It'd been his girlfriend's idea for them to use her cousin's cabin for summer vacation. While Donovan had thought the idea corny, she'd brought him around saying that the scenic setting would be great for her photography class. As Donovan ran through that now not so scenic setting, the irony wasn't lost on him as he thought of the last few images on her memory card. The images that had sent him running for his life. That had told him not to go into the shed behind the cottage. He ran until his legs and lungs ached, that fear for his life driving him on. But even that primitive motivation couldn't stave off physical fatigue forever, and eventually he collapses. "God almighty!" He hears a heavily accented voice shout. Looking up he sees a stringy woman in overalls and little else running towards him. Behind her was a large three story house, all wood with flaking paint. Something about the whole scene brought the opening notes of Dueling Banjos to Donovan's mind, but he didn't care. There was human life here. He wasn't alone anymore. "H-Help!" He calls out, voice little more than a wheeze. As the woman runs to him, Donovan starts babbling, trying to explain in as little time as possible that they were in danger, his girlfriend was dead, and do you have any guns, we're gonna need them. "Calm down, sweetheart, don't worry! Ya'al come on inside and calm yerself. Ain't nuthin' gonna hurt you here." A sense of relief washes over Donovan as he's helped to his feet and with an arm over his savior's shoulders he walks towards the house. That sense of relief is short lived as he spies a chainsaw tucked into a corner of the porch on his way inside. A chainsaw covered in blood. *** One lesson Donovan had learned from watching movies - Never stay put when someone locks you in a room of a house with a bloody chainsaw on the porch. What movies hadn't taught him was to hold his breath when odd white smoke comes from the vents. He'd went out like a light while trying to wiggle his way out through the window. What wakes him brings his fear back and turns his blood cold. The groaning of a chainsaw. That horrible, hungry buzzing noise that echos through the house and sends the young man scrambling for the window a second time. It's not until he hears the noise getting closer that he realizes the window has been nailed shut. CRASH! "I thought ya'al'd try that again!" As Donovan whips around he sees the woman from earlier, a smile on her face that exposed a row of red teeth. In her hand idled the chainsaw from earlier, the blood on it now black. Donovan screams as he pulls backwards, wishing he could simply melt through the wood. "You stand still and this won't hurt a'tall," she cooes before revving the saw and running towards him. Lesson two was simple: DODGE! Miraculously he makes it around her without getting dissected, and as he runs from the room he sees something that fully restores his faith in a higher power -- A handgun sitting on an end table by the staircase. Rushing towards it, he hears the madwoman on his heels. It's that sense of self preservation from earlier that makes him grab the gun, turn and empty it without a second thought. BANG! BANG! BANG! Click... Too bad the movies never taught him how to aim. "Oohhh, a fiesty one!" The woman screams happily, untouched and more excited than ever, "Ya'al got no idea what I'm gunna do to yer body! Make what I did to that girl of yer's downright innocent!" Donovan feels bile rise in his throat as he turns and dashes up the stairs, which is probably why he trips and falls. He barely manages to not slide back into the woman's waiting chainsaw. Stumbling to his feet, he scrambles back up as fast as he can, turning just long enough to try and shoot again. His efforts are rewarded with a second click. In fear he launches the gun at her head, not needing to stick around to know he's missed. He can hear her gleeful cackles as he runs into the first door he finds at the top of the stairs, though they're drowned out by his own screams as he sees where he's ran into. Blood. Everywhere. And damn it stunk, like rotting flesh and other horrors he didn't have time to name. At the other end of the room was a window, and as he ran towards it he heard the carpet under him not only squish, but crunch as well. Didn't have time to think about that, either. He could hear the saw getting closer. The window wouldn't budge, though he wastes valuable seconds trying to open it anyway. He doesn't stop until he hears a loud bang at the door, followed by that damn saw revving again. He turns to look around the room, hoping to find something to defend himself with. Around him is only discarded, mutilated body parts. Some of the faces he recognized from local missing persons fliers. "There ya are, darlin'!" The madwoman screams as she walks through the hole she'd cut in the door. As Donovan edges down the wall, trying to get away from the woman as she stalks closer, he feels his hip bump into something. Something that rattles. Looking down, Donovan sees a small table sitting in the dark corner he's put himself into. As he sees what's on the table he begins laughing hysterically. How did I forget? He wonders as he smacks his forehead, laughing harder. It's his laughter he hears over the seemingly victorious revving of the chainsaw. Over the sickening wet sounds that come a few seconds later. Lesson Three: Never throw your gun at the chainsaw wielding maniac. END ________________________ Word Count: 994 I've been a fan of the horror genre ever since I can remember. Novels, movies, creepy pastas on the internet - If it's designed to scare, I'm there. I have a soft spot for the movies, however, as they were my gateway into the genre. After so many years of watching horror movies (some good, some bad, some "What the flying hell was that?!" bad), I've noticed a few trends that many directors and script writers like to use. So this is me putting my poor protagonist into a situation where he finds himself where he must use these "rules" set by the Silver Screen. I think, perhaps, that whomever it was that said "It's not like it is in the movies" had a very valid point ;-)