The Cabin Reclaimed

Gabbie reunites with Cármen, Monica and Angéla. They all want to cheer and yell with excitement, but they need to be quiet, as they don’t know if Margret is coming for them, besides, the girls don’t know yet that Miguel, Angéla’s brother, is no longer alive. Gabbie does not know how to break the news to Angéla yet, all she knows is that they need to leave, fast, Margret is probably two minutes away from the girls by now. The stress gives Gabbie no time to think where to go, all she remembers from this forest is that they need to turn back to the riverbed, the one where she left Margret. There was a safe path to cross the river over there.

Cármen and Monica help Angéla get up and support her on their mission to cross the river. Gabbie feels she is getting paranoid. She keeps looking around with every sound she hears. It’s the middle of the night, so every sound feels like at least twice as loud. She keeps scanning the surrounding areas. “Where are we going, Gabs?”, Monica asks. “The only place I know around here is”, Gabbie responds but stops talking. She looks at Cármen. Cármen just nods her head. “Let’s keep moving girls, the more we talk, the more time we lose, it’s the middle of the night we need to get some rest”, Cármen tells the girls. They continue their walk into the unknown. Except for Gabbie, she knows exactly where to go.

After twenty minutes walking through the forest, having damp leaves and hard branches slam into them, the girls arrive. They arrive at the only safe place that Gabbie could think of. The abandoned cabin in the woods. The one she escaped from. She’s wondering if her family is still there. If the two men are still there. They need to be careful, they cannot just barge in. From a safe distance, Gabbie tells the girls to hold with a hand gesture. She slowly walks up to the cabin. Inside the cabin it’s dark, it looks like no one is inside. She walks up to the door, it’s unlocked. She gives a sign to the girls who quickly walk up to her. They hurry inside and barricade the door with the couch that used to be in the middle of the room. They’re safe, for now, although Gabbie still feels like she’s getting paranoid. “We’re being watched, I can feel it“, she tells the girls. Monica is the only one to reply, she scoffs. “Don’t get crazy now, Gabbie, of course we’re being watched”, Monica replies. All the girls look at Monica in disbelief. “Jeez, I’m sorry for trying to be funny. I was just kidding”, Monica quickly adds. Gabbie gets up and closes all the curtains.

It’s getting cold in the cabin, Gabbie walks over to the fireplace. She grabs matches and lights the wood on fire. Then she realizes, there was wood in the fireplace, just waiting there. Was it a coincidence, or was someone expecting them? She decides not to burden the girls with this realization, as they have survived enough for today. “First thing in the morning, we should get out of here, out of the forest, back to the living world, away from all that happened to us the past couple of days”, Gabbie says while looking at the girls. They all nod. Everyone’s tired, but desperately waiting for the fire to get warm so they can warm up in front of the fireplace. Now that everyone is together, Gabbie finds comfort in telling her experience from earlier. She tells them about Margret, about Miguel, and about how he tried to own her and… how she had to push him into the river. Everyone is in utmost shock. Angéla bursts into tears, she tries to stand up but she’s not strong enough and falls down. Gabbie scoots over and tries to comfort Angéla, but she pushes Gabbie away. “Leave her for now, Gabs, you did what you had to. Even though it is horrible news for the future, it is what it is”, Monica tells Gabbie. “What a weird thing to say, I’m sorry, Monica, what is happening to you?”, Cármen quickly yells. Everyone is silent. “I’m sorry for being realistic, Cármen. Look around, we’re in a fucking cabin, it’s freezing cold, we need to wait the night before we can go since there are psychopaths hunting for at least one of us”, Monica replies while looking at Gabbie.

After that comment everyone remained quiet. It was quiet for five minutes, before Gabbie decided to break the silence. “We need to head downstairs. For starters, it’s warmer there. Next to that, we’re safe down there. Or at least safer. There is only one way down from inside the house, the metal door. And from the outside only the storm shelter door, and that one’s overgrown with plants.”, Gabbie tells the girls with confidence. “Good plan, Gabbie, let’s go”, Cármen quickly replies. The girls all get up and head downstairs. Monica is the last to enter, she closes the door and locks it from the inside. She proudly shows the key to the girls before placing it in her pocket. All the girls sigh in comfort. Now they can relax, maybe even catch some sleep. But just when they all got comfortable, the lights go out. They get scared and start touching each other in the dark when they hear a loud banging noise all of a sudden. They scream. Not long after, the lights go back on. They look around. “Monica, where is Monica?”, Angéla asks while looking around. “Monica?!”, they start yelling while walking around the basement, but they cannot find her. She’s gone missing.