Relentless

65

Colby's POV

"I'm so excited!" Cora squealed happily as she bounced on my lap while Sam pulled into the small gravel lot. "Don't get too excited, we still have to hike." Sam said as she shook her head, "I'm ready. I slept all day, I need to get my legs moving." She said with a grin.

I could feel my heart warm up at how excited she was no matter how nervous it made me that she was here. "This already looks creepy." Corey said as Devyn rolled her eyes playfully, "it's just a forest. Just like the one we were in yesterday." She said as we got out of the car.

"Yeah come on Corey, stop being such a baby back bitch." Jake said as Cora snorted, "Mia would be braver than you are being right now." Sam said as he set up the flashlights for us.

"You guys are bullies." Corey said and crossed his arms over his chest, "whatever..little bitch." I mumbled as Cora smacked my arm while she stifled a laugh.

"Come onnnnn I wanna explore!" Cora said and bounced up and down causing me to chuckle. I thought it was adorable how similar her and Mia were sometimes. They both were so excited about adventure and had the same glassy eyed look when they were excited.

"Colby let's GOOO!" She groaned and pushed me towards the entrance of trail. "Relax Cor, you impatient girl." I said with a laugh as I took her hand in mine. "I'm excited." She said and looked up at me as we walked, "I know you are." I said and kissed her head, loving how happy she was.

She had the light back in her eyes for the most part, but deep down I could see something was bothering her. I wanted to ask her what was up, but I knew she would deny anything being wrong. She was always so stubborn that way.

"Woah! This looks so cool." Sam said and looked at the rock structure in front of us. It looked like someone had perfectly placed a tower of mossy rocks on top of eachother, "I wonder if that means anything." Cora said next to me as she let go of my hand to walk closer.

I tried to not be so protective of her so I let her walk away but I wanted so desperately to yank her back into my arms to make sure she was safe.

"Woah, there's little charms in between the rocks." She said as she bent over to get a closer look. "Nobody touch them, we don't want to mess with anything." Sam said as he came up next to her to look at the charms.

"Guys, I don't have a good feeling about this.." Corey said and looked around nervously, "I literally have chills guys....we should go! I'm serious." He said as Jake fake coughed, "bitch"

"Jake I'm being so se-" Corey started but was interrupted by Devyn screaming, "did you see that?!" She asked and pointed towards the trees.

I instinctively stepped in front of Cora as I took her hand in mine. "No..Dev, what did you see?" Cora asked and stepped closer to me. "Someone's over there! I swear I saw someone." She said and stepped towards Corey.

"Everyone just be quiet for a second, see if we hear anything." Sam said as we all looked around silently.

We did this for a second hearing nothing before I heard Cora let out a breath. "I think it-OH MY GOD!" Cora shrieked and cowarded into me, "what?!" I asked as she shakily pointed to the same spot Devyn pointed to, "I saw eyes! I swear to god..I think there's an animal over there!" She exclaimed as I stood in front of her more.

"Everyone just stay calm, they say there's shadow people up here, maybe that's what you guys are seeing.." Sam said and stepped closer to Cora.

"We should just keep going...We would have heard an animal." Jake said and shrugged as we started walking again. As we walked Cora loosened her grip on my hand and looked around a little more, relaxing.

"Holy shit! Look at this!" Sam exclaimed as we made our way to a little waterfall. "Oh shit we should go swimming." Jake said with a laugh and gestured to the little body of water under the waterfall. "I'll jump first!" He said as Cora cringed, "please don't. That water is shallow." She said and bit her lip worriedly.

"Jake seriously don't joke like that." I said and took Cora's hand again. "Shit..I'm sorry Cora." He said as she shook her head, "it's okay Jake. Seriously. It's okay." She said with a small smile then looked cautiously over the ledge.

"We can try to get down there safely, I think there's a path over here." Sam said and pointed towards a little path that was a few feet away.

Just then we all heard someone crying and wailing in the distance, "do you-" Corey said but Sam shushed him, putting his hand up to silence him.

Cora looked at me skeptically then mouthed, 'that's not human'. A shiver ran down my spine when she mouthed that because it was true. This wasn't a human, the noise was too hollow to be a human.

Sam pulled out his phone and started recording. We weren't filming for a video or anything which made me laugh because he constantly just wanted to capture paranormal things. He always used to be so skeptical so seeing how he was now with all of this stuff was funny to watch.

Once the wailing faded away we all looked at eachother with shock in our faces, "I think we should go down there." Sam said as everyone nodded. I noticed Cora spacing out as she looked in front of her.

"You okay?" I asked as she nodded, "yeah, this is just crazy..the stuff we are seeing and hearing. Come on, we are gonna get left behind." She said quietly and took my hand, leading me down the trail.

"Woahhh! Look over here!!" Jake yelled and waved us over to where he was standing. "What's up?" Devyn said as we all walked over. "Someone lives down here I think." He said and pointed to the blankets, food, and water, that were scattered around the area.

"We shouldn't be here...we don't know who could be down here. We need to go." Sam said as Cora gripped my hand tightly, slightly pulling me away. "Okay yeah, let's go." I said and led the way back up to the main trail.

"This place is seriously so creepy.." Corey said with a shiver as Devyn wrapped her arm around his. "Yeah, I'm not really liking the vibes." Cora said quietly as I squeezed her hand. "Should we go back?" I asked as Sam looked at me, he held his lip between his index finger and his thumb as if he was contemplating something.

"Can we just go to the top..just for a second? That's apparently where the most activity happens." He asked timidly. Jake and Corey agreed, then looked at Devyn.

"Okay, but once we get up there we are done." Devyn said as I looked at Cora, "is that okay?" I asked her as she nodded, "yeah, that's fine." She said and smiled at me. "Okay." I whispered then leaned down and kissed her head.

I was so proud of her for being able to do this, she genuinely amazed me. If I had been through even half of the things she has been through I would never leave my bed out of fear, but she always kept pushing on.

When we got to the top I could feel the air thicken and the mood shift. Something was dark up here, "I don't like this." I mumbled as Cora backed away from the edge of the cliff, "hey, it's okay.." I said quietly as she nodded, "I know...yeah..I'm okay." She said almost as if she was trying to convince herself.

"GET OUT." We heard something yell causing us all to flinch, "holy shit! Who was that?" Jake asked as we all looked at eachother with wide eyes. "GET. OUT!" It screamed again as Cora trembled into me, "come on! Let's go!" Devyn screamed and grabbed Corey's hand then raced down the mountain.

Sam, Jake, Cora, and I followed behind them, sprinting down the mountain. I pushed Cora so she was in front of Sam and Jake, leaving me in the back.

We ran for a while before I swear I heard Cora screaming off in the distance. "HELP!" She screamed causing me to run towards her panicked cries. "CORA!!" I yelled and ran towards her voice, off the trail.

I wasn't thinking. She was right in front of me. Why would she be off the trail? She was right in front of Sam and Jake...she couldn't have run off like that without them stopping her.

I stopped suddenly, realizing what was happening.

I was lost.