Three in a Row

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Inside the cabin, Louis sat with his knees tucked against his chest just beneath this candle, backed up impossibly close to the moldy wall. He dared not stray from the flickering candle’s tragically short range of glowing light. The rest of the cabin lay before him engulfed in an impossibly inky black darkness. It was the kind of darkness that seemed to swallow everything, and any noise seemed muffled. Louis vaguely recalled that outside had been a clear starry night accompanied by the full moon. But none of that light was present now.

He reached out a violently trembling hand, slowly drawing out a lopsided “O” in the thick layer of dust caking the cabin’s rotting wood floor. Louis then snatched his hand back to his side as if expecting the other in the room to reach out and touch him. But that’s exactly what he was afraid of. He swallowed in a fruitless attempt to soothe his cotton dry mouth and mustered what little courage he had left to lift his eyes. He watched as a long, awkward, darkened limb silently reached out from the void just beyond the candle’s light. A clawed finger scratched in a lazy “X” one square beside his “O.” This was how the last few hours had been for Louis, trapped in a never ending game of tic-tac-toe with god only knows what creature was sitting at the edge of darkness before him. Louis and the other would play the game and it would always end in a draw. Always a draw. Then the other would erase their marks, and the game would start again. Louis didn’t dare lose while not knowing what the stakes were. He could only imagine they weren’t anything pleasant.

With a game like tic-tac-toe, it is easy not to lose. But it was just about impossible to win, at least with this opponent. Louis felt the strain of his nerves eating away at him. His eyes would shoot to the game before him, then back up to the darkness ahead him. He jumped as the other’s limb reached out suddenly to erase the board once again. They had reached yet another draw. Louis felt himself quake as the creature drew another board. He did not know if he could take it anymore. This anticipation, the fear, the absolute unknown that was before him was fraying his nerves to the point of sheer panic. He had come into this cabin for an inspection before the building was demolished. How did a routine inspection end up like this, a fight for his very life? All over nothing but a child’s game too. But that was what the other wanted. It wanted to play. But it never set what Louis would get if he won. Worse yet, the other never set what it would get if it won. Louis shuddered at the very thought. He could not afford to lose.

It was then Louis noticed something was different. His surroundings seemed a little… brighter. He whipped his head around to stare up at the window just above his head. There - just behind the nearly melted candle - was sunlight. The dawn had arrived. Louis felt his heart leap with joy as new rays of light bled into the cabin’s window, chasing away the oppressive darkness. This was it, this was his freedom. The sun would chase away this shadowy demon that had held him hostage all night. He could take that time to run for it, escape back to his normal life. Louis turned back with a victorious grin.

Only to choke back a scream.

The other was still there, still seated across from him. Only now Louis could see it. Oh god he could see it! He could not tear his eyes away from the white pinpricks in the center of empty, sunken eye holes on what Louis could only describe as a melted bear skull. The misshapen skull was attached to the body of an emaciated humanoid shape, with a mane of filthy, matted fur following the curve of its spine. It sat in a huddle similar to his own, but the other was much taller. Its jagged and crooked teeth clacked together unnaturally, as its jaw seemed to be misaligned. The other made a quiet chitter noise, which raised the hairs on the back of Louis’s neck. It raised its dark clawed hand to point downward back at their makeshift game board.

Louis slowly looked down and felt his heart stop. The very blood in his veins iced over and a cold sweat covered his forehead. His heart pounded loudly as the sun’s new light illuminated on three “X” marks, all in a row. Louis had lost. In his moment of distraction, he had lost a game against this monstrosity. He slowly looked back up at the other as it slowly inhaled, the deep breath wheezing into its lungs. Then it released a long, satisfied sigh that made Louis tremble. Before Louis could think of what might happen next, that clawed hand shot out and long fingers ensnared Louis’s face in a single powerful grasp, refusing to release its prey.