Even though I was hungry, after Mary Beth ripped her teddy bear’s head off I just couldn’t even look at my plate. Her mother let out a little squeak of a scream when the head came off and the stuffing fell out like a big pile of guts. None of us knew what to do or say and everyone became still and quiet. It was her father who actually spoke first, even Kevin was dumbfounded.
“Mary, why did you do that?”
She looked up at her daddy and the shock in her eyes was only masked by the fear she had in them. That’s when I realized she didn’t do that at all, something else did. Maybe something that was inside of her.
“Answer me!” His voice grew louder and for the first time, I didn’t see a kind man but the kind OF man I would probably fear. His look was intense and serious as he shook his daughter’s plump little arms.
“I don’t know daddy…” She said before bursting into tears.
That finally made Sarah move towards her daughter and pick her up, “You’re scaring her, stop yelling!”
“And you need to stop babying her.” He insisted as she picked Mary Beth up in her arms and started walking away.
“Now’s not the time for this argument.” Sarah insisted as she continued walking off, the child still crying in her arms.
“Don’t walk away from me…” Matt grabbed his wife a bit forcefully which made her turn his way.
Kevin looked over at us, he seemed like he wanted to say something, okay it’s Kevin he didn’t seem like it…it was more like he was about to say something but I shook my head rapidly at him. Suddenly I was scared of this Matt guy and didn’t want Kevin to start crap with him.
“Hey!” Too late.
Matt turned towards Kevin and had such a look of hatred on his face, my band mate actually recoiled. “You stay out of this!” He growled, pointing his finger at Kevin then quickly turning back around to his wife who was now just about out of the clearing.
“I’m very sorry for this…” She said right before disappearing onto the path, than she turned to me, “I hope you feel better sweetheart.” With that being said she ran into the woods and disappeared.
Matt turned towards me next and I swear I was so scared of him I found myself stepping behind Brian for protection. I hate when I do little boy things like that. Kevin walked into Matt’s path before he had a chance to get any closer. I really couldn’t even look, I was afraid he was going to be decked by Mary’s father but instead he just stopped and let out a sigh.
“I’m sorry about all of that. Mary is getting better but sometimes she does stuff like that and it just drives me crazy. We didn’t mean to cause such a stir over here. Please help yourself to the rest of the food and I’ll be back over for the hibachi tomorrow morning.” He smiled over at me, but I didn’t return the smile. I was still too busy hiding behind Brian.
“What do mean by getting better? Is she sick?” I moved out of Brian’s shadow and closer to the man, curiosity taking freight’s place.
“Well, no not really…it’s just that…” I could tell he was looking for the right words and when none came he ruffled my hair, “Don’t worry about it. I am very sorry; I didn’t mean to lose my temper.” He said that to Kevin who nodded at him in return.
“I better get going back, I don’t like them being alone for too long.”
“Good idea.” I whispered as I felt Kevin’s hand meet my shoulder.
“Sorry again…” He said before turning and running in the same direction his wife and child had just gone.
“Wow that was totally weird wasn’t it?” Howie asked once Matt was gone.
“Weird compared to what exactly?” AJ asked as he made his way over to the food and helped himself to a huge plate. He took about three bites when he realized everyone was staring at him, “What? It’s here why not eat it?”
“I wonder what he meant by his daughter getting better?” Brian asked still looking over at AJ as he chowed down on the food that was left behind.
“This place gives me the creeps.” Howie finally admitted, sitting down closer to the fire that Matt had created before all of the drama happened.
“Well come the morning, I think we are going to leave.” Kevin answered authoritatively. He walked over and grabbed a plate of his own to which Brian did the same.
“Oh I see when Kevin does it, its okay. When I do it you’re all like ‘AJ how can you do that? So unfair!” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, AJ is a huge drama queen. It didn’t help his cause any doing that in a high pitched girly voice either…okay back to what had just happened…
We all sat around eating, well they did. I kind of just watched. I couldn’t even think of putting anything in my mouth after that. I kept having that horrible feeling that something bad was going to happen to that family. We should have never let them leave, especially after seeing the temper that Matt showed.
“Nicky, you should eat…”
“I can’t.”
“Well than try!” Kevin logic.
“I really am not hungry, besides…don’t you think it’s a good idea to go over there and check up on them. Make sure they made it back okay?”
“Nicky that’s sweet and all but I think they don’t want us butting into their personal problems. If they did than they would have just stayed here.”
“Maybe Howie, but I just have a bad feeling…”
“Nick, I think I can speak on behalf of everyone here, your bad feelings are getting old!” Howie had an intense look on his face when he said that. I swear he even snarled at me. I felt a small chill run down the base of my spine and glanced over to see Casper just sitting there behind D.
He was looking out towards the forest and seemed very far away. Distracted almost, like he wasn’t listening to what was going on here but perhaps some other place. Brian saw me staring at nothingness so he came and sat beside me, “He’s here isn’t he?” He asked in the smallest of voices.
I nodded and motioned with my head to the place where he was sitting, not that Brian could see him or anything but still, it made my ghost seem more real. Casper stood up after a few minutes and made his way towards the place where he was staring. He seemed so sad, I stood up to follow him, but Brian’s hand on my arm made me stop. When I looked up again, Casper was gone.
“Where are you going?”
I sat back down and sighed. “I don’t know…” And I didn’t. As a matter of fact, I felt like I had no idea what was going on anymore. As if I wasn’t in control of myself, not that I usually have so much control over myself to begin with but you know what I mean.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay Kev.”
“You need to eat something, please?”
“It’s not everyday you hear him saying that Nick, if I were you I’d take advantage of that one.”
Howie laughed at what AJ said, and it was an odd burst out in laughter kind of laugh. We all looked over at him and he shrugged, “Sorry…I thought it was funny.”
Kevin handed me the plate of food that Sarah had fixed for me and nodded in his, don’t make me force feed you way he had. Once I took the first bite, the rest came naturally and soon I had managed to gobble up the entire plate. I also started to feel better, damn maybe Kevin was right. Maybe all I needed was food.
We spent a little more time around the campfire as day turned to night. We were worried about many things in that time, one being another weird and unexplained earthquake. Two was more of a me thing and that was try not to get eaten by odd things in the woods. Three was a Brian and AJ thing which was let’s make sure that our creepy little friend doesn’t do anything to further creep us out. That creepy little friend was of course me. Four was Kevin glancing over at me making sure I was still breathing. Then of course all of our thoughts wandered to Sarah and her family and the weird way they left, but I was also thinking about Casper. Why was he here in the woods anyway? Watching over me?
“Maybe he’s my guardian angel or something?”
Brian looked over at me as he zipped up his sleeping bag, Kevin was keeping watch outside the tent, and well that’s what we knew he was doing. He just said he needed some more air. AJ and Howie were already sleeping and snoring loudly in their newly put up tent.
“Really? You think so?”
I shrugged at Brian; I was still sitting Indian style on my sleeping bag, not quite ready to call it a night. Truth was, I didn’t want to go to sleep and dream of anything else and I knew that is exactly what was going to happen the second I closed my eyes.
“I wonder why he’s here?”
“Maybe you should ask him the next time you see him…he isn’t…”
“Here? No he isn’t.”
Brian nodded and rolled onto his side to face me, “Good, because I’m not sure I can sleep with a ghost in the room.”
“I am starting to think I feel safer with him here than without him here.” I admitted to my best friend.
“Are you scared Frack?”
“A little.”
“Nothing’s going to happen, go to sleep. You want me to stay awake until you fall asleep?” I wanted so badly to say yes but I shook my head. The problem was, I didn’t want to fall asleep at all.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll be good.”
He yawned and I could tell he was grateful for my macho answer, although I was already regretting it as it was coming out of my mouth. I swear he yawned and then just like that he was out like a light. “Why do you all snore so damn loudly?” I said scratching my head as I made my way outside the ten to our oldest band mate.
“What are you doing still up?” He asked me when he saw me emerge from the tent.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay Kevin; you don’t have to ask every ten minutes, really.”
He was poking at the fire with a stick, and from the look of the stick I could tell he had probably been doing that since he was out here. “Why aren’t you sleeping?” I decided to ask him.
“Just have things on my mind.” That’s when I remembered Kristin. I felt bad, with everything that was happening, we all kind of forgot about her.
“Kristin you mean?” He threw a pebble into the fire and it made a cracking sound.
“Yeah…it’s nothing really.”
“You can talk about it if you want. I mean I’m a good listener.”
“Nick you aren’t a good listener. You have the attention span of a gnat…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you.”
“Oh you insulted me? I wasn’t paying attention.” He laughed at my incredibly cheesy joke.
“She thinks we should start seeing other people. Do you believe that?”
“Why?” I asked trying to mask an incoming yawn. I didn’t want him to think he was boring me, even though he kind of was.
“Because she says the kind of life I lead doesn’t have enough room in it for her!” He laughed to himself as he continued. “I mean please…like she doesn’t have a busy schedule too. I would never dismiss her like that though.”
“That sucks Kevin…I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, well…we’ll work it out hopefully. I just hate the fact that I can’t get in touch with her while we’re here.”
“I’m sorry. I feel like this is all my fault.”
He reached over and pat my head, yes just like a damn dog, “It’s not your fault little man, I wanted to go camping too, it was just bad timing that’s all.”
“But still…”
“NO but still anything, Kris and I will work things out just like always, now you should get to sleep. You need your rest.”
“I’m not really tired.”
“Are you afraid to go to bed again?”
I rolled my eyes at him, I hated when he treated me like a kid. Ugh! “No, I’m not afraid of anything, I’m just not…” And then of course I had to yawn. Finishing the sentence seemed stupid at that point but I did anyway, “tired.”
He laughed, “Yeah I can tell you aren’t tired. Does this have anything to do with the rabbit in the woods?”
I was about to say something witty or at least try to when he reached over and placed a reassuring hand on my arm, “Nickolas you’re safe okay? You are acting as if you are scared of something and I’m letting you know you are going to be safe with me okay?”
I wanted to pfft! At him but instead I nodded, because I knew he was right. He would never let anything happen to any of us. “Kevin do you ever think you see or hear things you can’t explain?”
Oh my God I did not just ask him that did I? “Why are you asking me that?”
Dammit all to hell!
“I was just wondering.”
“Do you hear voices Nick?” Oookay then.
“What? No…I was just wondering. Forget I even mentioned it.” Suddenly a gust of wind picked up which made our campfire go out. We both gasped when it happened, not just me for once.
That voice came to me on the wind, the same one I had heard whisper in my ear as I walked away from the edge of the woods. She laughed a high sinister laugh bellowing above the trees. This time the word soon was replaced with the ‘look’ and I made the mistake of doing just that. Looking towards the direction the wind was blowing. What I saw took my breath away and not in a good sense either.
It was a shadow of a woman and she was holding me in her arms and just as I looked she reached in and grabbed a hold of my heart and ripped it out. She laughed once more and than disappeared, along with the wind.
“Nick, what’s wrong?”
“I…can’t…breathe…” I sounded like I was having an asthma attack and felt like it too. It was as if she had taken my heart out of my chest for real. Every breath I took hurt, it felt as if my chest was on fire.
“Nick…” Kevin stood my up and placed a paper bag in front of my face, “Deep breathes…easy…slow….”
I closed my eyes and tried to relax myself which wasn’t exactly an easy thing to do considering what I just saw. “Okay there ya go…you’re starting to breathe normally again, you can do it little man…”
Kevin’s voice in my ear was having a calming effect on me and soon the fiery feeling went away. I sat down with his assistance and removed the bag from my face. “I’m okay now.”
“You sure?” I nodded at him.
“What was that all about?”
“I don’t know…”
“Let’s get you inside; I’m sure it was the wind, maybe you took a deep breath just as it started to blow.”
“Yeah, maybe that’s it.” I said as he helped me to my feet and led me back inside the tent.
He made sure to zip it up tight and lock out all of the bad things that were waiting for us out there. I plopped down on my sleeping bag and looked over at Brian, jealous of how peaceful he seemed to be sleeping and knowing that once Kevin fell off into sleep I would be left all alone.
Thanks for reading as always lol I know i'm so redundant. Guys I have a very busy week not sure about updates next week but I shall seriously try to do my best. Okies? spanks. lol
