“What?” I demanded, and then reverted my gaze to Ben. He had his face pressed up against the glass window. “What do you see?”
“I don’t know.” Ben squinted into the darkness, looking totally transfixed at what was in front of him. “I think it’s … Damian?”
“What?” I was the first to open the door, but Ashley took a hold of my hand and told me to stay. “I want to know why he is outside.”
“Listen to me!” Ashley yelled out. “We are not going outside.”
I shut the door closed and sneered, “you aren’t scared of the dark too?”
“I just want to go back to our cabin,” she lied to me. “And you should too.”
“I want to talk to him,” I moaned, turning my gaze back to Ben who I caught staring at Taylor with a horrified expression. “What is it?”
Ben’s voice was shaky as he answered, “he … I think …”
“What?”
“Sara …”
“What is it?” I demanded.
“I think he was running.”
“Where?”
“I think …”
“Ben!” I screamed out, clearly having enough of his stammering.
“He was running really fast, but it was like …”
I opened the car door again, but this time all three of my friends told me to stay inside. I shut the door a second time, hating them for being so stubborn. “Tell me!” I screamed out, having enough of them not keeping me in the loop.
“He was running towards the forest.”
“Okay.” I shrugged my shoulders at him, not sure what Ben was implying. “So what?”
“Why would he be running into the forest, Sara?” he questioned me with a look of pure scrutiny. “At this time of night?”
“Something must have happened?” I alternated my gaze to Ashley since she was so uncomfortably silent. “And we don’t know if it was really him.”
“Is there anyone else living on this campsite that you know about?” Ben demanded.
“No,” I answered him in an empty voice. “What are you trying to say?”
“Red flags,” Taylor piped up nervously. “I think it’s a good thing he kicked you out of the house.”
“Oh! So, you are against him too?”
“No,” Taylor said with his hands raised into the air defensively. “I am only trying to point out that there is something odd about this man you are interested in.” He moved upwards in his seat to bring himself closer to me. “Don’t you think it’s strange how intense this guy is? Sure, he could be lonely.” He turned his head to Ashley and then let it flicker to his boyfriend to see if they agreed with him. “I think him wanting you to commit so soon is a bad sign.”
“He likes me,” I reminded all three of them. “A lot!”
“Is he in love with you?”
“I don’t know,” I stammered out with frustration. A lone howl struck through the air, forcing a shiver down my spine once I realized how close it was to our car. “We should go.”
Ashley immediately flickered on the high beams since a strange fog had suddenly surrounded her car. She turned on the windshield wipers to block out the snowflakes, and then she reversed out of the parking lot slowly to make her way back to the main road.
“It’s only a wolf,” Ashley reminded us all. “And besides, our cabins aren’t too far away.”
“Ashley!” her brother called out. “Maybe we shouldn’t have come here.”
She turned onto the main graveled road, letting our car drive alongside Damian’s cabin as the car drove up the steep graveled hill.
“The potholes,” my friend murmured under her breath. “I’ll have to take it slow.”
“No hurry,” Taylor reminded her. “Take your time.” Another howl rang behind us, making all four of us look over our shoulders as we realized how close it was. “I changed my mind,” Taylor nervously laughed.
“Go faster!” Ben screamed out, clearly the most freaked out of the four of us.
“I have to take my time. Unless you want to change a flat tire in the dark.”
“It’s a pothole!”
“More than one,” she reminded her younger brother. “And you know how bumpy this road is.”
I pulled out my cellphone, wondering if Damian left me a text message, only to find my charger was on the last bar. No, of course he wouldn’t message me. I looked to my right to see the darkness of the fog in front of the car, hating how I was still replaying our argument at a time like this. I wanted to be with him, but I feel like he was demanding too much from me.
“Why did you think you saw Damian?” I questioned Ben, after I turned in my seat to catch sight of him.
“Sara!” he yelled out. “Are you asking me this now?”
“Yes!”
“Who else could it be?” Ben shrilled out with a dramatic wave of his hands.
“An animal?”
“What kind of animal runs like a human?” he shot back harshly. “I know what I saw!”
“How was he running?”
“He was running,” Ben fought back fiercely.
“Yeah, but was it a scared run?”
“He was running,” Ben said in a steely voice, “towards the forest.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know!” he screamed out in frustration.
The car suddenly jerked to the side once Ashley hit a pothole, making her curse under her breath. “Shut up everyone!” she cried out. “I can’t concentrate when you are all screaming at each other.”
“Your brother is a liar!” I yelled back. “How am I supposed to sleep when I am worried sick about Damian?”
“The man can take care of himself.”
“Admit it!” I charged out. “You all hate him!” The car went into a pothole again, the same front wheel as last time that made Ashley groan out with worry. “I like him. I don’t know why I like him, but I just do. And no, this isn’t like my past crushes.”
“Or boyfriends,” Taylor jeered behind me. I was about to turn around to give him a piece of my mind when the car suddenly reared to the left, making us all scream out when something hit it.
“Oh my god!” I screamed out as I spotted something rubbing harshly against the side of the car, making Ashley slam down on the pedal to avoid whatever it was trying to ram the car.
The tires screeched under the loose gravel, going up the hill frantically as it lifted itself off the ground nearly creating a wheelie.
We all screamed at the same time, growing louder once we felt the car being rammed at the right side again. The car nearly tipped over, but Ashley’s quick maneuvering of the wheel sent the car onto the right, striking the blackened creature hard, enough for us to drive up the last of the hill. Her bright headlights illuminated our cabin, making Ben scream out in pure joy to see the wooden lodges.
“Get inside!” Ashley yelled out. “That includes you boys.”
We were already undoing our seatbelt’s as Ashley pulled up to the front of our cabin. Ashley parked the car, nervously letting out quick breaths as she debated whether we should leave the car right away.
“What was that thing?” I demanded. “Someone please answer me!”
“It’s the thing that killed all those people,” Ashley fretted. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t?”
“We aren’t anywhere near the forest.”
“You’re an idiot!” I screamed at her in pure fury. “You took me all this way—”
“Shut up!” she fought back. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Oh, and what was supposed to happen then?”
“It must be a joke!” she nervously stammered out. “A prank.”
“A prank?”
“It’s Halloween, Sara.”
“You think this is funny?” I exclaimed, as I saw a moving shadow pass over the side mirror at my right. “I think it came back.”
“It’s not a prank,” Taylor told me from the back of the car. “At least, I’m not in on it.”
“Neither am I,” Ben grunted with indignation. “Unless it’s your precious little Damian.”
I turned in my seat to have a go at him as well when I suddenly felt the hairs at the back of my neck rise. I fell back into my chair, letting my hand rest over the back of my nape and then slowly turned to the right. I held my breath as I saw two piercing green eyes reflecting the moonlight, and then shuddered when I felt they so closely resembled Damian’s.
My eyebrows lowered with confusion as I stared harder at the thing just outside of my window. “Damian?” I mouthed, which made Ashley look in my direction.