Horror: Cabin In The Woods: Until Dawn

by Dustin Brubaker

  CABIN IN THE WOODS: UNTIL DAWN

  &

  CABIN IN THE WOODS: HUNTING GROUNDS

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  A CABIN IN THE WOODS: UNTIL DAWN

  I.

  The car’s tires squeaked on the snow in the almost-abandoned parking lot—the frigid temperatures rendering the ski resort desolate and foreboding.

  “Are you sure there’s going to be someone here to take us up to the cabin?” Brody looked unsure as he threw the car in park and turned off the engine. He turned to Erin in the passenger seat. “We can still go back home if you want. I won’t be mad.”

  Erin rolled her eyes and leaned over to kiss her boyfriend’s cheek.

  “Yes, someone will be manning the ski lift to take us up,” she said. “The guy confirmed that at least a half dozen times. And we’re not going home. We’ve already paid for the weekend, and we drove three hours to get here! And it’ll be fun. Promise.” She tucked her long blonde hair into her ski cap and pulled on her gloves. She wasn’t backing out of this trip now.

  Brody sighed and opened his door before going around the back of the car to lift the lid of the trunk.

  “Won’t we be bored though? The resort isn’t actually open so we won’t be able to ski or snowboard. What the hell are we going to do until Sunday?”

  Erin reached in and pulled a paper bag from the trunk, grinning as the bottles inside clinked together.

  “That’s what these are for.” She leaned closer. “And these.” She brushed her lips against Brody’s, lingering a little longer this time. She finally felt his lips crack into a smile as she pulled away.

  “Yeah, ok, maybe it won’t be that bad.” His green eyes sparkled as he hoisted their luggage over his shoulder and slammed the trunk lid down. “And there’s other couples sharing the place, right? Maybe they’ll be cool.”

  “Yes, the cabin’s huge. There’s two other couples, and I’m sure they’ll be cool. Either way, we’ll make this weekend fun.”

  The two crunched across the parking lot and toward the ski lift that ran above the beginner’s slope. They could just make out a figure huddled next to the controls, waiting to send them up the mountain. Brody looked to the sky as they neared the lift; small flakes of snow had started to fall.

  “Was it supposed to snow this weekend?”

  Erin frowned and looked up. The sky was sunny with fluffy clouds, not foreboding at all.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Ah, don’t worry about the weather! It’s supposed to stave off by Sunday, so I’ll have no problem meeting you guys back here to bring you back down.”

  Erin and Brody hadn’t felt the worried looks on their faces, but the man by the lift had obviously noticed.

  “It’s going to snow before then, though?” Brody’s frown deepened. He’d never been a fan of winter—he hated to be cold—let alone the snow that came along with it.

  “Sure,” the man said cheerfully, pulling a chair around and raising the lap bar for them. He patted the seat, and Erin and Brody sat down. They arranged their luggage on their laps and were thankful they’d packed lightly. “A couple inches tonight, maybe a couple more on Saturday. But the forecast says it’ll be clear and sunny by Sunday!”

  The man pulled the lap bar down and reached for the lever to send them up.

  “See you then!”

  With a mighty groan, the chair lurched forward and they started up the mountain.

  “It’ll be fine,” Erin said, rubbing a gloved hand along Brody’s arm. “You heard what he said. All clear by Sunday! We won’t have to drive in it.”

  Brody nodded, clearly unconvinced. They rode along in silence as the flakes started to fall a little faster. Erin noticed the sky darken a bit, but decided not to mention it. By the time they reached the top of the mountain, the sky was cloudy and the snow was falling steadily. Erin hurried them into the cabin before Brody could say anything.

  The key turned easily in the lock, and when she swung the door open, it was clear they were the first ones to arrive.

  “Looks like we have the first pick of the bedrooms,” Erin said, heading for the hall and looking over her shoulder suggestively. Brody grinned and immediately dropped their bags, hurrying after her into the dark hallway.

  They peeked in each of the three bedrooms and chose the one at the end on the left—obviously the master. It had tall ceilings with wooden beams criss-crossing overhead, a private bathroom, and a king-sized sleigh bed that they quickly pounced on. Brody picked Erin up by her hips and tossed her playfully onto the pillows before leaning down to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, but just as Brody began to reach up her shirt, they heard the front door slam.

  “Hello?” a deep male voice called out.

  Brody sighed and rolled over and off the bed.

  “Guess our roommates are here. And you said they’d be cool?”

  Erin glared at him playfully and jumped to her feet, smoothing her shirt and hair before they headed into the hall. Emerging from the dark hallway and back into the light of the living room, they saw another couple standing in front of the door, stomping the snow off their boots.

  “It’s really coming down out there,” the woman said brightly, brushing snow off her shoulders. Erin looked at her appraisingly. She was slightly older than her—perhaps in her mid-thirties, compared to Erin’s twenty-six years.

  “I’m Ezra.” The woman smiled broadly and reached out her hand for Erin to shake. Ezra’s eyes were huge and shockingly blue, and they stood out against her pale skin and dark hair that had been razored into a sharply angled bob. She wore all black, and huge diamond studs sparkled in her ears. Interesting. Erin decided she liked her.

  “I’m Erin, and this is Brody.” Erin nudged her boyfriend toward the other woman. He could be shy with new people, sometimes to the point
of being rude, and Erin was forever trying to get him to be more social. He shook Ezra’s hand and nodded.

  “Great to meet you!” Ezra said. “This one back here is my husband Jim, although I doubt you’ll hear more than a few words from him all weekend.” Ezra turned to smirk at her husband.

  Erin shifted her gaze to study him, the man whose voice they’d heard call out mere minutes again. He was tall and broad, even burly, Erin thought. So different from Brody’s thin but athletic physique. Jim gave her a curt nod and immediately turned back to attending to their luggage, hoisting it over his shoulder.

  “Which rooms are still available?” he asked, his voice cold.

  “The two on the right. We’ve taken the one on the left.”

  Erin tried to make her voice pleasant, a thin smile on her face, but Jim looked away and headed for the hall.

  “Isn’t your luggage still by the door? Looks like you haven’t claimed anything.”

  Ezra gave Erin an apologetic smile as she turned to follow her husband down the hall.

  “Why’d you bother asking then,” Erin muttered as she turned back to Brody. Something about Jim made the hair stand up on the back of her neck, and it wasn’t just his standoffish manner. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about him creeped her out.

  “Well, we better officially claim one of the other rooms, then, before the other people show up.”

  She and Brody took their bags into the second-best room and were pleased to see it was just as nice as the first, if not just a bit smaller.

  By the time they came back out twenty minutes later, the remaining two people had arrived—two guys that looked (and acted) as though they were college students.

  “Hope you guys are ready to party!” the first, a tall boy with dirty blond hair and a tattered hooded sweatshirt, said. “We brought enough booze for everyone!”

  Erin stifled a laugh, looking at the bottles of cheap vodka he set on the counter.

  “That’s very generous, but we brought our own,” she said, hoping she wasn’t coming off rude. The boys seemed harmless enough, if not a little immature.

  “Suit yourself, it’s all good!”

  The second boy, shorter and with dark brown hair, introduced himself as Gavin and gestured to the other.

  “Don’t mind Steve. He’s a little loud, but he’s a good guy.”

  “I’m sure,” Erin said pleasantly.

  Now that they were unpacked and everyone had arrived, Erin wracked her brain for a way to spend the rest of the evening. The last thing she wanted was for everyone to fall into an awkward silence. A quick glance outside and it was clear that it was too dark and snowy for any outside activities. Erin glanced back to the kitchen.

  “Shots, anyone?”

  II.

  An hour later, all six of them had downed at least two shots each and were pleasantly glowing with the beginning of a solid buzz. They sat around the table, a couple of mostly-eaten frozen pizzas the boys had brought and heated up sitting in the middle. They’d spent the last half-hour making small talk and getting to know each other a bit better, and by now Erin had learned enough about each of the other lodgers to suss out their general personalities.

  Ezra was as talkative as her husband was sullen. She was in music marketing, a field Erin hadn’t even known existed. She worked with a small group of bands and did all their promotion: booking events, managing their social media, and arranging their interviews. Ezra sparkled as she talked—she drew everyone in without trying.

  All Erin learned about Jim was that he was a defense attorney, which wasn’t surprising to her at all. He spoke rarely, and only when prompted by his wife.

  Steve and Gavin were, as Erin had suspected, college students. Steve hadn’t yet decided on a major, but Gavin was three years into his biology degree. They were loud and a bit immature, but Erin decided they would be just fine roommates for the weekend. Maybe they would help everyone else have a bit of fun.

  “So why did you two decide to come out here for the weekend?” Erin asked the boys, getting up and walking to the kitchen for another drink. She didn’t think they looked like a couple, but she never wanted to assume anything. You never knew.

  “We’ve been wanting to get some snow boarding in before the season’s over, and the place was at such a great deal this weekend that we figured it was the perfect time,” Gavin said. “It wasn’t until we’d already paid that we realized the resort was actually closed for the weekend and that’s why it was so cheap.”

  He glared slightly at Steve, and Erin guessed he was still miffed at his buddy’s screw up.

  Erin tipped an extra shot into her red plastic cup and then topped it off with diet soda.

  “Oooh, can you pour me another one, too, as long as you’re out there?” Ezra asked. Erin grinned and nodded as she reached for another cup. She made a second drink and walked back to the table.

  “What about you two?” Erin asked, handing Ezra the drink and taking a sip of her own. “Are you guys celebrating anything? An anniversary or…?”

  Her voice trailed off as Jim’s face immediately clouded. Ezra glanced at him quickly and cleared her throat.

  “No, nothing like that. Just wanted a relaxing weekend, and the owner was renting his rooms so cheap.”

  Jim scowled and pulled a pocket knife out of his pocket. He started flicking his wrist, snapping the blade open and closed. Flick and snap, flick and snap.

  Ezra took a long sip of her drink, and Erin decided not to pry any further. But what was that about? She turned to Brody who rolled his eyes and winked at her. She smiled, glad to see he was finally getting comfortable and warming up to their cabin-mates.

  “OK, enough of this chit chat!” Steve said suddenly, standing up and reaching for a bottle of rum. “Let’s play a drinking game. Let’s play flip cup!”

  Erin smiled to herself. She hadn’t played the game since college, and truthfully thought it a little juvenile, but what the hell? What else was there to do?

  “Sure, I’m in!” she said.

  “Me too!” Brody agreed.

  Ezra nodded and stood up to get enough cups to play.

  “Jim, can you start cleaning off the table?” she asked.

  Jim abruptly stopped playing with his pocket knife.

  “Did I say I was going to play?”

  Ezra rolled her eyes, turned to her husband, and opened her mouth to speak. But when she saw the look on his face she promptly closed it again. His face wasn’t just sullen, it looked downright angry.

  “Don’t get this way, it’s just a bit of fun,” Ezra said, her voice dropping.

  “It’s not fun, it’s asinine.” Jim’s tone of voice made a chill go down Erin’s spine.

  Jim’s fists were clenched and resting on the table; his mouth was set in a hard line. His entire body seemed to be almost vibrating with anger. How could an innocent game make him so angry so quickly?

  “Chill out dude, you don’t have to play if you don’t want to,” Steve muttered.

  “It doesn’t matter if I play or not!” Jim yelled, slamming his fist onto the table as he stood up from his chair. “What am I supposed to do while you all act immature and get loud? I sure as hell can’t sleep with all this going on! Do you have any respect for other people?”

  Without waiting for a reply, Jim stormed away from the table, down the hall, and into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

  “Way to be a buzzkill…” Steve said, setting the bottle of rum down. Everyone stared at each other in silence for a few moments before everyone’s eyes landed on Ezra, who looked more embarrassed than anything.

  “He gets like this sometimes,” she said sheepishly. “We’ve… been arguing lately. I thought this weekend might bring us closer together again, but maybe I was wrong.”

  Erin immediately stood up to give the other woman a hug, partially because she felt sorry for her and partially because of the warm, buzzing glow she had from the vodka.

  “Re
lationships are hard. Let him cool down and maybe you guys can still have a great weekend!” Erin gave her a hopeful smile.

  “Yeah, let’s forget about him for the night.” Ezra smiled brightly. “What about that game of flip cup?”

  Two hours later it was still only midnight, but everyone had a heavy buzz that was getting dangerously close to full-on trashed. They had played two games of flip cup and were now on a game of Never Have I Ever that was getting raunchier by the minute. Erin and Brody hadn’t let loose like this since college, but Erin also couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun period. Ezra had loosened up and seemed to be enjoying herself. Steve and Gavin were having fun, and they hadn’t seen or heard from Jim since he had stormed away.

  “Never have I ever had sex in a public place,” Gavin said when it was his turn.

  “No surprise there,” Steve muttered, although not quiet enough to prevent the entire table from hearing. Gavin glared at him, but everyone else chuckled. Erin hoped the table was distracted enough not to notice her put one of her fingers down.

  “Whoa, I saw that!” Steve yelled with glee. “Didn’t think you had it in you!”

  “Well, you don’t know me well enough then,” Erin said, grinning and slurring slightly.

  “Guess I don’t.” Steve jumped from the table. “Who needs another drink?”

  He poured a great glug of liquor into his cup and looked around the table expectantly. Erin hesitated. On one hand, she wanted to say screw it and go for it. On the other… she knew she was already looking at a decent hangover in the morning. The rational side of her brain won out.

  “I’m ok. I think I’m headed to bed soon actually.”

  “Aw, come on!” Steve said, swigging from his cup.

  “Nah, it’s getting late and I’m old.” Erin turned to Brody. “And besides, I have this guy to attend to.”

  Brody raised his eyebrows and immediately stood from the table.