The Girl and her Goat Chapter 1 The Camping trip
Trees went by, blurring away as we drove by the forest roads, far from town. My cousin Shaun and his two friends had invited me to go camping with them. Since they offered to drive and it was my vaccation from work anyway, of course, I agreed. Shaun was driving. Next to him, there was his friend Abbie. The blonde often shot her brilliant green eyes up to the mirror in front of her, trying to get her light curls in order, having left too early to do her hair properly. To my right, there was Clarissa.
She was speaking with great enthusiasm about a boy she had met at work the other day. I was only half-paying attention. Unlike most other girls in their mid twenties, dating had never really interrested me. The other people in the car were all wildly contributing to the conversation. I was too busy looking out the window. I scrunched my nose from time to time and chuckled a bit at some rather immature comments from my pervert of a cousin. The subject gradually changed towards work.
"Hey Erin, you better give me discounts, right?" I looked over to Clarissa and giggled slightly. "Sure. But never on Fridays, the big boss is there." She nodded, smiling thankfully. I was the assistant manager to a local restaurant downtown. It was a job I was pretty happy with. I had always wanted to work in the food industry, wanting to be a chef as a kid. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with the greatest of cooking skills. However, I got my dream-job of working in a restautant when my cousin's friend's brother managed to get me to work there. It only took me a month to get promoted. Apparently, I was a great leader.
We arrived at the camp site a bit after noon. I put my hand over my eyes to shield them from the sun. It was shining brightly, not showing any signs of going away any time soon. Perfect. We unpacked some of our things and put them into the small cabin we had rented. Shaun had taken out his small grill and was making steaks. I closed my eyes and let the smell go through my mind. The glorious aroma of cooking. I wasn't the only one who thought it was good. A few other people from the cabin next-door arrived.
Two tall african-american boys and three whites, two girls and a guy, walked towards us. "Hey, that smells great! We have chips and stuff, mind if we join you guys?" One of the black boys spoke. The other, seeming to be older, maybe around 25 years old, elbowed the younger one in the ribs. "Yeah, dim-wits here forgot to pack our grill and the cabin we rented doesn't even come with a stove." I giggled and looked over to my cousin. He nodded and put some more steaks on the grill.
We opened some chips and served the steaks, all laughing and talking about whatever. Shaun seemed to have found a kindred spirit in one of the two girls, a slightly chubby girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. They both had the same twisted sense of humour. I think I may have seen a glint of love in my cousin's eyes. It made me smirk. He so often had dated, slept with more girls than he can count, but none of them he genuinely loved. Abbie was also being flirtatious, but towards the eldest of the black guys.
A young ginger man, the youngest looking of the group, was arguing with the other girl that had come along with them, telling her that carrots grew under the ground with the leaves sticking out. The girl insisted that they grew in trees. I chuckled and sat up. "He's right, actually. Carrots do grow under the earth with the leaves sticking out." The girl looked at me, wide-eyed, then turned back to the ginger.
I resumed eating, once again, only vaguely listening to the conversations, not really taking part of any of them. The steak was really good. I envied for maybe the hundredth time in my life my cousin's cooking skills. He would have been a great chef if he hadn't wanted to work in electronics. It's a bit ironic, considering that my skills with computers are better than his. I guess life is strange like that. I placed an other chip in my mouth, enjoying the simple taste of plain. Everyone else I was friends with prefered the barbecue ones. I didn't understand them, but that's okay, since they didn't understand me either. I leaned back in my foldable chair, having finished my plate.
I had closed my eyes and was resting, listening to the sounds of the forest that were still quite loud, despite the conversations going on beside me. The peaceful chirping of the birds formed a soft melody. I was almost drifting off to sleep, until a slight clatter woke me up. I looked to the log I was using as a table, only to notice that a young man with dark brown curly hair was picking-up my dishes. He looked startled by the fact he had woken me up. I smiled softly. "Thanks." He slowly let an unsure smile draw it's self on his face, nodding and walking away, lifting his hand up a bit as if to say it was no problem. As he placed the dishes down next to the other ones, I noticed him reach over to the bowls of chips. I smiled slightly when I saw him grab a plain one. I closed my eyes and leaned back, drifting off again.
I awoke from my nap to the rays of the setting sun over the tree branches. The world was basked in glorious orange hues. the beams of sunlight visible through the leaves. I let out a quiet "wow" at how magnificent it was. My contemplation of beauty was brief, however, because I caught a strange smell. It was like...burning? It smelled like when a new cook at the restaurant forgot to turn off one of the stoves, leaving a pan on it. I looked around, confused.
My cousin walked out of the cabin, his brown eyes lighting up upon seeing me. "Hey Sleeping Beauty! Had a nice nap?" I stretched. "Yes, actually." He stepped outside, a beer in his hand. He suddently paused, looking confused and sniffing a bit. "You smell that too?" I nodded. "Yeah...maybe one of the other people in the area left a grill on somewhere." He nodded and went back inside. I stood up and decided to go for a bit of a walk. I grabbed my camera and headed off.
I took a few snap-shots of the gorgeous lighting of the afternoon. I saw a few squirrels and a raven. Everywhere I walked was full of life. After about 40 minutes of walking, however, I started to feel...weird. Like I was being watched. I looked around me, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. I was about to go deeper into the woods, until I noticed that the birds had stopped chirping. The forest had gone silent and still. I occured to me that there could be a bear, or coyotes. I decided it would be best to turn around and head back. The whole time I was walking though, I could have sworn I smelled the same burning smell from before, only stronger.
Later, we were joined by the guys and girls from the other cabin again. The chubby blonde went right back up to Shaun. Abbie sat between the two black guys. I sat with Clarissa to my right and the ginger guy to my left. The other girl was next to the ginger. He looked to me with his golden brown eyes. "Hey, your cousin says you work at a restaurant?" I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, my name's Erin. I'm the assistant manager." His smile brightened. "I'm Rupert. I work at a restaurant too...but...not really as good of a job as you have." The girl sitting next to him shouted out. "He's the janitor!" Rupert looked embarassed, his white skin going red. "Shut it, Beth." I barelly heard his whisper. I giggled.
The younger of the black guys started a small fire and The blonde girl brought a bag of marshmallows. We started enjoying ourselves, eating and talking. Clarissa then decided to start telling ghost stories, of course. "Have you all ever heard the tale of the Goatman?" I raised a brow, chewing the fluffy ball of toasted sugar. Shaun spoke up, snickering. "What, is that Slenderman's zoophile cousin?" I chocked on my marhsmallow and half the people around the camp-fire started laughing.
She just sighed. "No, no he's not." She quickly regained her serious tone. "The Goatman is a spirit or something...he's a shape-shifting creature that lives in the woods, just like these ones! Sometimes he looks like a man, sometimes he looks like a beast. They say he sneaks in among groups of campers, like us, in order to cause chaos and confusion!"
Shaun, a mouth full of marshmallow, slowly swung the stick he was using to roast them. "So...he's not into goats?" I facepalmed, unable to keep back a slight chuckle at my cousin's stupidity.
More stories and tales were told, ranging from old african tales to modern serial killer rumors. I was about to grab an other marshmallow, when I smelled it again. I looked up and met eyes with my cousin and I knew he was smelling it too. That was when I noticed that the whole forest had gone silent again.
"Hey, you guys, do you all smell that too?" Those who were talking paused. Looks of confusion flashed through the eyes of many. "Yeah...w-what is that?" Abbie sounded worried. I shrugged. "I smelled it earlier too...twice." Shaun looked like he was about to say something, but there was suddently a loud smacking sound somewhere behind me. I turned around to see the bushes and ferns shaking about, as if something was running away into the forest. I stood-up, walking back a little. My cousin grabbed my hand and pulled me back. "Maybe...we should go inside now."
We all walked into the cabins.
After getting ready for bed, I placed my sleeping bag on the floor. I curled-up inside, sighing. I was about to close my eyes when I noticed a scrap of paper tucked away between two planks of wood on the wall. I sat up, looking around the room. Everyone else seemed to be asleep or close to sleeping. I stretched my arm and gripped the edge of the sheet of paper, pulling it back. There was writing on it. I reached for my phone and turned it on, using the light from the screen to read.
'He stands with us, always watching.'