The thick cabin door opened just enough for Elijah to slip inside before she pushed it shut again and triple locked it.
“About time,” Summer muttered.
“If you mean ‘thank you for going outside when no one else did’, you’re welcome.”
She followed him into the kitchen as he slung the shotgun over his shoulder. Ian sat at the small wooden table, watching Kate prepare some food.
“That smells delicious, Kay,” Summer said. Kate glanced shyly over her shoulder and smiled. Elijah sat down next to Ian.
“Nothing?” Ian guessed.
“A bloody load of it, too.”
“Dirty Brit,” Ian muttered. It was true. Elijah’s accent was obvious, but appealing, as was his smooth face and strong arms. And let’s not even get started about his eyes…

I grinned to myself, then closed the screen as my phone vibrated in my pocket.
I tapped answer and fitted it to my ear, “Yello?”
“You’ve got to stop answering like that.”
“I do it just for you, Trace.” I smiled and shifted my weight on the bench. I was the only one waiting at the bus stop.
Tracey sighed from the other end of the line, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hey listen, you’re still working on that new story of yours, right?”
“New assignment?”
“What are you talking about?” she demanded, failing to sound innocent.
“Come on,” I laughed, standing up as a bus rolled to a stop in front of me. The people who got off stared at my head, probably wondering why the side of a white girl’s head was braided with Iverson braids. I had blue eyes too.
“We both know you’d be failing that writing class without copying my work.”
“But I’m not copying,” she whined. “It’s called finding inspiration. And unless you plan on publishing it, I might as well put it to use. Without me, your stories would be collecting dust on your bookshelf.”
“On my hard drive,” I corrected her, stepping onto the bus and flashing the driver with my seasonal pass before placing myself next to a window. “And you know why I’m not publishing.”
“Yeah, yeah, not your destiny, blah-bity-blah-blah-blah. But let’s save it for later. Now lay it on me.”
I sat back as the doors closed with a hiss and the bus jerked forward
“I don’t have a title for it yet.”
“Already sounds like a page-turner.”
I drew a smiley-face on the foggy windows, “It’s a horror slash mystery: A group of people wake up in a cabin one morning, and they don’t remember how they got there, and no one knows each other. Every week or so, another person appears, and one disappears, but they don’t know how.”
“What happens when they try to run away, again?”
“They can’t- they just end up back at the cabin. There’s no way out.”
“And something happens at night, right?”
“Yeah. Creatures come out, and they surround the house. Monsters, maybe? I’m still working on it. In short, if someone goes out after sunset, they don’t come back.”
“Creepy. And what about… um… Evan? Or is it Eli?”
“Elijah. Main character.”
“Right. Wait, hold on- Jackson, get your tiny ass out of my room!” she yelled at her brother. I heard an older voice in the background. “Sorry mom- I SAID DON’T TOUCH THAT!”
After a short struggle and the slam of a door, she picked up the phone again, “I’m back. And the others?” I rolled my eyes.
“Elijah, Ian, Kate, and Summer.”
“Awesome. Hey, thanks. I mean it.”
I stood up as the bus slowed to a stop in front of my street, “Yeah no prob.”
“Catch you later girlfriend.”
I trotted down the steps, “See you tomorrow.”
I turned my phone off and stuck it back in my pocket as I hurried down the block and up the steps of our small house. I pulled my keys out to let myself in and kicked my shoes off. Mom wouldn’t be home for another couple of hours, so I had the place to myself for a while. I went to my room and dropped down on the bed, ignoring the tall pile of college letters demanding for attention from my nightstand.
Destiny could wait half an hour. I had a character to give birth to- and I had a feeling this was going to be a complicated pregnancy.
“Nerd,” I insulted myself, but I didn’t really care. I was what I was.
I reached into my backpack for my laptop before setting it on my knees. But just as I lifted the screen, the room tipped in front of my eyes and I fell off the side of my bed.
And I hit the ground running.
Branches scratched my face, roots reached for my legs, the cold air burned my lungs as I pushed faster and faster, glancing over my shoulder in dread.
It kept coming.
Tears of fear flowed down my cheeks. The darkness swooped in closer.
But then, in the distance: a light. I broke through the last barrier of trees and found myself in a clearing. Above me, a small circle of sky fenced in by treetops. In front of me, a small cabin.
I lost no time as I ran up the wooden steps and banged my fists on the door.
“Hello?” I yelled, and then paused to listen. I heard movement from inside, but there was no answer. “Please!” I added. When no response came, I turned and pressed my back against the door, looking around breathlessly.
Where the hell was I?
Then suddenly the door opened and I fell backwards. I landed on a hard floor and lay there for a moment, stunned.
“Well this is… different,” a hard voice cut the silence. Two people stood at my side, one watching curiously. The girl who’d spoken regarded me with suspicion. I sat up slowly, rubbing my head.
“Take it easy,” the boy took my arm and helped me up. His curly hair stood up in odd directions and his face was troubled, but at least he wasn’t giving me the death stare. The entrance to the cabin was very small. In front of me, a staircase led upstairs, to the right was a tiny kitchen, and to the left a bare living room with an empty fireplace.
“What’s going on-” a British accent caught my attention as another boy walked out of the kitchen, but he stopped short when he saw me. Dark eyes stared at me intently as his eyebrows came together. He glanced at the others questioningly.
“We seem to have a situation on our hands.”
The situation can speak for herself, I thought, but I wasn’t brave enough to say it out loud.
“What’s your name?” he asked me. His hair was almost as dark as mine and swept backwards so his face was clear.
“Amorie…” I murmured, tongue tied as my eyes refused to look away. A younger girl appeared behind his back. She looked at me fearfully.
“It’s alright, Kate. It’s just another one of them,” The other girl said.
“Another one of who?” I asked.
The first guy put a hand on my shoulder, “You might want to sit down.” They led me into the kitchen where Kate hurried to clear the table. I sat down in one of the wooden chairs, and he sat across from me. The other two stood behind him.
“My name is Ian. What do you remember last?”
“I- I was in my room,” I struggled to think. Something else had caught my attention. A name.
Ian.
“On my bed,” I continued. “I opened my laptop and then something happened and I was in the forest.”
“And you will be for a while.”
“Well don’t sugar coat it, Elijah,” Ian muttered, glancing at him. Then he looked back at me. “Wow. You okay?”
Elijah.
Good thing I was sitting down.
Kate. Elijah. Ian.
I turned to stare at the only one who hadn’t introduced herself yet.
“Summer?” I breathed, almost nauseous.
She narrowed her eyes, “How the hell do you know my name?”
“Oh God,” I choked, clinging to the side of the chair. My characters had always felt real to me, but this was... this was insane.
“I asked,” Summer repeated, “how do you know my name?!” she reached for the shotgun and I jumped out of my chair. Elijah grabbed her arm.
“Relax,” he commanded. Then he focused on me again. “Go ahead.”
I bit my lip, clinging to the back of the seat until my knuckles turned white, “I… uh…” I passed a hand over my face. “This is going to sound crazy, but I’m writing a story-”
“That’s not too crazy,” Ian said.
“Yeah. Yeah, it wouldn’t be, except for the fact that the story is about you. And you and you and you,” I looked at all of them. Silence rang throughout the room until Summer broke it with a harsh laugh.
“You’re kidding me, right?” Everyone else looked skeptical too. “You want us to believe that you- you wrote us?”
“How else did I know you’re name?” I demanded. “I can prove it to you!”
“Please do.” Elijah crossed his arms over his chest.
I took a deep breath, “Summer, you have a twin sister, and a single father. Ian, you went to a boarding school and had a girlfriend who cheated on you with a professor,” Ian’s face grew bright red, but I continued. “Kate’s best friend died in a car crash,” I said softly. She hugged herself and avoided my gaze. “And Elijah, when you were a kid-”
“Alright!” he interrupted me quickly. “Alright.”
I glanced around at the four of them. No one seemed ready to say anything.
“This cabin… you can’t get away. People appear and disappear, but you can’t do anything about it.”
Ian stood up and pressed a hand to his forehead; “This is screwed up. This is so screwed up.” I played nervously with a strand of hair.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
“I’m sorry?” Summer, who’d faced her back to me, turned back around. Her hand seemed ready to wrap around the shotgun again. “Is that all you’ve got to say for yourself?”
“Excuse me?”
Her whole body was trembling. Her hair was red, just as I’d imagined it, and her bangs fell slightly into her eyes.
“Assuming this is not a load of crap- why would you write something like this?” she demanded angrily, “We’ve been here for months! You… you killed Kate’s friend? You put us here?” she yelled.
I flinched, but before I could reply, a strange sound caught our attention. Everyone’s eyes flew towards the entrance. The handle on the wooden door twisted up and down.
Kate whimpered something and shrank by Summer’s side, who put an arm around her shoulder. Ian picked up a gun on the table, and the handle began moving faster, as if someone on the other side were trying to open the door. His eyes flickered to me.
“Did you…?” he whispered.
“Yes,” I barely gasped. My heart pounded like a hammer. I’d written this a long time ago in a separate document… it wasn’t even part of this story…
And now I wished I’d deleted it, because I knew exactly what was going to happen next. Pounding hands now accompanied the convulsive twisting of the handle.
“In the basement!” Elijah suddenly yelled, “Go!”
He shoved Kate in front of him and we all dashed into the living room. Summer opened a door on the far wall and we ran down the narrow stairs, but I knew it was no use. There was no stopping what had already been written.
Ian flicked the lights on and cocked his gun and Elijah and I pressed our backs against the door. A loud crash echoed beyond the thin wall.
“That was the front door!” Summer warned loudly as the chaos rolled into the small cabin.
“What are they?” Elijah yelled.
“Fear!” I yelled back as the door began shaking despite our attempts. Summer pushed Kate into a closet and came back up the stairs brandishing a baseball bat. “They’re your worst nightmares!”
“Is there a way to stop them?” Ian demanded.
“You have to face them!”
“Then open the damn door so we can get it over with!” Ian.
I tried not to glance at Summer, “You have to win to survive.”
Her face drained of color.
“You mean-” she gasped, but then the door was suddenly forced open and I was pulled into the living room. I screamed as door shut closed behind me.
“Amorie!” Elijah yelled as they pounded on the wood.
The room was dark. There was no light or sound, except for the others trying to talk to me from the basement.
“Amorie!” Elijah called again.
“Can you hear us?”
The dark was so oppressive I could feel it push against my chest, squeezing all the air out of my lungs. I didn’t answer. I hadn’t told them that I was a character in my story, just as they were. I’d never meant to write Alice so similar to myself. But only now did I realize she was the part I was interpreting.
And Alice was unable to face her fears.
Therefore, I would be unable to face my fears.
I shrank back against the wall.
“Hey! Listen to me!” Elijah yelled from the other side of the wall, “No one’s dying on my watch!”
“That’s not your choice,” I murmured, petrified. I could feel it. It was coming closer, and nothing would stop it. What an ironic death.
“What? Listen to me! The door is unlocked, see?” I heard the handle twist freely. “But we can’t open it from the inside,” he continued, “you have to do it!”
My heartbeat accelerated. Goose bumps formed on my arms. It was almost onto me.
I glanced to the side. The handle was only about a yard away.
“It won’t work…”
“Why the hell not?” Ian demanded.
“Because I wrote this,” I answered, my voice trembling, “I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I wrote my death into this story.”
“Screw your story!” Summer spoke for the first time. “Nothing is permanent, unless you do nothing about it!” she hollered. “Now grab the damn handle!”
Do it! A voice yelled in my head.
There’s no point, another countered, you can’t change what’s already written!
The voices inside my head struggled for a terrible moment, but then I dove for the door, and opened it.
I hit the wood of my bedroom floor. I gasped and clutched the back of my head for a moment. Then, I sat up, disoriented. The first thing I saw was my phone sitting in the middle of my bed. I stared at it for a long moment, but then grabbed it and called the first number on my speed-dial.
“I am so tempted to answer with a yello.”
“Tracey, don’t you dare turn in that story!”