The Cabin In The Woods

chapter eight

Zachary spent the night with Sawyer after he was rescued. His mother kept yelling at him for being stupid enough to search a known crime scene so Zachary left and ran all the way to Sawyer's place. He had asked his sister to come but she refused, she claimed their mother needed company. Zachary was currently laying on the floor of Sawyer's bedroom while Sawyer lay on the bed dozing off and jerking back awake.

"Sawyer, how's your sister doing? When's she coming home?" Zachary asks randomly. His brain was running circles, thinking about their childhoods, trauma, and siblings.  The thought of Sawyer's sister had been terrorizing him since the day this whole serial killer situation started, but it wasn't until now that he had the guts to ask about her.

"She's coming back for a few days on Thursday." Sawyer replies, his voice was groggy with exhaustion. "She'll probably get sent back to the hospital after a week though."

"I haven't seen her in so long, ever since they diagnosed her." Zachary mumbled. He wasn't tired, not even a little. Despite being held captive in a dusty, moldy cabin he actually got a good bit of sleep considering he had nothing else to do in that situation. Lucy on the other hand hadn't slept a wink.

"Me neither. I always feel like the diagnosis was wrong, she was completely healthy...and sane." Sawyer says quietly. He shifted around in his bed so that he was laying on his side. "The hospital made her crazy, not her mental state."

"Maybe she'll cook some of her famous potato casserole while she's here." Zachary says as his stomach growled loud and obnoxiously. Sawyer sits up and rubs his eyes looking down at his friend.

"Mom told me she wasn't cooking tonight. If she knew you'd be here I'm sure she would've ordered take out or something but I'll make us sandwiches." Sawyer says and the boys walk down the stairs and into the kitchen. Sawyer flicked on the light and they both simultaneously jumped back and gasped, Zachary even put a hand out in front of Sawyer to keep him back. The kitchen was a mess, glass was shattered from the cabinets, pots and pans were in thrown in various places, and worst of all two words were spelled in a red substance on the wall. The words were; you'll die.

"Call the police, I'll get mom and dad." Sawyer says and sprints towards his parent's bedroom. Zachary grabbed the home phone and dialed 9-1-1 putting the phone up to his ear. The hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention, someone was watching him. Zachary whipped around and caught a glimpse of a shadow run across the doorway. He nearly threw the phone down  and ran after the shadow but a voice on the other side of the phone startled him.

"911 what's your emergency?"

"Um, yeah hi. Someone broke into my friends house and wrecked the kitchen, I think they might still be here." Zachary says in a hushed voice.

"Please state your name and address."

"Um, I'm Zachary Brunette. I'm on 21 Eden lane 2240 at the Mcminn residence." Zachary whispers refusing to take his eyes off of the only entrance to the kitchen.

"Thank you, the police are on their way." The line ended and Zachary hung up the phone. Sawyer and his parents ran into the kitchen. Sawyer's mother was in a pink bath robe with her hair pulled into a low messy ponytail while his father was only wearing his pajama pants.

"Did you boys see who did this?" Mr. Mcminn asks, Zachary and Sawyer shook their heads simultaneously.

***

The police showed up thirty minutes later and so did dozens of news reporters. Zachary was the first person the reporters harassed, running up to him and shoving microphones into his face yelling out questions and accusations.

"Excuse me! Can I ask you a few questions?" One reporter asks Zachary politely.

"Um, yeah sure." Zachary says as the scratched the back of his neck not really wanting to talk to anyone at the moment but also not wanting to be rude. The reporter told the camera man to start recording.

"Is it true that you were taken hostage by the person behind all of this and beaten nearly to death?" The reporter asks shoving the microphone towards him.

"Um, yeah. Do you not see this beautiful black eye?" Zachary shifted awkwardly. The reporter pulled the microphone back to her own mouth.

"Why did your kidnapper beat you?" The reporter asks, moving the microphone to Zachary.

"My friend, Lucy Hunter, she was there too and the man that was shot and killed on the scene tried to um- he hurt her so I kinda attacked him." Zachary says, "I was pretty dumb to say the least."

"Really? You nearly died to protect your friend?"

"Yeah, I'd do it for any of my friends or family." Zachary answers with a shrug. He didn't think that was that big of a deal, he'd always been protective towards his friends and almost everyone knew that. Kids at school didn't even dare to bully anyone Zachary cared about, they made that mistake multiple times and learned their lesson.

"And do you have any new information about this criminal running around?" The reporter asks, she was talking louder than needed causing Zachary to cringe away from her.

"I-I know that the person that killed Justin Brown was a girl and that whoever is behind this refuses to let anyone kill me." Zachary mumbled, desperately searching for a way to escape.

"Do you have any idea who this killer might be?" The reporter asks.

"No, not really." Zachary replies.

"Do you have anything to say about the rumors that Sawyer Mcminn is the real killer?" The reporter was getting all the information she could out of him and she wasn't about to leave him alone until he told her everything he knew.

"The rumors are completely bogus like I said I'm positive it's a girl and I know Sawyer, he wouldn't hurt anyone." Zachary took a step back but the reporter took two steps forward.

"Well, Sawyer is indeed your best friend correct?" The reporter begins,

"Yes, but-"

"So, Sawyer would want to keep you safe correct?"

"Yeah, it-"

"So, he could easily be behind the murders. Have you ever been around him when a murder had taken place?"

"No! Stop asking questions!" Zachary yells and runs away from the reporters searching the crowd for Sawyer. His brain was running in circles coming back to the same conclusion each time, Sawyer wasn't the killer. Zachary knew that and nothing would change his mind about it.