The Haunted Houses part 1

The backpack

Carrie and Jeremy followed the marks they had left back to the camp, where they met Alice and Dave. Both of them looked worried. Carrie felt slighty satisfied because now it finally seemed like they were taking the whole thing seriously. Jeremy and Carrie followed Alice and Dave to the opposite direction from where they had just seen the house. Neither of them mentioned the house.

After walking for about twenty minutes they came to the place where Alice and Dave had found something. It was at the foot of a tree, just a shapeless bundle of fabric. Carrie felt so uneasy because it was impossible to see what the bundle was or if it had anything hidden inside it.

Finally Jeremy walked closer to it and lifted it up. It was a hoodie, wet and dirty since it had been laying in the ground probably for weeks. It's original colour was faded away probably by the rain but it seemed like it had been red. Under the hoodie there was a packback. It was wet and dirty as well, but it hadn't suffered as much as the the hoodie since it had been under it. Its original colour, clear blue, was still able to be seen. There was a big text written on it: "live free or die".

"This is Chad's backpack, I remeber that text", Jeremy said with a hoarse voice. "He's been here."

They looked the back more closely. There was a huge hole in it, the fabric was violently ripped away. Also they noticed the back was covered in blood, dried and old so it was brownish already. A tear was rolling down Carrie's face. When she saw all the blood, she realized there was no way Chad could be alive. Judging by the look on Jeremy's face, he had realizes the same.

"He didn't deserve this", Jeremy said, like he had already said to Carrie before. "He never harmed others."

Carrie looked over her shoulder and saw that Alice was filming. "What are you doing?" Carrie startred yelling at her.

"I'm filming, this is evidence to a crime", Alice explained to Carrie as if she was stupid.

"You can't film now! How stupid are you? We just got proof that our friend is now gone forever."

"He was your friend, not mine", Alice said silently.

"This is just a game to you, isn't it? 'Yes, let's go camping so I can film other people suffering, and laugh while they do. Because nothing harms me, I'm perfect and my life is flawless.' I can't believe how rude and childish you are! It's like you don't have any emotions at all! " Carrie started crying.

Alice had tears in her eyes too. "That's so cruel, why are you so mean? I have feelings too, I just didn't know Chad as well as you did. I just thought this was what I had to do."

"It can be done later, put the camera away."

"Will you both just shut the fuck up?" Jeremy said with anger so strong it shut both of the girls up. They looked at him and saw the pain in his eyes that was beyond counting. They both got even more sadder.

"I'm sorry", Carrie said silently. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings even more."

Jeremy took the packback with him and ran away. Carrie immediatelly got worried about him, he might get lost in the forest. She followed him but enough far away so he wouldn't get even more pissed at her. Alice and Dave came after Carrie. Jeremy ran to the camp and went to his tent. The others remained outside.

"You've spoiled everything again", Alice said to Carrie.

"Me?" she replied with her voice trembling and her eyebrowns raised high. "I wasn't the one who was filming when Jeremy found his best friend's packback all covered in blood so he must have realized there's no change Chad could be alive."

"Okay maybe I wasn't thinking but why did you have to start yelling at me and make a scene?"

"Because that's the only way I could mke you listen. If I don't yell at you then you won't realize what I'm saying since you're so dumb."

Carrie walked away to the fire, what was alredy burnt out. She knew she had hurt Alice's feelings but to be honest she didn't even care. She sat on the blanket they had left in the ground after lunch and took a Mars -chocolate bar from the cooler. She was still crying a little, tears of anger because of Alice and tears of pity beacause of Jeremy. She felt so sorry for him. Chad had been his best friend, they had done everything together, and now, he was gone forever. It was a pain too great for Carrie to even imagine.

The afternoon was spent in icy atmosphere. Jeremy didn't come out of his tent and the others were too afraid to go to talk to him. Alice and Dave were talking together leaving Carrie outside the converstation, so she was just wandering around camp with nothing to do. Her book was in the tent where Jeremy was so she couldn't even get it, and most likely she would have been to anxious and restless to be able to focus on reading.

In the evening Carrie, Dave and Alice ate a little bit of fruits before going to sleep. Jeremy had spent all day in his tent without eating anything so when Carrie had finished, she took some food and walked over to Jeremy's tent. They only had two tents with them and she didn't want to sleep with Alice and Dave since she knew very well what they would do during the night, so she knew she had to disturb Jeremy. She opened the tent door and crawled in there.

Jeremy was sitting in the middle of the tent but as he saw Carrie coming in, he made space for her. He had the backpack in his lap. In the dim light of an oil lamp the blood looked even worse. Carrie touched his arm and looked into his eyes.

"How are you?" Carrie said worriedly.

"I can't believe he's gone", Jeremy said. His voice sounded hoarse because of all the tears he had cried alone. "We were friends ever since he moved to my neighbourhood. He was 9 and so was I, and it was so much fun to have someone to play with, he was the only kid who lived there besides me. We went everywhere together."

Carrie knew all of that already but she didn't say anything. She knew Jeremy had to go through his sorrow somehow.

"Usually you lose all your childhood friends, don't you? They change into a different person when they grow up, they move away, they just leave somewhere and fade away from your life like they never excisted. But that never happened with me and Chad. We were always friends. I always kept him safe from the bullies. You know how people treated him. But when I was with him they didn't do a thing. Why didn't I come here too? He asked me to come. But you and me, we had plans so I told him I couldn't go camping with him. If I had been here I could've saved him."

"Jeremy, if I'm honest, I don't think so. Look at the blood. Whatever it was that killed him, it would've killed you too. And that's something I don't even want to think about. I don't want to lose you."

While talking to Jeremy, Carrie truly realized how much she cared for him. Carrie felt like she should do something to make Jeremy feel better so she gently moved the backpack to the corner and took Jeremy's hands inside her own. They were shaking.

"There's nothing you would've been able to do. Don't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault. But maybe we should go back home now. As hard as it was to find out Chad is gone, we did it. What can we do here anymore?"

The expression on Jeremy's face was a scary mixture of anger, sadness and rage. "We can find the person who did this and give him what he deserves. I want him to suffer just as much Chad suffered."

"But he will kill you too!" Carrie exclaimed.

"No, he won't."

"Jeremy, please don't do anything thoughtless and unwise. Let's sleep tonight here, we can think about all this in the morning. Let's just sleep now, okay?"

"I guess that's okay. But I will revenge his death, that's for sure."

Carrie felt even more worried than she had ever before during their camping time. She was so scared that Jeremy would get himself killed by doing something too dangerous. Eventually, after staying up for hours and worrying about Jeremy, she fell asleep with his arms around her waist.