The Cabin

Ronnie jumped up onto one of the beds, out of reach of the lunging fangs. The statue was poised in his hand, ready to strike again. He couldn’t stand sitting around downstairs, twiddling his thumbs as Kellin did all the work and he watched helplessly. This he could do.

The snake coiled, hissing menacingly. Its orange slitted eyes fixed on him as it bared its fangs. His original estimate hadn’t been far off; the snake was at least three feet long and patched with mahogany and oak spots.

“Okay, motherfucker,” he started as he held the statue above his head. “Stay just like that.”

He jumped off the bed and lunged, bringing the statue down with a crash where the snake had been moments before. It circled back, snapping at his ankle just as he managed to pull it away. He hopped back onto the bed before it could lunge again. He needed to get it while it was concentrating on something else.

Cautiously he dangled his foot off the edge of the grimy mattress, watching as the snake slithered closer, poising itself to lunge at his exposed skin. He raised the statue and brought it down with a satisfying crunch on the snakes skull. He paused momentarily, breathing heavy and adrenalin pumping from his close encounter.

He ground the statue against the wooden floor, crushing its head into the worn grains of the planks before cautiously picking it up by the tail and allowing it to dangle at arm’s length as he made his way to the staircase, careful not to step in the dark stain and bits of brain matter.

“It’s dead.” He declared as he climbed down the final few stairs, coming into the living room. Jack had fallen unconscious, and Kellin was wrapping his ankle tightly in strips of rough fabric torn from the couch cushions. Danny was sitting in the oversized armchair with his feet up on the coffee table, watching with detached disinterest. He looked up as Ronnie came into view, raising his eyebrows at the carcass.

“You actually killed it. I thought we’d be sleeping on the floor down here for sure.”

Kellin looked up at Ronnie. “Awesome.” He glanced at Jack for a moment before standing up. “Can you bring that in the kitchen for a sec? I want to look at it and talk to you.”

He walked into the kitchen and Ronnie followed, a little amused at Kellin taking charge for once. He lay the corpse on the table proudly, despite Kellin’s look of obvious disgust. A few moments later, Danny pushed himself out of his chair with an annoyed groan and joined them. Ronnie glanced at him briefly, somehow annoyed that he had suddenly taken interest in helping the group.

“I’m not being left out of you guys’ secret club,” Danny said mockingly, pulling out one of the chairs from around the table and plopping into it. “If you’ve got something to talk about you can do it in front of me.”

Ronnie rolled his eyes before turning his attention to Kellin.

“It’s not you, I just didn’t want to talk about this in front of Jack,” Kellin said, looking at the snake rather than at Danny. “It’d freak him out. I wish this thing still had a head.”

“If it still had a head, it’d still be lurking around up there,” Ronnie said a little defensively, sitting on the table next to his kill.

“Well do you remember the eyes?”

“Orange and with the long pupil, like a cat’s.” Ronnie crossed his arms.

Kellin furrowed his brows a little, clearly trying to remember some lecture comment from nursing school.

“It’s probably poisonous,” he concluded with a sigh, although Ronnie wasn’t sure how he could have possibly come to this conclusion. “And I doubt there’s anti-venom hidden around here.”

Danny shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “So he’s going to die?”

“Not if I can help it,” Kellin said, his attempt at sounding certain betrayed by the waver in his voice. The three of them sat quietly for a moment. Ronnie’s frustration began slowly boiling. There was nothing he could do to help; he had no medical training, and the snake was already dead. That annoying helpless feeling was steadily returning. He hopped off the table and began pacing despite the creaky floorboards adding to his irritation. Suddenly his eyes fell on the corner.

“Someone was in here,” he said, stopping his pacing and turning to the others. “The trash’s gone.”

“No shit,” Danny said leaning back in his chair. “The question is why the fuck someone bothered coming in, taking our trash and leaving.”

“Well it wasn’t an outsider,” Ronnie said slowly, trying to control his frustration with Danny’s attitude. He thought momentarily about taking the bloody statue still clenched in his hand and smashing it into his smug face. He breathed deeply. “It obviously wasn’t us. It must have been one of our captors.”

Kellin nodded. “Do you think they put the snake in here too?”

“Probably. But the snake was here first. They probably took the trash while the lights were off and we were all upstairs,” Ronnie said, thinking aloud. A shiver ran down his spine as he put the pieces together. “The lights. Whoever is keeping us here is coming in whenever the lights are off.”

The three of them sat in silence. How many times had unseen and unknown people crept through the cabin cloaked by darkness? Ronnie’s hand traced the back of his head, stopping at the scabbing wound on the base of his skull. He glanced at Jack’s sleeping form on the couch. Whoever it was didn’t have good intentions, and the uncomfortable truth was that none of them had any way to stop it. The helplessness of it all was almost unbearable.

The lights flickered out.