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Title: Unforeseen Messages
The cabin was a place that Taylor once loved. When he was a child, his parents would take him and his siblings to the cabin every year for Halloween. He remembered how excited he would get when his parents turned the old dwelling into a creepy haunted house. He used to love how they’d spend hours outside by a fire roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories all night long.
As he and his siblings grew up, the family eventually stopped going to the cabin. Even though the family didn’t keep up the tradition, Taylor and his brother Isaac continued to visit each year. Isaac and his wife would join Taylor and Callie at the cabin every Halloween to keep the ritual alive. Taylor and his wife Callie would always take on the role of organizing the annual Halloween get together… up until three years ago at least.
This Halloween, Isaac had begged Taylor to come back to the cabin. Taylor dreaded the idea of going back. It would be the first time he had been back there since Callie passed away in a horrific car accident. The cabin was a place that held so many memories of Callie and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to go through with it. Since he lost Callie, he didn’t enjoy doing things he used to like doing anymore. Everything he did brought back memories of her and it was too difficult for him to deal with. He also didn’t like the idea of being around Isaac and his wife all night… it made him feel like a third wheel and he missed Callie even more when he felt that way.
After relentless begging from Isaac, Taylor finally agreed to come back to the cabin to stay on Halloween night. All evening long, Taylor quietly sat in the living room while memories of Callie kept flashing back into his mind.
“Are you coming out by the fire with us, Taylor?” Isaac asked, popping his head inside the wooden front door of the cabin. He hated seeing his brother feeling so miserable. It was going on three years since Callie’s death, and still nothing about Taylor was the same anymore.
“No… I’m just going to stay inside for awhile,” Taylor answered softly. He settled down onto the couch and sighed as he looked around the cabin. His eyes roamed over to the record player on the opposite side of the room.
He remembered how Callie would love playing his parent’s old records and how she would dance around the living room like nothing else mattered.
“I miss you…” he whispered as he settled under a blanket and rested his head on the arm of the couch. Sometimes he wondered why he still talked to Callie… it wasn’t like she could actually hear him.
He eventually began to drift off into a light sleep. Suddenly he was jerked awake by the scratching sound of the record player.
The abrupt sound startled him and he sat up rapidly. He expected to see Isaac standing on the other side of the room getting ready to play a record, but to his surprise, no one was in sight.
Before Taylor even had time to think, the record player stopped making the scratching noise and inadvertently began to play a song. Taylor felt himself go pale when he heard what song was playing. His heart began to race when he realized it was the same song he and Callie danced to for the first time at their wedding.
At first he was frightened that the record player was doing this all on its own, but then he felt a sense of calm wash over him. He hadn’t felt that sense of peace since Callie was still with him.
“You’re here…” he said out loud. He truly felt as though Callie’s presence was there with him in that moment as he listed to the soft sound of the music.
He then came to the realization that Callie was giving him a sign. She was telling him that he needed to keep living. Taylor knew that Callie wouldn’t want him to be living life the way he had been… she would have wanted him to be happy.
Just as quickly as the music began, it suddenly came to a stop. As silence overcame the room, Taylor knew exactly what he needed to do.
“Did you decide to join us?” Isaac asked when he saw Taylor walking out of the cabin.
Taylor nodded and took a seat near the campfire, “I think Callie would have wanted me to have a good time,” he answered.
Isaac smiled, “I think you’re right.”
Taylor decided not to tell anyone what had happened that night at the cabin. He knew that it was Callie’s way of telling him it was okay to move on with his life. It was an incredible moment that he would hold onto for the rest of his life.
Author: Renee C.
Prompt: Evil Dead
Pairings: Taylor/OFC, Isaac/OFC
Ratings: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 826