Random Writing

Cabin in the Woods

(Picture prompt on side... Sorry for bad quality)

As snowflakes swirl gently down from the sky, a girl no older than twelve picks her way through the ever deepening river of snow. In her hands is a small basket, on her back a thin coat. However, she doesn't worry about the cold. It will all be gone soon.

Icicles hang from every branch in sight, taunting her with their deadly coolness, teasing her with their freedom. For the icicles have no need for worry, fear, hate. They simply exit, going wherever the wind takes them.

The trees, shifting ever so slightly in the howling wind, are her constant companion. They follow her through the forest, lead the way to the cabin in the woods.

She has no fear, this small girl in the large world. She has no reason to be afraid of the woods in the night in the bitter cold snow. She only has reason to fear the cabin. The cabin in the woods, and what is in it.

As she grows nearer, the cabin takes shape. It grows from a small dot in the distance to a huge, towering beast. Light spills through the single window unobstructed from view by one thing or another.

Carefully, slowly she walks up to the front door. The girl flinches when the boards creak beneath her feet.

Once she had no fear, no reason to worry or hate. Once she was the child that she should be now, with not a care in the world. Now, however, she fears the cabin and what lies within. She doesn't want to be here but knows that she must.

She takes a step, two, three, until she is close enough to knock. The girl raises her fist, the one not holding the basket, and pounds, once, twice, thrice. Then she takes a step back. Better to not be so close when the door opens.

A shadow passes across the nearly pitch black window next to the door. A shadow that moved so fast it's impossible to tell what it was. The girl backs up. Something smacks against the door, the noise so loud in the deafening silence. The girl backs up. A face appears in the window.

Where eyes should be there are black pits. Where the nose is, there is nothing. It has no lips, every one of its pointed canines on display. The creature grins, a gruesome contortion of its face. Again the girl backs up, this time however, there is no more porch left to back up to. She goes falling, falling to the ground, four steps down each one of them bouncing against her spine. Fear slams through her.

She scrambles to her feet but is pushed back down by an unseen force before she gets even halfway. Stuck on the ground, all she can do is watch and wait. And then she sees it. The door to the cabin is open, the creature on the loose.

Again the girl scrambles to her feet and this time she makes it. Something streaks across the corners of her vision. Her gaze sweeps across the small clearing in front of the house. It is out there, she knows it. She hates it.

It darts across the clearing, right in front of her, taking a swipe and barely missing.

The creature runs at her again, straight at her, straight for the bundle nuzzled cozily in the basket. The girl twists to the side narrowly avoiding having the basket snatched from her grasp. Instead, she takes the brunt of its claws across her back. They shred her jacket into nothing more than scraps of fabric. It falls off and onto the snow covered ground leaving her in nothing more than a thin t-shirt.

As she turns to face it, the girl reaches into the basket, under the blankets and into its dark, quiet, warm depths. Her fingers lock around a small object, perfectly smooth, and pull it out into the cold.

She tucks the object into the pocket of her jeans knowing that she will need it later. She closes her eyes and pictures the basket. She pictures the bundle, safe and sound, lying within. Then she pictures the basement of the cabin. Her gaze drifts to the loose floorboard in the corner, under the wooden floor and into the hole in the ground. Mentally, she places the bundle from the basket that she carries in the hole and covers it up.

When she opens her eyes, she still holds the basket, though it is infinitely lighter. The girl smirks at the monster now glaring at her from its perch on the branch of a nearby tree. In the light it is so much more horrific. With four arms and legs, the thing has the appearance of a large spider. Its hairy skin collects snow like an unused toy collects dust.

She flings the basket into the air.

It has exactly the effect that the girl expected. The creature flies off its perch and into the air. It sails directly over the girl's head and, as it is passing over her, she sights it in and, with a mighty shout, fires a beam of pure light at the beast. It lets out an unearthly howl and falls to the ground squirming in pain.

The girl watches the now empty basket fall to the ground before she approaches the beast. It is now nothing more than a pile of charred bones covered by a dusting of skin and blood. Her light made sure of that. The monster is dead and she is free, if only for a moment. She quickly chars the remaining bones with a small burst of light before kicking snow over the hole and hurrying into the house.

The girl ignores the strange furnishings and scratching noises coming from the dark corners. She has only one thing in mind- the bundle that she sent into the house. The basement door is hidden behind the stairs and only those who have been here before would know where to find it.

She opens the door silently, afraid of startling anything that may be down there. She picks her way through the litter on the stairs and eventually comes to the bottom landing. She walks to the corner she visited in her mind and bends down, feeling the smooth ground for a chink in the wood.

When she finds it, the girl almost shrieks with relief. She pulls away the boards and reaches down into the dark. Her hands grasp at the dark and wrap around the bundle. It squirms in her grip.

"Shhh," she mutters pulling it out of the hole. The girl pulls the blanket around its face and the small being lets out a soft cry when the fresh air graces its face. "Shhh."

She rises slowly to her feet and walks to the stairs. "Sissy?"

She looks down at the child in her arms. "Yeah, buddy. It's me."

He smiles, this child, and the girl smiles back. "It's gonna be okay."

No sooner have those words left her mouth than she hears the screams of the monsters. The girl mutters a curse under her breath. She sets the child on his feet and bends down to his height. "Stay here," she insists. "Stay safe." The little boy nods and she is off.

The girl takes the steps two at a time not caring anymore about making noise. They know she is here, they felt their brother die. The bursts through the basement door, the hunk of wood splintering around her. The front door, left open in her haste, displays a gruesome picture. Not just dozens, as she had expected, but hundreds. They bear down on her like a tidal wave of death.

There is only one thing she can do now. The girl plants her feet, puts on her most fierce expression, and fires her light, blindly, into the dark.