The Cabin

The Faces Of The Repressed But Not Forgotten

Ever since mother died I was never the same. It was as if my life ended right there. When they lowered her coffin something inside me died. After that I was all alone. It didn't matter how many people I surrounded myself with. I could never love someone again. I felt like a robot with the heart of an owl. My mom always said I would be great in life. This she was right about, yet she didn't live to see it. Every day I pushed myself to become great. Every dollar gained, every euphoric moment I had, every single time something went exactly how I wished, it was all so great. But it would only ever last a few seconds. My eyes would open up once again to that moment in front of the coffin. Seeing all my family surrounding it. None of them ever cared for her or me. And that made me pissed. I became great thanks to them. Those walking puppets. Nothing in their hearts but the thought of themselves. But in the end my greatness was never enough. No matter how many dollars I gained, no matter all those euphoric moments, no matter when things went perfectly, it was all so empty. I became a puppet. My strings tied to my ambition. The thing that kept me alive was the thing that would end up killing me.

That fatal car crash would lead me to this forest. And here I was, awake late at night next to Edward. The homeless guy front of the TV. I stared up at the Moon and wondered to myself if it ever got lonely. It has stood there, circling itself around the Earth, never wavering. How come it does that? Why do anyone of us continue walking till our legs fall out? Even in the afterlife I still have to walk. No rest for me. In the search for greatness I destroyed everything good around me. I made a family all because of the status of it. After I got tired of them I delved into being great once again. It didn't matter to me what happened to them, all I wanted was to be great. Yet I died just like any other person, Death was as unfair to me as any other person. In that way it is the most fair thing. All I wanted then was to return back to them. Sit down on the balcony and be able to experience the little moments with them. I wanted to make them happy, to once again have the chance to let myself be happy. To once again love someone more than myself. Then it didn't matter how much I wanted to be great. I am nothing in this vast forest.

Edward started waking up. It seemed that the forest wouldn't turn to day. For then it was an eternal night. He woke up groggy wondering why it was still night. I told him that it had been like that for hours. He told me “The forest must be acting up again.” I asked him what he meant by that, he said “The forest is alive. Have you not realized?” I thought to myself that what he said made sense. But something about it rubbed me the wrong way. The forest couldn't have just been alive, something must have been behind it. Then Edward said “I guess we better start walking again” I nodded and I started packing my things up. We kept walking along the path. At the end of the path we stumbled on a cemetary, a vast one at that. It was so vast that it didn't seem to have an end to it. On the left side of the cemetery there was a mirror, an equally never ending mirror. It was as long as the cemetery was. It was just like any mirror, mirroring every action I took. It was a strange thing. I got close to it and touched it. It felt like any other mirror but it didn't have any edges or nothing, it was just there. I looked back at Edward and asked him what he thought of this and he said “It must be the forest playing games with us once again, perhaps that is why it is still night. The moon is lit up, as if the undead were to rise. That would be freaky in all kinds of ways.” I said “Indeed it would.”

We started walking around looking at all the graves. Some were normal, they had normal names with normal dates. One said “Eddie Berta died at age 35. 02/25/1985-09/6/2020.” But others were strange to say the least about their dates and names. One said “Alexandra Pescoda died at 7 months. 07/4/2056-02/26/2057.” These graves…were for the future and past lives. This meant that my grave would be here. I searched and searched for it. Eventually I found it “Name unknown, died at age 44. 03/27/1978-06/4/2022.” The fact that my grave is here means I'm really dead. I really died. That car accident wasn't just any accident, I died there. Then it seemed as if my name wasn't remembered in the time of history. I was forgotten, I was insignificant. All that time I spent trying to become someone, and it ended With me being nobody. My mind raced with thoughts. Was I a failure, was I nothing. I heard Edward say something in the likes of “Is that supposed to be you Salamon?” I turned to him with dread in my eyes and asked “What did you say?” He responded with “I asked. Is that grave supposed to be you? It seems as if there's no name on it.” I answered with “Yes, it is supposed to be me. It has my birthdate…and day of death.” Inside my head I screamed as loud as I could. My head was like a padded cell. I could do nothing of my situation. For the first time in a long time I didn't know what to do next. Is this the end of me? What will I do now? Those questions I couldn't answer to myself. I started hearing screams from afar.

At first I believed the screams were internal but then I saw Edward look around for the screams. The screams were heard from up the cemetery. We walked up there to see a little Caucasian looking girl, with emerald eyes, and a short black dress. She was sobbing in front of one of the graves. I stopped to take a look at the grave and it said “Rose Gold, died at age 7. 03/18/2009-12/6/2013.” Edward drops to the ground. He started saying “what is this…what is all of this. SERIOUSLY WHAT IS ALL OF THIS!” I go over to him and try to calm him down “Woah buddy what's wrong. What does this mean to you?” He turned to me with dead eyes and said, “That's my daughter.” The little girl turned to Edward and said “You're my dad? My dad disappeared one day and I don't remember anything about him. If you really are my dad, why did you disappear?” Edward responded with “My little angel…I had to. There was no other way. I am a curse.” The little girl stands up and says “Did you curse me as well? I died of brain cancer a few years after you left Dad. I layed on my hospital bed hoping one day you would show up, but you never did. Will you stay with me now?” Edward rushed to his daughter hugging her tightly and screaming “BABY FROM NOW ON I'LL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU! I'M SO SORRY FOR LEAVING YOU!”

He started sobbing uncontrollably. On the other hand his daughter was not crying, she had no emotion on her face. After a few seconds her face turned to one with malice in their smile and eyes. Her body started turning in all kinds of ways. It grew bigger and bigger. Edward, still on his emotional high, didn't realize what was happening and so I grabbed him from her and said “Edward! That is not your daughter! That is some monster.” He stopped for a second and looked up to see what was in front of him. His daughter continued to twist and turn till it turned into a monster with a deer-like head, horns protruding from its head, arms long and black, five long fingers, and feet like tree stumps. After it finished the monster looked up to the sky and said “What a beautiful night this is. Ahhh the stars have truly aligned for me. The forest is once again on my side. I'll once again be able to eat the souls from The Cabin.” Every word it spoke felt as if we moved, we would die. Neither me nor Edward dared to move an inch. The monster looked down to the both of us and said “Who do you two think you are? Nothing but worthless souls. That woman in The Cabin truly believes one day one of you will be able to get through the other side. As foolish as she is, she has given me toys for hundreds of years to play with.” I turned to see Edward with fury in his eyes. But I also saw fright in them. I asked myself if he was such a manic man to do anything in this situation. I hadn't needed to answer that to myself. Edward clenched his fists then ran over to the monster and started hitting it. He started screaming “WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY GIRL!” The Monster proceeded to stab Edward with his fingers. He lifted Edward up to his eye level and asked him “Again, who do you think you are?” Edward screamed from the pain. The Monster slowly took out each finger out of Edward in a cruel fashion. Laughter echoed through the night from The Monster. By the third finger Edward had been dead. I started running as fast as I could. I told myself “I just need to get to the trail again…and then maybe I'll be safe.” From a distance I heard Edward's body fall to the ground. Then I felt an earthquake approaching me. I turned around to see the monster chasing after me, with that same devilish smile from the girl. I screamed from the top of my lungs. Just as The Monster was about to catch up to me I saw the never-ending mirror break. On the other side I saw Michael and Sisyphus fighting off zombies. Before I knew it my body had been crushed under the foot of The Monster.”