Ezra leapt over Jim’s body, knife outstretched. Erin grabbed the lamp next to her and swung, praying her aim wouldn’t ruin her only chance. She lucked out and the lamp hit Ezra square in the head, knocking her aside long enough for Erin to turn and run. She couldn’t tell if she was knocked out, but she wasn’t sticking around to find out.
Erin thudded down the hallway, keenly aware that Ezra could either be right behind her or still in the bedroom. She crossed the living room in only a few steps and yanked the front door open before bounding out into the snow. The sun was shining and reflecting brightly off the snow, temporarily blinding her. It was a gorgeous day—such a contrast to the day before.
Now that she was outside, Erin realized she didn’t have a plan of what to do next. She had been slowed down considerably once she stepped out into the snow; the ground was covered by almost two feet of fresh, fluffy snow, and it was hard to move through. She struggled her way to the top of the hill, squinting as the sun tried to blind her and to avoid seeing Steve’s sheet-covered body out of the corner of her eye.
For what seemed like the millionth time that weekend, Erin stared in dismay down the hill. Getting down the steep slope with all the snow would be difficult, but did she really have a choice? She couldn’t stay where she was. It would certainly be easier now that it wasn’t pitch black in the middle of a blizzard.
Erin was about to take her first step down the hill when she heard a crunch behind her. She turned around just in time to see the flash of a knife before she felt a searing pain in her arm, just missing her chest. Ezra hadn’t been knocked out after all. Not for long, anyway.
Erin dodged away from Ezra, who now looked at her with a crazy look in her eyes she hadn’t seen before. This must have been the look the others had seen moments before they died. But not Erin. This wouldn’t be the last thing she saw.
She dodged to avoid another swipe from Ezra. She was wielding the knife wildly, swinging it from side to side with no strategy, just desperation to stick Erin again. Erin leapt away to get a head start before turning her back to book it away from Ezra. She started running before she had a plan, and after a couple steps she began to panic.
Where was she supposed to go? Run all the way to the lodge? There’s no way she could make it all the way down the hill without falling or running out of breath. She needed a way to defend herself. She wracked her brain. Would a branch work? No, too flimsy.
Jim’s knife! Erin remembered that she’d dropped it after cutting Brody’s body down. Dreading the thought of having to see her boyfriend’s body again, Erin turned back around and dashed for the dropped knife. Luckily, it was right where she left it. She picked it up and looked up just in time to see Ezra catch up with her.
“Just can’t stay away from your dead sweetie, huh?” she asked with a sneer. “He begged for his life, you know. Like a little bitch.” Ezra grinned, and Erin felt revulsion flood her body.
She wouldn’t give Ezra a chance to beg for hers.
Knowing the knife wasn’t big enough to give her a lot of opportunity to miss, Erin darted her arm out with all the strength she could muster. It paid off—the knife struck Ezra right in the chest.
It took a moment for the grin to slide off Ezra’s face, but after a few moments, it was replaced by a look of confusion. She reached up to try to swipe at Erin one last time, but her strength gave out and Erin was able to easily side step the attempt. Ezra slumped to her knees before falling face down into the snow.
Erin couldn’t see the fallen woman move or breathe, but she wasn’t about to take any chances. She took the bigger knife from Ezra’s hand and slammed it repeatedly into her back, over and over, taking out all her anger and sadness over Brody’s death into stabbing the other woman, making sure she was dead.
After a minute or two, Erin felt her anger subside. It was replaced by exhaustion, both mental and physical, and she stumbled to the chair lift, collapsing onto the chair.
VII.
Erin leaned back against the chair, feeling relief for the first time in over thirty-six hours. She tilted her head back and let it bask in the sun. She had made it. Erin knew the full extent of the tragedy she was leaving behind hadn’t fully hit her yet, and she didn’t know when it would. But at least she had survived and could get the truth out about what had really happened in the cabin in the woods that weekend.
Suddenly the chair jerked beneath her, and Erin’s eyes flew open, searching frantically. Had she made a mistake? Was Ezra still alive?
But no, she wasn’t. It was just the chairlift kicking on. The chairlift operator was early. Thank God, he was early.
Erin relaxed again, letting the lift carry her down the mountain she hadn’t been sure she was ever going to leave. She squinted and saw the figure at the bottom waving at her, unaware of the horror he was going to soon be thrown into.
As the lift carried her down, Erin made a list of what she would have to do when she reached the bottom. Calling the police would be first, an ambulance second. There was a pretty deep cut on her arm that probably needed stitches. Then she’d call her parents. And then, oh God, would she have to call everyone else’s parents? Or would the police do that? Surely the police would…
As she got closer to the bottom of the hill, she saw the lift operator—the same one that had sent them up on Friday—squint at her and frown.
“You’re not Ezra,” he said, shaking his head slightly. He was still about fifty feet away.
Erin was puzzled.
“No, I’m not,” she said, raising her voice to make sure he could hear her.
“Did you get away?”
Erin frowned. How did he know about what happened?
“Yes, I did. We need to call the police. Do you have a cell phone on you?”
But the man didn’t reach for his pocket. He sped up the lift a bit and instead of letting her off as she swung around, he pushed the chair around so she continued back up the hill. Erin turned around in time to see him jump into the chair behind her.
“You weren’t supposed to get away,” he said to her, his voice calm.
Erin’s blood chilled.
“What do you mean?”
“You weren’t supposed to get away,” he repeated. “She told me not to let you down.” He folded his hands in his lap as he patiently waited for them to reach the top.
Erin turned back around, stunned. She had planned it after all. Of course she had. The cell phone jammers. How else would she have had them if she hadn’t planned it? She’d wanted to do away with her husband and didn’t care about who else she had to dispose of in the process.
And she’d gotten the lift operator to help her. How, Erin didn’t know. But she had.
Erin looked down. There was at least a foot of fresh snow beneath her from the storm the day before, and it looked pretty soft. They hadn’t reached the full height of the ski lift yet, although they were getting close. Erin knew she had to act and she had to act fast.
She’d made her decision. With one last prayer for good luck, Erin pushed herself off the seat and into the air, hoping the snow was as soft as it looked. She landed with a soft thud and a slightly rolled ankle. She quickly tested her weight on it and was relieved that it held. It hurt, but it would do. Without hesitation, she started running for the lodge.
Erin didn’t look back, but she hadn’t gone more than a few steps when she heard something heavy land in the snow behind her. She groaned—although she’d expected it, she’d been hoping he wouldn’t follow her off the lift. But he had.
Ignoring the pain radiating from her ankle, Erin forced herself to slog through the snow. She was exhausted, but she was so close. And she would need to be several paces ahead of him to give her time to find a way into the lodge. She summoned every bit of strength she had to force her way toward the building.
Erin heard the man’s breathing behind her, and she could tell he was gaining on her. She jumped onto the deck of the lodge and was relieved to be out of the snow. She t
ried the door and wasn’t surprised to see it was locked.
“You’re out of luck, little lady,” the man said, coming to a stop behind her. Erin spun around and saw him grinning, his teeth mossy and dirty. She grimaced in disgust, and a moment later, he reached for his waistband. Not waiting to see what he was grabbing for, Erin darted to her left and grabbed a ski from the rack near the door. Without hesitation, she swung it back and sent it colliding into his head.
His face registered a look of surprise for only a moment before he hit the deck. Erin walked over to straddle him, raising the ski up before smacking it back down over and over again into his head, sending blood and bits of brain matter smattering into the snow. She let out an entire weekend’s worth of fear and anguish and when she was finished, there was no question whether he was dead or not.
Erin sat down next to the body to catch her breath for a minute. When her heart rate finally felt under control, she used the ski to bash her way into the lodge. She quickly found a phone and called the police. She sat down and took a seat in a nearby booth. She’d have a lot of questions to answer when the police came, sure. It certainly didn’t look good that she had blood and brains all over her. But she’d made it. She’d made it all on her own.
She thought back to Friday evening, which seemed so long ago. She had been so excited to spend the weekend with Brody. How innocent she’d been then. Erin now felt like an entire lifetime had passed then, and she knew there was a part of herself that had changed forever.
But now she knew she was a survivor. She wished she hadn’t needed to, but she had made it on her own. And now, there was no way she’d ever sign up for a weekend in the woods again.
A CABIN IN THE WOODS: HUNTING GROUNDS
An alarm beeped. It beeped several times in varying tones. These tones were designed in such a way that the user would be unable to get used to the sound they were hearing. This made it much harder to tune out.
The sounds were kind of muffled by sleepiness, but it was just loud enough to be heard by Lucy Morris. She opened her eyes to realize that her blonde hair was in her face. She puffed at it a few times in order to get it out of her face.
It wasn’t working though, so she rolled over and brushed it out of her face. The clock read five after nine in morning. Lucy sighed. Part of her really wanted to go back to bed and forget the whole damn day.
But she couldn’t. Instead she had to get up and pack. In the next three hours, she had to pack, get dressed, and eat, all before her friends arrived. In her head it all seemed rather manageable, but she knew that in reality the task would be a little more daunting. She had a habit of moving slower than need be.
But nevertheless, she was able to push herself upright and at least make it into a sitting position on the bed. Lucy reached over to her nightstand and grabbed her phone. There were already a few texts from her friends. She smiled at few. They were all about the upcoming trip and how excited everyone was.
The message at the bottom – the most recent text – was from her boyfriend Eric. It was long, almost too long for Lucy to start reading so early in the morning, but she managed to get through it. It was long and drawn out, but she gathered that the point was his overall excitement to be going on this trip with her.
They’d been dating for roughly six months at this point. According to Eric, he was happy with the fact that their six month anniversary would land during the trip they were all taking.
Lucy finished reading the text and closed her phone. She had to work to get done and she was only wasting time sitting on her bed. So she got up and got to work.
Her phone went off almost immediately as she stepped on the ground. Lucy sighed and hoped it wasn’t Eric. She had things to do.
But instead of rolling her eyes at the text, she smiled. It was her boyfriend’s sister Molly. She was texting Lucy in order to find out what kinds of clothing she was bringing on her trip. Lucy told her she had no idea.
So the first order of business was gathering her clothes. She started with the outfit she wanted to wear today, during the drive to the cabin. Lucy practically emptied her entire closet, which at the moment was filled with summer clothing. Shorts, skirts, sun dresses, the whole lot was on her bed. She made sure to send Molly a picture of everything she was planning on taking.
She figured she’d start with a white sun dress for the drive up. From there she was able to assemble a wardrobe befitting of a summer vacation. By the time she’d looked back up from the mound of clothing she’d only spent thirty minutes on wardrobe. Already ahead of schedule.
Lucy felt a little proud of herself. Then she moment she closed the first suitcase she realized she’d forgotten to pack her swim suit.
“Mom!” Lucy called for the first time this morning. She sat down near her clothes and waited.
A few minutes passed and nothing happened. “Mom!” She called again.
“What?” her mom finally responded.
Lucy turned around and faced her mother. “I forgot my bikini. Do you have any idea where it is?”
Her mom furrowed her brow disapprovingly. “You know I hate that you wear that thing. You may as well parade around the beach naked.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “I would if I could mom. Do you know where it is?”
Her mom huffed. “I think it’s in the laundry room.”
Lucy gave her mom a bright smile in return. “Thank you.”
Her mother’s eyes glazed over. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
Lucy quickly ran downstairs and went through the laundry room in order to find her swim suit. It was small, and as her mother said, didn’t cover most. But that was kind of the point. It was stringy and bright yellow. It complimented her hair and skin perfectly.
She finally found it buried under some towels. Lucy rolled it into a small ball and carried it back upstairs. Then she shoved it into her suitcase. So that was the clothes taken care of.
The next thing on Lucy’s list was to pack all her phone chargers, iPad chargers, and so on. Any books she would want to bring would be pretty useful as well. There would no doubt be the occasional night by the fire where reading a book would be the most wonderful thing in the world.
Feeling relatively set and ready to go, Lucy allowed herself a moment to breathe. She stared at her two suitcases, one full entirely of clothing, and the other just a bit smaller that was filled with all the books and electronics she was bringing. It looked like a lot, Lucy had to admit, but it was all completely necessary.
Lucy then grabbed her clothes for today and ran into the shower. She threw off her clothes and took a second to admire herself in the mirror. All that hard work at the gym was beginning to pay off. She was going to look amazing swimming in the lake near the cabin.
The shower was quick, definitely not as slow or comfortable as she would have liked. She was lacking time before she was going to get picked up. So Lucy quickly washed herself over and scrubbed her hair. Once she was done she got out and tried herself as quickly as possible.
The larger issue with rushing was her hair. She didn’t want to let it air dry because it would frizz out. But she didn’t have time to blow dry it either. Disgruntled with her options, she put it up in a quick bun and put her clothes on. She would make it right once they got to the cabin.
With everything packed and she herself ready to go, she brought everything downstairs. She checked her phone again to make sure no texts had been received. The last one she’d gotten was from Molly, say that she would see her soon.
So for now there was nothing to do but wait.
Lucy got halfway done with making her coffee for the road before the doorbell rang. She rolled her eyes. Figures that they would arrive right in the middle of something. She huffed and went to answer the door.
She was greeted by a pair of smiles. Both Eric and Molly were there. Eric reached in for a hug, but Lucy slithered past him and into Molly’s arms. They embraced for a few moments, before breaking apart and letting Eric greet his girlfriend.
“Hey babe.” He said with an open smile. They embraced for a second.
Lucy returned his smile. There’s an awkward moment of silence between everyone as they figure out what to say and do next.
“Are you ready to go?” Molly asked, finally breaking the silence.
Lucy snapped back to reality, smiling at her. “Yup! This is all my stuff.” She said, motioning to the bags near the door.
“Perfect!” Molly said in a cheerful tone.
Eric grabbed the bags and brought them outside. In the meantime Molly and Lucy continued talking.
By the time that Eric returned from the car, it seemed like everyone was ready to go. Lucy packed her coffee and met them outside.
Eric drove a beautiful red convertible. It was the perfect day for riding with the top down. Eric hopped in the driver’s seat and opened the locks.
“Hop in ladies!” he said gleefully. He patted the front passenger side seat and winked at Lucy.
Molly hopped in the back and Lucy followed suit. The car gave a loud roar as Eric started the engine. He then put the car in gear and headed out of the driveway.
“Are Bruce and Lauren meeting us there? Or are we using Bruce’s van?” Lucy asked over the volume of the wind.
Molly shook her head. “We’re going to meet them there!” She managed to say.
Lucy nodded and sat back. The ride wouldn’t be too long, at least from the mapping of the route they’d done.
Horror: Cabin In The Woods: Until Dawn Page 4
