This is for the Cabin story contest...sorry it's up on early but I realized I wouldn't be able to upload it tomorrow at the time everyone else was doing it. Hope you guys enjoy!
Nick, Jess, and Schmidt are going for a hike in the fall. It was supposed to be just Nick and Jess but Schmidt hasn't fully accepted and embraced a Ness relationship yet so he decides it's necessary for him to come along too.
"How much longer are we going to walk? My Vibrams are getting all dirty!" Schmidt complained.
"We only passed the one mile marker a few minutes ago," Jess pointed out.
"You should have gotten real hiking shoes like I did," Nick stopped walking for a second and held up his foot. He was wearing beat-up hiking boots with mismatched shoestrings that he had found in a dumpster a few blocks from the loft.
"I wouldn't be caught dead wearing crap like that," Schmidt rolled his eyes and took a swig of his mineral water.
Nick took Jess's hand in his and looked at her. She was so beautiful, even with her yoga pants and workout tank and hair pulled back.
"Oh my god," Schmidt rolled his eyes, "Do you guys ever stop touching each other?"
Nick and Jess both just laughed. They all continued walking and noticed a storm cloud looming over head.
"Do you think it'll rain?" Jess asked.
"I thought it wasn't supposed to," Nick looked puzzled, "Hey Schmidt, look up on your phone if it's going to rain or not."
"I left my phone at home. I didn't want it to get damaged in the wilderness," he said.
"I don't have mine either," Jess confessed.
"If I could afford a smartphone," Nick began, "I'd always have it with me!"
"Let's just keep going," Jess suggested, "There's only another mile and a half left anyway."
So they did. But they only walked another half mile before it started dumping down rain. They could hear thunder in the distance.
"Aaaahh!" Schmidt yelled, "These Vibrams are going to be completely ruined!"
Jess held onto Nick tightly. She hated storms. And she especially hated being outside during one.
"Let's see if we can find like a covered table or something, " Nick yelled. A few yards away, they noticed a small cabin in the woods right off the path they were on. "Let's go over there!" Jess said. They all ran toward the cabin.
The front had a covered porch but no places to sit. "Let's see if the door opens," Jess said. She tried the knob on the door and started to open it.
"What the hell Jess!" Nick proclaimed, "Someone could live here! We can't just walk in."
"Does it look like anyone lives here?" she asked. "The shutters are covering the windows, the front porch has dead leaves all over it, and the yard is overgrown with weeds." She turned the knob and with a slight kick of her foot, the door opened.
Inside the cabin was a giant fireplace that was the height of the walls in the room, which had to at least be three stories tall. An old sofa with crocheted throws draped over it faced the fireplace. The floors were wooden boards that looked like they hadn't been polished in years. Long, indigo colored drapes hung in front of all the windows.
"Wow! Look at this place!" Jess exclaimed as they all walked in.
"Yeah, it's filthy!" Schmidt said, "It smells like mildew!"
"It doesn't look that bad. Kinda has a charm you don't see in homes built today," Nick commented.
"I think it's beautiful! And it's the perfect place to go during a storm," Jess said, walking over to the sofa and picking up one of the throws to drape around her.
Nick plopped down next to her. "Be careful!" Jess scolded, "This is an antique couch!"
Schmidt walked over to one of the windows and pulled back one of the drapes. "I think the rain is coming down even harder!"
"Great," Nick muttered, "Now, even if it stops raining, how are we supposed to walk back? The trail will be all muddy. Or maybe even flooded."
"We might have to stay here," Jess said, covering Nick partly with the throw and cuddling next to him.
"Fantastic," Schmidt rolled his eyes, "I get to be the third wheel all night!"
"You're the one who decided you wanted to come along," Nick reminded him.
The storm continued on and showed no signs of stopping. Everyone was beginning to get hungry.
"What are we supposed to eat?" Nick asked, walking over to the kitchen which was only separated from the living room with a bar.
Jess looked in the cabinets and found two packages of chicken flavored Ramen and a can of green beans.
"The food of the underprivileged," Schmidt commented.
"You should be thankful Schmidt!" Jess reprimanded, "What if there wasn't anything? Then we'd go hungry tonight!"
"I think I'd rather," he said.
"More for me and Jess!" Nick said, giving Jess's hand a squeeze.
Schmidt glared at the two of them. "I like my Ramen slightly overcooked."
Shortly after they had eaten dinner, the rain finally stopped but it was dark outside. Nick stepped out onto the porch. It had rained so much there was water as high up as the third step on the stairs that led up to the cabin! He walked back in.
"We have no other choice except to stay here!" he announced, "It's all flooded outside and it's dark so we could really get hurt if we tried to walk back."
"Let's see if there's any beds upstairs," Jess suggested. All three of them went up the creaky stairs. They had to use the banister as a guide because the bulb in the light above the stairs was burnt out.
There were two doors at the top of the stairs. Nick opened the first one and flipped on the light switch. Instead of a bed and other bedroom type furniture, there was a fireplace against one of the walls and probably about fifty candles sat on the hearth. On the floor in the middle of the room there were some knives and lots of dead flower petals scattered about.
"This is just creepy!" Jess said.
"What the hell is all of this?" Schmidt asked.
"I think it's some kind of pagan, satanic stuff," Nick observed.
"Gives me the creeps," Schmidt said and left the room, the others following behind him. Nick opened the door to the other room. It was a bathroom but it wasn't ordinary. In the very middle of the room was a giant, antique style bathtub. There was a toilet on the left side of the room but it had a curtain around it so whoever used it could have privacy if someone else was using the bathtub or something. There was also a small, pedestal sink. And surprisingly enough, there was an electric hand dryer installed in the wall next to the sink.
"This is the strangest bathroom I've ever seen," Jess commented.
"At least there's a bathroom!" Nick said, "I'll be out in a minute." Schmidt and Jess walked back downstairs. Nick opened the toilet curtain and unzipped his pants. He looked up at the window and saw a shadow of what looked like an old woman! He also heard a banging sound! All of a sudden he no longer had to pee. He quickly zipped his pants back up and ran out of the bathroom and down the stairs.
"There's something in the bathroom!" he yelled. Schmidt and Jess just looked at him like he was crazy.
"What do you mean there's something in there?" Jess asked.
"I saw a shadow! And heard a banging sound! Someone's here and they've been watching us!" Nick tried to explain.
"Are you serious Nick?" Schmidt said, "You've obviously been watching too many crime shows in all of your spare time."
"Nick," Jess said gently, "I think you're just tired from the walking we did earlier."
"This is real! Come see for yourself," he grabbed Jess's arm to lead her to the bathroom.
She sighed. "I'm sure it's nothing." Schmidt followed them since he didn't want to be alone downstairs.
They all walked into the bathroom. Nick pointed at the window. "The shadow was right there! And I think the banging was coming from the window too!" Jess and Schmidt both looked at the window and saw nothing. There was also no sound except some water dripping from the sink.
"Nick!" Jess scolded, "You must be seeing stuff! And hearing stuff! Go pee and come back downstairs with us. I found some hot chocolate mix and thought we could have some before bed." She left with Schmidt and Nick reluctantly shut the door. He walked back over to the toilet and before he even began to undo his pants, he noticed some writing on the wall that he could have sworn was not written there a few minutes ago. In an old fashioned swirly cursive was written: "Sometimes it takes some people longer to believe." He froze. Reading this and hearing the slight dripping of the sink was enough. He opened the door and ran out again. But he slowed down as he went down the stairs. He didn't want them to think he was crazy so he decided to keep this to himself.
Nick and Schmidt decided Jess should get to sleep on the couch. Jess begged Nick to sleep with her on it but he declined because it was a small couch and there was barely enough room just for her. He and Schmidt took some of the afghans and made beds for themselves on the hard floor.
They all began to drift off but were quickly startled fully awake when they heard what sounded like sawing.
"What the hell is that?" Schmidt asked, sitting up.
"It sounds like someone's sawing wood," Nick said.
As quickly as the sound had started, it stopped. They began to try to fall asleep again when all of a sudden the light in the kitchen turned on!
"What is going on?" Nick asked, angrily getting up and walking to the kitchen to turn off the light.
"Maybe the power is messed up from the storm," Jess suggested.
"Maybe, " Nick grumbled as he got back under the afghan. First the bathroom stuff, now unexplained sawing and light-turning-on. Nick knew he watched a lot of TV, but it was really beginning to seem like this place was haunted.
As if he had read Nick's thoughts, Schmidt stated: "What if this cabin is haunted?"
"Nonsense! I don't believe in that crap!" Nick lied.
"You just said the other day that you were thinking it'd be cool to be a ghost hunter," Jess pointed out.
"So? That doesn't mean I need to believe in hauntings," Nick argued.
"It kind of makes the job pointless if you don't," Schmidt noted.
"This place isn't haunted! Everything that's happened can be explained!" Nick disputed.
"There's nothing we can do even if it is haunted," Jess said.
"We could leave!" said Schmidt.
"We can't leave! I already explained that to you. We're better off here in Amityville."
Finally, they all drifted off to sleep. Quite a bit later, Schmidt woke up the sound of moaning. He opened his eyes and a few feet above him, he saw a glowing figure that was gently swaying back and forth.
"AAAAHHHHH!" he yelled, "GHOST! WAKE UP EVERYBODY!"
Jess and Nick both sat up quickly. They looked around the room and didn't see anything. Even though it was dark outside, the room was pretty lit up from the full moon shining in from the skylights that were in the ceiling. All Jess and Nick could see was Schmidt in the fetal position with the afghan over his head.
"There isn't anything!" Jess said, getting up off the couch and bringing her blanket with her. She laid down next to Nick.
"You're just letting the stuff that happened earlier affect you Schmitty," Nick protested.
"No!" he insisted, "I swear I saw something! I even heard it moaning!"
"Schmidt," Jess began, "There's no such things as ghosts. Or hauntings!"
"Then why are you down here with me and Nick? You're scared!" he accused.
"No, I'm not scared! But it's lonely on the couch," she explained.
Right then, they heard footsteps coming from upstairs. They were pretty loud, it almost resembled the sound of high heels.
"We're all here," Schmidt hissed, "So who could that possibly be?"
Nick stood up. "I've had enough! I'm going to find out who's up there and who keeps doing all this stuff! I was right Jess, someone does live here! And they're trying to scare us away."
He started to walk up the stairs. "Who's there?" he called out, "Answer me you bastard! Stop trying to freak us out and leave us the hell alone! We only used your place so we could escape from the rain. We'll be leaving in the morning and then you can go back to your….AAHHHHHH!" He turned around and ran down the stairs. A giant figure with red eyes was coming toward him. Both Jess and Schmidt could see it too and they began screaming.
"LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Nick yelled. Jess and Schmidt got up and opened the front door and they all ran out.
"What are we going to do about the flooding?" Jess asked.
"We'll just have to deal with it. Anything's gotta be better than staying one more moment in that damn house!" Nick said.
Luckily for them, the water had gone down for the most part and instead of being flooded, the ground was just super mushy and muddy.
"Do you remember how to get back?" asked Schmidt.
"Not really," Nick said, "But I think I can figure it out."
After walking for nearly an hour, they finally came up to the parking lot where they had parked Schmidt's car. They all got in and Nick drove since he was the most awake out of them. They would certainly have a good story to tell Winston! If he believed them that is.