School was finally over, and the perfect way to celebrate was a trip with your closest friends. You and your girlfriend Tara had been looking forward to this for weeks—sun, freedom, no deadlines, just pure fun. The house you all booked was isolated, tucked away in the woods near a lake, the kind of place that promised adventure… or disaster.

Mindy took one look around the dimly lit cabin, the long, eerie hallway stretching past the living room, and smirked.

“It seems like the perfect place for a group of friends to get murdered by a masked psycho.”

Everyone groaned, tossing their bags onto the couch while Chad rolled his eyes.

“Mindy, we literally just got here. Can you wait, like, a day before saying that?”

But Mindy wasn’t entirely wrong.

There was something unsettling about the place—maybe it was the way the trees outside seemed to press against the windows, blocking out most of the sky, or the weird creaks the house made at random intervals. Still, no one paid much attention. It was just a vacation, after all.

The first two nights were filled with laughter, games, and the occasional late-night horror story (which Mindy was always eager to provide). But on the third night, as the group settled in for a movie marathon, the power flickered. The room fell into a thick, pressing silence.

Then—knock, knock, knock.

Whoever was outside… wasn’t supposed to be there.