Cabin in the Woods

"That's great," Hector sighed, following after him.

Astarte cast a longing glance at the kitchen before crossing her arms before her chest and scowling at her feet.

Azuma hops in the shower for a rinse because no one wants to touch the shampoo.

Mimiru sits on the counter, eating her own food.

*Nero suddenly stops.*

N"Pretty sure we're at the end of the trail I marked."

T"Okay, well keep marking."

N"We don't have time for that. We're just going straight, I'm sure we'll be fine."

T"Experimental evidence has proven that, when deprived of vision, humans tend to walk in small circles, believing they're traveling in a straight line. Keep marking."
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*Back in the cabin, the lights blink again. Additionally, banging sounds blow out of the heat vent.*

Taiyo sits bolt upright.

Taiyo: "What was that?"

"I'll mark," Hector volunteered, putting an 'x' on a tree.

Astarte looked around with wide eyes and mumbled, "What is that sound?"

*Euryale has been laying about half asleep.*

"It's the vents."
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"Whatever."
==========================
*3 minutes later, they stop for the 8th mark. At this point, there is a large tree laying over a bunch of bushes, blocking the path.*

N"God damn it, this is taking too long."

"We could just climb over it," Hector suggested, carving an 'x' into the fallen tree. "It wouldn't be too difficult."

Azuma leaves the bathroom a few minutes later towelling off his hair.

Azuma: "This place'll collapse on top of us before something really gets us."

Astarte looked distressed at Azuma's remark and went back to staring at her feet with her arms crossed.

*Tirea goes and pats Astarte on the back*

Tirea:<Don't listen to him.>
---
*Cameron shrugs*

<I suppose so.>

*Nero places his hands on the tree & starts pulling his body upward, gripping the bark with his knee. In the shadows ahead, the group feels they can barely make out some kind of swaying movement.*
========================================
*The same thing happens again a few minutes later.*

Astarte flinched away from Tirea, too, then stormed off to her room when the noise started again.

Hector also began crawling over it, while Stefan waited behind.

*Eve starts over the log, Cameron following behind her*
---
*Tirea looks slightly insulted and heads into the kitchen to make herself some food*

*Once they're over, & presumably only Roatha, Thiera, & Stefan are waiting to make the climb, Thiera hangs Nero the lantern. As the circle of light moves away from her, her eyes widen & her mouth gapes.*
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*When she turns the stove on, the spark igniting the gas flashes brighter then usual, & the lights in every room go off, leaving only a small circle of flickering firelight over the burner. The lights soon blink back on, but they are hardly bright enough to see anyone else in the cabin, & they're constantly flickering in & out.*

Cameron:<You all coming?>

*Cameron taps his foot impatiently. Eve shivers in the night air*
---
*Tirea quickly turns the stove off, and runs back into the living room*

Tirea:<Monu?!>

Monu:<What happened?>

Tirea:<I tried to turn on the stove and......yeah.>

Hector started carving a more elaborate 'x' into a tree while waiting for the others.

In her room, Astarte had buried her face in the sheets and was trying to will herself to sleep. Eduj, in his own room, was asleep.

*A large chunk of the log explodes into splinters of wood, flying everywhere. Nero falls, & the lantern rolls across the ground. It briefly illuminates the Shadow Man, standing right over Hector's shoulder, before it rolls into the woods, & too much of its light is blocked to see much of anything.*
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*Vanessa slides off of the counter & slams her can on it.*

V"Turn off the lights, you morons, before they--"

*The lightbulb in the kitchen shatters with a crack, & a tinkle of glass shards. Now there is no light in that room.*

V"--Do that."

*Eve extends a hand to pull Nero up while she and Cameron slowly step back towards the log*
---
*Monu and Tirea set about turning off remaining lights*

"Oh, Jesus!" Hector exclaimed, ducking away from where the Shadow Man seemed to be and swinging his knife in it's direction. Stefan ran to pick up the lantern.

*With a final roar of fury, & a few feeble, dying clangs, the cabin drops a few degrees.*
=======================================
*Nero brushes her off & scrabbles to the bush. He grabs the lantern by the handle & tugs a few times, but it's caught on a branch. So, finally, he digs in with both feet & pulls it free. By the time he does so, it glints off of the knife, which is now chipped dull & rusting. The Shadow Man raises a hand in Hector's face, so Roatha swings his arm, sending an arc of blessed water right at its face. It disappears into the darkness making up the beast's body, but the monster does not react.*

Taiyo climbs under the covers, shivering.

Taiyo: "I don't like this."

Azuma: "Well, shit this place is going to Hell."

*Eve boasts herself up, preparing to jump down to the other side*

Eve:<(The water's useless! We need to get back.)>

*Cameron points his flashlight at the shadow man, while continuing to step back*
---
*Tirea and Monu groan at about the same time*

Monu:<Think it can be fixed?>

Tirea:<Maybe if someone here had experience.>

Hector leaped backwards with enough force to move him back a few meters, not caring what he landed on. Stefan moved a few steps towards the Shadow Man and tossed a moderately sized stick at it, simultaneously waving his cross in its direction.
"Just die or something, get out of here!" Stefan yelled.

Astarte continued the futile attempt to make herself sleep and started to shiver all over as the temperature dropped.

*He doesn't go very far, because he smacks against the bush. The stick catches the Shadow Man in the shoulder, but is unimpeded. It flies off into the darkness, now half as long. Nero gets up & starts running past it.*

R"What are you doing?!"

N"If it came out to stop us, we must be getting close to something!"
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*Euryale rolls over, blindly trying to throw her arm over Taiyo's shoulder. She gets it over her face instead.*
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*Banging noise.*

V"Ow! Shit! Does anyone have a light?"

Hector threw his knife at the Shadow Man and began scrambling further away. "No, we have to go back!" Stefan yelled after Nero. "What if you're wrong?!"