The Cabin In The Woods

A Not So Silent Night

Sleep didn't want to come to me that night. I laid on my back, staring up at the ceiling. The ceiling fan blew cool air onto my heated face. Seeing that I wouldn't be closing my eyes anytime soon, I quietly exited the bed, trying not to wake Hannah who was fast asleep. I exit the bedroom and slowly closed the door. I walked down the hall and saw that Sam's light was still on, her door was cracked open.
    I tiptoed to her door and peeked through the slit. She was bent over a desk writing ferociously onto what looked like a journal.
    "Who could've done it? Who's first?" She mumbled to herself. She then stopped abruptly, "Alaina," she whispered, I almost couldn't understand her.
    What did Alaina do? I didn't know and still don't know. She continued to scribble into her journal and I slowly backed away and descended the stairs and walked into the kitchen. I searched the fridge for something to drink, all there was, was beer. I took a beer bottle from the fridge and popped open the lid. It was basically pitch black downstairs, the only light on was above the stove. I leaned against the countertop and thought about what Sam was talking about. What did she mean by 'who's first' and what does this have to do with Alaina?
    I soon hear footsteps descending the stairs and I look over my shoulder to see Nathan. He stops at the foot of the stairs and looks over at me, concerned etched into his face.
    "Are you okay?" He asks me.
    "Yeah, I'm good," I answer.
    "Couldn't sleep?"
    "Nah."
    "You really shouldn't be drinking that," he says looking down at the half empty beer bottle in my hand.
    "I'm old enough to have alcohol father," I take a large swing of the beverage just to prove a point.
    Nathan looks at me with eyes of sadness. He then reaches up to the cabinet beside me and grabs a cup. He fills it with water before coming back over to me, snatching the beer from my hands and putting the cup of water into my hand. He then dumps the rest of the beer down the drain,
    "Hey! I was still drinking that!" I whine.
    "Well now you can drink this," he says calmly, completely unfazed by my outburst.
    "I'm not a child," I say.
    "Then quit acting like one." With that, he walks back up the stairs, leaving me alone.
    I look into the clear liquid then take a gulp of the water. The cold water travels down my throat making me shiver. I drink the rest before I head back fo my room and fall into a deep sleep.

* * * * * * *

    "Wake up everyone! Rise and shine!" Sam's voice penetrates my sleep and causes me to wake up. Hannah slowly arises beside me.
    "What the heck is she doing?" Hannah complains.
    "Unfortunately, waking us up." I throw the blankets off of me and roll out of the bed. I look at the alarm clock and it read six in the morning. I've only slept for four hours.
    "Get up lazy bones. We've got a long day ahead of us," Sam calls out.
    "Ima go take a shower," Hannah grumbles before she gets up and heads to the bathroom. I take out a black and white long sleeve shirt and black pants from my suitcase and proceed to get dressed. I take a shoelace and wrap it around my head to make a mini afro on the top of my head. I slip on some fluffy white sox and walk out of the bedroom and into the living room.
    Everyone except for Hannah and David are downstairs talking amongst themselves. I take a seat next to Nathan.
    "Thank you, for last night," I say.
    "It was no problem. I heard you coming down the stairs and thought I should check up on you." He smiled at me and I gave him a weak smile in return. By that time, Hannah and David both descend the stairs. Hannah takes a seat next to me and David sits next to Nathan, automatically starting a conversation with him.
    "Great, everyone is here! Follow me outside." Sam demands.
    "Where are we going?" Mike asks.
    "To the shooting range, I wanna go hunting soon!"
    We all look at one another, confused. Sam walks out a sliding back door and we all follow her. We walked deep into the woods, far away from the cabin. After what seemed like a mile or so, we finally stopped in a clear area. Five targets are hung on a cord in the clearing. A gray metal table lies a few feet in front of the target with ten shiny metal pistols.
    "Welcome to target practice. I want to see how well you can shoot a gun before I teach you anything else. Everyone pick up a gun and line up in front of a target," Sam ordered.
    "Sam, where did you find eleven pistols?" Hannah asks.
    "I have a friend that owns an armory, he loaned me a few to use for this outing," she replies cheerfully, "now let's get shooting."
    We all go over to the table and pick up one of the heavy weapons. The thing felt foreign in my hands. Hannah picked up her gun and began to swing it around in her hands.
    "Sam, where's your gun?" Hannah asks.
    "I have my own special one right here." Sam pulls out a black pistol from her back pocket under her shirt.
    Hannah nods her head in approval and walks over to one of the targets, I follow behind her.
    "I only have one rule, no shooting one another," Sam says as she grins mischievously, "now shoot."
    The people in line take turns shooting as least three bullets before allowing the person behind them to take a turn. Sam circles us, watching how well we shot the gun with a look of suspicion in her eyes. Once Hannah finished shooting her three, Sam walks up behind us.
    "You have a really good shot," Sam tells Hannah.
    "Well I am a BAU agent." Hannah replies proudly.
    "I see," Sam says as she nods her head then walks away to someone else.
    "You didn't find that the least bit weird?" I ask.
    "Find what weird?" She asks, confused.
    "Nothing, nevermind," I say as I walk in front of her and attempt to aim the gun. I pull the trigger twice, but nothing happens.
    "My gun must be broken," I tell her. Hannah takes the gun from my hand and inspect it before flipping a switch.
    "Your safety was on," she chuckles, "have you ever shot a gun before?"
    "Never," I admit sheepishly.
    "Here, just follow me."
    Hannah shows me the position on how I should stand and aim the gun. I follow her movements as best as I can.
    "Now shoot," she instructs.
    I pull the trigger and the force of the gun almost knocked me back. The bullet flies and hits the black outer ring. I shoot two more times and it progressively gets closer to the bullseye.
    "Great job!" Hannah says as she pats me on the back. I step aside and let her shoot again.
    I look around to see how well everyone else was doing. David shot the gun with ease, almost hitting the bullseye. Alaina was too afraid to shoot it, so she sat under a leafy tree. Brock and Hannah shot their guns, but like me, they didn't do very well. Harry shot the gun just as well as Hannah, which had Sam close to his back. Nathan, somehow, managed to do worse than all of us combined. He shot the gun once, but he held the gun basically at eye level, so when he shot it, the force pushed arms back and the gun hit his nose hard enough to break it. Blood trickled out and he dropped the gun on the ground. Sam rushed over and walked him over to the table. She took out some tissues and stuffed it up his nose. I looked back over at Hannah to see her on the ground crying from laughter. I began to laugh along with her.
    Nathan looks over at us and attempts to give us an evil glare, but he ended up laughing too. Everyone else just ignored us and went back to practicing shooting.
    "Alright, that's enough. Everyone back to cabin!" Sam yelled.
    After packing up all the guns, targets, and the table, we took the long trek back to the cabin. Once we made it back, Sam told us where to put the weapons and began making us a cup of hot chocolate.
    Defrain and Brock went upstairs holding hands, while everyone else took a seat on one of the couches. On one of the love seats, Mike and Eliza whispered to one another, Eliza couldn't stop giggling. I took a seat next to Hannah on one of the sofas.
    "What could Mike possibly be telling her to make her giggle that much?" Hannah whispered to me.
    "Do we really wanna know?" I ask.
    "Yes. Hey what's so funny?" She yells to Mike.
    The two of them stop their whispering and looked down into their laps. I look over at Hannah and we start laughing. Sam comes in and hands us all a cup of hot chocolate.
    "Where's DeFrain and Brock?" Sam asks us.
    "Let's see," Hannah begins, "last I saw them, they were holding hands and snuck up the stairs." Hannah begins to grin mischievously. I nudge her in the side and she laughs again.
    "I thought they broke up." Sam states.
    "Well now they're making up," I exclaim.
    "Okay then," Sam then turns towards the group, "did you all have fun?"
    We all mumbled our answers besides Nathan who sat next to David holding his bloody nose.
    "Great! Well look at the time, it really did fly bye. I have more plans for us for tomorrow, so get some sleep. Goodnight everyone." Sam says.
    Everyone begins to ascend the stairs.
    "Alaina, can you stay back please?" Sam asks.
    "Yeah, sure." Alaina answers.
    The rest of us walk into our rooms.
    "I'm exhausted," Hannah states.
    "Me too, Ima take a shower." I say.
    I walk over to my suitcase and pull out a pair of soft grey shorts and a white tank top. Once I enter the bathroom, I close and lock the door. I strip myself of my clothing, put on a shower cap to cover my hair, and turn on the shower. I adjust the temperature until I find the one I want, then step inside. The hot water runs down my face and body, washing off the dirt and anything from the woods that may have attached itself to me. I use the rag I brought with me from home and the rose smelling body soap to wash myself. Once I'm finished, I rinse off all the soap and step out of the shower. Steam floats in the air and covers the large mirror. I wrap a towel around myself and walk back into the bedroom.
    Hannah sits on the bed facing away from me on her phone. Once I enter, she looks over at me.
    "God listen, put some clothes on!" She yells and laughs.
    "Oh shut up and turn around." I laugh back.
    She obeys and I quickly put on some lotion and throw on my clothes.
    "Are you decent yet?"
    "Yes ma'am." I reply laughing.
    Hannah turns around and I jump into the bed next to her.
    "I'm bored," Hannah states.
    "Me too, so let's sleep."
    "Not tired. I wonder why Sam wanted Alaina to stay back."
    "I don't know, maybe she wanted to help her shoot since she didn't do it today."
    "Maybe," Hannah says curiously, "lets go downstairs and hear what's going on."
    "Nope, I'd rather sleep."
    "Please." She pleads.
    "No."
    "I saw your hidden candy in your suitcase, I'll eat it all if you don't come with me," she baits.
    "Fine." I grumble then roll off the bed.
    Hannah and I walk out of the room and quietly walk down the hallway and halfway down the stairs. Sam and Alaina's voices catch our ears. We take a few more steps down the stairs to hear what they were saying.
    "I need to go home, my mom needs me," I heard Alaina say
    "Really, you've only been here for two days,"Sam whines.
    "I'm really sorry."
    "Can we talk a little bit more before you leave?" Sam asks.
    "Yeah sure. What's up?" Alaina asks.
    "I don't know who else to talk to about this. I've been struggling. I still can't seem to get over my sisters murder."
    "Oh, I'm so sorry."
    "Thank you," she sniffles, "I have a question though, on a lighter note."
    "What is it?"
    "At the shooting range, why wouldn't you shoot with the rest of us?" All sadness seemed to have gone out the window in Sams voice.
    "I just didn't feel comfortable shooting it." Alaina states.
     "Why?"
    "Bad history with guns," she states plainly.
    "What happened?" Sam pushes.
    "I'd rather not talk about it right now."
    "How about we practice a bit outside?" Sam says grabbing Alaina's wrist.
    "No thank you." Alaina declines, "please let go of my wrist."
    "Oh, but I insist," Sam says as we guides Alaina outside.
    "Fine, but please let go of me." Sam releases Alaina and they both head outside.
    "That was weird," Hannah states.
    "Very weird," I reply, "lets go back to bed."
    "Yeah."
    We both quietly head back up the stairs. Once we make it to our rooms, we get into our bed and I turn off the light.
    "Goodnight Hannah." I say before dozing off.
    "Yeah, goodnight."