The woods were eerily silent as the car's engine growled along, lonely and seeming to echo amongst the trees, barren and twisted on either side of the road as the long, winding dirt road went on. Finally, the tree-line parted, and there ahead, was the cabin at last.
Scotty pulled up and parked slightly to the left of the cabin's face, turning off the car. They all stared at it, all felt the exact same sensation of unease and an almost primal urging from within themselves to leave right then and there... but evolution got in the way and threw logic at them, logic that the bridge incident has just put them on edge, that their minds were only playing tricks on them.
The cabin itself was very unassuming to look at, with its low roof that was at an angle as it came from the top to the front porch overhang. The front of the cabin had two steps that went up to the porch, where a small wooden bench swing hung to the right of the door, which was in the center of the cabin's face. On either side of it, there were large knee-to-head length windows, both with closing wooden shutters that were currently closed. The rest of the cabin couldn't be seen very well, as it stretched straight back from the small face of the structure rather than spread out around it.
Scotty slowly got out of the car, making his way up the steps and towards the door. As he did, the steady 'bump... bump... bump...' of the porch swing swaying in the breeze, knocking into the front windowsill steadily. Scott slowly reached for the top of the frame. He felt the keyring there, and pulled it down. Just as he did, the bench stopped swaying. He looked at it a moment, his a shudder going up his back for some reason. "It uh... It's supposed to be one of these on here." He said, glancing at the others, then turning back to the front door, looking at the bench once more.
The lock clicked open as Scott turned the key and he slowly made his way inside. There was an atmosphere of damp, dusty air that the light from the fading sun behind him illuminated, making it look like an old photograph inside.
The main room was very large, taking up the entire width of the house itself. There were two more windows on both the left and right sides of the cabin, an old stone fireplace between the windows on the left with a moose head hanging above it, and a couch between the windows on the left-hand wall between those windows. There were three doors in the main room, one straight ahead of the front door, which led down the main hallway, another to the left of that which led into a bedroom, and another to the far left of that one which led to another bedroom.
To the right of the hallway door was a desk with a bookshelf next to it, and between the doors on the left sat another bookshelf, both packed with what looked like history books.
Out by the car, Ash, Linda and Shelly began unloading the trunk, with the girls tossing stuff from the trunk to Ash, where he placed it on the ground behind him, all the while yelling "hey!" like they worked at a Hibachi restaurant.
Scotty on the other hand was still exploring. The kitchen was small, but had a little window cut into the wall to the right of the hallway door that looked out into the main room of the cabin, and the hall led Scotty down to the back door, which he opened and spotted another small shed. Curiosity piqued, Scott headed for it.
Opening the door, he found it to be a little work shed, still full of tools. He was curious as to why nobody had stolen them all the way out here, but his attention then drifted to the strange little animal skulls hanging from strings on the rafters. Scott found himself a bit unnerved, especially since he'd seen something similar in a flick he saw recently...
He put it out of his mind though, absently spinning the handle of the vice clamp on the workbench, poking at the various tools like shovels and pick-axes, and pausing to briefly admire the red chainsaw hanging from two hooks over the bench.
...
That night, as the group made dinner, Cheryl of course decided she'd rather sit aside with her sketchbook. Art was her passion.
She stared at the clock on the wall, the pendulum swinging back and forth, emitting a soothing 'click clock click clock click clock' as she worked. Suddenly though, the pendulum simply stopped swinging, freezing to one side, as the clock tolled midnight.
A shiver ran up her spine and she stared at the clock a moment, but then, her hand started to twitch uncontrollably. She looked down at it, at first thinking it was just her shiver, but then she felt her hand grip the pencil in her hand so hard it broke the top portion off. The eraser end tumbled to the floor, but she had the graphite side in a death clutch. She gasped in fear, worried she might be having a seizure or something, and then her hand started to move across the paper, totally under its own influence!
Cheryl groaned in pain as she tried to fight for control of her limb, but it just kept going, drawing a rectangular shape across the sheet. As it drew, she began to panic, cold sweat beading from her brow and she tried to call out for help, but nothing came out. Finally, as the shape seemed to be finished, her hand pushed the pencil so hard it tore the paper a bit, and her hand was suddenly free.
She tossed the pencil and sketchbook aside in horror, kicking the chair backwards out from under her and pressing her back against the wall by the fireplace, bumping the mirror hanging on the wall there. She looked around, panting and almost crying from fear. When nothing happened for a moment, she slowly walked over, picking up the sketchpad from the floor. What the hell had she drawn?
On the paper was a crude three dimensional drawing of what looked like a box... no, a book, and it had some kind of horrible open-mouthed frown on the cover. Cheryl had never seen anything like it before, and had no idea what it was supposed to be. Before she could think any more about it though, a dull 'thud!' sound made her jump. She heard metal rattling and looked past the sketchbook, at the corner of the cabin where the couch sat against the wall and the clock hung above it. She made her way over to the couch and pushed, sliding it aside to reveal a section of the floor was actually a cellar door, with a large iron handle attached, like a dungeon door almost. Mounted to the cellar door were chains and a lock which hung open, which explained the source of the metallic sound, but Cheryl had no idea why it had made the sound...
The door suddenly jolted.
Cheryl jumped again, a little squeak of fear escaping her throat before she clamped a hand over her mouth. She decided not to mess with the door, and instead slid the couch back over it, making sure the leg pressed down on top of the door to keep it pinned.
As she backed away, half-expecting some monster to burst up from below, a hand touched her arm and she screamed, spinning and almost throwing a punch, but stopping short when she saw it was Scotty.
"Woah! Take it easy!" He shouted, holding his hands up in defense.
"Scotty!" She exclaimed, surprised. She looked back at the couch, which hadn't moved, and decided that he probably wouldn't take her seriously... and in all likelihood would probably just make fun of her anyways if she said anything. Not to mention the fact that she wasn't sure anymore if the first part had even HAPPENED... Maybe she was going insane.
"Cheryl, what's with you?" Scotty asked. "I was just gonna tell you dinner is ready."
"Nothing. It's fine." She said, then headed to the kitchen.
...
Soon after the announcement of dinner was made, the group had gathered at the table to celebrate the start of their spring break. Ash in particular found himself thrilled, as this was a new and exciting thing for him. He'd never been away from home for an extended period of time on his own, he'd also never been off with his friends to do nothing except party either, and of course, he'd never had this much alone time with Linda until now.
"I uh..." Ash began, standing and raising his Dixie cup full of wine. "I'd like very much to propose a toast to all this evening." He said, and Linda smiled at him, also raising her cup. The others followed suit. "As a Greek friend of mine once said..." Ash tried continuing, but suddenly couldn't really remember what the friend had said... He'd never been a good public speaker. "Nis-nis... Tu... Uh... Tu Tu Tarin!" He said, probably horribly butchering the phrase, but he knew that as nobody at the table spoke Greek, it wouldn't be called out.
"Which means?" Shelly asked.
"Party down!" Scott said, laughing and chugging the full amount of his cup. The others laughed as well, drinking their cups.
Ash looked across the table at Cheryl, feeling a twang of guilt for not having even thought of her much since they arrived. At the moment though she seemed to be enjoying herself. At least, enjoying herself as much as his little sister was CAPABLE of.
Suddenly, a loud 'BANG!' came from the living room, followed by a dull 'Thud!' of wood on wood. The group all jumped, Shelly spitting her drink in surprise and covering her mouth right after in a vein attempt to stop it from spilling on her shirt. "Shit, red stains!" She said.
The others all jumped up and rushed into the living room, surrounding the over-turned couch, which was no longer covering up the cellar door... Which was now wide open.
"What is this?" Ash asked, frowning.
"A fruit cellar or something." Scotty said, motioning to the top of the front door. "Must be what the extra key on the key ring is for."
"Lets just close it up" Cheryl insisted. "It was probably just some animal."
"An animal?" Scotty asked. "An animal?" He repeated in shock, then burst out laughing. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard, Jesus Christ..." He said, trailing off into a chuckle.
"Well there's something down there." Shelly offered, no longer worrying about the stain on her shirt.
"Yeah you're probably right." Scotty said, then tapped Cheryl with his pocket flashlight. "Here Cheryl, why don't you go check it out?" He said, smirking.
She swatted his hand away. "Forget it Scotty, I'm not going down there!"
"Alright, alright you cowards, I'll go." He said, shaking his head. He turned on the light and started making his way down the stairs, carefully ducking his head down to make sure he didn't hit it on the low-clearance of the cellar door frame.
Ash watched Scotty disappear into the darkness of the cellar and after a moment of silence, he started getting antsy. "Hey, Scotty you find anything?" He called down. No reply. "Scotty?" He repeated, getting down on his hands and knees by the edge. The girls behind him started getting nervous, looking at each other. "Scotty!" Ash shouted, thinking maybe his friend just hadn't heard him. "That's it, I'm going down."
"That was the only flashlight we brought." Linda reminded him.
"Then uh... Gimme the lantern." Ash said, pointing to the propane lamp on the desk by the kitchen window. Linda went over and grabbed it, passing it to Ash.
"Be careful." She said, touching his shoulder.
Ash headed down into the darkness below to look for Scott. He got a sense that the cellar was almost as big as the cabin itself, maybe even a bit bigger, as there was loud echoes of his feet on the steps. He looked down to find dirt floor below him, and as he took a few steps, peered through the darkness to see that the walls were made of square stones, the same kind that the fireplace upstairs was made from.
Ash looked around for his friend, and heard a noise to his left. He turned, peering through the dim light that the lamp gave off and spotting a door just past some gourds that had been hollowed-out and hung from the ceiling like weird Christmas ornaments. Ash pushed past them, heading for the door. "Scotty?" He asked, trying to mask the fear in his voice.
Ash hated Cellars, he'd always been afraid of the one at his Uncle's cabin, and never wanted to go in there. This one was worse by-far. It was full of weird hanging gourds, random junk laying around, a projector sitting in the middle of the room facing a tattered old screen, and a creepy rotted old wood door with a dungeon handle like the cellar door upstairs had been.
He reached for the handle, gripping the cold steel of it and lifting, turning it to unlatch the door. It slowly opened with a bit of force, and a loud 'creeeeeeeeeak' sound echoed through the basement. Ash took another look over his shoulder, paranoid that he was being watched, then headed inside. The side room was even darker than the main room since the light from upstairs wasn't getting in. He slowly made his way in, watching the floor for any potential obstacles, also feeling along the wall for a light switch of some kind.
"BOO!" A voice shouted from right in front of him. Ash jolted back and almost fell right on his rear. He'd been looking at the floor, so he hadn't seen Scotty standing right there. Scott of course began to laugh his ass off, and Ash couldn't help but laugh too.
"The hell are you doing down here?" Ash chuckled.
"Look at this stuff." He said, leading Ash over to a desk in the corner. He flipped on a small goose-neck lamp sitting on top of it, illuminating a few items on the desk. A tape recorder, a strange looking book, and a wicked, ancient looking dagger.
"Jesus, look at this..." Ash said, picking up the book, which felt gross to touch. The front cover was some kind of pale, flesh-toned leather, strangely shaped into a gruesome open-mouthed frown. The leather binding of it seemed to be too... spongy, and almost smelled like a sweaty guy.
He flipped it open and inside there was page after page of strange symbols and macabre drawings, depicting severed heads with blank, white eyeballs, creatures with snake tails, humanoid bodies, but with wings sprouted from their sides like bats. Ash was fascinated and horrified at the same time.
"Check this out, a shotgun." Scotty said, breaching it open.
Ash thought the gun looked familiar and he was right. He realized that he had seen that firearm countless times before in the Sporting Goods department at S-Mart, the store that he worked at.
Ted, the guy who worked at the firearm counter, had told him all about it when it caught his eye. It was a 12 gauge, double barreled Remington, S-marts top of the line, retailed for about 109.95. It had a walnut stock, Cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger.
Ash looked up, recognizing the brand from work, it was a double-barrel 12 gauge shotgun. "Nice. Probably still shoots too." He said, then looked back down.
"Yeah probably does." Scotty said, then Ash jumped as two shotgun barrels drifted into his line of sight. Scotty laughed, and Ash did too.
"This thing is the best though." Scotty said, picking up the dagger. The handle looked like a human femur, with ribcage designs running up and down the sides of the grip, and a spine topped with an undersized skull, grinning from the base of the handle. "Kinda looks like your high school girlfriend." Scptty commented with a chuckle.
Unfortunately, Ash couldn't disagree, a welcome reprieve from the chilling atmosphere.
"Come on, lets take this stuff up. I'll get the tape recorder, you get the rest." He said, lifting the large, double-spooled recorder up and carrying it towards the steps. Ash gazed down at the book a bit more, feeling an odd sensation as he looked at the grotesque cover, almost like it had a face, and it was looking at him with familiarity. What made it worse, was that he felt like he'd seen it before too...
...
Thunder crashed outside!
Cheryl sat among the circle of friends, who were all joking and laughing about one thing or another. They'd all set aside the stuff from the cellar, the gun, the recorder, that scary dagger, and the thing that currently had Cheryl chewing her nails in fear... The book. She couldn't help but think that it was the exact same book from her drawing. She knew that was impossible, but somehow... She couldn't shake the feeling.
She hoped that the others would just ignore it, and it would sit in the corner for the rest of the time. She just didn't think messing around with some weird book in a foreign language was a good idea...
"Hey guys, look." Ash said, sliding the recorder to the middle of the group. "This is the recorder that was in the basement, wanna listen?" He asked.
The others all nodded in approval, even Cheryl, desperate for a distraction from thinking about the book. Ash snapped the play button on and the spools began to turn slowly, the recorder making a dull humming sound as it started to play.
"This is professor Raymond Knowby, Department of Ancient History, Log Entry number 2. I've made a significant find in the Castle of Candaar, after journeying there with my wife Henrietta, my daughter Annie and associate professor Ed Helmsly, it was in the rear chamber of the castle that I stumbled upon something remarkable... Necronomicon Ex Mortis, roughly translated: Book of the Dead." The voice over the recorder said.
Cheryl immediately regretted them finding the tape at all, something about all this stuff just made her want to run and hide, more than usual.
"The book is bound in human flesh, inked in human blood, and contains ancient burial rites and funerary incantations. The book also speaks of a spiritual presence, a thing of Evil, that roams the forests and dark bowers of man's domain. It tells that these spirits may lie dormant, but are never truly dead. It is through the recitation of the book's passages that this spirit is recalled to active life and given license to possess the living."
Cheryl had had enough, so she flipped the recorder off. "Hey, what gives? It was just getting good!" Scotty said. Shelly snuggled up closer to him, showing why Scott ACTUALLY wanted to play the creepy tape that scared the girls.
"I just don't wanna hear any more..." Cheryl said, turning away from him and Shelly.
"Ooooooooh" Scotty said, wiggling his fingers at her. "So spookyyyyy!"
"Shut up, Scotty." Cheryl said, irritated.
"Ah come on," Scott said, waving a dismissive hand at her and reaching for the tape recorder. "I just wanna hear the rest of it."
He pressed the play button again and the tape continued on. "Recorded here are the phonetic pronunciations of the passages:" Knowby's voice continued. "Candaar, Estrata, Demontos Candaar, Nosferatus Candaar."
Cheryl's hair stood up on the back of her neck as the words were spoken, and although none of the others would have admitted it, so did their's.
"Shut it off..." She murmured in a frightened tone.
...
Sudden energy flowed through the forest, nearby the cabin, red light flowed up from below the piles of leaves, and fog billowed from the opening crevice. The thing in the woods could not feel joy, but if it did... It would have felt it now. The words echoed through its consciousness, giving it new life with each passing moment of the incantation.
...
"Shut. it. off." Cheryl repeated, more agitated now, but the others were so enthralled by the bizarre recording that they ignored her.
"Samanrobara hishikento, Amantos Candaar." Knowby continued.
...
Outside, the thing in the woods surged, rushing towards the cabin now, its life force renewed and ready to do what it was created to do...
"Candaar..." Knowby's voice said, now echoing.
...
"Shut it off." Cheryl said, on the verge of panic.
"CANDAAR!" the professor repeated, almost as though the tape was mocking her now.
Finally, Cheryl couldn't stand it any longer, she stood up, covering her ears tightly to block out the horrible sounds coming from it. "SHUT IT OFF!" She screamed in terror.
Suddenly behind her, the window shattered and something came flying into the room. She screamed in sheer terror and sprinted down the hallway to her room, slamming the door and locking it.
"Cheryl, wait! It was just-" Linda trailed off, looking at Ash and Scotty as went over to look at the tree branch that had just broken off and fallen into the window to the left of the fireplace where they'd been sitting. "I'd better go check on her."
Ash nodded to Linda, then turned to Scott. "What's the matter with you, you didn't have to play that. You knew it was upsetting her!"
"What'd I do? I just was having a little fun. I didn't see YOU turning it off." He retorted.
"You just don't know when you're taking something too far!" Ash said, lifting the tree branch and shoving it back outside.
"Ah whatever, she's just nuts." Scotty said, waving his hand dismissively.
Ash shook his head, sighing. This was definitely not the way he'd hoped his spring break would be going. Linda was preoccupied taking care of his overreacting sister, and his best friend was being a drunken fool. Scotty walked off to rejoin Shelly by the fireplace, and Ash looked down at the tape recorder. "Bound in human flesh" he repeated, wiping his hands absently on his pants at the thought that he'd touched the book. Outside, he heard the distant sounds of thunder.
...
After awhile, Scotty and Shelly headed into the bedroom, leaving Ash in the main room of the cabin by himself. As his hand touched his pocket, he felt the shape of the blue box still there. Just as he did, the door opened again and Linda came back into the main room. "Hey, Cheryl's fine now, I got her calmed down."
"That's good." Ash said, smiling at her. "Listen, you wanna stay up and listen to the storm a bit?"
"Sure." She said, smiling back at him lovingly. The two of them headed over to the couch and snuggled up with one-another. Ash took her by the hand and they sat there for a time, just listening to the thunder, which Ash couldn't tell if it was getting closer or just in the distance.
Either way, his efforts were focused elsewhere. He slowly and carefully pulled the blue box from his pocket and held it loosely in his hand, which rested on his thigh on the opposite side of Linda, but clearly visible. He then shut his eyes and pretended to sleep.
After a moment, Linda spotted the box and looked at him, making a knowing smile as she slowly reached for the box, watching his eyes. As her hand drew nearer, she looked down at it and Ash opened his eyes all the way. "Hey. Stealing from the blind, eh?"
She smiled. "What's that?"
"Here. See for yourself..." He said, grinning and passing it to her. She excitedly opened the box up, revealing a small, magnifying lens style round glass encased in a silver frame and on a silver chain.
She picked it up and looked at it. "Oh Ash. It's... Beautiful." She said, smiling. Ash of course had no idea that this was a horribly ugly and tacky piece of jewelry, it had looked like a great piece in the jewelry department at S-Mart.
"So what do you think, kiddo?" He asked, his arm around her shoulder.
Linda looked at him lovingly, even if he had terrible taste, he was still so sincere. "I love it, Ash."
"Well what do you say we have some Champaign, eh baby?" He asked, smirking and getting up to grab the bottle. "After all, I'm a man and you're a woman... At least last time I checked." He added with a chuckle. Linda giggled too and kissed him deeply.
...
Outside, the thing in the woods watched it all, and began its echoing cry for fresh souls. It drifted along the side of the cabin to the next window, which was the first bedroom, and inside was the other boy and his woman, undressing one-another for love making.
The boy tugged at her shirt, removing it and his hands eagerly clasped over her bare breasts. She moaned at his touch, and the thing in the woods stirred...
It had no sensations, and oftentimes enjoyed indulging them when it had the chance to take people. It watched intently as they fell onto the bed, and the female mounted her mate, the bed beneath them rocking with her movements.
As the two feverishly attacked one-another, the thing in the woods decided it would do just that when the time came. It would get to these later though, as its senses had already locked onto the one it wanted first...
It drifted along again, coming to the rear room window of the house, and there inside, now wearing a nightgown, was the lonely one... It knew it needed her. It watched as she picked up her sketchbook and looked at the drawing it had compelled her to make.
"Join us..."
Her head looked up.
"Huh?"