4 Part IV

"Death. The end of life. Fear. The beginning of death." The voice of the old woman I and my mom met when I was ten rings in my head. The weather was so friendly on that fateful saturday in Canada, with bright blue skies and white fluffy clouds, the sun hiding a bit behind them, telling you how beautiful it would be to spend your afternoon at the beach.

After batting my lashes, trying to look cute, looking at my mom continuously with pleading eyes, she agreed to take me to the beach if I ate up my breakfast and put my room in order. Happily, we walked down the road and she listened to me chatter about why I didn't like a certain classmate of mine but all too soon, our joy is cut short by an old woman asking for alms. "What an interesting daughter you got yourself" she said after my mom gave her a couple change she had in her purse.

"Yeah, she keeps me entertained all the time", my mom says looking at me proudly and I smile a bit, getting a little impatient to get to the beach.

"I have a gift for you young one", she said and I started to get scared at how closely she was looking at me.

"No, thanks" my mom said sounding a bit unsure, moving slowly away from the woman. Showing her brown teeth in a creepy smile, the woman said those words and my mom got a bit angry, or maybe scared as we left her immediately. Until now, the word 'death' never scared or confused me so much.

A knock on the door startles me out from my trip down memory lane.

"Dylan?", Betty's voice follows the knock.

"Yeah?" Dylan says loud enough for her to hear but doesn't open the door.

"Jake needs you now."

"Yeah, okay". Dylan says in response and leaves immediately after putting on a shirt, as if that was an escape route.

Exasperated, I sit on the bed holding a pillow tightly to my chest, the room suddenly feeling empty and cold just like my heart. He left without a single word, leaving me even deeper in the dark. The eyes, the voice impersonating Dylan's, the nightmare, the eery presence and voice, everything huddled up in my head like a big hot coal burning up every last bit of courage I thought I had.

"It's either we face death or death faces us", Dylan's voice resonating in my head. What did he mean by that? Is that the reason why he was bent on not coming here? Does that explain his sudden decision to come? The confusion I feel right now is a hundred times more than what I felt when I had to pick a dress for my wedding.

After brooding on my current situation, trying to find the dots to connect it all but failing woefully, I decide to go see Betty. Her jokes and stories would probably take my mind off all of this and the day would go by quickly. Hurriedly, not wanting to be alone for long, I clean up and put on my favourite blue shorts and white short sleeved shirt. Looking at the mirror one last time, making sure my lack of sleep last night is unnoticeable, I head out of the room. Trying to look natural, I walk normally down the passage, strangely noticing the second door in-between our room and Betty's standing slightly ajar. I try to fight off the voice deep down telling me to just take a peek.

"No, I'm not doing that", I whisper but as if having a different mind of its own, my body ignores my beckoning to just go downstairs and before I know it, my shaky hand's on the door handle, my head peering into the room.

The room is pitch black and I can't see a thing. Taking a bold step, I go into the room, one foot still holding the door open and and my right palm searching the wall for a light switch. The wall feels rough, unlike the smooth brown wooden walls around the cabin, making me all the more inquisitive about this room. I don't seem to find any switch so I try to go in deeper, my leg slipping away from the door causing it shut close behind me, the sound resonating in this dark, cold and eerily silent room. It's so quiet I could hear the fast thumping of my heart beat and my uneven breathing.

My eyes widen out of reflex to the thick darkness, fear creeping up on me making my palms sweaty. Maybe it was a bad idea to come in here at all. I turn around to leave, but just as my hand finds the door handle, I hear a clicking sound followed by a dim red light flooding the room and startling the wits out of me. I quickly turn around, standing in a defensive position putting my hands in front of me like a karateist.

I look around barely seeing anything in the dim red light, my blood seems to be in a racing competition with my heart beat. I wanna run away and pretend like I never came in here, but my curiosity gets the best of as I find myself taking small quiet steps forward into the room. It's empty, not furniture whatsoever, no window, no en suite, just a big scary empty room with a large mirror at the end of the room. Its a mirror instead of a wall. The red light making it hard for me to see myself clearly. Well, I guess there really isn't any clue as to what's going on here. Giving up, I turn around to leave when my eyes catches sight of something white on the wall to my left. It's like a paper pasted on the wall. Going closer, I can see tiny writings on it but I can't see what's written. Taking fast yet cautious steps, I go closer and see it's a list of names. A lot of names. Sonia, Rose, Miranda, Catherine, Natalie, Emelia and lots of others.

All female names. Who are these people? Jake said they passed this cabin down to their first or only sons, so it couldn't be the names of each owner per time. I start to get a really creepy and eery feeling about this place so I turn to leave, but not before noticing the last name on the list. Selena.

"Selena?", I whispering to my self, frowning. Dylan's aunt? Why is her name in this list? What does this list even mean. I should really get out of here. Quickly, I run to the door and try to open it but it's stuck. My heart starts racing again, my knees getting weak as a result of the fear overwhelming my whole body. Roughly, I try to open the door to no avail. Hitting, kicking, pulling and pushing, the door refuses to budge. I turn around, looking for something but nothing exactly. I can't be stuck here. I can't. No one can know I came in here either. Looking around, I catch sight of myself in the mirror, my heart starts racing even more and goosebumps crawl up my whole body as I see it's not just my reflection. There's something else. Someone else. And it's standing right behind me.

A hot coal of fear settling in the pit of my stomach as my eyes widen even more, if that's possible. Screaming, I turn around in fright, but falling to the ground, landing on my butt and just like before, I don't see anyone. I look back into the mirror, and it's not there anymore. Hurriedly, i try to open the door again and without much effort needed this time, the door opens and I run out, the door shutting close by itself and I pick up my pace heading downstairs.