The Shack

The Shack
A Short Story…
By: Joshua David

         

    Just thirty minutes before midnight, the power goes out.  It couldn’t have been a worst time either. He had a bowl of freshly made popcorn ready to be devoured while he enjoyed his movie. His hand was already covered in the sweet buttery food before the movie even started. Ken sat in the dark for a while, hoping; No… praying for the electric to come back on. After ten minutes he knew it wasn’t going to happen, so he pulled himself from the couch, shoving a hefty hand full of popcorn in his mouth and headed for the door.

    Ken hated the woods; his house was built just twelve feet off the big trees. The storm was getting worse and the trees made horrible sounds. The local news had warned him of the immanent storm. He was always one too procrastinate, but this just sucked. Ken walked to his garage to looked for his flash light. One that was bought recently from the store, a halogen; one thousand candle-light power, it said. He Glanced up at the roof and noticed that it had a few leaks here and there. Just another thing he had on his ever growing list of things to do. The sounds those trees made… With every creek and crack from those trees, Ken’s nerves were feeling like fire. His adrenalin rushed, his heart pounded in his ears. If only his pulse was loud enough to drown out the trees… Ken spotted the flash light, he had to push half soaked boxes out of the way to get it. Reaching for the flash light, a loud snapping sound took Ken by surprise.  Another tree!? Yet more sounds were erupting.  The tree was falling! Which way? Ken’s mind could only race with “worst case scenario” images. He scrambled from the shed and into the rain. Turning on the flash light, ken searched the sky for the falling tree. He heard a thundering boom as the tree came to the ground, relief came over him. garage and house stood as they were. Looking into the trees, ken took a deep breath and continued towards the shack.

    The trees looked blue-white with every lightning strike. The wind blew ever harder. This made ken quicken his pace, almost to the point of running. His nerves were aflame. He could see the shack now; it wasn’t far from his house, the shack of course stored his generator, which he hoped had fuel. “Soon I will be back watching TV”, he thought. He cursed the news, yet he knew the storm was coming. He was now coming up to the shack, chilled to the bone, shivering. A realization came over him. “Did I forget my keys?” He frantically slapped at his pockets. He had them… Pulling the keys from his pocket he fumbled through them. Luckily it wasn’t hard to find the right key; it stuck out from all the others. He unlocked the door and went inside. A shiver ran through his body once more, he was glad to be out of the rain.

    The shack wasn’t huge, but it was bigger than his shed. Ken felt the wall in search of the light switch. Finding it, he flipped the switch on and off a few times. “Darn it, no power!” He screamed, realizing what he was doing. He pointed his flash light at the rusty thing in the middle of the room. He prayed that it still worked properly. Setting the light on the ground, Ken grabbed the pull start handle and yanked up on it a few times. The machine just grumbled and croaked. “Don’t be stubborn, you!” Ken kicked the generator; he looked down at his foot not feeling any pain. He must have been colder than he thought. Thunder boomed from above, the sound of another falling tree was bleeding in from the roof. Ken almost blacked-out from all the adrenaline that was dumped into his system. He couldn’t move; he just waited. The tree came down long and heavy in front of the shack. The ground shook violently and florescent bulbs from the light fixtures fell from the roof on top of ken. Ken ran for the door, he slammed into it. Fear shot through his already nerve shot body. He was blocked in! He tried again, but the door would not move. Ken lost all sense of rationality, he started to scream help.           

    After a few minutes, he stopped; his voice rash and hoarse. He turned and looked at the generator. “You son of a...” He croaked at the contraption. Now anger gripped ken, he ran towards it and violently yanked up several times on the pull-starter. The engine turned over a few time, and right when ken thought it wasn’t going to start, it did. The motor sounded as if it had something to prove now, roaring to max RPMs. “Uh huh…” ken could only look in disbelief. He turned the lights on or what was left; they flickered for only a moment. Ken stared towards the door, he knew he was screwed. Looking up he could only laugh, at least the roof didn’t leak. He noticed then that the wind had stopped, the trees were quiet. The rain continued however, and from what the news had said, it would be a while. 

    Sitting against the wall, ken started to hear a noise that stood out from the sound of the rain. It sounded like rustling leaves. Like someone walking… He yelled… but the sound stopped, yet no one called back. “Hey!” Ken yelled again. “I’m in the shack!” The walking sound continued. He started to hear heavy breathing, almost animal like, (The sound a dog makes after a long run). Ken put his ear to the door, the breathing was close. Soon, it sounded as if it was right next to the door. Ken stepped away, his imagination running wild. Could this be some kind of a raving murderous psycho? Thunder boomed in the sky. If for an instant ken thought his fear and nerves couldn’t go much further, they did. A blood curdling groan/roar came from outside. Ken retreated near the generator, where the only thing he could hear was the loud motor.The door shook as if being hit. Dust fell from the door jam. Ken's pulse was racing. The door was hit again. Ken could only stare at the door. His mind was so frantic that he thought he could hear the thing outside groan a low hateful sound. What was out there? Then something shiny came threw the center of the wood door. It looked to be an axe! Ken lost his bladder. The axe hit several more times making the hole bigger. Soon the beast would come through. The wind started again, those trees… those damned trees, making there ancient moaning sound. The rain sounded the size of base balls.
   
    As lightning flashed he could almost see the thing. He saw hair, long and dark. Thunder boomed again and the last florescent light went out. Ken couldn’t move, didn’t dare move. The shack was pitched black. More lightning struck outside, revealing the forest floor. A shadow covered the hole in the door. The figure peered in at him. He couldn’t see anything; the dark didn’t reveal any details of this beast. A thought suddenly took him at this pivotal moment. Fuel for the generator... was that on his list of thing to do? As if answering his question, immediately the generator started to chug and loose speed. Ken could only shake his head, "Dang it." He said. Ken still couldn’t move, and his life started flashing before his eyes. The generator became quite. Ken held his breath when the beast made groaning sound, "DANG IT KEN! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!"

    Ken was taken aback. Shock, bewilderment, horror, wonder, and something else happened just then. “Ken you fool! Come on out of there!” it shouted. “Sherry!” Ken screamed through a raw throat. “Duh dummy!” She yelled back. Ken got to his feet and went to the door. “What the... ?” He gestured by opening his arms. “I thought you were a monster! She only looked at him with amusement, “Uh huh” she said nodding her head. “Close enough... now come on outta there.” Sherry helped ken from the door. Walking back, ken noticed that she was limping. “What happened to you?” Ken asked. She looked at him questioning. “You didn’t hear me scream?” She asked. “I heard that tree fall, so I came looking for you.” She pointed in the direction of the house. “I saw that the tree had fallen in front of the door, so I grabbed the axe.” Ken looked at the chunks of door, and the axe on the ground. “Yeah, but why were you screaming?” He asked. “Well, you see that thing?” She indicated towards a tree stump using her middle finger, as if the tree could respond. “The stump tripped me, and in my infinite wisdom I used the axe to try and catch my fall. Instead, I almost chopped my ankle off. Now come on let’s get home.” Ken didn’t bother saying anything else, he walked along side her feeling his nerves cool. Plus he didn’t want the subject of “wetting himself” to come up, so he quietly smiled to himself and they walked home.