Cabin folks (short experimental story)
“Hello there my dear viewers. It’s your girl JessieLove233. Look at the scenery behind me! You might ask: ‘Really Jessie? Another snowy mountain adventure?’ And - Yes! This is another snowy mountain adventure!” Jessie walked slowly towards a camera held up in front of her from uphill by her cameraman Jay, following her assistant Chloe, with a sweet smile on her face: “But I swear, this time, it’s gonna be totally different!”
“Alright, cut.” Jay nodded and wiped some snow off his camera: “I think this one’s good. We should really head up, my hands are freezing.”
“No! I didn’t show enough of my good side. We need one more!” Jessie denied Jay’s request without any consideration: “Chloe! Where is this fucking cabin!? I can’t see shit!”
“It's - it’s right up there, less than 10 minutes of walk. But we - we need to hurry!” Chloe did not dare to look straight into Jessie’s eyes: “Because - I’m afraid the snow is getting heavier soon.”
“Ugh, fine! Then let’s get on with the next take.” Jessie huffed, but when Jay started rolling, she immediately put on her sweet face: “‘What’s different this time?’ You might ask. Well, this time we are visiting the famous Becker Cabin, which, if you believe it, is still in these mountains.
“Now, if you don’t know about the Becker Cabin, you better look it up. It's a really creepy story. The gist is, over 30 years ago, a group of 8 amateur mountaineers and skiers, led by a man named Coleman Becker, went into this cabin to hide from heavy snow. According to official reports, the cabin was stocked with emergency supplies that should last for weeks. But after just one night, they all died due to unexplained reasons. Some of them were gruesomely cut up and scattered all over the area, some of them were mummified, some of them were frozen to death in a shocked state. All of them, super creepy and horrible deaths! And it’s only recently that this part became open to the public…”
Chloe was waving her hand at Jessie from a higher up position, pointing at something hidden behind a fallen tree blocking Jessie’s sight.
“Looks like Chloe found the cabin already! Let’s go!” Jessie stepped up her pace and smiled at the camera: “Come on! Let’s take a look!”
The cabin stood in the snow, in front of a row of tall trees. Its roof was covered in snow, and one fallen tree blocked off half the path leading up to its front door, the trio had to go around it. The exterior of the cabin was painted red, and had a sign on the front door.
“Wooh! We found it!” Jessie gestured Jay to stay outside and point the camera at the cabin, while she entered it through the front door : “The cabin looks very new, doesn’t it? It doesn’t look like it’s been deserted for 30 years. And…”
A group of people approached the cabin, descending from higher parts of the mountains. They were all in colorful, bright but old fashioned snow gear, and they stared at Jay and Jessie with surprised looks on their faces.
“Can we help you?” Jessie signaled Jay to shut down the camera.
“What are you doing here?” The leader of the group was an experienced-looking man.
“We’re just visiting this cabin.” Jessie shrugged.
“‘Visiting’, huh, that’s lovely ain’t it.” The leader chuckled: “But you’d better go in. There’s a snowstorm coming down our way, we better hurry up and hide in there. We don’t wanna freeze to death.”
Jessie had no choice but to stand aside and let the group go along and enter the room. There were six in this group, five men, one woman. She couldn’t help but laugh at the woman’s fashion sense from inside, her grandmother must have picked her gear for her.
“It’s wee tight. But it’ll do.” The leader greeted Chloe with a nod and sat down around the fire pit at the center: “We’d better start a fire, it’s gonna get cold.”
“And you better come in. The storm’s on our asses all the way down.” Another man in the group urged Jessie.
Jessie was about to say something, but the day just got visibly darker in the blink of an eye. Chills ran down her spine, and she waved to call Jay inside and closed the door behind them.
“Good news. We’re stocked.” Another man in the group checked one of the storage crates.
“So, what are you folks doing here? ” The woman from the group smiled and asked Jessie and Chloe: “You don’t look like mountaineers.”
“We’re influencers, here to make a video.” Jessie answered for both: “I’m Jessie, this is Chloe, and that is Jay, our cameraman.”
“Nice to meet you. Name’s Carolyn.” The woman hesitated for a second, then nodded and pointed at a bearded man wearing glasses next to her: “This is Tom.”
“Charlie.” The man beside Tom waved.
“Steven.” “Carl.” Two more men introduced themselves, after checking around the cabin.
“Becker.” The leader of the group pulled out a hand-rolled cigarette, licked it then lit it up.
“Becker? Like Coleman Becker?” Jessie joked.
The leader’s eyes opened wide, and the group he led started chuckling.
“How’d you know my name?” The leader asked.
“You’re famous here as well, Becker!” Steven laughed out loud: “Casanova!”
The faces of Jessie, Chloe and Jay went pale. They took a few steps back, pushing their backs against the wooden wall.
“Wait, what’s wrong?” Carolyn became concerned.
“What - uh - what year is it?” Jay swallowed.
“What?” Carolyn and Tom asked.
“What year is it!?” Jessie almost screamed.
“Woah, woah, calm down, miss.” Steven raised his hands: “It’s - 1991, okay? We just won the cold war, and - ”
Jessie screamed, pushed both Jay and Chloe aside, rushing to the door, trying to open it. But hard as she tried, nothing moved at all.
The sky was dark. Wind scratched the roof and banged the window.
“Alright ALRIGHT! Calm down!” Seeing that the two strange young women were freaking out, Coleman Becker raised his voice and put his arms up: “We don’t mean you any harm, okay? We’re just here to hide from the snow…”
“It’s not that, sir.” Just this moment, Jay came between Jessie, Chloe and the other mountaineers, holding the jade Buddha pendant on his neck: “It’s - it’s complicated. Do you know anything about time travel?”
“What does that even mean?” Becker frowned.
“You’re saying you’re from the future.” Tom adjusted his glasses.
“No - well, yes.” Jay shook his head: “We - our time is more than 30 years after yours. I can’t really explain, but - ”
“What happened to us?” Steven interjected: “You’ve clearly heard of us. What happened here?”
“I - I - ” Jay stammered, not knowing how to answer.
“Did I die here?” Becker asked with a heavy frown.
Chloe, Jessie and Jay went silent, no one answered.
“I see.” Becker rubbed his temples: “I died here… What happened? You are from the future right? Tell me what happened - ”
“By the decree of the Mother of Flesh - All anguish shall end.” Just this moment, Charlie, Carl and Steven chanted all at the same time.
“What - what are you doing?” Becker was quite perturbed, and he tried to walk over to Charlie.
“The Mother of Flesh decreed - all anguish shall end.” The three chanted again with smiles on their faces and their eyes unfocused. Before anyone else could say or do anything, their bodies started shriveling and drying up.
Their eyes were sucked into the sockets, their mouths opened wide. Within a few seconds, three living men turned into standing mummies in mountain gear.
“What the fuck!” Becker fell onto the ground and started cursing. In a mere moment, screams, chaos and fear filled the entire cabin. Everyone rushed to the windows and the door, trying to break them and escape. Nothing worked. The thin glasses on the window show no signs of damage even at the repeated bashing of climbing picks. The wooden door wouldn’t budge, even when Becker and Jay almost dislocated their shoulders.
Desperation set in along with exhaustion and physical pain. Tom and Carolyn held each other while curling up in a corner. Becker grunted as he rubbed his right shoulder, leaning on the wall. Chloe and Jessie were weeping helplessly on the long chair beside the window. And Jay, knuckles and shoulders bruised and sore, still tried to catch his breath. The Buddha pendant on his neck was tingling and getting warm, he just did not have the heart to pay it attention.
“Tell me what happened.” With a short hiss from moving his shoulder, Becker looked Jay in the eyes: “You said you are from the future. Tell me what happened.”
Jessie and Chloe had their eyes fixed on Jay.
“I - well - ” Jay stammered, still not knowing how to respond. He thought he’d know what to do in this situation. But the fact was, he did not.
“... it’s not fate.” Tom sniffled.
Becker and Jay both turned their eyes on Tom.
“Even if they are from the future, what happened in their history is still not fate.” Tom clarified, then tried to stand up: “I - I refuse to believe this.”
“... I agree.” Jay nodded. He was not fully convinced, he just needed to believe.
“Okay.” Tom took a deep breath: “Now, let’s just, think, and figure out a way…” He abruptly stopped, while slowly turning his face up at the ceiling.
“What - what?” Carolyn asked.
“Did you hear that?” Tom frowned.
“You…” Chloe asked with a trembling voice: “You heard it too?”
“What are you saying!?” Jessie screeched at Chloe: “WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!?”
“The Master of Blood commanded - all that would fade shall be conserved.” Jessie and Tom shivered and whispered at the same time.
Jessie screamed and tried to back away from Chloe, while Carolyn held onto Tom and tried to shake him out of his trance. But the next moment, they seemed to be hearing something from above as well, and somehow started levitating.
While Jessie and Tom were completely frozen in their positions, Carolyn and Jessie laughed frantically, floating towards the ceiling: “The King of Tendons ruled, all of ours shall be dispersed!”
Bones and flesh cracked, Carolyn and Jessie’s bodies exploded into thousands of small pieces and shot out in every direction. The pieces, however, did not touch anything or anyone inside the cabin, but simply passed through the walls and ceiling and disappeared.
Becker was stunned for one moment, then rushed to Jay, grabbed him by the collar and slammed him onto the wall. His spit spewed all over Jay’s face: “Tell me what happened! NOW!”
“... we all died.” Jay felt as if his lips and tongue were no longer his: “We all died.”
“But why? WHY!?” Becker yelled.
“I don’t know.” Jay almost whimpered: “How - how can anyone know…”
Smoke arose from Jay’s collar, something burned Becker’s hands and forced him to let Jay go.
“What is this?” Becker grunted as his hands were red from the heat: “What did you - ” Before he could say anything else, his eyes glowed in a haunting gray and orange light, with a bizarre change in expression, he chanted: “Queen of Marrow willed it - all tissues of life shall be offered.”
Jay felt his entire body shackled, and a horrifying power seeped into his entire body. Something, or someone was trying to speak to him, a chilling message. But he could not hear it.
“The Queen of Marrow willed it - all tissues of life shall be offered!” Becker tried to grab Jay once again. But his entire body collapsed from inside before he could, leaving a pile of his skin and clothing on the ground.
An extreme heat arose from Jay’s blood, muscles and even bones. He wanted to make a sound, yet his lungs and throat wouldn’t work. His vision went dark.
After an unknown length of time. Eyes opened. “It” did not know where it was, it did not know what happened. “It” did not know who “it” was, what “it” was. “It” just knew that “it” was suffering, and thanks to an artifact memorializing Buddha, “it” was able to survive.
“Its” body was made of a black, reflective and elastic material and was put on a coat hanger. There was a man sleeping on “its” side. “It” looked into the mirror, “its” body took a full human shape, but hollow. “It” had holes on “its” face where eyes and mouth should be. But “it” could see, hear and sense the surroundings just the same.
“It” was exhausted, “It” could not think. Sleepiness overwhelmed “it”. Everything seemed like it was going to be different.