a walk in the woods

Abbie held Jake's hand tightly, and began to slowly walk ahead of him. She looked at him over her shoulder, unable to stop smiling.

Jake followed her as they both head down a small slope in the lawn toward the expanse of trees below. Some of the grass was worn away at one point, the most trodden portion of the lawn turning into a vaguely clear path into the woods.

Neither of them had any idea what they might find ahead, but figured that at the very least, it would be something of an adventure.

The path through the trees actually became slightly more pronounced as they explored. It wasn't quite a hiking trail, but there was definitely a distinction between the general floor of the forest and the walkway through the trees that they followed. It was a fairly straight path, and Jake was grateful that it would be easy for them to reverse their steps and find their way out.

After walking for several minutes, Abbie exclaimed, "Oh look!" She let go of Jake's hand and ran forward a bit before turning to her left.

"What's there?" asked Jake as he slowly caught up to her.

"It looks like a little house!"

Off the path to the left was, in fact, a small house of some sort. Jake turned back to look behind him, and saw that the density of trees was thick enough to obscure any sight of the country club or even the lawn they had been on.

Abbie checked the door to the cabin, and found it unlocked. "Come on!"

They slowly walked inside. It looked like a studio apartment, though abandoned. There was a small kitchenette, an unmade cot, a wooden chair and table, some empty shelves, and a second door inside that led to a tiny bathroom with a shower stall.

"What was this?" asked Abbie.

"Maybe a groundskeeper's apartment?" said Jake. "But it looks like it hasn't been used in a while."

They stepped outside again, and looked around the back of the house. There were two wooden benches and what looked like a deck chair.

"That looks like the kind of chairs we saw up on the lawn. Someone dragged it down here."

"And it looks newer than the rest of the house. So maybe someone was here more recently?" said Jake. "This is all kind of strange ... Or maybe we're about to be in a horror movie."

Abbie looked at him sharply. "Oh my god, I love horror movies!" Then she thought for a moment. "But I hope we're not in one."

"No, of course."

"Because you know what happens in horror movies, right?" she asked.

"What?" said Jake, happy to play along.

"Well," Abbie continued, "the two sexy young stars of the movie find the remote spot in the woods, and then they start making out. Now, if it's a PG-rated movie, that's all that happens, making out. But if it's an R-rated movie, then the girl starts to get undressed, probably for no particular reason. But either way, in the middle of their sex play, they hear a noise ... and then stuff gets super scary!"

Jake looked around. "Okay, if this whole weekend has been a long con to get me killed in the woods ... well, at least I had a lot of sex with you first. I can die happy."

"Well -- I promise I'm not going to kill you in the woods. But do you think this is a PG movie or an R movie?"