☆Creepypasta Stories☆

~The Campground~

This is based off a true story experienced by my mother.

When my mother was younger, a teenager specifically, she was quite mischievous. She was a rebel, a non-conformist. She smoked, drank, and went out all hours of the night with her misfit friends. She often teases me saying she and I would have never been friends had I been alive when she was young. She was the flirty badass, and I am a studious nerd who would rather stay home reading a book than go to a party. I often muse on the path my mother was on and how she miraculously strayed and changed her life completely. She went to college, graduated with a degree in child psychology, married her soul mate, and had me, my brother, and my sister. We lived in the same town my mother grew up in. It was a special town, nothing exciting really happened, but beautiful nonetheless located in sunny Southern California. However, there are some wooded regions scattered near the mountains that my mother had always warned my siblings and me never to go near. I had always wondered why, until the night my mother told me what had happened there when she was sixteen, when she and her friends sought out a place to create an impromptu outdoors kickback.

As I mentioned before, my mother was quite the delinquent when she was a teenager. Life in the 70's, with lax parental and legal control, made it easy for her friends and her to sneak out most nights to go smoke weed or drink. One night in particular, she collaborated with her friends to meet her at midnight at the local park, their usual hangout place, to rendezvous. Everything seemed to be going well. Her friends all confirmed, and my mom snuck out of her one story home with ease. Having no cell phone, the only items she brought with her were a pack of cigarettes and a flashlight. Her friends, Tony and Matt, planned to bring the rest of the drug paraphernalia. She wore high-waisted jeans, a plaid long sleeve shirt, and a light windbreaker. As she began her five minute walk to the park down the street, she paid special attention to the path her Converse were making as she jumped and skipped over the fallen leaves on the sidewalk. It was a breezy October night, and the wind was blowing slightly. She felt no need to turn on her flashlight just yet. Although it was dark, the streetlights were dimly shinning, and the moon was full and bright. The clear and comfortable night, the excitement of meeting with friends, and the worries my mother lacked, made her unusually confident that night. She had an approaching desire to do something dangerous. She wanted to have a different kind of fun that night.

"Hey guys," my mother called to her friends who were almost all there, "Where's Barb and Shelley?" "On their way," Tony said as he began to light up. My mother watched him light his piece, then impulsively took it out of his mouth. "Not yet," my mother smiled mischievously. "What the hell dude!?" Tony yelled as he snatched his piece back from my mother. Matt was watching her intently, picking up on the subtle undertone of her statement. "What's up Chris?" Matt said, ignoring Tony walking to the corner of the park to smoke in peace. "I thought we could do something different tonight, ya know, go somewhere we've never been. It's the perfect night to try something new" she replied then shrugged. Matt just stared at her in silence, then whirled around when he heard a something snap behind him. "Hey guys!" Barb smiled brightly with Shelley behind her. "Ready to fuck shit up tonight?" she laughed and Shelley rolled her eyes. "All right, the gang's all here. Tony come over here! Chris has something she wants to share with us," Matt stepped aside to let my mother have the center of the basketball court they were all standing in to give her proposition. Tony returned to the group and they all stood in a semi-circle around my mother. She looked around, making sure no one else could listen to what she had to say. A certain wave of paranoia suddenly washed over her, and she took one more look at the bushes and trees that surrounded the perimeter of the park. Nothing was there, so she began.

"Okay," she said quietly, causing the group to lean in to hear better, "I think we should go to...the Campground." Silence followed the last word of her sentence. For anyone else, what she said would've been completely bathetic. What's so special about a campground? But, if you lived in my mother's town during the 70's and you weren't a total homebody, you would definitely know exactly what the Campground was. Matt was the first one to speak. "I...I dunno you guys. I just thought we were gonna light up and drink a little. I'm not in the mood to get arrested or nothin'." "We won't get arrested!" my mother replied, almost pleadingly. "Come on, we can get a little tipsy and faded first, then go. It's not like we have to stay long neither. It'll be quick. Don't you guys wanna see what's up there?" Her friends looked at each other and smiled, bringing relief to my mother. "All right," Tony said, and the rest agreed, "We'll go... later."