The Girl and Her Goat Chapter 2 The Weird Guy
The pure orange light of the morning sun reached me from the window, bringing me out of my peaceful and dreamless slumber. I yawned and stretched, dragging myself out of my sleeping bag. I noticed that Abbie was also awake, making herself coffee. I walked over to the blonde, grabbing some cocoa powder from one of my bags. I was more of a hot-chocolate kind of person.
I put on some slippers and headed outside, hot-chocolate in hand. The day was looking to be beautiful. Birds of all kinds were chirping. I sat outside until my cocoa was done. By then, the others had woken-up. My cousin, his hair looking messy, stepped outside next to me. "How come you never get bitten by mosquitoes, with all the time you spend outside?" I just shrugged. "Maybe they think I'm special." He laughed. "Or maybe you just stink!" I laughed as well. We then looked up as we saw the guys from last night walking out from the bushes. The older of the two black guys spoke-up, clearly the leader of their group.
"Was that you guys, last night?" I looked to Shaun. "What?" The man's frantic brown eyes looked around to the woods around us. "Someone was banging on our cabin's walls at three in the morning, scratching at the front door. When we got up this morning, there were some pretty deep marks in the door." I stood up. "Maybe it was a bear?" I suggested. He shrugged. "Yeah, maybe...but still. If it was someone, they're going to have to pay for the damages!"
Abbie and Clarissa had come out by then. "What's going on?" "Someone or something scratched up their door...Look, I'll go have a look and see if it looks like something a bear would do." He sighed. "Be my guest." I followed him back through the bushes to their cabin. As soon as I saw the state the doors was in, my eyes widened. It wasn't badly damaged, but the markings on it were...strange.
The lower half of the door had two long parallel gashes running down the wood, all the way to a few inches above ground. This clearly was not a bear. I turned around. "Okay, I don't know any animal that could have done that, but it wasn't someone from our cabin." The man looked sceptical. "What if it's the Goatman?" I turned around at the sound of the shaky voice. It was the chubby blonde girl. Her blue eyes were wide with fear.
I looked back to the black guy. Okay, maybe this was all a prank by them. I chuckled. "The Goatman isn't real." Just then, the same strange smell began to rise again. We had all gone quiet. The whole forest had. I began to feel uneasy. "..but something definitely doesn't feel right here. I'm going back to my cabin." I started walking back through the bushes. The two others followed me.
We all sat together. The smell had gone away. Shaun spoke-up. "Well, if there is some big animal out there, it seems to be close to Samuel's cabin. You all might be safer here." Oh...that was his name. Samuel. Just then, the other girl who was with them spoke. "But what about our stuff? It's all still in there." Clarissa spoke next. "We can all go get it together. " We agreed and headed of back to their place.
I helped them move some of their bags around, carrying two. It was a bit too heavy for me. I still tried. As I was walking back to our cabin, I slipped on a log and almost fell, only for someone to catch me. I looked behind me and saw it was the guy with the curly hair. "T-thanks." He just nodded. He pulled me back to my feet nearly effortlessly and plucked one of the heavy bags from my hand. He began walking towards our cabin too. He didn't even look back. I just silently followed. We put the bags in a pile with others. After a few hours, everything from their cabin was in ours. By then, it was lunch time.
We decided to make burgers. I got some chips from a bag and brought them out. I offered a few plain ones to the guy who had eaten them last time. He smiled and looked up to me. It was only then that I managed to get a good look at his eyes. I tried hard not to gasp, thinking it might be rude. They weren't brown, or blue, or green...the closest color I could describe them as was amber, but...no. Not amber. Orange. A beautiful shade of fiery orange. He had looked away by the time I snapped out of my thoughts. I decided to walk back over to my seat.
As we served the burgers, I began to think. Something did not feel right. I looked back up to the weird guy. He hadn't been with them when they walked over to our cabin the first time...come to think of it, the second time either. He wasn't a part of their group, and he wasn't a part of ours. I blinked, realizing he was looking right at me. I hadn't noticed I was staring at him. Right as I was about to look away, I noticed him giving me a dark smirk, winking. I gasped quietly, looking back down to my food. Who was he? Could he be...no. That didn't make sense, the Goatman story couldn't be real. Maybe he was a part of their group and they were just trying to prank us.
We continued with our food, then we played a whole variety of games. I went for a walk and enjoyed the scenery. We had all almost forgotten about the weird things going on. Almost. And we were quickly reminded anyway. The strange smell began to rise again. By then, it was the afternoon and the sun was setting. We were about to grill some hot-dogs. We were just getting the food out when it had seeped in from the woods. Again, everything was silent. The smell was stronger this time, smelling like rust...or blood.
I looked around at all of us. Everyone had gone quiet, looking tense. That was when I got a really good look at everyone. Shaun, Abbie, Clarissa, Samuel, Rupert, the shorter black guy, the chubby girl and the other girl Beth...and me. The guy with the curly hair...was nowhere to be seen. Just as I was about to ask where he was, a strange screech came from the woods. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. High-pitch, drawn out, like the mating call of an elk, only if the elk had a really sore throat and was screaming through a tube.
Shaun paled. "Let's get inside. NOW." We all went into the cabin, locking the door. I decided to go lock all the windows as well. I turned around after shutting the living room window. I walked through the open bathroom door and shut the window in there too. When I walked back out, I sighed in relief. The scent seemed to have lifted. I sat down next to the others in the living area. I shut my eyes, a slight head-ache coming on. My eyes then snapped open and I looked back up. The guy with curly hair was sitting by the window. He was inside, with us. I began to be filled with a sense of dread. I didn't want to say anything. I didn't know what to say.
I couldn't sleep that night. I had been lying down with my eyes shut for a good two hours and I still could not find rest. I tossed and turned. I eventually opened my eyes. It seemed only one other person was still awake, and it was him. He was sitting by the window again, his chin propped up on his elbow, gazing outside. The moon's light reflected in his flame-like eyes. He blinked and turned around, meeting my gaze. I held it for a few seconds, before he smiled and pulled himself away from the window. He curled up next to it, tucking himself under a ratty and old blanket that didn't even cover his knees. He didn't have a pillow either.
His eyes were shut and he looked about to fall asleep. Suddently, for a brief moment, I wasn't affraid of him anymore. I felt bad for him. I sat up and whispered. "Hey, hey, you!" His eyes opened and he looked back up to me. I gulped, looking down to the two pillows I was using. Making-up my mind, I grabbed one of them. "Here, catch!" I tossed it over to him. He quickly grabbed it, his eyes widening. He looked extremely confused, gazing between the pillow and me. Suddently, a genuine warm smile drew it's self on his otherwise mischivious features and he pressed himself into the fluffy pillow. I heard his peaceful sigh of content.
Sleep still took a while to find me. A few of the people in the cabin were snoring in a not-so-graceful way. However, one snore reached my ears, sounding a lot more peaceful and quiet. It was him, the weird guy. He had fallen into a deep sleep, a placid smile on his face. Soon, I was snoring too.