“Ugh,” Ari groaned, “There’s nothing to do here!”
“Yeah, it’s so boring!” Alyssa added in agreement.
“What are you girls talking about? We’re in the middle of the woods with no one to pester us! Why don’t you two get some fresh air and explore?” Chloe, their camp counselor, suggested.
“Fine,” they muttered in unison as they trudged out of the tent.
“Why don’t you go with them?” Chloe asked Sophia as Sophia lied on the air mattress.
“No thank you! I’m just here for the s’mores and I’m about to take a nap,” Sophia said as she lay down and closed her eyes, “Plus I don’t feel too good.”
All of the sudden a gust of wind smacked Sophia’s face as Ari and Alyssa burst into the tent.
“I have a solution!” Alyssa exclaimed.
“What for?” Chloe asked, confused, as she and Sophia stared puzzled.
“Your sickness!” Alyssa announced.
After staring, confused, Sophia finally got out her words. “Why were you listeni-”
“Never mind that, I have something perfect for you!” Alyssa said as she began to dig into her bag furiously. “Here it is!” Alyssa said, presenting a cough drop to her, “No need to thank me.”
Taking the cough drop, Sophia watched blankly as Alyssa and Ari walked back out of the tent.
“How old was that cough drop?” Ari asked Alyssa as they walked through the forest.
“Only a year.. or three,” Alyssa said giggling.
“You’re crazy! Do you want Sophia to be more sick or something?” Ari said as she playfully punched Alyssa, “We should play hide and seek!”
“Okay but we can’t go too far and the hider has 1 minute.” Alyssa said. Ari nodded in agreement.
“You’re it!” Ari screamed as she began to frantically run away. Looking around she searched for a hiding place. “Bingo!” She said at the sight of a large tree. It appeared to be like a very small wall so hiding behind it would be simple and fun.
“Ready or not, here I come!” Alyssa yelled from a distance.
Ari quickly scurried over to the tree before pausing. It appeared there was something behind the tree already. Assuming it was a rock, Ari continued to approach it before coming to a halt. It was a figure, not a rock.
Squinting her eyes she could tell it had long black hair and pale skin. In fear Ari carefully walked backwards while facing it. SNAP! Ari looked down to see that she had snapped a twig. Looking up she hoped the figure hadn’t seen it. To her luck the figure snapped its head around revealing it had blaring red eyes and a freakishly large smile with sharp teeth. It began to stand up, showing that it wore a long ripped and ragged white dress.
With a gasp, Ari ran as fast as she could in the other direction. Shutting her eyes, Ari’s heart pumped faster than ever. All of the sudden, Ari’s face slammed into the hard ground as she tripped over a rock.
“Ari!” A voice yelled as they shook Ari awake. Opening her eyes, Ari saw Alyssa leaning over her with Chloe and Sophia huddled around.
“Are you okay?” Chloe asked, hugging Ari tightly.
“Kind of,” Ari said, still shaken by what she had seen.
“What happened?” Alyssa asked as Ari stood up.
Brushing the dirt off her clothes, Ari explained what she saw. Chloe and Alyssa looked at her in disbelief, and Sophia stared blankly, seemingly unpaused.
“Are you joking?” Chloe asked with concern, “You could’ve passed out first and then dreamed this.”
“Would I pass out and make all of this up for a joke?” Ari said annoyed.
“I think I saw something on the drive over. It looked like what you said except it was sitting on the side of the road.” Sophia said quietly, “I didn’t say anything because I just thought I was tired.”
The others exchanged glances and they all began walking back to the tent.
“Are we safe?” Alyssa asked Chloe worriedly.
“Yeah,” Chloe said unsure, “but we can drive back home tomorrow.”
Unzipping the tent door, Chloe couldn’t do anything but worry. Walking in, Chloe watched the children whisper with fear in their eyes. Carefully, Chloe zipped the tent completely. She was barely the adult in this situation. Alyssa and Ari sat on their air mattress together with Chloe and Sophia did the same on theirs.
“Why don’t we all get some rest before we go back home tomorrow morning,” Chloe said, shutting her eyes.
“Thank you for believing in me, if I told a different adult they probably wouldn’t have believed me and thought I was cuckoo,” Ari said, holding her blanket tightly.
“No problem, I would rather end the trip a little early than take a risk,” Chloe said smiling to Ari. They all slowly drifted to sleep after a mountain of worryful thoughts.
Chloe was jostled awake by the odd feeling that she was being watched. She instantly regretted making the trip a no electronic situation when she was left wondering the time.
Adjusting to the darkness of the tent, Chloe looked around. It seemed to be peaceful and everyone was there. But she still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong. A rustling sound came from outside of the tent.
Chloe walked over to the area of the tent and peered out the window. A figure stood not far from the tent; it looked like Ari’s descriptions though different. Squinting through the tent screen, Chloe was in shock.
There were a ton of figures like this scattered around the forest, however, the one she originally saw was rather close to the tent. Noticing that all the figures were looking away she grabbed her flashlight and shone it through the window. To her horror, the closest figure snapped its neck around revealing empty black eyes and a wide smile. With a gasp, Chloe shut the flashlight off and ducked below the tent’s window.
She pondered between waking up the kids or going back to bed. Soon enough, she didn’t have a choice to make as Ari jumped awake.
“Chloe?” Ari said into the cold air of the tent.
“Yeah?” Chloe said in response as she walked over to Ari. She was covered in sweat and sat up on her air mattress with a blank expression.
Moving her attention to Chloe, Ari immediately hugged her tightly. “Are you okay?” Chloe asked as Ari released her grip.
“I guess so. I had a really weird dream, like really weird. We were in the car driving home when I realized you were the monster thing I saw earlier today,” Ari said, traumatized.
“Oh no, that’s horrible. How did you realize I was one of the monsters?” Chloe asked.
“Well I was looking at you through the car mirror and realized you had black eyes. When I whispered it to Alyssa, you twisted your head and did a creepy smile. After that I just woke up,” Ari explained as she looked out the window of the tent.
“Oh my gosh!” Ari exclaimed as she felt an eerie feeling that made her shiver, “There are so many! I think there are like six.”
“Seven,” Chloe said coldly.
“Where is the other one?” Ari asked, gazing out the window.
“Here,” Chloe said without an expression.
“What do you mean?” Ari asked, turning her attention back to Chloe.
Twisting her head from looking out the window, Chloe’s eyes turned an obsidian black, and a grimace arose on her face.