Truth or Dare... and Die

Chapter 3

A tattered tent, or what's left of it, sits in the center of a small clearing. The soaked ashes of what was once a small fire smoked in the breeze. It has just recently been smothered by what smells to be... bodily fluids? And there is a thick wet liquid on the camp supplies that haven't disappeared. I shine a light on it, and gasp when I see it- blood. Fresh blood, dripping everywhere.  "What.. what happened here? Cody? I'm scared," I manage to slip out as I begin to shake with the early tremors of a panic attack. "Hey, hey now," Cody smoothly says as he wraps me in a secure hug, "it's all going to be alright. We'll just rejoin the... the others... Niah... they're gone." I shake more as I hear his voice tremble.

Our friends had been right behind us until a few minutes ago. They had promised to follow us to the camp, but haven't shown yet. Such foolery isn't like them, even being as crazy as they are most of the time. Ever since 2nd grade, our group has never once broken a promise. I guess we really bonded back then; after what we went through, it's only natural. At this very moment, the thought of what transpired in these woods, how frightened and confused we all were, nearly brings me to tears...

It was a night much like tonight. We weren't very old- only about nine or ten. We've always  had numerous sleepovers, the five of us, in Cody's huge backyard. During that particular hangout, we were getting restless. His parents had gone to sleep, and Dylan had the bright idea that we sneak over the small fence surrounding us and see what was beyond the neighborhood. We had all heard the horror stories about crazies and serial killers in the past, but our parents kept assuring us that  we were safe. Thinking about it, perhaps it would've been better for them to let us be too scared to venture out.

You see, Truth or Dare was one of our favorite group games, as we were still all innocent kids at the time. Dylan was older by a few months, so we all tended to follow his plans. To this day, he's still the leader in some respects. We followed him to the same streetlight where we had met up tonight, through the same gap in the gate, and deep into these same forbidden woods. It was all going well, excluding my nervousness. I knew I had a bad feeling about it, but no one believed me, not even Cody. That is, until we arrived at..you guessed it.. the same clearing Cody and I stand in now.

Back then, it was a little less grown over. We huddled in a tight circle as Dylan closed his eyes and pointed in a random direction; Charity. "Congrats! Truth or Dare?" Dylan smirked. "I.. Dare. I'm no chicken," Charity proudly exclaimed. "Very well, I dare you...to spend one minute alone in the dark woods, far away from us." Charity hesitated, but agreed. One minute later, she returned, unnerved but perfectly fine once back in our circle.

"Okay!" Charity repeated Dylan's earlier motions, landing on me. "Niah...truth.. " " Truth! I squeaked before she could finish her sentence. "Or... okay. Um.. why are you so scared of the dark?" My eyes widened as I looked to Cody for guidance; only he knew the truth behind my many problems and fears. Even as young as we both were, the conversations between us often were very serious. He winked, signaling me to fall back on  my generic cover story; "My big brother used to scare me a lot," I innocently replied. "Boring!" Charity sighed.

"Well, it's the truth!" I defensively said. "Now my turn!" I closed my eyes, spun, and pointed towards Clara. She smiled, accepting a dare. Not wanting her to get too scared, I only dared her to do the chicken dance while saying 'the sky is falling!'. Everyone laughed, lightening the mood. Next it was Dylan, who chose truth, admitting that he used to take ballet because his sister begged him to. It was a surprising confession coming from the most athletic one among us. Then.. it was Cody's turn. Dare. "Cody... I dare you to follow that creepy path at the edge of this clearing wherever it goes and investigate. And take your little scaredy cat with you, we don't want to babysit that trainwreck." In my defense, I was the youngest, but only by a few weeks.

What we saw at the end of the path was.. horrifying, disgusting, revolting, and emotionally scarring. It's part of the reason why we rely on eachother so much now. That was the day our lives changed forever.