And then it abruptly stopped.
I heard shouts and voices from outside, and rapping on the door of the bathroom. I was still huddled on the floor. I heard a muffled voice sourced from the outside. “Hey, Jake! What happened? Let us in! What’s wrong?” I took me a moment to recover and gain back my senses. After a few moments, I lifted myself off of the ground, composed myself, and unlocked the door. I opened it.
“Jake! Are you alright? What happened?” They must have seen my pale face, it contorted with the residual of fear. “Jake?”
“Uh…yeah…” I responded, not really knowing what to say. What could I say? “Did you see him?”
My friends looked confused. “Did we see who?” Dave said.
I was angry now, “Did you see him? Him! That guy! He was chasing me! He was in a black cloak, with a knife and a lantern, you must have-”
“I have now idea what you are talking about. Did we see who?”
“You must have seen him! You must have! He was at the door! Scratching, scratching…”
“I think you need some rest or something,” Chris interjected, “You seem a bit wacko right right now. Come on, let’s go back to the tent. Apparently, it’s time for you to go to bed.”
“But-”
“Let’s go.” They practically were forced to drag me back to the campsite. It was as if all of the energy had been drained out of me, sucked right into space by the sheer force of horror. As we walked back, with a fresh new, working flashlight, I kept looking over my shoulder, around, making sure nobody, no thing was there. I was scared out of my mind that we would be attacked by whatever I previously witnessed.
By the time we had made it back to the campground, I had fallen into a pure state of exhaustion. All I wanted to was sleep. I barely remember walking up to the campsite, heading off in the direction of my tent, laying down in my sleeping bag, and setting my head upon the pillow, under the flickering light of the dying fire. My eyes closed, and I fell into a deep slumber…
I awoke the next day feeling refreshed, and ready for another day of camping. What had happened the night before will forever haunt me, even if I try to put it off. That morning, I did just that. I put it off. It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, Saturday, July 14. We would be camping until Tuesday, when we would head back. There was no use in pondering over something that happened in the past.
But my mind could not stop wandering, reliving the images that had played out that last night. Well, I suppose it could have been a figment of my imagination! Oh sure, it could’ve been. It could have been a dream, for all I know. But if it was, it was so real, that I will never forget it.
The rest of the days on our camping trip went by in a blur of fun and excitement. At times, I didn’t even think back to the night for hours at a time, as we were so incredibly busy with hiking, swimming, walking around the campground. We would sit by the fire once the sun had dropped below the horizon, telling stories of ghosts, of funny moments, roasting marshmallows over the blazing fire.
We would busy ourselves with activities that one would expect to do on a camping trip. As a matter of fact, we had very little down time, which probably helped divert my thoughts from the events that happened that night. And I was glad, indeed. Glad to have a break. Glad to just put it off, and ignore it, dismiss it as a dream, as a false event that never actually occurred in reality.
And it worked. I felt none of that clenching fear that I had felt before, no suspicion that something was wrong. I spent time talking with Chris and Dave, as if nothing happened. As if we could just carry on with our lives, no problem.
As we were finalizing the packing-up process that Tuesday, making sure that we possessed everything that we brought, I stared aimlessly back at the site. It had served us well. Regardless of what happened, it was a nice, cozy little campground, with a nicely positioned campsite in which we had stayed on. It was the place we had called home for the past days.
“I think that’s everything!” Chris said, “Come on Jake, get in the car.” Dave and Chris were both in the car waiting for me to climb into the driver’s seat, and whisk us back to civilization. But I just stood there, staring at one thing, one object, left in the center of the campsite, that surely wasn’t ours.
A lantern, with a red handle, and a rusted surface, with remnants of green paint on it.