Luke's warning has the adrenaline pumping through your veins nice and good now. You are definitely awake. You scan the cabin and slip quietly over to the fireplace, wrapping your hands around a poker. It's heavy, but the weight comforts you. You know Luke meant well, telling you to run, but there's nowhere to go outside the cabin that you are familiar with enough to have an advantage.

You look around. Not many places to hide, but just knowing something's coming is a huge advantage in a fight. Your gaze goes up the stairs. The shower! Carefully, so you don't set the stairs creaking, you climb up to the loft and slip into the bathroom, pausing only long enough to grab your phone. You turn the hot water on and close the curtain, while you slip behind the door.

What a crazy thing to do. That door is solid. No one could get through it without the passcode. You look down at your phone. The internet is down. You grit your teeth. That's a hell of a coincidence.

Then you hear it: the sound of someone on the stairs. Whoever is coming for you has the passcode to your cabin!

You take a deep breath and grip the poker tighter.

You hear a low chuckle just outside the bathroom door. You bend your knees ever so slightly. This sucker thinks you're in the shower. He's going down if he makes a move. You watch as his silhouette slowly enters the bathroom. He lifts up a wicked looking hunting knife, smooth near the tip and serrated near the handle.

A knife that could stab, chop or saw with ease. A murderin' knife.

As soon as he's halfway through the door, you slam your shoulder into it and it swings forward to slap him. He grunts, but you're not watching him. You're already swinging your poker down toward his wrist. The hunting knife clatters to the ground. You rear back to hit at his knees. Better to cripple his movement than try to hit him on the head and have it glance off him.

He screams as you connect solidly on the back of his knees, and he falls forward, using his good arm to hold himself up. Luke appears on the other side of him, his eyes full of awe as he watches you swing down again on the stranger's back. A few more solid hits and then you stoop down to grab the knife and scoot out of the room. Immediately, you look for something to tie him up with.

You know you can't lock him in the bathroom, but you need to hold him until you can get some help. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you wonder if he has an accomplice, and it makes you quicker. But you're not going to drive off and risk this dude coming back to finish the job. How to get a call out?

You check your phone again, just in case, and find a sliver of a bar! Someone else's network must have come through for you. You dial for help.

A half hour later, the police have apprehended the intruder and have him safely away from you. They have the rental place force a reset of your cabin code, so that only you and the emergency rental worker know the code.

You still barricade the door before you go to sleep, with Luke's adoring gaze on you. It's comforting to have someone on the lookout for you, and pride fills you as you pass out. You beat up the intruder by yourself.

Old you never would have done that.

[Go to chapter: Twenty Three]