The police were called to the woods, four bodies were found, ripped apart, organs spilling out from their stomachs. And oddly enough, all were female. The police suspected an animal, that was until they found a little girl, stripped of her skin, hanging from a low branch. Five women in total, killed in one day. The next year, seventeen women were found, dead. And just as last year, they were found ripped apart, organs and blood everywhere, it had appeared to the police officers that there was a serial killer. Every once and awhile, there would be an especially gory scene, that would make anyones stomach churn.

“And that’s how the story goes.” Matt said in a deep and menacing voice. “Cut it out Matty! You’re scaring me!” Evelyn squeaked, Matt started laughing, and so did all the other guys in the car. “Hey Matt come on, cut it out… like she said, you’re gonna scare the girls that came. You know it’s a true story, just stop talking about it!” Scott said angrily, as his girlfriend Evelyn held on to his arm, as if she were as good as dead. “Evelyn, it’s okay. These guys are just playing around, we are gonna have so much fun camping here.” Evelyn looked up at Scott and nodded. “So what happens to the guys that enter the forest?” Aaron asked.Matt shrugged, and said, “Dunno, they disappear… Riley! Keep your eyes on the road before you hit something!” Riley, who was texting calmly replied, “I’m not gonna hit anything, calm down.” Matt snatched the phone out of her hand, and held it out the window. “I will literally kill you, if you don’t give my phone back.” Riley glared. Matt laughed and said, “Then stop texting and driving.” Riley sighed, and said, “Fine… now, my phone please.” Matt handed her phone back to her and laid back a little. “Hey Scott, the rest should be at the campsite right?” Aaron asked, and Scott replied, “Yeah, thats what they said.” Aaron nodded and looked out the window, but Alex right behind him, smacked him playfully, making Aaron angry “Gotcha back bro! Ah, brotherly love at it’s finest.” Alex sighed, then laughed. “It’s all redwood trees right? Like those gigantic ones?” Riley asked, and Matt replied, “Yup, redwood trees are gigantic, one of the biggest tre-” Matt was then cut off when Scott said, “All right tree expert Mattress, let’s just have fun and forget about the whole expert tree knowledge thing.” The guys in the car started snickering “I thought you all were gonna stop saying Mattress, we went to that store once!” The snickering then evolved into laughter.

After a while of driving, the group finally got to the forest, and drove through the small path, leading to the campground they would be staying at. “Scott come on dude help me get everything out of the car.” Matt said as he got out of the car. Scott sighed and hopped out of the car, hoping the work would be easy. Scott went to the back of the car, and saw Matt carrying a large tent. “Scott, me and Riley are gonna find the others, you just help the guys… okay?” Scott smiled and said, “Okay… but if something actually is… nevermind.” Evelyn giggled and said “Okay, we’ll be back.”. She then walked with Riley deeper into the woods to find the rest of their friends. Scott stopped dozing off and grabbed  the “guy's” tent, it must’ve been a large tent, as it was quite weighty. Scott then walked right across from the tent Matt was setting up for the girls.

“Scott! What in the world are you wearing!?” Aaron asked from behind Scott in a dumbfounded voice. Scott casually turned around and saw that Aaron was holding his helmet. “It’s biking gear, duh… we brought the bikes for a reason, I thought we would ride our bikes today, but it seems like .” Scott replied, and when he did Aaron looked at the bikes which were strapped onto the top of the car very carefully. “Oh… that’s what this helmet is for then huh… why is it a motorcycle helmet? All tinted and stuff.” the helmet was a bit more compact and small, making it almost like another skull, with a chrome visor, which wasn’t really chrome, it just looked it. Scott laughed and said, “What’s the word… ah, it’s Mahefilump.” Aaron got all confused and asked, “What does that mean?” Both Scott and Matt started laughing. “What? I’m serious, what does that mean?” Aaron asked confused but Alex walked up and said, “It’s an inside joke, you wouldn’t get it.” Aaron sighed and got back to setting the camp up.

After about an hour, the camp was set up, and ready to be used. “Hey Scotty!” Someone said directly behind Scott, making him jump. Scott turned around, and saw his sister, Isabelle along with the rest of the camping group, Jared, Zoe, And Lily and of course the returning Evelyn, and Riley. “You scared me sis… don’t do that please.” Scott sighed, and of course, his sister laughed, and made a snide remark, “You’re such a pansy, grow up.” Scott got angered by this and said, “Just because you’re older than me doesn’t mean anything, shut your mouth.” Matt interrupted them and said, “Hey! Let’s get situated, girls sleep in that tent, guys sleep in that tent, thanks to mwah, and my profitable wallet.” Lily laughed and said, “Thanks to your mom’s wallet.” Matt sighed and waved them off to do their own thing. Scott, walked away from his sister, and went to Evelyn, to show her, where she would be sleeping.

Scott showed her the girls tent and said, “Here’s where you girls are staying, and if you need anything from me, or any other dude in the night, we are right over there.” Scott then pointed to the tent right across from theirs. “Hey you love birds! We’re going to start the fire, it’s getting dark.” Jared said as he carried leaves and twigs towards a circle of rocks. Scott looked around, and couldn’t believe it was already dusk, and getting dark, so he told Evelyn, “Hey, go sit next to the fire, I’m gonna go and get some sticks and stuff for the fire.” Evelyn nodded and walked over to where the now lit fire was, and Scott started walking out into the darkening forest.

After a while of walking and picking up sticks, it was almost pitch black, and it was very difficult to see. Scott, hearing only the chirping of crickets, the crunch of leaves, and the occasional firefly’s that seemed to be guiding him somewhere, made him a bit worried. He should have stumbled upon the camp by now, but he didn’t, there was no one and nothing but wilderness around him. He started to think of worse case scenarios, and they were terrible. But he calmed himself down, and stopped thinking about it, and started thinking about the fun that the group was going to have tomorrow.

It felt like hours had gone by to Scott, as he wandered the forest, alone, and afraid, as the rumors about this forest, weren’t pleasant, and most knew them. Scott stopped walking, and thunk, trying to find a solution to this problem, but his thoughts were interrupted as the sound of chirping crickets, abruptly stopped. A cold sweat ran down Scott’s face, but nothing happened. He was stood there, waiting, but nothing happened. But something made him get out of fears grasp, a single cricket started chirping, it was distinct, a high pitched chirp, right behind him. Scott turned around, and of course saw nothing in the pitch black darkness. He then turned back around, and started walking again, but then he bumped into something. He put his hand out, afraid he might feel cloth, skin, anything resembling a human. The rumors about this forest were real, and he didn’t want to see it first hand. But when he felt something, it was bark, a tree.

He sighed, then ran his hands around the tree, it was massive, but of course, being in a redwood forest, what tree isn’t massive. He started making his way around the tree and was beheld with a sight that made him happy, the campfire. He ran towards it, jumping over fallen branches, and trying not to trip over any roots that emerged from the ground. But before Scott could get even close to the campfire, he heard a scream, it sounded like an actress in a horror movie giving it her best shot, and it made Scott jump, frightened of who that might have been, and the scary part was, he had just come from that direction. He looked to the dark forest for a few moments, and saw something he had never wished to see, movement, but it was too dark to tell if it was an animal, or a human, he could hear the crunching of leaves, and a shadowy figure, barely illuminated by the campfire’s light. Scott started backing away, and snapped a twig under his foot, and this made the shadowy figure stop dead in it’s tracks, making Scott do the same. After mere moments of standing there he heard, “Scott! Is that you!?” it was Matt.

Scott turned around and started jogging towards him and said, “We need to leave now!” Matt nodded and said, “We heard the scream from here, and I don’t think anyone feels like scooby doo right now.” Scott angrily replied, “Now’s not the time to make some stupid jokes Matt! Start the car now, I’m sure we can all fit in the car, leave the tents, and we should have enough room.”  Scott finally got to Matt, and they jogged back to the camp. Matt immediately went to the car and tried to start it. Scott knew something was wrong when he heard the engine repeatedly try and start, but the ignition didn’t go. “Start! Please start!” Matt yelled, obviously in fear for his life, and everyone else's. Who would have known things would have went this bad at the first night?

At this point everyone was freaking out, but Scott was oddly a bit more calm than the others. “Alright everyone… we need a plan!” Scott said making sure everyone could hear him. “The car won’t start… and there was a scream in the forest… we need to protect the girls if these rumors really are true… but we also need to find the car that my sister and the others came in, my bike has a light on it, and it’s way faster than walking or running… I-I’ll go look for the car, you all stay here.” Scott walked to the car, and started unwrapping his bike from the top of the car. When he pulled it off, his girlfriend ran up to him and said, “Don’t go! Scott what if someone really is out there?” Scott smiled and said, “I’ll be fine Evelyn, I promise.” Scott then grabbed his helmet, and put it on, lifting the glass visor so he could actually see somewhat.

Scott tightened his gloves, and got on his bike, quickly switching the light in the front of his bike on. “Wait Scott! You need the keys to the car!” Riley yelled, trying to make sure Scott could hear her. Scott looked over to her, and held his hand out. Riley then put the keys into his hand and said, “Good luck.” Scott nodded, put the key in his pocket, and started to ride through the bike trail. It was quiet, no crickets, no fireflies, only the sound of his bikes tires grinding against the dirt, snapping a few twigs here and there, and after a while he could have sworn he started to see shadows hiding behind the trees. But from out of nowhere, he was thrown off his bike, crashing into the brush, and dirt. The breath was knocked out of him, and he couldn’t breath. After trying to catch his breath, he got up, and started walking towards the road again, clutching his hurt arm, and thankfully nothing was broken, nor cut, but he was sure he was going to have some bruises. “Ow, what did I hit?” Scott asked himself, while looking around, but he saw nothing blocking the path, and it was too dark to see anything else. He walked over to the dim light coming from his bike, and pulled the little hand light from the bike, and investigated what he could have hit.

He looked around, and saw something red, and immediately he knew what it was. He pointed the flashlight to his legs and body, but saw nothing. He even inspected his arms, but there was nothing. He then looked around with the flashlight, and saw something running towards him, it was a man, and upon further inspection, it was a police officer. “You need to run! Now!” the officer yelled at Scott. “What! You need to help me and my friends!” The officer was holding something, it looked like a gun of some sort, a rifle. “Hey what are you doing with that!?” Scott asked shocked, as the officer finally got to him. “You need to run no-” the officer was cut off, and a gunshot was heard, and blood splattered Scott’s clothes, and getting a little in his eyes, as it was the only thing that it was able to reach from the protection of his helmet, unfortunately, his visor was up. Scott yelled, and fell back, crawling away from the officer, who was dying a slow painful death from a neck shot. Gargling could be heard as the officer choked on his blood, making Scott gag a little.

“Oh my god!” Scott yelled as he looked away from the officer, who was now lying limp on the ground, and the ground surrounding him, painted with his blood. Scott could hear the crunching of leaves from afar, and started crawling away from the officer, and hiding in the brush on the side of the path. He covered himself with leaves, and twigs, hoping whoever was out there wouldn’t see him. The suspense was killing him, he felt like he was waiting for his death. But after a while of waiting, the crunching of leaves started moving away from Scott, relieving him of the fear he felt a few minutes ago. Scott got up, and wiped the leaves off of him, one of the leaves sticking because of the blood on his jacket. Scott ran to the officer, and started shaking him, trying to see if he was still alive, but alas, he was not. Scott started freaking out, the man was dead, the one man that was going to save him and his friends, gone.

Scott knew he couldn’t do anything, and decided to take the officer's gun, he didn’t quite know how to operate it, but he had played enough games to know how to shoot and reload it, that is, if the officer had any ammunition on him. Scott grabbed the rifle, but when he tried to take it, he noticed the officer had a firm grip on it. Scott got a little closer to the officer, and started prying his fingers off the rifle, but when he had finished prying the officer’s fingers off, the officer grabbed Scott’s wrist screaming, “Don't let them take me! They’ll eat me alive! The forest mercies no one!” Scott jumped, and struggled to get out of the man’s grip, and finally Scott kicked the officer, making him let go of Scott’s hand. The officer then screamed again, “I’ll kill you! The darkness will find you… make you kill everyone in your sight… just as it did me! I thought you would be an easy kill, but you were just another one of those! One of those that are grasped by the dark, like me!” Scott didn’t understand what the officer meant, but he knew one thing, that he was going to leave these woods, and he was going to survive, along with all of his friends.

Scott started running back to his bike, but at this moment, he looked around, he could see in the dark now. It was odd, he wasn’t able to see when he was in the dark before, how could he see now? Scott ignored this strange fact, and started walking away from his bike, following the trail that should lead him to the car. During the walk, Scott pulled his visor down, it being tinted, he didn’t think he was going to be able to see through it, but he could, it was actually very clear. He continued knowing this, and carried on with courage, knowing his head and eyes were protected in the dark. The wind slowly started to howl, making the walking all the more ominous. Scott noticed that he was looking around a lot, trying to see if there was someone out there with him.

Scott knew he was messing with his own head, but he couldn’t help but wonder, if the shadows he saw were a figment of his imagination, or if he was actually seeing shadows. But one of the most agonizing “pain” was that he didn’t know what the officer meant by the darkness. He was terrified, looking around each and every moment he felt he was being watched. Suddenly he heard a loud crash in the leaves, and frantically looked around, trying to see what made the sound. When Scott turned around his eyes were locked on a pure albino, thing. Scott looked at it’s face, and immediately regretted it, as it’s face was cut, and gashed, flesh missing from parts of it’s face. It’s lips seemed to be removed, and it showed gruesome, and disturbing teeth, bloodied, and it’s eyelids removed as well, leaving beady eyes looking directly at Scott, slightly bleeding, making it look as if it was crying blood. Both Scott and the thing were stuck in place, looking directly at each other.

“Kill them… kill them, and your home… your family… will be saved from me…” The thing muttered, leaving Scott in a state of shock, he was trembling now, trying not to pass out. “K-Kill who?” Scott asked, and the thing pointed back towards the camp Scott was in with his friends. “No! I couldn’t do that! Never!” Scott yelled at it with all of his might, and courage. “If you don’t, your family, and you, die tonight…”  Scott aimed the rifle at the creature, but before he could pull the trigger, the creature said, “I’m Evelyn… Scott… I’m sorry… I don’t look the same, and I know it… the other things… they took me and the other girls… kill the boys… and I will be freed, along with your family, just think about your sister Scott.” Scott then started to cry and said, “F-Fine… I’ll do it.” the creature then ran off into the woods, leaving Scott by himself, afraid.

Scott stopped crying, and started walking back to the camp, readying his rifle, he had to do this, if he didn’t, his girlfriend, and his sister would stay like that creature, along with the other girls  in the camp. After a while of walking, he saw the campfire, and whispering could be heard, saying, “Kill them! Free them! Kill them!” the whispers were like chantings, making Scott angry almost, making him want to end it. Scott walked into the camp, and was seen by all of the guys that came. “Dude you’re covered in blood! What happened!? And why do you have a… oh my god Scott, what did you do!” Matt yelled, they have now seen his rifle, and Scott knew it, he had his finger on the trigger, ready to fire, ready to kill. Scott pulled the rifle up and opened fire upon them, shooting his friends. Blood splattered the gravel, and the girls tent. Scott then heard girls screaming from inside the girls tent, it was the girls, and in that group of screaming was Evelyn.

Scott walked over to the tent and opened it, saying, “It’s alright! I saved you all, the guys were going to kill you!” Evelyn was crying in the corner, and screamed at Scott, “What are you doing Scott! What’s wrong with you!” Scott smiled, and took his helmet off, revealing a bloodied face. “You are all safe now, I made sure that thing couldn’t kill you… by killing the guys, I made sure that they couldn’t take you away, see look, this thing.” Scott moved out of the way and pointed at the creature that had told him to kill all of the guys in the camp. “Scott there’s nothing there! Why! Why are you doing this!?” Riley screamed. Scott then said, “It’s right there! What do you mean!? It’s right there!” Scott said raising his rifle at her. “Scott don’t kill me please! I’m begging you, please!” Scott then pulled the trigger, and said, “There’s nothing in the clip… I wouldn’t kill you all, after all, my girlfriend is in this tent… and I saved you, why would I ruin my hard work and kill you?” Scott smiled. The creature then walked up to Scott, and entered the tent, and sat next to Evelyn, and said, “Kill them… kill them all, you know you want to, so grab the knife on that picnic table, and gut them… you know you want to.” Scott replied, “I can’t… why would I?” Evelyn looked at him and asked, “What are you talking about Scott? Who are you even talking to!?” Scott laughed.

“I’m talking to you.” Scott said, looking directly at the thing. “Kill them! Kill them!” The creature started shouting this at Scott, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle this much longer. “But I-” Scott was interrupted by a gunshot, and he dropped down low, and immediately looked outside the tent, the creature then started yelling at Scott, “Destroy the fire, destroy it!” Scott quickly ran outside and started stomping the fire, crushing the embers and the light. He didn’t know why it wanted him to destroy the fire, but he was pleased to do so. Scott then quickly ran back into the tent and said, “Alright, I have a plan to get us out of here.” Evelyn screamed back at Scott, “I’m not going anywhere with you, you sicko!” Scott gripped the knife tighter and tighter as the other girls agreed. “Shut your mouths! All of you are going to listen to me… I killed them to save you all, and one day you will see that, but right now, you have to understand my view.” Scott then picked up his helmet, and put it back on. “If you don’t come with me, you die, and that’s it… I’ll kill you just to make sure you aren’t killed by someone you don’t know.” Isabelle hadn’t said a thing as she was curled up in the corner whispering to herself, “This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening.” Scott then said to Isabelle, “Look away sis… they just won’t listen to me, so I’m gonna have to put them out.” Isabelle nodded and Scott started walking towards Riley and Evelyn, but then he stopped and wondered where the other girls were. He quickly pushed that thought aside as they would probably try and run from him and continued walking towards them.

Screams could be heard within the tent as Scott murdered both Riley, and his own girlfriend Evelyn. He then proceeded to drag their bloodied bodies out of the tent, leaving the knife in the tent, and dug two shallow holes near a large tree, and buried both of them, digging the holes with his bare hands. When Scott got back to the tent, he found his sister Isabelle standing, knife in hand, whispering, “I’ll kill you Scott, I’m sorry, but I want to see mom again… and dad…” Scott then started laughing and said, “We will see mom and dad again, just wait until we get home, and you can say hello, and I love you as much as you want… I hope you know why I killed them, because they wouldn’t listen. Come on sis, I’m only trying to help you… can’t you see? Just put the knife down, and we can talk about this.” Scott’s sister then charged Scott, but Scott moved out of the way, and once he did, his sister ran into the wall of the tent, ripping into the fabric, making her fall through the tent. Scott started laughing maniacally as he walked out of the tent saying, “I thought this was going to be a fun trip… I guess I was right.” Scott quickly ran over to Isabelle and grabbed her by her long blond hair, and yanked on it, making her scream in pain. Scott then grabbed the knife that Isabelle was holding, and said whilst slicing her throat, “You should have listened to me Isabelle, we were gonna go home and be one big happy family!” Scott started laughing at that last part.

Scott started to laugh, but right as he stopped laughing, he felt a sharp pain in his neck, making him feel a bit sleepy. He couldn’t help but start to shut his eyes and as he started shutting his eyes, the creature walked right up to Scott and put their pointer finger up to their mouth as if shushing him to sleep. Scott then shut his eyes fully. When he opened them it was a bit blurry, and pure white. Scott started blinking the blurriness away, and once it was gone, he could that he was in a padded room, completely covered in what seemed to be cushions. Scott found himself on the floor and he needed to get up, but when he tried to, he couldn’t move his arms. He looked down and saw that he was in a straight jacket, unable to move his entire upper half other than his neck. He started trying to use his legs to get up, and thankfully, he was able to get up, partially using the padded wall he was laid next to. Once he was up, what seemed to be a door opened to his left, and a man walked in saying, “Scott you have visitors.” Scott nodded, and walked over to the man. When Scott walked over to the man, he grabbed the back of Scott’s straight jacket and said, “Just follow the direction I’m pushing, it won’t be hard, you are almost able to leave this place okay?” Scott nodded again, and started walking where the guy wanted Scott to walk, and soon enough they were in a separate area where a girl and what seemed to be her family were waiting for Scott.

Once they were right in front of the family, the man put a chair behind Scott, and mde Scott sit down. The girl in front of him, put her hands to her face and started to cry. “Do you remember me Scott?”
The girl asked. And Scott quickly and emotionlessly said, “No.” the girl started to sniffle and replied, “I’m your girlfriend Scott… I’m Evelyn…” Scott’s eyes widened as he said, “You? I didn’t think you were actually real… whoops, then I guess I do know you right?” Evelyn started getting a bit happier and Scott could tell. “So you remember what you did at the camping trip right?” Evelyn asked, but Scott didn’t quite understand. “I killed everyone right? I wanted to save the girls, I wanted to save you… from the creature with the scary face.” Evelyn’s happy face immediately turned into a sad one again. “No Scott, you… hurt me, and they tried you in court… they found you insane… remember?” Scott tried to remember, but he really couldn’t, but he could remember her. “I’m sorry, I don’t… but I do remember that one time you got ice cream on your nose, then I kissed your nose, and got the ice cream off.” Evelyn looked back at what Scott supposed were her parents. She then looked back at Scott and asked, “Do you remember how we met?” Scott took a second to remember and replied, “I bought you a soda right? Or wait was it the other way around?” Evelyn smiled and said, “No, no, you were right Scott! I can’t believe it!” Scott didn’t quite understand why she was getting so excited over this.

“Do you think he’ll ever get out Ericka?” The older looking man said to what Scott thought was the wife. “Oh, about that, he’s supposed to get out tonight…  but they have to sign his papers, and they might not do that.” Evelyn smiled, and hugged Scott saying, “You’re gonna get out of here Scott… we can be together again…” Scott smiled as well and asked, “Was that whole thing a dream then?” Evelyn stopped hugging Scott and asked, “What was?” Scott sighed and said, “Nevermind… it was just a dream… a dream I don’t really like… Uh by the way why can’t I really remember anything else of this place?” the man that brought him here then said, “We had you put on some medicine that made you really relaxed, so you didn’t do much except sleep and sometimes talk to us.” Scott nodded and stood up as he was assuming he had to go somewhere else. “Alrighty Scott, we are gonna go get your release papers… just give us a moment, and we’ll be right back miss.” the man grabbed the back of Scott’s straight jacket and started pulling him around the long hallways and such, leading him to a room that was like an office. He told Scott to stay right there, and Scott did as he was told. And after a while of waiting, the man came back, and started taking the straight jacket off of Scott. When the straight jacket was off, the man handed Scott some papers and said, “You are free to go, you know the way back to the room the Watsons were in right?” Scott nodded and smiled.

Scott started walking down the hallways, and finally after a while of walking, he seemed a bit lost. Scott started trying to look at the papers he was given, and he was shocked to see that it said, “You will die, and the darkness with consume you.” after reading this Scott immediately dropped the papers and looked up, only to see the lights at the end of the very long corridor were shutting off, light set after light set. Scott turned around and started running, and as he looked up again, he immediately stopped. His heart dropped and his mind began racing with terrible thoughts. He saw the exact same creature from the forest. “No! No! You aren’t real! I know you aren’t!” Scott yelled at the figure backing up, closer to the darkness. The creature then started walking closer to Scott, smiling as it knew he had nowhere to go. Scott couldn’t do anything as when he turned around there were no lights left, and when he looked back to try and see the creature, all of the lights in that area had shut off as well. He couldn’t see anything, but out of nowhere, he could hear the patter of footsteps rapidly coming towards him. Scott started running in the other direction, but ran directly into something. He put his hand out, and felt skin, rough, scarred skin. Scott then heard screaming, making him scared out of his mind.

Scott then jolted up yelling, and after he was done yelling, he quickly looked around, he was in his bedroom, and his alarm clock was going off It sounding a bit like the screams in the dream. It was 8:05 and he was late for school as he almost always was. He grabbed his phone on the side of his blanket, and checked his texts. He had received a text from Evelyn saying, “I love you Scott.” Scott smiled and quickly glanced out his window revealing a beautiful garden his mother had tended. Scott thought of a reply and then typed, “I love you too, and you will not believe the dreams I just had.”