Switchblade

Chapter 2: Cabin in the Woods

So sorry about slow updates on this story! This chapter is decicated to KodiBarry, I know how much you wanted me to upload sooner. enjoy!

“Ya no kidding.” Rachel pulled out another sheet of paper. “Hey look at this.” She unfolded the paper that held some photos, and set it on the floor in front of them. The paper looked weathered and was burned around the edges. In a few places it was ripped a little. The photos were of a funeral with two caskets, both closed. In one corner it said “no bodies at funeral”, but they didn’t pay attention to the photos.

“A picture of our dads’ funerals and a map.” Kale whispered. “Of my backyard and the woods?” He glanced at Rae and picked up the map. It seemed to lead through the woods a few miles until it met a building. Kale squinted his eyes at some small cursive writing in one of the corners.

“It says… Channel 2.72. Is that even an actual channel?”

Rae shrugged. “Not that I know of, but look, there is more writing. ‘Be careful what you say, and what you hear. Make sure to remember that they are always watching.’ What is that supposed to mean?”

Kale noticed a small marking underneath the writing. He stood up and slid his knife out of his pocket, and flipped the blade up he looked at the base of the blade. There was the same mark on his knife blade.

He showed Rae and they decided to follow the map. Before going to the elevator, Kale folded the picture and stuck in his back pocket. Slipping back down the elevator, Rae suddenly stiffened. “Shhh. Your mom is in there!” she whispered as she silently climbed back up and looked down the hole.

They walked around and listened as Kale’s mother turned on a vacuum cleaner and began cleaning her room.

“Are you kidding me right now mom?” Kale said. He huffed and walked to the window, seeing if it was locked. He slid it open and gestured to Rae, who quietly walked over and crawled out. A shingle wiggled as Rae crouched down and jumped of the roof, shortly followed by Kale.

Kale looked behind him through the window, “come on, the map leads this way.” They ran into the woods. It was easy for Rae and Kale to navigate through ferns and bushes, over and under fallen moss covered trees; because they would constantly run as fast as they could through the trees. It had become very easy to run through the woods now, and they were the best in their gym classes.

Rae jumped over a log and bumped Kale’s arm. “Look. There’s a clearing with… a target?”

Kale nodded and saw four targets, and something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. A log cabin. “What in the world?” he turned to Rae who was running her fingers along the punctures in the targets.

“These are knife marks, and the other target has arrow marks.” Rae said as she pointed at the punctures. They walked towards the cabin. Kale stepped up onto the wooden porch, sending a squirrel running out from underneath.

Rae took one of Kale’s knives and looked at the blade, there was the same mark underneath of the doorknob. Kale turned the door knob and pushed open the thick door. The hinges creaked slightly, after who-knows-how long of being shut. Light filtered in through door and a couple dirty windows. Suddenly, there was a quiet click and the cabin was full of light. One of the lights flickered, and then came on strongly.

It was then that Rae and Kale where able to see what was in the old looking cabin. Black metal shelves held oil cans, hammers, nails, screwdrivers, and a lot of other tools. Rae picked up a can of leather polish sitting next to paint. She sent it back down and brushed some dust off of a shelf.

There was a large oak desk sitting next to the stone fireplace. Rae ran her hand along the smooth polished wood and picked up one of the four or five picture frames sitting on it. She clicked on the lamp.

She sucked in a breath. “Kale… These pictures have us and our dads.” One picture was of Kale in his dad’s arms right after he was born, taken in the hospital. Another one was of Rae in her dad’s arms after she was born. One of the other two was Rae when she was probably old enough to start walking standing in between her mom and dad. There was another of Kale in between his mom and dad.

Kale noticed his mother looked very happy, smiling like he had never seen before. His mother almost never smiled, and when she did it would be fake and plastered onto her face. It was almost sad, but no matter how hard he tried, he could never get her to smile like she was in the picture.

“What the heck?!” Rae whispered, and Kale spun around. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw that Rae was dusting off something that was attached to the wall. It looked like a metal plague screwed onto the wall.

“Kale listen to this: ‘Don’t Look Back. Take the Shot and Make It Count.’ And it looks like it slides over to the right…” Rae pushed the plague over and a blue light shone from a metal.

Kale raised his hand to the cool black metal that framed a black oval that had a thin blue line laying horizontal that was moving up and down. “It’s a fingerprint scanner.” Kale placed his thumb on it and the scanner glowed brighter, and then they heard a pop, and something like a soda bottle opening after it was shaken.

Behind the desk a panel of the wood floor popped up and some rays of light came through the floor. Rae walked towards it, “let’s go check it out. Come on.” They cautiously walked over and pulled the panel up and saw stairs that lead down to the basement. Rae and Kale looked at each other before walking down, and watching the panel move itself back in place.

“No. Freaking. Way.” Rae whispered when she reached the bottom of the stairs. Kale stopped breathing for a minute when he saw what the basement looked like. There was four shooting lanes, two punching bags, and a large table with three laptops sitting on it with a printer. It looked like a training center.

“Another fingerprint scanner,” Rae said. “I wonder if it will take my fingerprint…” she pressed her thumb to it and waited. The walls came to life, turning, and sliding, revealing shelves and hooks. But was what was on the shelves and hooks that Rae and Kale were staring at.

There were many types of guns, knives of any size, bows and arrows, machetes, katanas, crossbows, grenades, whips and chains, and even weapons that looked like something a ninja would use in the movies. There was even a flamethrower and grenade launcher.

Rae picked up one of the bows, weighing it in her hand. “Um, you got any ideas what our dads did here?”

Kale shook his head, and turned on one of the computers. “I wish I knew my dad better. Wait a second… look at this.” He had gotten the picture of the funeral out and pointed at the corner. “’No bodies at funeral.’ It looks like my dad’s handwriting. I’ve seen some in letters he wrote.”

Rae had set her bow and quiver on the table and looked at the laptop Kale had fired up. “So they were never found? Then how did the police and reporters know how they were killed?”

“I have no idea.”