Rippled Woods

Chapter 3

The rain pitter-pattered on the fabric of my tent above my head. After about an hour had passed, the rain stopped for a while and the sun started to shine. Unzipping my tent, I stepped out into the fresh, open air. The sky was was mostly clear, with rain still dripping from the trees around me. Looking around, I noticed Barry, Andrew and Tyler were sitting over at a campfire they had made, a little off from the camp. They were sharing conversation, while Andrew poured out some camping meals into a pan, which was hand-held over the fire. Taking a seat next to Tyler, Barry and Andrew continued talking about ghosts, Bigfoot or something of the sort. Turning to Tyler, I asked him when he last heard from Tim, to which he quietly didn't respond to the question. We sat in awkward silence for a while. Feeling ready to ask Andrew for some food, I was about to ask Andrew, before Tyler finally responded to me, albeit five minutes late, "Do you remember the day Casey went missing?". I nodded my head, to which he continued, "Tim and I were also late that day.

We were walking, when we saw a girl, all by herself, wearing that same violet jacket that Casey used to wear." Intrigued, I leaned in, to which he firmly said, "When Tim had walked over, her whole body rippled, like it was a reflection in water, before she was just... gone". Barry and Andrew had stopped talking and were paying attention to Tyler now. Barry pointed at Tyler saying, "That's not funny". I asked Tyler, "Why didn't you tell us?", to which he replied, "Tim didn't believe me, as he couldn't see anything himself. I thought that I was imagining it". The sky started to darken as a storm started to brew above us. The sound of thunder in the atmosphere grew louder as Tim finished explaining, "When we got back, I thought that she would be there, but she never came back in the end".

Andrew, rather inappropriately, concluded the conversation by asking us for our camping plates. Dishing us nice, hot bowls of chilli and rice, we sat in silence for while, until it started raining. As the fire started to die out, we all ate our food whilst leaning over our bowls. When Barry started to make a break for it, we all followed him to Andrew's tent. Kicking off our shoes and leaving them outside, Barry pulled a miniature heater out from nowhere and started heating up the tent. Checking the time, it was only 3pm. Andrew started talking about ghosts again, to which I barely paid attention. Zoning out, sitting in the back-right corner of the tent, I was suddenly hit by a large stone on my back. I jumped and audibly screamed, "Ow!" to which everybody broke into laughter. "Did a spider get you, Leonard?" Barry mockingly asked me. "It felt like something just threw a rock at me," I said, to which Andrew shushed us. His eyes were wide open as Barry asked him, "What?".

Gesturing for us to listen, we sat in silence for a bit as Barry started laughing again. Suddenly, another rock hit the side of the tent, in front of everybody. Nobody moved as we continued to sit in silence. "Who's out there, throwing stones at us?" Barry asked, getting on his knees before Andrew stopped him. "You idiot, be quiet!" Andrew yelled at Barry rather aggressively. Barry ignored Andrew, unzipping the tent and stepping outside, whilst stating, "Don't worry, I'll take care of this". Andrew, rather frustrated, followed Barry out into the storm. Now sitting alone with Tyler, we sat and listened intently. Outside, we heard Barry yelling out into the woods, to which nothing ever responded. Andrew yelled as well, before Barry broke into the tent, soaking wet, saying, "That'll keep them away!".

Andrew entered again shortly, muttering something under his breath. "Those weren't people, you idiot," Andrew started cursing at Barry, to which he replied, "What was it, then? Those ghosts you talk about?". Andrew aggressively put his fist out and said, "I've been camping in this area for months now, just LISTEN to me". Barry, not taking any of Andrew's abuse, quickly started a lengthy argument with Andrew, the same types of arguments they'd get into when we were kids. As usual, Tyler and I were left aside, waiting for everything to calm down when Tim would intervene. Unfortunately, Tim wasn't there to stop their arguing this time. After a minute, I got sick of their arguing and stepped outside. Now paying attention to the weather, it was only getting worse outside.