An Unfortunate Turn of Events

“You’re sick, Jason,” I said playfully, punching his arm lightly. We both laughed, sitting on a swinging bench. It was a family vacation, and this was our first evening at our cabin. I loved the cabin as much as Jason, who’s my cousin. We were very close, inseparable as some people would say, especially my sister Kayla. But little did we know that this family vacation would take an unfortunate turn of events that would change our lives forever.

We were watching the sunset on the second floor balcony. We had an admirable view of the forest below, perfect for taking instagram photos as Kayla would say.

Jason turned to me, smiling. “Yeah I am, but not as sick as you!” I stared into his amber eyes as he stared into mine. Jason was fourteen, and very good looking with light brown hair and a million-dollar smile.

”Jason! Hailey! Dinner!” A familiar voice-my mother’s voice-called. “Coming!” I hollered back, glancing over my shoulder. “We’d better go, before we get yelled at,” I said to Jason with a smile as I turned towards him. I wasn’t met with his eyes and smile back at mine as I expected, but instead he was looking towards the driveway below us.

“What are you looking at?” I asked, following his gaze. There was a white Honda Civic pulling into the driveway.

Oh no…

“Who’s car is that?” Jason asked me, his eyes full of worry. I recognized it immediately. It was a family member my mother didn’t invite on purpose, since she was psychotic and refused to be put in a mental hospital. I looked back at him, more worry in my eyes now. “That- is Aunt Kate’s car,” I said. His eyes widened. “We have to tell your mother-and fast!” He said.

We ran inside and were met by Kayla in our path. “Woah, what’s up with you guys in such a hurry?” She interrogated, pulling her earbuds out of her ears. The quiet hum of a Taylor Swift song came from them as she lifted them in the air. She flicked her long, black hair off of her shoulders, looking at us with a curious expression.

“We saw Aunt Kate’s car,” I panted, out of breath from the scare and running. Kayla’s eyes widened, still with a flash of curiosity. “But, we didn’t invite her, so how is she here?” She asked. “I don’t know, but we have to hurry!” I yelled. All three of us charged into the kitchen.

“Ms. White!” Jason hollered. “Where are you!?”

My mother popped out of a corner. “I’m right here, what’s wrong? Why the urgency?”

“Aunt Kate is here!” He told her.

“What?” She hollered, her eyes filling with rage. “But-how? We didn’t invite her!”

This time I spoke. “We don’t know… but we have to act fast! What do we do!?”

“Hm…” Kayla said thoughtfully. “Maybe we could inform everyone since they’re all in one place-at the dining room table?”

“Yes,” my mother agreed. “And we can tell them to lock the doors and windows. This lady is psychotic.”

“I’ll inform them,” I offered. With a sense of urgency and no further explanation, I rushed to the dining room where our family was gathered. Jason followed close behind me, and Kayla stayed in the kitchen with mother, calming her down. As I burst into the dining room, the warm chatter abruptly halted, and all eyes turned towards me, filled with confusion and concern.

I took a deep breath, trying to steady my voice as I shared the unsettling news. “Everyone, Aunt Kate is here!” Everyone gasped, standing from their seats. “What do we do?” A woman-Jason’s aunt who definitely is not crazy- asked me. “We need every door and window locked-now!” I urgently yelled, my heart racing with fear. The room plunged into chaos as everyone scrambled to follow my instructions. Amidst the chaos, I spotted a flash of movement near the window. My eyes widened as I realized someone was trying to enter from outside. I frantically raced to the window, locked it, and Jason helped me guard and lock the surrounding windows. Suddenly, a loud crash echoed through the room as the intruder forcefully smashed open the front door. Splinters of wood flew everywhere, a large one hitting Jason’s eye. It started dripping blood onto the hardwood, and I ran to help him.

“Aunt Kate is here!” A lady hollered. It was the lady who broke in through the door. And, to no surprise, it was Aunt Kate herself.

I placed my shaking hand on Jason’s back, leading him away from the screams and chaos. “Let’s get you out of here, before you get hurt even more!” I whispered urgently. Nodding in agreement, Jason clenched his hand tightly around mine as we hurriedly made our way to the master bedroom door. We couldn’t leave anyone worried about where we went, so I decided we would stay in the cabin and not run through the emergency exit, and I would keep Jason hidden.

As we entered the dimly lit master bedroom, I carefully closed the door behind us, shutting out the sounds of Aunt Kate’s rampage. The room was connected to a bathroom, that had an emergency health kit. Relieved to have found a source of aid, I swiftly grabbed it from the bathroom shelf as Jason sat down on the bed. I took a bandage out along with some ointments. “It’s going to be okay, Jason,” I whispered, trying to calm him down through my racing heartbeat. “She will be gone soon.” Jason looked up at me, his good eye filled with fear and uncertainty. I applied ointments and medicine to his bad one after removing the massive wooden shard. It was bloody and gruesome, and I immediately gagged as I saw it and threw it in the trash. Jason wailed in pain as I removed it as he did whenever it sliced through his eye when Aunt Kate broke into the cabin.

I bandaged his eye, and he looked up at me gratefully. “Thanks, Hailey. You’re useful for a thirteen year old,” he said, grinning. I grinned back, looking at the door. “I’m going to help everyone outside,” I said. “Lock this door whenever I walk out. If I knock frantically, screaming, open the door for me. I love you, be safe.”

“I love you too. Be even safer.”

With a quick nod, I walked out of the room and shut the door softly. I stood by it until I heard the “click” of the lock. Taking a deep breath, I ventured outside, greeted by a chaotic scene. People were running in all directions, shouting and crying out in panic. The screams never died down, and as I walked farther and farther, I saw more glass, and Aunt Kate had a broken wine bottle in her hand. There was blood splattered here and there, and Kayla wasn’t anywhere.”

“Probably hiding,” I mumbled to myself. I didn’t blame her. I looked around for a phone to call the police with, and lo and behold I saw my mother’s phone. I ran towards it, and when I turned it on, it was dead. I felt a surge of anger, and then a sense of urgency as I heard footsteps approaching behind me.

“What are you doing, Hailey?” Aunt Kate asked from behind me. She still had the broken bottle in her hand menacingly, and I screamed. I dropped my mothers dead phone, and ran. The broken bottle soared past me, colliding with the wall and shattering into a million pieces. Aunt Kate had thrown the bottle at me, and I was only an inch away from death!

A glass shard landed in my leg, and it started bleeding rapidly. “Psst, Hailey, in here!” A voice belonging to Kayla whispered from around the corridor. An arm reached out to grab me, and pulled me into a dark room. I remembered from my mental map of the cabin that this was the game room, which had a pool table and a foosball table.

“Thank you,” I whispered to Kayla. She put a finger over my lips until we heard Aunt Kate’s footsteps fade away. “You’re welcome,” she whispered back.

“Do you have your phone? You were listening to music earlier,” I asked.

Kayla gasped. “I left it on the coffee table in the living room! Oh, it probably has wine splattered all over it from that broken bottle. Or, more reasonable, it’s probably destroyed. Or maybe it has-“

“Kayla!” I interrupted her, and then realized I had said that a little louder than I intended to. “Kayla,” I said, turning my volume down. “Please, I could care less about the hundred reasons your phone could be damaged or ruined. I need to call the police. I’m going out of this room to grab your phone, and that’s final.”

“But you can’t! It’s too dangerous!” She protested.

“And it will continue to be dangerous until everyone is dead if I don’t grab your phone. I have to do this, Kayla!” I took her hands in mine, and kissed her cheek. “I promise I will be safe, I’ll come right back after I call the police with Jason. Please, promise me that you won’t worry.”

“I promise,” she sighed. “Oh, by the way, where even is Jason? That splinter in his eye looked pretty bad.”

“He’s in the master bedroom with the door locked. I bandaged his eye, so he’s okay.”

“Okay, then, see you soon,” Kayla finally said. I nodded my thanks, and slipped out of the door. Again, the screams and chaos erupted louder. I looked towards the living room, and made sure Aunt Kate was far away before bolting towards the coffee table. I saw the black phone case of Kayla’s phone, the earbuds still connected to it. I grabbed it and ran back to the master bedroom, making sure Aunt Kate didn’t see me nor cross my path. I ran to the oak door of the bedroom and knocked frantically. “Jason, it’s me, Hailey,” I whispered. After a few seconds the door opened and I ran inside. Jason saw me, and immediately wrapped me in a warm, tight hug. “I’m glad you’re okay, even though your leg is bleeding. What happened?”

“Aunt Kate threw a glass at me but missed, and one of the shards landed in my leg. But, I got Kayla’s phone,” I showed him the phone and his eyes lit up with joy, well, the visible one. “I can call the police with it. Could you dial the number while I get this glass out of my thigh?”

“Of course,” he said, taking the phone. I heard his fingers tapping as he pressed the buttons to dial the number, and I gathered the tweezers and ointments I needed. The phone vibrated as I applied the ointments after I took the glass out. I had the same reaction with it that I had with Jason’s splinter. I bandaged my wound as I heard a lady on the other end of the phone say, “nine one one, what’s your emergency?”

“Hello, I’d like to report a psychotic intruder,” I said, standing up and sitting next to Jason on the bed.

“How serious is it?” The phone asked.

“Very serious. Glass, wood, injuries-everywhere.”

“Okay, what’s the address?”

I told her the address, and she told Jason and I that the police were on their way. “Keep me on the phone until they arrive,” she ordered.

“Jason, I’m going to Kayla. I promised her that I’d be back,” I said, turning to him. “Same procedure. When I walk out, lock the door, and let me in when you hear me.”

Jason nodded. “Will do.”

I got up from the bed and trekked towards the door. I slipped out of the room into the chaos once again. I walked across the place where everyone was fighting for their lives while trying not to step on glass or slip on champagne. I finally got past the dining room table, and was in the kitchen about to open the door to the game room until a hand grabbed me and yanked me away. I looked up to identify the person, but only found the grinning face of Aunt Kate.

I screamed, and tried to pull away, but the more I struggled, the more tight her grip became. “What are you doing, Hailey? Why are you trying to pull away from me?” She asked through gritted teeth.

“I-erm-well-“ I stuttered, trying to figure out what to say. I noticed that one hand was behind her back, and my heartbeat quickened. Slowly she pulled out a club from behind her back and raised it in the air. “Now,” she said. “Answer my question, or else I strike.”

“I just, have somewhere urgent to be… I have to do… erm… homework! Yes, homework.”

“It’s the middle of summer, Hailey. Tell me the truth. I’m giving you one last chance.”

This was the scariest moment of my life. “I-well,” I couldn’t come up with a good lie fast enough. She struck me square on my shoulder with the club, and I felt like it was broken. I wailed in pain. “Help!” I screamed.

Before Aunt Kate could strike again, she got pushed away from me, and someone else grabbed me, and dragged me into the closest room-the game room. My rescuer turned the lights on, and I saw the faces of Kayla, Jason, and my rescuer herself… my mother!

“Oh…” I said. “My shoulder… gah, it hurts!”

“Sit on the floor,” my mother suggested. “The police are arriving soon.”

As she said that, we heard sirens in the driveway, and they were coming closer. It was the police! The chaos of Aunt Kate would be over!

“We’re safe now. The cops are here,” Kayla said in between breaths. I sighed of relief, as did Jason and my mother. “By the way,” I started. “How did Jason get in here?”

“Oh,” my mom said. “I got him. I was going to go in my room to hide, but it was locked, so I knocked then said my name. Jason answered, and I saw his eye was bandaged. I asked him what happened, and he explained the splinter incident, and I told him about Kayla being in here. So, I took him here, and then I got you.”

“Wow,” I said, flinching at the pain on my shoulder. “Thank you.”

Outside, we heard the screams die down as loud footsteps boomed throughout the cabin. “Police, put your hands in the air!”

Then, an eerie, bone shrilling scream echoed through the cabin and, of course, it belonged to Aunt Kate. We heard a taser go off and a loud thud, so I unlocked the door, peeking through it. Aunt Kate had been tased, and we were all safe! While she was stunned and unable to move, the police put cuffs around her wrists and forcefully stood her up. They pushed her through the front door as medics crowded inside, examining everyone. Two people were badly injured (besides Jason and I), one dead from the wine bottle, and everyone else had a few cuts here and there. The person who was dead I wasn’t very close to, since he was on my dads side of the family. Jason, mother, and Kayla didn’t know him either, and the medics came rushing towards us. They looked at Jason’s eye, then at my shoulder, and took us both to the hospital. Jason is now forever blind in his left eye, and my arm is forever paralyzed. In the end, everyone was okay, Aunt Kate was sentenced to life in prison. Because of this near-death experience for pretty much everyone, the whole family is now much closer than before. Aunt Kate is now just a story, not a threat. Jason, Kayla, and I hang out a lot more now.

So, that was a thrilling adventure. I’ll see you in the next one.