Always

Chapter 23

At sunrise, one of the boys sleeping around the campfire startled awake at the hooting sound of an owl. He was shocked to see a mist moving toward the camp and the two tents. He yelled to his companions, and they cried out for their friends in the tents to wake up. The mist moved into one of the tents and all they heard was their friend's screams of agony. The ghostlike mist emerged from the tent and entered the second tent. Terrified, everyone ran from the campsite, not stopping to look back. When the authorities arrived at the abandoned campsite, they found two empty tents. No sign of the two couples was ever found. They disappeared with the ghostly mist. If you see a creeping mist enter your campsite, run away as fast as you can." Sam glanced around at all of us, meeting our eyes. "The mist might catch up with you, but at least you have some chance of surviving." He jumped from his chair, knocking it over, and screamed, "Oh MY GOD, it's COMING!" We all screamed, jumping up, chairs being knocked over, it was just hectic. Sam died laughing, bending at the waist, and wiping the tears from his eyes. "F***CK SAM!" Colby cried out. "That scared the sh*t out of me." "No, guys, seriously, I think I need to change my pants."Corey said, putting his hand to his butt. "You're an asshole Sam." Devyn was clinging to his arm, her eyes wide, not speaking. "Oh my God, that was terrifying!" I exclaimed, putting my hand over my heart, standing next to Colby. Our chairs were flipped over from him yanking me up with him. Jake and Tara were on the ground, looking up at us. I guess they had tripped or something. "Not cool brother." Jake replied, looking at Sam. He got up and pulled Tara up beside him, brushing themselves off. Kat was behind Sam, holding on to the back of his shirt, while he continued laughing at us all. "Welcome...to tha...MEGA MEGA PRANK WARS!" He yelled out. "Hey..." Corey said, wrapping his arm around Devyn, looking at Sam. "That's my line." We laughed but you could tell that we were all still a little spooked. "Alright, I'm sorry you guys." Sam said, still chuckling. He hugged and kissed Kat, then sat back down in his chair. "Come on, I have one more left. This is the best one in my opinion." Colby set both of our chairs back out and we sat down, with me leaning as close as possible to him. Something creaked in the woods, with a scurrying sound and we all turned in that direction. "Well, that's creepy." Colby replied, taking my hand again. "It's probably just some little animal. We are in the woods." Jake replied, him and Tara taking a seat. "Yeah...but it could be like a bear or something. We didn't think of that." Colby said, glancing around into the darkness. I squeezed his hand. "I'm sure it's nothing. The website didn't say anything about animals like that." "Okay Sam, continue with your story so I can cry again." Kat said, wiping her eyes and smiling. "Aw, I'm sorry baby." Sam said, laughing and putting his arm around her for a minute. We all laughed. "Okay Corey..." Sam met Corey's still frightened gaze and smiled. "This one is just for you. I call this one Shadow Man." "Oh God," Colby said, laughing a little. I didn't really like the sound of that one. I had heard Corey's stories about this before and they freaked me out. Jake and Tara didn't say anything but Tara got up and sat in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her. "Devyn, baby, get in the car. We're going home." Corey stood up, looking at me and Colby. "Congratulations brother on getting engaged, but I didn't sign up for this sh*t." Devyn looked scared too, but she grabbed his arm. "Baby, we can't leave this late." She pointed in the direction of the trail, which was completely obscured by the blackness of the night. "You really want to walk back through that? With just a lantern?" She shook her head. "I'm not going." Corey looked towards the path for a moment, then crossed his arms, and sat back down. "Fine...but I hate you Sam." "It's just a story Corey." Sam said, putting his flashlight under his face with the light on, then started with his sinister voice again. "There were a few friends camping out in a beautiful area on a perfect day...but then night came. It brought with it, the cold and a moonless night so black that you couldn't see a foot in front of your face. The friends built a fire, and kept their lanterns and lights close, feeling that something wasn't right with their surroundings. Not wanting to tell the others, afraid that they would be made fun of for being scared, they never said a word about the frightening feelings. After an anxious night, the friends decided to sleep and just leave the next morning, pretending that camping just wasn't what they wanted to do. Later that night, one of the friends heard his name being called, so he glanced outside of his tent. He couldn't see anything so he shined his light in the direction of the voice. He saw the shadow of a person motioning to him to come into the woods. Goosebumps popped up on his skin and he started to zip his tent back up and hide in his blankets but the shadow man called his name again. He recognized his friend's voice. "Bro, you scared me! What is it?" he called back. The shadow motioned again and said "Come to me. Come see." The guy decided to go see what his friend wanted to show him and followed the shadow man into the woods.