Heartless

46

I shivered as Colby parked the car in a random spot in the middle of the woods, "I think we should set up right over there." He said pointing to a patch of flat ground about a half mile from the car. We got out a grabbed our stuff walking to where he pointed out. Sam, Jake, and Corey walked ahead as Colby and I walked slowly behind them. "Are you okay?" He said gently as I looked up at him, "yeah..I'm a little scared." I admitted and he smiled sadly, "I know, but it's gonna be okay. I won't leave your side." He said and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "I'm trusting you, Brock." I said with a smirk. He squeezed my shoulder lightly "lucky for you, I'm a Boy Scout so I'm trained to protect pretty girls." I couldn't help but laugh, "I don't think that's what Boy Scouts are supposed to do." He smiled and pulled me closer to him, "it's what I do though." He said and planted a kiss on my temple as we arrived the camp site.

"Alright mister Boy Scout, show me your skills." I said as they began to unpack the tent. I walked over to the woods and began to look for fire wood as they filmed themselves setting the tent up.

As I looked for firewood I came across a pendant in the leaves, I tilted my head as I scraped the dirt off of it with my thumb, it looked like a necklace without the chain. It was a silver plated pendant, that was in the shape of a shield with detailed vines curving around a letter. It was caked in mud making it hard to make out the letter. I spit on it and rubbed the dirt away to reveal the letter C. It had to have been a coincidence. My heart stopped however as I thought about it more, Colby had told me that when they talked to a psychic, she said that Colby and Corey would have danger coming to them in the future. Why would I find a pendant with the letter c on it randomly? I shook my head dropping it on the ground and walking away.

When I came back to the boys, my arms were full of wood. They all looked over at me and rushed to help me put them all down, "Jesus Cora, how long do you think we are going to have a fire for." Sam said and laughed, "we can't be too prepared!" I said and looked over at the tent. "Nice work, Boy Scout." I said as Colby grabbed the last piece of wood from my arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him quickly, before turning and going into the tent.

We hung out there for a while, waiting for it to get dark. The mood was overall happy, due to the fact that it was still light out. That was until we heard noises coming from outside of the tent, "wait...we aren't alone." Colby said and started to unzip the tent, I grabbed his arm shakily causing him to look at me, "hey it's okay, it's probably just other hikers." He nodded and then slipped out of the tent, along with the others. I sat, hugging my knees, taking a deep breath before I got out as well. The sun was nearly set as we saw people riding motor bikes down the path, "see it's just other people." Colby said with a sigh of relief.

"We should start building a fire for the fire ritual." Sam said causing Corey and I to snap our heads to him, "fire what?" Corey said and raised his eyebrows. "It's not what you're thinking-" Sam started but Corey cut him off, "dude I said no seances or rituals or anything like that! We aren't fucking with it!" He was clearly upset, "It's not what you think! We aren't provoking anything. If anything we are protecting ourselves and releasing what is tied to us." Sam said as I bit my lip nervously. "We wouldn't do anything to put you guys in danger." Colby said and secured his arm around my waist. "Where are we releasing these spirits huh? Into the woods we are staying in?" Jake said as Sam tried to collect wood to make a fire. "It's not actually releasing anything, we are just going to cleanse ourselves, it's basically like we are saving ourselves"

It took a lot of convincing but Corey finally agreed to do it. We went and sat in the tent as Sam explained the ritual.

"Okay so for the fire ritual, we each have an item that signifies the spirit haunting us, I got a cowboy hat for the cowboy from the Stanley Hotel, we got lollipops for Lucy, and you guys have your own things." Sam said and I shook my head, "I don't have a spirit following me." I said quietly, and Sam smiled, "it's okay you can throw these in for Lucy." He handed me the lollipops and I nodded.

Just then Corey's phone started ringing, "no way." He mumbled as he showed us the screen, it read 'no caller ID' "no way! How do you even have service?!" Sam said pulling his phone out and checking it. Just then we heard noises coming from outside of the tent. It sounded like a car driving, then rocks and branches moving.

"We aren't alone..someone's out there!" Corey said as I grabbed Colby's arm, tears welling in my eyes. "We should go out there.." Corey said in a panic as another loud sound came from outside, "you would rather be out there than in here?" Jake said causing me to shake a little. "Someone has to be fucking with us." Colby said as Corey opened the tent, peaking his head out. "Shit- it's so dark." He said shakily as he quickly zipped the tent back up, "let's go out there...I'm not about to be trapped in this small box while someone's out there!" The tears had fallen onto my cheeks as I bit the sleeve of my sweatshirt for comfort. Corey's phone started to ring, "we need to get out of this tent" he said again. "No please." I whimpered into Colby's shoulder, "hey it's okay." He said gently and leaned his head on mine. I latched onto his left arm as he filmed with the right.

"Let's just go check it out." Colby said trying to calm Corey and I down. I let go of his arm so he could unzip the tent again. He got out, followed by Sam and Corey. Jake stayed in the tent with me, both of us peaking out of the open door.

"Are you going to answer it?" Sam said pointing to Corey's phone. "No. If it calls again I will." He let it ring until the call dropped. "There's nobody out here." Colby said as he filmed the perimeter, using the light to show that nothing was there.

Corey's phone rang again, causing me to jump. "Hey it's alright." Jake said and rubbed my back as Corey answered the phone. There was a noise going through the speaker that gave me chills, it was gibberish but it sounded like someone screaming. I covered my ears and rocked back and forth trying to calm down, thinking about the tarot cards, "guys we need to calm down." I said quietly as I rocked. None of them heard me. "Guys!" Jake called to them louder, "we need to calm down..Cora's freaking out." I shook my head "I'm fine..we just need to calm down it's all in our heads." I said as Colby crouched down grabbing my hand, "she's right. Let's just build the fire and chill out a little bit okay?" He said and helped me up. We all went to the fire pit and Colby built a fire as we set the chairs up around it.