Tales from the Bay Ridge woods

June 24, 2010

I woke up the next day and looked at my clock which read 1:58 p.m. I climb down from my bed and saw that Portia's out of bed and probably down in the kitchen for lunch or playing in the backyard. When I got downstairs my aunt Pam had my lunch waiting for me on the table. She and Portia went into the garden to check up on the petunias. I ate my lunch since I skipped breakfast and was on my way to me and my friends' hang spot.

     My friends Jace, Norman, Tara and I head down to this old dock down by the creek and do normal teen stuff that usually gets us in trouble. When I got to the creek there was no one to be seen so I started back for home all confused. As I walked down the street I heard a voice shout my name from the other direction. The direction of those woods. I hesitated to walk towards the voice because it wouldn't go well, but the sound of Jace's voice was ushering me to walk in that direction.

       I started to head in the direction of my friend's voice. When I reached them they were all staring at the closed gate to the woods. Jace turns to face me and says that he's planned a camping trip to the woods for us four. Including me. My anxiety kicked in again, but before I could panic Norman steps up and says "Penny it's okay. We'll be there with you, and I promise I won't let anything hurt you. None of us will."

       That made me feel a little better. They then wrapped their arms around my shoulders and we walked into the dark woods. The only light visible was the light of the sun peering through the leaves of the trees. It took the four of us 20-30 minutes to make it to the campgrounds, and by that time it had already been dark for about 15 minutes.

       We start setting up our camp. Before we finish we needed wood to light a campfire with. We decided to send Norman to get it since he was the biggest and the most buff in the group. Norman set off into the dark trees with only the light of his phone's flashlight to guide his way.

      The rest of us were getting the hotdogs and the hamburgers ready to be cooked when we get the fire wood when we heard Norman panting through the trees heading for the campsite. When he got back to us at the site, Norman had this look of pure fear on his face. Almost as if he'd seen something... Terrifying.