With that said, she was gone. I guess she just wanted to say goodbye because after that, none of the weird stuff ever happened again. I was at peace and no longer afraid of dying—my Betty had showed me that. I was happier and I now knew that the ghosts of loved ones were always around you. You may not know it, but I guarantee you they are.
As Heather swung the Jeep up the hill she shot me a smile. “So look, the night isn’t easy but you make it through and you’re an Alpha Delta.”
I nodded and stared ahead. The late evening sun hit the mid-October red and orange leaves so strongly they made the tree branches look like they were on fire. The dirt road curved left and I saw the cabin. It looked like it was built from perfectly smooth Red Cedar wood with a bright and clean rectangular window and a charming little cobblestone porch. The wind blew some dry leaves across the porch and it felt like we were in some secluded forest resort area a hundred miles away from school—in reality, we were less than three. I gripped my smart phone tight and checked the weather, it was supposed to rain in a couple hours.
Heather brought the Jeep up to the front of the cabin and put it in park. I wasn’t scared, ghosts had never been my thing, but the idea of being out here by myself wasn’t exactly thrilling.
I grabbed my overnight bag from the back seat. “So the place is really haunted by some dead family?” I asked.
Heather looked at the cabin, took a deep breath, and exhaled. She turned to me with a tight face. “Just stay out of the bedroom and you’ll be fine. OK?”
A little dramatic but whatever. “OK,” I said.
Heather smiled again. “See you at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, Amy.”
I hopped out of the Jeep and Heather backed out and sped off. I looked at the cabin. Maybe I wouldn’t even go in. I could just sit on the porch and wait it out until morning. But that would be admitting that I was scared and I wasn’t about to do that. It was going to rain tonight anyways.
I walked up the steps to the patio and looked back at the road. The sun had set and the fiery fall colors had dulled. I turned the doorknob and walked in.
The cabin was dark but I saw a switch right next to me on the wall and flipped it on. Two spearmint-green lamps at opposite corners of a sort of living room lit up. It was actually pretty nice. Clean wall-to-wall beige carpet covered the floor and a cushy, amber-colored recliner sat next to the window. The walls were smoothly painted white, and on the far wall framed photos hung of what looked like a smiling and laughing family doing various activities. Across the room and just to the right of the photos was a room with two full-sized beds; next to it was a small bathroom with a porcelain gray sink and toilet. Straight across from me was a small kitchen with a silver sink, a white stove, and a round plastic table for four.
I set my bag down and walked over to the bedroom. It was darker in here, no windows, and the air was thick like a musty attic that no one ever visited. The beds were made so tight with black and red comforters that they looked like a kind of skin around the beds. I closed the door. Like Heather had told me to, I’d be staying out of here.
The wind howled outside and I sat down, took my laptop out of my bag, and started watching a detective show on Netflix. After a couple of hours I started to doze off.
I woke up with my heart racing to the sound of a door rattling. The cabin door wasn’t moving at all and just as I turned to check the bedroom door, the noise stopped. I got up and walked into the bathroom. Turning the sink on I splashed warm water on my face and then patted my face dry with a crimson towel that hung on a metal rack across from the sink. My racing heart slowed down and I went back out into the living room. Glancing over at the photo wall, I noticed a few of the photos were tilted—were they like this before and I just hadn’t noticed? I didn’t know, but my heart started to beat a little faster again. Walking up to the photos, I quickly straightened them and then looked at the bedroom door. I could swear it’d been rattling but maybe it had just part of a dream I was having.
I checked my watch. It was 11:27 p.m.
I looked over at the window but all I could see was the black night. Walking over to the window, I put my fingertips on the glass and a flash of lighting lit up the road and the woods in bright white light. An instant later everything went dark again with the soft thud of big rain drops starting to hit the roof of the cabin.
I went to my overnight bag, unzipped it, and took out the pint-sized bottle of black cherry vodka I’d brought. I wasn’t much of a drinker but the girls had suggested I bring it just in case I needed help making it through the night. I twisted the cap off and took a sip.
A little harsh on my throat but not bad.
I sat back down and started watching some movie about high school girls being mean to each other. I took another sip of vodka and my back muscles relaxed; after about twenty minutes my eyes got heavy and started to close. They popped back open when the door started rattling again. It sounded like someone trying to open a door without turning the handle.
The instant
