Harry Styles's Cabin

The Cabin

It was Allie's first time driving her new car by herself. She wasn't technically allowed to drive yet, but she had gotten into a spat with her family, and she liked to leave home for a few hours to blow off steam when she was upset. And now that she had the car, she could actually go places—not just the gas station at the end of the block. It was a whole new world, and an argument was a great excuse to go explore it.

Allie exited her subdivision and started making her way through the surrounding neighborhoods. She decided that she would keep driving out into the country, until all she saw were fields and the occasional farmhouse. A change in scenery was just what she needed to clear her head.

After a while of driving through the rural area, Allie came across a small town. A worn-looking sign announced its name: Gugdon. It was a weird-sounding name, but the town looked normal enough. She slowed to observe the cluster of small houses in an assortment of faded pastel colors. It was actually kind of cute, in a way.

Allie continued driving through the town, beginning to feel better and humming quietly to herself. She began to daydream. Suddenly she was back in the middle of nowhere, this time on a dirt road. Most of the fields here were overgrown, and the houses became sparser and more dilapidated as she went along. Noticing the car was running low on gas, Allie began to worry just the slightest bit. The last gas station she'd seen had been in Gugdon, and who knew how far away that was by now. She didn't want to turn around just yet. There's got to be one up ahead somewhere, she reasoned, pushing down just a little bit more on the gas.

As she went on, the houses continued to thin until there was nothing but fields all around. The sky began to darken with swollen rainclouds. The field gave way to trees, which soon grew so thick Allie couldn't tell if there was anything on the other side of them or not. As raindrops began to splatter Allie's windshield, it occurred to her that she was now in the middle of a forest.

She was also lost.

The sky continued to darken as night fell, and the raindrops became heavier as well. Allie flicked the wipers on and continued driving, pushed on by some unknown force. She prayed for the trees to part and reveal any sign of civilization: a gas station, a town, even one of those dubious-looking strip malls with letters missing from their signs.

The car began to sputter, and Allie's heart dropped.

"No, no, no," she pleaded, but the car made one last shudder and died. Allie glanced helplessly at the little "E" on the dash for a moment, thinking over her options. She thought immediately of her childhood friend Ryan, who was really great with cars and never minded going out of his way to help her out. Allie grabbed her cell phone and began dialing his number, but the screen went dark. Dead. Of course. In her haste to get out of the house, she had neglected to grab a charger. And with that, her last method of contact with the outside world was gone.

Allie dug around in the console and glovebox for a few minutes, looking for a cord, before she realized it was hopeless. Since she'd just gotten the car, none of her stuff had been transferred over yet. Allie sighed and looked at the patterns of raindrops on her windows for a moment before accepting that she had to go find help. Sure, she was in the middle of the woods and it was pouring down rain, but there had to be someone out there.

Allie zipped on her hooded sweatshirt before a flash of lightning illuminated her surroundings, a rumble of thunder following close by. Okay. So she'd wait until the storm passed. Hopefully it won't be too long.

Allie sat for a few more minutes, lamenting her bad luck, when something caught her eye. In a flash of lightning, she thought she could make out some kind of building in the woods. She stared intently in its direction, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. But no. It was there, albeit rundown and abandoned-looking. Allie stayed put for a few more moments, pondering whether she should go check it out. But what she noticed next made up her mind: gas cans! That meant a way home!