SHORT STORY- ELYSA

 Who’s There?

By: Elysa

“Are we there yet?” I say as I’m glaring out the car window, dying of boredom. We’ve been on the road for five hours now. “No Aaliyah we’re not. Stop asking or we’ll turn back around.” My mom says in an irritated voice. I hear my friends laughing at me. We’re on our way to a stupid haunted cabin in the forest. I don’t believe in that type of stuff, but my mom and friends do. The road to this place is so empty and flat. I check my phone for service and just like this whole trip here, nothing. “Aaliyah do you want to play truth or dare with us?” I hear my friend Zoe ask. I say yes and we start playing truth or dare. 

We’ve been playing all sorts of games for at least two hours and the roads are looking extremely familiar. “Mom, where are we?” I ask in a concerned look. She doesn’t respond. My friends have the same worried look on their faces as they’re looking out the windows. “Mrs. Stonesburg?” My friend Neveah says in a soft voice. Still no answer.   We all just go back to talking and playing random games.

All of a sudden the car stops and my mom has a huge smile on her face, she’s full of excitement and joy. “Alright kiddos, we’re here! Sorry for not responding, I was trying to focus.” We all get out of the car and sigh in relief, finally being able to stand and stretch our legs. I look around and see a beautiful green forest with a path leading into it. “Guys look at the waterfall over there!” Zoe says, full of pure excitement. We all turn and see a gorgeous waterfall not far from the path to the cabin. I look around in amazement. I never thought I’d actually enjoy this. 

After a few minutes we arrived at a beautiful big cabin. I open the door and turn on the lights. We settle in, my friends roam around looking at each room claiming whose room is whose. I share a room with Zoe, Nevaeh shares a room with Josie, and my mom has her own room. It’s getting late, but we’re all still awake playing Uno. My mom set her cards down, I can tell she’s exhausted. “Mom, go to bed. We can all tell you’re tired.” She finally agrees to go to bed, but the four of us still stay awake playing our game.

It’s been two hours since we played Uno, now we’re all trying to sleep. I can tell Zoe is having trouble sleeping, so am I. I’m not sure about Nevaeh and Josie. I heard footsteps outside my window, but I don’t ever recall anyone going outside. “Zoe, did you hear that?” I whisper. She nods her head and sits up with me. We get out of bed and go over to Josie and Neveah’s room, they heard it too. I ask if we should go check it out and we’re all on the same page. I step outside and hear rustling in the bushes. I pointed the flashlight towards the bushes, but there’s nothing. “There’s nothing outside.” I say as we head back in. Then there’s more noise from outside. The springs of the bench swing are creaking. I ignore it and we all go back to bed.

I hear knocking on the door. It keeps getting louder and louder. I put my pillow over my head to try and block out the knocking, but it doesn’t work. I finally throw my pillow and get up. Zoe follows me to the window. “Hello? Who’s there?” I heard Zoe ask before I had the chance. No answer, but there’s still knocking and banging on the door. Neveah comes down the steps, catching her breath.

“Guys, where did Josie go?” I hear Nevaeh ask in a soft but scared whisper.

“Wait, she’s missing? What do you mean I thought she was upstairs with you?” I turn away from the window and notice she’s gone. Zoe steps back and points behind me towards the window, her hand is trembling. I turn around and see a tall black figure standing among the trees outside the window. I take a step back, and the figure puts his hands on the window, trying to open it.  “Guys.. we need to go lock the doors and windows.” I insist and they both agree. We run  over to the back door but the figure is already there, holding the door open. I take a step back with Neveah and Zoe, but he keeps getting closer as we get further.

“MOM HELP US THERE'S–” I tried screaming out for help but he covers my mouth and grabs Neveah and Zoe by the arms. He drags us out the door and across the forest. He stops and throws us against a hill, Josie is there too. I pull her into my arms, the four of us trembling with fear and crying. “Who are you and what do you want from us?” Zoe asked the tall mysterious man. He doesn’t give us an answer. I try crawling away but he stops me, throwing me back to where I was. He stands there against a tree, watching us. “Please let us go, we’ll be gone by tomorrow!” I beg the man, but he doesn’t budge. He steps forwards, his footsteps are heavy. It sounds like the knocking on the door from earlier. 

The footsteps get louder and louder just as if he was knocking on the door. He’s right up in my face now. I watch him take off his mask, and as soon as I see his face, I wake up. It was just a dream. More of a nightmare rather than a dream. I catch my breath and see that Zoe is still peacefully asleep. Josie walks in and has a cup of tea in her hand. “Did any of you have a nightmare too? About a tall figure?” I asked with a confused look. They all shake their heads in disagreement. I was the only one with this dream. Then begins the knocking on the door like I heard in my dream, although this time it isn’t a dream. We go to the door, and see a tall figure standing there. I screamed out for help, but it was useless. I knew we shouldn’t have gone here.