A Cabin In The Woods

• Emma Rollinson, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2020

It’s an early Thursday morning, in the middle of the sweltering summer school holidays. My friends and I have planned to go away on a short vacation. We are going out to the bush, to an abandoned log cabin. The cabin sits next to a broad and dazzling lake.
The cabin used to be our favourite hang-out spot when we were little, we all lived quite close, so our parents used to stay at my place and chat while we went off adventuring in the woodlands. We used to go swimming in the lake every day after school until we moved away. It takes 5 hours to get to the lake now, so we stopped going to the place where we grew up, where we enjoyed the best times of our childhood.
It’s been 7 years since we were all there and now, we’re going back, back to the old times of the tire swings hanging high from the tallest tree in the forest and the diving board made from a fallen tree over the lake. I wonder what it is going to look like. Is it going to be covered in moss and fallen trees? Is the lake still as beautiful and as clear as it used to be? There are so many questions going through my head the big one though is, will the lake and cabin even still be there…?
It took us 5 hours and 6 stops to get food, but we finally arrived at the entrance to the forest that the cabin and lake lie behind. We left our bags, pillows and sleeping bags in the car at the entrance because we must walk in, there is only a narrow walking track. We wander into the forest full of tall green trees and moss-covered rocks. We were only using our memories to lead us to the cabin.
“I think we are lost” I turn and say to my best friends Olivia and Mia.” Lost in the endless forest” replied Mia worryingly. Mia sat down as if to declare that we were lost. Olivia finds a clearing and in the distance on the other side of a tall wall of dead and fallen trees is the cabin covered in vines and danger tape.
We all looked at each other. "What has happened’ we all scream at the same time, the lake is not clear and beautiful anymore, it looks extremely uninviting. You couldn’t see to the bottom like you used to, also surrounding it was yellow and black striped tape saying dangerous. We all burst into tears, the special place we grew up in has been turned into what looks like a crime scene out of a horror film.
We all rush over ignoring the tape, we hesitantly stepped into the cabin's front porch there was blood everywhere, all over the outside of the cabin walls, all over the flower beds and all over the front door. There was blood everywhere. It was horrible!