cabin. Lawrence kept an eye on the kid, but never spoke to him or paid him any attention. As a week or two passed, Lawrence noticed the kid dragging things into the cabin in black plastic bags. Sometimes the kid would be carrying it, sometimes he would be dragging it. Then into the cabin he went, and he wouldn’t emerge for a couple of hours. Lawrence raised an eyebrow at this, but figured that maybe the kid was bringing in decorations or building materials to make this cabin more enjoyable for him. If that was indeed what he was doing, the kid was handier than Lawrence initially gave him credit for. It was nice to see a kid be good with his hands. Candles burned in the window more often at night now.

Soon, it wasn’t just the blonde kid that was coming to the cabin. Lawrence would watch as this kid would bring about others with him, children both younger and older than him. Even the occasional adult would come with the kid, some of them looking annoyed, others confused. If the adults looked over, Lawrence would wave briefly at them before going back to his own chores around the house. One thing he did note, is that he never saw the same people twice. Either way, it was good that the boy was socializing. Since Lawrence only ever saw the boy by himself, he had wondered if the boy was a loner. But seeing all the different kids, perhaps that wasn't the case. It was good that the kid was able to make friends around here. Lawrence knew how hard it could be to make friends, especially out here in the country.

One cloudy day, Lawrence stayed inside away from the occasional rain, and he contentedly watched TV. But a sudden scream caught his attention, and he jerked upright from his chair. The yell came from the abandoned cabin, and it was a shrill scream, like you would hear from a kid if they got hurt. Maybe the blonde boy hurt himself while he was building something. Lawrence made his way outside in the mud and started to approach the abandoned cabin. The front door opened, and the blonde boy stood in the doorframe, staring at Lawrence with his pale eyes.

“You alright? I heard a scream,” Lawrence asked gruffly, looking the boy up and down. There was blood on his hand, maybe it was a cut. The blonde boy nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact. He also grabbed the bloody hand with the other, as if to hide the blood.

“Are you hurt? I see blood on your hand. Come on, you can wash up at my house to see if it needs any attention,” Lawrence continued, taking a step forward. The kid shook his head hard, taking a step back into the house. He then began closing the door, never breaking eye contact with Lawrence the whole time. Lawrence blinked at the door, wondering why the kid was acting so strange. Maybe he was not so good with strangers? But that would be odd since he has so many people over here. Lawrence went to peer into one of the windows of the cabin, but he saw that dark blankets were covering the glass on the inside, making it impossible to see into them. He wondered how long those have been there. He had never noticed them because of the candlelight he would see from his window.

With a frown, Lawrence made his way back to his home, getting ingredients ready for the meal he wanted to make for his dinner. At one point, he looked up from his cooking and glanced out of his kitchen window. He was startled to see the blonde boy, who was inside the abandoned cabin, but standing close to one of the windows, staring at Lawrence. Lawrence frowned, waved a bit, and then drew his own curtains. That kid was a tad bit odd.

The next morning, Lawrence went outside to feed his animals and found a horrific sight. All of his chickens had been slaughtered, and strewn across his lawn. Lawrence inspected the coop, and found that the door had been left wide open, which he would never do. The chickens were all missing their heads, and some of them had wings missing too. There were feathers everywhere, and there was also blood. Lawrence was angry, shaking with rage over the loss of his animals. What did he or his chickens ever do to anyone to deserve this? It must have been a fox, or a coyote to cause this amount of damage. But he never heard his animals cry or make noise like they normally would if an animal was outside.

Lawrence scanned the lawn and saw that a trail of feathers and blood crossed the road away from his home. The trail led right to the front door of the abandoned cabin that the kid was using for a hideout. If it had been an animal, perhaps the kid was in the cabin at the time, and heard the whole thing. Or maybe even saw something. The kid was there all the time, he must have seen something. Lawrence was upset by the loss of his chickens, and he wanted to find out what happened. Without hesitation, Lawrence went right up to the door and knocked. He heard a shuffling inside. The kid must be inside, doing whatever he usually did in there. Upon hearing someone in there, Lawrence opened the door, letting himself inside. He had always been curious about what the kid was up to anyway. He paused inside the cabin, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the cabin. Lawrence glanced around for the kid, but he did a double take, and he scanned around the large room slower.

The cabin was one large room with one corner to represent the kitchen, one corner the bedroom and one corner the living area with a bathroom hiding behind a curtain. But Lawrence was confused by what was decorating the cabin. There wasn't a whole lot of light, since most of the windows were covered. But there were a few candles that were lit. And they showed what Lawrence thought were skins on the wall, tacked up there with thin nails. But as he looked closer, it wasn’t skins that were on the walls. It was whole animals, rats, rabbits, chickens, foxes, a couple of dogs, and then... faces. They looked like grotesque masks, but they were faces, all ripped up and then tacked on the walls as neatly as possibly to try and keep the features straight. Rivulets of dried blood seeped from behind the faces and pieces of animal carcasses, and it made pool stains of blood on the floors. Lawrence wildly glanced around at the bed, and he stared. On it were bones. Full, bloody bones that still had flesh attached, all in varying stages of decay. The bed itself was so full from the bones and parts, it had entirely soaked through with blood, and another pool of it was stained underneath the entire thing. Lawrence even saw a skull there with some pieces of flesh still attached, but its jaw was missing. It was also smaller than one would see from an adult. THe smell of the building hit him then too. It was a strong, overpowering smell of decay and death. IT was so powerful, it made Lawrence’s eyes water and his stomach turn.

The full brunt of this sight hit Lawrence like a blow to his chest. That was a child’s skull. The things in bags he watched the kid carry were full of dead animals. And the people he saw disappear in here were still here, all of them now in pieces. All because of a kid! How was that even possible?! Now that he saw all of this, it would not be out of the realm of possibility for this kid to kill Lawrence’s chickens. They were ripped apart in odd ways, and none of them were carried off like a predator would have done. Did the kid do this… to lure Lawrence here? Lawrence felt a cold sweat creep down his face and neck. What if that was exactly what the boy had wanted? And Lawrence had walked right in here. Even if the kid did not think that far, he still did all of this in the cabin, he had killed so many. Lawrence had to get out of here. He had to call the police immediately. He had to make sure this kid was locked up for good.

Lawrence rapidly turned back for the door, but when he did, he saw that it was closing on its own. No, it wasn’t on its own. The boy had been sitting behind the door with his knees curled up to his chest. He was completely naked, except for a pair of dark boxers he wore. He now stared unblinking at Lawrence, and he began to rise. The hand that was not closing the door held a rather large butcher knife, the knife itself looked jagged from misuse and lack of care. He placed himself between Lawrence and the door, and raised the knife to chest height. Lawrence’s heart skipped a beat, and he backed up. But he realized there was nowhere to go. There was nowhere else he could possibly go other than through the door that the kid was guarding. He had to get out. No way in hell was he going to die here to a deranged kid. Lawrence yelled at the top of his lungs and barreled towards the kid with his fists raised. The blond boy before him barely flinched at the sudden noise. Instead he pointed the tip of the knife towards Lawrence, and his small mouth flicked up into a smile. Then, it turned into the widest grin, his lips pulled up so much that he was baring his gums in a grotesque manner. This deranged smile showed Lawrence just how truly gone and terrifying this child actually was, even without the nasty looking weapon in his hand. As Lawrence came running close to the kid, he couldn't help but notice - all this time, the kid never blinked.