Cabin Fever

The thick oak door flung shut behind us, leaving Keelan, Lucy, David, and me in the front room of my family’s cabin. The cabin itself was old, passed down from one generation to the other, but you must hand it to my mother, the decoration inside was far from dated. The cabin was placed right in the middle of nothingness, with no phone signal or neighbors for miles. It was the perfect place for a long overdue weekend away with some old friends. Being at a place so many times makes you forget how beautiful it actually was. But this wasn’t exactly the time for me to be complementing the décor. No, we were all too panicked to be admiring anything.

“Ok, right, ok. It’s ahh. Look, we must do something”, Lucy said while she paced back and forth, flinging her hands from her face to her sides in exacerbation. With her eyes wide and filled with shock, she stared at Keelan.

“Why are you looking at me, we’re all in this together. We all need to come up with a plan”, Keelan angrily spat at the room.

“What do you mean ‘we’re all in this together’?”, David said, “What’s ‘this’?”.

Keelan cocked his head towards David and stepped forward. He crossed his arms over his chest before asking: “Do you have something you want to say here, David? Because for your sake I hope it’s not what I’m thinking”.

At that outburst, I rushed between David and Keelan and said: “Look, this is the last thing we need. We can’t be going around blaming each other”. Keelan turned away and sat down on the couch, covering his face with his hands before letting out a deep sigh.

“Here are the facts. All we know is that Tracey is dead, and we don’t know how. We went out looking for her after we got separated on our walk”, I said slowly and as calmly as I could, not only for the benefit of everyone else but for myself too. Everything was just happening so fast.

“She was found in the lake, but I think we all agree that she didn’t exactly look like she had drowned, did she?”, I asked, looking at everyone in the room.

Everyone shook their heads slowly, still in disbelief at what we had just seen. Keelan suddenly sat up and said: “We need to phone the police; we need to tell someone”.

“We don’t get a phone signal here, remember? And Lucy’s boyfriend isn’t coming to get us until tomorrow morning”, I said.

“Yeah, sorry you’re right”, Keelan said and fell back onto the sofa with his hands planted firmly onto his face again.

David let out a gasp before asking: “What if the person or people who did this to Tracey are still here? What if they’re looking for us too?”

All four of us suddenly grew silent and rigid. How did we not think of this? Tracey’s head had looked mangled and blown to pieces as if someone came up behind her and pointed the gun straight at her head. This was no accident, but how could someone have done this? We’re miles away from the next cabin or civilization.

We were alone.

Or so we thought. David’s question made us all realize this could be a much bigger problem that we still had to face.

“Ok, everyone, turn off the lights and lock the doors. And the windows, those too”, I stated before running into the first bedroom. I realized I was standing in Keelan and Tracey’s room and lingered as the sound of Tracey’s laugh bounced off the walls, filling my brain with a sickening nostalgia I couldn’t even put into words if I tried. As I slowly turned toward the door, a small black bag caught my eye under Keelan’s bed. I shook my head at the thought of rummaging around my friend’s belongings, but I couldn’t lie, I was curious. I had never seen that bag before throughout the whole weekend, or even as we had packed the car on the way here. I let out a breath, and glanced towards the door, before quickly grabbing the duffel bag from under the bed. Once opened, I instantly regretted my decision. The bag in front of me contained a flashlight, a hoodie, a pair of trainers, and a handgun. I blinked a few times at the contents of the bag before zipping it up and throwing it back under the bed. I had to slow down my heart rate before going out to the rest of them, they were already on high alert, and the last thing they needed was for me to sound like I was suggesting… no I’m not even admitting that. Keelan couldn’t have anything to do with Tracey, could he? I’ve never known Keelan to even tolerate guns, never mind owning one. No, there must be another reason.

All four of us scrambled throughout the cabin in frantic silence, the air only being filled with our quickened breaths. At some point, without us even discussing it, we had all silently formed a circle on the floor of the front room, facing each other. David stared intently at Keelan. I didn’t understand what David had against Keelan; he’d never seemed bothered by him before tonight. Even throughout the weekend, they seemed as close as ever. But as soon as we saw Tracey… something changed. Bile started to rise in my throat as I pictured the gun sitting under Keelan’s bed, unnoticed by everyone else. Maybe David saw it too and that’s why he’s acting strange around Keelan.

But neither I nor David mentioned it. In fact, we all sat in silence for hours. I think we were all still in shock. Or we were all too terrified in case someone came busting through the door looking for their next victim. For me, the lingering thought of Keelan bringing a gun floated back to my mind every few minutes. In a situation like this, I assumed I would have stood up for my friend that could no longer stand up for herself, I thought I would have lunged at Keelan, or at least ask him why there was a gun under his bed, and how he had failed to mention he had one before now. But I didn’t do any of that. The lump in my throat stopped any words from coming out. I was ashamed of how paralyzed I was by fear. Afraid that my lifelong friend was capable of something I couldn’t put into words.

At some point, we fell asleep, one by one, until the light started to pour through the curtains, filling us with some sort of relief that the night was over. We had survived the night and didn’t have long to wait until Lucy’s boyfriend would drive up to the cabin door. I looked at my watch and saw 6:08 AM. One more hour.

Once we heard the knock on the door, all four of us shot up and ran toward the sound. Lucy opened it and flung her arms around her boyfriend before bursting into tears. The relief we all felt at that moment was immense. It was over, we were alive. We all ran to grab our things as quickly as possible, knowing that we would have the longest car ride of our lives waiting for us outside. But anything was better than staying one more moment in this cabin.

As I locked the door behind me for what I hoped would be the last time ever, I thought again about the gun under Keelan’s bed. At that moment I knew I had to put it behind me. I knew my friend, he could never have done something like that, especially to one of his best friends. He probably brought it for protection. At this realization, I felt another wash of relief. I felt so guilty for even momentarily convicting my friend in my mind. There were bears, mountain lions, and God knows what else out there, of course, he brought it for protection! I sighed with relief and turned toward the car, but as I reached the door, David yanked me to the side.

“I have something to tell you. I saw something last night, something I can’t keep to myself”, David frantically whispered, “I’ll explain when we get back, but don’t let Keelan leave your sight, ok?”

And there I stood, with David’s wide eyes glaring into mine, confirming everything I had tried to push away. I knew at that moment that our nightmare was not over; it was only beginning.