I didn’t want to harass this poor man. But it seemed like he might know more than he let on. Maybe he could explain what is in this cabin and why the parrot kept repeating these coordinates.
‘Is it possible your brother has moved to a cabin in North Wales’ I asked. I carefully explained that the bird had been repeating these coordinates to me.
The man paused before responding ‘I don’t know anything about a cabin in the woods.’
‘Do you think this is where your brother is?’ I asked.
‘My brother, he was… unwell. That’s why I’ve not seen him or spoken to him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he moved out to a cabin in the wilderness. But, like I said, we don’t speak’ the man explained.
‘What do you mean unwell? Did something happen to him?’ I asked.
I immediately realised I was being too forward. But before I could apologise he responded.
‘Since he got sick, he was more comfortable around animals than people. That parrot of yours was his best friend. I’d hear him talking to Shepherd for hours.’ The man said before pausing.
He continued to explain how his brother, Dylan, became increasingly withdrawn, paranoid and violent. After an argument, he left, taking the parrot with him. The man assumed Dylan been sectioned, become homeless or left the country. He wasn’t interested in reconnecting since Dylan’s behaviour turned the relationship sour. I was surprised at how open he was talking about his brother. My guess he was just lonely since his brother left and needed conversation, or needed to vent.
I left the phone call feeling conflicted. On one hand, I was satisfied that the mystery was solved. Dylan was seemingly a hermit of sorts, and had taken recluse in the countryside. With nothing but time, he could have taught Kiwi the coordinates to ensure he could be returned, should anything happen. On the other hand, I felt sad because there was no way I could keep Kiwi, knowing I’d probably be depriving this man of his only friend. I decided I had to return Kiwi.
With this settled, I decided to return Kiwi the following weekend. I saw some of your comments saying I ought to bring a friend, so I decided to bring my friend Nathan. For a nerdy guy, he’s built like a brick shithouse, so I figured if Dylan gets violent, I’d have backup. Nathan was excited to be a part of it, and even built us a playlist for the car. I loaded up the car with torches, snacks and a box with ventilation holes for Kiwi.
The drive was around 4 hours, spent mostly on the motorway, then side roads and eventually dirt tracks. As we were closing in on the cabin, we lost all signal. Luckily we brought a map, though so with a little navigation skills we managed to get close, albeit there was still about a 1 kilometre walk Westwards through the woods before we hit the clearing. We grabbed Kiwi, and headed for the cabin.
It was light when we left the car with about 2 hours left until sunset. Plenty of time to walk 1 kilometre. But the walk was taking much, much longer than anticipated. Every 5 minutes felt like 20, and every 25” meters felt like a kilometre. It wasn’t long before we both starting feeling panicked. It was getting dark. We couldn’t get any signal. We could barely read the map. There were no obvious bearings to help us keep oriented. Just trees, trees, rocks and more trees. Nathan kept positive, popping jokes about the Welsh as we started the hike, but before long we were both silent. We were afraid. After what felt like hours, we saw a faint light in the tree line. We followed the light until we reached the clearing and there it was, the cabin.
We quickly paced towards the cabin, desperate to return Kiwi, and get back to the car and out of there. The cabin was made of wood, and stood out in the clearing against a background of a wall of trees. At the front of the cabin was a porch, which was being used to store firewood. Above the door was a window, from which the light we’d seen from the woods was being emitted. As we approached the cabin, we looked at each other and nodded.
We walked up to the door together and knocked. Nobody answered. We waited a minutes and then knocked again. Nothing. There was no way that after all of this time, we were about to turn back. I tried speaking through a crack in the door.
‘Hello?! I’ve got Shepherd’. He chirped as if to say yes, it’s me! That was the first sound Kiwi had made that evening.
No answer.
‘I’m going to try the door’ Nathan said.
‘Wait’ I exclaimed, but it was too late. Nathan had opened the door. His nervous grin quickly turned to a look of disgust as a smell overcame us. It smelled like death. I immediately gagged. I figured an animal had died inside the cabin, but the smell was much worse than any dead animal I’ve seen at the side of the road.
Nathan tugged my shirt.
‘Look!’ he whispered.
He was pointing to the middle of the cabin. I hadn’t looked in the cabin yet, since I’d been bent over attempting to keep my stomach from emptying over the cabin’s porch. The cabin was empty, except for a red smear on the floor. In the centre of the cabin was a white sheet, covering something. Fuelled adrenaline, we set Kiwi down on the porch and entered the cabin.
As we entered the dinky lit cabin, it became apparent that the red smear was a pentagram. On each of the 5 corners on the pentagram, was a candle.
With my foot, I tugged the corner of the sheet away. I was horrified to see what was underneath. Words can’t describe how awful it looked. A body, decayed, almost mummified. The skin was tight on a skeleton frame. The corpse looked almost intact, with exception of the eyes. They’d been removed. Not carefully, though. Bloodied holes and scratches surrounded the eye sockets. It looked as thought they’d been eaten by an animal, like a crow or maybe rats. It was the brother.
My heart began beating, fast. I turned and ran. I got about 20 meters before I turned to see Nathan silhouette, still in the cabin. Frozen with horror, I guess. I clenched my fists and headed back towards the cabin to grab Nathan
so we could get out of there. Just as I was about to shout for Nathan to leave, I heard a familiar sound. A whistle. It was Kiwi, singing his favourite song. Pop Goes The Weasel. The box on the porch was gone.
‘Kiwi!’ I shouted. I couldn’t leave Kiwi here alone. He would die out here on his own.
‘Nathan, Kiwi is gone!’ Do you have him?. Nathan didn’t move. Still frozen. Just as I approached the door, a just of wind extinguished the candles simultaneously and the door slammed.
‘Nathan! Get out of there’ I screamed desperately.
‘I can’t! Help! The door is jammed’ Nathan cried.
I tried the door. It wouldn’t budge. I tried kicking it even. It didn’t move an inch.
‘Something is in here’ Nathan called out desperately.
I quickly clambered up on the logs on the porch, and peered through the window above the door. Inside, I watched as a figure dressed in black approached Nathan from behind. It had the proportions of a human. Except the head. The were wearing a mask, at least I think it was a mask. It looked like a plague mask. As the figure approached the door which Nathan was trying to open, the moonlight from the little window illuminated the figure. This is when I noticed the arms. The figure’s arms were unnaturally long and at the end, long bony fingers and sharp nails protruded. He was wearing a coat of black feathers, that covered his torso.
Shocked, I stumbled and I fell backwards from the logs. Then quiet as Nathan stopped trying the door, and his calls turned to whimpers. I’d never heard Nathan cry before, but he sobbed and wailed. I think I even heard him begin to pray, then silence. The door began opening. Except it wasn’t Nathan opening the door, it was that thing. That fucking thing. It was awful. It wasn’t human. It wasn’t an animal. It was an abomination. I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I ran.
I ran as fast as I could, trying desperately to remember how we came in through the woods. I couldn’t look back. I couldn’t face seeing that thing again. I didn’t want to think about what would happen to me, what happened to Nathan. After what felt like eternity, I managed to find where we had parked. Then I drove. I drove fast, only stopping for traffic lights until I got back this morning.
Im ashamed that I didn’t save Nathan. I panicked and ran. But something tells me we’ll be reunited soon. Just before I wrote this, I heard something. A song. Kiwi’s favourite song. Pop Goes The Weasel.