The One by Candlelight

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. It was located on a small island in the middle of the lake within Creekside Campgrounds. A group of friends went to the campground every year in June to kick off summer, before it got too hot. It was one of their favorite traditions.

One year, the group of friends arrived early one Friday morning. Little did they know, this years trip would be their last trip.

They got to their cabin and settled in. Everyone threw their things into their rooms and then headed down to the kitchen for some drinks. One of the guys there - Brad - was already eager to get the party started. He laid out six shot glasses for him and his friends. He yelled for everyone to get into the kitchen.

“Come on guys.. its tradition,” he yelled, probably loud enough that the neighboring cabins could hear.

Everyone grabbed their shot and cheersed to a fun weekend. The group was laughing, smiling, drinking. It was a good time with good friends. But you know the saying, all good things must end. They had no idea what they were in for.

After a few more shots, there was a knock on the door. Brad went to answer it. Before him stood a short, blonde woman, maybe in her late twenties. She was gorgeous.

“Hi, I’m Jenna.. I’m saying in that other cabin and we forgot toilet paper. I was wondering if you had any to spare..” She flashed her white teeth and batteed her lost girl eyes, hoping that would help her cause.

“Hey, yeah, I’m Brad. We have a few we can give you,” Brad chuckled and invited her in.

“Everyone, this is Jenna. She needs some toilet paper, ha.” He giggled. Everyone walked up to her and introduced themselves - Matt, Steve, Landon, Kaycee, and Carrie. Carrie was the least warm to her, only because she was on and off with Brad and did not need any more short blonde competition.

Brad returned with the toilet paper and handed it to Jenna. They smiled at each other and Carrie immediately felt threatened. He offered her a drink and Jenna accepted and stayed for a while, chatting with everyone, getting to know everyone.

Hours went by. Everyone was getting pretty buzzed. They migrated to the campfire outside their cabin. Some of Jenna’s friends joined. Everyone was getting along and having a great first night.

Matt threw some more wood on the fire and Brad started the story off - the one he told every single year. Everyone in his party had heard the story a million times but he didn’t care.

“So, I’m glad we have some new people here…” he started, excited that he had new ears that might’ve appreciated it more than his own friends. His group start groaning and moaning.

Matt turned to Jenna’s group, rolled his eyes and said, “here we go again,” very sarcastically.

Jenna smiled, giggled and asked, “what??” She was actually interested in what Brad was about to say.

Brad shushed Matt and continued, “have you ever heard the story of the Curse of the Candle?” He asked their group, and they all shook their head no. Of course, Brad’s group moaned and groaned again and said, “yess we have Brad,” in unison. He shushed them again, louder, and rolled his eyes.

“Well they haven’t, so deal with it,” he laughed, and threw his empty beer can at Matt. He cracked open another beer. The fire cracked, the wind was blowing softly. It was an eerie night to begin with, which excited Brad even more.

“Okay, so the Curse of the Candle. This is the reason why we come to this specific campground. There’s a cabin in the middle of the lake, buried behind some trees. You can kind of see it from here but you have to know what you’re looking for. The only way to get there is by crossing the lake. It’s been abandoned ever since the day it happened…”

Jenna was intrigued. She hadn’t taken her eyes off of Brad since he started telling the story.

“This campground was built by a couple - Luke and Olivia. Their dream was to own and operate a campsite, somewhere people could go to get away from their every day lives, with no worries, just to have fun with friends and the people they loved.

They worked hard and made their dream come true. After a year of hard work, the cabins were built, the activities were in place, and their dream was a reality. The last house to be built was their own personal cabin.

When the cabin was 90% done, and basically livable, they decided they were able to open the campsite to the public. On their grand opening, Olivia was out doing stuff, maintenance, welcoming the guests, things like that. Things that would keep her out all day.

Luke stayed in their cabin that day, working and cleaning, and doing some computer work. While out and about, Olivia got all muddy and needed to change her clothes. She went back to her cabin to grab some new clothes, and to see the love of her life, of course. She saw a candle burning in the window of their bedroom, and thought that was weird, but brushed it off. She walked inside and heard giggling coming from her bedroom. The door was cracked, she could see inside.

There were candles all over the place, in the window, on the nightstands, next to the bed. She saw Luke and a woman in their bed, having sex and just as she was about to go in and confront her cheating husband, he reached into the end table drawer, pulled out a knife and slit the woman’s throat.”

Brad started to get more animated with his storytelling.

“Blood spewed everywhere, soaking the bed sheets, covering Luke. The woman grabbed her neck and tried to hold the wound closed but there was too much blood. The once white sheets were now crimson red.

Olivia slammed the door open and ran into the room.

Luke saw her and said, ‘I was wondering when you were going to join.’ He smiled at her, deviously.

‘Sorry, I was just mesmerized by you, and I wanted to just watch this time.’ She responded with a proud tone in her voice. This was not their first time doing this.

She climbed into the bed with him and they make love right next to the woman’s body. She was still alive, gasping for air, but it only aroused them more.

They were in such a heat of passion. Olivia was more aroused than she had ever been in her entire life. Luke was on an adrenaline high. The two of them together, feeling each other, rolling around in the woman’s warm blood, watching her cling to any sliver of life gave them the most magical, transcendent, on another level feeling they have ever had. They were both breathlessly yelling each other’s names, they told each other how much they loved each other, and promised to be together forever.”

Brad’s voice now sounded envious.

“They felt as if their souls were connected, their bodies were one. They both felt incredible, like nothing could bring them down off of their high.

When they finished, they got up to shower. They were washing off the blood from each other, kissing and touching each other, paying no attention to the woman in the other room. They didn’t know if she was alive or dead, they forgot about her.

But she was alive, desperately trying to hold on to every breath of oxygen she could. She reached for a towel, causing the candle to fall to the ground, into a pool of her blood. Her blood acted like an accelerant and the fire roared.

It followed her into the bathroom where she screamed so loud, the glass of the shower walls shattered. Olivia and Luke were terrified. The woman was seemingly untouched by the broken glass, the fire, and the loss of blood. They had no idea what was happening. Their fear seemed to make the woman more powerful.

The woman grabbed the hot candles, opened their mouthes and forced them down their throats, causing them to internally combust, and burn from within.

The woman walked out of the cabin, the fire following her, into the lake, with the bodies of Luke and Olivia.

No trace of Luke, Olivia, or the woman has ever been found. The cabin looked like nothing had ever happened. There was no blood, no burned wood. The bed was made, the glass doors were in one piece. The only thing that remained was the candle in the window.

The family of Luke and Olivia keep the cabin vacant, just in case they ever return but no one dares go in there.” Brad finishes the story with a spooky tone in his voice, hoping to scare Jenna and her group.

“We have wanted to go to the cabin ever since we’ve heard the story but it’s almost impossible to get there. You need a boat, or some way to get across the lake. Legend has it, though, when you see the infamous candle in the window lit, you should leave the campsite. People go missing.”

Jenna, very interested at this point, asked, “have you seen the candle lit??”

“No, but we bring binoculars every year and check throughout the weekend. Never seen it lit though,” Brad tells her, with an underlying disappointment. He grabbed the bag that was laying next to him and pulled out the binoculars.

“I don’t buy it..” Carrie chimed in. “I’ve heard that they were so underwater with their finances. They wanted to build this entire campground, but couldn’t afford it. By the time it was all built, they racked up so much debt that they couldn’t pay, even with the financial projections of what the it would bring in, they wouldn’t make a profit for like, twenty years. I heard they took what little cash they had and ran away. They looked for their bodies. They didn’t find any single trace of anything that happened to them.”

“How do you explain their cars being found? None of their clothes were missing. They found all of their personal items,” Brad pressed. He was really into it. “What about their boat being found at the dock on the island? How the hell were they supposed to get back to the mainland without their boat? Can’t swim that far.”

“I don’t know man! It’s weird, I’ll admit that, but I don’t know. The way you tell it, the woman in the bed would have been dead. She basically bled out! No one could survive that” Carrie was obviously the non-believer and it frustrated him.

Everyone else around the fire was laughing as they argue. Jenna jumped in, “I don’t know Carrie, I believe it. Women who get betrayed by people they love can do crazy things.”

“Yeah but do you really believe in all of that ghost stuff?”

Jenna shrugged her shoulders, then reached for the binoculars.

“Well, I know what I believe in, and that is alcohol.. who wants a shot?” Matt interrupted the deep conversation. He wanted to lighten the mood before it got too freaky.

“I will take one, pleasssseeee,”Kaycee begged, eager to get out of the yearly telling of the campfire story.

Matt poured everyone a shot of fireball. “Okay, this is fitting..” He said, pointing to the bottle.

“So where is the cabin?” Jenna asked Brad. He pointed to the direction of the lake. Jenna looked through the binoculars but couldn’t see much. “I can’t see anything. Can you show me?”

“Sure,” he replied and they got up and walked toward the edge of the lake. Carrie watched them as they walked away and got immediately annoyed and jealous. Everyone looked at her, knowing exactly what was going through her mind.

Brad and Jenna got to the edge of the lake and he pointed again to where the cabin was. The moon lit up the sky just enough to highlight the cabin in the distance. Brad looked through the binoculars to the cabin and didn’t see a flame in the window but when Jenna looked, she did see it.

She dropped the binoculars on the ground, gasped and stepped back.

“What??” Brad was freaked out. He picked the binoculars up quickly and looked at the cabin again. He didn’t see anything.

Jenna’s demeanor changed from inquisitive to stoic. She became uninterested in the story, uninterested in the cabin. Brad was confused. She turned to leave, and he grabbed her arm.

“Hey, hey, what did you see?”

“N-nothing. I didn’t see anything. I need to go to bed.” Her voice was emotionless, flat.

They walked back to their cabins and went to bed.

Brad woke up around 2am. He felt something wet on the bed. His body was drenched in blood. He looked next to him and Carrie was dead. Her throat was slit. He screamed loud enough that everyone burst through the door to find out what was going on.

They all gasped. Kaycee turned away. She was horrified by the body of her dead friend. The guys were shocked.

“What the fuck??” Matt yelled, going over to Carrie to check to see if there was any sign of a pulse. There was not. She was gone.

Brad started freaking out. He got up from the bed. He tried to find a towel to wipe the blood off of his body. “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t do this!” He shouted. He was freaking out, as any normal person would if they saw someone dead in their bed next to them.

Everyone was trying to figure out what to do. Kaycee pulled her phone out to try to call the police but it wasn’t working. It was dead. It wouldn’t turn on. “Is anyone’s phone working? Mine isn’t turning on.”

“What are you doing???” Brad snatched her phone out of her hand. “They will never believe that I didn’t do this. I am covered in her blood! I woke up and she was dead. Oh God…”

“We have to call someone! We can’t just leave her here!” Kaycee was freaking out.

Brad got into the shower to wash the blood off. He was shaking. He was so confused. He wasn’t that drunk. He was coherent. He was thinking straight. But thinking about it, he doesn’t remember much after Jenna freaked out. What the hell happened?? I know I came back here and went to bed. Right? I don’t even remember seeing Carrie in bed. What the fuck is going on?

He walked back into the room and everyone stared at him. Just as he was about to say something, they heard a scream come from Jenna’s cabin. Everyone rushed to the window to see what was happening. Jenna’s friend, Rachel, soaked in blood ran outside, screaming.

They all ran outside to get a better look and to find out what was going on.

“What is going on??” Kaycee was panicking. She started crying. She was terrified. Matt ran up to her to help her and she fell into his arms.

Jenna walked out the front door of the cabin and Rachel screamed at the sight of her. She had a knife in her hand. She walked up to Rachel and slit her throat where she stood, with little effort.

Jenna saw Brad, smiled and announced, “today is your lucky day. You’ve been coming here for years to find out of the story of the cabin was real. Well, it is. That was ME. I was betrayed by someone I thought I loved.” She started her story off, the real story of what happened in that cabin all those years ago.

“Luke and I had been seeing each other for two years. I was with him while they were building the campground. I was one of their first investors. I didn’t plan on it but I fell in love with Luke. Things were not great with him and Olivia, at least from what I saw. Every time I was around, they would be arguing. They could never agree on anything, not even where to eat. I thought he was just with her because of the investment in the camp.” She’s telling her story, and tears are falling from her eyes. She is hurt. She’s been hurt for years.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and continued, “I never thought he would hurt me. I thought he loved me. It’s the same story. Man is married, says he’s unhappy, tries to convince another woman that he needs her, he’s so broken and needs a shoulder to cry on. I knew it was wrong,” she confessed, emotionally. “But I thought I was being a good person. I thought I was just being there for him. I began to care for him and I fell in love with him. I gave myself completely to him.”

“That night was different. Something was different. Luke was different. He was much more affectionate. I had other plans that night but he practically begged me to come over. He said he was feeling really good and just needed me. That’s a good feeling, to be needed. When I walked in, there were candles everywhere.” She smiled at memory. “I was mesmerized. I was so happy. I thought to myself, this is who I’m supposed to be with. This is my person. He kissed me differently. He held be differently. It was like we were the ones married, not him and Olivia. Ughhh I hate even saying her name!” Her rage heightened after her name left her lips.

Everyone was watching in terror. Kaycee was hiding behind Matt. Steve, hoping he could get away unnoticed, started running into the cabin but Jenna’s power was too strong. She froze him where he was, walked up to him, twisted and broke his neck. He fell to the ground and everyone gasped.

Jenna walked to Brad and said, “you wouldn’t do that to me, right Brad? You wouldn’t hurt me” She put the knife up to his cheek and slid it down, moving it past his neck and then down to his groin. His heart started beating faster and faster. He winced away and Jenna was not happy with that. She took a step back and continued her story.

“When Luke slit my throat, I transcended into another state of being. I was shocked. He was still making love to me while he cut me. I was horrified. I saw what was happening and felt so much anger! Maybe it was my anger, maybe it was the passion they generated while being together in my blood. I don’t know. But something happened to me. I laid there until they were done with each other. I got up while they were in the shower, the candles fell off the nightstand and the fire grew so quickly. The fire followed me into the bathroom, where they were washing my blood off of their bodies. They were reveling in my misery. I screamed so loud, the glass shattered. They went from blissful to afraid in a split second.

They had no idea what they were witnessing, which was ironic because they were watching what they created. Their betrayal mixed with their undying love created a monster. I grabbed one of the candles Luke put out for me. I opened Olivia’s mouth and forced it down her throat until she suffocated on it. I made Luke watch. His fear was overcome by heart break, watching the love of his life die in front of him. But that feeling does not compare to what I was feeling,” more and more tears fell, and now her feelings could be heard in her voice. “I trusted him with my life!”

She wiped away the tears. “I killed Luke too. I didn’t want to but I couldn’t let him live after what he’d done to me. After they were dead, I walked out of the cabin, carrying both of their bodies like they were feathers.”

Her tone transitioned to more sympathetic. “I just want to be happy. I just want to find someone who will love me. I light the candle in the cabin when I find someone I think is worthy. That’s you Brad. You have a good heart. You have a good soul. I can sense it. That’s why I had to kill Carrie. She was in the way.”

Jenna walked back up to Brad. “You’ve been waiting for this, I can tell. You come here every year, looking for me. I’ve seen you, I just had to know for sure. Now I do. Come with me and we can be happy.” She reached her hand out, waiting for him to grab it.

"There have been others, who I thought were the ones I've been waiting for but they've all betrayed me, just like Luke did! I had to teach them a lesson too, just like I did with Luke. But you won't do that to me. You won't make me do that, right Brad?" She looks at him, waiting for him to make a decision.

Brad didn’t know what to do. He was scared and sad about Carrie but he was tempted by her power and unlimited passion. He was also afraid of what she’d do to him or his friends if he said no so he grabbed her hand. He had no choice.

A look of pure bliss overcame Jenna’s face and she guided him into the lake.

Everyone in the camp watched as they disappeared. They were in disbelief. They all packed their bags and left as soon as they possibly could. Carrie’s body disappeared along with Rachels and Steves. There was no trace that Carrie, Brad, Steve, Rachel or Jenna ever came to the camp that year. No one spoke of the events of that night ever again, either because they were terrified, or they were too crazy to believe. None of them returned to Creekside Campgrounds ever again, but Brad and Jenna never left.