Soulless Corpses

Mysterious Figure

Chapter 12

*3 weeks later*

Delanie's POV

Everyday for the past three weeks, right before we go to sleep Chris will tell me about how he sees this figure in the woods. The problem is no one else sees it. I hear people talk around camp about how they think the pressure of this world is getting to him. They all say he's going crazy. He might be seeing things but he's not crazy. He just has a lot of responsibilities that he just realized. He's having to be an adult even though he's only 16. I just feel bad for him.

The first week we came back with Molly, Alyssa and Matt I still wasn't able to walk. Now I can get around but I'm still limping. Matt woke up a day after we came back to camp. He freaked out when he first woke up but Alyssa calmed him down and explained everything. Carl woke up three days later. He had lost a lot of blood, more then Matt and I. He was still weak after he woke up but he insisted on seeing me. Rick wanted Carl to rest so he wasn't allowed to get up and come to me. Chris also didn't want to leave me with him so we had to wait a week to see each other.

Carl, Molly, Matt, Alyssa, and I have all been hanging out together a lot. Lately we have been hanging out at night talking around a fire that we make near the edge of camp so no one else hears what we talk about. Some times Chris will join us, but when ever he does I never get to sit next to Carl and I notice every time it happens Molly will run to sit right next to him. It doesn't bother me to much because she's one of my best friends and I know she won't try anything. She probably just thinks he's really hot, and I can see why.

Tonight we are all hanging out at our fire pit again. It's almost dark out so Chris went over to our spot to start the fire. I followed him over to help when I noticed he was looking out into the woods again. I walked up next to him to see what it was. I finally saw it, the figure Chris had been talking about. It was standing behind a tree. I could see it was looking all around camp, watching everyone. I walked past Chris and was about to walk towards it when Chris grabbed my arm, "you see it too, there's something wrong here, you know what I'm talking about now" he said as he pulled me back towards him. "Don't go after it, there's no point, I've already tried" he sighed.

"We need to tell someone" I said still staring at the figure.

"I've already tried, many times, but no one believes me" he said as he let go of my arm. Then he sat down on the ground and covered his face, "they all think I'm going crazy" he said with his voice muffled. As he pulled his hands away from his face I noticed his eyes were watering. He wiped them quickly and stood up again. I went up to him, rapped my arms around his waist, and pulled him into a hug, "not everyone thinks your crazy" I said as I looked up at him, still holding him in my hug. He pats my head, then kisses me on the forehead. I let him go from my hug and I sat down on one if the logs that was around our fire pit. I watched as Chris put more sticks into the fire pit, then he lit it with a lighter that dad had given him a while back. "Ta-da" he said as he smiled at me. I smile back at him, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed something, the figure had gotten closer. I slowly pointed at it and Chris slowly turned around. Just as Chris was about to walk up to it Matt and Alyssa walked up.

Chris quickly sat down next to me and tried to act casual. They looked at me confused, then I gave them the he's-crazy signal and they shrugged there shoulders and sat down. Chris whacked me on the arm for telling them he's crazy. Then he rolled his eyes and put his arm around me. Carl and Molly walked up talking away. Molly not even realizing where she was going tripped over Matt and almost fell onto Alyssa when Carl caught her. She had the biggest smile on her face and they sat down next to eachother. Molly winked at me. I mouth "he's mine" to her but she just rolled her eyes.

All through the night we were talking and laughing. I decided to take Molly's glasses and pretend to be her, and she pretended to be me. We were having fun imitating each other when suddenly, there was a gun shot. All of us were silent. The only noise was the crackling of the fire. Then the figure showed up. It was standing right next to the border of our camp, with only darkness to hide it's face.