Blood Moon Lake

Chapter 7

Trigger Warning! ⚠️Mentions of bl00d

We all climbed off the bed and headed over to the kitchen, we decided on sandwiches since they were quick and we wanted to leave as soon as possible. Once we ate and washed our dishes, we gathered in the living room to choose an activity. Ella and Jack sat on the couch while Anna and I occupied the floor. "So, what do you guys want to do?" I asked. "I want to go down to that lake," Anna stated. "I was thinking maybe hiking," Ella said. "I'm good with either of those ideas," Jack replied. I nodded, "Okay, what if we did both?" Everyone sat there and thought about it for a few seconds, "That would work," Ella said, "We could go down one of the trails and then go down to the lake to cool off." Anna nodded excitedly, "That would be perfect!" We all turned to Jack, "That sounds good to me," he replied. "Then we have a plan!" I declared, "But first we need to get into hiking clothes!" We all scattered to our rooms and quickly changed. Once we had changed, we met back in the living room. After grabbing some water bottles, we exited the cabin and went to go find the trails. "So, what trail do we wanna go on?" Jack asked. "Well, it depends on how long it takes to walk the trail," Ella replied. "Yeah," Anna agreed, "If it takes three hours then no." "Well Todd said there's a map for the trails, so we'll be able to see how long it takes to walk them. Once we arrived at the trails and located the map, we decided to take the four-mile trail. "So, the map says it'll take about an hour and a half, everyone okay with that?" I confirmed. "Yep!" Anna declared, running in the direction of the trail "Let's go!" "Slow down," Jack laughed, "You're gonna trip!" "No, I won't!" Anna argued. I rolled my eyes, "Come on you two." Anna stuck her tongue out at Jack but waited for us to catch up before she started walking again. As we walked down the trail, I took pictures of all the different birds, animals, and insects we found.

The scenery was amazing it's nothing you would ever see in New York's large cities. The trees were tall and provided a lot of shade so that was nice. I saw deer, serval different birds, a butterfly with gorgeous yellow wings that had black stripes running through them, and lots of squirrels. We were about an hour into the trip when we realized we were lost. "Um, guys," Jack said, "Where are we?" "The woods," Ella deadpanned. Jack rolled his eyes, "Clearly! But where in the woods!?" "On a trail," Ella replied, "I thought you would know this." "Where's the trail!?" Jack demanded. "Under our feet!" Ella replied in an exasperated tone. "I don't see a trail!" Jack replied. "OH MY GOSH!" Ella yelled, pointing at the ground "IT'S RIGHT THERE!" I glanced down at the ground wondering why Jack was asking pointless questions. Then I realized he was right. "Shoot," I muttered, "We're not on the trail anymore." "Yes, we ar-" Ella cut her reply short when she too noticed there was no more trail. "Well, that's nice," Anna said. "What do we do?" Jack asked. "We'll just turn back and walk in the direction we came," Ella stated, "We'll either find the trail or stumble across the cabins." "I feel like that's a really bad idea," I replied, "But you know what who cares. Lead the way." "You won't regret this," Ella assured us as she took off in the direction we came from. We followed Ella for quite a while and still hadn't found our way back. I checked my phone and noticed it was already three o'clock, we left the cabin at twelve-thirty. "How can we tell if this is working?" I asked. Ella stopped and turned to face me, "Well we can't tell if it's working until we get back or not." I stared at her, "This was a very bad idea." Ella shrugged, "It always works for me." "Meh, I'm sure it'll be fine," Anna said, "We just gotta keep going."

"Okay," I shrugged, "Let's keep walking." We walked for another half hour before Jack finally spoke up. "This isn't working," Jack said, "We need to come up with a better plan." "Oh shush," Ella muttered, "It's working you just have to be patient." "We've been walking around for two hours," Jack argued, "It's not working." "Yes, it is," Ella argued. "Is not," Jack shot back. "Is too," Ella retorted. "Is not," Jack replied. "Is too!" Ella argued. "Guys stop arguing!" Anna argued, pointing towards a clearing, "There are people." Ella and Jack looked where Anna was pointing, "I told you it would work," Ella declared setting off toward the people. Jack mumbled something under his breath but followed after Ella. I followed behind happy to be out of the woods. When we emerged from the trees, I looked around the clearing and started laughing. "Ella!" I cried, "You led us around the lake to the tents!" "You got us more lost than we already were!" Jack shouted, "Your plan was horrible!" Anna burst out laughing as well, "Oh, my gosh. I can't wait to tell everyone about this!" Ella turned bright red, "Shut up! You are not telling anyone about this!" "Yes, we are!" Jack replied, "You took us on the eight-mile trail!" "Are you lost?" A voice asked. I glanced up to see a lady with brown curly hair looking at us concerned. I shook my head, "No, not anymore. We'll be able to figure out where to go from here." "Oh," she said, "Are you camping?" "No," Anna giggled, "We have a cabin." The woman looked confused, "But the cabins are on the other side of the lake." Jack nodded, "Yeah we know, we got lost while hiking and decided to listen to this idiot," he pointed to Ella, "And she led us over to the other side of the lake." "Oh," the lady replied, "What trail were you on?" "The four-mile one," Jack said glaring at Ella. The sound of laughter turned my attention away from the conversation Jack was having and to a group of four boys. They were around my age, and they all seemed to have been paying attention to our conversation.

"Is something funny?" I asked. The boys all looked at me, one with curly blonde hair and a British accent replied, "Yeah, it's funny that someone can go from one side of the lake to the other without even knowing it." I smiled at the blonde, "It'd be funny if you drowned." The blonde glared at me, "Too bad for you I know how to swim." "That wouldn't help you if you were unconscious," I told him. "Luke," Anna said poking me in the arm, "Stop threatening people and let's go. The lady offered to give us a ride back to the cabin." "But I was having fun," I pouted. "You can threaten someone else now let's go," Anna replied. "Fine," I sighed following Anna to the brunette's car. We all climbed in and the lady began to drive us back. When we arrived back at the cabin, we thanked the woman and got out. I walked inside the cabin and flopped down on the couch. "I never want to go hiking again," I stated. "Me either," Anna agreed, spreading out on the floor. "Oh, it wasn't that bad," Ella scoffed. I sat up and looked at her, "We were walking around the woods for three hours! We planned on hiking for one and a half!" "Okay, so we were out longer than we planned," Ella muttered, "So what?" "It was hot," Anna told her. "And we all ran out of water," Jack chimed in. "Okay you're right it was bad," Ella agreed, "I'm assuming no one wants to go swimming." "I want to shower, eat dinner and watch a movie," Anna stated, "I have no more energy to use, and I don't want to go outside." I nodded in agreement, "I don't want to do anything else today." "Same here," Jack replied. Ella shrugged, "Fine by me, who's showering first?" "I CALL DIBS!" Anna shouted, racing to her room to grab her stuff. "We're gonna have no hot water," I muttered. "I don't care," Jack muttered. "You will when it's your turn to shower," I told him. "That's a problem for future Jack," he replied. "Fair enough," I hummed. After two hours we had all showered and had just finished eating when someone knocked on the door. I looked at the clock and frowned, who was knocking on our door at six-thirty? We haven't even talked to anyone besides Todd since we got here. The person knocked again this time louder. "Coming!" I yelled, walking over to the door.

I opened the door and came face to face with a four-year-old with red hair tied up in pigtails. "Hi," I said smiling, "Do you need something?" "Mommy and Daddy wanted me to ask if you wanted to join the scavenger hunt," the child whispered pointing over to her parents. "I don't know I'd have to ask my friends," I told the little girl, "Where is the scavenger hunt being held?" "In the woods," she replied, "All the people in the cabins are gonna be there and some of the campers are joining too." "Well, that sounds like lots of fun," I said, "Let me go ask my friends, okay?" The little girl nodded, and I closed the door. I don't want to do a scavenger hunt. If we got lost in those woods during the day, we are getting lost out there at night. I walked back to the kitchen where all my friends were, "We just got invited to a scavenger hunt, do you wanna go?" I asked. All of my friends stared at me like I had grown two heads. "I thought we all agreed on no more outdoor activities for today," Ella said. "We did but a little girl asked, and I said I would ask so I am," I told them, "I'm assuming it's a no." All of my friends nodded. "Okay, I'll go tell her." I turned around and went back to the door. When I opened the door, I saw the little girl was now standing with both of her parents. I smiled at them, "Thanks for the invitation, but my friends and I just spent all afternoon hiking and we're all really tired. If we had known there was gonna be a scavenger hunt, we would have planned the day differently." The girl's dad smiled, "That's okay, we just figured we'd ask. We didn't want anyone feeling left out." "We appreciate it," I said, "Have fun." Both parents nodded and headed off towards the place I assume they were gathering. I closed the door and went back to my friends, "Okay, that's all taken care of," I announced, "What do you want to do?" "We could watch a movie," Jack suggested. "I'm down for that," Ella said. "Me too!" Anna replied. I shrugged, "Why not?"

We went over to the couch and watched a movie, by the time the movie was over we were all exhausted. "I'm turning in for the night," I said. "Me too," Jack yawned. "Same," Anna replied. Ella nodded, "Me three." With that, we all headed off to bed. I lay down, closed my eyes, and began to drift to sleep. If tomorrow was going to be anything like today, I would need lots of energy. I was just about to fall asleep when a loud banging came from the front door. I groaned, who is pounding on the door in the middle of the night? I tried to ignore it but whoever it was they were persistent. I rolled out of bed and shuffled over to the front door. When I opened the door, I came face to face with the blonde from earlier. Now that he wasn't sitting down, I could get a better look at him. He was short probably 5'5 he had blue eyes and his curly blonde hair was a mess. For some reason, he was covered in blood and looked scared. "Please let me in they're coming!" He begged.

And so, the plot begins! Sorry, it took so long but character development is important. It's a wild ride from here so prepare for some world-building and de@th. Anyways hope you have a great day! Bye! 🙃