Week 1 Storytelling: Journey to Our Holiday Home

      Every year, the Carrolton’s visit their holiday home in the deep woods of Wisconsin. The mother, Carol, being the anxious type, always packs their luggage two weeks before the trip. Benjamin, the dad, prepares for the 5 hour drive by filling up the car with a new tank of gas and making sure the spare tire is intact. Candice is a 15-year-old high school teenager who would rather spend time with friends at the mall than go on a week long trip with her boring parents and annoying little brother. As for the annoying little brother, his name is Todd and is 9 years old and still hasn’t outgrown his love for batman and his hobby of catching frogs.

      During their journey to their holiday home, they encounter some unexpected frightening experiences. They make their first stop at the slaughterhouse because that’s the only place you can find some juicy meat to grill for dinner. The family walks in apprehensively to the empty barn that smells of something rotting. They open the creaking door and find themselves greeted by an axeman with the strangest smile and a piece of raw meat hanging out of his mouth. Little Todd, takes a quick look around the back of the shop and sees a mountain of old shoes, clothes, and socks -mostly covered in blood. Puzzled and fearful of whom those items might belong to, Todd dashes behind his dad and tugs on his jacket whispering “Dad, we gotta get out of here.” Benjamin, being a courageous dad, continues to act calm with the wild axeman and asks for his best piece of meat in house to grill a nice steak meal. The axeman immediately begins to butcher up 20 pounds of meat while snickering to himself. As he is packaging up the meat, he asks with his upper lip curling at the ends “Would you like some liver, heart, or brains, to go along with that? It’s mighty fresh and well seasoned.” At this point, Carol’s motherly instinct kicks in as she grabs her children’s hands tightly and starts to back towards the door. Benjamin throws $100 on the counter saying a quick “thank you” and “keep the change” as the whole family sprints off to the car. They all flop into the car and Benjamin drives away quickly as the tires screech. He glances back into the review mirror to see the axeman waving his bloody axe with that same sickening smile across his face that gives everyone the chills.

      Candice immediately begs her parents to turn the car back around and to go home but Benjamin is adamant about enjoying their holiday and reassures the family that the previous man that they met was probably harmless. They travel for another mile until they reach their holiday home and start to move in their bags from the car. They walk into the home and a cold brisk air slaps them in the face. Benjamin starts the fireplace while Carol begins to start dinner. Candice and Todd fight over which station they want the radio to play when all of a sudden there is an emergency news broadcasting. “Warning, escaped convict loose in the area. Please call 9-1-1 if there are any signs of a 6-foot tall male with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and last seen wearing an orange jumpsuit. He has been in prison for committing treacherous crimes including mass murders. He escaped sometime this morning.” As soon as they hear this news, Carol looks out the sink window and freezes from washing her hands as she notices an orange figure running in the distance. Now, the Carrolton’s are all frightened and all they can think is to run. The Carrolton’s leave all of their things behind and immediately bolt out to the car to escape from such a horrible place. They drive away from the direction Carol last spotted the possible escaped convict. They try to call 9-1-1 with their cell phones but realize that there is hardly any wireless service. Benjamin notices that the fuel tank is low and decides to stop at a gas station 10 miles away from their holiday home. “Surely someone there will lend us a phone and we’re probably far enough away from the murderer to be in any danger,” said Benjamin.

      At the gas station, Benjamin fills up the tank and goes inside with his family to make a phone call. They walk inside, only to run into some spider webs and call out “Is anybody here?” Just then, an evil old witch popped out and cast a spell on the Carrolton’s. The witch erased their memory of what they had experienced on their way to their vacation home. When the Carrolton’s snapped back into reality, they woke up in their home, all with bothering headaches and they couldn’t remember any details regarding their journey or how they got back home. It was as if they had all just woken up from a bad dream.

Holiday Home - Cabin (Photo by user: Unsplash) Pixabay

Author’s note: This short story was inspired by Tom Gauld’s “Map of the Area Surrounding our Holiday Home,” which consists of a map and a key of random nouns. Most of the words listed give off a spooky vibe, which is why I was drawn to write about something a little menacing. I randomly chose the words: axeman, slaughterhouse, escaped convict, and witch and let those words and my imagination take me on a narrative journey.


Bibliography: Map of the Area Surrounding our Holiday Home, a cartoon by Tom Gauld from his book ROBOTS, MONSTERS Etc., 2006. Link to Online Source