Short Story
The Boy and The It
“Are we there yet?” Clover says again looking annoyed.
“Only three more hours!” Tyler says with a smile. Clover Anderson is my best friend and she is also perfect. Perfect face, perfect body, perfect hair, perfect laugh. She’s the type of girl boys notice. Clover and I tell each other everything except for the big secret I’ve kept from her since 8th grade. I love Jeremy.
Jeremy is Clover’s boyfriend and in her words “the love of her life.” The feelings I have for Jeremy have grown more and more over the years listen to Clover talk about him it breaks my heart. Clover or no Clover, Jeremy would never go for me. I’m not ugly, but I’m not Clover. I have wavy brown hair with boring grey eyes and a dull smile. Nothing special.
“Almost there!” Tyler says looking back at us.
Audrey is sitting in the passenger seat of Tyler’s Old Red Ford Taurus. Tyler has been trying to date Audrey for over a year now, but she says we’re just too good of friends. Clover and I have been friends the longest, since second grade. We met Tyler, Jeremy, and Audrey in highschool and quickly became inseparable. We are going camping before our senior year of high school to share some last good memories together before we all go off to college.
“Here we are” Tyler says with a grin. “Home sweet home.”
As we begin piling out of Tyler’s shitty car we start looking around. As I look in every direction all I can see is woods for miles, no sign of any human life.
“Where the hell are we Tyler?” I ask.
“The best place to camp of course.” He says. “The only thing here is a firepit and a couple slightly clear patches of ground where we set up our tents.
“What is this place?” Clover asks.
“Me and my brother used to come here all the time, it’s an abandoned campground.” Tyler replies.
“That sounds sketchy” Audrey adds.
“It’s way better, trust me. There’s a swimming hole walking distance and best of all, its free!!” After a few seconds of silence Jeremy says, “well, what are we waiting for, let’s unpack.”
By the time we finish unpacking it’s almost completely dark. Audrey and Tyler offer to go find some firewood so we can make hot dogs. Jeremy keeps glancing at me like he needs something, but I don’t ask him. Part of me likes the attention.
All of a sudden we hear a scream. Not just a playful scream, a flatout terror scream. I look up and see Tyler crashing through the woods with a petrified look on his face.
“Audrey’s gone.” he says. At first we all just sorta stare at him blankly not understanding the situation, then finally Clover says
“So where the hell is she?”
After a few minutes of calming Tyler down he finally began to talk.
“We found a clearance in the woods not too far from here. Audrey saw a big stack of firewood on one side while I was looking at the other. I heard a scream and turned around, but she was gone.” Tyler is crying now, barely keeping his voice steady. “I swear I only looked away for a second.” He says again, sobbing now. I look over at Clover and she has started to cry too. Jeremy looks distraught. I feel my brain set into what Clover calls “mom mode.”
“Let’s go in groups of two and look for her”. I’m shocked by the confidence in my voice like somehow I’ve done this before. I look up at my friends faces. Jeremy speaks first.
“I’ll go with Hannah, Clover you should go with Tyler to check out where he last saw her.” Clover glances at Jeremy a little confused, but she realizes Audrey is more important than boyfriends right now, so she nods. Although I am just as scared as everyone else, I can’t help but smile a little thinking Jeremy chose me.
We decided to meet back here in 10 minutes and report if we find any clues to answer the question of where Audrey is. Then we were off. Solemnly we begin to follow Tyler and Clover towards the clearing.
It’s not far till we see the break in the trees. The moonlight pouring into the clearing is like the first snowfall on Christmas. Tyler crosses the clearing telling Clover that Audrey was standing right over here.
“We’re going to look a little deeper into the woods” Jeremy calls out. He grabs my arm and leads me. There’s something about his touch, firm but gentle… it makes me shiver.
We’re deep in the woods now, but Jeremy has stopped walking, I wonder why. He turns and looks at me. Before I can blink he’s kissing me. I pull away
“We can’t” I say. He’s so close to me I can feel his breath on my face. I want him to kiss me more than I’ve ever wanted anything. I take a step back. This is wrong. I feel my foot start slipping and before I know it I’m falling. I see Jeremy try and catch me, but it’s too late. I finally hit the ground hard. My vision is blurry and it’s dark. I try and stand, but stumble and fall. “Hannah?” I hear a voice behind me say weekly.
“Audrey?” I say confused. “Where are we?” I crawl toward her voice but the ground is wet and sticky. Blood. I stop suddenly, stricken in fear. I hear a noise behind me. It starts out quiet like a moan or a growl, almost human. Then its loud and it’s in my face. It hits me with claws and I fall. Last thing I see is Audrey’s bloody hand trying to grab me before she gets dragged away.
“RUN!” she screams. Then everything goes dark.