I don’t know how to start these things so I’m just gonna go from the top.
Me and my two friends Dustin and Charles- who don’t really speak anymore due to school stress and lack of lessons which we share- decided it would be awesome to meet this summer for a campout up the forest our town resides near. Disclaimer before you already think this is a terrible idea-we are all 17 and Charl can drive so we are perfectly capable of being able to look after ourselves, especially since me and Charles are fairly well built and, not to toot my own horn but quite intimidating individuals, and Dustin grew up fighting people and other children our age and is very well known for just beating the shit out of people, once again an extremely intimidating guy.
But beside all this our intentions for this campout were to just have a nice kickback with the fellas, have a couple beers, roast some meat on the barbecue and just have a good time. So, we picked a steaming July- 37 degrees no more no less and headed out around 9am. Charl picked me up- with his older brother to buy the beers for the cooler- first since I live the estate opposite him and on the way to wake up Dustin, we stopped off at the market to pick up said beer along with some necessities like some water- his brother walked in and walked back out with a few bottles some cigarettes a barbecue along with some sausages and lamb chops to cook, he made it very clear to Charl he owed him one and even spent an extra few dollars for some sunblock. We dropped his brother off at his girlfriend’s apartment and hit the road after collecting Dustin who also brought some bottles- which he stole off his brother- and the tent itself along with 3 sleeping bags.
A lot of people can relate to me when I say this, but there’s a weird sensation you get, it’s as if humans have a sixth sense for evil or something wrong. Which I had genuinely the entire time on the journey to the forest even over the loud blaring music and Charl and Dustin constantly cracking jokes at my expense of dosing off asleep every 10 minutes.
When we got to the forest, my heart sank. The overwhelming fear of just something which I can’t place my finger on was just, fucking eerie. Even on the way there I suggested just cutting the day short and sleeping at Dustin’s house since his parents were out of town
“fuck that dude we are like, here now anyway.”
“Yeah, bro, c’mon don’t be a pussy we been planning this shit since March”
Was all I was met with- which in hindsight was fair enough due to Charles’ brother spending over 35 bucks on us and Dustin stealing his Brother’s shit. But I honestly can say I felt like I was going to bite off more than I could chew that day.
The time was about 11:30AM when we got there so we still had shitloads of time to kill before night time, so Charles’ and Dustin had the idea of hiking to the furthest point away from civilisation, which I’ll tell you didn’t ease my already panic-stricken mind, but at the same time, I was with my friends so I had faith in them and wasn’t overly scared. After about 5 hours of trekking through the woods not including us stopping for a quick bite, we made it to an opening at about 6PM, perfect timing to get a barbecue on and a fire.
Me and Charl had the responsibility of starting a fire and Dustin set the tent up. I swiftly unpacked the cooler and filled it to the brim with beers and left the water on the grass near the chairs we had set up incase we needed to sober up, and I got the barbecue out along with our selection of foods ready to cook. By about 7PM, we had the tent up and the fire alight, thanks to my lighter, which I was allowed because I was the only one with parents who let me smoke. I signalled for Dustin to put some sausage on the barbie and that was us set.
“Sit back and Relax, boys” I said with confidence opening up my first beer with my teeth which suffered the consequences of this later. I felt at ease to be honest- the night was young and I was excited to kickback with my long term friends.
By about 11PM the night was approaching- with it being peak summer, the dark approached much later on but by this time I had already stopped drinking and was barely tipsy, so was Dustin, but Charl was wasted and struggled to stand straight so we had the pleasure of looking after him until he trampled off to bed. This moment, the feeling, it hit me like a freight train I dropped my bottle my eyes teared up. No doubt in my mind- we were being fucking watched.
“Bro, do you like, feel that?” I said, kinda hoping he said no, to give me an almost weird reassurance.
“We are being watched. That’s not a feeling- that’s our bodies saying there’s someone merely meters away from us right now. Waiting.” Dustin said.
“Bro why the fuck would you say it so creepily?!”
“Fuck this I’m fucking going.” Dustin started packing away the beers and water getting faster the quicker he got to packing it away as if something was going to jump out at us.
I followed frantically- I asked if we wake up Charles but Dustin said no and just bolted as fast as he could in the direction we came in I followed sprinting like my life depended on it- probably because it did to be honest.
Flash forward 12:16, I’ll remember this exact time forever. Me and Dustin made it out of the woods and locked ourselves in Charles’ car because we stole his keys. Just when we were contemplating leaving and chilling at a McDonald’s and leaving Charl a message, we received one
“Hey fellas, where are you guys? I’m getting kind of nervous I’ve woken up and all the shits gone. lol. message back soon :\” seen by everyone 12:16
“Bro I thought he’d be fucking drunk still.” Dustin said panicked. I responded as calmly as I possibly could “We have to go back.” Thankfully he agreed and we made our way back up using the cracked IPhone 6’s light which was a dim ray of hope among the uncanny forest valley.
When we made it to the tent we quickly ripped open the tent zipped up door and to our absolute dismay- Charl had gone. Without a trace. Me and Dustin called eachother and split up around the tent to search for him but he was gone.
When we laid in the tent- Dustin noticed something yellow and curved sticking out from the tent pocket- he ripped it off to reveal a post-it note which read
“It was easy finding you guys- next time don’t go as far into the woods.”
However that wasn’t all. Upon morbid discovery we deduced the tent’s zipper is on the inside- meaning it can’t be opened externally which is why we ripped the zipper off. Meaning whilst Charles was texting us- whoever took him away was present in the tent as he was texting.