Scared yet?

8th Man

I was so excited. I hadn't ever really gone
camping before, so the fact that one of my
friends asked me to go with him was
amazing in and of itself. He made plans for
five other guys to join us as well. The plan
was to leave right after classes on Friday
evening and drive up to an old abandoned
farmhouse, which, in Kansas, aren't too
uncommon. This one was special, though, or
so I was told by Riley, my friend that had
invited me. He said not only was the house
quite large and well held together after many
years of vacancy, but very few people knew
about it, so we were almost certain to be
unbothered for the weekend. We would stay
all day Saturday and come back Sunday
morning.
At about 6:00 PM the last guy, Seth I think,
finally arrived at the cars. We had a white
Suburban from Riley and a small Honda van.
Four people rode in the van, while three rode
in the Suburban, but the Suburban was also
full of all our junk we planned to bring. We
left by around 6:30 and drove for nearly an
hour before stopping at some burger place to
eat a quick supper and shift drivers. After
another two hours drive, we arrived at the
farmhouse. The farm area was large, empty,
and the fence that used to surround it was in
shambles. The house, however looked very
nice, almost kept.
After unpacking most of our things and
laying out blankets on the bed frames still in
the house, someone suggested we turn in
early so we could go fishing in the morning.
Not being a late night person, I was fine with
the idea, and after some work, I got everyone
else to agree with me. There were only three
beds in each of the two rooms, so me, Riley
and some other guy I'd never met shared one
room, and three other guys shared the other.
A guy named Roy decided to take the torn-
up couch downstairs.
I had a bit of trouble falling asleep, a bit
uneasy about the whole drafty, creepy
abandon house thing, but I eventually dozed
off, unable to stay awake any longer.
I woke up at the sound of Riley moving all
his crap around. When I was able to open
my eyes enough to see my phone screen with
the time on it, it was just after 6:30, so I had
to hurry if I wanted to catch anything. I
rolled out of my bed, grabbed some jeans
and a jacket, changed as quickly as I could
despite my exhaustion, and grabbed one of
three remaining fishing rods. When I got to
the pond, Roy, Riley, and two other guys
were there. I cast my line in and sat silently
waking up with the rest of them. Over the
next hour or so, the other two people made
their way to the pond and everyone had
woken up a bit more and were chatting
about their restless nights.
"So, which one of you idiots decided to come
downstairs last night?" Roy shouted over the
other voices.
I was expecting for someone to laugh and
give some excuse but nobody even flinched.
"You're not in any trouble, but it was too
dark for me to see your face, whoever it was,
so for my curiosity, who the hell was it?"
Minutes went by with Roy just staring at our
faces for any sign of conceal.
I decided to speak up and try to figure out
who it was.
"What did they come down for? Did they
sleep down there?"
"I don't know, they didn't say anything and I
was so tired I dozed back off."
"Well, what did they do?" I asked.
"I told you, I was tired all I know is that I
saw someone come downstairs, look at me,
then I fell back asleep!"
In fear of getting hit I held back further
questions.
On the positive note of that, Roy packed up,
and everyone else followed. The fishing was
good, and we had plenty to eat for today and
tonight. We walked back to the field in front
of the farmhouse, let off our jackets and ran
out again. Roy had dug up an old Frisbee, so
we divided into two teams quite sloppily, so
that we were an uneven 4 against 3.
We played for maybe an hour when we
switched to baseball, then some guys started
playing poker on the grass and I sat out.
Some dude I'd never met, Joel was his
name, I think, came out and sat next to me
on the porch steps.
"Why didn't anyone wake me up?" he asked,
clearly irritated.
"I woke up almost and still beat two people
to the fishing, plus you made it anyway." I
responded.
"I just woke up like a half hour ago." His
irritated tone now turning to confusion.
"Shut up, you went fishing with us, and I
know sure as hell you were playing ultimate
Frisbee with us!" My tone was clearly angry.
"I'm telling you, I just woke up! I didn't even
know you played Frisbee!"
"Well there were seven people fishing and the
teams were 4 on..." I stopped dead in my
own words.
"Did you ever go downstairs earlier last
night?" I quickly asked.
"No, I was out as soon as I hit the bed, I've
been up late the last-"
I stood up and starting walking away in the
middle of his sentence. I counted the people
around the yard... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... myself is
seven... Out of the corner of my eye I saw a
faint shadow near the treelike, but when I
turned, the figure had walked off.
Wasting no time, I jogged to Roy.
"I need to talk to you." Trying not to alarm
the rest with my news.
"Okay, speak."
Again, wanting to waste no time I spat out "I
think there's someone else on this farm."
He turned to look me dead in the eyes. He
shot up from his seat on the grass and
dragged me to the Honda van.
"And, what are you basing this on?" he
questioned.
"Think about it. Someone came downstairs
last night, and everyone says it isn't them."
"So? They could all be lying for some
reason."
"I just talked to Joey. He just woke up."
"Hm, you idiot. There were seven people
fishing-" he stopped abruptly.
And after a long silence, he continued, "There
was a face I didn't recognize in that group..."
he scoffed, while staring at nothing.
Without a second hesitation he climbed into
the back of the Honda and emerged again
seconds later, with a pistol in his hand.
"What the hell?! Why do you have that?!"
"I was afraid this would happen, they're
probably thieves, so we need to be careful.
Let everyone know what you told me and
keep a sharp eye out. They could be
dangerous."
I walked back and made the announcement
and counted heads again. We had seven
people right now. Good, seven people.
With the sun setting and cold setting in, Roy
and a friend of his built a fire in a stone pit
that was already built. After cooking some
fish and everyone munching silently, Roy
grabbed me and led me to the van again. He
handed me a six pack of beer and carried
another in his hands. I've never drank much,
so after a few sips I was done. With the
remaining people, they were at various levels
of drunkenness, when Joel suggested capture
the flag. I headed off to the Suburban to
grab the flashlights and when I got back
everyone had lined up.
Handing off one flashlight to each person, I
ran out before the last person. I ran back to
the cars and searched for the last one, I
know I brought seven. After being unable to
find it, and concluding that I had lost it, I
walked back to the group. Now, I noticed
everyone had a flashlight. Confused, I looked
at the guy that was without one when I left
and I asked him where he got it.
"Some dude handed it to me." he drunkenly
responded.
"Who, where did they go?!" I had a sense of
real urgency in my voice.
"He handed it to me and then ran to the
forest."
His eyes lit up when he realized what he had
said. I told him to keep quiet and stay calm,
but before I knew it we were playing the
game and not even searching for the extra
person anyway.
It wasn't but a few hours before people
began picking off one by one to go to bed,
and I was next to last to turn in. I didn't
even change clothes, I just walked into the
room, and flopped down on my bed, and
before I knew it I was dead asleep.
I have no idea what time it was when I woke
up to some drop hitting my face. Gazing to
the ceiling, I noticed a fine leak, and of
course it was pouring rain outside. I turned
to cover up the side of my head, but when I
did, I noticed the bedroom door open. There
was someone standing there in the
doorframe, as if they were walking in and
shutting the door behind them, but froze
mid-motion.
"Who's there?!" I shouted it loudly enough to
make sure my roommates heard.
It maybe lingered for two seconds before it
bolted, I heard thumping on the stairs then
the front door swinging open. I flew out after
it into the pouring rain, only to find that I
had been far outrun. I headed back in,
shivering, not only because of the cold and
bolted the front door shut. Everyone stared
at me.
"Whatever it is, it's out, so as long as all
doors and windows are shut and locked,
we're safe." trying to reassure everyone, I
seemed to be the only one capable of
speaking.
After a few long minutes of thought me and
Roy looked at each other.
"THE BACK DOOR!" we said in complete
unison.
We ran to the kitchen, but only it time to
hear it slam shut. Now we didn't know
where it was. It was only a few short
seconds of staring when a scream came the
the second bedroom upstairs. I was first one
up and froze at the doorway. It was leaning
over Joel. It turned saw me and lunged out
the window. Roy darted past me and to Joel,
laying lifeless on the bed, blood dripping from
his throat. I ran to Seth, who was completely
curled up in a corner still screaming. I finally
got him to shut up in time to hear Roy, "We
need to leave, NOW!"
No one wasted any time at that and
everyone ran to the vehicles scattered and
frantic. I got in the car, along with Riley and
Roy. A scream came from the house and Roy
immediately ran out and back to the house,
gun drawn. I scooted the the driver seat and
stared out the window. After minutes I heard
three gunshots, then saw someone running
right toward the Suburban. I took out my
flashlight and shined it to see Roy's pale
face and empty hands. I shined the light to
reveal the silhouette chasing him, with a gun
in one hand. I shined my light right on it, but
saw no face, no features, it was still a
shadow. When it saw the light, it turned to
me and began running at me. I slammed my
foot on the brake and the car ground to
speed.
After 10 minutes of driving in the dark, rainy,
fog, me and Riley, now the only ones in the
Suburban, we stopped at the freeway. Riley
wanted to keep going, but I was driving and
elected to wait for 5 minutes for them to
come up. Minutes went by and I grew more
anxious, and almost left, just before I saw a
pair of headlights in the distance from my
mirrors. It was definitely the van and it was
speeding right to us. It kept speeding. It
didn't... stop...
There was a sudden slam, and in my
recovery me and Riley heard the radio kick
on.
"You better drive"
The voice was muffled, distorted, Riley and I
screamed together as I stood on the gas.
As we drove, the thing was constantly
driving right behind us, riding our bumper,
waiting for us to stop, a thought which
didn't cross my mind until the low gas
indicator stared going off.
"Listen, Riley, here's the plan."
He turned anxious for ideas.
"In a few seconds, I'm gonna slam the brake,
hold on, but quickly get out of the car, run
into the woods. Once we get a safe distance,
we will loop around and get in the van, then
we drive off. Make sense?"
He nodded quickly and without a second
thought I pounded my foot on the brakes.
We heard skidding behind us and took no
time to be away into the thick forest. After
several minutes we decided it was about
time to go back, so we circled around and
ran back toward the freeway. When we
arrived both vehicles had doors all open and
no sign of the create that had been chasing
us. We got in the van, shut the doors and
began driving, fast away from that horrible
place.
An hour into our drive, a new alarm started
beeping. I looked at the dash, stopped the
car, and froze. Riley was jerked awake and
stared at me.
"Wha-"
I turned to him... slowly...
"The trunk is opening."