was going
to be cool.”
“It is cool,” Jason says.
“It looks like the cabin from Evil Dead ,” Kevin says.
“Only twice as big and twice as freaky.”
“It’s cool, trust me,” Jason says, as he steps onto the
porch and puts his key in the door.
The first thing they see when they enter the cabin is
hands.
There are dozens of bronzed ornamental hands hang-
ing from the walls of the entry room. They are attached to
the walls by the insides of their wrists, appearing as if the
hands are reaching out of the wallpaper to grab them.
“What the fuck?” Desdemona says.
“Your grandpa was weird ,” Crystal says.
Jason examines the hands.
“I’ve never seen these before,” he says.
“They’re creepy,” Desdemona says.
They go into the living room. The walls in here are
also covered in hands.
“There used to be deer heads and fish trophies all
over these walls,” Jason says. “Grampy must have gotten
eccentric in his old age.”
The house is filled with orange-ish brown and mus-
tard yellow furniture. The wall paper is a shiny copper color.
It all looks like it came out of the Seventies. All of the bed-
rooms are empty except for the master bedroom, which has
a queen bed, a nightstand, and a lamp.
“It’s changed a lot since I was a kid,” Jason says. “I won-
der if he redecorated it so that he could rent it out or something.”
Jason takes them out on the second floor balcony.
“This is the coolest part,” Jason says.
The balcony is huge. Bigger than the living room. It
is hanging off of the cliff. It overlooks miles of forest. Not
a speck of civilization can be seen.
“The view is amazing,” Crystal says. “It’s like one
of those scenic viewpoints on the highway, but its all our
own.”
All six of them approach the edge of the balcony and
look out at nature. They breathe in the fresh air.
“You’re right, this is awesome,” Desdemona says.
She kisses Kevin. Whenever she sees something pretty she
is compelled to kiss somebody. She tries to kiss Rick, as
well, but he steps back before she can get too close.
“I don’t trust this balcony,” Rick says. “If it collaps-
es we’re fucked.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Jason says. “My grampy invest-
ed a lot of money into this place.”
“When?” Rick says. “40 years ago?”
“Well, you better not be chicken shit about heights,”
Jason says. “Because this deck is where we’re doing all of
the partying.”
“Hells yeah!” Kevin says. “Let’s get the beer out of
the car and start partying right now.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jason says. “Why don’t all of
you unload the van while I figure out how to get the genera-
tor going.”
“I’m on it,” Kevin says.
They start drinking early. Rick and Des get drunk the
fastest, drinking shots of vodka and mountain dew. Kevin
and Crystal drink beers slowly while they get the barbeque
going. Jason takes a while turning on the generator. He’s
not really sure how it works. He’s also not sure why the wa-
ter isn’t working. After an hour or so, he gets the generator
going but gives up on trying to figure out the water.
“You mean I’m going to have to shit outside?” Des-
demona asks, her head on Rick’s lap.
“Yep,” Jason says. “And no showers for a few days,
either.”
“We might as well have just gone camping,” Desde-
mona says.
Then she takes a shot of vodka.
Stephanie is in the upstairs bathroom crying again.
She is brushing her teeth while crying. She needs some-
body to talk to but she doesn’t know who. She’s really not
that close with anyone. Crystal is the closest thing to her
best friend but Steph is listed as sixth or seventh on Crystal’s
best friend list. Stephanie saw the list in Crystal’s diary last
year.
She looks in the mirror and pretends that her mirror
image is a close enough friend to confide in. She tells the
mirror image friend