It was the weekend, and a long holiday was approaching. With all of the term's work completed, Liam, Olivia, and I decided to take a break by doing something different than what we usually do during our free time: party.
Liam, the strange nature-loving nerd, suggested camping, and Olivia, the strange one who usually agrees with Liam, consented without even asking my opinion. That's how we chose to go camping, or, more accurately, how they decided to go camping and expect me to just follow.
In terms of the location of our camp site, we opted to go with a park or something similar to it because we, as college students, do not have the luxury of freely spending money on a camp site in one of those paid parks or whatever they're called.
We searched for an appropriate park-like location to camp. While searching, many different yet suitable locations popped up. We started sharing our findings but Liam only shared one which was the Colecam Forest.
"Why not give Colecam Forest a try?" said Liam.
"But that's not even a park." I protested to avoid an actual forest. I mean I am not a hater of forests and nature but I still fear the animals in them.
"Ye, but it's close by and there are also no restrictions on it unlike parks." Replayed Liam with an upset tone.
"I agree with Liam, it seems like a suitable option since it is near a town. I don't think anything dangerous is in there." said Olivia, agreeing with Liam once again. Tch, its kind of annoying but whatever.
"But the forest is a restricted zone. isn't it?" I said in hopes of changing their decision.
"YEEE, but that's probably because there is only a chance of something being in there or perhaps they only followed protocol who cares. Too AFRAID to go?" Said Liam with an irritating voice.
No matter my attempts at changing their decision, they did not budge and the argument was going nowhere, so I decided to just accept it and go along with them.
After we completed packing our belongings, which included, but was not limited to, a small pack of drinks, some food, sleeping bags, and items to aid us in navigating the forest. Not too much, but just enough to have fun.
We planned to leave as soon as we completed packing because it was mid-afternoon. We planned to stay the night and return the next morning, so we set out to find a suitable location for our campsite before midnight.
We neared the town's exit which leads to a highway that goes to the main cities after a couple of hours. Since there is not a proper entrance to the forest, we decided to climb over the guardrails of the highway with our gear.
We had entered the forest and went only about 20 meters to meet a lowering slope. Now I really wanted to go back; I hated the silence of the forest, the animals, and now a slope that will not only be extremely difficult and frightening to climb down, but will also make climbing back up quite difficult.
I looked at Liam and Olivia in a way that expressed my state of mind. I could also see the same look in Olivia's eyes but Liam...He just...started climbing down after giving a pitiful look towards us. I was pissed but held my anger back. Olivia followed Liam after a couple of seconds, forcing me to follow after them.
We struggled to descend the slope, trees were scarce on this sloped ground but they were still present here and there. We used the small amount of trees to descend down the slope without falling. It took a very long time but by late afternoon to evening, we saw a flat ground filled with trees.
It looked magnificent but scary at the same time. We continued to follow Liam who was going further into the forest with glistening eyes. His face was one worthy of a smile, he looked like a child.
We had gone a good distance towards the center of the forest when Olivia stated, "I think this is a good spot, right? Isn't it better to avoid going into the forest more? I think this is a good spot.", she obviously did not want to go deeper into the forest and this was conveyed through her tone.
Liam turned around and nodded in agreement which surprised me, he agreed?
After we finished setting up our tent, we ate something to refill our energy. It was around late evening when Liam suggested exploring the forest a bit more. We had already gotten used to our surroundings and we only saw some squirrels and rabbits around here, nothing weird or uncommon so we agreed.
I still felt afraid but I rather go with Olivia and Liam then sit back in the tents alone as the sky was starting to get darker. We traveled quite a bit and finally decided to go back since the sun was starting to set and even Liam didn't like to explore in the dark. First, it was not efficient and second, It was like a horror movie!!
"Well, everything looks the same and only smaller animals are here, nothing interesting." complained Liam while walking back towards our camp.
Olivia tried to respond to Liam using the only explanation we could come up with, "Well ye, it is probably because the animals left this forest after a tow..."
"Crackle, Crack, Crack....."
We all looked at each other in discomfort as the wails of an animal were heard followed by weird sounds.
We just stood there listening to the sounds, stunned, until it finally ended. For whatever reason, we decided to go towards the sound instead of away from it.
As we neared the location we could hear frightening sounds. Now I didn't want to be a part of this anymore, I tapped Olivia's shoulder to signal her my discomfort and message, but she was frozen there looking directly in front of her without even moving a single muscle. She was sweating and her skin looked pale.
I was pissed at her ignoring me so I just stepped next to her and tried to get her attention but that's when my sight fell upon what both Liam and Olivia were staring at with true despair in their eyes.
It was nothing short of a horrifying scene from a movie that is supposed to be banned because of its improper contents. Sweat started to form all over my body as I collapsed on the ground forgetting to breathe properly.
There was a tall huge outline in front of us holding something. It looked to be tall enough to tower over my short 1.7 meter tall figure. It looked as wide as 2 or even 3 of me. It had horns and red eyes. It looked distorted as the insides of its body seemed to move around a bit. And worse than that, It was devoid of a mouth.
With close observation, one could see that it was holding an animal beyond recognition. The thing it was holding was twisted in a way one twists a towel, blood dripping from the animal. Its insides were smashed and crushed and it looked more like a costume since it had no shape. No bones. No face. Only blood with eyes and crushed intestines.
It was a horrifying sight, the animal itself was enough to make someone die of shock but the thing holding was also there. It was nothing short of a monster. My mind was not functioning normally, I didn't know what to do or think.
"DEMONNNNNN" suddenly shouted Olivia, breaking the silence as the creature looked at us with its red eyes.