Page 8 of The Dinner Party

The door rattles on its hinges as Jasper pulls it open, holding it for you like a gentleman. Unfortunately, the inside isn’t any better than the outside. The cabin contains only sparse furniture, including a waterlogged sofa, an overturned wooden chair, a bookcase that has one shelf filled with spiral notebooks and another filled with dusty old dolls. There’s also a fireplace, which is unlit—the cabin is freezing. In the corner is a small pile of firewood, with an ax balanced on top of it.

How are you supposed to sit and have some tea? There isn’t even a table! And the stove is covered in rust, as are all the pots.

“You said your friend lives here?” you ask dubiously.

“That’s right,” Jasper says vaguely.

You want to ask if his friend ever cleans, but that would be rude. Still, this cabin looks abandoned. You turn to Jasper, not sure if he’s thinking the same thing, but he’s ignoring you. His gaze is directed at the fireplace.

“You going to get the fire going?” you ask. It’s the one thing in this cabin that looks like it works.

“Sure,” he says as he walks toward the fireplace. “Good idea.”

Part of you wants to help Jasper get the fire going, but a bigger part of you wants to get the hell out of here.

“You know,” you say, “it really is getting late. I should probably get back to my car and head up the mountain.”

Jasper reaches down for the pile of firewood. You expect him to grab a couple of logs to toss onto the fire, but instead, he picks up the ax.

“Um,” you say. “What are you doing with that?”

You ask such stupid questions.

Jasper lets out what sounds like a war cry. He comes running at you with the ax raised above his head. You turn around and start to run in the opposite direction.

You make it out the door and all the way to the car before Jasper catches up with you. He lets out another cry and brings down the ax. He misses you by an inch, the blade coming down on the passenger’s side door, resulting in a huge indentation.

“Not the car!” you screech. Blair is going to be livid.

The good news is his next swing of the ax doesn’t do further damage to the car. The bad news is that the ax hits you square in the chest, slicing cleanly through skin and bone.

You crumple to the ground in a puddle of your own blood. As you lay dying, you think to yourself that if only you hadn’t gotten out of the car, everything would have been different.

THE END

Want to try for a different ending? Turn back to Chapter 1 (page 1)!

14

Unfortunately, as much as you would love to help out the hitchhiker by giving him a ride, you just don’t have time. So you leave the poor man on the side of the road, with his thumb stuck in the air. Hopefully, someone else will come by soon and take pity on him.

You keep driving on the empty road. Eventually, you hit the base of the mountain and start the treacherous drive upward. Shortly after you begin your ascent, the GPS on your phone cuts out as promised, so all you’ve got are Avery’s directions lying on the seat beside you.

The road up the mountain is dangerously narrow. Even one wrong turn could take you off the edge, plummeting to your death. Or worse, you could wreck Blair’s car. You drive very, very carefully. It’s slow going, but due to the lack of traffic, you’re ahead of schedule. Better to be safe than sorry.

After about 15 minutes of navigating the winding road, you come to a fork.

You pull over and turn on the lights in the car. You check the directions in the seat beside you, scanning for a mention of a fork in the road. Naturally, there’s nothing there.

You grab your phone, hoping to call her and clarify, but of course, your cell service is out. It looks like you’re on your own.

You turn out the lights to improve your visibility. You peer out the windshield, trying to make heads or tails of the situation. There are two directions you can go: left or right.

On the left, the path seems to go inward, almost into the mountain. It must be colder on this path, since the road is caked with snow that hasn’t been entirely cleared away. It certainly does not look like a road that has seen many cars recently.

On the right, the road becomes narrower. Almost too narrow for Blair’s car, which is not exactly wide. There’s also a diamond-shaped sign mounted at the right fork, and the red lettering in all caps states: “SHARP TURNS AHEAD.” And then a second sign underneath that says, “PROCEED WITH CAUTION!”

Well, it looks like you have two terrible options. Since Avery’s directions aren’t at all helpful, you have to make a decision.