The Comfy and Cozy Cabin (Part 4)

So they did send an officer to check the place out. I felt sick, tried to not think about it.

I lifted the blanket chest. Some of the stuff had changed like the toothbrush holder, but most of it was still the same.

I killed that man. I sent him here. I tried to put it out of my mind.

I dug through the blankets, and grabbed up all the winter gear I could. One sweater was now composed of something that felt like paper, it tore when I picked it up. I bandaged my leg with a scarf. It wasn’t the best thing to do, but it will work for now.

I started crying. I sent a man to his demise because of my paranoia, my selfish fucking paranoia. Why did I do it? Why? I composed myself, pushed the thoughts out of my mind.

I got myself all bundled up in the winter clothes. I felt warmer already!

Where’s his body? Someone took his body and gun, but left the note. My sorrow was quickly replaced with fear.

I heard a light tap, sounded like a piece of paper fell off a wall. I heard a hateful, angry grunt, and felt like I was being watched. I ran out of the room and slammed the door shut. I never looked back. My brain told me to keep my eyes ahead. If anything, today has taught me to listen to what my brain has to say.

I sat down on a chair in the kitchen, pulled out my phone. I should have done this a long time ago. My phone told me I had five bars, a full signal. I dialed 911. What was I going to tell them? My cabin has turned into a fucking haunted house? I was going to say I was being held hostage, and I was never more scared in my entire life. Neither of which were lies. I was also going to tell them that the people holding me hostage killed a cop. They would probably send more than one officer if I told them that. I hit the SEND button.

Before the second ring, someone picked up on the other end. I couldn’t hear anything at first. “Hello? Hello?”

Then I started to hear murmuring. It was really low at first, but got progressively louder. I listened for a minute. I don’t know why. It was incomprehensible, angry sounding whispers, in a language I’ve only heard once before. There were occasional shouts. They sounded like angry sobs. I started to feel dizzy again, felt like I was going to pass out. Then the voice stopped whispering, and started talking. Its voice was no longer in the phone. It was right behind me. I felt warm air on my neck as it spoke. I jumped out of the chair, and pushed the END button as hard as I could.

I slowly turned around, made my flashlight point towards the sink. The light gleamed off the faucet handle, and nothing else. I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew for a fact there was something behind me. My neck had condensation on it from the thing’s breath. Fact of the matter is, though, it isn’t there anymore.

My phone let out a happy little jingle, vibrated. I got a text message. It had a picture attached to it.

I tore the battery out of my phone, and put it in my pocket. I wasn’t about to invite whatever it was on the other side of the phone over again. It might stay.

I walked all around the middle floor looking for a way out. My flashlight went over every surface. The material of some things changed. The TV was now composed of some green, spongy crap. The remote control looked the same, but weighed a ton. I couldn’t lift it. The magazines dissolved when touched. The salt shaker was the same, but the salt had turned into a single purplish crystal.

The most notable change was the stairs. They had become an impassable mess of sharp, metal thorns. There was no way I could go up them.

The door that leads to the bottom floor was still there. I opened it. A cold blast of air hit me. The stairs leading down to the landing were gone. They were replaced with the same black void that was in the medicine cabinet. I could still see the landing, and the stairs leading from the landing. I walked over to the kitchen counter, grabbed an apple. It was now made of metal, and weighed about ten pounds. I dropped it into the void. The apple was absorbed by the darkness. I never heard it hit bottom.

I had no options, I was stuck. I sat down beside the door. They had me trapped like a rat in a cage. I had checked every inch of the cabin that I could get to, there was no way out.

I searched the walls of the stairwell with my flashlight. What I saw gleamed like a beacon in my flashlights ray. A sliver of hope attached to the wall. The stairs were gone, but the banister was still there.

Climbing down that banister was dangerous, but it was the only option I had left, and in my desperation, it sounded like a good idea.

I put the flashlight in my mouth, gave the banister a strong tug. It was securely fastened to the wall. I put my feet over the side of the pit. This is the craziest, most desperate thing I’ve ever done. I checked my gloves to make sure they were secure, grabbed the banister with both hands, and pushed myself off the floor.

I slowly made my way down. The angle made it difficult to stay balanced. My feet pushed against wall until I got about midway down. My arms were burning. I never shimmed across anything before, so I was in quite a bit of pain.

Right after I got to the middle, something started pulling on my feet. I almost lost my grip the first time it happened. I quickened my pace, started charging down the wall. It would tug occasionally. It almost pulled me down one time. The thought of spending the last moments of my life in that dark void drove me forward. I got to a point where I could put my feet on the landing. I kicked and shook my feet free from whatever was holding me, and threw them towards the landing. I quickly moved my arms down the last bit of the banister, crawling with my feet at the same time.

I made it. I was so happy to be alive! I sat in the corner of the landing for a good long while. The things I would have done for a drink of water…

My arms still felt like noodles, but I felt good enough to start exploring the bottom floor. I walked down the few steps leading to the entertainment room.

The first thing I noticed was light. Two candles dimly flickered on the coffee table. I turned my light towards it. I instantly regretted my decision to come down here. Between the candlesticks lay a pair of eyeballs. They had all kinds of muscles and cords on them. I was so fixated on the eyes, that I didn’t notice the horror that lay behind them. I approached the eyes, heard a gasp for air. I shined the flashlight behind the eyeballs. I almost fell over in shock.

It was the little girl I saw in the car. She was hanging behind the candles. Her hands and feet were cut off. Her stumps were suspended to the ceiling and floor with large metal hooks and chains. Her eyes were gone. I assumed the ones lying between the candles were hers. She had a perfectly straight slice from her neck all the way down her body. There was blood all around her. The girl’s chest moved in and out. She was still alive.

My brain was fried at the sight of this. This couldn’t be real.

The girl let out a long gasp of air, craned her neck towards me in an uncomfortable way. I let out a yelp.

“Help me…” She sounded weak.

I didn’t know what to do. I stood there dumbfounded.

“Don’t… don’t let them come through again. It hurts so bad.”

“I’m going to get help, what’s your name?”

“Cindy.”

“Alright Cindy, I’m going to get help, and we’ll get you out of here, okay?” I was on the verge of tears. She sounded so done.

“You can’t help me. There’s no help for anyone here.” The tone of her voice changed.

“What do-”

“There’s no fucking help for you or me!” Cindy’s voice was now an angry roar. Something in her changed, as if she had become possessed. “Why didn’t you get me out of the car when there was a chance for help?”

I was shocked. “How did you know I thought about-”

Cindy cut me off again. “You can’t save anyone, can you Mark? First Penelope, now me!”

“How the fuck do you know about Penny?”

“I know quite a bit, Mark. I know what was, what will be, and what could have been.”

Cindy began to tell me my embarrassing secrets one by one. She even named a few I forgot. I started yelling at the girl. “Stop this now! Right now!”

The disfigured girl went quiet for a beat. “No. I want to punish you, Mark. I want to make you feel just a tiny amount of the pain I’m suffering.” She still had a child’s voice, so it was quite disturbing hearing this from her. “I know how my life would have been if you pulled me out of that car. I would have married a man named Arthur Levant when I was twenty-six. We would have been very happy together.” Her eyeless sockets stared at me intently. “Now, because of you, I’ll never talk Johnny Hicks out of driving drunk when I’m twenty, he’s gonna kill a family of four.”

“Look… I’m sorry. I didn’t know!”

“I’m gonna show you, Mark.” She continued on, as if I didn’t say anything.

“Gonna show you real good.”

My brain felt strangely empty. I couldn’t think or speak. My vision went black.