A huge thank you to all who took the time to enter the 2025 Solano County Library Teen Writing Contest!

We were honored to read your work, and encourage each of you to continue writing.

Please enjoy the winning entry below!

SHORT STORY WINNER

Cabin of Whispers

by Mia Annette Perry

 

The cabin itself was ancient. I mean, seriously ancient. Not ancient in the historical monument kind of way. Ancient in the way of “this building is most certainly kept together with spider webs and prayer” type of manner. The cabin belonged to Liam’s Uncle Rick’s. Let’s just say that Rick had a “special” personality. Every summer, he’d insist that they come over to spend a weekend in this old summer cabin of his. The reason this old place was so beloved was because it did not get cell phone reception there and it was situated in an area that would be “well and truly in nowhere-ville.” But this year, as Liam had promised to go with his little sister Sarah so she would not go crazy with boredom.

The cabin itself is in deep upstate New York forest and is ringed by trees that tower over and exclude all but a glimmer of direct sunlight. Even during the times when the site was bathed in direct sunlight, this location always seemed dark. There had always been an eerie presence within the woods around this cabin that gave Liam the feeling he was being watched all the time. He had always attributed this to a response to having seen too many scary movies. But this was not this case.

Sarah, perpetually staring at her cell phone, was also more reserved than normal. She stared blankly out of the car window into the woods with an odd expression on her face. The first evening of this observance was a stunned wake-up call for Liam when he was compelled to watch Sarah sleepwalk. She went on to utter some incoherent words that he was unable to quite hear but appeared to include “the woman in woods” in some way. Liam brushed this aside as a dream but couldn’t shake a feeling that this weekend in this cabin was going to be anything but relaxing.

The next morning, Uncle Rick pulled up in his rusty old pickup truck that bounced its way up the top of the long, curving driveway. Rick himself was a gaunt man with uncombed gray hair that seemed not to have been combed for a while and an eye which would rove all over without fixating on anything. He’d carried a whole bag of dusty old books and notebooks with him to the cabin.

“These woods contain secrets, Liam,” Rick went on in a conspiratorial whisper. “Secrets which need to be uncovered.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, Uncle Rick. Don’t wake up any ancient spirits, okay?”

Rick gave a dry, wheezing laugh. “No promises,” he said.

The more Rick became absorbed in his own work, the more Liam attempted to amuse Sarah. But all he was able to elicit from her was a blank and abstracted demeanor. She sat for hours looking out through the trees. Liam even dug up an old trunk of board games that he hoped would interest Sarah. But she did not want to play.

“I hear things. Liam,” she speaks in a hushed tone. “Whispers in the woods. They’re summoning me.”

Liam wanted to tell her that it was all just an illusion, but he could see terror in her eyes. So, he chose to look into Rick’s stories to find a motive behind all that is happening.

The notebooks were replete with mysterious references to myth and legend that had built around a woman called Elara. She had disappeared in the woods over a hundred years ago. Elara, legend had it, was a strange and lovely woman. She was accused, actually, and ran into the woods where she simply disappeared. Others claimed that she had died in the forest and had weathered the storms. Others knew that she had made a deal with malevolent spirits and that she still wanders through those woods to this day.

On moving further, Liam learned that this cabin is the place where Elara was last spotted. There are descriptions in those dairies of paranormal happenings happening inside this very cabin. Things that couldn’t be explained. Things that were shifting on their own without explanation. But something that was observing the people there. It was made apparent to Liam that Sarah is not simply mad about all this. Something more to this than what she had first assumed.

A storm rolled in that night. Wind howled through above branches and pounded rain against Liam’s cabin windows. The cabin lights dimmed and died. But a kerosene lantern lit the cabin. Shadows cast a dim, ghostly glow on the wall.

Sarah’s condition deteriorated. She grew increasingly restless. She walked back and forth in the room. She spoke randomly to herself. She looked about the room as if she was seeing something nobody else could see.

“Elara is here, Liam,” Sarah spoke in a trembling voice.

And cabin temperatures then dropped to freezing. The gust of wind that swept through the cabin extinguished the light in the lamp. Liam desperately searched for his flashlight.

He shone the flashlight on Sarah. The expression that flashed across his face made his blood freeze. The eyes were black as coal. She wore a grimace of a grin on her face. The voice that had emerged from that cabin was now menacing and frightening.

“Hi, Liam,” Sarah’s voice rasped out. But it wasn’t Sarah’s voice. “I have been waiting for you.”

Sarah’s whimpers, which had plagued her, had descended into a chorus within her mind. She glared with rigid posture as her eyes went glassy. Elara was well and truly in control of her now. Sarah’s changed voice tormented Liam as she spoke secrets of his own past and played games with all of his darkest fears.

Elara, by way of Sarah, led Liam deeper into the forest. The cabin itself seemed to be working against Liam as doors slammed shut before him and objects went flying through the air. It became cold to a temperature just below freezing.

And Liam had only learned enough from those notebooks to recall that in one of them there was a reference to how Elara’s ability was somehow connected to some object – said object being an old mirror which was present in the attic. And of course, this is where Elara/Sarah became an extremely powerful adversary because she had used Liam’s affection for his sister against him.

He jumped aside from a whizzing candle stick and sprinted up the creaking stairs that led to the attic. Elara/Sarah was close behind. The attic was dirty and full of cobwebs. Stinking air filled his lungs when he spotted the mirror standing in a corner. The surface of this antique was misty.

Before he could realize, Elara/Sarah leapt towards him and shoved him to the floor. She pinned him there and glared into his eyes.

“You can’t prevent this, Liam,” she sneered. “Sarah is mine now.”

Liam fought back against her, but Elara’s power was foreign. He still felt Sarah slipping away from him as her consciousness fell into Elara’s darkness.

In the last attempt at keeping Elara away from this life, Liam recalled that in one of the diaries there had been a reference to a ritual. The ritual involved a symbol of protection. He was instantly sketching out this symbol on the ground with his finger and with some dirt and grime as ink.

When he finished the symbol, a surge of power ran through the attic. Elara/Sarah shrieked as she lost Liam. The mirror exploded into a million pieces as the dark power that surrounded the cabin let loose.

Sarah fell to the ground, unconscious. Liam tore over to her to see if she was alive. She was, but barely.

He brought her down to the ground floor and placed her on the couch. Uncle Rick had been so quiet all this time and emerged from his room with fear in his eyes. “What have you done?” he panted. “You’ve unleashed something horrid.” “You knew this, didn’t you? You knew about Elara?” Liam shot him a scowling look. Rick didn’t respond to this question and kept quiet. Liam realized that Rick had actually been trying to reach out to Elara’s ghost the whole time as an effort to receive some form of power and knowledge. With the breaking dawn, the thunderstorm ceased. The cabin had been left in shambles. But the darkness had dissipated. Sarah slowly came awake. Her black eyes were transformed into fearful and confusing eyes. “What happened?” she stammered weakly. “It’s all over,” replied Liam as he hugged her. “You are safe and sound.” That morning, the family went out in their car and left Uncle Rick behind. Liam turned around when they went out in their car and looked at the cabin immediately. He could feel the chill seep into his blood. He knew there were things one did not speak of in such woods. There are some calls it is not best to answer. The experience had shaken both of them but had drawn them closer. They had been presented with darkness and had come out alive. Liam realizes that he’ll never forget the experience in life within those woods and that awful cost that had to be paid, he realizes he’ll do everything possible to rescue Sarah.