SHORT HORROR STORY
Haunting In The Cabin
The wind howled like a banshee outside the isolated cabin, the only sound competing with the rhythmic creak of the old rocking chair on the porch. Inside, Elena knelt by the fireplace, feeding logs to the dying embers. The power had been out for three days, plunging them into an unsettling darkness. John, her husband, was out searching for their dog, Bailey, who’d disappeared into the woods the day before.
A sudden, inexplicable chill snaked down Elena’s spine. She glanced at the rocking chair — it was moving, ever so slightly, back and forth. Panic clawed at her throat. John wouldn’t be that careless. The cabin had only one entrance, the door behind her which was firmly bolted shut. The wind couldn’t be rocking the chair this violently.
Taking a shaky breath, Elena grabbed a fire poker. The rocking intensified, the floorboards groaning in protest. “John?” she croaked, her voice barely a whisper. The only answer was the mournful wail of the wind. With a surge of adrenaline, she lunged towards the chair.
It was empty.
Elena’s heart hammered against her ribs. She scanned the room, her eyes flickering over the shadows that danced on the log walls. Then, she noticed it — a faint melody, a child’s lullaby, humming softly in the corner. A lullaby Bailey would whine along to whenever John played it on his phone. But John’s phone was on the coffee table, untouched.
The humming grew louder, filling the room. Elena’s blood ran cold. It wasn’t a human voice. It was a distorted, raspy whisper, the tune warped and wrong. Terror paralyzed her. Then, from the corner of her eye, she saw it — a flicker of movement in the darkness.
A small, spectral figure materialized, barely there, its form shimmering like heat haze. It was a little girl, dressed in a tattered nightgown, her empty eyes locked on Elena. The humming stopped. The silence was deafening. The rocking chair creaked violently once, then remained still.
Tears welled in Elena’s eyes. This wasn’t real. This couldn’t be real. But the spectral girl reached out a hand, cold and insubstantial, and brushed it against Elena’s cheek. A jolt of icy fear ran through her. The girl’s lips stretched into a grotesque smile, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth.
Then, as abruptly as it appeared, the apparition vanished. The humming was gone, replaced by the eerie quiet of the storm. Elena sank to the floor, gasping for breath. The rocking chair creaked softly once more. This time, when she looked, there was a single, blood-red dog collar lying on the seat.
