The Hunter [completed]

EIGTH

The sun was shining through the curtains. It was hard to open my eyes, as they were glued together by last night's tears with a thick crust. I scanned the room, listening for noises. A steady snoring came from both rooms. I checked my phone; 10.00am. I jumped out of my bunk and shook Lee awake. "What time is it?" he inquired. "Ten," I replied and opened the door to the next room. Danny, Hannah and Christie were all sprawled out on the sofa, in some serious amusing positions. I unlocked and opened the door and stepped outside. In the morning sun, last nights events seemed distant and like a enormous overreaction. I would have laughed, only I didn't, because I knew it was not a laughing matter.

As I stood there, enjoying the warmth of the sun, everyone began to move inside the cabin. I heard rattling of pots and pans, and shortly after, Sean and Lee came out with everything they needed for making breakfast on the grill. "It'll be a proper cowboy breakfast today," Sean  announced loudly. "In honor of the birthday girl," he quickly added as he stepped towards me with a large grin painted on his face. He pulled me in for a hug and said "happy birthday, Mia." I thanked him as I pulled away from the hug, just as Danny, Sam and Jess came out holding their towels. Sam rushed over and repeated Sean's greeting. Danny and Jess congratulated me with an awkward wave. "We're taking a bath. Call us when the food is ready." Sam addressed Sean and Lee. My gaze went directly to the pond and I instantly got goosebumps. No way I would ever go back down there, let alone swim in it. They disappeared down the path chatting and laughing, with all the events of last night seemingly forgotten.

I saw them continue down the path, past the spot where we had lounged in the sun earlier. I was glad I was not with them. My exploring days were officially over. After a little while they disappeared from sight, and I turned my attention back to the cooking.

I called my parents, and however frightened I still was, I didn't tell them what had happened. They would be frightened for me and I didn't want to scare them unnecessarily. Not in a sober state, anyway.

No one mentioned what had happened the previous night by a single word, which left a pressing atmosphere surrounding us. No one seemed interested in starting a conversation about the elephant in the room, and at that time that was alright with me. In the daylight, it was the last thing I wanted to think about.

I was refused to assist any further with the cooking, so I decided to spend my time packing. It wasn't much I had brought, but it turned out be quite the challenge to gather, as it was scattered all around the tiny cabin. I found everything, with the exception of the knickers I had worn while swimming. I was stupid enough to mention it, which led to enthralling laughter amongst Lee and Sean. No-knicker-Mia they called me. I didn't think much of having misplaced them, but I felt slightly annoyed, as I was sure that I had put them up to dry in front of the fireplace, and I could have sworn I saw them still hanging there last night. I threw everything in my backpack and shut it. Together with Hannah and Christie I started to clean up the cabin, another challenge that proved even more difficult.

The breakfast was ready and served. We called for the three out roaming, but they mustn't have heard us. We ate anyway, but made sure to leave leftovers for them to eat when they got back. The conversation ran freely around the table throughout the breakfast, with one exception; Christie. She couldn't have said more than a few words the entire morning. I was getting annoyed by her absentminded behaviour, but said nothing on the matter, as we were going home that day and I didn't want to have a fight with one of my closest friends. By the time we had finished breakfast, the sun had disappeared behind ominous looking clouds, so we packed up and headed inside. Wondering where the others might have disappeared to for so long, we tried our best to avoid touching on the object none of us wanted to bring up.

I had to pee, so I walked outside and over to the outhouse. The air was chill now that the sun was gone. I was sat there for a good five minutes without being able to relax enough to manage to pee, so I did what I used to do when I was little; I covered my ears with my hands. It worked. I finished, sanitized my hands and closed the door behind me. I was startled as I heard footsteps coming fast up the path. I saw all three appearing at the same time. They were red faced and out of breath. "Call the others," Sam ordered me in between breaths. I did as I was told, and soon after we were all gathered by the grill. "What's up?" Lee asked curiously. Jess looked white as a sheet.

"You... you have to see this!" Sam, smoking, drinking and not very athletic, was so out of breath he had left it to Danny to speak. "See what?" Sean asked. "Just... come with us," Danny said hurriedly, motioning for all of us to come with them. "I'm not going back there!" Jess said desperately and ran inside the cabin, with Sam at her heels. "Whatever it is, I'm not going," Hannah said, emphasizing 'not'. She turned on her heel and followed Jess and Sam inside. "What is it?" Lee asked again. "I can't explain. I don't even know... just come with us!" Danny begged. A part of me was very reluctant to leave the somewhat safe surroundings of the cabin, but another part of me - the curious part, wanted to go. So I went with them.

"We followed the path, looking for a good place to take a swim. We came to this spot, which was good, so we jumped in here." Danny pointed in the direction of the pond. It wasn't viewable from the cabin. "We had agreed to go back, thinking that the breakfast would be ready, and had just gotten out and back into our clothes when we heard a right racket from the bushes over there." His hand moved in the opposite direction from the pond, away from the path. Danny continued. "Thinking it might be the hunter still joking around we decided to confront him and ask him to leave us the fuck alone." Sean and I looked at him in horror. "Why would you do that?" I asked angrily. Danny simply shrugged as to say 'why not'. "And then?" Sean asked. "Well," Danny said, "we followed the rustling down through the bushes". I was hesitating to follow, but I did not want to be left alone to walk back up to the cabin either. I tried to communicate to Christie that I wanted her to come back with me, but she walked past me to follow, so I had no option but to tag along.

We walked for a couple hundred metres through the bushes and unruly vegetation before ending up back at the pond. I was surprised to see that there was so much of the pond that couldn't be seen from the cabin. The chatter died, and by the looks on their faces I knew something was amiss. I searched frantically around in order to see what everyone else saw. And then I saw it...