The One

Chapter Six

"What the hell was that?" I questioned, looking around the room, backing up with my back towards Sam.

"I... I don't know but it sounds like bad news..." he responded, pointing the camera in several directions to shine the light and see what that noise was. We didn't see anything besides the peeling wallpaper along the walls, old furniture and stained floors.

"I think we should leave," Kasey mumbled, grabbing a hold of my wrist, terrified. Something was very off.

"Let's go before things get worse!" I said, grabbing my stuff with Sam and immediately ran, following Sam and Kasey.

Things indeed got worse, the house began to shake. As we ran, a beam had fallen, causing me to trip and fall, hitting my chest against the ground, knocking the wind out of me.

"RAVEN!" Kasey shouted, sprinting back to me with Sam helping me up. All I heard was the horrible sound of wood beams snapping and my vision went black, the echoes of Kasey screaming my name.

"Raven! Wake up!" I woke up in a jolt, panicking as I sat up, putting my hand over my chest. I looked around to see myself in the bedroom. I looked over at the door to see Kasey at the door. I sighed, rubbing the back of my head.

"Shit..." I muttered under my breath. Kasey looked concerned, coming into the room and closing the door behind her.

"You good?" She asked, approaching me. I shook the thoughts out of my head, rubbing my forehead.

"Y-yeah... just a little nightmare. Nothing to worry about," I smiled, hoping she'll drop the subject.

"Alright, whatever you say. I almost forgot, there's been a change of plans today. We're going to The Witches' Forest tonight instead of the mansion. They're announcing a full moon tonight and a thunderstorm tomorrow so Sam wanted to bring us there instead and save the mansion stuff for the next day," Kasey seemed excited for it. I looked over at her.

"Wait.... THE Witches' Forest? The same one where Colby disappeared? I thought Sam wanted to avoid it," I asked, confused as my heart began to pound. Something didn't sit quite right with me.

"Yeah, he decided to give it another try. He said that he wanted to show it to us since we've only been scratching the surface of ghost hunting," Kasey explained. She seemed to be forgetting a fact.

"But wouldn't that mean we risk one of us disappearing as well? Considering he vanished as paranormal activity spiked?" I asked, reminding her of what had happened according to Sam.

"Yeah but as long as we stick together, we should be fine. Only time we'll technically be apart is when we're going into our tents to sleep," she said. I seemed to have missed a part.

"Um excuse me? We're even sleeping there too? Am I the only sane person who sees that as bad? And when was this talked about?" I asked, rubbing my face. Something about this screamed a nice plate of just pure danger.

"What's so bad about it? What if Colby comes back, Raven? What if we get more clues as to what happened to him?" she asked, looking at me as if I was the lunatic.

"Because we won't get more clues! We're just going there to see the spirits and whatever paranormal things we find! Colby is gone!" I raised my voice at her a bit but not enough for people outside of the room to hear, jaw clenched. I must've struck a nerve for her but she bit her tongue.

"I just want to keep my chin and my hopes up," she lowered her head, looking at me in the eyes. I shook my head, grabbing my shirt and pants that I nealty placed on the dresser.

"Yeah well, keeping your hopes up high isn't always the smartest thing. That's how people hurt themselves," I kept my voice low, putting my shirt on, "just keep that in mind. Putting your hopes high and expecting miracles help a lot but trust me, keeping them up in situations like this will only keep knocking you down."

"I guess you're right... Anyway, we should start getting ready for tonight. We have a big night ahead of us," she smiled softly, walking over to the door. I nodded once, raising my hand.

"Will do. I'll make sure I've got our camping stuff prepared," I sighed, putting my pants on and headed towards my gear. With that, she left the room and closed the door. Shadow meowed at me, hopping onto the bed and sat pretty. I picked up the bag of cat food that was by the couch and poured it into his bowl on the empty nightstand. Shadow ran over and began eating his breakfast, purring as I rubbed his back a bit before I went back to getting ready for the hectic night waiting for us.

Once I was ready to go, Sam knocked on the door, entering the room.

"Hey, you ready?" he asked, walking up to Shadow who was now laying at the foot of the bed, resting.

"I believe so. I've got the normal camping gear and my ghost hunting stuff. Not sure how I feel about this trip though," I looked over at him, leaning against the dresser. Sam gently pet the cat a few times and went to sit on the couch.

"I'm not sure either but something tells me to go back. Especially to show you the forest. It's an interesting place to see. I can tell you that we won't be losing anybody if we just stick together. Colby completely forgot to stay together and just bolted for a shadow figure, ignoring Jake and I yelling at him to stop and wait, never to be found afterwards," Sam did a half smile, putting his hands in his pockets.

"But what if one of us do run off?" I questioned, scared at the thought.

"Then we'll continue to chase them until they stop. That's the mistake we did. Jake and I went to investigate something, telling Colby to wait a minute since something caught our attention and he just kept going. We thought he had stopped but.... we were wrong," Sam admitted, looking at the ground, putting his hands together, letting them fall back down.

"I'm sorry for what happened. I know we have nothing to do with it or have any control over it. Only thing we can do is hope he'll be found once again but unfortunately, we can't keep hoping too much for too long," I approached him, putting my hand on his shoulder. He quickly got up and hugged me tightly. I was shocked by the sudden movement until I relaxed and hugged him back, feeling him hold me a bit tighter for reassurance.

"I know it's not your fault but thank you.... It pains me everyday but I gotta lift my head and move on," he let go of me and approached the door, "we should get going. Jake, Kasey and Corey are waiting for us."

"Agreed. Let's get a move on!" I threw a fist in the air, smiling like a dork before grabbing the stuff I needed and headed downstairs. "Finally! I started to think you were doing the hankie pankie up there, brother!" Corey joked, saying it in his usual odd accent.

"In your dreams, dude," Jake said, laughing as he munched on a couple of licorices.

"How about we do it in the bathroom, brava?" Corey looked at Jake, mouth slightly open. "We must head to the bathroom now, brother!" Jake grabbed Corey by the arm and went to the bathroom, closing the door behind them and proceeded to replicate the noises as if they were actually doing it, moaning and groaning very dramatically. Sam seemed to let it happen, shaking his head as he laughed.

"Let's leave and see how long it takes for them to realize," Sam said, heading to the front door with Kasey and I following with all of our camping gear and ghost hunting gear. Within a minute or two, Corey and Jake came running up to us with their stuff, laughing.