One by one

Ch. 3 One down, three to go |Art|

Art, 9:30 am 6/5

Tuesday

"Five more minutes." I mumbled as someone shook me violently. My hearing must have just switched on because one minute I heard the chirping of birds and occasional whisperings to violently loud yelling in my ear.

"ART! GET. UP. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!!" I heard Collin scream.

"What? What?" I croaked, trying to get my body up.

"LOOK!" He screamed, pointing to the tent's door that was now open. "Come outside now!"

I groaned and did as he said. I walked outside of the tent and followed his pointed finger to the side of our tent. Something red was splattered all over the side. It looked almost like blood. Almost.

"IT WAS THE GHOST. He must have found a victim!!" He shouted, adding a dramatic tone to his voice.

"Haha very funny but," I pointed, "That ghost isn't real and you're doing that thing with your voice again and this," I waved at the scene in front of me, "-is not blood." I went up to it and tasted the red substance. Watered down Ketchup.

"Ew, that could have been actual blood for all you knew and you just went up and tasted it?" He shuddered.

I shrugged and focused my attention on the tent next to ours. "Is Alli and Kendall up yet?"

"No, haven't seen them." A moment passed before a playful grin spread on his face as if he had just gotten an idea.

"What?" I asked as I followed him to their tent.

He started to unzip the door to their tent. "When they wake up, they'll see the door open. They'll think it's that little ghost kid."

"I don't think they're that gullible."

"Maybe not Alli, but Kendall will believe it for sure." He opened it all the way and peeked inside. He looked back at me. "Yup, still sleeping. We should wake them up." He thought for a moment. "Art, what if you lay in that pool of blood and pretend you're dead."

I looked at him stupidly. "That will never work. Just- scream and once they hear it they'll be scared just by how high pitched it is."

He looked at me as if I insulted him which, I guess I just did without realizing. "That actually might work." He went inside our tent. "Tell me when to do it."

This was getting weird pretty fast but I plugged my ears and gave him the thumbs up. His scream could be heard perfectly well even with my ears plugged. I saw Kendall jolt up and join Collin's screaming for a few seconds. Alli however seemed to be more of a deep sleeper than I had thought because after all that she still wasn't up. Kendall stomped out of her tent and straight to Collin's before smacking across the face and yelling some nonsense at him.

I wondered if I should check up on Alli but decided not to. Once the two were done fighting they got out of the tent.

"She's still sleeping." I confirmed.

"She won't be after I wake her." Came Collin, ready to do whatever it took to wake her up.

"No, you won't wake her up. I will." Kendall said and pushed her way through and into the tent before anyone could say otherwise.

Kendall shook Alli gently to try and wake her up, as if a gentle shake could wake her when Collin's screams couldn't. A few seconds passed by without a word from her. Kendall sat there in silence before finally saying, "Um...guys?"

"Yea?" Me and Collin asked in unison.

"Alli's not here." She turned the sleeping bag over. When she unzipped it, there were three pillows spread across it. Maybe she had run off somewhere?

"Did she run somewhere?" Collin asked, as if he read my mind.

Kendall thought for a second. "Maybe. But why?"
I shrugged. "Maybe she has a secret boyfriend or something."

"I don't think so. Let's wait a little bit and see if she comes back. If she doesn't, then we can report it to the teachers."

"The teachers aren't detectives." Collin pointed out.

"Yea, speaking of teachers." I said pointing at the four teachers heading our way. Not one of them looked happy. That wasn't good.

When the teachers asked who was making all that ruckus, Kendall immediately pointed her finger at Collin. Once they got the guilty, they took him to their tent to have a talk with him.

Once Madi came back from wherever she was we all played Uno until Collin finally came back an hour later.

"What's the punishment?" Kendall smirked, clearly enjoying this.

Collin grumpily sat down. "I had to sit in timeout for an hour staring at a tent wall."

"Timeout?" Kendall almost started laughing.

"That's what they called it." He looked at Kendall and Alli's tent before saying, "Alli still not back?"

"No." We all said.

"Should we tell the teachers?" Kendall asked worriedly.

"What else is there to do?" I asked.

Once the teachers knew of Alli's absence they informed everyone and started to search everywhere.

After three hours of searching, we still didn't find her. Kendall started to freak out after one hour. Once they stopped searching, then I knew I'd lost hope in finding her. I did hope that she was safe though wherever she was.

Four hours later, we all heard a horrible ear piercing scream. Louder than anything I've ever heard, louder than Collins even. Me, Collin, Kendall, Madi, and everyone else followed the scream. Whoever it was, they were deep in the woods. We slowed down once we spotted the person who'd screamed. It was Sunny, the one who'd told that story the night before. He was staring at a tree in front of him, his face was pale, and I could see horror flooding his eyes.

I slowly walked around the tree. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see. On the tree was a girl. I remember she was searching in the woods for Alli. From what I recall, I don't remember her coming back.

She was about 10 feet up the tree. Her hands and legs were spread out and bloody. She no longer had shoes. I tried to walk closer but I couldn't get myself to. It looked like she was pinned to the tree. Knives were holding her hands and feet up. Holes in her shirt revealed big cuts in her stomach. I'd seen countless horror movies but this couldn't have been compared to those because this was real. At least, I thought it was. Under her, was the number 1 carved into the tree.

Collin and Madi were at my side, along with half the kids who came here. No one said anything for a whole minute. It was too much to take in. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kendall start to come closer to the tree. I had to tear my eyes off the sight and pull her away from it. I knew she'd get nightmares for life if she'd seen it. I do wish though, that someone would have done the same to me because I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that horrible look in that girl's eyes. That look of pure terror.