Switch Blade Romance

The Cabin In The Woods.

You should learn when to go!

March 6th, 5:15 Pm.

Andrew Grant’s phone began to ring at exactly 5:15 p.m.
The sound seemed unnaturally loud in the cramped hotel room, as if the ringtone had teeth. Andrew was sitting on the edge of the bed in his mother and sister’s room, with Allen, Juanita, and John Henry nearby. Every one of them froze.
Andrew glanced down at the screen. Then he looked up at the others.
“It’s him.”
He answered. “Hello.”
“Hey, baby,” Charles Grady said. His voice was warm, almost playful. “You alone?”
“Yes,” Andrew said. The lie tasted like copper. “I’m alone. I’m at my mom’s hotel room. Where’s my mother? My sister? My friends?”
“They’re all here, Andrew. I kept my word. None of them are dead.” A pause, deliberate. “Now you keep yours. You come here, and I let them go.”
Andrew swallowed. “And if I don’t?”
“If I see a single cop,” Charles said pleasantly, “I kill everyone. That’s a promise.”
“Okay,” Andrew said. “I’ll be alone. I’ll be in the red Ford Fusion my mom rented. Just—please don’t hurt them.”
“All right,” Charles said. “I won’t.”
The line went dead.
Andrew lowered the phone. “We need to get ready,” he said. “I’ll be alone in the car. You three follow—but not close.”
Dr. Anthony nodded. “Understood.”
John Henry stepped forward. “There’s something I want you to have. Just in case.” He reached behind the chair and brought it out.
Andrew’s eyes widened. “Oh. Wow. Thanks.”
Five minutes later, they were in the parking lot. Allen walked Andrew to the Ford Fusion. He opened his mouth to speak, then stopped.
“I don’t know how to—”
Andrew cut him off with a kiss. Gentle. Final.
“Don’t,” Andrew said softly. “Anything you say right now is goodbye. Let’s just… wait.”
Allen nodded. “All right. We’ll wait.”
Andrew got into the car, shut the door, and pulled out of the lot, heading north on Highway 47 toward Arkansas.
Nearly fifty minutes later, after crossing the state line, the phone rang again.
“How far out are you?” Charles asked.
“I just passed Mount Vernon,” Andrew said. “Nearly to Camden. About another fifty minutes.”
“You’re alone, right?”
Andrew glanced into the rearview mirror. Far back, almost swallowed by distance, he could see John Henry’s Crown Victoria.
“It’s just me.”
“Good,” Charles said. “Everyone’s still alive. I sent you another picture. Did you see it?”
Andrew looked. His chest tightened.
“Yeah. I saw it.”
“So now you come here,” Charles continued. “We talk. Maybe I punish you a little for what you did. Then I let them go, and you and I start our lives together somewhere new.”
Andrew shuddered. Deep down, he knew better. Charles Grady never let anything go.
“All right,” Andrew said. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
He hung up.
In the car behind him, Allen Frederick stared at the road. “Do you think Andrew can do this?”
“I’ve never met a more resilient young man,” Juanita said. “He’s already survived hell. And we’ll be there with him.”
John Henry tightened his grip on the wheel. “I’m putting a bullet between Charles Grady’s eyes tonight. Like I should’ve done ten years ago. No more murders.”
Andrew turned onto Ridgeway Road.
The pavement narrowed to a single black ribbon swallowed by trees. No houses. No lights. No signs of life.
Jesus, he thought. No wonder no one knew he killed those kids in 2008 for nearly a month.
He passed a ruined cabin. Not it.
The phone rang. Allen.
“We just turned onto Ridgeway Road,” Allen said. “There’s an abandoned cabin on the left. We’re stopping there and going the rest on foot—through the woods to the old Garrett place. You okay?”
Andrew laughed, sharp and brittle. “Nope. I’m about two states away from okay. If he lets my mom and the others go, get them safe first. Then back me up.”
“Will do. Watch yourself.”
Andrew hung up.
A curve in the road revealed the Garret's cabin.
1016 Ridgeway Road.
A Chevy pickup sat out front. The cabin looked abandoned but intact. Tarps flapped on the porch. Old police tape still clung to the trees like dead skin.
The Garrett family had sold the place in 2011.  Too painful to stay in a town where their daughter and her friends were murdered.
Andrew pulled into the driveway and shut off the engine.
He sat there for a moment.
Dear God, he thought, give me strength.
The phone rang.
“Get out of the car, baby,” Charles said. “Come up the porch stairs.”
Andrew stepped out.
“Leave the phone in the car.”
Andrew tossed it onto the passenger seat and shut the door.
As he walked toward the cabin, his heart pounding, a strange thought drifted through his mind:
"All the stars look just like little fish."
No time for "Hole", he thought to himself!
The front door stood open. Inside, the air was stale. Furniture lay buried beneath sheets and dust.
The door slammed shut behind him.
Strong arms wrapped around his throat.
“Hello, lover,” Charles Grady whispered. “How the hell are you?”
Andrew struggled, but it was useless. Charles tightened his grip.
“Shhh,” Charles crooned. “It’s okay. Just let it happen.”
“N… no,” Andrew groaned.
The room tilted. The world dimmed.
Then there was nothing but darkness.