(Part 1of2)
I knew it was a mistake to let Joel lead us. I just didn’t know how horrible a mistake it was and how steep the cost would be.
***
“We’re lost, aren’t we?” I said to Joel who was turning the map upside down and then back again.
“No, of course not,” he said, flipping the map once more. “I know exactly where we are.”
The fact that he was dating my best friend was the only thing that kept me from ripping that map out of his hands.
I walked away in disgust before I said or did something I would regret.
I went and found Marie sitting by the fire, talking to Trey.
“Will you please tell your boyfriend that we’re lost?” I said.
“We’re not lost, we just don’t know exactly where we are,” Marie said with a playful smile.
“It’s not funny,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Sure it is,” Trey said. “Sit down here by the fire and chill out. The six of us haven’t taken a trip together in how long? Enjoy it.”
“But we’re lost,” I said.
“So what?” Trey said. “We just got camp set up. This is the first day of our trip. We have three more to go.”
“Look, we’ll find out where we are tomorrow,” Marie said. “I promise.”
I looked at her with eyes full of doubt.
“Yeah, you should enjoy yourself,” Trey said. “Look around at all this beautiful nature. Kinda makes you feel insignificant, doesn’t it?”
I looked around at the trees that surrounded us on all sides. The only good thing about where we had camped was it was on the top of a small hill, so there was plenty to see, even if it was mostly treetops.
“Nature can be dangerous,” I said sitting down and grabbing a stick.
Marie shook her head.
“That’s my best friend, little miss sunshine.”
I impaled a marshmallow with the end of my stick and dangled it over the flames, watching intently as they scorched the flesh, turning it dark brown.
“I’m gonna need a graham cracker and a candy bar, stat,” I said as Marie grinned at me.
“That’s more like it,” Trey said, handing me the items.
I carefully pulled the marshmallow off the stick in between the crackers and chocolate. Setting the stick aside as I relished in devouring my treat.
Jeanie appeared in the firelight as we burst into laughter.
“Did I miss something?” she said.
“You had to be there,” Trey said.
“I was here,” Jeanie said. “I was right over there setting up my tent while the rest of you lay around and wait for nightfall, then ask me to help you.”
She sat in a huff.
I stuck a marshmallow on a stick and handed it to her.
She took it and hovered it over the fire.
“Be careful,” I said. “Don’t let that stick go back up your ass.”
Marie and Trey lost it and howled with laughter. Jeanie turned red and threw the stick in the fire, marshmallow and all, then stormed off.
We watched her go.
“Hmm,” I said. “I guess she has another stick.”
They roared with laughter again.
“What’s so funny?” Soren said, sitting down on the log and eyeing the stick in the fire.
Trey looked at us and said. “You had to be there.”
Marie, Trey, and I exploded with laughter while Soren just stared at us, mystified.
“O… K… “ he said, then grabbed another stick and started roasting a marshmallow of his own.
“Hey, keep it down,” Joel said, coming over and sitting down.
“Why, are we gonna wake the wildlife?” Marie said, punching his arm.
“We don’t want to attract too much attention to ourselves,” he said.
“Will the owls call the cops on us for disturbing the peace?” Trey said, causing a round of snickers.
“I just don’t want to draw the attention of anything… bigger,” Joel said.
I couldn’t leave it go. I had to open my mouth.
“Like what, Joel?” I said, practically daring him to answer me.
“I don’t know, like bigger,” he said, keeping his eyes focused on the fire instead of mine.
“Like what, a deer, a bear?” I said.
He shrugged, “Or a skinwalker.”
Everyone around the fire showed some form of exasperation. Soren shook his head, Trey rolled his eyes, Marie put her face in her palm, and I just stared at him.
“Please tell me you don’t actually believe in that crap,” I said.
Still looking down, he shrugged his shoulders.
“Kinda, I guess,” he said.
I was just about to tell him just how asinine he was when from the fading light of the forest came the piercing sound of a woman’s shriek. We each looked at each other as if to confirm that we had all heard it.
“Was that Jeanie?” I said.
Instantly we were all on our feet. We dashed over to Jeanie’s tent, but she wasn’t there. Trey produced a flashlight and shone it around at the trees.
“Where did it come from?” he said.
I got my flashlight from my own pack and shone it around the same area as Trey.
“It seemed like it was in this direction,” I said.
“No, it was over here,” Joel said, pointing his light in the opposite direction.
I bit my tongue to keep the comment about his lack of direction to myself.
“Why don’t you two go that way, and Trey and I go this way?” I said, pointing at Joel and Marie.
“What should I do?” Soren said.
“Stay at the campsite in case she comes back and needs help,” I said.
“What if I need help?” he said, looking around at the trees as though they had all become monsters.
I shrugged.
“Scream,” I said, then disappeared into the forest with Trey.
There was still a sliver of light in the sky, but dusk was losing its fight against the oncoming darkness. We wove our way slowly through the trees. It seemed like it became darker the further we went. As if the trees themselves were sucking the light out of the air.
Our flashlights fought a valiant battle against the dark, but they were merely pinpricks of light against the oppressive darkness.
“Jeanie!” I called out, hearing only my own voice echo back.
I suddenly became aware of how much noise we were making, tromping through the woods, looking for our friend.
Trey kept moving, silent and steady. He didn’t seem to be making as much noise as me despite being nearly twice my size.
“Jeanie!” I called again, getting no response.
“Hold on,” Trey said, holding out his arm forcing me to stop. “Do you hear that?”
I listened and at first I didn’t hear anything, not even the animals that usually make noise at night. It was a little weird and I didn’t like it.
“I don’t hear anything,” I said.
“Listen,” he said, holding up a finger to his mouth.
I fought down the anger of telling him again that I didn’t hear anything when suddenly I did. It was faint, but I could hear…
“A river?”
He nodded.
“Do you think she would’ve gone down there?” I said.
“I don’t know, but I think we owe it to her to check it out,” he said, starting off toward the sound of running water.
We had been heading downhill the entire time. But before it was a gentle slope, where now it had gotten steeper. We had to hold on to trees to keep from sliding all the way down to the river, bouncing off trees as we went.
That was one activity I didn’t want to check off for this camping trip. But then searching for a missing friend wasn’t on my list either.
We made it down to the river and found it was fast running. We made sure to keep away from the water so we wouldn’t get swept away.
“If she fell in here, she’d be halfway to the ocean by now,” I said.
But Trey didn’t seem to hear me. He was frozen in place, eyes wide, staring across the river.
“What’s wrong?” I said, following his eyes when I caught sight of exactly what was wrong.
On the other side of the river was… something. It was hard to see, but it was some kind of animal. It was covered with light grey fur that seemed almost silver. It was big. At least as big as a bear, but leaner. It stood on its hind legs and had hands at the end of its arms. The claws and fangs were the real eye magnet. They looked like they were ready to tear us apart.
It glared at us with the intensity of a hungry predator.
“You’re seeing this, right?” Trey whispered.
“You mean that thing that looks like it wants to make us a late night snack?”
“Yeah, that’s it. Do you think Jeanie saw it too?”
I hadn’t thought about that. I would be more worried about it seeing her.
“I don’t know, but I think we should go back to the camp.”
“Yeah,” he said, backing slowly away from the river and starting up the hill, trying to keep his eye on the creature the whole time.
I tried the same thing, but after I slipped and fell, nearly sliding back down to the water, I decided I should pay attention to climbing.
It was a lot harder than I thought, climbing back up that hill. By the time we made it to the easier part, I was soaked in sweat and breathing hard. I looked over at Trey and found him breathing normal.
“You make me sick,” I said through gasps of breath.
He smiled.
“They make these things called gyms you know.”
I gave him the finger as I doubled over trying to catch my breath.
He chuckled.
“Maybe you can use your muscles to fight off that thing we saw if it follows us up the hill.”
He glanced back down the hill toward the river.
“Do you think it did?”
“I have no idea,” I said.
“Do you think we should tell the others?”
“And fuel Joel’s imagination?” I said. “Don’t you think he would go into full on panic mode?”
“You’re probably right. He would want to pack up and leave.”
“Which might not be a bad idea, but not without Jeanie.”
“Agreed.”
We hiked the rest of the way up the hill in silence. At one point we seemed to lose our way, but turning off our flashlights revealed the glow of the fire off in the distance to the right.
We followed it and came across the camp, but it was empty.
We looked in the tents for Soren, but he was nowhere around. Just as we finished searching, Joel burst through the trees and into the firelight, breathing hard.
“What happened to you?” Trey said.
“Where’s Marie?” I said.
“We got separated and I tried to find her, but got turned around and ended up back here,” he said.
I stepped over and grabbed his shirt, pulling him to me even though he was a good six inches taller than me.
“You lost her?” I said, barely keeping my cool.
“Well, not lost, just misplaced,” he said.
“I’ll misplace you,” I said, drawing back my fist like I was going to punch him.
He recoiled and held his arm up to block the blow.
Just as I was about to swing, Marie stepped into the firelight.
“What’s going on?” she said, eyes wide at me about to beat the crap out of her boyfriend.
I let him go and turned to her.
“He said he lost you,” I said.
“I actually said misplaced,” he said, then cringed back, withering under my glare.
“And yet here I am, not lost,” she said. “Did you find Jeanie?”
I shook my head.
“We didn’t either,” she said. “What do we do?”
“I think it’s obvious we’re not going to find her in the dark,” I said. “We should look in the morning.”
“What about Soren?” Trey said.
“What about Soren?” Marie said.
“He’s missing,” Trey said.
“We came back and he was gone,” I said.
“We should go look for him,” Joel said.
I turned on him and he took a half step back.
“I just said we shouldn’t search in the dark.”
“Yeah, but that was for Jeanie.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Is it any less dark now?” I said.
“No,” Joel said, looking around.
“Then we shouldn’t look for Soren either.”
He opened his mouth as if to protest, then thought better and closed it.
“I suggest one of us stays up for a couple hours while the others get some sleep,” I said.
“Why?” Joel said.
“Because… “ I floundered, not wanting to tell them about the creature because Joel would go into a full on panic. “We need to keep the fire going so they can find their way back.”
Joel looked at me like a dog that had heard a strange sound.
“I agree,” Marie said. “I’ll stay up for a while and tend the fire.”
Joel looked at her with a pleading look.
“And then I’ll come to bed,” she said.
“I’ll relieve you in a couple hours,” Trey said.
“Then come wake me after that,” I said.
We all looked at Joel but he had turned and stormed off to his tent in a huff.
I grinned at Marie.
“Was someone looking forward to getting a little something this evening?”
Her cheeks flushed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, throwing her nose in the air. “Now begone from my sight and sleep the sleep of the dead.”
I didn’t dare react beyond a smile. I didn’t want her to panic either.
I shot a fake smile at her and turned to my tent, hoping that thing had stayed on its side of the river.
***
I woke to a dark tent. Panic flooded me as I saw a large silhouette reaching for me. I grabbed my flashlight and swung it at the creature, not knowing what I would do next.
“Ow!” it said. “What the hell did you do that for?”
I turned the light on to find Trey holding his wrist.
“Sorry, you scared me,” I said knowing that was a weak excuse.
“It’s your turn to watch,” he said, turning and leaving my tent.
I sighed. I would have to apologize again when he woke up.
I hadn’t changed out of my clothes, but decided I should take a sweatshirt with me to fend off the cool forest air.
I stepped out and knew I’d made the right decision. There was a chill on the breeze that made me hug myself as I stepped over and added another log to the fire.
I watched the flames dance, allowing myself to be mesmerized and hoping I could stay awake until sunrise.
As I sat in silence, I heard muffled conversation coming from Joel and Marie’s tent. A few minutes later it was replaced by soft moans.
I smiled. Joel was getting what he wanted.
As the intensity of the sounds increased, I found myself the slightest bit jealous. Not that I had any feelings for Joel, but I hadn’t been in a relationship for a while, and that might be a nice way to relax on a camping trip.
As I pondered these things, I heard rustling in the trees. My senses went on full red alert as I grabbed my flashlight and shone it where I thought the sound came from.
The wind had died down to nearly nothing, but there were branches moving where I heard the sound. My light was having a hard time staying on one area, I was shaking so badly.
What would I do? How would I protect my friends from this huge creature? I didn’t know if anyone had brought a gun or not, but all I had was a small pocketknife. Unfortunately, it was in my tent, and I was currently frozen in fear, rooted to the spot.
I watched helplessly as the thing came closer. I could see the branches in the closest trees moving now. It was almost here.
I held my breath, listening for any growling, but only hearing the moans coming from the tent behind me.
I finally forced myself to stand. If I was going to warn anyone or run away from this thing, I would have to be on my feet.
The light was shaking badly as the creature stepped out into the open and I sucked in a breath of air in shock.
“Jeanie?”
She stumbled as I ran to her and caught her before she fell.
“Are you alright?” I said as a reflex before I had a chance to look her over.
I realized what a stupid question I’d asked.
Her clothes were ripped in several places and there were patches of red soaked into them.
“What happened to you?” I said.
She crumbled into my arms and I helped her back to her tent. She seemed exhausted, allowing me to support her weight as much as possible.
She mumbled through ragged breaths, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. When I got her to her tent and laid her down on her sleeping bag, she sighed deeply. Her eyes were closed before I left.
As I stepped out I heard her mutter a single word… ‘Soren.’
A chill ran down my spine.
Did she mean Soren had done this? Or was Soren in trouble too?
I stepped back out into the cool air with a mixture of relief, puzzlement, and fear.
Jeanie had returned, but Soren was still gone. What had Jeanie gone through? Was she attacked by the creature we saw? How did she get away from it? Did she see Soren? She wouldn’t have known he was gone unless she’d seen him. What was his deal anyway to just up and vanish like that?
I would have a lot of questions for Jeanie when she woke.
I did a quick look around before sitting back down on the log. The nightly noises had resumed, but the tent behind me was silent. They must’ve finished their little rendezvous.
I had a funny but terrifying thought. Who usually gets killed first in horror movies? The ones who have sex. I hoped for all our sakes that this trip didn’t end up like a horror movie.
The rest of my watch went smoothly, unless you count me sitting bolt upright and nearly peeing myself every time I heard a rustle or a noise in the woods.
When Marie came out of her tent in the morning looking all refreshed and glowing, I wanted to slap her.
“How was your sleep?” I asked her, not really wanting to know the answer. “Was it piece-ful.”
She sighed with contentment, completely missing by verbal jab.
“Absolutely.”
I snorted with disgust as I yawned and stretched.
“Ok, I’m going back to bed,” I said. “Oh, and Jeanie came back in the night.”
“What?” she said. “What happened to her? Is she all right? Why did she roam off?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“She collapsed in my arms and I had to half carry her to her tent,” I said, with a little more edge than I wanted. “It wasn’t time for twenty questions.”
She took a half step back.
“Just wake me when she feels like talking,” I said. “Until then, I’m going to sleep.”
I stepped past her, opened my tent, and collapsed onto my sleeping bag.
I’d barely closed my eyes until someone was shaking me awake.
“Leave me alone, I just laid down,” I said, swatting them away like a fly.
“That was four hours ago,” Trey said. “Jeanie’s awake and wants to talk to us.”
I reluctantly rolled over and looked at him.
“It’s seriously been four hours?”
He nodded.
“Fine,” I said, struggling to my feet and stretching.
We walked out to find the sun high in the sky and Jeanie sitting on the log drinking some coffee. Joel and Marie were seated beside her. I sat on the other side next to the smoldering fire. Trey stood as she lowered her cup to speak.
“I was angry with the three of you,” she said looking at me, Trey, and Marie. “So I decided to go for a walk in the woods to cool off. I didn’t really care which direction I went, I just walked. Once I had cooled down and turned to come back, I must’ve gotten off track and couldn’t find the camp. I wandered around for hours in the dark, desperately trying to find my way. I was thrilled when I bumped into Soren. But there was something wrong with him. He grinned at me in a way I’d never seen him do. And then… “
She started sobbing. Marie reached over and laid her hand on her shoulder.
“Did he fall or get hurt?”
“No,” Jeanie said. “He transformed.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Transformed into what?”
“It was hard to see very well because it was dark, but he grew bigger, taller, and hairy. His arms and legs became longer, and he grew claws.”
I glanced at Trey who was standing as still as a stone, taking everything in.
I clamped my mouth shut as Jeanie continued her story.
“I didn’t know what else to do but run,” she said. “But no matter where I ran, he caught up with me. Every time he caught me, he would slash at me.”
She pulled her shirt up enough to show slash marks on her belly, then her back and her arms.
“I knew it was only a matter of time before he got me, so I tried to hide. I found an old tree that had fallen and dug into the dirt around its roots. I made a big enough hole to hide in and covered myself with leaves. He stalked back and forth in front of me a few times as I focused on being as still as possible. After a while, I heard my name being called, but I didn’t dare respond.”
I looked at Trey who still hadn’t moved.
“I fell asleep somehow. Probably the adrenaline crash. When I woke, it was nearly light. I took my chance to find my way back to camp. Thank God I did before he got back.”
“Wow!” Joel said. “Who would’ve thought Soren was… “
“A monster,” Trey said, his face a mask of impassiveness.