The Haunted Houses part 1

Into the forest

Carrie woke up suddenly. She had just seen the most awful dream and her heart was still racing fast. In the dream, she had been completely alone in the forest when she had heard horrible screaming outside the tent. She had been too afraid to move. The screaming had moved closer and closer until it was right outside the tent and so strong it was all she could hear. Suddenly the person who had been making the noice had opened the tent door and came in with a huge knife in their hand. When Carrie had looked the face of the person, she saw it was Jeremy. Then she woke up.

Carrie tried to balance her breathing so she took a few deep breaths. She hated seeing nightmares because all her dreams were always really realistic and seeing a nightmare that felt so real was horrible in her opinion. She didn't want anyone else to see she was upset because she knew how they would react: laugh and call her childish and stupid. Carrie had learned that to this group of people, it wasn't always wise to tell everything. She didn't even really like Alice or Dave, but they were Jeremy's friends so she had to spend time with them. Carrie thought the weed Dave was always smoking was disgusting, and Alice liked gossiping, partying and drinking: things Carrie didn't enjoy much. She usually accepted a party invitation but she also enjoyed spending time alone in peace. Sometimes she felt lonely but once she got something to do, that feeling was soon forgotten.

Carrie had been able to calm down and the dream was already fading away. She didn't remeber everything about the dream anymore. While she had been sleeping, the sky had gone darker and it looked like soon it might start raining. Carrie regretted leaving home. If she had stayed at home, she could be drinking coffee and watching a good TV-show instead of going to a rainy forest where they might or might not find people who had disappered over a month ago and were most likely dead. Soon Carrie felt guilty about her thoughts. What if they would find someone who was still alive and could save their life? Wouldn't the whole trip be worth going through then? Carrie sighed. Life was too complicated.

"Will we soon be there?" Alice asked sounding really bored. "I'm so sick of sitting in the car doing nothing."

"Well why don't you guys film something in the meanwhile?" Jeremy suggested.

"I still don't understand the whole idea of the video camera", Carrie said. "Why do we need to film this?"

"If we find the person who did this, the police can regonize him much easier if we have their face on a video. And if it's something paranormal, wouldn't you like to have some proof?" Dave said sounding really proud about the ideas, like they were his own. Carrie had heard those reasons many times from Jeremy, so she wasn't impressed.

"It's not going to be something paranormal, it can't be", Carrie said with a worried voice.

"Haha, are you scared of ghosts?" Alice laughed. "How old are you again, 7 or 17?"

"You know exactly how old I am", Carrie snapped. "And I'm not afraid, I'm just saying it can't be anything paranormal because those things aren't real."

"Okay, whatever", Alice said with a derisive smile on.

"Let's film something now', said Dave to Alice. He pulled the video camera out of his bag and turned it on.

"So me and three of my friends got worried about all the missing people so we wanted to find out what happened to them. We'll go to the same place where they disappered and try to find some clues. We'll film it all in case we find something important."

Carrie was surprised on how smart Dave sounded. Usually the drugs he used were clearly seen but now he sounded clear and normal. Maybe he was trying to get rid of them. Carrie was too shy to ask him about it because he was very unreliable and his mood changed quickly. She couldn't understand what Alice saw in him, maybe she was into small town gangsters with a low class car and hopeless future.

Many people were wondering why Carrie herself spent time with someone like Jeremy. But what she liked about him was that behind all his shells and roles there was actually a nice person with a sweet heart. Not many people saw that side in Jeremy, and that made Carrie sad. In the other hand, many people thought she was just an A-student with no life and a predictable future: she would marry a nice, normal guy, have children and move to the suburbia. That's not what Carrie wanted though. She wanted to travel and meet new people, move quickly from one place to another and not have anyone to tell her what she should do or who she should be. She wanted to be free and live her life just the way she wanted. But she was afraid that her dream might not come true, after all, dreams are usually something people try to reach but all they can catch is small pieces of what it could have been like. And living such insecure, unpredictable life was tempting and terrifying at the same time.

"We're here", said Jeremy, interrupting Carrie's thoughts. All four looked around. It was dark even though it was only 11 am and the wind was blowing hard. The air felt heavy to breathe. Carrie was feeling uneasy again but this time she decided to not say anything. Jeremy started unpacking the car.

"Well come on, I'm not going to unpack here all alone", he said to the other three. Alice and Dave went to help him straight away, but Carrie stood in the egde of the forest and looked around. Suddenly she realized there was no birds or animals anywhere nearby.

"Hey, don't you think it's weird that there's no animals here?" Carrie asked the other ones.

"Well maybe that noicy car scared them all away. I wouldn't be surprised, that car is so old. You really should buy a new one!" Alice said.

"A new car?" Jeremy laughed ironically. "And where do you think I could get the money for it?"

"Getting money isn't as hard as you think, there can be very easy ways to get some", Alice said with a mysterious voice.

"Well those ways aren't probably legal", Jeremy mumbled.

"And when did you start caring about that?" Dave laughed.

Carrie looked at Jeremy, whose face was red. He looked angry and embarrased at the same time. "Mind your own business."

"No need to be mad, I wasn't trying to fuck you up", Dave said.

"Do you all have your stuff?" Jeremy asked. All three nodded. "Well let's go then."

They locked the car doors and left it in the edge of the forest. The wind was humming in the trees and small raindrops were dropping down from the sky as they walked deeper into the forest following a narrow path. Carrie looked around all the time, she was really anxious. She felt like someone was breathing to her neck or was about to grab her hand and pull her away from the others. She didn't understand how Jeremy, Alice and Dave were able to laugh and joke around. Didn't they feel the pressure in the air or the deep silence that was all over the forest? Carrie was scared, but she couldn't tell it to anyone because they would have taken her for annoying, neurotic girl. She kept her mouth shut.

Suddenly a bird flew from a nearby tree. Unexpected movement caught both girls off guard and they screamed. Carrie grabbed Jeremy's arm.

"What was that?" Alice asked with a high-picthed voice.

"Calm down, it wasn't a big deal", Dave tried to calm her down.

"That really scared me", Carrie whispered.

"Don't worry baby, it was just a bird", Jeremy said.

They continued walking. If Carrie wasn't already nervous before the accident with the bird, she really was now. Even the smallest voice made her jump. She felt so anxious and anguished. She wanted to go back home, she thought the whole idea of even coming here was stupid from the start. But it was too late to turn back.