Voices in the Dark

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Colin had asked me to light it, but he was specific. Just the one, he said.

Sandy and Carl stood back a few feet, watching and anticipating helping Colin if he asked them for it. Both were trying to appear calm, but their anxiety was written on their faces. When Colin asked us to come up here with him, we all agreed without a second thought. In exchange, he promised this would be the last time he’d look for evidence about his dead brother.

His brother Greg had died nearly three years ago. It’s strange how three years doesn’t sound like that much but at the same time, it can feel like an eternity. Colin and I were supposed to get married. We were supposed to move to New York. After Greg was found, all of that got put on hold. Cancelled, even. Colin dedicated any time he had to trying to find out what happened at this cabin and I, trying to stand by him through all the hell, I became more of a detective than anything else. When he told me this was the last time, I wanted to believe the sincerity in his voice, but I knew this would never end. Grief can’t just heal itself with a promise.

That first night was enough for Sandy and Carl wasn’t going to let her head down the same rabbit hole that Colin had taken me down. It started when he took out the tape recorder after the candle had been lit.

“What is that?” Sandy asked.

“I’m going to ask it some questions and hopefully this recorder will pick up any answers”, Colin said, now peering out the front windows.

“It? What does that mean?” she asked, her voice shaking a little.

Carl tried to calm her down by standing behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders and rubbing the upper parts of her arms.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said, unconvincingly.

“No, I’m sorry, but what the fuck is “It”? Are we hunting ghosts now? Are you serious?”

Colin didn’t pay any attention to her. Or to Carl or me, for that matter. He went back to looking out the windows that took up the lion’s share of the front wall. Outside, all we could see was where the forest tree line met the yard. They blended into different shades of black. I remember looking out the window and then up at the stars. There seemed to be more of them that night than actual sky and it was the only time I thought anything looked beautiful up there.

Carl took Sandy into the kitchen, and I moved closer to Colin. I knew all that he knew about the murder. Greg had gone camping with some friends down the lake a couple miles and when his friends all woke up in the morning, Greg was missing. Three days later, they found him here, laying outside at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the front door. I’d forgotten about the candle, though. The one candle that was still burning in the window the night the search party found him. When Colin told me to light only the one candle, I remembered the reference, and it sent a cold pulse through my body. He’d never mentioned what he was going to do when we got here but at that point, it began to feel more like a ritual than an investigation.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

Colin didn’t acknowledge me, so I grabbed his arm and forced his eyes to connect with mine. His pupils were dilated in the dark cabin and his growing intensity began to feel feral.

“What the hell, Colin?” I asked.

The question came out as weak. I was scared and my voice gave it away. Sandy and Carl walked back in from the kitchen but before they could say anything… IT said something.

“Colin…”

Everyone turned their head towards the windows as a voice cut through all four of us like glass. It was quiet and soft, but it didn’t need to get our attention through force. It was clearly not one of us that spoke.

“What the fu--?” Sandy started before a second incantation, this one a little louder, moved inside the room with us.

“Colin…” whispered the voice again, this time a little more assertive, as if it was waiting

for a reply. Without taking his eyes off the window, Colin hit the red record button on his tape recorder.

“Y-Yes? Who is that?”

“It’s me Colin, it’s Greg. I’m out here…I’m outside”

I took a step away from Colin, backing up towards Sandy and Carl whose jaws hung open.

“I’m out here… you found me.”

You found me. It was foreboding and sinister. This was not Colin’s brother and I had had enough.

“Alright, we’re out of here,” I said with Carl and Sandy shaking their heads in solidarity.

Without looking back at me, Colin’s arm snapped back and grabbed mine.

“You can’t go out there,” he said. The quiver in his voice stopped me from taking another step. Carl stepped towards us.

“The car’s 20 feet away. You can stay if you want but we’re gone”

Suddenly, a new voice echoed from outside. A woman’s voice… an elderly voice.

“Come outside, Carl,” it said, sending Carl back into Sandy who helped steady him.

“What the fuck?” His voice trailed off.

“Carl…Carl, come outside”

“That’s not… what the fuck is this?” Carl managed to push out, his eyes wide.

“Who is that?” Sandy asked him.

“That’s my grandmother… no way, no fucking way,” he answered, confused and terrified at the same time.

“Come outside, Carl. Let’s play like we used to. You’re such a sweet boy” The elderly woman began giggling sweetly but nothing felt further from it.

Carl closed his eyes and Sandy tried to alleviate his panic by taking charge.

“The car is right there. We’re out of here,” Sandy said as she grabbed her purse and pulled out the keys. Before I could get in her way, she had the door open and a foot outside. Carl’s eyes snapped open.

“Sandy, no!”

As soon as she was all the way out, the door slammed behind her. She banged against it and the three of us inside tried to open it up. The worn-out wooden door now felt like cast iron. Sandy used her body to bang into the door but to no avail. From inside, the thuds of Sandy hitting the door were light…light…then heavy. So heavy, we thought the door had cracked. That’s when frantic pounding stopped and, in that moment, you’d never have guessed someone had ever been on the other side of it.

The three of us stayed awake the rest of the night. We listened for the voices but for those few hours, we were spared. We hoped that the morning would be a respite from the darkness, but the sky was marred with dark clouds pulsing with rain and lightning. Carl was the first one to say anything.

“We have to get out of here.”

“Sandy had the keys,” Colin said without turning around. His reply was cold and very matter of fact. We’d all been friends since we were teenagers but now it sounded like he’d already accepted that she was just gone and, to him at least, probably halfway forgotten.

“Motherfucker…” Carl whispered. He glared at Colin, then his eyes pleaded with me. He got up from lying on the floor and tried to look out the window where Sandy had been. Her keys and her purse were nowhere to be seen.

“Candle’s still going,” Colin said.

“What?” I was shocked. Honestly, who the fuck cared? When I looked at the candle, though, I saw that it had hardly gotten smaller after burning throughout the night.

“Wait! There!” Carl shouted.

Sandy’s bag was next to the car’s front tire on the driver’s side. While Colin stared at the candle, Carl looked at me. He moved his lips without making any sound.

“We have to go now,” he said silently.

I didn’t know what else to do. We were so far from anything or anyone else, there was no way someone was going to cross our paths, even with a miracle. We had to leave on our own. We could come back and find Sandy later. I started to stand when I heard my name.

“Ashley…”

I didn’t recognize the voice at first. Just the sound of it knocked me back to the ground.

When it called my name again, I heard a sweet, young, angelic voice. My best friend’s voice. She had been gone since I was a little girl but somehow, I could still remember the sound of her voice. I shook my head and wiped my eyes. “Let’s go,” I said. I’d been quiet to speak but not as quiet as Carl. Colin turned around from the front windows.

“What? No…NO!”

Carl and I were already running when we first stepped out the door. He was faster and was the first one outside, but he stayed with me.

“Stay on the driver’s side, just jump in when I open the door!” Carl shouted as he stepped in front and slid on the wet leaves, scooping up Sandy’s purse in one motion. As he rummaged through the purse, I could hear the leaves around us moving. The sound came from the forest, then quickly reached the tree line.

“Hurry!” I shouted. I couldn’t look back to see what was approaching.

Carl opened the driver’s door and grabbed my arm. He flung me inside so hard, I remember hitting my head on the passenger’s window. My ears rang in a high pitch, but I didn’t hear the door close behind me. I opened my eyes, shook off my blurred vision and looked at the driver’s door, still open. The keys were on the seat but there was no sign of Carl.

“Ashley, close the door!” Colin shouted to me.

He sounded a mile away, but I snapped up, slammed the door and locked it. I looked out the side windows but there was still no trace of Carl around me. He hadn’t even made a sound.

I looked back at Colin. He stood in the doorway and for the first time since we’d arrived at the cabin, he seemed to have snapped out of the trance he’d been in. His eyes welled up, that I could tell. I don’t know if his tears were from just one thing, but if the time we’d been together had shown me anything, it was that he was sorry for ever coming up to this place. His grief had become our grief and instead of trying to put the past to rest, his obsession led to this.

He lifted his hand and waved. He could have made a run for it, but I could tell he wasn’t going to put me in harms away, not again. Colin stepped back into the cabin and closed the door. As I pulled away in the car, I could see him standing in the window just before he blew out the candle.