Camp Charlie

Chapter 13

Hannah had gone in search of Alan and she had not found him in his cabin. To her, it was obvious that he had gone to the same place and she was not disappointed.

He stood facing the tree with his back towards her and was busy observing the bark of the willow with his flashlight. It was getting dark and the northeastern skies had been already embraced by a blanket of darkness. She went up to him and remained speechless as she wanted to see the bark of the willow, that he had been observing with keen interest for some time. His body tensed as he felt her presence behind him. He turned around and on seeing her, he let out a sigh of relief. In his mind, he had thought that it was someone else, someone supernatural. That's the only possible explanation that his mind had been able to develop.

"Alan, What are you looking at?"

"Han, I'm trying to figure out the possible reason for the disappearance of that corpse."

"Oh, Alan! Come on. Maybe it was just an illusion or perhaps your imagination."

"I know what I saw and now I have proof."

Hannah raised an eyebrow as a questioning gesture.

"Look. Dried blood," said Alan as he pointed his finger towards the suspected bloodstains. In the glow of the flashlight, the stains did look like blood. She was speechless. One small part of her was happy that Alan wasn't being delusional but a larger part was scared of the reality. If it was blood, then whose blood was it?

"Can we talk about it in the morning? It's getting dark and we need to go back to the campsite. Let's go."

After a long day, both of them were exhausted, so he did not argue. When they came back, Sarah made them dinner. Not even Alan said anything about the happenings of the day. He had decided to tell them later. It was scary for him and Hannah to know the truth and he didn't want to destroy the small chances of them getting some sleep, later at night. Maybe he should have told them. But life isn't always the same and neither is fate.

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That morning, everything seemed fine. Sarah even made coffee for everyone but the moment she entered Ethan's room to give him his cup of coffee, she knew something was wrong. The bed hadn't been slept in. She went outside to find him but he was nowhere to be seen. Her heart was filled with the fear of losing him and she went inside his cabin again, to check the bathroom. The cup of coffee that she had been holding, fell to the ground and the mug broke into pieces. The hot coffee fell on her hand but it wasn't her burnt hand that forced her to let out a scream. It was blood.

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Hannah and Alan had been sitting inside their cabin, drinking coffee when they heard Sarah's blood-curdling scream. Both of them left their mugs on the table and ran outside. On entering Ethan's cabin, they found the bathroom door slightly open. Alan opened the door slowly and he found Sarah in a pathetic state.

She sat in a corner with all the blood drained from her face and dishevelled hair. The dark brown eyes which were once so full of life, seemed lifeless as they stared at the wall. Tears flowed from her eyes like rain, not bothering to stop. No, she wasn't dead. At least not physically.

Hannah's eyes landed on the wall and she stared in horror. The white tiles were stained red and they surely weren't painted. Something was written but the language didn't seem to be English. Both of them were shocked but their priority was their friend who sat in the corner, barely showing any trace of life. But it wasn't her blood.

They got her inside her cabin but she didn't utter a single word. Hannah tried her best to console her but her tears were unstoppable.

"Don't worry Sarah. Ethan will be fine." Alan wasn't good at consoling people and his words triggered something in Sarah's mind.

"It was blood for God's sake, Alan. Ethan's missing and there are all the chances that it was his blood. Can you stop lying? For all we know, he might be already dead. We need to find him." As she said those words, she left the cabin and went to Ethan's bathroom. The words on the walls didn't make any sense to her. She closed her eyes and racked her brain which already tired of all this. Her friends, who had followed her also thought hard but nothing came to their minds.

On opening her eyes, Sarah turned around to wash her face in the basin. She splashed her face with water and when she looked up to see her face in the mirror, she got it. The meaning of the words written on the wall became clear to her. The person who had written those words was clever. He wanted them to take all the time they could in figuring out their meaning, but it was just to waste their time. The words on the wall depicted the name of their writer.

Charlie.

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