Horror: Cabin In The Woods: Until Dawn

by Dustin Brubaker

  “He was in the house with us, the killer was in the house! He could be in the house right now! But when did he do it, we were here the whole time! We would have heard something, when did he do it?”

  Brody pulled Erin down onto the couch and tried to calm her down, stroking her hair and murmuring to her. She swatted his hands away impatiently.

  “Brody, he could be here right now, he could be hiding in the kitchen! We’re next, I know we are!” Erin felt as though the air was being cut off from her lungs, and she started taking great gulps of air. Tears sprung from her eyes. “What are we going to do? He could be anywhere, he could be right here!”

  “Shhh,” Brody whispered, pulling Erin to his chest as she started to sob.

  “I know things are bad,” he said softly in her ear. “But getting hysterical isn’t going to help. If we want any chance of getting out of here, we need to keep a cool head. Can you take a deep breath for me?”

  Erin nodded and tried to control her breathing. She forced herself to take slow, deep breaths and soon felt her heart rate start to slow.

  “Let’s think about this for a second,” Brody said. “There’s almost no way we wouldn’t have heard something if we had been in the house. Remember when we went outside to see if we could make it down the hill?”

  Erin had forgotten about that.

  “We were only gone for a few minutes…”

  “It would have been enough time. That has to be when it happened.” Brody looked sure of it, and Erin believed him. It made sense.

  “I better go check on Ezra,” Erin said wearily, standing from the couch. “I’ll ask her if she heard anything.”

  “I’ll double check all the doors and windows.”

  Erin walked swiftly down the hall to Ezra and Jim’s bedroom, shivering as she walked past Gavin’s room. She felt awful leaving him in there, alone, just as he’d died, but she supposed there was nothing they could do with him at the moment. Besides, whenever the police showed up, they would need an untouched crime scene. She hurried past and held up a hand to knock on Ezra’s door.

  Before she could knock, Erin heard whispers behind the door. Something about their tone made her pause, and she lowered her hand. Feeling slightly guilty, she leaned forward to listen.

  “That’s your problem, you don’t care about anything!” Ezra hissed, her voice barely audible through the door. Erin leaned so close to the door her ear was almost touching it.

  “Why should I care about something that’s already dead?” Jim’s voice was calm, resolute. Chilling.

  “I don’t know, because you’re a human being?” Ezra sounded desperate and on the verge of tears.

  “You’re one to talk. A little hypocritical, no?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Before Jim could reply, Erin lost her balance and stumbled. She thrust out a hand to steady herself and accidentally banged the door. Erin swore under her breath as the conversation on the other side of the door promptly stopped. Moments later, the door opened.

  “Erin?” It was Ezra.

  “Sorry to interrupt! I wanted to check on you. Is everything ok? Brody’s double checking the doors and windows.” Erin knew she was rambling, but couldn’t stop herself. “Everything secure in here?”

  Ezra still looked annoyed at the interruption, but she quickly smoothed her face into one of worry.

  “Yes, I think so. Jim?” She turned to her husband. “Will you double check?”

  Jim scowled but turned to check the windows without comment. Ezra turned back to the door, looking at Erin expectantly.

  “I also wanted to ask if you heard anything strange in the house when Brody and I went outside earlier. We’re trying to figure out when Gavin was… you know… killed.”

  It felt strange to be having such a casual conversation about something so awful.

  Ezra paused and frowned.

  “No, I don’t think so. Not that I remember.”

  Erin shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

  “Ok, well, let me know if you need anything. We’ll be in the living room.”

  Ezra nodded and closed the door.

  Turning back to walk to the living room, Erin felt uneasy. Not just from everything that had happened with Stephen and Gavin, but something else she couldn’t put her finger on. Ezra and Jim had seemed upset, sure, but not for the same reason Erin was. Jim had seemed annoyed with his wife more than anything, instead of terrified like the rest of them. Erin hoped Ezra actually was ok like she had said.

  Erin turned the corner into the living room and was relieved to see Brody still alive and sitting on the couch.

  “They’re fine,” she said softly as she joined him.

  “That’s good.” Brody looked unsettled. “I poked my head outside real quick and I found something.”

  Erin’s stomach dropped.

  “Why did you open the door? You could have been killed!” Erin forced herself to lower her voice and she swallowed hard. “What did you find?”

  “This.” He reached down and pulled something up off the floor.

  Erin looked closely at the object in Brody’s hand. It was Jim’s knife, the one he’d been playing with earlier at the table.

  “Jim,” Erin whispered. “That’s Jim’s knife! It’s been him all along; he killed Steve and Gavin!”

  “Shh!” Brody hushed, glancing furtively at the hall. “He’ll hear you and he can’t know that we know.”

  Erin took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. She’d been suspecting Jim, but finding the weapon made it real. It made the whole nightmare more real somehow. It wasn’t just a faceless psycho stalking them somewhere outside—they knew the killer, and he was just in the other room.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “We can’t just sit here anymore, or we’ll be dead by morning,” Brody said. “I need to try to find a way to call for help, or at least get Jim away from the cabin. You need to go to our room, lock the door, and don’t come out until I come back for you.”

  “No way! I’m not letting you split us up,” Erin said, tears springing to her eyes. “I can’t just sit in there and wait, wondering if you’re ok.”

  Brody placed his hands on her shoulders and stroked her cheek.

  “My number one priority is making sure you’re safe. Don’t worry about me. I’ll take care of everything and make sure we get help. I’m getting you through this weekend. Just please, do what I ask.”

  Erin wrung her hands, unsure of what to do. Finally, she nodded.

  “Yeah, ok. But what about Ezra? She’s alone with him.”

  “I’ll ask her if she wants to come along to get help.”

  “Oh, but wait! Then I’ll be in here alone with Jim.”

  Brody paused. “Yeah, that’s true. Shit.”

  Erin shook her head and waved her hands.

  “It’s ok. It’s ok, just go. I’ll lock my door and have a knife ready. It’ll be ok.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Erin took a deep breath.

  “Yes.”

  Erin and Brody walked down the hall to their bedroom door. Brody kissed Erin gently, running his fingers through her hair and pulling her tight.

  “Just be patient. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Erin nodded and went into the bedroom, locking the door behind her. She heard Brody walk down the hall and knock on Ezra and Jim’s door; moments later he asked Ezra if she wanted to look for help. There was some mumbling that Erin couldn’t make out, including some deep grumblings that she assumed were coming from Jim.

  Oh God, he’s not going to let her go! Erin thought. But a few seconds later, she heard Ezra tell Jim she’d be right back, and then a door closing and footsteps. She heard them walk through the living room, open and close the front door, and then silence.

  Now, there was nothing to do but wait.

  V.

  Erin had always found time to be a funny thing. Far from being consistent, sometimes it st
retched out and other times it flew by, rarely did it seem to go at the same pace every day. And now, waiting in the bedroom to find out if Brody was safe and able to find help or if he too had become one of Jim’s victims, time seemed to move the slowest it ever had in her life.

  The cabin was deathly quiet, and Erin strained her ears for the slightest hint of sound. But for what seemed like hours, she heard nothing. Then, footsteps.

  Erin jumped off the bed and pressed her ear to the door, hoping she could somehow tell who it was by their steps or that they would give some other identifying sound. Most of all, she prayed that it was Brody and he would soon be coming through her door. But no, the footsteps continued past her door and into the other bedroom.

  Back onto the bed she went. The thought of sleep was laughable, even though she was exhausted. She lay on her back, staring at the ceiling until the speckled pattern began to distort and twirl. Erin didn’t know how long she laid there, and she tried not to think about it until she glanced to her left and saw the first rays of morning light creeping through the window shade.

  Erin sat straight up. It was morning? How long had Brody been gone? Was there any chance of him being ok if he had been gone so long that it was already morning? He had told her to stay put, but Erin knew she had to draw the line. She had to investigate.

  Jumping off the bed, she hurried to the door and flung it open. She looked to the right—there was light coming from under Ezra and Jim’s door, but no sound to be heard. She turned left and hurried down the hall. The living room was empty, and she crossed it quickly before scurrying out the front door.

  Outside, the world looked fresh and new after the snow, dove gray in the early morning light. Although it was starting to get light out, there was no sign of the sun on the horizon and Erin knew it was still very early. She had to find Brody.

  Looking down, Erin saw several sets of footprints. Judging by how much snow had fallen, she guessed they had all come after Brody had banished her to the bedroom and come outside with Ezra. The tracks led to the top of the hill, and at least one set came back.

  That makes sense, Erin thought, remembering the footsteps she had heard retreating down the hall earlier. Ezra had come back inside. But why? Erin tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. There had to be a good reason. Brody had found a way to get help and had sent her back in out of the cold.

  But then why hadn’t help come?

  Erin pushed the thought out of her mind. There was nothing she could do but carry on. She made her way across the top of the hill until she could look down, once again, toward the lodge. Here, the footprints abruptly stopped. No tracks led down the hill. Erin frowned, the sinking feeling returned. But surely he didn’t disappear into thin air. Where had he gone?

  Looking up, Erin found her answer. There, hanging from the top of the ski lift, was Brody.

  Strung up with his winter coat, Brody hung motionless in the air, his eyes staring blankly into the distance. What looked like gallons of blood had drained from his body, pooling underneath him and melting through the fluffy snow. Unlike Steve and Gavin though, who had only had their throats cut, Brody had been slit from throat to groin, gutted and hung up like a deer.

  Erin had recoiled in horror upon finding the boys’ bodies, but now she rushed to Brody, not caring at how grotesque the scene was, only knowing that she had to be near him even though it was too late to save him.

  Oblivious to the fact that she was tromping through bloody snow, Erin hurried to Brody’s corpse and ran a hand down his side, tears streaming down her face as the reality of his death sunk in. How long ago had he died? Had he been hanging out here in the cold this whole time? When had Jim snuck out her, and had it been his footsteps she’d heard in the hall? Was Ezra ok, or was her body lying in wait for her to find, too?

  As quickly as the questions entered her head, they left. What did it matter, now that Brody was gone? Erin looked down and saw Jim’s knife, the same one Brody had found earlier, lying on the ground. She knew she shouldn’t, but she picked it up and used it to cut down Brody’s body, struggling under its weight before laying him gently onto the ground.

  Erin kissed her fingers and pressed them gently to his cheek before reaching up and smoothing his eyelids down. She murmured a goodbye and told him one last time that she loved him.

  He’d tried so hard to protect her.

  Turning away, instincts took over. Now it was up to her to get out of there alive. The sun was now up and shining bright. The ski lift operator was due to turn the lift on at nine a.m., but even without her watch Erin knew it was still too early. She had to get Ezra away from Jim and both of them to safety. That is, if Ezra was still alive.

  Ignoring the little voice in her head that told her to just save herself and run, Erin turned around and hurried back into the cabin.

  VI.

  “Ezra!” Erin called, running through the house and looking for the other woman. “Ezra, are you still here?” She tried to minimize the fear in her voice; she didn’t want to alarm Jim or let him know she was onto him.

  Erin rounded the corner and into the bedroom just in time to see Ezra pull a knife out of Jim’s chest. Erin froze as she watched Jim’s face turn white. He reached out for Ezra’s arm, but she moved calmly away and let him fall to floor. Jim gasped, letting out a horrible gurgle as his body strained for air. By the time he hit the ground, his eyes were staring blankly and a pool of blood was spreading beneath his body.

  Every fiber of Erin’s body was telling her to turn and run, but her legs felt like lead and were rooted in place, just like in her nightmares. The only thing she could manage was a small whimper, and Ezra slowly turned around to meet her gaze.

  “It’s a shame,” Ezra said, wiping the blade of the knife on her jeans. “But I had to. I tried so hard to make this weekend great, and he kept ruining it!”

  “Was… It was you this whole time?” Erin squeaked out. She had been so sure that it had been Jim. He had been so weird, and quiet, and sullen. And angry. This didn’t make any sense.

  “Yes, but don’t you see? I told you, I didn’t have a choice.” Ezra flipped her hair over her shoulder and stepped over Jim’s body before placing the knife on the dresser.

  Erin’s mind raced over the events of the past twenty-four hours, but she couldn’t piece it together.

  “Don’t you remember me telling you?” Ezra asked. “The whole reason we were here this weekend was to work on our marriage. Things have been rough lately.”

  I can’t imagine why, Erin thought wryly.

  “And everyone kept getting in our way! First, Steve upset Jim and ruined our first night here. It made the whole weekend get off to a bad start! So he had to go, obviously.”

  Erin couldn’t understand why Ezra thought a murder would be the solution to a bad start to a weekend, but she decided now wouldn’t be the best time to ask.

  “And that Gavin!” Ezra snorted in disgust. “He just wouldn’t stop moping around!”

  “His friend had just died!”

  “Yes, but honestly, he took it a little too far, I think.”

  Erin steeled herself for what was coming next.

  “And Brody? What about him? What did he do that was so terrible? All he did was try to help all of us!”

  Erin felt bile rise in the back of her throat, and she fought to keep it down. She couldn’t get emotional—not right now. She couldn’t remind herself of finding her boyfriend’s body, or think about what her life would be like now that he was gone. No, she had to focus on the present. And right now, she had to keep calm and keep herself from getting killed.

  Ezra frowned.

  “Sorry about that,” she said. “I might have gotten a little carried away killing him, too.”

  Rage filled Erin’s body and it took every ounce of self control she had not to lash out at the other woman and strangle her with her bare hands.

  “Carried away?” Erin said through gritted teeth.

  “Yes, I adm
it that’s my mistake. But really, what choice did I actually have? I couldn’t let him figure out what was going on.” Ezra brushed her bangs out of her face. “But honey, just look at Jim and I. Men just end up being a pain in the you-know-what. You’re probably better off.”

  Erin said nothing.

  “So anyway, here we are,” Ezra sighed, sitting down on the side of the bed.

  “Yes, we are,” Erin muttered, mind racing for a way to get out of there. But the lift wasn’t due to be turned on for at least another hour, and she certainly couldn’t run down the hill.

  “I mean, I’ll have to kill you too,” Ezra said, looking at Erin with a slight frown. “Too bad. I really did like you.”

  Erin’s stomach plummeted as she searched for a reply. She fought the urge to turn and run—she knew Ezra would just chase her down.

  “Do you really have to, though?” she asked, using every ounce of bravery she had to hold her ground.

  “Well, I can’t really have you running off to the cops once we get off this mountain, can I?” Ezra stood up from the bed and grabbed the knife again. “Because we both know that’s what you’d do.”

  “But I have questions!” Erin said, backing away against the wall despite herself. “Can’t you give me five minutes?”

  “I guess a few extra minutes won’t hurt,” Ezra said, shrugging and letting her hands fall to her sides. “Go ahead.”

  “Just… why? Why did you do it?”

  In addition to stalling, Erin legitimately wanted to know.

  “Things with Jim had been going downhill for a long time. Like I said, I’d hoped this weekend would help us patch things up, but you see how that turned out. He was in a bad mood from the beginning.”

  “Yes, but why all of us?”

  Ezra shrugged.

  “You got in the way.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yes. You all got in my way. I wasn’t about to let a few strangers I just met get in the way of patching things up with my husband.” Ezra stood up. “And now, sweetie, your time is up. I’m sorry, but try not to take it too personally.”