Cabin 6

Part Three

Linda shook the troubling thoughts from her head. But, she couldn't shake the feeling. This was probably expected, she assured herself, as she had not spent a night in the woods in quite a long time, let alone woods like this. Tomorrow they would be gone. Tomorrow they would be on their way to Half Moon Bay.

Both girls hopped into their cars and started them, Amanda's engine choking for a moment first. They had each been given copies of the forest map, and would take the only path there was to cabin #6.

Driving deeper into the forest, Linda began to get that feeling again. It had somewhat subsided earlier, but was now back even stronger, growing, the deeper they drove into Darshal Forest. Rays of setting sun danced over the hood and windshield of Linda's car, their orange-red glow beaming into her eyes at a lowered angle, an instinctive reminder that nightfall was just around the corner.

The trees passed by, each of them acting as an ominous benchmark for how deeply the two girls were being swallowed by the forest, one after another. Farther, and farther inside they drove. Linda had never considered herself claustrophobic, but this forest was beginning to present a strange exception.

Finally, an old, weathered cabin slowly began to come into view. It was overgrown with weeds, and clearly not very well kept. The moss and weeds that hugged the walls crawled all the way up to the tattered shingles on the roof. They even covered the cracked wooden steps leading up to the small front porch, which stood under the shadowy canopy of a low-hanging elm tree.

Linda flashed Amanda an exaggerated grin as she pulled into the right side of the driveway, and Amanda pulled into the left. Amanda rolled her eyes. Not out of agitation but very obviously out of not wanting to acknowledge the situation. You could tell easily by looking at her that she was definitely not as enthusiastic about this as she would have previously had Linda believe. They turned off their cars and got out.

"This place is crazy!" Linda commented with as much enthusiasm as she could muster up.

"You're crazy." Amanda replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did someone not insist on going with this cabin? Because...what did they say...it happened years ago?"

"Oh, shut up! It wouldn't have mattered what I said! You would've made us pick this one anyway!"

"I would not have done that, in fact, I would have tried working out an alternative with you, knowing how much you didn't want to come here."

Amanda ignored Linda and stepped up onto the porch. It creaked loudly under her weight. The girls made their way across the porch and to the door. Amanda grabbed the knob and tried to turn it, but it was locked. She yanked on it several times in frustration, as Linda took out the cabin key they were given, bumped Amanda aside and unlocked the door. As Linda had expected, it creaked loudly as she pushed it open. In the setting sunlight that poured in, they were greeted by a living room with a full-length couch, an old tube television, an awfully-scratched cherry wood coffee table in-between, and a hallway to the right. Ahead, separated from the living room only by a low bar counter that stopped before connecting to the other wall to provide an entryway, was a small kitchen. The place smelled old and musty inside.

Linda was the first to enter. The floorboards under the faded, red, living room carpet creaked with each step. Linda scanned the room for a light switch, but could only find a pull chain hanging from the small chandelier above the coffee table. She walked over to it and pulled, and all four bulbs lit up with a yellowish glow, illuminating the room surprisingly well.