Away from Home

From the end of the driveway, I couldn't even see the cabin. The sun had been down for a good hour and clouds covered the night sky. All I could see was the gravel ahead of the pick up and the trees on either side.

  Morris, Bill, and I were being paid to clean Bills uncles cabin. Because we got to stay for the whole weekend, it seemed like a good deal. We planned on hunting, so we brought some firepower. It was going to be an enjoyable time.

  When we finally made it to the cabin, we got out and began to unpack the cleaning supplies and the luggage we brought along for the weekend.

  We finished unpacking and Morris decided to go look around outside. Bill and I stayed in and turned on the TV. After watching for about 2 minutes Morris came back inside with a strange look on his face.

"What's the matter?" Bill asked without turning away from the TV.

"I think there's someone outside," Morris said.

"What?" I said while standing up and going over to the window to have a look.

  Morris then grabbed my shoulder and pulled me out the back door, with Bill still sitting in front of the TV watching an ad for a local Bar-B-Q restaurant.

  It was pitch dark outside and I couldn't see anything more than ten feet away from me.

"I don't see any-"

"QUIET!" Morris cut me off.

  I shut up and listened. I could faintly hear the sound of someone whistling in the woods surrounding the cabin, but I could not tell from which direction it was coming. I turned to look at Morris, and, even in the dark, I could see his face filling with horror. We both ran inside and grabbed Bill. We dragged him outside and made him listen. This time the whistling was much closer. Bills eyes became very wide and then he gave a look of confusion.

"WHO'S THERE?!" Bill cried.

  The whistling stopped, and laughter began. The kind of laughter that sends chills down your spine, and makes you want to run for your life. For a second that's what I thought Bill had done. He ran back inside the cabin, and then reemerged from the doorway carrying his .22.

"I HAVE A GUN, AND I'M WILLING TO USE IT!" Bill screamed into the darkness.

  The laughter became louder, and it began to sound like there was more than just one intruder. Bill fired randomly into the forest.

One.
Two.
Three.
Four shots were fired.

  Then silence. Something began to rustle the dead leaves. The movement came closer and closer. Morris ran and started up the truck. The headlights set the forest infront of us ablaze with light. A shadow that was heading towards the cabin quickly stopped, turned, and ran. Bill gave chase, me right behind him, and Morris turning off the truck and following.

  We followed the noise the shadow was making for a good while. The entire time with Bill shouting threats. Eventually, we came to an open feild. The moon peaked out from behind the clouds and illuminated everything in a blue gray light. It was a full moon. About 50 yards infront of us there was a wooden fence about 5 feet high. The noise we had been following was now a figure crouched infront of the fence.

"There he is." Morris said. Probably talking more to himself then either me or Bill.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw the barrel of Bills .22 rise to the point it was pointing just above the figure. He fired. Just as the round hit the fence above the shadows head, it leaped over the fence with one bound. It was my turn to chase the intruder. Morris grabbed my arm to hold me back, but i broke aways and ran as fast as my legs could carry me. I heard the other two begin to run after me, but 6 months before I had come in 3rd place in a nationals track race. They couldn't catch up to me.

  I got to the fence and hurled myself over. Behind it was more field. I could see the shadow a ways ahead of me. I continued running. I followed the shadow into another batch of forest. We raced through the forest for about 100 yards and finally I came to a road. I stopped and looked around. I spotted the figure to my right. He was only a speck by now. I began to run after him, but he was too far away for me to even see him anymore. I started to head back the way i came.

  When I came to the field I saw Morris and Bill walking my way. They spotted me and stopped. Bill pointed his rifle at me and I raise my hands and yell,"IT"S ME!" Morris grabbed the barrel of the gun and lowered it for Bill. I made my way to them and stop.

"What happened?" Morris asked me.

"Lets go back," I said as I walk past them and back towards the cabin.

  As we were making our way back, I told them what had happened during the chase. They were amused, and we were all tired. We decided that when we got back to the cabin that we were going to get some sleep and worry about cleaning the next day.

  However, we were halfway back to the cabin when we began to hear more noises. We stopped to have a better listen. It was chanting of some sort. It seemed to be in another language. And it was about 10 different people doing it. We all looked at eachother and walked towards it. We came to the edge of a clearing and peared through the trees.

  In the center of the clearing there was a pentagram drawn on a very large peice of ply wood, and it looked to be drawn out in blood. In the center of the pentagram was a man. Naked, and had severe burn scars all over his body. He barely looked human. He was holding up a dead baby goat and was saying something that sounded like a prayer. On the outskirts of the clearing there were hooded figures holding torches and chanting. The man in the center then began to look around and looked right at Morris, Bill, and I. We ran. We heard screaming behind us. We ran faster. We got to the cabin and quickly packed up our things and sped out of the driveway.

  That sundays news papers front page was a story on a satanic cult in the woods that the cabin was in. Every member of the cult was arrested, because that night they burnt down the cabin at which Morris, Bill, and I were staying, and they murdered an entire family in another cabin.

  I have never gone back to those woods since...