“What if we hiked the waterfall trail at night?”
“What?” I just finished putting a brown trout on my stringer. John has always had some crazy ideas but that just sounded like a bad idea.
“Yeah man, it would be neat to say we did it.”
Dakota chimed in. “It sounds scary.” I agreed.
Ian spoke up. “I guess I’d give it a try.”
In theory, it wouldn’t be hard to pull off. I’m sure a park ranger wouldn’t approve but they wouldn’t catch us either. They always check in with the campers before they go back to the ranger station where they sit around in case of emergencies. But it sounds way too scary.
The four of us have been camping at this state park since we were teenagers. We have a lot of great and funny stories over the years. I’ve been hiking these trails and swimming since I was a kid. They got plenty of trails but the one they want to hike is the most popular. We try to do this every couple of months.
“Unless you’re scared. I guess you could sit at the site while the big dogs have an adventure.”
“Shut up, John.”
We spent the afternoon prepping and getting ready to cook the fish and the sun was starting to set.
Ian set down his drink. “So we gonna do this?” They all were nodding along at this point. I didn’t want to be alone either so I agreed to go.
We waited as the park ranger stopped by everyone’s tent and told us to be safe and where the station is if we need a ranger for anything. It’s the time of year where snakes are in the park and we’re a whiles away from a hospital.
We put out the fire and made our way to a small trail that would take us to the main parking lot. We all grabbed flashlights and I went in my glove box and grabbed my 9mm.
We didn’t speak at all hardly until we got to the parking area before turning off our flashlights. We made sure no rangers were in the area and we snuck off to the trail.
We eventually turned our flashlights back on and began up the trail. We talked pretty quietly for a while. It wasn’t going to be a long walk, maybe two miles.
It’s hard to describe how eerie it felt to me during the walk. Noises seem louder. It’s like the calm and soothing river now sounds like it’s screaming at me. The beautiful scenery was a void and made me feel small and helpless. There wasn’t going to be any fellow hikers, just us. No help if needed.
Dakota told us a story his grandfather told him as a child about a witch that roamed the hills. People would claim she would hunt people down and eat them or sacrifice them.
They all thought it was funny, but I didn’t. I swear I was hearing twigs snapping and seeing shadows move through darkness. Even the trees looked more crooked.
We made it to the waterfall and made small talk. We all took a picture on my phone and began walking back down the trail. The guys acted like I was crazy for being so scared. I felt more confident, everything was going fine. It felt like. Conquering fear.
The walk back started feeling more at ease until a few times our flashlights all went out at the same time. We were able to tinker with them and get them going again. I felt my stomach drop when I seen some flashlights coming on the other side of the trail.
They definitely seen ours too. We figured maybe it was park rangers who got curious and we’d have to talk our way out of not being banished. The closer we got, it wasn’t rangers.
It was kids. Probably about thirteen or so. They gave us a quick glance and Dakota tried to talk to them.
“Hey kids, where’s your parents? Wouldn’t want them to worry. The walk is a little spooky.” I had every intention of going to a ranger station and telling them. We weren’t far from the parking lot.
They just kept walking though. John was hollering for them to stop but they didn’t even look back at us.
Ian was shivering and whispered to me. “I think those kids had black eyes.”
“What?”
“Like pure black.”
About that time I heard foot prints stomping towards us. By the time I turned around the knocked down John. He began screaming.
Dakota tried pulling a kid off of John. One of them punched Dakota so hard he flew up and hit a tree. He wasn’t moving.
I pulled out my pistol and pointed at the kids. “Get off him!” One walked towards me. I shot in the ground once. He didn’t even flinch. He started getting taller. Whatever that thing was had to be about seven feet tall. I shot at it. It didn’t phase it.
Ian grabbed my arm and told me to run. I looked back at John and one of those things was swallowing him whole. It was like a snake slowly covering over another.
We ran as fast as we could. “What about Dakota.”
“Man, we gotta get ourselves help first.” He tripped. I tried to stop but another one of those things grabbed him and began tugging him away. I fired twice more and missed.
I was hoping the gunshots would at least alarm a ranger something was happening. One of those things was right behind me.
I fell. I don’t remember much of it either. But I remember hitting some thorny bushes and my head hitting a rock before falling in water.
I woke up in my tent, it was morning. I scrambled to figure out what was going on until I heard voices outside the tent. It was the guys.
They were all sitting out by the fire eating some breakfast. I crawled out and sat on my chair.
“This doesn’t make sense?”
John gave me a smile. “Yeah man, you drank a bunch of whiskey last night and had too many shrooms. You conked out pretty early.”
My clothes weren’t damp. I walked to my truck and checked the magazine in my pistol, it was full. It wasn’t making any sense.
I drank some coffee and looked through my photos. I found the selfie we took at the waterfall. I began staring at got nervous. It looked like an old woman standing above the waterfall , somewhat hidden. I heard all the guys chuckling.
I look up and their eyes are pitch black. They all stood up. Ian smiled and his voice sounded distorted.
“If you want to save your friends, come to the waterfall tonight.”
They walked to the shallow stream next to our site and went under. They didn’t come back up.
I’m really scared right now. I’m going to head up there tonight. I’ll update you as I can