The Cabin

“What the fuck,” Danny muttered as he stood up from the couch, unable to see anything. Sounds of panic were coming from upstairs now, but no evidence as to what had happened or who had screamed. There was the sound of scrambling on wooden floors, and a distinct groan of pain.

“Are you guys alright?” Kellin’s voice called from next to him. Adrenalin was pumping through his veins, making him jump at Kellin’s yell.

“You better not be joking around,” Danny added, hoping that they were.

There was a confusion of frightened yelling from the attic followed by a short lull of mutters in low tones which Danny strained to overhear.

“You have to calm down. We can’t do anything if you’re flipping shit. It’s scared away, it won’t be back for a while.” It was impossible to tell whose voice it was.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Danny called out. If there was something malicious in the darkness that surrounded him, he wanted to know.

Finally Ronnie’s booming voice cut through the darkness. “Get the matches. Someone help me move him. That motherfucker is still up here.”

Danny heard Kellin spring into action next to him, and his light footsteps crossed the room at an impressive pace despite being unable to see.

“What the fuck was it?” Danny asked as he waited for Kellin to come back with the matches.

“A snake. I didn’t get a good look at it, but it must’ve been at least three feet,” Ronnie called down. “It bit me!” Jack called out unnecessarily, as Danny had gathered that much.

“Fuck,” Danny muttered. “It’s up there still?” he asked, secretly a little glad that it wasn’t downstairs.

“Unless snakes can go down stairs.”

Danny had no idea if a snake could find its way down the stairs or not. There was the sound of a match striking as a small glow illuminated Kellin in the kitchen. He quickly made his way over to where Danny was.

“Hurry!” Ronnie called impatiently. Danny resisted the urge to sit back on the couch and not help at all. If it had been Ronnie writhing on the floor in pain, he was fairly certain he would have.

The match burned out, and Kellin hastily struck another. “We’re running out,” he said anxiously before climbing the stairs, lighting the way for Danny to follow.

Slowly Ronnie’s and Jack’s forms became illuminated by the small circle of match light. Ronnie was already hoisting Jack to his feet, haphazardly supporting him from under one arm. Danny wrapped his arm around Jack’s other side, cringing as Jack let out a pained hiss as pressure was put on his ankle.

“Did you see what type of snake?” Kellin asked with wide eyes, walking backwards on the stairs as he lit the way for their slow progress. The match burned out and they stopped momentarily as he fumbled to light a new one.

“It was fucking huge. That’s all I saw,” Jack grimaced, gasping in pain as Danny readjusted his hold. “And fast.”

Kellin nodded, and they resumed their procession down the stairs.

“Am I going to die?” Jack asked, his face contorting with agony as Ronnie and Danny placed him on the couch, swinging his legs over so he was lying down.

Danny glanced at Kellin and Ronnie, and it seemed no one was sure how to answer.

“Not if we can help it,” Kellin finally said, lighting a new match before handing the matchbook and match off to Ronnie. “Let me see the bite.”

Jack’s mouth set in a firm line despite his eyes betraying his fear as he fumbled with his pant leg, pulling it up to reveal his swollen ankle.

Ronnie brought the match closer, illuminating the bite as Kellin bent over to look at it. Danny almost gagged. His ankle had swollen to nearly twice its original size, and was slowly turning a sickly bruised color. Despite the bite marks themselves were mere pinpricks, he was bleeding profusely. The match went out.

Another match was lit. “This is the last one,” Ronnie said.

Kellin began working off Jack’s shoe, cringing as he yelped in pain. “I know, I’m sorry! There can’t be pressure on the bite.” He succeeded in getting off the shoe before turning to Danny. “Get any material you can and wet it with warm water from the sink and soap if you can find it.”

“There’s only one match, and you’re using it,” Danny said, growing irritated with the numbers of orders he was taking recently. The lights flickered on. “Well that was painfully convenient,” Danny muttered as he set off towards the kitchen. He pulled open a drawer, fumbling through its contents until his fingers closed around the worn wooden handle of a rusted steak knife. He turned back towards the living room before noticing the pile of trash that had been steadily growing in the corner had vanished. He stopped for a moment, staring at the empty space next to the counter. Someone had been in the cabin. He hurried into the living room, where Kellin was still looking at the bite.

“Someone took out the trash,” Danny said, standing in the doorway. He felt weirdly violated knowing that someone else had been in the cabin without them knowing.

“What?!” Kellin turned towards him. “Someone was in here?”

Danny proceeded to the couch, grabbed the already ripped open throw pillow and began cutting a long strip of fabric from it with unneeded aggression. “Not someone on our side or they would have let us go.”

Kellin nodded slowly, although his brows still furrowed with worry. “We’ll figure that out later.”

“There’s more important things right now than someone pulling a disappearing act with our rubbish,” Danny agreed bitterly as he crossed the room and pulled open the door to the bathroom. He glanced around the room, but found no trace of soap. The water ran a rusty red for a few moments before it slowly cleared and he soaked the stained fabric in it. He walked back into the living room and tossed the wet material at Kellin, who began to immediately wipe the bite with it. Jack groaned audibly.

“I’m sorry,” Kellin said as he continued to wash the area. “I don’t have all the things I need, this would suck much less if this was a hospital.”

“Where’d you learn this stuff anyways?” Danny asked. He was lucky if he managed to bandage a paper cut.

Kellin answered without looking up. “I was in nursing school. Well, before this happened.”

“Lucky for me,” Jack said with a weak smile before it turned into a hiss of pain. “Fuck.”

The ceiling panels shook with an echoing bang from upstairs. A few cobwebs shook loose from the ceiling and drifted slowly down.

“What the fuck?” Danny looked up. “Where’s Ronnie?”

Kellin looked up anxiously from his tending for a moment. “He went to kill the snake.”