allieoop: Yes, of course, a motivated killer can take out a group of people.
tyz7412: A gun can be a strong motivation.
allieoop: Distinct lack of killers carrying guns in most horror movies. Chainsaws, yes. Kitchen knives, yes. Guns, not so much.
finalgirl: Yeah, only the heroes carry the guns—like Ash in ARMY OF DARKNESS. Or Sidney in any SCREAM movie.
tyz7412: Well, every villain is the hero of his own story.
“THERE’S SOMEONE THERE, THERE’S someone there, there’s someone there!” Madison shouted, and leapt into Steve’s arms again, attaching herself to him like a baby monkey.
Steve dropped the bag of chips from his hands and grunted as he struggled to hold on to Madison. “Brad, if that’s you out there, I’m going to fucking kill you!”
“It’s not Brad,” Allie said quietly. “He might be a part of this, he might not, but the person out there right now is not Brad.”
“How do you know?” Madison said.
“Brad’s not that tall,” Allie said. She’d gotten a very good sense of the shadow’s height and breadth, and whoever was outside menacing them was at least four inches taller than Brad and proportionately broad in the shoulders.
Either it’s a huge guy out there, or Brad is wearing huge boots. But boots like that would make noise, and we didn’t hear anything.
She strained to see through the curtains, tried to divine what the shadow outside might do next. Whoever it was had moved away from the window, so silently that Allie hadn’t heard their footsteps on the cabin porch. They could be anywhere now, creeping around the cabin, looking for their next chance to strike.
“We have to stay calm,” Allie said, though she didn’t feel calm at all. Throughout the night, every incident had escalated, and despite her repeated self-soothing, her nerves had accordingly escalated with each one.
First there had been harmless, if frightening, knocking on the walls. Then Brad’s car had been wrecked.
The destruction of Brad’s car had been one thing—while violent, something about it had still struck her as an out-of-control prank. Allie started seeing things in a different light once the stalker had actually entered the cabin and knocked out Cam. That was a personal attack.
Although maybe a personal attack facilitated by Brad? Allie thought. Her brain was still grinding on the fact that everyone except Brad had been knocked out cold in the car. And Brad was the only one who hadn’t drunk from Steve’s cocktail bottle.
Could Brad have put something in the bottle?
Now the brick through the window, which seemed to indicate that no matter what they did or what precautions they took, the person outside could still get to them. There was no safety to be had.
Brad brought us to this place where we would be vulnerable, Allie thought. A place with no locks, a place with no near neighbors. Why?
“I’m going to get that motherfucker,” Steve said, trying to put Madison down. His face was mottled with anger as he pried at Madison’s hands, but she wouldn’t let go.
“Don’t go out there! You’ll be killed,” Madison said. “Brad’s probably already dead.”
“Brad’s probably orchestrating this,” Allie said. “And Steve, you aren’t going outside. We already talked about this.”
“We can all go outside then, if you want to stick to your stupid nobody-goes-it-alone rule,” he said. “But I am going to beat the shit out of whoever’s doing this, even if it is Brad. Especially if it’s Brad. And if Brad isn’t involved and whoever is out there hurt him, I’m still going to beat the shit out of him.”
“This is how people die,” Allie said. “For real. Look, one of our group is gone. Whether he’s gone for some nefarious reason or not, he’s still gone. One of us is unconscious. We can’t let ourselves get picked off. We’ll stay inside and stay together. Whoever is out there is trying to provoke this exact kind of behavior. They know that people respond emotionally to potentially dangerous situations, do irrational things. So we can’t give in to them.”
“Just because you’re the only one who actually aced that fucking Psych 101 course our freshman year doesn’t mean you know everything about human psychology,” Steve said. “Maybe if I go outside, then whoever’s running around will take off, or I’ll catch them and teach them a lesson and that will be the end of it.”
“Don’t go outside,” Madison whimpered, her fingers wrapped around Steve’s neck, her legs around his waist. “Don’t, don’t.”
“She’s not going to let go of you anytime soon, so let’s not argue about it.”
Steve’s words had stung a little, not just because they implied that she was acting like some kind of know-it-all, but because she’d thought Steve was on her side. When it came down to it, he was more inclined to follow the impulses of his hormones than his brain. She shouldn’t have expected more from him. While he’d demonstrated the occasional flash of practical thinking, he was, after all, still Brad’s wingman. And Brad had zero redeeming qualities, as far as Allie was concerned.
While they spoke, Allie had mostly kept her eyes on the shattered front window. She didn’t know exactly what she expected—a hand reaching out of the darkness with a knife? A masked face? At this moment, it was hard not to think of all the horror movies she’d watched, all the films she loved that she’d consumed from the safety of her own couch, feeling all the thrills with none of the risk.
There was another crash, a tinkling of glass. Allie, Steve and the clinging Madison all turned to see one of the windows on the back side of the cabin had also been broken with a brick. This time Allie didn’t see any shadow. The person who’d thrown the brick had stepped away quickly—or maybe they were hiding just out of sight, pressing against the cabin wall next to the window. Allie wasn’t going to check.
“Goddamnit!” Steve said, trying again to pry Madison off him. “I’m going to kill this motherfucker, I swear to god.”
“Stop, just stop,” Allie said. Her heart was pounding harder than it ever had in her life. She could actually hear her own blood rushing in her ears, feel the out-of-control beat in her chest. She wanted to freak out and scream just like Madison, but she didn’t have someone to cling to. She was alone, and she was the only one left who could even try to make a rational decision. Whatever complicated feelings she had for Cam and Madison, she didn’t want them to get hurt. Allie was responsible for making sure they didn’t get hurt.
This was supposed to be a silly girls’ weekend, she thought, and suddenly she was angry. Angry at Brad for ruining her birthday, angry at whoever was outside terrorizing them.
“We are not going outside until morning,” Allie said, her voice cold and clipped in a way that made Madison and Steve stare at her. “We are not going to fall for whatever game that person or people are playing. We are going to sit right here and wait for sunrise. This time of year the sun comes up around 6:30 a.m. It’s a little after four now. We’re going to stay close together, back-to-back, and watch the windows.”
“And what if he tries to climb in?” Steve said.
“Then you can feel free to beat the shit out of him while he’s climbing in. There’s no clear path through any of the windows with all the furniture in front of them, and anyone who tries to get in is going to be working their way through one limb at a time,” Allie said. “Don’t play fair, either. This isn’t a boxing match or a chance to prove yourself in front of your fraternity brothers. If someone wants to try a home invasion, then we should make them pay for it.”
Her voice was louder than necessary as she gave this little speech. Anyone outside listening and waiting for a response to the thrown bricks would hear her. She wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of doing what they wanted. She wasn’t going to panic and scream and run in circles, and she wasn’t about to let Madison and Steve do that either.
“Okay, fair plan,” Steve said. “Let’s get some shit from the kitchen to fuck up anyone that tries us on. Babe, you’ve got to let me put you down.”
Madison shook her head. “Not until you promise not to go outside.”
“I just said that Allie’s plan was fair,” Steve said. “I’m not going to rush outside. She’s right. If anyone tries to come in, then it will be easier to take them down in here. I don’t give a fuck if they think I’m not tough or whatever.”
Allie wasn’t so sure about that, but she was grateful that Steve seemed to have seen the light. Madison’s ability to stay calm hinged on Steve’s mood. Allie wasn’t certain that Madison would be particularly useful if someone did try crawling through the window, though. Madison needed a task, something to help direct her anxiety.
Steve put Madison gently on the ground and Madison reluctantly unwound her fingers from Steve’s neck. Steve went into the kitchenette area and started pulling out all the kitchen knives and oversized cooking forks.
“Listen,” Allie said to Madison. “If someone does try to climb through, I want you to stay close to Cam, okay? You have to protect her, because she can’t protect herself.”
“I don’t know,” Madison said, her voice shaky. “What can I do against some giant guy?”
“Steve,” Allie called. “Any cast-iron pans in the cabinets?”
“Good one,” Steve said, kneeling down to rummage under the sink.
“You want me to knock someone in the head with a frying pan like I’m in a cartoon?” Madison said, a little laugh breaking through her anxiety. “Does that really work?”
“It’s heavy, it’s relatively easy for you to lift, and even if you don’t knock the guy out, it will hurt like hell. Aim for the head or his balls,” Allie said. “It could be enough to slow him down. And I don’t think you want to stab someone.”
Madison shuddered. “No, I don’t think I could do that.”
Allie had never thought of herself as a violent person, but as she took one of the kitchen knives and a long serving fork from Steve, she realized she absolutely could stab someone if she had to. But only if she had to. She had not planned on spending her birthday committing manslaughter.
It won’t come to that, she told herself as the three of them settled on the floor in the middle of the room, their backs making a triangle. Madison faced Cam and the side of the cabin with the closed bedroom doors. Allie faced the front porch side, and Steve the back. Luckily the kitchenette took up the whole fourth side of the cabin.
Every once in a while, one of them would get up and check on Cam, but she continued to sleep deeply, undisturbed by anything around her. Allie increasingly worried about the effect of whatever drug Cam had been given. Surely Cam had to wake up sometime? She couldn’t sleep forever.
Nothing happened in those long hours while they waited for the sun to rise. Initially Allie felt like a taut string, ready to release at the first sign of danger. But the longer they sat, the more difficult it was to stay alert. The one thing that horror movies had not prepared her for, she realized, was boredom. In films the thrills came one after another, increasing the tension to a peak point. But real life wasn’t like that.
Real life is boring, Allie thought. Real life could use some better writers.
Then she caught herself, her cheeks flushing as though she’d spoken aloud. She didn’t want this weekend to turn into an elimination game where the body count of her friends got higher and higher. She wanted to get out of this place, preferably with all five of them—yes, even Brad, wherever he is—safe and in one piece. It was just so hard to wait, to sit around trying to anticipate what might happen next.
The light outside the windows gradually increased. Madison’s head bobbed against her chest and jerked back up more than once. Allie felt the tension draining out of her friend’s body as Madison slumped her shoulders. Steve, to his credit, stayed right on the edge throughout. Allie felt sure that he really wanted someone to try to break in, that he wanted the release of physical conflict.
After a while, Steve said, “The sun’s up. What now?”
Allie put the knife and the serving fork on the ground next to her and stretched her arms in the air. “First thing is that we all get dressed and eat something. Then, if there are no other incidents, we all go outside together and check around the cabin.”
“What are we looking for?” Madison asked.
“Footprints,” Allie said. “Any sign of the person who was outside.”
“And any sign of Brad,” Steve added.
“Do you think it would be safe to shower?” Madison asked. “It’s hard not to think of Psycho right now.”
“It’s probably safe,” Allie said.
“You don’t have to shower alone, babe,” Steve said.
Allie rolled her eyes, but made sure she faced away from the other two as she did. There was no reason to annoy her last two allies.
“Go ahead,” Allie said. “I’ll stay here and watch Cam.”
The other two went off into the bedroom to gather their robes and toiletries, and Allie sat beside Cam on the couch. She checked her friend’s pulse. It seemed normal to Allie, who admittedly didn’t have any medical expertise. It didn’t appear that Cam was in any kind of distress. She was just deeply asleep. She hadn’t moved or shifted or made any kind of noise in the hours since she’d been knocked out.
What on earth are we going to do about Cam? We can’t leave her here, and we can’t carry her.
There were two possible solutions that Allie could see. First, Cam would wake up. Maybe they could put her in the shower and see if the cold water forced her awake, or if they were lucky, then Cam would open her eyes on her own without any forcing.
If Cam didn’t wake, they would have to separate. One of them would stay with Cam, and the other two would hike out to the road and try to flag down help. Allie was not fond of this plan for a number of reasons. First, she didn’t like the idea of separating. She knew that Steve thought she was a little silly about it, but in her (fictional) experience, the person who was alone would be the one to die. Second, Allie was 100 percent positive that she would be the one left behind. Madison wouldn’t stay in the cabin on her own, and Madison wanted Steve in her sight at all times. So Allie would be left to try to defend herself and Cam alone.
Third, if whoever was fucking around with them was watching the cabin, then they would know that Allie was alone, and wouldn’t be deterred by a little furniture at the windows and doors.
Fourth, if Brad was a part of whatever was going on, then Brad would not have good intentions for Allie. She knew that for sure, down in her bones. It was the way he talked to her and the way he looked at her. She would be in danger from him if they were alone. She would be in danger from him even if he were an innocent bystander in all this, just a dope who went out looking for the guy who smashed his car. If Brad came back and Steve and Madison were gone . . . well, Allie didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t have any problem defending herself from Brad, but she’d rather it not come to that. Cam, she was sure, would never believe any version of events that Allie told if Brad was involved.
Everyone knows you hate him. Even Brad. Especially Brad.
Allie shook her head. She didn’t need to create problems when they had plenty of actual problems right in front of them. But this was one of her issues. She was always doing this, playing through potential scenarios in her head, anxiously considering all possible permutations. It was why she never put off her homework or had to spend a night cramming to write an essay due the next day. If she even thought about avoiding work, she’d imagine how she’d feel if she didn’t get her assignment done. Then she’d imagine how she’d feel after the work was done—relieved, happy, free to turn on Shudder and watch scary movies until bedtime. It was why she never drank too much—she’d never had a hangover, but had seen the effects on other people and wasn’t interested in them for herself.
It was why she never said yes when boys asked her out.
She always thought the worst of men, thought they would hurt her or mock her or turn her into a joke they laughed about with their friends. She assumed they had no motivations beyond sex, that they were fundamentally uninterested in her brain because they were distracted by the size of her breasts. She could not stop herself from imagining that they might drop Rohypnol in her drink, or might corner her in a basement. She could not stop her brain from seeing scenarios of doom. Allie had never been one of those girls who pictured strolling hand-in-hand with her date after a nice dinner. Her mind jumped to the part where they tried to pressure her into letting them into her dorm room, and what they might do if she said no.
It was easier to say no at the outset. It was easier to be the one everyone mocked as the goody-two-shoes. Once you got that reputation, it became a kind of armor. “Oh, don’t bother asking Allie, she never says yes to anyone” was something she’d overheard more than once on the rare occasions that she’d gone to parties with Cam and Madison.
Besides, Allie didn’t think the relationships that you had at someplace as transitory as college were in any way meaningful. They were just people who were briefly in the same circumstances as you. Then everyone went back to their hometown or on to jobs in different cities or maybe to even more college as they pursued postgraduate degrees in other places. Your freshman roommates and fraternity-boy boyfriends faded into the distance, people who were forgotten as quickly as they forgot you.
And if you really believed that, then why are you here this weekend, wasting time with Cam and Madison?
(Because you want to belong just like everyone else. Stop pretending you’re not human. You’re just scared to be a part of the group, to take a risk, to make yourself vulnerable.)
Allie hated that second voice in her head, the one that chided her outward personality, the one that spoke all the secrets she’d kept from everyone—including herself.
I don’t need anybody. I’m okay on my own.
(Liar. What are you doing right now, in this situation? You’re clinging to the group, acting like a pack animal.)
Allie heard the bathroom door open, followed by Madison’s giggle and Steve’s growl. They joined Allie in the living room, smelling of Dove soap and the fancy salon shampoo that Madison couldn’t live without.
Madison noticed where Allie was sitting and said, “Has Cam moved at all?”
Allie shook her head. “I’m worried about what they gave her.”
“They? You don’t still think Brad is involved, do you?” Steve said, a little sharper than Allie would have liked. It was clear he’d been thinking about his buddy and decided that Brad couldn’t possibly be the kind of jerk who’d be a part of the previous night’s events.
Allie wasn’t in the mood to disabuse him. The very fact that they’d ended up in this obscure place indicated that Brad was a party to whatever plans were in store for them. She was less worried about Brad’s potential involvement than what might be planned for the coming night. They couldn’t get out of the cabin fast enough for Allie.
She was disappointed that Steve seemed to have had a change of heart. She’d thought she’d convinced him of the wisdom of her ideas and plans, and that the long hours they’d spent watching for danger would have cemented that feeling. Instead, it appeared the wind now blew in a different direction.
“I’m going to get dressed,” she said, avoiding Steve’s question. They didn’t need any dissent in the ranks right now, any more excuses for arguments.
“Do you want me to stand by the shower while you get dressed?” Madison asked.
Allie felt strangely touched by the offer, especially when Madison had been in a state bordering on complete hysteria most of the night. She seemed calmer now, like the shower (and fooling around with Steve) had made her relax.
Madison still had dark circles under her eyes, and Allie worried that one knock at the door would set her off into a spiral again.
“I’ll shower when we’re home,” Allie said. “We’re just going to get sweaty hiking around anyway.”
“Oh, yeah,” Madison said, like this had just occurred to her. “I keep thinking we’re going to be in a car.”
“That’s because we’re always in cars,” Allie said as she went into the bedroom to dress. “Most people hardly walk anywhere. I’ve seen people drive two blocks to Starbucks to pick up their coffee when it would be faster to walk and not deal with trying to park their car.”
Madison and Steve had left the bedroom door open, and Allie noted that the bedroom window was still shut. She cast a wary eye at the closet in the corner of the room. She hadn’t put her bag in there, just tucked it underneath the bunk, so there was no need for her to open the closet door.
But her brain did that thing, that thing where it imagined every possible permutation of doom, and she found herself checking to make sure there was no one hiding in the closet before she undressed.
She opened the closet door, her heart pounding. There was no one inside, of course. Just a plain closet built out of unfinished pine with an equally plain unfinished shelf above it. Allie chided herself for being silly. There wasn’t always a stalker lurking in a hidden corner, a killer waiting to burst out.
Why does this cabin seem like it’s not actually done being built, though? Allie thought as she pulled on a sweatshirt and jeans. There are no locks and no screens on the windows. There’s untreated wood in the closets. It seems like a rush job, or a place where people walked off and never bothered to finish it properly.
And she wondered again how Brad had known about it, and why he’d thought it was a good idea to bring them here.
Allie put on her socks and sneakers, glancing at the open door of the closet. The sense of unfinished-ness about the cabin was significant in some way, she was sure. She just couldn’t put her finger on why it mattered.
Could Brad have had this place built just for this trip? she wondered once again. But that seemed like a ludicrous amount of expense even for a rich boy with a lot of disposable income. And if he had commissioned a private cabin, wouldn’t he have built a nicer place, something to show off his money and prestige? Why was everything here so basic, so fundamentally lacking in the type of luxury that Brad preferred? Where was the hot tub and fancier furniture, sheets with high thread counts and adjustable mattresses? Where was the climate control?
Allie rejoined Steve and Madison in the main room, wondering if she ought to mention her suspicions.
But what, exactly, is it that you suspect? That if Brad built this cabin, it would be nicer? Doesn’t that just mean that he wasn’t the one who arranged for its construction? There’s not necessarily anything suspicious in that, and the more you push the Brad’s-a-bad-guy theory, the more you’ll lose Steve. And you need Steve on your side, because Madison will do whatever Steve does, and you definitely do not want this to become a two-on-one situation. Or three-on-one, if Cam ever wakes up.
Madison stood next to the counter in the kitchenette, waiting for bread to pop out of the toaster. It was an older model of toaster, Allie noticed. A chrome two-slice type, probably picked up a few years ago at a Target or Walmart. Again, not the sort of thing Brad would pick for himself. If Brad had paid for this place, then surely he would have chosen—or had his decorator or whatever choose—the most high-end option available.
Because Brad didn’t do the choosing? Or because Brad knew he wouldn’t be here for very long and therefore it didn’t matter?
She had to get off Brad, had to stop thinking about his potential sins.
Steve had pulled out a carton of eggs and was cracking them into a bowl. “Scrambled eggs?” he asked, in a much friendlier tone than he’d used earlier. Allie wondered if Madison had told him to lay off the attitude.
“Just toast for me,” Allie said. “And maybe fruit, if there is any.”
“Right, no animal products for you,” Steve said. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“No problem.”
Allie disliked the very polite, careful way they were acting. It was like they were parents who’d had a big blowout argument and they were behaving nice for their kid—in this case, Madison. But there hadn’t been a big argument, at least not since the sun came up. Allie wondered what might have changed Steve’s mind.
She couldn’t worry about it. She had to stop trying to anticipate or understand other people. She just had to make sure they all got out of here alive.
She stilled, a piece of toast in one hand and a knife covered in strawberry jam in the other. Was she really, truly worried about the four of them getting out of this place alive? Did she really think it wasn’t a prank or trick, that they were actually in danger?
Yes, she thought, and it was a relief to acknowledge it, even if it was only to herself. Yes, I think we’re really in danger here.
But she didn’t know where the danger would come from, and as she watched Steve scrambling eggs, she wondered about the different forms that danger might take. Stupidity was sometimes just as dangerous as malice.