My Summer in Cabin 9

Chapter 11

That day went by extremely slow. We were only restricted to our cabin and the cafeteria, and I wasn't planning on sneaking out again, so Jackson and I just hung out in our cabin the whole day.

I glanced up at the the clock. 9:37. My stomach grumbled, antagonizing me to get food. I looked over at Jackson. He was on his phone.

"I'm going to get some food." I announced, taking big strides to the door.

"This late?" Jackson raised an eyebrow.

"The cafeteria doesn't close till 10, so yeah. Why not? I'll only be 5 minutes." I shrugged and exited the cabin.

When I got to the cafeteria, the place was abandoned. I looked around, never really noticing the beauty of this place. The walls were made of oak wood, just like the cabins, and the bottom of the walls were carefully stacked stones glued into them. The ceiling was high, small windows letting in a faint glow from the moon, and beams criss crossed over each other, keeping the ceiling from caving in.

I approached the counter, a lone lunch lady behind the counter doing dishes. Her long black hair was tied back in a loose bun and covered with a hair net, and her body was very petite.

I spotted a plain bag of chips on the counter in a cardboard box, along with other various flavors.

"I'm going to take this." I said as I snatched the bag.

The lunch lady only nodded in acknowledgement.

I sat down at one of the tables and started to dig in.

'Who could it be?' I rolled the thought in my mind, but it didn't help answer the question. 'All the suspects are innocent, so who in the world could've wanted to kill her?' I massaged my temples. 'Maybe this whole murder mystery is just a waste of time.'

A low throated growl snapped me out of my thoughts. I whipped my head around and saw a huge dog like creature with it's teeth bared menacingly. Actually, scratch that. All three heads had three teeth bared menacingly. It black fur looked spiky in the low light. And the worst part? It was standing right in front of the door.

'Shit.' I immediately thought as it crept closer. I swung my head around to the lunch lady, but she wasn't there. Instead, there was the same figure from two nights ago, black hood and all. It snickered, and a small smile was peeking from the hood. It climbed up the counter, and with the snap of it's fingers the figure vanished, leaving an echoing, bone chilling laugh.

I sprung out of the chair and abandoned my chips, slowly edging away from the beast. It growled at the movement. I glanced over to the counter. There was a barred wall peeking from the wall that was over the counter.

'Maybe...' I turned my attention back to the dog. One of the heads licked it's chops at the thought of having a nice teenage girl for dinner, the other heads following the action. Then their eyes focused back on me and hardened with hunger.

I swallowed hard. I suddenly felt a wave of panic. 'Is this going to work?' I took a deep breath. 'Here goes nothing.'

Suddenly, I did a 180 and sprinted for the counter. The creature instantly was on my heels, biting and barking. I could feel it's hot breath on my legs as I neared the counter. I avoided tables and chairs, and jumped over them of I had to. In one quick motion, I jumped on the smooth surface of the counter and grabbed hold of the barred door, then pulled it down until the door clicked into placed.

Just then, the dog jumped onto the bars and barked, sending drool flying everywhere. The multiple heads tried ripping through the bars, not eager to let their prey get away.

I slumped behind the counter, grabbing my hair with my sweaty hands. What in the world was I supposed to do now? Should I wait until the mutt just goes away, if it goes away. Maybe I should wait til morning, so someone would find me hiding out here.

I sat there with those thoughts swirling in my mind when I heard the door open. I peeked over the counter to see Jackson standing there, staring at the dog in awe. The creature turned around, locking it's eyes on its new target. It let out a low growl that rumbled in its throat.

"Watch out Jackson!" I cried as the dog lunged at him. Jackson extended his hands and let out a gust of snow and ice. When the icy mix cleared, the mutt was encased in solid ice. All it's heads were in an angry expression, like it was mad at being trapped in the ice.

I instantly hefted the barred door up and crawled over the counter. "Nice timing."

"Well you said you would be five minutes, so when five minutes passed, I got a little suspicious." Jackson smiled and came close to me. "Are you okay?"

I let out a shaky breath and sat down on one of the seats. I realized that I was trembling, and all of a sudden I was consumed by helplessness.

"No." I admitted as Jackson sat down next to me. "Violets' killer is coming after me."

"What do you mean?" Jackson asked softly, like he was talking to a child.

"When I was looking for Amara, I went into her cabin, and I found a journal of Violets'. I was reading through it, and on the last page I read, it said 'you're next'." I shook my head. "Ever since then, someone has been trying to kill me. First with the river, and now this..."

I had to stop talking because my voice was overcome by emotion. I could feel tears brimming in my eyes, but I refused to cry in front of Jackson. I suddenly felt steady arms wrap around me, confronting me that everything would be alright.

That's when I cracked. Tears spilled from my face as I leaned into Jackson's warm embrace.

"What am I going to do?" I sobbed, gasping in between words. I continued to cry as Jackson said nothing, only holding onto me tighter, like I was going to let go of him and fall off a cliff. And maybe I would. I would fall off a mental cliff of confusion, helplessness, grief, and sadness because all the stress I was going through. It felt like my emotions were causing me to plummet into an abyss, an abyss that I could never concur.

My sobs and tears subsided, but I didn't pull away from Jackson. I breathed in his minty scent, the smell comforting me. He took his hand and placed it on my head, drawing me in closer.

"I'll protect you." Jackson whispered. "That's what teammates are for, right?"

"You promise?" I said softly.

Jackson pulled away just enough so he could look me in the eye. "I promise." He stuck out his hand and raised his pinkie. Jackson cracked a smile, creating a dimple on his left cheek. "Pinkie swear."

I chuckled, wiping away the remainder of the tears. I extended my pinkie and linked mine with Jackson's. We both shook our hands and let go of each other, swearing that no matter what, Jackson would be there for me.

'Hopefully he can keep that promise.' I thought.

"Let's go back to the room, you look tired." A mischievous grin spread across his face. "And like shit."

"Shut up!" I laughed, shoving him a little to hard. He toppled over and fell to the ground, hitting his face on the ground in the process.

"Ow!" Jackson exclaimed, rubbing his nose.

I attempted to muffle an oncoming laugh, but miserably failed. "Who looks like shit now?"

He glared at me and I let out another laugh. Jackson suddenly reached out for my chair leg and yanked it. I fell off of it and hit the ground with a thunk.

Jackson was the one to laugh this time. "You still do."

Instead of fighting with him, I laughed along with him, feeling much better than before. We laughed and laughed until our sides hurt and we couldn't breathe. After our laughing fit, Jackson said,

"But seriously, we should go back to the cabin."

"Amen." I agreed. And with that, we walked back together to the cabin with our arms linked.