I stood with my mouth wide open, staring and unbelieving what I was looking at, “How is this possible…I don’t understand…” I managed to get out finally after what felt like a lifetime of just staring.
“I know it seems confusing to you right now…” Kevin started but I wouldn’t let him finish.
“Oh you think?” Yes, even in the state of complete shock I was in, I still managed to find room for sarcasm.
My legs suddenly felt like jello and I thought I was going to fall, so I quickly scanned the area around me and was happy to see a big boulder sitting there. I took a few steps and sat down. “Now, will someone please tell me what the hell is going on around here?” I was speaking to both Kevin and Casper but Kevin of course looked at me oddly that I was speaking plural when he was the only one there. Oh hell, like that even mattered anymore.
Kevin came and sat beside me while Casper watched, “I don’t know how to say this…so I’m just going to explain as best I can.”
“Okay, well better start because I’m totally confused and getting a little uneasy here Kev…”
Kevin glanced over at what had me so anxious and then back to me, “Nick, this isn’t real.”
I rolled my eyes at him, “What isn’t real?”
“This…me and you talking right now…this isn’t real; it’s just your brain’s way of processing what’s happened to you.”
“What?”
He placed his hand on my shoulder, call me crazy but that felt real as hell. “Tell me what you remember…I mean the very last thing you remember before we got to this camp ground.”
I took a deep breath and tried to look away from what Kevin had so desperately wanted me to see. “I remember you guys all being annoyed with how excited I was. You were upset about getting into a fight with Kristin and kept honking your damn horn to have us leave…”
He smiled, “Even before we took this trip.”
“Brian was helping me pack because I wasn’t done yet and you were having ten and a half fits about it.”
“Ten and a half huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Nick…even before that, think to way before then…think about it, just for a second…if it helps close your eyes to remember.”
“No way Jose! I’m not closing my eyes only to open them again and find you as some kind of weird tree monster. I have seen enough horror movies to know how that will end up.”
“Just do it!”
“You know if you are made up, you’re still being a total jerk Kevin!”
“Nick, you’re running out of time…now do it!”
I looked over at Casper who nodded at me, “He’s right…close your eyes and you’ll remember.”
I closed my eyes and tried to think back to what felt like so long ago. Back to the hotel, before we left for this stupid camping trip from hell. I remember having a conversation with my father on the phone. I was so angry at him because I wanted him to come with us. God, I had been looking forward to camping for such a long time. I wanted everything to be perfect. Having my father there with me would have been amazing, but then he suddenly backed out. He gave me some excuse about having to do something with the girls while mom was with Aaron. I had called him in tears begging him to change his mind, like some pathetic five year old.
He hung up on me.
“I had a fight with my father.” I said with my eyes still closed.
“Yes you did, you came to me right after that…do you remember that part?”
I nodded; of course I remember that part. I always went looking for either Brian or Kevin when something like that happened. It’s not like I wanted consoling, more like I needed to be around someone I thought cared. Brian was out with AJ and Howie though, so I went to find Kevin. He had just gotten off the phone with Kristin, he was mad.
“You had a fight with Kris.”
“Yes, a big one.”
“She wanted to come up to surprise you that weekend but her plans were spoiled because we were going camping…”
“That’s right.”
I suddenly felt a soft breeze on my face; it felt cool and smelled so fresh. I love the smell of water and being outside, but I didn’t open my eyes. I kept thinking back to that night…
I walked into his room and sat there as he yelled at his girlfriend and I was just about to leave when he held his hand up for me to stay. “You asked me if I was feeling okay and I said I had a headache.”
I didn’t feel very good, by the time I hit Kevin’s room. I thought it was from crying, you know how you sometimes get a bad headache from crying too much? But I think I was getting sick. It felt like a cold kind of. “I was afraid if I told you I didn’t feel well that you would use that as an excuse to cancel the trip.”
“But I knew you didn’t feel well, you looked like crap.”
“So you told me to wait in your room while you searched for aspirin…Kevin this seems pointless…” I opened my eyes and looked at him, disgusted.
“It’s not.” He warned me, giving me his look and making me close my eyes again.
“Okay fine…I stayed there in your room and laid on the bed…the only thing that made me happy was thinking about how much fun we’d have out here.”
“What happened next?”
I tried to remember but for some reason I couldn’t. Logically it would seem that he brought me back some aspirin and I went to bed, but really the next thing I remember is packing for this trip.
“I can’t remember what happened next.”
“Think…”
“I’m thinking…but the next thing I remember is packing.”
I was confused; no matter how hard I tried, nothing came to me, “Did I maybe just go to bed at that point?”
“No little man…you didn’t.”
I opened my eyes once again, growing increasingly frustrated, “This is ridiculous, is this some kind of trick to just delay me again?” I asked Casper this time.
“Before you move forward, you have to think back Nickolas…try to remember, even though you don’t think you do, it’s in there.” Casper said that as he calmly sat beside me now. When he had moved next to me was anyone’s guess. And where the hell was Brian? Someone should stay with Brian before something eats him.
Eat….That’s right, “You were trying to get me to eat.”
“Yes, I was and trying to get you to drink something, you were dehydrated.”
I nodded at him and closed my eyes again, suddenly feeling so thirsty I thought my lips would crack open. “I wanted to drink but I couldn’t find the strength. I was so cold and tired.” I felt a shiver run down my spine as I began to freeze, the cool breeze coming up from the water suddenly intensified.
“I was so cold…I thought the air conditioning was broken…but then it suddenly got warm.”
“That’s because you had a high fever.”
“My head hurt so much all I could do was moan and cry…I knew this trip was going to be cancelled and once it was we’d never actually reschedule it. I was the only one who actually wanted to go anyway. Every bone in my body ached; I mean the pain was just so overwhelming. My neck was so stiff and my head…I never want to feel that way again.”
“So you shut your brain off…” Kevin whispered.
“I shut my brain off…” I repeated. Suddenly in an odd way, it did make sense.
All the pain and sickness I had felt at the hotel suddenly came back and hit me like a wave. It was awful, so bad. I was so sick, “I remember you carrying me somewhere.”
“To the car, to rush you to the hospital…” He answered.
“I didn’t want to go…”
“I know…”
“But you forced me too.”
“Yes I did.” I opened my eyes and looked over at Kevin who was now standing over by the bed in the middle of the woods. The bed I was lying in attached to all kinds of weird beeping machines. He was staring at himself staring down at me…that sounds odd but you know what I mean. Howie was slouched in a chair next to Kevin snoring loudly while Brian sat beside me with his chin in his hands. I felt my hand tingle suddenly and noticed AJ reach over and grab my hand in his. They were all surrounding me as I laid there unable to do anything. How could I feel him grab my hand? I mean AJ wasn’t even here, he was with Howie.
“I’m confused Kevin…” I confessed as I walked closer to where he was. He turned to me then and smiled.
“I know you are Nick,” he answered but then Casper stepped in.
“You’re very sick, you have meningitis…they can’t get your fever down and you’re running out of time.”
I suddenly felt tired again as if I had just run a marathon, “What’s happening to me? Why am I starting to feel so bad?” I swayed on my feet and was quickly caught by Kevin who helped me sit back down on the boulder.
“You’re fighting it…you’re trying to wake up buddy…you can do it, I know you can.” Kevin whispered to me as I closed my eyes. They were so heavy all of the sudden…and the headache was back. I felt horrible…and scared.
I only had my eyes closed for a few seconds, but when I opened them, Kevin was gone and so was my bed in the woods. Casper however, was still there and staring at me. “Where did Kevin go?” I stood up frantically looking around.
He had to be there somewhere, but I knew it before Casper even said it, “He’s gone now Nick, and he’s waiting for you just outside of the woods.”
“But this isn’t real…he said it’s all in my mind.”
“He was half right; the guys were all in your head. See, you don’t think you can do anything without them. In fact, you don’t have any confidence in yourself at all.”
“That’s not true.” I folded my arms defensively in front of me, “I do plenty without them.”
“But you never believe you can.”
“That’s not…” I knew it was true, so I stopped. He was right; I always relied on them to help me through everything, even more so than my own parents. In a way, they were my parents. I loved them so much and looked up to them for guidance and support.
“How come my family wasn’t there with me?”
“What do you mean?”
“In my hospital room…how come I didn’t see my family? Did they not even care?” I rubbed at my eyes which were now hurting pretty badly. The sunlight wasn’t helping. I wish I was wearing a pair of sunglasses.
“Nick you mustn’t concern yourself with that right now, you’re main goal needs to be getting out of here.”
“But if this isn’t real…then I’m not really here at all right?”
“You’re wrong, this place is real Nick, and all those people you saw out there in the woods and the water…all of them are real too. They quit trying to find their way out of here.”
“I can’t do this alone…I’m too scared. I’ll never make it alone.” I rubbed my wet eyes once again. I have never felt so abandoned before, well actually maybe I have. Maybe I always felt this way. Perhaps that was the problem.
“Have faith in yourself Nick.”
“I’m scared.”
“You’re almost there Nickolas…you only have a little ways to go, but it’s not going to be easy. As you get closer to the edge of the woods, your journey will get harder and harder. You’ll start to feel the sickness that put you here in the first place. You have to fight it though; otherwise you’ll be stuck here.”
I looked up at Casper who had a loving smile on his face, “You can do this Nick…get up and keep walking.”
“But what if I get lost?”
“You won’t get lost.”
“What if I run into your dad?”
“You might…I wish I could tell you otherwise but you might…”
“Will you help me?”
He smiled at me once more, “I’m afraid I can’t go much farther than this as well.”
“But…”
“Nick it’s your choice…I can’t force you to keep going but I can’t just stand here and keep you company. I’ve got a lot of things to do.”
I nodded at him, and then…he was gone, leaving me all alone in the woods with nothing but the sound of the howling wind to guide me.
Maybe I would just stay. I mean, what was so bad about being stuck in the woods? I would have the guys here with me forever as my friends, just the five of us having a great time, fishing and hiking and swimming. No more problems, no more schedules to keep and brutal rehearsals that went so long I would sometimes puke from exhaustion. No more leaving home all the time and listening to my parents argue to no end about me and my money. No more Lou and management telling me to act cute and not say anything stupid.
“Nick there you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” I turned to the sound of Brian’s voice. He was holding a basketball in his hand and when I saw him he smiled and threw it my way. “Let’s get a quick game in before dinner.”
“But where? We’re kind of in the middle of the woods Brian if you haven’t noticed! Like duh!” He laughed at me and then motioned for me to follow him.
“I’ll show you…come on!” I took a few steps and then stopped. He was heading back the way we had come.
“I need to go the other way Brian.”
“Aw come on Nick, it won’t kill you, just come shoot some hoops with me!”
“But…”
“The court is back at the camp…come on…while you were out here Howie and AJ put one up, it’s awesome! You’ve gotta check it out!”
I started to walk with him again, noticing that with every step I took back towards the camp, I felt better. My eyes hurt less and the pain in my head was going away. Now I would surely beat his butt at basketball. I found myself running to catch up with him and when he saw me chasing him he picked up his speed.
“Frick…slow down!” I screamed after him, well more like giggle screamed.
“Come on pokey…you were always so sloooow.” He purposely dragged the word out to annoy me. I hate it when he calls me slow!
Then suddenly I stopped, “I can’t go with you Brian.” I yelled after him, but he never came back, so I turned and started to walk away.
“You’re making a mistake you know.” I turned to see him standing there with scowl on his face, “You and I can have so much fun here, don’t you think?”
“You’re not real.”
“Or maybe all of that other stuff wasn’t real. Did you ever stop to think of that? Maybe Casper isn’t real and he’s getting you to walk into a trap.”
“No, that’s not true…I have to go now Brian.”
“You’re making a mistake Nick!”
I took a deep breath and started to walk back towards my goal. The pain in my head hit me all at once as if I had just been hammered with a…basketball. Damn! That’s because I was just hammered with a basketball. It happened so fast, I barely had time to duck. It hit me full on in my head and I went stumbling to the ground and fell down a huge hill as Brian laughed in the background.
Did you see that coming? LOL :OP
