By: Benjamin He

Although Keith hated arguing with his wife, it still happened a lot. And it always had something to do with his construction company.

He had been thrilled at first when he was hired to begin building the new Evercrest town library, as it would surely get him not only a truckload of cash, he would surely get many more contracts after completing this very important job.

Then that dastardly “Rainbow Bucker” or whatever his name was ruined everything.

He had booked the largest, most expensive, and most private cabin in Evercrest’s forest, Twilight Grove, to try and relax a bit from the pressure of so much time and resources wasted. That had been a mistake The cabin wasn’t all bad. It was two stories tall and had a large bed, although Keith still wasn’t sure about the stone floor.

But Keith had had to bring his wife with him. He sighed, stretching out his lanky arms as he took the familiar heat of Sandra’s scolding.

“Honestly, Keith,” Sandra called from the bathroom. “I can’t believe that you messed up this badly.”

Keith barely listened as he inspected the various paintings on the bedroom wall. He couldn’t believe that a cabin this expensive had such gaudy paintings. The bears resembled large, furry ducks. They did to Keith, anyway. “It wasn’t my fault!” he whined. “I’m not the one who burned it down.”

All this fighting was making Keith more and more sure that Sandra had just married him for the money. It was a valid hypothesis, considering the amount of jewels she was currently wearing.

Keith wasn’t the only one who had noticed the sudden purchasing of multiple accessories. His friends had mentioned it multiple times to him, some of them teasing him and calling Sandra a ‘rainbow.’ . It was like she was trying to buy as much as possible before Keith ran out of money.

That was mostly true actually.

The moment things went south (which they just had), Sandra would plan some sort of escape. She was an experienced break upper. Countless friendships and relationships had been shattered her hand. Sandra was already planning a divorce.

Ed knew this.

The Butcher could help with that, thought Ed, listening from his hiding place in the bathtub.

The Butcher could certainly speed up the process, thought Ed, gently heaving himself out and silently drifting to the middle of the bathroom.

The Butcher could also help with that jewel problem, thought Ed, his hands homing in on that expensive ruby necklace around Sandra’s neck.

“Well, you shouldn’t have moved to Evercrest, then!” Sandra shouted, poking her head through the door to glare down the hallway towards the bedroom.

“Why not? No one liked us back in Winterville!” Keith called back.

Sandra snorted, then made a little gasp as she saw Ed through the mirror. The Shadow Butcher waited until Keith finished his sentence, then grabbed Sandra by the necklace.

Grrk. The toothbrush fell from her hand.

Gllk. Sandra scrabbled at her neck, gasping for air.

Grlk. Her movements slowed. She stopped pawing for air.

The Shadow Butcher was getting a bit bored. He had never liked the process of garroteing someone, it took way too long, and the victims always made weird frog noises.

He continued to listen to Sandra’s impersonation of a fish, then just shrugged and snapped her neck.

Ahhhhh.

There.

Keith, meanwhile, was still waiting for a response. “Sandra?” he said. “You there?”

No response.

Sighing, Keith dragged himself off the bed and walked into the bathroom. Her toothbrush laid on the floor. There were muddy footprints on the floor. Still no Sandra.

Then Keith frowned. Was that a leg sticking out of the bathtub? He took a step towards it, but before he could get any further, he felt a hand on his shoulder, something sharp was sticking into his neck.

“Surprise.” That was the last thing Keith heard before The Shadow Butcher deployed the plunger on the syringe, and everything went black.

The Butcher threw down the empty syringe and popped his knuckles. That was one cabin. That wasn’t his best attempt. It could have certainly been more bloody. Oh, well. Might as well save the bloodbath for the other two cabins.

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Mike screamed as the truck rolled into the cabin’s driveway.

“WE’RE HEEERE!!”

Robin snapped awake. He had an odd tendency to fall asleep no matter the circumstances.

Mike leapt out of the truck as Lydia stretched.

Robin rolled over in the backseat before crawling out.

The cabin rose in front of them like a storybook. It was made almost completely out of oak wood, save for a few stone floors and counters inside, and nestled in a circle of trees.

The three practically tripped over themselves unlocking the cabin door. As soon as they entered, Mike tossed his backpack to the floor, Lydia started some weird yoga stretch, and Mike in true Mike style, began explaining the history of the cabin.

According to Mike, the cabin had been made in the late 1800’s, then replaced with new logs as the old wood rotted and received modern upgrades as the years went on.

After a day of hiking and sightseeing, during which Lydia kept running ahead in and then berating the other two for being slow, Robin was finally back in the cabin.

He collapsed onto one of the armchairs as Mike stumbled through the door behind him, nearly tripping over his own feet as he threw up in the bathroom. Meanwhile, Lydia came in looking…refreshed?

“Wooh!” she said, throwing her bag on the floor. She threw her entire body into the door to keep it shut. “Let’s do that again tomorrow!”

“Let’s not,” both Robin and Mike groaned in tandem

Lydia pretended not to hear, instead going off in a tangent about how beautiful the sightseeing was today.

Mike went back to trying to vomit while Robin popped open a coke. At least at night time the forest was quite peaceful.

He closed his eyes and listened to the chirping of the birds, the fluttering of wings, and the sound of ragged breathing…

Hold it. Ragged breathing?

Robin’s eyes shot open, but there wasn’t anything outside of the window.

He laid back and tried to relax. It was probably Mike or something. Or maybe he’d just imagined it? Yeah, that was probably it.

He kept listening to Lydia blab about bears or whatever, the chirping of birds, and the sounds of Mike throwing up in the bathroom…

Say, where were those barfing noises anyway? And Lydia hadn’t said a word about anything in the last minute either, which wasn’t like her…

Robin was preparing to stand up when he discovered that he was pinned to his seat. His hands were tied to the sides.

He took a moment to process this, then started freaking out.

Robin attempted to call for help, just before taking a blow to the head.

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Robin woke up for the third time that day, rubbing the bump on the back of his head.

He wasn’t in the cabin anymore, but he was still in Twilight Grove, as, luckily enough for him, there was a window in the room.

Then he noticed the walls. Newspaper clippings of various crimes that The Shadow Butcher had committed, right down to the smallest articles.

A red yarn stretched through multiple newspaper pages pinned to the wooden wall, starting with the Shadow Butcher’s first crime in 1999 to the most recent demolition of the Evercrest library. He squinted as he read through the list.

This wasn’t any room Robin was in. He gulped. If this room was what he thought it was, it would be a very long night.