ONE NIGHT IN THE CABIN HOUSE (Completed...)

5

Justine and Gracia were still very surprised why Bateman had told them to shut the door. They stared thoughtfully at each other and then at the dirty door.
"He sounded like he was scared and... and alarmed of something." Justine said first.
"Alarmed of what exactly, and why did he tell us to close the door?" Gracia wished the answers would find their way to her. She paid her whole attention to the wooden door.
"I don't know." Justine said.
"I have a feeling that something is wrong out there. We should go to him" Gracia was worrying. She waited to hear Justine's thought.
"He said there was a grave. Whose grave?" Justine thought over.
"Marylou?" Gracia assumed.
"Thinking the same." Justine said in a low voice.
"Who would've buried her there?" Gracia said.
"We're in the middle of a woody forest, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a million grave dug up here." Justine responded.
Gracia was quiet, probably thinking, after awhile she said. "What I meant was, who must've dug the grave. I'm certain it wasn't the children."
"Now I get where you were coming from."
"Let's leave that for later. Bate is outside." She reminded Justine.
"Do you want to go out there." Justine queried.
"Of course, we have to check if Bateman is okay."
"Don't you think we should--"
"Justine, we can't lose Bate." Gracia said quickly and looks at her.
Justine was struggling to open the door, but it didn't give way.
"What's happening?" Gracia said from behind her. "Did you shut it hard?"
"I'm sure I didn't. You saw me close the door."
"Why isn't it opening?"
"I can't tell." Justine shrugs.
"Allow me." Gracia went to the door and tried as hard as possible to open it but it didn't. She gave the door a forceful push.
"How's this possible?" Justine utters when she saw that neither her nor Gracia was succeeding.
"I don't understand why Bate persuaded us to close the damn door, now it isn't opening. Shit." Gracia cursed.
"He's in trouble for real." Justine looked disturbed. "His tone said it all."
"Shit!" Gracia had tried opening the door again. "To hell with you." She scolded at the rotting threshold. She was very worried that something bad could happen Bateman who was all alone in the woods. "He shouldn't have gone out." She felt hot tears on her cheek. Her heart was in pain. For the first time in hours, Gracia felt weak.
"We need to break the door." Gracia was glancing about the room. "I can sense Bateman's in danger. I don't know, but I feel it." Truly, she felt so.
"Break the door?" Justine looked like she wasn't expecting she would suggest that.
Gracia looked at her. "Why?" she'd noticed Justine's face reaction.
"I don't think that's a wise decision." She shook her head. "Breaking the door means putting our lives at risk." Justine was disagreeing.
"That's the only option to get Bate out of there." Gracia stated. "If we don't break this door, we would lose Bate forever." She told Justine.
"It's not a good decision if the door is left opened. Any creature can invade."
"I understand what you're trying to say but--," Gracia was lost of words. "Look Justine, Bate is out there." Gracia began. "He's outside in the total darkness. Whatever that made Lee scream that way will hurt him too." Gracia was trying to be calm.
"What do we use to break the door." Justine said. Gracia had made her see reasons. Not another friend should go. Justine was looking around. "There's nothing here." Gracia threw the flashlight beam about the room. Julliete was right, there was nothing to break down the door. She was hoping for an object, maybe an axe or a spade, she gave up searching when she couldn't find any. That moment, there was a crack from the other room. "Do you think Claire left?" Justine shot immediately.
"She wouldn't have done that." Gracia was very sure that Claire wouldn't, but followed Justine to the room just in case. They saw Claire standing close to the small window and staring at it with her arms folded. She looked somber and lost. They gazed at her for some period.
"Claire..." Justine called lowly to her. "Are you okay?" Claire didn't respond. "Claire." Justine repeated. When she saw that she'd gotten Claire's attention she asked again, "are you okay?" Justine knew how hard it was for her to accept that Lee was gone, and to top it, she felt guilty of being responsible for his death.
"How can I be okay?" Claire's voice took on a sad tone and she glanced at both of them. "Lee is gone." She noted and looks back to the window.
"I agree it's painful, but we've got to be strong if we want to survive all of this." Justine said. "Everything is going to be fine." Justine assures her.
"I don't believe everything's going to be fine without Lee." Claire shook her head. She noticed that Bateman wasn't with them.
"Where's Bate?" She said to the girls.
Justine found it hard to say, but did anyways. "Bate left the cabin."
Claire threw her a long wordless look before saying, "What are you saying?" She was confused. "Why did he leave. To where? How? I was here all along, he didn't leave through this door. There's no other way out, or is there?"
"Yes, there is a back door. That was what i--"
Claire didn't let Justine finish, she said. "Did I hear you say there is a back entrance?"
"All along." Gracia said.
"How's there a back door?" Claire said lowly like she was telling herself. "I'd looked thoroughly into that room and didn't find a door."
"I thought the same too." Gracia shrugged.
"And you are saying Bate walked out of the door, why would he do that. Why did you let him leave?" Claire queried. There was every possibility that Bate's live was at stake. The thought of it made her want to cry out the soreness that encircled in her chest.
There was no response. "We should open the door and look for him." Claire uttered.
"We tried." Gracia spoke out.
"I don't understand. You'd opened the door once, why not again?"
"I'm not sure why. The door totally refused to open again." Gracia's attention went to the window. She thought she'd seen the black shadow again.
Claire's right hand was on her forehead. She gazed at the faint star in the dim sky and prayed silently for Bate. Claire wished greatly for the morning to appear. To her, it seemed as though the night was going to last forever.
Claire was going inside the workroom. She found it hard to believe what she'd been told. How on earth would a door that was once opened refuse to open again. Claire was wondering. She'd taken the torch from Justine and was directing the small light glowing from it at every area in the stuffy room. Claire was surprised that she didn't see any door. This wasn't the right place and time for jokes. She thought aloud. The small dusty room was how it was when she first met it. Spiders, cobwebs, and the documents they'd looked at sitting on the footstool.
"You both said that there's a door, why can't find any?" Claire called from inside. The dusty chamber made her sneeze.
"Why would you say that--" Gracia was the first to enter. She had stopped her sentence midway and was staring straight to the place the door had been. Gracia was shocked out of herself to see that it was just a wall. It was as though there had never been a door. There was no evidence to proof that an entrance had been there. "I don't believe any of this." Gracia was surprised. "Bate had walked out of the door. There was a door right there." She was pointing.
"What has happened?" Justine was staring surprisingly at the wall.
"Are you guys kidding?" Claire wanted to believe that they were playing a joke on her.
"We are not." Justine said to her.
"Marylou." Gracia whispered. She was in shock. Her stomach shook hardly. "She's playing with our minds."
"So there was a door or not..." Claire looks at the both of them.
"Of course there was a door, Claire." Justine said.
"Did it just disappear? Look, I'm finding it hard to believe you both. I mean, you said there was a door you'd opened which later refused to open again, and now I'm here to see the supposed door and I can't find any. Where on earth is it, maybe in the invisible?"
"Claire, we weren't lying. Bate had gone out through it."
"Then where is the damn door? Cous I can't see any. If you can see it, I cannot see it." Claire was growing impatient.
"We can't see it again either." Justine had put a stress on, again.
"Don't you think it's the work of Marylou." Gracia entails. "You saw the children on the pictures transform, right?"
"I saw no children change." Claire said.
"Maybe there was no such thing as a back door. Maybe It was a door Marylou had created. Maybe bateman had gone into the world of the dead." Gracia says.
"Cut the crap, okay. What world of the dead are you talking about? You don't expect me to believe that." Claire snapped, and moved farther to where the weakened cabinet was sitting next to a broken mirror.
"But, but there was a tiny door over there. Bateman had opened the lock and walked out. He walked out through the door. How come there's no door now?" Justine was saying with full bafflement.
"Or Bateman didn't go out at all." Claire's deep voice was in pain. Her eyes were fixed to a corner.
"Of course he did." Justine's eyes went to her direction.
"Bate is dead!" She sounded. "Bate is dead." Claire was tearing up, and was holding her chest. Justine quickly moved to see what Claire had seen. Bate's face was disfigured and covered with blood. She wasn't able to recognize the bloody face but she could recognize the white hoodie that was stained with blood.
"Oh no." Justine gasped. An overwhelming tears were filling up in her eyelids. She held her mouth.
Gracia didn't have to see Bate before she believed. She stood at a spot in disbelief. Her heart was pounding and she felt a throbbing pain in her head.
"Bate is dead." Claire cried again, and her eyes caught the bloody stained pen knife. It looked like someone had hidden it away at the side. That only suggests something. "Which of you did that to Bate." She asked them with reddened eyes.
"Claire, are you for real!" Gracia scolded. She couldn't believe what Claire was implying. "How on earth would you say that. Bate, was our friend. He was my friend."
"Friends betray friends." Claire spoke.
"What're you saying?" Justine queried.
"What I am saying is that, you two had told me that Bate had walked out of here through a door which I can't see, only for me to find him murdered. There's a whole lot of lie in this. Explain the knife." Claire walked and picked up the weapon. The two girls became dazed. "You can't tell me that a ghost knifed Bate."
"We didn't kill Bate, Claire. You've got to believe us. Can't you see she's trying to tear us apart." Gracia was in more tears.
"Who are you talking about, Marylou? Oh, cut the crappy shit. No matter how hard I'm trying to--"
"Claire, you're accusing us of murder?" Justine cuts in. She was in disbelief.
"I can't trust both of you anymore. I should leave here." Claire threw away the knife and was backing out.
"Claire, think about this, we killed Bate and there wasn't a sound heard? He didn't struggle? You didn't hear his voice from where you were?" Justine was telling her. Claire was reasoning her to be correct. She was quiet for some time and said. "Then who did. I won't accept you say Marylou, because that shit of a woman is only a ghost and I won't believe that a ghost is capable of knifing somebody."
"I don't know. The last thing I remember was Bateman going outside through a door that I'm very certain was there. I'm thrilled about all of this." Gracia spoke. "How the door disappeared and how Bateman ended up killed, brutally." Gracia still wouldn't go and see Bate. She was scared of seeing him in a harsh state. She tried not to imagine how badly he'd been hurt to the extent his life was lost. The girls were scared. Whoever did this to Bate was going to do the same to them. They didn't know what to do. They looked stranded and lost in hope.
"We can't leave and cannot remain here either." Justine was panicking. "Bate left and returned this way. To hell I would imagine how Lee's injury could be." Justine forced herself not to imagine Lee's condition but wasn't able to. The cruel imagination on how Lee must have died was appearing in her mind's eye.
"The person on the mirror is responsible for Bateman skyers death." Claire sniffled after a long dead silence had been obtained.
"Who in the mirror?" Justine quickly looks at the broken cheval glass. She didn't see anything.
Claire's eyes had met the scarey ghost in the mirror with no eyes and mouth. Some reddish substance was allover the pale face.