It was all of us, alone in the dreary Forest.
“Come on Olivia don’t be afraid,” Carrie said to me as she chugged some more vodka. “Just drink up and everything will be better, come on.. We’re sophomores!”
I looked up at Carrie innocently, and all of her friends: Geneva, Susan, and Crystal. This would be my first time drinking. But I needed this. I needed to be popular. So I drank up.
Time passed slowly and steadily. Mentally my mind was going practically insane, and physically I was just laying out on the ground talking to myself and giggling by the fire.
“Carrie, omg look at Olivia,” Geneva said laughing her butt off drunk.
“Olivia, Geneva, Susan, Crystal,” Carrie said looking down swaying her arms. “Let’s go to the forest’s abandoned shack,” Carrie looked up at us laughing, mocking us and our straight faces.
“Carrie, maybe we shouldn’t...” Susan said. “You know the tale of the shack in Chillbers Forest.. Whoever goes in, doesn’t come out because of the dark demon who haunts it.”
Carrie was already ten yards away struggling to stay up straight. “MY UGGS.”
Everyone said at the same time, “Calm down.”
After about ten minutes of walking, we finally arrived at the bloodcurdling shack. Carrie went up to the door that seemed too small for anybody to even enter standing at a regular height. She put her hands on it and opened it and a eerie creaking sound disrupted the silence of the cold night.
Carrie walked in with all of us following. We walked into pure darkness, so we all felt the walls for a switch, but we couldn’t find one. So we all decided to feel the ceiling of the shack to see if there might be a pull switch, everybody went quiet and began scanning.
Finally, after five minutes of quiet, Geneva found a light bulb on the ceiling and pulled the string and a light turned on. Everyone felt reassured until we looked at the far back corner where Crystal was laying motionless with her eyes wide. Everyone screamed and shrieked at the horrifying sight of dead Crystal. But I noticed her looking straight ahead near the entrance where the door was now closed with the words written in blood, “You’re next,” Carrie read out loud.
Carrie pulled out her flower hairpin and placed on Crystal and kissed her cheek. “Ew,” Geneva said cringing.
I looked at Crystal and said to myself, “You didn’t deserve this.”
Susan ran to the door and screamed even more loud than before. Geneva followed, leaving Carrie and I alone with Crystal. They both banged at it and scratched at it until their nails bled.
Nothing worked to open the door so everyone started kicking the walls, which didn’t help either. So everyone sat down. Susan started crying and mumbling stuff that didn’t make sense, Geneva started rocking back and forth stammering, Carrie was looking at her nails and staring at Crystal, and I was just sitting in place staring off into space.
After about fifteen minutes of this, there was a knocking sound at the door. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the door. The door opened, but no one was there. Everybody got up and walked towards the door besides Susan. She raced out the door, but to her surprise she got a slit in the neck. There was piano wire that was across the door, now dripping with blood, Susans blood to be exact.
“SUSAN!” Geneva yelped as Susan collapsed to the ground.
Geneva ran to her and put Susan in her arms and started crying. She began to murmur quietly but it became much louder then she howled, “IT’S YOUR FAULT OLIVIA, ALL YOUR FAULT. WE ONLY CAME HERE TO HELP MAKE YOU POPULAR, AND NOW THEIR DEAD.”
“Geneva, calm down. We just need to find a way to leave without dying,” Carrie said.
“Look,” I said pointing to the oak tree ten feet away that said in a dark red, crimson colored, blood that said, “You’re next.”
“OH GOD, WERE ALL GOING TO DIE!” Geneva wailed as she let Susan go.
“Let’s cover her up,” Carrie said taking off her coat.
Geneva took Carries coat and placed it on top of Susans head and finally stood up. Geneva was slightly tipsy but she managed to walk straight. Carrie and I helped her back to the fire.
Our walk was terrifying, mostly because we were drunk and paranoid. Geneva even thought she saw the moon flying away. Luckily we handled getting back safely.
Once we got back the fire was practically out, so I grabbed some leaves and put them on the fire and it started back up. We warmed up by it and huddled in two blankets for a few minutes when Carrie finally broke the silence.
“Alright, we have to decamp, Geneva and Olivia,” she said in a quiet tone.
“Alright,” Geneva and I said.
We lifted ourselves up and I gave my blanket to Carrie seeing as she didn’t have a coat anymore. She thanked me and we began walking to the path that lead us to the Park Center and road, there was usually a few people that slept there so we had high hopes we would be safe.
Geneva was in front of Carrie and I with a blanket as she murmured something under her breath.
“Olivia, you know this isn’t your fault right?” Carrie said looking at me with content, welcoming face.
“I guess, but why did this happen to us?” I said looking back at her with my eyes hanging low.
“I’m not sure Olivia, I’m not sure..”
When we turned back to looking ahead Geneva was gone. She pretty much disappeared into thin air. We didn’t know what to think until we heard a loud, panicky scream from a littles way into the forest, obviously off the path. Carrie started running towards the screaming and I followed a little confused.
“We can’t let anyone else die, we just can’t Olivia, everyone will think we did something to them,” Carrie gasped to me in an anxious voice, all I did was nod and continue running as the screaming continued.
Once we finally got to where we heard the screaming there was a body laying on the ground. “No, no, no, this isn’t happening!” Carrie said.
I turned the body over, and to our surprise it wasn’t Geneva. It was a man with a mask, the mask was of a man that looked so oddly realistic. We focused on the face until it turned suddenly and looked at us then up in the trees. So me and Carrie looked up and saw Geneva hanging. And on a nearby tree it said, “You’re next,” and then Carrie whispered in my ear, “Run.”
We ran so brisk and quick back onto the path, we ran hyperventilating and trying not to pass out from fear and being distressed. Once we finally got onto the path we got faster because of a sign that said, “PARK CENTER 1/2 MILE”.
After running for a few minutes we finally arrived at the Park Center. We saw three cars in the parking lot and we ran up to the Park Center and banged on the doors. We were hitting it so hard and when we saw the man with a mask on the path we hit it harder and Carrie picked up a planter and hit the door and it shattered. We hopped into the building and ran to the area where the people sleep and once we got there we saw three people laying against the wall with one of their faces missing. Right above them the words said, “You’re Next”.
Carrie and I turned around to see the man with the mask, holding an axe in one hand and in his pocket there was a gun. “You better not get close to us, you son of a..” Carrie said but the man stopped her when he began running at us.
Carrie took out a knife in her pocket and I wondered how long she had that for, and stabbed him right in the thigh. He grunted as he dropped the axe and fell to the ground.
We ran to the office where the phone was and Carrie dialed 911. “Headwaters County 911, where is your emergency?”
“The Headwaters Fore....,” Carrie said as the line got cut.
The man with the mask was holding up the knife and axe that both had blood on them with the phone line on the ground cut in half. He tilted his head to the side and blood dripped from his human mask. Carrie and I ran and went into the the room nearest to us which was the supply room that had things from pool toys to fencing swords.
We hid behind a weight set and looked at the door. It opened and the man walked in, looking around for us. Carrie and I held our breathing hoping the cops could get here and at least know we were here and save us, but the nearest police station was at least ten miles away, so we had to survive for another fifteen minutes or more even.
We looked at each other in despair and when we looked back up at the door he was gone. Carrie looked at me and I looked back at her and then she yelled, “Olivia!” pointing behind me.
That was when I felt a sharp object go into the back of my shoulder. I cringed and screamed and clutched my back shoulder. Carrie got up and took the knife out of my back and stabbed the man right back on the top of his right shoulder. I screamed even louder because the pain was more excruciating than I’ve ever felt before.
This time though it did not affect the man as much as before and instead of falling he grabbed his gun out of his pocket and shot Carrie right in her rib cage. She collapsed onto the ground and started grunting and holding onto where the bullet punctured her. The man grabbed me by both of my arms and dragged me to the office and put me into the chair and grabbed his axe off the ground and lifted it up to me.
I was half passed out from losing blood and being tipsy so I closed my eyes and accepted that I was going to die. That was when Carrie ran into the man and toppled him over and tried choking him but he was too strong, he pushed her off of him and sliced her with his axe right in the stomach. He got back up and looked back at me and started to chuckle. He put his hand into her stomach and wrote the words on the wall in front of me saying, “You’re next”.
Once he was done he lifted his axe and swiped at me, then everything went black.
And guess what? You’re next.
