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Katie's POV.

Jazzie was holding my hand, sobbing noisily in my shoulder while I tried not to cry myself. Danny had an arm around my shoulder and Frances and Mike had their arms around each other, both of them looking straight into the darkness, towards the woods. I would give them a prize if they saw something, anything at all.

Three hours. The boys should have come back three hours ago. My cousin, my friends, my Dougie... What if they never came back? What if I had to be the one to tell aunt Julie that Luke was gone, that he'd disappeared? What if I never actually get to tell Dougie what I feel for him?

I didn't want to think like this, I wanted to fall asleep and wake up in Dougie's arms, hear Tom's stupid arguments about Star Wars and watch Harry ignore us all as he read The Lord Of The Rings... But they should have been hours ago. I couldn't stop thinking that someone Jazzie saw could have hurt them, maybe that man was watching us right now. It terrified me. I already have a phobia, I don't need this crap, I want to stop being scared the whole time-

"Dougie!" Jazzie stood up in a blink and let go of my hand. She ran towards the darkes, Danny followed her almost unconsciously, like if he was ready to catch her if she tried to ran away to try to find her brother. But she wasn't seeing things this time, like he'd said before. There he was, Dougie, walking closely to the others. She crushed her brother in her arms and started to cry even more. He put his arms around her too.

"Where the hell where you!" Mike yelled at them "We've been waiting for you for hours!" Did he sounded tearfull aswell?

"Jazz, calm down, I'm alright" I heard Dougie whisper to his little sister. I wanted to cry myself, but this time the reason was happyness; he was alive, and not only alive but absolutely fine.

Now I was angry.

"Yes!" I yelled as I stood up. For the first time (I realized this later), I didn't realize I was standing in a dark place, I didn't realize there was no light but the one the fire provided us, I had too much in my head "Where the fuck were you? We've been crying our eyes out! Do you have any idea what you all put us through?" Tears ran down my cheeks.

"I'm sorry!" Tom said "We came as fast as we could, it was too dark and we had no light, you know?"

"Tom got lost" Luke acussed him as he crushed on the ground.

"I didn't get lost! I couldn't see where we were going!" Tom yelled angrily at him "Someone took away the pieces of fabric I'd tied to the trees!"

"Sure, Tom" Luke said, sounding like he'd heard that many times before.

"You don't believe me?"

"Just say it, dude, it's fine, you got lost!"

"I didn't!" Tom was furious, I'd never ever seen him like that "I've been out camping loads of times and never in my life I got lost! I've never lost track of my trails!"

"Oh, so someone took them, right?" Luke said, kind of mocking him. I don't blame him, this all was very weird, but we all now Tom's not a liar and he's the type of guy who would admit it if he was wrong.

"It could of been an animal, but yes, I believe a person took them. If it'd been just one trail that had gone missed, I would of find the others, but they were all gone" Tom insisted.

"This is it, there's definitely someone out there, this is the prouf!" Jazzie said, her face all red for all the crying.

"Tom, why would someone took your silly trails away?" Luke said.

"How would I know?" he moved his arms in the air, frustrated "Tomorrow morning I'll go into the woods again and show you all the trails are gone!" Tom said.

"No" I said "No one's going in there again"

"I'm with Kate" Dougie said. He sounded so tired.

"What if this happens again?" Mike said "I don't want to sound like a dork, but I really don't want to go through something like this again..."

I wanted to say 'aaaw', but this wasn't the right moment.

Nobody say anything.

"Ok, now I feel like a dork" Mike said "I had sex with Frances the first day we got stuck here"

"Mike!" Frances slapped the back of his head.

"Dude!" Dougie and Tom said at the same time.

"I'm sorry" Mike said "I needed to feel like an asshole again"

"Well, you succeeded!" Fran rolled her eyes.

Dougie and Jazzie sat down, and so did Harry and Tom.

"We'll have to go back if we're still here in a couple of days" Harry said "The water we brough won't last long"

I wanted to yell at him, but I couldn't. He was right. No matter how much I wanted him to be wrong, he was right. Some of us would have to go into the woods again, and quite soon, if nobody drove by.

"What if nobody comes along?" I said.

"We'll walk our way back home" Danny simply said, then stood up "I guess all of us are pretty tired tonight, so the shifts will be shorter, ok? I'll take the first one. Would anyone like to join me?"

Tom sighed "I will, I need a bit of your stupid humor"

Danny raced an eyebrow "Thanks?"

Tom smiled and just stared walking towards the car.

I put my arms around me, I was colder without Dan's arms around me. I wanted to ask Dougie to come and sit by my side, but after all I yelled at him the last we spoke, I don't think he'd want to... I was just so afraid, afraid he wouldn't come back, I didn't want him out of my sight. I know that may sound a little bit controlling, but it's not; would you want the person you are in love with to leave, to go into a forest that he doesn't know, under a situation like this one, knowing that he has no idea of what he's doing? I don't think so, ladies.

Harry and Luke just laid there, they didn't look like they were going to move, not even to go into their tent. Frances rested her head of her boyfriend's shoulder and he kissed her cheek. Those two are on fire, believe me, but one should admit they're pretty sweet when they want to. After all, what's a teenage relationship without a bit of animal instincts?

"I'll go to my tent, ok?" a sleepy Jazzie said in a low voice to Dougie. He just nodded and our eyes met. I looked away quickly, feeling stupid. God, I should say something, like 'hey, sorry for yelling at you like a crazy controlling bitch', but I don't think I've got the guts.

"Hey, aren't you cold?" Dougie said in a sweet voice. I looked up as he knelt in front of me.

"Actually, yes" I said, a bit awkwardly.

He took of his sweeter and I couldn't help looking at his stomach when his shirt followed the movement of his sweeter. I looked away quickly so he wouldn't notice me staring at him.

"Here" he said as he put ir around my shoulders. He sat down and took a deep breath.

"You don't have to stay up for me tonight" I said... Though I was praying he would, otherwise I would have to take this first shift with Danny; I love Danny, but I'm tired of him pushing me to tell Dougie how I feel. We shy people take our time with these kinds of stuff... A lot of time.

"I know you don't really mean that" he said "You don't have to lie to me, you know?"

I looked down as I put my arms around my legs "Yeah, I know... Hey, Doug... I'm sorry about yelling at you earlier. I was just worried about you, you know?"

"You were worried about me? Why?" he looked up with deep interest. I blushed and hesitated.

"I meant all of you" no, I didn't... Well, yes, of course I was worried about the others, what kind would I be otherwise? But... I can't help worrying about him a bit more.

"Oh" he nodded.

Should I have told him the truth? Was this the moment to tell Dougie how I felt about him? But all our friends were right here, just meters away from the two of us, they'd be listening, how freaking embarrasing...

Some kind of bird made a weird sound and it gave me goosebumps. I closed my eyes. Soon I felt Dougie's arm around me.

"Don't worry, I swear I won't let anything harm you" his words seemed to have more passion this time, like he wasn't just trying to comfort me.

"What do you mean?" I said "Do you believe Tom and Jazzie?"

"Of course not, it's crazy"

"You don't have to lie to me, you know?"

"No fair using my words, Kate" he half-smiled, trying to be funny, but he wasn't going to distract me.

"I'm serious. You believe them, don't you? You believe there's someone else out there..."

Dougie didn't asnwer and I could have sworn he didn't realized it when he pushed me slightly closer to him, like an instinct. It made my heartbeat speed up. He was protecting me.

"I just know Tom had a lot of experience with camping..."

"What if it's just that weird dude from the cabin, the policeman?"

"He was no policeman, Kate, wake up. And he's not who Jazzie saw."

"So maybe he's not alone" tears came to my eyes at the thought of someone watching us, the thought of someone trying to hurt us in any kind of way.

He sighed "Listen, maybe it was nothing, maybe Tom got really lost for the first time ever and maybe Jazzie got confused and thought she saw someone, she hasn't been sleeping too well."

I nodded and tried not to sob.

Dougie bit his lip, feeling a bit guilty probably "I'll get you back home safely, I swear it on my life. If there's anyone out there, like that policeman we met" his voice was full of rage at the moment he spoke about him "he's not going to be able to touch a single lock of your hair. If he does, it'll have to be over my dead body"