The wind made a queer sound. A certain whistling was heard as the bus rattled its way up the mountain road. The weather was bleak. Gray and lifeless. 

"Nature seems to hate us, don't you think James?"

"Yeah sure…" I muttered distractedly.

"Oh come on man, get your nose out of that book for once. Reading too many horror-thriller novels can't possibly be good for your brain," my friend Kris replied.

"But they're so interesting, you should read one sometime. I promise that it would be hard for you to put down the book until you've figured out the mystery!"

"No thanks, I'm quite content with looking out at the world."

"Your loss," I said, going back to reading the book. It was a novel by one of my favourite authors, Liam Chresner. His plots generally revolved around murders and ghosts. Quite a good combination if you ask me. One day I also hope to be an author, writing out my own stories.

The bus continued on its way to the lodge we'd be staying at. It was a quaint little place. But hey, if it comes under the school budget, who bats an eye? As soon as the bus stopped, about half the students just ran to the bathrooms. Quite understandable, since there had been no bathroom breaks in the 8-hour long journey. 

I walked to the assigned room with Kris and two other boys. 

"Simple place," I thought as I ran my fingers along the wall, which had a thin film of fine dust on it. The room was sparsely furnished. With two bunk beds, a small cupboard, a chair, and a desk. There was a window at one side, overlooking the valley below, filled with trees, forests, and who knows what else.

There was a small building beside the main lodge, which housed the bathrooms.

I decided to take a walk on the trail behind the lodge and looked out toward the forest, into which the trail led.

"The weather seems to be getting better huh?" Kris said, walking up to me.

"Elementary, my dear Watson," I said, much to his amusement.

"So Mr. Sherlock, are you up for an adventure?"

"I mean, I'm not one to take risks, especially in a new place. But you know what? It's about time I looked at the world rather than some book."

"Ah, so you've come around, eh?" Kris said with a smug expression on his face.

We started walking. It was pretty normal, things you'd expect. Birds, trees, more trees, insects. We even saw a small animal at one point. We decided to follow it. We continued running after it when it suddenly veered off the trail and went into the trees. 

Kris was about to follow it but I pulled him back, "We're not allowed to go off the trail remember?"

"Oh please, it will be fun, don't be a scaredy-cat."

"No, let's go back now, I reckon it's about time for lunch."

We started heading back. A few minutes later we heard the gurgling of water. We hadn't heard the sound earlier, in our rush to catch the animal. Kris looked at me, and I knew I couldn't deter him from checking it out.

"All right… But we'll leave after checking it out," I gave in.

"Yes, thank you!" Said Kris, already heading through the bushes.

We crept through the leaves and thorny branches and emerged into a small clearing. There was a sliver of a stream running through the middle. We walked up to it. Kris knelt and put his hand into the water, "It's incredibly cold. Should I drink it?"

"Yeah sure, if you wanna risk getting poisoned or something." I replied.

He bent down and I crouched as well, he was about to take a sip when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped and fell onto Kris, both of us getting wet in the stream. I looked up and saw a wizened old man staring intently at both of us. 

"You children should avoid being so adventurous. Don't drink water without boiling it. I expect your parents have told you that much at least?" He asked.

"Yes, they did," I sputtered, as I got up and tried to shake off the water.

"If you don't mind me asking, who are you, sir?" Kris asked.

"I am, but an old man, and I suppose the owner of the lodge you're staying at as well," He replied.

"We are sorry for going off the trail sir, we won't do it again," I said.

"Oh, but what fun will the trip be then?" Said the man with a smile. Saying so he started walking back towards the lodge. We followed him. He seemed nice enough.

 ***

"Where were you, boys?" Our teacher asked us as we reached the lodge.

"Uh, we were…" I began when the old man said, "Oh it's nothing, I was just showing the boys some plants and local wildlife." 

Kris gave me a surprised look but said nothing.

"I see you've met our host, he and his wife run the lodge alone," Our teacher said. "Now it's time for lunch. Mrs. Lecter has prepared the most wonderful feast for us," He said as he started walking towards the dining room where the other students were already eating their food.

I walked up to the old man, and I whispered, "Thank you for saving us," Quite peculiar that he would help us, but I'm not complaining. 

***

That night.

"Hey, James? Are you awake?" Kris asked me, sitting up suddenly.

"Yes, I'm finding it hard to go to sleep. You too, I expect?" I replied.

"Yeah. I guess it's just the fact that this is my first time away from home without my family," Kris said.

As he said that, we started hearing some noises from outside. Sounded like sliding metal. Maybe someone is sharpening a knife? Probably not, maybe Kris is right and I really have been reading too much.

"You hear that Kris? I wonder who's up at this time. Do you have a watch?"

"Yeah, it's about 11 PM, not that late."

"Oh well, just try to get some rest, tomorrow's a big day, we will be going to explore the forest."

"I heard that the students are supposed to do some activity in the lodge? I mean what's the point of coming to the mountains if all we were gonna be doing was staying inside a small building!"

"I agree. Let's catch some shut-eye then," Saying so, I turned over and finally fell asleep.

***

"Okay children, now that you've had your breakfast, please follow Mr. Lecter, he will lead you to the shed where we will be doing our Plant recognition activity," Said the teacher.

This announcement was met with a collective groan from the students.

"Psst, hey Kris," I called out.

Kris looked at me and smirked, "Time to go then?"

"Yes. Come on, we'll sneak out just as the children are entering the shed, that way, they won't have time to realise we're gone."

That's what we did, we sneaked to the end of the group of children, and as they were entering the building we slipped away, into the forest. 

"Time for some real fun and exploration," Kris said, as he shoved some dried leaves he had picked up at my face.

"Yeah I agree, this should be enjoyable."

We spent the next few hours looking at different places in the forest while keeping an account of the way back so that we wouldn't get lost. I caught a butterfly in my hands and we observed it. Carefully of course. Its wings seemed to reflect light in a very interesting way. 

"I dare you to eat the butterfly," Kris said

"Yeah, that's a no-go mister," I replied. I released the butterfly, and it fluttered away to a small patch of flowers.

"You know that I was kidding right? I'm not like your brother, an insect torturer," He sniggered.

"No kidding, he actually enjoys it, you know."

"Yeah, you don't have to explain. I've seen him in the act. But I guess it can be put down to the reason that he genuinely believes he's taking good care of them."

"I mean that's true. But he should be a bit caref-"

*Splash*

Maybe walking backwards wasn't the best idea.

"Now don't you dare laugh Kris," I said, stepping out of the stream we had discovered yesterday. I scanned the clearing, looking for Kris. He was talking to someone with his back to me. Who could it be? Perhaps some other classmate got bored of the class and snuck out?

I got up and started walking over to them. It was the owner of the lodge, Mr. Lecter! He didn't appear to be angry that we had skipped the activity.

"-just thought that it was boring to be stuck in a room, whereas we could be doing activities out in the open," I could hear some snippets of the conversation.

"Hello sir, we are sorry for sneaking out, I can explain," I said.

"No need, no need. I get it. You're young, you want to enjoy, it was your teacher's idea, that weird activity. It should be fun."

"What should be fun, sir? The activity?" I asked.

"I meant, the meal should be fun. It's lunchtime."

"Okay sir, let's head back then," Kris said, trying to appear responsible. What a joke.

"Ah yes, I suppose your classmates are waiting. Follow me then…"

We started after him. 

Since the stream was not that far from the shed, we reached it in about 5 minutes.

"Come on in, the activity has almost ended. The teacher shouldn't have noticed your absence."

We walked in, but it was eerily quiet. Which was pretty unnatural since our classmates were a wild bunch! We heard the door creaking shut behind us. Kris suddenly slipped and was about to fall when I caught him.

"What's that stuff, I almost slipped and fell." 

I looked down and saw some red liquid splashed all over the floor. To my horror, I realised that the red liquid was indeed blood. 

"So children, it may appear to you the place is empty, and you would be right. Since all your classmates are dead and are being cleaned up for tonight's dinner by my loving wife."

How could this be happening? Thoughts ran through my head as my friend and I turned around to see Mr. Lecter rushing towards us with a knife. We both dove away from him.

"Mr. Lecter, why are you doing this?! Please let us go! We are sorry for sneaking away." I screamed while ducking under a small overhang. 

The idea that he would punish us for sneaking out by threatening us is crazy, why did I even think of that?

"Oh my dear boy, this isn't about your shenanigans. My wife and I get quite hungry on this mountain. Edible animals are quite difficult to hunt for this old man. You and your young friends should keep us going for a few months at least. I have a nice freezer after all." 

Kris and I ran to a corner of the shed and hid behind a steel plate.

"You're crazy Mr. Lecter!" Kris screamed hysterically and in a whisper, "I don't wanna die here James." 

"We will get out of here, I promise you. Let's dash for the door."

Kris nodded as I slowly got up. We started running to the door when Mr. Lecter suddenly appeared from the side and covered the exit.

"Where do you think you boys are going? The activity has just started!" He said with a maniacal grin on his face.

"There has to be some other exit out of here," I told Kris quietly as Mr. Lecter started running towards us. We ran the opposite way.

"Hey James look! There's a small window over there behind the boxes," He said pointing to the side of the building. We ran there and pushed away the boxes. I pulled open the window and jumped outside. I turned around to help Kris out of the window. But his foot seemed to be stuck under a box which had fallen in my escape. I tried hard to pull him out. Mr. Lecter appeared to sense the desperation as he slowed down and started calmly walking towards Kris.

"Please get me out of here James," Kris said, starting to cry now. 

"I'm trying. It just won't budge!" I kept pulling but to no avail.

"Poor little Kris, killed at the tender age of 14… Makes for a good headline, don't you think James?"

"Shut up you psychopath! Let my friend go!" I screamed at him.

It was too late, and Kris sensed it.

"If you survive please tell my family that I love them. I'll try to hold him back."

"No, don't say that. You're gonna tell them that yourself!" But even I didn't believe that at this point.

"Please go James, run, don't make it harder than it already is. Please…"

Mr. Lecter caught Kris and stabbed him in the back with the knife. As the life seeped out of him his expression turned to that of complete shock. This was going to haunt me forever. Mr Lecter proceeded to stab him repeatedly, right there in front of me, as I stood, feeling weak and helpless.

I couldn't take it anymore. I turned around and ran.

"Hey come back! Don't leave your friend like this!" Mr. Lecter screamed. 

Gagging and sobbing, I kept running. 

As I passed the lodge I heard a voice calling out from inside, "Honey, are those two troublesome rogues caught yet? I'm almost done preparing this bunch for tonight."

I staggered away to the forest, I kept running, I had to get away, as far away as I possibly could. I would run till my legs gave out. I had to escape. I had to get away from this place. As I ran, memories came flooding back into my mind. Poor Kris… I thought as I kept running. It wasn't his fault. I shouldn't have come to this place. I should have stayed at home as my mom said. I shouldn't have urged Kris' mom to let him come with me. It was all my fault. I hadn't been able to save him. My life suddenly seemed like a presentation, slides running through my mind in the blink of an eye.

I kept running. I had to get away, or Kris' sacrifice would have been for nothing.

***

As I sit here, writing this, the moon climbs up into the sky. I can hear animals scurrying around me. The words I write seem to get blurry due to my falling tears. 

I am so scared. I just want to go home at this point. I don't care, just let me go home. I can hear snapping twigs, I'll have to continue moving. I had to get far away from this place. As far away as I possibly could. Merryweather mountain was not as merry as it seemed on the brochure...