Authors Note: So, I didn't get as big of a response as what I had hoped for the chapter, but it's still early in the chapters. I hope you all who are still reading and following the story either review, alert or favorite. I'd still LOVE to hear what you think of the story, what you think of the characters and their crazy stories. In this chapter there are definatly some absolute true stories (baby Jesus, the kidney thing, etc.) which I thought were pretty funny. Most of them occurred between me and my friends in one point of another. So I hope you think they are pretty funny as well. Anyways, enjoy and please review :)
- RiP.
VERY IMPORTANT EDIT NOTE: (PLEASE READ!) On my profile I have added pictures of the characters, they aren't perfect because I originally based my characters off of real people so...I can't be perfect but these are all actors that I ended up using in the video (trailer) I ended up making. It's on Youtube and there is also a link to it on my profile. So Make sure to check those out as well. Sorry for the Edit, but I forgot to put that in the original upload!
Playlist:
Silent Eyes by Aiden.
(Preferably the acoustic version.)
Chapter Three – Silent Eyes
Amber POV
After Brie dropped me off at my house I ran up the brick steps without tripping on them—thank god. I turned and waved goodbye to my friends before watching them speed off in the direction of Roxie's house.
I took the key from the ledge above the door on my porch and then headed into the kitchen to find something to drink. I opened the refrigerator door and found a nice, cold Dr. Pepper sitting in the fridge and I opened it and drank it greedily. As I drank my drink I noticed a piece of paper stuck to the refrigerator that I had missed in my rush this morning.
Amber,
Your father and I both have to work late tonight so we won't be back she you off. Make sure that you have everything packed. This is your first camping trip alone so do not blow it. Don't go into the woods alone, don't do anything stupid and please don't let Matt light the fire or anywhere near the matches. We all know what happened last time. Keep Roxie away from the fire too. That poor girl is like a pyroholic. Be good and stay safe. We love you sweetie. We will see you when you get back.
Love you,
Mom and Dad
I spit out my Dr. Pepper when I started reading the line about Roxie being a pyroholic. I mean, I guess it was true—Roxie was sort of a pyromaniac but not to the extreme, she just really liked to set things on fire for entertainment. Roxie never really did get too worked up over the actual fire, it was more of the 'blowing things up for fun' type of thing that she was interested in.
'I really have to tell everyone about this note.' I thought to myself while fighting back a grin.
I read the note over once more and then I jogged upstairs to get ready. I dragged my red and black travel bag from its hiding place underneath my bed and then unzipped it so I could put my stuff inside. I packed five pairs of jeans plus a pair of sweats, just in case. We had learned the hard way always to bring extra clothes. I put in four t-shirts, two long sleeve shirts and my SHS sweatshirt. I threw in an extra pair of tennis shoes, my bathing suit (in case we went swimming in the creek) and a couple of towels. I then added my toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush and all my other toiletry items I would need to have over the next few days.
Once I finished packing all of those things I went over to my CD player and my CD collection. I loved music, it was like a hideaway for me and helped me relax when I was stressed. I had a huge CD rack filled with every type of music you could imagine, everything from hardcore rock to pop, from classical to techno. I even had some rap and country thrown in there somewhere. I probably have something from ever single genre possible.
I took out one of my older CD's from the case and placed the CD in the CD player. Soon the lyrics of 'In Fates Hands' by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus filled the room. I smiled and started to sing the lyrics to the song softly to myself and then went off in search for anything else I would need for the trip.
I knew I had everything I would possibly need for the trip by the time I saw a hunter green 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV pull into the driveway. I practically skipped down the stairs, excited to spend the Fall Break away with my friends on our long awaited camping trip that we have been planning for months. I quickly scribbled a note to my parents telling them that I was leaving, I loved them and I would keep Roxie and Matt away from the fire and told them not to worry. I giggled as I left the house and shut the door behind me before locking it.
We would not be back until Wednesday or early Thursday morning at the latest. The next week was an extended weekend and our school's fall break that lasted Saturday and ran until Wednesday and then we would be back in school by Thursday.
I ran down to the SUV and saw Roxie nearly hanging out the window, waving frantically and telling me to hurry my slow ass up so that we could get going already. I laughed and threw open the SUV's hunter green door and jumped in. Before I even had the door completely closed, Matt was already pulling out of the driveway. I squealed slightly and slammed the door shut as he raced towards the highway and the cut off that led to the woods where we would be camping out.
"So Roxie you will never guess what happened when I got home." I said with a secretive grin as I threw my bag back behind the back seat.
Roxie was instantly intrigued, "What happened?" she asked.
"I found a note from my mom and dad." I announced.
I heard Matt snort for the driver's seat and I kicked the back of it with my foot. He looked up with a jaded expression, "And why is that so exciting, Amber?" he asked.
"Well what did it say?" Roxie asked as she completely ignored Matt's talking.
I watched through the rearview mirror as Matt's rolled his eyes and I laughed softly, "She told me not to let Matt get anywhere near the matches after what happened last time." I said.
Roxie started laughing, "Are you serious?" she managed to ask through her laughter.
Everyone else but Matt was cracking up but I just had to change that but before I got the chance to explain the rest of the note Matt glared at me, "You suck." He said.
I smiled, "I don't care." I replied.
"Actually I would have expected your mom to say something about Roxie and the matches." Brie said.
We all laughed as Roxie glared at her.
"She did, she called Roxie a pyroholic." I said.
Shay smiled, "More like pyromaniac." She said.
"My thoughts exactly." Olivia giggled.
Roxie and Matt were now scowling at all of us like two year olds.
"Oh come on cheer up guys, you know we are just kidding around." Brie mediated.
I watched as Matt and Roxie both shrugged off Brie's comment. I reached across the seat to Roxie and gave her hug, "Aww come on Rox! You know that we love you." I said.
"I'm starting to think otherwise." Roxie quipped. "Kidding!" she said when I glared at her.
I guess I should explain a few things, every year me and my friends go on our annual camping trip. We pack up camping supplies and hang out the whole week end, explore and have a real kick ass time while we are there. We have had so many fun times while camping—from Matt's extreme fear of squirrels, Brie's horrible poison ivy problem, to the little incident between me and Roxie when I told her that if you poked someone hard enough in the kidney you would automatically pee. Matt thought it would be funny to jab me in the side and I scared the crap out of Roxie by screaming I peed myself and she believed me. The funny thing was that I had been jokingly sitting on her lap at the time, and she literally threw me off her lap and started rubbing on her jeans in a frantic matter. I had to stop myself from going into hysterics over that memory; it defiantly was something I would never forget. We always have such a good time. I just know that this year is going to be great.
This was the first year our parents were letting us go without supervision, normally Lester Harper, a good friend of ours and of our families, would come with us but this year all of our parents had agreed to let us go on our own. I was going to make damn sure that we would not screw this up. I wasn't about to let that happen.
"So, what do we want to do first?" Olivia asked from the passenger's seat.
Matt was driving of course, Olivia sat shot gun while Shay, Roxie, Brie and I were squeezed into the middle seat with all of our camping stuff was thrown in the back.
"We should probably set up camp first—let's just not let Matty touch the tents this time; we don't need a disaster like last time." Brie jibed.
Matt frowned into the rearview mirror too look back at the four of us who were trying to hold back our laughter, "Thanks for the support Brie." He said.
"Let's stick with him going to get firewood for the fire in the woods." Shay suggested. "Who wants to go with him?" she asked.
"I will." I volunteered. "We all know that I'm pretty much just as bad as setting up tents as Matt is."
"Okay, as soon as we get everything unloaded for the SUV you and I can go into the woods and then we can try and set up a fire." Matt said.
"Matt hun, sorry but you are staying far, far away from those matches. I will light the fire. We'll all be safer that way and we won't be endangering any of those cute little forest animals that want to run away when they see you because they know how horrible you are at lighting fires." I said, my voice heavy with sarcasm but quickly, I tried to become more serious. "And while are we getting firewood, Brie, Olivia, Shay and Roxie can set up the tents."
Olivia nodded and then turned in her seat to face me, "It's going to be the same set up as usual—you, Shay and Roxie in one tent, Brie and I in the second and then since Lester isn't here with us, Matty gets his own this year." Olivia said.
Shay started giggling next to me, "Don't you all find it odd that Matty is the only guy that hangs out with us?" she turned to Matt who was frowning, "I mean you are the only guy out of the six of us. Are you gay or something?" she teased.
Matt scowled, "I'm NOT gay." He said firmly. "I honestly have no idea why I am always hanging out with you crazy girls but I have a feeling that if I would refuse to do something that you guys want me to do you would just force me to come wherever you guys are trying to get me to go to in the first place, so why waste time and energy putting up a fight when I know I will just loose the battle anyways." He reasoned.
Olivia laughed, "Wow, he catches on fast." She said.
We all laughed and then continued to discuss what we were going to do on the rest of our trip and what else we had to do once we got to our destination.
About twenty minutes later we pulled into a familiar looking grassy area close to the woods where we always made our campsite. It was far enough from civilization that we wouldn't have any intruders coming up upon us but was still close enough that we could get somewhere quickly by car if we really needed to.
After unloading all of the stuff from the SUV Olivia, Brie, Roxie and Shay went to work putting up the tents while Matt and I headed towards the woods to get firewood.
The forest that we were staying in was quite large, it was a little overgrown but we had trails that ran through the forest. When we weren't actually camping up here on our trips we would ride our four-wheelers up here. We had made plenty of four-wheeler trails up through the woods here and rode on them often enough that they never really overgrew too much. We wouldn't just limit ourselves to just the six of us coming out here either. Roxie, Shay and I had taken Bentley, Ethan and Xander out here plenty of times and ridden their four wheelers as well, although when we went on camping trips it was an unwritten rule that it was just Olivia, Matt, Brie, Shay, Roxie and I who went. No exceptions, aside from chaperones like Lester.
As we walked in a comfortable silence, I took in the forest around me like I always did when we were out here. The trees were extremely large. Some of their trunks were wider than me and Matt standing side by side. It was several degrees cooler than what it was in the sunny and grassy space where we always made our camp than out here in the woods. I loved being in the woods but I never stayed in here too long, I always had the creepy feeling of being watched. It kind of freaked me out too.
'I wonder if Matt ever had that creepy feeling as well," I mused.
"Hey Matty?" I asked.
I heard a grunt of response and turned my head in the direction of where he was currently bent over while picking up a large log, "Yeah?" he asked.
"Do you ever get this weird feeling like you are being watched when we are in the woods?" I asked him in a hushed tone.
Matt turned to me, "Not really, why?" he asked, curiously concerned.
I quickly covered my emotions and put on an expressionless mask, "No reason, just wondering." I lied.
He shrugged and we both went back to looking for wood but the uneasy feeling of being watched would not leave the pit of my stomach. It just wouldn't go away. I was being paranoid, that was it was. Suddenly I heard a tree branch snap and I instantly stiffened, 'What the hell was that? That sounded like it was further off in the woods than Matty and I normally go, it wasn't anywhere near the four wheelers paths. I know for a fact that there are not many wild animals out here in this part of the forest so what could it be. I need to relax, I'm just hearing things. That's all. I'm hearing things because I'm scared.' I thought to myself frantically.
"Hey Merce?" Matt asked me with a slight tease in his voice. I almost jumped out of my skin at the sound of his voice. I hadn't noticed him walking up to me.
"Yeah?" I asked him.
He frowned at me, "Are you okay?" he asked. He probably saw me stiffen earlier.
"Yeah I'm fine I just thought that I heard something out there." I said as I motioned to the deeper part of the woods where it was a lot darker than where we were standing on the four wheeler path.
"Relax. It was probably just your imagination. Nothing is going to bite you Merce, I promise." He told me with a smirk and a chuckle.
I laughed uneasily, "Yeah your right." I said and tried to calm myself down but I just couldn't shake off that stupid eerie feeling away from the pit off my stomach.
I scanned the forest with my eyes and I thought I saw something moving around in the shadows but I wasn't exactly sure of myself. But that was when I saw it, something blurring through the trees at a super fast speed—almost hyper speed and as soon as I blinked it was completely gone.
"I'm seeing and hearing things because I'm scared, that's all." I said quietly to myself. "There is nothing to be afraid of out here. Nothing is going to hurt me."
We continued our work in a tense silence but I found that I was being extremely aware of my surroundings and I would just tense up at the slightest sounds. I tried to keep myself busy by singing to myself which Matt obviously found pretty amusing but I knew he was freaked out too. I secretly wondered if he saw it too.
"You sit there in your heartache,
Waiting on some beautiful boy to,
To save you from your old ways,
You play forgiveness,
Watch it now, Here he comes,
He doesn't look a thing like Jesus,
But he talks like a gentleman,
Like you imagined,
When you were young,
Can we climb this mountain,
I don't know,
Higher now than ever before,
I know we can make it if we take it slow,
Let's take it easy, Easy now, Watch it go,
We're burning down the highway skyline,
On the back of a hurricane,
That started turning,
When you were young,
When you were young." I sang softly. I loved that song; it was called 'When You Were Young' by The Killers.
"Nice." Matt said suddenly.
I looked up at him in confusion, "What are you talking about?"
"You're singing. You have a habit of singing to yourself when you are nervous, scared or bored and right now I think I'm starting to lean towards the first two." Matt answered.
I sighed, "I'm not so sure about the nervous part, but I am a little freaked out about being in the woods." I said truthfully.
"Why? You have never had a problem with being out here in the woods before." Matt questioned me.
"I know that, Matt but something is different this time. I can feel it." I told him after I thought for a while.
I resumed my singing after we stopped speaking and I found myself getting lost in the lyrics and melody of the song I was singing. Slowly I was starting to forget about the uneasy feeling in my stomach although it was still present. It was a weird sensation of being watched and I knew it wasn't Matt and that was what was scaring me.
It was getting darker and colder by the second and I could tell that even Matt, who had at first be totally at ease, was starting to tense up at the slightest sounds. I couldn't ignore the fact that the forest was entirely too quiet—eerily too quiet. Except for the sounds of Matt's breathing and my soft singing the rest of the forest was in a deadly silence.
My head snapped up when I heard a humming sound. I immediately looked over at Matt to see if he was humming but he wasn't. He was looking in the direction of the deeper part of the forest again. I saw a dark shadow but as soon as I tried to focus on it—it was just gone. That's when I saw it again, the same blurring movement from before. Something was there and it was watching them. I knew I needed to get out of the woods immediately, if I didn't I was probably going to have a panic attack. What could possibly be going it, it was moving so fast you could hardly see it. No human or animal possessed that quality. I had never really believed in the supernatural but I knew that nothing that was exactly normal could be doing that. It was way to large to be any type of bird and even bears, wolves and coyotes weren't that big or could move that fast. No it was something else.
My thoughts were running absolutely wild as I turned to Matt with wide eyes, "Matt I think we have enough wood for now. Let's head back." I told him with a shaky voice. I heard another tree branch snap and I jumped, "Matthew Joe Perkins, so help me god if you disagree with me right now—" I trailed off.
Matt agreed without a fight which wasn't something that happened often. "Let's go." He said quickly and from the sound of his voice I immediately knew that he had saw whatever had been in the woods too.
'What on earth could that possibly have been?!' I thought to myself. 'What is able to move so fast that you can't even see it? What could possibly be out there watching us?'
"Amber, like I said earlier, nothing is going to bite you." Matt said although his voice didn't hold the same convincingness as it did previously had.
It was almost as if I was on hyper alert the very next moment. A small chuckling sound carried to my ears and a ghostly whispered said, "That's what you think……."
My eyes flew to Matt who was staring back at me and I knew that it wasn't him who had laughed or spoken.
"Was that you?" he asked in a hushed tone.
I shook my head, "No." I said softly.
"Let's get out of here." Matt said quickly before leaving as quickly as humanly possible.
I took a stupid chance and looked back into the woods. In the shadows I saw something that scared me to my very core. In the shadows I saw glowing red eyes and a pair of shining white teeth but as soon as I blinked they had disappeared.
I let out a small squeak before thinking, 'I'm just seeing things, I'm just seeing things, I'm just seeing things…" over and over and over again in my head but somewhere deep down in the pit of my stomach I knew that I wasn't insane. I wasn't just seeing those things in the woods. There was something out there watching us. And whatever it was wasn't very friendly.
So that's Chapter Three! Any thoughts my dear readers? Just click "Send a Review" at the bottom of the page (It's now a Green and White button I think) to send me your thoughts :)
