A mystery murder

Eleven

"where?" Liam mouthed with his eyes narrowing as they held Lou's.

"My right" she whispered. Fear like a freezing cold frost in her stomach. Wide eyes spread around the circle.

"Hey pervert" he yelled. He then sprinted out of the tent and into the darkness and the light beam swinging wildly in his hand as he ran.

"Liam!" Lou called after him whilst detangling herself from the sleeping bag and she grabbed the torch out of Connor's hand and took off after her friend into the trees.

"Liam, wait!"

Shut in on all sides by the balck shadows and snatches of tree light jumped out at Lou as the torch shook in her hands and her feet pounded in the mud. Drops of rain hung in the beam.

"Liam" she screamed again and chasing the only sign of him up ahead. Behind her she heard more feet crashing through the forest and there was someone shouting her name. One of the girls screaming. A stitch was already starting to split in her as she tore on and the adrenaline swallowing any of the beer that might have dulled her. She was ready.

"Lou" someone souted in her ear.

Connor had caught up with her with the torch on his phone guiding him through the trees.

"Where is Liam?" he panted.

There was no air left in her so she just pointed at the flickering light ahead and Connior overtook her. There was still the sound of feet behind her. she tried to look around but she could only see a little bit of light. She faced forwards and a flash from her torch threw two figures at her. She swerved and fell onto her knees to avoid crashing into them.

"Lou, are you OK?" Connor said breathlessly offering out his hand.

"yeah" she said whilst sucking the humid air and there was a cramp twisting in her gut and her chest.

"Liam what the hell?"

"I lost him" Liam gasped .

"I think I lost him a while back."

"It was a man? Did you see him?" Lou asked.

Liam just shook his head.

"No I didn't see it was a man but it had to be right? I only saw that they were wearing a dark hood. whoever it was ducked out of the way whilst my torch was down and I stupidly kept following the same path."

"Stupidly chased them in the first place" Lou said angrily.

"By yourself."

"Obviously!" Liam said.

"Some pervert in the woods at midnight watching us and probably touching himself. Wanted to beat the crap out of him."

"That was dangerous" she said.

"What were you trying to prove?"

Then they heard a scream.

"Shit!" Tristan said whilst turning on his heels and sprinting back the way he had just come.

"Jess! Sarah!" Lou shouted whilst gripping her torch and followed Tristan and the other two were beside her. Through the dark trees again. Half a minute later they found Tristan using his phone torch to light up where two girls stood together arm in arm and Sarah in tears.

"What happened?" Lou said whilst wrapping her arms around them both as they were shivering even though the night air was rather warm.

"Why did you scream?"

"Because we got lost and the torch smashed and we are drunk" Jess said.

"Why didn't you stay in the tent?" Liam said.

"Because you all left us" Sarah cried.

"OK, OK" Lou said.

"We have all overreacted a bit. Everything's fine now and we can now head back to the tent. They have run off now, whoever it was and besides there is 6 of us OK? We are all fine." She then wiped the tears from Sarah's chin.

It took them 15 minutes even with torches to find there way back to the tent as the woods were really difficult at night. They even had to use a map app on Tristan's phone. The boys were already starting to joke about their midnight sprint through the trees. Sarah wasn't ready for jokes yet. Lou moved Sarah's sleeping bag between hers and Jess's.

"I am guessing no Ouija board then?" Connor said.

"Think we have had enough scares" Lou said.

Lou sat next to Jess for a while.

As Lou slid inside of her sleeping bad she felt something crinkle against her foot so she pulled it up to her chest and reached inside and her fingers closing round a piece of paper. Must have just been a food packet that fell inside but when she pulled it out it wasn't it was a clean white piece of paper folded in hlaf. She unfolded the paper and her eyes skipped over it. 'STOP DIGGING LOUISE.'

She laid down using her jumper as a pillow and the note was left open on the ground beside her. Lou was the last one awake and she had the words in her head so many times 'STOP DIGGING LOUISE.' It couldn't be. It was just cruel. Just a joke. She couldn't look away from the note. The forest was dead. 'STOP DIGGING LOUISE.'