The Creature in the Shack

“Can you keep a secret?”

The words had sounded exciting coming from Evander’s mouth. They typically do when they come from your best friend. They’re spoken in such a tune that you can only nod your head in agreement. He smiled brightly once I agreed to it.

“Good, then follow me.”

Then, he led me out of the boarding academy and into the woods. It had just rained too. My $300 dress shoes, which my parents bought me before the school year, sank into the mud. I could feel it coming over the side of my shoes. This wasn’t my ideal version of fun, but it was Evander’s. So I followed him.

“Where are we going?”

“You will see.”

Evander stomped through the mud. It splashed onto his black uniform pants alongside the leftover rainwater. I moved more slowly to avoid such a mess.

Students were forbidden from entering the woods surrounding the academy. Evander wasn’t avoiding the evidence of having done it. It wasn’t how someone who had a secret to keep should move through the forest. If our RA saw us return like this, he would make us clean the bathrooms for a month.

It took us an hour to arrive at a small abandoned shack. The wooden planks on the side were starting to fall off. You could see into sections of the shack from outside. Part of the roof had caved in due to past snowstorms. It didn’t seem like something more than just an old hunting shack, but it brought a smile to Evander’s face like he had been here before.

Evander grabbed my wrist and dragged me up onto the rotting front deck. He released me and grabbed hold of the door handle. The door swung open with little resistance. He marched inside with no hesitation.

“What is this place?”

Evander shrugged. “It is not about the cabin, but rather the fun inside.”

His words sent a chill up my spine. Evander was known for getting in trouble. Robbing an abandoned cabin in the woods was not something he would shy away from, but I would. I kept my feet planted on the deck.

“I am not robbing someone!”

Evander glanced around. My voice echoed in the deepest part of the woods. His face contorted with annoyance.

“I don’t know why I even brought you. You cannot handle this secret.”

“I just don’t want to rob someone. If we get caught… My parents will kill me.”

Evander wasn’t moved by my words. He still trudged around the shack with unmatched curiosity. If he had been a dog, his tail would have been wagging.

He opened the dresser drawers. They were mostly empty except for moth-eaten clothes. He shook them out and tossed them on the floor. A cloud of dust erupted with it.

“It is not robbing if there is nothing to rob,” he reasoned.

I could barely make out his figure through the dust as he walked over to the bed and found a metal box underneath it. He had walked to it as if he had known it was placed there. He had looked delighted to see it.

The box was heavy.

He couldn’t pull it from its resting place. I watched him struggle for a while before I finally crossed the threshold of the shack and joined him.

It budged a little with us both pulling against it.

“What do you think this is?” He asked.

I felt like my muscles were on fire just from trying to move it. “Hopefully something worth it. You brought me all the way out here.”

We barely got it out from underneath the bed.

The only thing keeping it sealed was a rusty old lock. Evander kicked it. The lock decayed beneath his boot. I removed its remnants as he took a seat next to me on the ground. His hand was pressed firmly on top of it, keeping me from opening it.

“Final guesses?” Evander asked.

“Ammo. This looks like a hunting cabin.”

Evander hummed in response and then popped the lid off the metal box. Excitement was plastered across his face.

The entire cabin was filled with a radiating bright white light.

I closed my eyes, unable to keep them open. It felt like it was boiling my eyes from their sockets. I raised my hands to my head. There was a loud screaming too. I am still not sure if it was me or Evander. It didn’t matter.

These are the experiences that make people pray to god.

When the light faded, Evander was still there next to me.

The only difference was the creature attached to his head. It had tentacles wrapped around him. Blood was running down his neck. The creature’s entire body was covered with eyes without eyelids. They looked like they had been burned off. The eyes all stared at me as it devoured Evander from his shoulders up.

This time, it was certainly me who screamed.

The creature reached one of its tentacles out towards me. I backed away, stumbling over my arms and legs. I fell flat against the rotting wooden floor and hit my head in the process. Part of the floor buckled in on itself.

The creature left Evander’s body. It plopped hard against the floor. My heart raced so fast in my chest I thought it would kill me. Each pounding of my heart could be felt in my ears. It made my head ring. I couldn’t breathe.

It sounded slimy as it inched its way across the floor toward me. My mind finally caught up. I shot up from the ground. Adrenaline rushed through me.

The creature didn’t move fast.

I did what any reasonable seventeen-year-old would do. I ran away.

My chest squeezed and begged me to slow down, but I didn’t. I didn’t stop running until I was back on the academy grounds. I heaved, trying to catch my breath. My whole body felt like it was on fire. My eyes still felt burnt from the light.

There was nobody outside. Nobody saw me come from the woods. They didn’t need to know about it. Nobody would have believed me if I told them this.

I didn’t go get help. I didn’t rush to the headmaster to tell her Evander is dead.

I went to my room.

I left muddy footprints behind as I walked through the hallway. My classmates gasped when they saw me in the dormitory hallways. I didn’t know what I looked like. I just knew I needed to get to my room.

My hands shook as I turned the doorknob to my dormitory room. I pushed it open.

The room should’ve been dark.

The lights had been turned off by me and Evander before we left, but they were on.

Sweat gushed from me. My body could barely be forced to turn and look at Evander’s bed. My head pounded from the adrenaline. Realization poured over me. Evander had never guessed as to what was in the box.

Evander was sitting on his bed. A smile was on his face.

He had known.

He wasn’t covered in mud or blood. He sat there as if he had never left the academy grounds with me that night.

“My lips are sealed,” I said.

“Good,” he replied.