One by one

Ch. 4 Another lost soul |Collin|

Collin, 3:00 pm 6/6

Wednesday

I was only informed of the news when I came back from hiding. I couldn't handle all the stress from being scared I was going to die to losing one of my best friends. And knowing how she died and that it was slow and painful makes it even worse. I hid for hours so no one would know I was grieving.

When I came back, Art told me that Madi went to look for me. When I went to look for Madi, I spotted Kendall behind the small abandoned building.

"Madi was taken." She whispered, staring into the distance once I approached her.

My eyes widened. "What? What do you mean 'taken'?" I asked, hoping this was a joke. I only had to look at her face to tell she was being serious.

"I'm sorry...I was too late." She started to cry.

"Kendall, tell me what happened." I sat down beside her.

She took a deep breath. "I saw her go into the woods. Someone was in there. I saw them take her."

"What?? Why didn't you say anything earlier? Why didn't you do something?!"

"I'm sorry." She cried into her knees.

I began to shake her shoulders. "Where Kendall?! Tell me where!"

"By the teachers tent. To the left, straight out."

I quickly got to my feet. I didn't thank her or say sorry for bursting out, she should've done something. If Madi really did get taken then she should've followed them. Deep down, I knew that Kendall could never do that. And even though I didn't want to admit it, I probably wouldn't have been able to either.

I never did find her. Three hours later she was pronounced "dead" by our campers. They started to call her by the number eight. Saying that she was the eighth victim. They didn't even know her name. Everyone that died or went missing were just numbers to most of these people.

By now, the sun started to set and I was waiting at the tent to see if maybe Madi would come back. She never did.

Art started to show signs of emotion when the second person in our friend group went missing. He started to pace back and forth and draw these really creepy but good sketches of what the cloaked person might look like. Kendall went back to her tent. When I looked inside, she was huddled up in a cradled position. Her eyes were red and puffy while her face was pale.

I could feel the absence of Madi's presence. Which was one reason why I didn't want to go to bed. I never planned on going. But at the same time, I didn't want to stay up either. What if I saw the person who took Madi and even possibly killed Alli? What if they were coming for me next?

Art suggested that I should try to sleep but I didn't understand how the thought of sleeping could even enter his small brain. He never was the person for great ideas though. Instead, I laid down and stared at the tent wall for hours.

Eventually I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to a zipper being zipped up. I flinched and got in a fighting stance while still looking like I was sleeping. I noticed the zipper was being zipped back up and once I lifted my head up, I felt if Art was still there. He wasn't.

I thought I should go follow him but then again, that would be creepy. Thoughts like, "What if he's sneaking off," and,"Why would he be up at this time," came into my head. An even crazier thought came to mind, "What if he took Madi...?" I quickly pushed that last thought aside and began to count the minutes he was gone.

I got to 2,918 seconds when I heard the zipper again. I rounded it to 2,900 and began to do the math in my head. The only time math actually came in use. I ended up with about 48 minutes that he was gone for. I wanted to get up and ask him where he had been but I didn't want him to think I was suspicious of him.

I waited until I could see light coming into our tent to get up. When I went outside and took a look out into the woods I thought I saw someone standing there, watching me. But I brushed it off as my mind trying to play tricks on me.

I turned back toward our tent to check back on Art when I noticed something. A small piece of paper was attached just above the tent's door. I quickly went up to it and took it off the tent's wall. I opened the note to see what was inside but there was nothing. I flipped it over and observed every side of it but it was just a normal piece of paper.

I let it fall to the ground in my disappointment. I thought that maybe it would be a clue to find Madi or something about Alli but that hope vanished. At least now that it was Thursday, the buses would come tomorrow, then we could get help. That is, if the busses come...

Art had just woken up when I checked in. I tried not to eye him suspiciously from his unknown absence for 48 minutes last night.

Instead of making small talk I avoided him and found some spare clothes to put on later when he left. When I was finished, I left the tent to check in on Kendall. I noticed how weird she had been acting recently and I wanted to apologize for yelling at her yesterday. I knew Madi's disappearance wasn't her fault. I shouldn't have blamed it on her.

I slowly zipped up her tent and peeked inside. She wasn't inside. Maybe she had gone off again to cry or something. The thought seemed reasonable.

I waited in Kendall's tent for about an hour before Art finally left our tent to go off somewhere. I slowly got out of Kendall's tent and back to ours. It took me a second to remember that it was just me and Art's tent now, not Madi's. Unless she turned up.

I began to look through Art's bag for anything that could help me figure out why he'd gone out in the middle of the night for so long. I admit, it would have been easier to ask him myself but then again, he might not tell me the truth.

I looked through every pocket except the smaller one. When I did, I found a small piece of paper. Written inside were the words, "In the woods is where I'll be. If you're willing to find me." Below the message was a drawn map of our camp. An arrow from the teachers tent was drawn going to the left straight into the woods.