The Terror of Cabinaccus

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.

It’s a trap, Clara knew.

The evening sun had just begun its descent. Shades of amber and lavender engulfed the sky. Trees peaked far beyond the cabin, scattered throughout the forest extending for miles of the Brandywine Valley. The remnants of a snow squall earlier rested across the ground like icing on a cake. A gentle late-January chill fluttered through the air, almost bittersweet in the presence of a place deemed sinister for so long.

The cabin wasn't particularly unique, aside from the obvious reality that it appeared to be quite outdated. The logs built from the wall portrayed evidence of rotting and disfigurement, but still firmly held the building in place as if by determination alone. A small, barren porch surrounded the front door with a rusted awning lurched over like a vulture peering down at its remaining meal. The windows and the doors were covered on the inside by curtains, preventing any opportunity for trespassers to peek inside.

Clara stood there, perched in the bushes, cautiously watching the lone cabin from afar. Leaning against an oak tree a few feet away was her boyfriend Kaleb. His eyes were glued to his phone, per usual. He was watching recorded episodes of his favorite horror movies. An occasional chuckle came out as he mocked the absurdity of the characters’ mistakes.

“Of course, she would trip there,” Kaleb snickered. “Of course.”

One hundred feet away, the single candlelight flickered ominously without reason. Clara could not take her eyes off it. Was it taunting her? What did it really mean? Who could have even turned it on?

Clara groaned. “Are you even seeing this?”

“Yeah,” Kaleb muttered, not even moving his eyes away from the screen. “It’s a cabin. They make those in forests like these, you know.”

“Kaleb, you smartass. Not just any cabin. It’s the cabin. The one from the myths. The one that my mom was taken in," Clara replied.

Kaleb sluggishly glanced upward to stare Clara in the eyes. “Wait, this is it? This cabin? This is where it went down six years ago?”

“Yes,” Clara responded.

Kaleb shook his head. “Whoa."

Kaleb paused, perhaps considering his response. "Wait, wait. Let me get this straight. You brought me all the way out here, to the cabin that’s been supposedly haunted for centuries and your mom mysteriously vanished at, and you want to go in there? Looking for what? Haven’t you heard of the so-called Terror of Cabinaccus? Your mother isn’t the only one who went missing here,” Kaleb said.

“I know,” Clara said.

“So, you know then that this has been going down since settlers first came to America, right? This is supposed to be one of the first cabins built by the Scandinavians over four hundred years ago. And I sure hope you know how right here, in the Brandywine Valley, there are tales that settlers had been taken in this cabin as early as the 1600's,” Kaleb said. He inched closer, the thrill growing exponentially inside him. “You know, it’s even rumored that the word ‘cabin’ itself came from this myth. The natives were the first to refer to it as Cabinaccus.”

Clara rolled her eyes. “I know. I read the Wiki page. Did you see anything about what it really is, though? What people think is really taking travelers?”

Kaleb sighed. He pressed his back against the tree. “Not really. Just a bunch of chatter that it could be some demon or something. My theory? It’s a man in a mask who murders people and eats them.”

“That seems a bit half baked,” Clara laughed. “He couldn’t have been doing this for centuries. Humans don’t live that long, genius.”

“Maybe he has the Fountain of Youth.”

“Yeah. Just tucked away in the basement of this rando' cabin for hundreds of years. Totally makes sense,” Clara said.

Together, Clara and Kaleb stood in silence for a moment, watching the quivering light dance across the glass.

“So, why today?” Kaleb asked. “I thought you were taking me to a waterfall or something. Wasn’t exactly feeling the murder cabin vibe today, to be honest.”

“Kaleb,” Clara hissed. She glanced at him and then frantically back at the cabin. “This is the day that was scribbled in the dirt when I came running to find her. One. Twenty-three. Twenty-two. That’s today.”

Kaleb’s eyes widened. “Okay, okay. I get it. So, are we just going to stand here and watch all night or are we busting in?”

It’s not that simple, Clara thought. She knew the cabin was not searched the day her mother disappeared. The detectives, the police, the firefighters, no one dared go inside. Yet alone step too close. There had been a ramp up in the number of stories circling over the past decades about mysterious disappearances at this cabin. And sure, there were disappearances everywhere. But something was strange about this one. There were never any witnesses. There was no evidence the victims were actually taken. Nothing could prove that anything had actually happened there.

Not only that, but this is personal, Clara thought. Whoever was here took my mother.

Clara had waited long enough. She needed answers.

“This is the first time in six years that there’s been the slightest sign of life in there. I’ve walked by on occasions for my jogs. I haven’t seen anything here, not until now. The candle. The date. There has to be a reason for all of this. It can’t just be coincidence,” Clara said.

“So do you think someone is in there? Just visiting and waiting before their next kill?” Kaleb asked.

“I don’t know,” Clara mouthed. She stared at the cabin uneasily. The hairs on the back of her neck jolted upward. Something felt as if it was moving beneath her skin. Clara couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched.

“We should probably go in there and get this over with," Kaleb said. "I don’t want to be out here all night. Our daughter probably needs us.”

“Kaleb! Just because we rescued her from the pound together doesn’t make her our daughter,” Clara said.

“In today’s world? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it does,” Kaleb declared with a grin.

Clara rolled her eyes. “This is my mother we're talking about. Come on.”

The sunlight was gradually fading away. There wouldn't be much time left until darkness blanketed the forest.

Kaleb turned to glance back along the trail. He seemed to feel uneasy too. “I know this is about your mother. But it’s been years. Coming here won’t bring her back. You know that, right? Haven't you seen all the horror movies?”

Clara ignored him. She only stared dead ahead, as if waiting for something miraculous to happen.

That’s when she saw it - glistening in the remnants of the dwindling sunlight - a circular metallic object in the dirt a few feet before the cabin.

Clara’s eyes widened. “Kaleb. Kaleb. Holy shit.”

“What?”

“I recognize that. I think it’s my mom’s necklace. It’s right there,” Clara said shakily.

“You mean its been here this whole time and you didn’t notice before?” Kaleb asked.

“No way,” Clara said. “I haven’t seen this on any of my jogs. We need a closer look.” She turned to Kaleb and frowned. “I know you don’t want to. But do it for me, okay?”

Kaleb grumbled. “Fine. But when we get back, I got big plans for you.”

Clara and Kaleb carefully walked out from the bushes and stepped closer to the cabin.

Clara’s stomach twirled in knots. Something didn’t feel right. But she couldn’t help but overfill with excitement with each step as she grew closer to the locket. Its memory vividly ignited within her mind. It seemed to pull her in, clouding her judgement, guiding her to act on the possibility that she could find her mother after all of these years.

“It’s really it. It’s really here.”

“Crazy.” Kaleb stopped and glanced up at the cabin. “Hey, babes. That candle is flickering as if there’s a storm in there now.”

Clara was too excited to notice. She leaned down and brushed the dirt off the locket. It had her family initials engraved on it. “My mom had this made when I was young. It has a picture of us together inside it. Can’t say I love it, honestly. But I sure don’t want it to be lost here.”

Clara picked up the locket. She pulled it closer to her face. Her eyes widened when she noticed it was attached to something.

A single, miniscule vine was wrapped around the locket’s chain. It seemed to shrivel as Clara’s fingers pressed against it.

“What the hell? Are you seeing this?”

Kaleb didn’t respond.

Clara spun around to see Kaleb frozen in his steps.

“I think we should go. Now. Kia needs us,” Kaleb said. His voice was trembling with fear.

Clara’s eyes followed Kaleb’s. The candle light was gone. Only the fading sunlight surrounded.

Mere feet away, the cabin was no longer standing still. It was moving, inside of itself, rattling and screeching as if it were shifting. Moments later, the logs creaked madly as they bent inward and outward from sheer force.

Clara’s eyes widened. She noticed something slithering in the dirt beneath their feet.

More vines, Clara realized.

“This cabin is freaking weird.” Clara turned around, clutching the locket in her hands. She sighed. “But I need to know the truth.”

Before Clara could say another word, Kaleb’s scream shattered her world.

Clara swiftly turned back to the cabin. Shock flooded her so heavily that she stumbled backward into the dirt. Dust burst into the air and crashed around her.

The cabin’s porch had disconnected. It now hovered some 10-or-so feet above, suspended from a long, thick olive-colored branch that appeared to have emerged from deep within the cabin. The porch and its overhang had folded apart, reconfigured into a jagged mass of broken logs that resembled a shape similar to a hand.

Clara blinked and heard the click of a safety shut off. She glanced over to see Kaleb pointing a pistol at the raised porch-armed branch.

"Kaleb, why the hell do you have a gun?" Clara asked, still in shock.

“Whatever the hell this is, I’m not going to let this be like every horror movie ever made,” Kaleb declared. He wrapped his finger firmly around the trigger, sweat dripping down his face.

Clara tried to reach out to stop him. She was too late.

Kaleb fired three shots into the fleshy underarm of the porch wielding branch.

The arm lurched backward in response. It seemed to hiss in pain and anger as it swayed sideways. Molten tree sap spurted out rapidly from the wound holes. A splatter of sap slammed directly into Kaleb's face.

Kaleb screamed. He tried to claw the sap away. His skin sizzled and he desperately tried to wipe his eyes clean. The sap only spread further, burning his fingertips and scarring across his face.

Clara watched from the dirt, paralyzed in fear.

Kaleb stumbled downward. He was blinded by the sap in his eyes.

“What the hell is happening?” he asked. "I can't see!"

“I don’t know!” Clara screamed, powerless and afraid.

The cabin suddenly began to change further. Its walls and roof began to break apart, folding outward. The opening revealed an entire living, tree-like monstrosity within. Massive, flesh-like branches held up different parts of the cabin like pieces of armor, with scattered vines for further support. Roots stilted into the ground below, pushing the monstrosity high into the air, nearly above all the surrounding trees.

Lurking in what appeared to be the chest of this towering abomination was a giant, beating heart. It emitted a greenish light, which gleamed dully with each beat. The light swirled through smaller vines spreading across its branches. These vines seemed to function similarly to veins and arteries.

“It’s a whole living organism,” Clara realized. "It's Cabinaccus."

The monstrosity, this so-called Cabinaccus, roared to the heavens, a sound Clara could only describe as comparable to dozens of grinding logs. It lurched downward over them, its chimney wrapped around the upper tree shaft like some sort of armored head piece. Two gaping holes seemed to stare into Clara's soul, the green light igniting rapidly inside.

And then, it spoke.

“You are not worthy,” Cabinaccus snickered. It seemed to peer down at Kaleb. It swayed its porch-armed branch above threateningly. “You are a mere nuisance.”

Kaleb got back onto his feet. He tried to swing his pistol forward, to no avail. “Clara, who the hell is that? What’s saying this?”

Clara took a deep breath. She knew there wasn’t much time. She tried to leap to her feet but realized she was restrained. Clara glanced downward to see vines wrapped around both of her legs.

“Shit. Shit!" Clara yelled. "Kaleb, you need to run. Now!”

“But I can’t see!”

“Just follow my voice and do it now!” Clara shot back.

Kaleb turned to Clara’s voice and took two steps forward. A second later, he tripped over a slithering vine and fell face first into the dirt. In the fall, he accidentally fired the pistol. The bullet crashed into the dirt inches away from Clara's face.

Clara collected herself and swallowed hard. There's no time.

"Kaleb!" Clara cried out desperately. "Please, get up. Don't stop!"

Seven or so feet above, the porch-armed branch cumbersomely formed into the shape of a fist. It swiftly slammed downward with all its might. A storm of dust blasted outward and blanketed over Clara. Kaleb was smashed into pieces in mere seconds.

Blood spurted out from the impact. It sprayed across Clara's face. The dust settled.

Clara stared at the space where her boyfriend had been just moments ago. She screamed. “You freaking monster! I don’t know what the hell you are. But this isn’t going to end this way.”

Cabinaccus seemed to lean down its head as if to sniff Clara. Dirt and dead chunks of bark crumbled off the fleshy branches above. “Ah. Yes. Your scent is familiar. I have tasted your blood before. You belong here, child.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Clara asked. She glanced over her restrained legs for a desperate escape.

Cabinaccus groaned. It lurched back upward into the sky.

“I am Cabinaccus. I am defender of this forest. I have been for many millennia.”

“You what?” Clara let out a nervous laugh. “You sound like some kind of supervillain in one of Kaleb’s games. This is bullshit. You can’t be real. And you can’t just smash my man!”

Cabinaccus seemed unimpressed. “For many years, your species have slayed my kind and the creatures that live here. Across all forests. You have used us for paper, for tools, to build your homes. You have adapted to survive in this world. But so have I."

Cabinaccus seemed to smirk with its distorted eyes. "I have become the very place you call home. I lure you in to this false sense of safety. And I will feast on your flesh and blood. I will carry on, and so will this forest. Humanity cannot end us.”

Clara tried to break free from her restraints. She bit her lip as she used her feet to forcefully pull and loosen the grip of the vines. Clara took a deep breath to glare Cabinaccus dead in the makeshift glowing eyes.

“First, this is madness. Second, I don’t know what other failed attempts at men you easily swiped up out here over all these years, but I’m not them. I’m going to screw you up. You took my mother from me. And now Kaleb. Oh, hell no. I will end you," Clara said, her eyes flashing with anger.

Clara thrusted her legs forward at full strength until the vines broke loose. She leaped to her feet, standing before the terror over a hundred feet taller. And she stood her ground. Clara refused to be afraid any longer. Her world had been robbed from her by this creature. She dared not let it know the fear she felt deep inside any longer.

“You are so desperate to seem fearless,” Cabinaccus muttered. “Just like your mother was.”

“Screw you,” Clara yelled between clenched teeth.

Clara pulled her backpack off her shoulder and fished out her only weapon: a flare gun, given to her by her mother as a last resort during her hiking trips. Clara raised the flare gun before her chest. With a swift movement of her hand she aimed and pulled the trigger, releasing a blinding burst of light. It jolted forward rapidly and crashed directly into the supposed head of Cabinaccus.

Cabinaccus screamed. It was a sound vicious and heart wrenching like hundreds of vines snapping simultaneously. Fire erupted promptly across the vulnerable internal flesh, searing on contact. Cabinaccus frantically swung its arms to try and put the fire out, but its body, even the outer shell, was composed of flammable wood. The flames only continued to spread further.

Furious, Cabinaccus clenched its porch in its right hand. It lurched out in desperation at Clara. Through the smoke and flutter of flames, Clara had seen it too late. She tried to evade but was hit by the jagged porch-armored branch in her side.

The porch-armed branch slashed across Clara viciously. Sharpened wood and nails tore across her skin. Clara yelped out in pain. Her blood poured onto the dirt and snow at her feet. She tumbled down and rolled aside, barely conscious. Clara blinked rapidly. She glanced at the monstrosity above her.

Cabinaccus was stumbling, nearly engulfed in flames. Its giant heart, emitting powerful light just moments ago, was burning, its veins crumbling to ash in the open air. With an agonizing groan, Cabinaccus fell and crashed into the earth below. The scattered dust and dirt extinguished the flames. The smoke subsided. A moment later, there was no more movement.

Clara gasped for air. She forced herself to fight through the pain. She crawled to her feet. Gashes scattered across her arms and shoulders. Blood still oozed from the wounds, and Clara groaned in agony.

Only the sway of the wind remained. Even the chirps of courageous birds began to fill the air.

“It’s over,” Clara uttered. “It’s finally over.”

For a moment, Clara stood there and did nothing.

When she collected herself, Clara pulled out her phone. She sighed. She knew that she’d have to get a picture of this moment. The world had to know what happened here. There had to be evidence. Or else no one would believe her.

Clara climbed up one of the burnt branches with her good arm. The branch cracked with each step. After a few moments, she stood upon the belly of the beast. Just below where the heart lied.

Clara held up her phone, struck a pose, and clicked for a selfie.

Excited, Clara spun around and ignored her pain as she quickly stormed to social media. She was so consumed in typing her caption “Take that Mother Nature #burntheforest #notsonaturalnow #mom4mom” that she didn’t notice the vines carefully slithering around her.

The voice erupted once more.

“The only mother you will be burning with is the one I claimed from you.”

Clara’s eyes widened in shock. She spun to leap away. But it was too late. The burnt flesh beneath her feet opened outward, revealing a massive maw lined with jagged, hardened vine-like teeth. The teeth bolted upward, piercing through Clara’s body in a dozen of places.

Clara tried to scream. Her voice box had been shattered. Only crackled groans and blood spurted from her mouth. Her bones creaked violently. The holes in her body dripped blood like a fruit stabbed by a mirage of forks. Barbed spikes rapidly grew from the vined teeth, further tearing through Clara's disfigured body.

Blood poured down the gaping throat of Cabinaccus. It roared in pure bliss.

The teeth began to descend. Clara was pulled down with them. A single tear of watery blood wilted from Clara's eye. Her world faded to darkness as her limbs began to fall silent.

“And like your mother before you, this shall forever be your tomb," Cabinaccus said. "Your blood. Your flesh. Your soul. It will feed my ecosystem for years to come. Your essence will be stripped from your bones and you will soon be little more than memory. This is how it has been for centuries. This is how it shall remain.”

Cabinaccus swiftly shut its jaws, pulling Clara’s lifeless body down its maw for a final crush.

Clara was no more.

The last moments of twilight peered across Cabinaccus. With its damaged branch, the monstrosity leaked molten sap on the burned flesh across its body. The seared wounds quickly folded over themselves, healing rapidly.

Cabinaccus let out an ear-shrieking cry. It was time to move on.

Moments later, Cabinaccus shifted again. The logs scattered across its body like makeshift armor began to crack inward, stacking into walls and roof. Skin lurched outward from extensions of these logs, taking shape as windows. Its brick spine reformed into a chimney. With constant creaks, the right arm folded back into a porch.

Cabinaccus knelt and folded the extent of its full body inward until it was little more than an unsuspecting cabin again.

The bitter remnants of twilight died that night, leading way to another snow squall.

Just a few feet before the cabin, Clara's phone lay abandoned. Its screen was cracked and smeared with blood. Soon, it would be buried beneath snow and dirt.

One day, it would be discovered.

It wouldn't be long before Cabinaccus would desire the taste of flesh again.