roadkill (wip)

The Cabin

The skies went violet beneath the broken up clouds, nightfall was soon upon them as they passed through intersections and out up the winding hills between sea of forest, away from the residential areas of Fouke. Barry's brow furrowed with sweat and his clammy hands gripped the wheel tightly, his lips silently praying he was almost there. They eventually came to a river cutting through the woods, a rickety wood plank and mesh wire bridge running over it. Barry put his foot down, driving across full throttle. As soon as they'd passed over a crunching sound of planks followed, although none except Gracie noticed; whimpering as she gawked out the back window was only met with more complaint from Justin. Turning the corner of the trail, a large cabin came into view atop the next hill. It looked awfully run down, windows boarded up, porch in disrepair. Patches of planks either shodily tapered over with spare wood or left as gaps. Ivy and thorns wrapped its way up the walls. The car pulled up to its front and all except Barry vacated to inspect. Willow took Gracie far enough from the happy couple to let her off the leash, watching her frollock off round the side of the cabin, scraggily grey ears flopping out of sight. Lewis stuck his head through the window, observing as Barry rummaged around for the keys.
"So what happened to this uncle of yours, he die of inhospitable conditions?" Barry ignored Lewis' comment and locked up the car. Kasia twirled her curls round her fingers, elbow leaning on Justin's shoulder,
"So like, does it have a pool, or at least a shower?" She asked, the chewing of gum breaking up her Eastern European accent.
"It should have a shower, two bedrooms and at least a couple couches. Besides, we won't be sleeping on them much!" Barry's mouth curled into a grin as he opened up the boot and loaded two beer crates under his arms. He chucked Justin the cabin key. Justin's sneakers carried him hurriedly up the porch. As he approached the door, his foot fell through a weak plank. Followed by the raucous laughter of the others, Justin lifted himself out to a disapproving look from Barry. Waggling the key and unlocking the cabin, he made his way in tailed by Kasia, Barry, Lewis and then Willow. The lot of them coughed at the amount of dust thickening the air, Lewis flicked out his lighter to illuminate the otherwise pitch black room, finding an oil lantern hanging on the inside of the door. He lit it, then making his way round to every other lantern. They were presented with a mildew covered doormat, then a shabby bear skin rug between two beaten up leather couches under a small cork coffee table. Barry stacked the crates on the table and had a gander around the outskirts. Each of the furnishings had been left in disorder, as though someone had been searching through every drawer, nonchalant as to whether they were all closed neatly. As beers were twisted open and passed round, Barry noticed only one of them hadn't taken a bottle off him-
"Check it out!" Justin leapt through one of the side doors, a crossbow in hand, held by his crotch as though he were about to perform a guitar solo with it. "Jesus christ Justin, where'd you get that?" Exclaimed Willow, the jaws of the rest had dropped, Kasia giggled as though her macho machine had done something impressive. Barry snatched it from Justin handing him a beer "Nope! Not having you guys mess with any guns, especially you!" He stated firmly.
''Aw c'mon, we could totally make a competition out of it!" Justin goaded.
"Absolutely not, we came out here for a laugh, not to accidentally shoot one another!" Barry marched the rifle back into the sideroom. An extensive collection of artillery, weaponry and other assortment of tools stared back at him, he idle mindedly placed the rifle against the wall, taking in the room of death machines. He'd turned to face a large rifle glistening on the wall. Barry's jaw dropped, sparking a domino effect incomplete by Justin, he snatched it off the rack in excitement, crying out:
"Whoa, this is sick!" He held this one like a side facing jazz bass. Barry immediately wrestled it out of his grasp "No way, we're not touching these!" He bellowed as the rest of the group stood in shock. Noticing the sick-of-his-shit look festering across Barry, Lewis held his palm down hands up to him, begging:
"Yo alright dude, let's just put it down, cool?" Barry shifted to a distant mood, his lowered morale engulfed the rest of the party. Swapping the rifle out for a hefty torch on the near cabinet top, muttering bitterly,
"I'm going to go check out the rest of the cabin." Saying nothing else, he exits into whichever door was closest.

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