Haunting Nightmare

Chapter 12: We lost you

Third Person

Colby's in a weird mood. He feels like something is missing without Corey there. He's upset and maybe a little mad that Corey isn't coming. After picking up Jake, they're on their way when Sam's phone rings. It's Corey, saying that he wants to come after all. Colby turns the car around and drives to Corey's building. He gets in the car and they begin their journey through the fog and rain to the witches forest.

Their first stop is a house where a wiccan has agreed to meet them. She offers to do a reading for them with her tarot cards. She pulls the top three cards and the reading begins. The cards show that they will experience chaos, fear and anxiety which may lead to the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. The reading makes them uneasy, especially after the psychic's reading, but she reassures them that the next chapter will not be bad and that the fear and anxiety may well be in their heads. Somewhat reassured, they leave the house and head to the forest.

They find a spot and get to work setting up the tent and their campsite. They set up chairs around what will be their firepit. The tent takes a little longer to set up but they manage. They admire their work before deciding to explore. They walk through the forest, staying relatively close to their campsite, to become aware of their surroundings. For Sam, Colby, and Jake, none of this experience is new as they've been camping before. But it's all new to Corey and he's uneasy, jumping at every sound of nature. The others assure him that the sounds are normal in the forest. All the same, they start making their way to the campsite and their car.

They arrive back at the campsite after getting supplies and dinner. They hang out in the tent, talking and laughing. The atmosphere is relaxed until they start hearing odd noises outside the tent. They investigate but find nothing amiss. However, in case something is around, they start a fire and sit around it.

When we are all sitting around the fire, I explain the fire ritual.

"Basically, we take haunted objects and names of spirits and place them into the fire. When the objects are burned, the bad energy and spirits will be released. It will cleanse us."

"I don't know Sam. Are you sure?" Corey asks.

"Positive," I answer.

We begin the fire ritual after we sage ourselves and the campsite. Nothing dramatic happens until... Colby bolts up and shouts that he sees a shadow in the distance. At first, I thought he was messing with us until I saw the terror in his eyes. We leave the campsite, Corey staying behind, to investigate. Colby runs ahead of us. We call after him, telling him to slow down and wait for us. There's no response so Jake and I continue walking, trying to follow his path. We reach a clearing and see something hanging on a tree. Jake thinks it's a doll but neither of us wants to get closer. We've just started walking again when we hear a female scream. We run back to the campsite, yelling for Colby to head back.

"Corey did you hear that?"

"The yell? Yeah, can we get out of here?"

I look around. "Wait, where's Colby?"

"Wait he's not with you?" Corey asks.

"I thought he went back to you!"

"You lost Colby?!" Corey exclaims.

"He ran off, he wanted to go some other way," Jake says.

"We were checking out something else," I say.

"You left Colby?" Corey asks.

"We tried to stop him but he kept running," Jake shouts.

"He's in the woods, alone, right now?" Corey asks.