Dead by Dawn

Story 1

"We stopped checking for monsters under our bed... when we realized they were inside us." 

      James felt nervous as he and his friends drove out of the city, into the countryside, in his large truck. They had heard about the disappearance of four teens that had gone into the countryside, and how they had not returned. That was three weeks ago, and their bodies had yet to be found. James was driving with his friends: Nellie, Cameron, Nick, and Miranda .

      Cameron was the "leader" of the five of them. He had short, blonde hair and wore a dark blue long-sleeve shirt and a pair of dark jeans. Nellie was wearing a pink shirt with large, blue flower on the front of it and a pair of violet colored shorts. Her jacket sat in her lap, which she constantly fiddled with from her nervousness. It was a bubblegum pink, with a pale white flower on the back. Nick wore a simple, black shirt with dark sweatpants. He had on a red hoodie, and he wore a red and black beanie.

      James was wearing a camo shirt, a black jacket- which he sat on to keep his backside warm- and a pair of dark jeans. His black boots were caked with dried, brown mud, and he wore a Texas A&M cap. Miranda was wearing a dark red shirt with black pants, and she wore a grey sweatshirt. James rubbed his large biceps every few minutes to try and relieve the tension in his muscles, and he was not surprised to see that Cameron and Nick were doing so as well. He knew that they only did this to try and impress the girls, even though their arms were much smaller than James'. 

      James kept driving as his friends laughed and made jokes. He only half listened to them, though some of the parts that he heard made him crack a smile. After three hours or so, they all had to make a bathroom stop.

      James spotted a small gas station on the side of the road, and he pulled into it and turned off the car. He began to fill up the car with gas as the first group of them went into the bathroom. When they had all finished, and the car had been filled up, they all got into the truck and left. It soon became apparent to James that they were lost. When he voiced his concern to the others, the others became frantic, trying to figure out a way back to the city. 

      Cameron managed to calm them all down, and they continued to drive. Unfortunately, it was getting dark fast, and there was a thick, ominous fog that had begun to cover the countryside. The two girls were getting scared and began to ask to go back. Cameron wanted to agree, but Nick responded to them first.

      "What?" He sneered. "Are you scared? You just wanna go home and cry yourself to sleep because of a little fog on the road?" The girls glared at him, but they said nothing. Their silence spoke for itself. They were willing to keep going forward.

      Almost an hour later, James pulled into an old parking lot that they had stumbled upon. It looked like it had not been used for years, for the concrete was now more like gravel. James parked the car, and they all got out. They all decided to go into the countryside to take a look around, to which James disagreed profusely with. 

      "What's that?" Asked Cameron, pointing to a large shape off in the distance. "It looks like a gate." When they got to the entrance of the large estate, they stopped.

      It was a simple, iron gate. They cautiously went through, but, much to their horror, it slammed shut behind them. Nick and Cameron began to try to pry it open, but to no avail. James, however, was looking around for anything that could help them. He noticed that the lights had gone out when the gate had slammed closed, so he assumed that the power source must have gone out. It must have gone out as they were walking through. A shit luck coincidence, he thought. Then a thought struck him. Or was it?

      Nick gave a shout of annoyance and turned to James in anger. "Why aren't you helping?!" He snarled, but James simply turned to him, finally piecing everything together.