Creepers

Prologue

Word count: 2518

It was a cold night outside and I was shivering even though I had a coat on, I was rubbing my arms and silently cursing myself for my choice of clothing, my stupid ass should of taken the other jacket which is probably still hanging in my closet back at home, but I tried not to be too negative remembering that I still had a sleeping bag and a tent and we would make a campfire soon, you see the reason I was outside was because it was my first time camping ever with my friends, it took me weeks to finally convince my parents to let me go but they finally caved and gave me permission. I wasn't paying attention and ended up tripping on a root and feel on the ground and grunted I rolled my eyes as I heard a girl chuckling from behind me, the girl was Gwen a girl who's dark humor matched her dark aesthetic, in all the time I've known her I've never seen her wear anything other than black she even wore dark make up which included a black lipstick which she for whatever reason decide to wear for this occasion but even with her fondness for that color she still decided to dye her short wavy hair blue. I rolled my eyes as she kept on chuckling and as I did I saw a hand reach out to me to help me up ,,Thanks Bryce." I said as I stood up with his help from the boy he just smiled and went back to walking, Bryce was a head taller than me and he had dark brown hair and black eyes, he looked rather intimidating but he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet but he knew when to get serious he also had the most camping experience so he was kinda the leader of this group. ,,Was it a nice reunion?" I turned my head as I heard the voice and came face to face with Oliver he was also a head taller than me and he had brown hair and green eyes he was also the comedian of our group and liked to tease anyone he meets ,,What do you mean?" I asked ,, Well you know your reunion with the ground must of been quiet emotional considering your tears." He started laughing after that which made me roll my eyes again. Hey I never said his jokes were funny.
After what felt like an hour we finally stopped and Bryce turned to us ,, The place looks good enough, Gwen could you help me build the tents?"
,, Sure thing."
,,Good. Emma? Oliver?" He turned to us ,,Could you get fire wood?"
We both said Yes
,,Thanks and be careful out there and don't get lost." He said in a stern voice
,,Will do, Sorry Emma guess we have to reschedule our plans of getting kidnapped to another time, how does next Friday sound?"
,,Oliver."
,,Sorry Sorry."

I started picking up stick after stick I tried to get over this as soon as possible since I was still freezing my ass off and couldn't wait to lay a fire but after a while of doing this I noticed something weird about the wood, it was laid in a strange way by that I mean that they were laying all in a straight line as if forming a path as soon as I noticed I stood up straight and started looking around just now noticing that I was far away from the campsite but before I could start worrying about this, I felt my guts suddenly clench together, it was a terrifying feeling as if my entire body was screaming at me to get the hell out of there, but I was frozen at my place and started wiping my head around, looking for whatever danger was causing my terrible feeling and then as I saw it, or should I say him?
Only 15 steps away from me was a figure he was the same height as Bryce, if not than taller, He wore black boots blue Jeans and a dark yellow hoodie he was wearing the hood over his head but the most unsettling thing about him was that he wore a mask which covered his entire face and neck, it was a black mask with two red dots at the place of his eyes and a red curved down line at the place of his mouth, his entire presence made me hold my breath as if I forgot how to breath, this was how scared I was, I wanted to scream but as soon as I opened my mouth he pulled out his hand and put his index finger in front of his mouth in a gesture that clearly meant 'zip it' I didn't wanna try his patience so I shut my mouth, he put his hand away from his mouth but instead of putting his arm back to his side he reached into the pocket of his hoodie, and before I knew it I was already running away. Who knows what he was keeping in there! A rope, a knife, hell he could of had a gun! Whatever it was, was no doubt bad news for me. I ran and ran and ran desperately trying for anything familiar that could lead me back to the campsite but the forest looked the same everywhere so it was undeniable, I was hopelessly lost and scared.
I suddenly bumped into someone who wrapped their arms around my waist and started screaming and kicking at them to let me go ,,Holy shit Emma it's just me calm down!" I froze as I heard the familiar voice, I slowly lifted my head and looked into familiar green eyes ,,O-Oliver?" I asked with hesitance ,,Yes it's me Oliver." He slowly said ,,Why didn't you come back when you got enough fire wood?" He asked and pointed at said fire wood that I completely forgot I held in my arms, I bursed out crying when I remembered the man, Oliver tried to calm me down while walking me back to the campsite by the hand, but I kept on crying.
,,Emma!" I heard Gwen say, through my blurry vision I saw her approach me and pull me in her arms ,,Girl, what happened? Do you know how worried I was?" I heard her say as she pet my head to offer some kind of comfort ,,What happened? Where did you find her?" Bryce asked Oliver ,,I don't now it myself, when I got there she was running around like she was Sonic or something and she was shaking like a le-."
,,We're not alone." They all turned their heads to me ,,I saw someone, he was wearing a mask and reached into his pocket I think he's armed." I said and wiped away my remaining tears, they all looked at each other, after a few seconds Gwen turned to me and with her hand on my shoulders and said
,,You just imagined it."
,,WHAT?" I shouted ,,I mean come on your obviously shaken because it's your first time camping." She said
,,Oh so you're saying that I'm making things up?!"
,,We're just saying you were hallucinating." Added Oliver
,,Oh so you're saying that I'm insane?!"
,,What do you want?!"
,,I want you to believe me!"
,,Oh so you're saying that their is some potential lunatic in the forest on the same day that is coincidentally also your first time camping, and you expect to buy that shit."
,,YES!!"
,,ENOUGH." We all flinched at the unexpected shout Bryce gave from himself, annoyance and anger written all over his face after making sure that everyone was listening he gave a deep sigh and started talking
,,Look, I'm also conflicted about believing her but I doubt she would be in such a panic for something small so the risk of what Emma is saying being true is extremely high." He then reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out his phone ,,And if that's the case then we shouldn't stay he-."
,,Woah woah woah, rewind rewind, you're just gonna cancel our trip?"Asked Oliver in disbelief
,,We can't risk it." Replied Bryce and started to insert his password
,,But we've been planning this trip for weeks!" Said Gwen in equal disbelief
,,And if we stay we might not live for another."
,,So what your just gonna ran with your tail between your legs because of some hallucination?!"
,,I wasn't hallucinating!"I said with my arms crossed
,,I said enough!" Shouted bryce again but with a significally lower tone than last time ,,Look a fight is the last thing we need right now, I'm gonna call our parents and if what Emma said is really true than I will call the poli-"

PANG!

Blood spilled into our direction, as Bryce screamed in agony as he clutched at his own wrist which now had a hole that was shot through his right hand, the very same hand which was holding his phone.

PANG! PANG! PANG!

Another three shots went right through his torso making him fall face first on the ground as his blood created a puddle on the forest ground. Gwen started screaming as Oliver tried to reach for his best friend.

PANG!

Another shot ringed through the air as Oliver feel to the ground, the bullet through his head having killed him instantly, which only made Gwen scream louder, I couldn't process what exactly happened but Gwen's scream must of made me snap out of it as I grabbed her hand and started running.
We ran and ran as fast as we could, far away from the campsite, till our legs and lungs were hurting but we had to stop at some point to catch our breaths, I leaned against a tree while Gwen was huffing with both her hands on her knees, after a few seconds she spoke
,,W-What *huff* the f-fuck just *huff* happened?!"
,,They were shot that's what happened!" I said with my hand on chest, feeling my heart beating a hundred miles an hour.
,,Th-That can't b-be they m-might be still a-alive we h-have to h-help them." She said in a panicked voice. I wiped my head at her voice, disbelief on my face ,,Are you insane?! We have to get out of here!"
,,Does it matter the forest is God knows how big! It'll take forever to find the way out!" She suddenly shouted I told to calm down and nervously looked around praying to God that the man didn't hear her outburst. Tears started to roll down her eyes as she shouted again ,,How can you expect me to calm down?!?! Bryce and Oliver might be dead!!! We're in the middle of nowhere!!! And some Lunatic is coming after us!! I have all right to freak out!
,,You can freak out later, we have to get out of here first!" I whisper shouted still praying they wouldn't find us
,,THERE'S NO FUCKING POINT! HE'LL FIND US ANYWAY AND WE'LL GET THROWN IN FRONT OF THE DOGS-!!"
She abruptly stopped her shouting, her eyes becoming wide and stopping all movements, I sighed in relief at the silence happy that she must of understood the nonsense she was doing I walked up to her and told her to just follow me but she gave no response.

,,Gwen?" I said and reached out for her shoulder but before I could touch she suddenly puked out blood and fell on her knees and then landed her face first into the ground and as she did, she revealed the orange handled hatchet who's blood splattered blade was pierced deep into her back.
I let out a short but ear deafening scream as I saw the scenario unfold, I then started running as fast as possible away from her corpse, I didn't get far till a figure jumped out from beside me and tore me to the ground, so that I was laying on my stomach with them sitting on my back, I trashed around under them but no matter how much I screamed and kicked and tried to get up, they had an iron grip on me, I turned my head so I could at least now who was doing this to me. The person had a male built, he had black boots dark blue Jeans a dark orange leather jacket with a turtle neck, dark brown hair and on his face he wore a white mask with black lips, I don't know why but the moment I looked at him, the feeling of dread multiplied in me by a hundred it was as if his presence alone would be enough to kill me.
I looked away in hopes of getting rid of the dread but instead my eyes feel between the trees behind Gwen's corpse, there emerged a figure, he was male wore black and white sneakers dark blue Jeans a brown hoodie which had a dark blue hood and sleeves which were striped with a darker shade of brown, he wore the blue hood over his dark brown hair and he wore a pair of goggles with yellow lenses and a black mask with white and grey stripes which formed a smile.
He walked over to Gwen's corpse and with a disgusting sound he ripped the hatchet out from her back, he then attached said hatchet to his belt which I now noticed had another hatchet attached on the other side, I flinched when he turned his head to me in an owl like manner and even though I couldn't see his face I had a feeling that he was looking at me with curiosity the fact that he slightly tilted his head to the side confirmed my suspicion.
I suddenly heard footsteps come from my left and I turned my head in said direction. From the shadows came non other than the hooded man that I saw at the very beginning and in his hands he held a revolver.
I started shaking, when I saw him, but then he did something unexpected, he put the revolver back in the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out something small, I had to squint my eyes to realise what it is. It was a small dirty looking folded paper which he started to unfold while walking closer to me, I gulped when he was two steps away from me, he then started looking from the paper to me then to paper and then back to me.
He then looked to the white masked man and shock his head, next thing that happened was that the man with goggles threw a rock at the white masked man who proceeded to catch it with one hand without looking up, he examined the rock for a second before pulling it over his head and smack it down with all his might directly on my head. The disgusting sound of my skull cracking was the last thing I heard before my death.