Blackwater Ridge, Lost Creek, Colorado, September 7th 2005

The voices of three young teens tore through the silence of the beautiful green forest. Aria and her best friends, Lucy, James and Cole were on a camping trip in the Colorado woods with Cole's parents, Julie and David.

The vast woodland spread for hundreds of miles with rivers, lakes and rocky cliffs running through it. Blackwater Ridge was a very dangerous place especially with the disappearances. The group was lucky that David was a ranger and knew the woods like the palm of his hand.

Aria split from her friends when Julie turned to her, bright blue eyes wide and inquisitive, 'So, what've you been up to since we last saw you?'

The green-eyed girl thought for a second, 'Um, just the usual, cheerleading, and hanging out.'

'Oh yes,' Julie smiled thoughtfully at the raven-haired teen, 'Cole said you're captain now'

Aria sighed inwardly; she hated being a cheerleader she only did it because her foster mother, Lucy was captain when she was at school.

The trees around them swayed ominously in the gentle breeze. The group had no idea that a terrible act was happening in another part of the forest.

The sound of running water met Aria's ears; she called her friends and ran to the source. She was awestruck as she was greeted with a beautiful lake.

She knelt down and looked at her reflection. A heart shape face surrounded by long golden-blonde hair, emerald green eyes that fluttered with thick eyelashes, a button nose and bow shaped lips. Overall, she was happy with her appearance. Aria glanced at her friends who were too busy splashing each other, she sighed, sometimes Aria felt as if she didn't belong in the group. Compared to Lucy, Aria felt unattractive.

Lucy was your typical all-American teenager. Luscious chestnut hair that everyone was jealous of, light grey eyes that didn't seem to match but still looked stunning, a small nose and 'kissable' lips, well, according to the entire male population of River Grove High School.

James and Cole were your average jocks. Both of them were considered the best-looking boys in school. While James had dark brown hair and green-blue eyes, Cole possessed deep auburn hair and deep blue eyes. They were best friends, have been since kindergarten.

Aria didn't dwell on her morbid thoughts and stood up, wiping the dusty soil off her bare knees. The rest of the group decided to wear your usual walking gear; grey walking trousers and a thin top covered by a waterproof jacket and a rucksack. In spite of this being told by Julie and David, Aria chose to wear navy blue shorts paired with a white vest covered by a denim jacket and rucksack and a pair of ashen grey All Star Converse.

After walking for twenty more minutes, David selected a small open field to set up camp, next they built the tents; placing thin metal tubes through the netted plastic of the shelter. The group had decided to have different colour tents; Aria and Lucy had a green one (Aria's choice), James and Cole a blue and Julie and David a camouflage.

It was now 7:00pm and it was getting dark, the animals of the night came out to play and the group of five dressed for bed and they all drifted off into a peaceful sleep not knowing what was lurking in the darkness, watching.

The creature stared at his new meals hungrily, arching its skinny back and clenching and unclenching its elongated fingers.

It used to be human, remembering a time so long ago when a simple hike in these very woods went terribly wrong.

It remembered its name, Joe, but nothing else came to mind. He recalled their camp getting cut-off by a snowstorm. They deviated to the abandoned mines where they lasted for about a year. The only way to survive was to eat each other. Joe was the most dominant out of the group and was the only one that lived.

If you can call it that, the skin on his body grew so thin that he couldn't wear clothes, his mouth sprouted more teeth, thicker and harder molars to chew on flesh, his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness of the mine. The only piece of human left was his voice, which he used to lure his victims.

He stared at the company once more before retreating back to his home. He would wait until morning. He loved to chase his prey. This thing, gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash grey of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the being looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody, dry from dehydration. Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the entity gave off a strange and eerie odour of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.