“Nick…wait up, you’re going too fast.” I shook my head and slowed my pace to allow the two pokey people who were following me to catch up. We were halfway between our camp and Mary Beth’s as of now.
“Hurry up!”
“Nick, you shouldn’t even be out here. You need to be back at camp resting, not running around at night looking for secret lakes.”
“Do you believe me that it’s there?” I asked, now ready to smack somebody. I’m not sure why I was in such a foul mood suddenly but I really was. Maybe it was my turn to be possessed.
“Well?” I asked as they finally caught up to me, “Do you believe me or not?”
“Nick…it’s not that we don’t believe you it’s just that…”
“Whatever.” I wouldn’t let my best friend finish his sentence. I couldn’t believe that after all we had been through, that he would still have his doubts. Truthfully maybe I was so determined to find this thing because it gave me something to do. Once I allowed myself time to relax, it would hit me how close I came to almost dying.
I am such a good swimmer but yet, I couldn’t manage to stay above water in a lake because something was trying to pull me under the water. I was so mad I wanted to just stop and start screaming at the thing to come and get me.
“Nick…” That was Brian, trying to get my attention again. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of answering him or even turning around.
“You should go back.” Now that made me stop. It was Casper, standing right in front of me with his arms out as if pushing me away.
“I’m not listening to you anymore. You left me there all alone…that thing could have KILLED me!”
“Oh God…” I heard AJ say from behind me, “He’s talking to himself again. I hate when he does that, it weirds me out man.”
“He’s here isn’t he?” Brian asked.
“Why? You apparently don’t believe me anymore so what difference does it make?”
“Nick, stop it. You know I believe you.”
“Oh do I?” I turned to face him now and so help me, almost pushed him for some reason. I was angry at Brian and I think it had to do with the dream I had, if it even was a dream. Maybe it was the real Brian. Maybe he really did try to drown me and then AJ covered it up by pretending to care. Maybe it’s my band mates I needed to stay away from. The people that always made me feel safe were suddenly making me feel scared to death.
Or was that the plan?
“Nick, I would have never left you. He made me.” My attention turned back to Casper.
“Who made you?”
Casper looked around nervously, as if the ‘he’ he was referring to would suddenly jump out and grab us. Okay now I’m scaring myself again. “Nick what is he saying?”
“And don’t be mad at him,” Casper said motioning to Brian, “She used him because she knows you trust him with your life. She’s tricky like that Nick, everyone out here is.”
“What do you mean everyone?”
“Nick?” I put my hand up as if to say shut up already to Brian.
“Be careful who you trust, if he wants you, he’ll get to you however he can. You have to go back…it’s not safe. You’re not safe right now.”
“But Kevin…”
“He’ll be okay.”
“What about that lake? Is it really there?”
“Wait, now you’re questioning if the lake is really there? How the hell can you get so mad at us for that if you don’t even know if it’s there?” AJ whined in the background.
“Go back to your camp Nick.” Casper said, this time followed by a huge gust of wind that almost knocked us all off of our feet. AJ grabbed onto a tree so as not to lose his footing and Brian grabbed onto me as I WAS being lifted off the ground.
“Okay that’s it, I’m leaving.” AJ said once the wind died down a bit.
“AJ, stop.”
“Uh…no, the wind almost friggin pulled us into the sky like we were Mary Fucking Poppins Rok! Maybe you guys don’t mind that but I do.”
“He wants us to go back to the camp.” I said, letting go of Brian and once again turning towards Casper.
“What are you guys doing out here?” All three of us screamed when the voice seemingly came out of nowhere. It was Kevin of course who looked anything but happy to see us. I was relieved though, for now he was safe.
“We uh…we came to see if you needed help.” Brian stammered.
“I thought I told you to stay put! He shouldn’t be out here, he needs to rest! God Brian, I thought you of all people would make sure that happened.”
“Gee, thanks a lot.” AJ said, rolling his eyes.
“Why are you heading back? Did you change your mind?” I asked him, trying to divert his attention away from the fact that we were not obeying his orders, like we had to listen to him to begin with.
The worried look on his face had me regret asking in the first place. We were so close to the camp now I was able to see the clearing straight through the trees, but the odd thing was…
“Where is the tent? I don’t see it anymore.” I asked as I pressed past Kevin and beyond the trees into the campsite.
“That’s the thing…” Before Kevin could finish I stopped and let out a gasp. I’m sure it’s the same reaction he had when he got here. The campground was totally barren. Not a tent in sight, in fact no evidence of there ever being anyone here to begin with.
I turned towards Kevin, shocked and worried. I knew something bad was going to happen. I felt it when they were leaving our camp. “Where could they have gone?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think they would have left without telling us. I mean they knew how badly we wanted to get you home.”
“It doesn’t even look like anyone was ever here.” AJ said in disbelief, taking a seat on a boulder which was lying inches where their tent used to be.
“That’s impossible, it’s not like they can totally just disappear.”
“How did they get out of here? I mean the path is still blocked isn’t it?” Brian asked Kevin who had such a helpless look on his face, it scared me.
“Maybe they are by the lake.” I blurted out. I didn’t even mean to say it out loud… Stupid brain.
“Where’s Howie?” He ignored my lake comment by bringing up D and sad to say up until that moment, he was the farthest thing from my mind.
“He’s asleep.” AJ answered.
“How he managed to sleep through all the ruckus is beyond me.” Brian added but it was true, Howie D could sleep through anything. He has proven that time and time again.
“Still, we shouldn’t leave him alone.” Kevin said putting his hand on my back and guiding me back towards the path we had walked through.
“So that’s it? We are just going back then? What about Mary Beth and Sarah?” I couldn’t believe he was being so blasé about the fact that this family suddenly disappeared without a trace.
“Maybe Grim found them and offered to take them back to the main cabin. Maybe they are sending help for us.”
“Or maybe something happened to them!” I shouted, because it appeared that was the only way I ever got their attention, by shouting, crying or almost dying.
“We can’t help them right now anyway Nick, we need to go back. We’ll come back here first thing in the morning and investigate okay?” He was talking softly to me as he still had a firm grip on my shoulder. Did I feel him shaking? I think I did and I didn’t like that at all. He was scared and when Kevin was scared, I was terrified.
Once again a powerful wind came out of nowhere making all the trees shake and bend in its wake. The howling it produced was almost deafening. It didn’t sound like a howl, it sounded like a sinister scream and not only one but a multitude of them. I covered my ears at the sound as we continued to walk through the trees and back to our camp site.
Each step we took I felt like the wind knocked us back two more. “HOLD ON!” Kevin screamed above the roar of the wind. He was gripping me so tightly, I knew I was going to find bruises on my arms come morning, if we lived that long.
“You need to get out of here Nick! You need to run….he’s on his way. He knows you’re out here and it’s only a matter of time. RUN!” Casper’s voice was the only thing louder than the wind at that point.
While the wind was blowing every which way, Casper and the area around him was quiet and still. He kept looking around every few seconds, I guess to see if ‘he’ was getting closer. I wasn’t about to wait around though. With all the strength I had, I started running. “We need to hurry.” I said urgently, which was enough to get the other guys running as well.
I could barely breathe, the wind was so strong that for every breath taken, it felt like ten more were being sucked back out. It was the same feeling I had in that dream when Casper had told me to run. I felt a chill run down my spine when I thought of that dream. Casper was standing on a log yelling at me to run just like he was doing now. Once again I briefly wondered if this was just a dream. But the sound of Casper’s warning voice made that go away quickly.
“HURRY HE’S COMING!” The ghost shouted and that’s when I heard a whole new sound amongst the trees. It sounded like something galloping towards me. A horse but only ten times louder and did I hear scratching as well? I wasn’t about to find out. I picked up my pace, this time I was screaming as I was running. I’m not sure the others even heard me because of the intense howling of the wind.
As we ran, the galloping intensified and I thought my heart was going to burst right out of my chest.
Just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to run or walk much farther, we were back at our camp. As soon as we stepped through the trees the wind stopped. We all fell not expecting the sudden release. Of course since Kevin was right behind me, he fell on top of me. Have I mentioned how heavy Kevin was in comparison to myself?
“Is everyone okay?” He asked slowly standing up and moving off of me.
“That was weird.” Was all AJ said.
Luckily the galloping sound ceased as well, maybe whatever it was couldn’t leave the actual woods and as long as we stayed in the clearing, we would be safe.
“Oh my God.” Brian’s half whispered exclaim to the almighty brought my eyes to our own tent which was on its side. All of our belongings thrown everywhere, but that’s not why he said that. The other tent, which housed AJ and Howie, was completely gone.
That got us all moving, “HOWIE!” Kevin screamed as he ran closer to where the tent used to be. All I did was stand still and watch in horror as the other three ran to the place where Howie was sleeping and looked all over the place for him. Like our stuff, Howie’s and AJ’s things were also all over the place but no sign of the tent…or of D.
“Howie!!” AJ screamed as both Brian and Kevin echoed his name every so often.
“This would have never happened if you hadn’t left the camp!” Kevin said, suddenly turning towards Brian and laying into him.
“You can’t blame Brian for this!” AJ defended, “How were we supposed to know that was going to happen?”
“We need to find him, what if he’s hurt?” Kevin was panicking and when he panicked everything became everyone’s fault. I was panicking too, so much that my feet were firmly glued to the spot I was standing on. I wasn’t being the least bit helpful, I think because in my mind I saw whatever it was that had Howie, galloping away on something huge, leaving scratches along the trees as it did.
“Howie!” Kevin yelled once more. If something happened to Howie because of me I’d never forgive myself. I wanted to cry, and I believe I started to, but another gust of wind made my tears feel like frost as they ran down my cheeks. It happened so fast; I didn’t even have time to think or scream of even run. The wind knocked me off my feet and I fell back into the line of trees, back into the woods.
I don’t believe I have fallen as much as I have within the span of two days. I think after this camping trip, my butt will be bruised for months. I stood up and started to walk back towards the trees, when I heard a few twigs crack from behind.
Slowly I turned my head to the sound, it was very horror movie-ish and I know in those things everyone would yell at the screen to ‘not turn around’ but I’m sorry when you are in the moment, do you really want to be eaten without ever seeing what is doing the eating? I think not.
Nothing was there, but still I heard the crackling going on all around me. “Hello?” Okay now that was stupid, don’t worry. I’m not that stereotypical, I didn’t give whatever it was a chance to answer. I headed towards the trees and back into the campground, or at least tried to.
The wind once again started howling as it blew leaves and dirt all around me. I swear it was all swirling like a huge whirlpool and I started to scream for help only to have dirt fall into my mouth and make me choke.
Weird what goes through your mind at times like this, the only thing I pictured was some random news anchor declaring I had died because I choked on dirt. What a nasty way to go. I was so busy trying to spit out the dirt I had just swallowed that I wasn’t aware that one of the tallest trees which I was standing right next to, was swaying extra hard. It made a horrendous sound as it came unearthed and started falling towards me.
“Look out!” I heard a scream then felt a body land on mine as I once again….you guessed it…went sailing to the ground, inches away from where the tree fell.
We both let out a few shallow breaths before I got a chance to see it was Howie who was lying beside me. “Howie?”
He sat up and looked me over, “Are you okay? That thing almost killed you!”
“Yeah, that seems to be happening a lot…are you okay?”
“I think so.” He said standing up and offering me his hand. “Weird things are going on in this camp Nicky, things I can’t really explain.”
And the understatement of the year award goes too…
“Didn’t you hear us all calling you?”
“Calling me? No, why are you doing that?”
“Because when we came back your tent was gone…we were worried.” He looked at me as if I had ten heads.
“What?”
“The wind knocked everything down…come on the guys are worried, we better go back through the trees.”
“Yeah, okay.” The poor guy seemed confused.
We walked back into the camp at the sound of the guys still calling Howie’s name. In all the commotion they hadn’t even realized I was sucked back into the woods, where I almost met another untimely ending… Very nice.
“Guys I found him!” Brian turned around first and smiled, relief washing over his face as he came running towards us.
“Thank God.” He said as he looked us over. “What happened to you? Why are you so dirty?”
“Because a tree almost landed on me. Luckily Howie saved my life.”
“Oh my God…Nick what the hell?” He ruffled my hair as he stared at Howie, “Okay so where is he?”
“What do you mean where is he, he’s right…”
“I found him!” Brian looked at me confused before turning to the sound of Kevin’s voice as he walked with a slightly limping Howie out of the woods on the other side of the camp.
“But…”
Brian started running towards Kevin and Howie and I looked over to where D was standing just a few seconds ago to see nothing. “That’s impossible.” I said to myself as I walked slowly over to Howie as Kevin helped placed him down on the ground.
“Easy buddy…you okay?” Howie looked anything but okay. His pants were ripped, his leg bleeding and so was his forehead. I once again found myself looking back to where I had found MY Howie and this time I saw him standing right at the edge of the woods looking at me and smiling an evil, sinister smile.
“It all happened so fast, there was a huge gust of wind and the next thing I knew I was being tossed around like a salad.”
His voice was shaky as he talked, “It felt like I was being carried away. It was so weird…is everyone else okay?” He asked looking around to make sure we were all present and accounted for.
“We’re fine…” Kevin answered, grabbing the first aide kit that managed to be thrown right across from where our fire had been burning.
“You need to build a fire…they are afraid of fire.” Casper said standing next to me, watching as Kevin nursed Howie’s leg.
“What are you talking about? Who are they? What do they want from us and why are there two Howie’s roaming around these woods?” Oops... I suddenly felt four pairs of eyes on me.
“Who are you talking to?” Howie asked confused as to why I would be arguing with thin air.
“Just do it Nick, I have to go and you’re running out of time.” Casper disappeared into the night and kind of faded away into nothing.
“We need to build a fire.” I said to Brian, ignoring the alarmed looks I was receiving from my other band mates.
“That’s actually a good idea, Nick you stay with Howie while we get a fire going.” Kevin ordered. I nodded at him and took a seat next to my friend, who I was kind of afraid of because well…there were two of them. One Howie was enough, believe me.
“Some vacation huh?” He asked me after a few minutes of the two of us sitting there in an awkward silence.
“Yeah.” I answered, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. I was too afraid I’d see glowing red eyes and big sharp fangs. Yes I am making Howie sound like the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood.
“Something weird is happening in these woods Nicky...” I felt myself shake just hearing him say that…again. At least this him as opposed to the other him.
But what he said next really scared me to death…
“Or is that the understatement of the year?”
Thanks for reading. I'll try to be back on wednesday with a new chapter. I also wanted to let anyone reading Why i'd do it all Again that I have added a video montage to the story which you can see here:
http://www.mares-braincandy.com/whytabcon.html
:O)
