Lithium

Chapter Nine

Looking around, it seemed like any other ordinary camp site. Our specific area was probably about an acre in size, kind of an awkward circle in shape. The entire clearing was surrounded by trees leading into the thick woods around us.

"Alright class! Time to set up camp! Boys - you set up the tents around the clearing. Girls - you're in charge of firewood. Let's get moving, students!"

Yep that confirms it - Mr. Ray was clearly the most excited for this trip out of all of us.

"Looks like we part here, Princess. But have no fear, we shall be here when you return." Jackson gave a dramatic bow, while Alex smacked him on the back of the head.

"Next year, I'm signing you up for theatre class."

I laughed, then turned and followed Alaina and Scarlet to the edge of the woods to collect some sticks.

~later that night~

Within an hour, all the tents were up, and a ton of firewood was collected. So much in fact, the boys had fun building a bonfire so big, it's almost like they wanted to try summoning demons.

Not that that's actually how demons are summoned, as you and I know, but according to folklore and all that anyways.

But anyways, we had a big fire, lots of people, s'mores...it was only missing one thing. Ghost stories. And let me tell you, the kids at Forest High sure as hell liked telling ghost stories. One in particular stuck with me that night, and I'm not sure why. It was told by one of the boys, Eric. It went like this:

~flashback~

"My house was built in 1904. It's a single family home, wood frame setting on a concrete block foundation. I have been living here for about 12 years. Of all the weird things that my siblings and me have seen or heard in this house this one event is my favorite. This happened to my brother. About ten years ago my brother and his best friends had started a garage band playing mostly '"Spanish rock," alternative music but in Spanish. His friends could only get together on Sunday afternoons. They would practice into the early evening, and they would usually call it quits by 8 pm. This was the time I usually showed up and went to bed, cause I worked the graveyard shift.

This happened in late fall, so the days were getting shorter, they had just finished a long session when the decision to head to someone else house came about. My brother handed his car keys to his buddy so they could load up the equipment. Everyone had filed out of the basement, but the tricky part was that they needed to walk all the way to the back of the basement, up the back stairs, through the kitchen doorway, down the hall into the living room and out into the front porch. Everyone was outside sitting in my brother's truck waiting for him. My brother was walking up the back stairs when he remembered that he had left his pancakes in a to go container sitting on a speaker in the basement. He made the decision to go back. Now the basement is not clean, with full sight lines, there had been partitions made, and the boiler and main heating unit are right smack in the middle. So after my brother walks back, he is about to retrieve his food container, when out of the corner of his eye he sees it.

It is a shadowy figure, right at his peripheral vision, this feeling of dread and uneasiness washed over my brother. We had been taught that if you are in the presence of a spirit or ghost and you felt a bad vibe, to say quick prayer or to cuss at it. My brother chose the latter, he basically just told it 'hey fuck you, I don't have time for this shit'.

My brother started to walk to the back of the basement and briskly up the stairs, closing doors and turning off lights as he was walking out. The last light switch is on the opposite side of the front door...luckily the door was open and the light from the street lamp was flooding the living room with its amber light. My brother said he felt something at his back, but at no point did he turn around. As he flicked the last switch the living room went dark, as did rest of the house. As he stepped out he pulled on the door closing it behind him, still holding his food container in one hand he jogged down the few porch steps. He walked towards the front gate...our house resides far from the main street, essentially having a large front yard but no rear garage. As he closed the gap between himself and his friend-laden truck he kind of smiled and thought things over in his head, mad at himself for spooking out when there was no reason.

He climbed into the drivers side of the truck, putting on his seat belt and getting ready to pull out of the parking spot directly in front of the house, when one of his friends asked 'Hey wait what about your brother, isn't he coming with us?'

My brother answered, 'What do you mean? He went to work early tonight, he is already gone, do you see his car anywhere?'

The next question they asked 'So then who was walking behind you when you were leaving the house? ' "

After telling it, Eric seemed to wait in anticipation for a response from the others, but no one said anything. It wasn't an overly scary story, but for some reason, even I couldn't find anything to say in response. Then our teacher just had to butt in.

"Alright kids! I think it's time to call lights out!"

The clearing was suddenly filled with groans.

"Now now students, no need for this! We have a busy day tomorrow! Now come on!"

And with that, we reluctantly began shuffling to our tents. They were in groups of four per tent, so it was me, Alaina, Scar, and a girl named Liz in the same tent. We didn't stay up long - we had to admit, each of us was tired. As I drifted off, I had no idea what was going to happen.

Later in the night, I had been dreaming. The fire, the man, it was all back. It was all interrupted however, by a scream that shook my from my sleep. However, no one else had seemed to hear it.

Alarmed, I sat up quickly, and noticed that one of us was missing. I jumped up, grabbed a flashlight and ran outside. I looked around with the flashlight, and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, until I caught a glimpse of a shadow on a tree. I swung my flashlight towards it, and it ran off. I quickly hurried in that direction, chasing it like the idiot I am.

However, as I reached just past the tree line, I tripped over something and stumbled. I caught myself on a tree, and looked behind me to see what I tripped on, and saw a body, covered in rich blood. Shaking with fear, I flipped it over to confirm my suspicions, and screamed a second later. There, in the dirt, blood all over her body and on the ground around her, laid my best friend. Alaina Miran.