Blood Moon Lake

Chapter 14

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times as they adjusted to the sunlight currently blinding me. What time was it? I was hoping to leave early today so we could get to the town before it got dark, and everyone went to bed. I sat up and looked around, everyone else was still asleep. Sighing, I stood up and began the long process of waking everyone up. I went over to Jack first and shook him, "Jack wake up," I said, "We need to get going." "I'm up, I'm up," Jack groaned. I chuckled, "Good." If only the others were as easy to wake as Jack, I thought to myself. Strolling over to where Anna lay, I knelt and shook her, "Wake up," I told her, "We have to go. "No," Anna muttered. I rolled my eyes, "Seriously? Are you going to make me drag you?" "Yes," Anna replied not even opening her eyes. I sighed, why did she have to be so difficult? Grabbing Anna by the ankles I yanked her away from her resting spot and dangled her head above the ground. Anna's eyes immediately shot open. " I'm awake! I'm awake! Set me down now!" She shouted. "Great," I smirked, placing her back on the ground. Now there were only two people left. I know Ella sleeps like the dead but I'm not sure about Leo. Hopefully, he isn't that hard to wake up. I walked over to where he had crashed for the night and shook him, "Leo wake up," I said, "We have to go." He didn't stir. Ugh, of course, this wouldn't be easy. Why would it? I grabbed Leo by the shoulders and shook him harder, "Wake up!" I demanded. This time Leo shoved me away. At least I made some progress. Taking my right hand off his shoulder, I took my fingers and flicked his forehead. Leo's face scrunched up and he cracked open his eyes. "Wha?" He asked still half asleep. "We have to go," I told him, "Get up." Leo frowned, "What time is it?" I shrugged, "I don't know, but the suns up so we need to get moving."

Once I was sure Leo wouldn't fall back asleep, I turned my attention to the only person still sleeping. Ella. She slept like the dead and hated being woken up and now that it was that time of the month it would be way worse. Taking a deep breath, I went over to where she slept and prepared to die. Crouching over her sleeping from I gently shook, "Ella," I whispered, "It's time to get up." As expected, I got no response. I shook her harder, "Ella," I said, "You have to get up." Still nothing. I flicked her forehead, "Ella," I repeated, "Time to get up." Ella frowned but didn't open her eyes. "Ella," I said in a stern voice, "Get up. It's time to go." She didn't respond. I flicked her on the forehead again, "Wake up." Ella batted my hand away. "Ella," I said flicking her again, "Wake up." Ella's eyes snapped open, and she gave me a death glare. It felt as if she could see through my soul and was debating on whether or not to tear my heart out of my chest. "No," she said closing her eyes again. I blinked a few times and sucked in a shaky breath. "Yes," I replied, flicking her again. "What did you say?" Ella asked in disbelief. "I said that you were getting up," I told her, regretting all the decisions I had made in the past two minutes. Ella sat up and flipped me off, "Fine," she spat, "But only this once next time you wake me up, I'll kill you." I nodded, "Got it." After eating some of our bars, we set off through the woods for what would hopefully be our last time. The trek started the same as yesterday, mostly silent with someone starting up a conversation every once in a while, and then it dying out after a few minutes. The woods were peaceful, the birds were chirping, and the animals were scurrying about. If I had had my phone, I would have taken some pictures but unfortunately, it was back at the cabin.

Oh well, I'm sure we can always come back some other time once this is all over. If we want to set foot in the woods after this. I think I'll be staying away from any place with more than five trees for at least a month once this is all over. I mean on the bright side; I have a valid excuse to not go hunting with my uncle this Thanksgiving. I mean he wouldn't want to drag me out in the woods again after such a traumatic experience. Right? Then my dad won't be able to bug me about not wanting to spend quality time with my family. I mean it's not like I don't enjoy hanging out with my uncle, it's just the fact he never wants to do anything we're both interested in. I mean he knows I don't enjoy hunting; I mean I've gone a few times but whenever I suggest doing something else, he always says no. You'd think he'd do something fun for both of us at least once. It's not like I'm dragging him to a fashion museum. I suggest going hiking or something outdoors, that doesn't require sitting still and catching anything. Oh well, I still enjoy talking to him. Just wait till I tell him this crazy story, maybe then he'll think hiking is manly. "Hey, guys after we do this would you want to join one of those backpacking groups that walk ridiculously far for fun?" I asked jokingly. "Oh yeah, definitely," Jack snorted, "That sounds like so much fun." "Yeah, we could walk across the United States," Anna snarked. "Oh yeah," Ella replied, "We could make a world record for it too." "Have fun with that," Leo said, "I'm not walking across the whole country with the lot of you." "Good," Ella remarked, "You weren't invited anyways." Leo glared at her, and Ella just glared back. I sighed, well that's the end of that. As the day went on, it continued to grow hotter and hotter. This was the downside of hiking in summer with a limited supply of water it gets unbearably hot. Fortunately, there were trees, so they blocked out most of the sun, but it was still boiling.

It reminded me of the time my family and I went down to Florida for the summer. It was miserable. I don't understand why people think it's so great. It was hot and humid the whole time we were there and when I talked to someone who lived there, they said it was like that practically all year! My parents thought it was great my sister agreed with me and said she felt bad for all the people who lived there. The beach was nice though, the water made it more bearable. The next year my sister and I convinced our parents to choose somewhere else. There was one year in high school Anna convinced her parents to let us stay at her house while her parents were out of town for the week. We tried to cook hamburgers and managed to catch them on fire. Her parents came home early, and we weren't allowed to hang out without supervision for a while. But we didn't burn down the house so that was good. Now that I think about it, our summer plans never go as planned. The one time we went horseback riding Jack got thrown off his horse and it dragged him down a hill because his pant leg got stuck to the saddle. Ella flipped hir go-cart over when we went go-cart racing, I almost drowned in a pool one year, the zipline broke when Anna was on it. We just have bad luck. Maybe we should stop making plans during the summer together. Maybe then I wouldn't be worried about my friends dying. Or maybe we're just accident prone and leaving them alone for a long time would just increase the chance of death. Who knows, I'll worry about that later. As time went on the sun started to go down. "Do you think we'll get to the town before dark?" Anna asked. I shrugged, "I don't know, in all honesty, we could be walking in the wrong direction." "I hope not," Ella said, "Because you don't have enough things in your bag to last me a week." "You're lucky I have any," I pointed out, "If you were friends with any other guy, you would have been out of luck."

Ella rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, I know." "We're lucky yours and Anna's isn't at the same time," Jack stated. "Oh, don't mention that," I shuddered, "You might jinx it." Anna rolled her eyes, "I'm not that bad." Jack and I looked at each other, "Yes you are." "Can we stop talking about this?" Leo asked. "Aw, is it making you uncomfortable?" Ella mocked. "Yes," he replied, "I don't want to know about this, learning about it in school was bad enough." "We'll stop talking about it," I assured him. "Thank you," Leo muttered. "We can talk about UTIs instead," Ella stated. "NO!" Leo shouted, "We are not talking about any of that!" "Cut it out Ella," I sighed, "We aren't talking about that stuff." "Party pooper," she muttered. "No," I corrected, "It's called not being weird." Ella rolled her eyes, "Whatever." We continued walking in silence, no one knew what to say so no one spoke. It grew darker and the sound of singing birds was replaced with the chirping of crickets. The stars began to appear in that sky now that the sun was gone, and the moon shone through the trees above giving us light so that we could see. It was calming. As we continued through the woods the sounds of crickets became fainter and fainter until they could no longer be heard. The forest was left in complete silence. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of our footsteps. What used to be a calming atmosphere now sent shivers down my spine. Something was wrong, I just didn't know what it was. Glancing around at the surrounding trees, I tried to spot anything out of place, but I didn't see anything. I was about to move on when something caught my eye. Through the trees, I could see a light. "Hey, guys I think I see something," I called out, stepping towards it. Suddenly, there was nothing beneath me and I tumbled down a hill. When I reached the bottom my eyes, widened. There was a porch light! "GUYS!" I shouted, "I FOUND THE TOWN!" I heard cheering from the top of the hill. "Be careful there's a hill!" I warned them. "Really?" Leo asked sarcastically, "We couldn't tell by the way you fell down it." "Shut up," I muttered as they walked down.

Now I wish I had never seen the porch light. Not after what we found. We would have been better off just going back to the cabin.

THEY'RE FINALLY OUT OF THE WOODS! Whatever shall happen next? You'll have to wait and see. Anyways, have a great day! Bye! 🙃