Short Story 1 – Cammy's Site

Short Story Step 1

“Camping? Really? You think that’s what’s going to save our marriage?” Jen says to the couples therapist. Ryan looks at Jen annoyed, going “Honey cmon I love camping maybe this’ll be good for the both of us.” After bickering for the rest of the meeting they finally agree to go camping. That Friday they met up to do a weekend trip to the mountains. Ryan takes a list out of his pocket and starts reading it aloud. “Tent, check, sleeping bags, check, pillows, check, headlamps and flashlights, check, coolers, check, clothes, check, fishing rods….where are those, hon-” Jen interrupts, “Ryan! I have the rods, I think we have all that we need, can we just get going already?” The two hop in the car not knowing the long journey they’re about to take.

Not even 10 minutes into the drive the two start to fight again. “Slow down! You’re going to get us pulled over and I’m for sure not paying for the ticket.” Jen angrily announces. Ryan snaps back “Yeah says the one who has gotten pulled over, over 5 times in the past 3 years.” The two argue for the whole drive until they hit the camping site 3 hours later. “This is the most sketchy campsite I’ve ever seen, it’s a ghost town.” says Jen. “Well this is the campsite our therapist recommended so here we are! Let’s just go find a good spot to set up camp.” Ryan shouts and starts walking off. Jen quickly follows closely behind with concern of where this trail will lead. The deeper they go into the woods the darker it gets and the more paranoid Jen starts to feel.

After two hours of hiking through the woods Ryan comes to a stop. “Yep this is the perfect spot to set up camp, we have the trees, the spacious area, and this small lake with a breathtaking view of the mountains.” He then drops all his bags and gets to setting up. Jen, still paranoid, stands there in discomfort. “Ryan this place gives odd vibes, we haven’t seen a single person on the trails or in the area since we got here. What if we need help or-” Ryan snaps at her “Jen! Can you please just stop with the negativity and try and make this trip a little less miserable for the both of us.” Quietly they both continue to unpack and set up camp.

The temperature has dropped 10 degrees since the sun has started to descend from the sky and the moon is starting to appear. With everything all set up Jen suggests to Ryan that they should start a fire before dark hits. With both agreeing they work together to build a small fireplace and gather wood and dry leaves. This is the first task they have taken on working together without an argument. Since they’ve started to build a fire the temperature has dropped another 10 degrees leaving the temperature at 40 degrees not including the wind chills.

Sitting in front of the fire across from one another they sit in silence with only the sound of the wood popping and crackling in the burning fire pit. “ I didn’t know it could get this cold in mid August, if the temperature drops anymore it could snow.” Jen says jokingly. Ryan looks down and gives a little smile and goes, “You know what people do to survive in the cold? Snuggle up and use each other as body warmth.” Jen gives a small giggle “Nice try Ryan, very funny.” The fire starts to fade some so Jen offers to go get more dry leaves and wood while Ryan tries to rekindle the flames. With a flashlight Jen slowly walks through the trees searching for sticks and leaves. Turning around the fire is distant and just a small gleam of light flickering in and out. She bends over to collect some leaves when she suddenly gets the uncomfortable feeling again as if the trees are watching her every move. She’s frozen, too scared to breathe, move, or make a sound.

Short Story Step 2

“Camping? Really? You think that’s what’s going to save our marriage?” Jen says to the couples therapist. Ryan looks at Jen annoyed, going “Honey cmon I love camping maybe this’ll be good for the both of us.” After bickering for the rest of the meeting they finally agree to go camping. The rest of the week went by slowly, Jen dreaded the idea of camping and being stuck in the woods. She feared the idea of the unknown deep within the trees. Ryan was restless every night in bed rolling back and forth hoping this trip brings them back together like old times. They’ve been married for 5 years now and after the miscarrige Jen had 2 years ago things just haven’t been the same. Jen developed severe postpartum, and started distancing herself from Ryan, and arguing constantly over everything, to the point that it was best to take some space from each other and live separately. The past year Ryan has been dragging Jen to couples therapy in hopes to get to the bottom of things and build the bond back.

That Friday they met up to do a weekend trip to the mountains. Ryan takes a list out of his pocket and starts reading it aloud. “Tent, check, sleeping bags, check, pillows, check, headlamps and flashlights, check, coolers, check, clothes, check, fishing rods….where are those, hon-” Jen interrupts, “Ryan! I have the rods, I think we have all that we need, can we just get going already?” The two hop in the car not knowing the long journey they’re about to take.

A rustling noise then comes to the bush about 12 feet away from Jen. Quickly she moves her flashlight to the bush to see a pair of eyes staring right back at her. The glare from the flashlight makes the eyes look red. Slowly Jen stands up and starts to back away from the bush that’s watching her every move. She steps on a twig and it makes a loud crackle sound which startled the bush, then a fox comes running out and disappears into the darkness of the trees. Jen sighs in relief. It was only a harmless little fox and not something else that could be worse. She again grabs all the twigs and leaves that she was gathering before and turns and hurries back to the now almost completely faded orange light in the distance.

Out of breath Jen walks out of the darkness of the woods, “Damn Jen were you lost? That took way too long. I couldn’t keep the fire lit for that long.” Ryan says frustrated. “I saw a fox..” Jen mumbled. “Jesus Jen we are camping in the woods no shit there’s going to be animals around. Just leave them be if you don’t bother them they won’t bother you.” “Okay Ryan I get it, I’m over this stupid fire I’m going to bed.” They both go to bed not saying a word for the rest of the night.

Ryan wakes up at the crack of dawn to go take a leak. The sun hasn’t risen yet but there’s a faint light glowing behind the mountains giving enough light for Ryan to see where he’s going. The closer to the lake he walks the more foggy it is. Ryan gets to the lake finally and goes to the bathroom. On the walk back Ryan takes in the scenery as the sun is starting to rise over the mountains. On the trail ahead something quickly runs across and into some bushes. Ryan, not bothered, keeps walking. As he passes the bushes two eyes peek out the side and lock eyes with Ryan and he comes to a halt. “Oh you must be the fox my wife saw last night. How cute.” As soon as Ryan stops the fox turns and sprints away into the dark woods.

Back at the campsite Ryan unzips the tent letting all the sunlight in. “Good morning! Congrats you made it through your first night.” Whining Jen rolls over and puts her pillow on her face. “It’s so early.” “Yeah we have a full day of activities ahead of us. Our therapist gave me a list of things she wants us to do.” Says Ryan.

After Jen took forever to get up and ready they both were finally ready for their first task. “Fishing! No no no I hate the smell of fish.” “Jen please don’t do this right now just for a few hours please for me.” “Fine.” Jen says all grouchy. They both get in a small row boat by the lake and start to paddle out to the middle of the lake. “Alright let’s stop here it looks like the birds have found a hot spot for fish with the way they’re diving into the water.” Both cast out their fishing rods and wait for a bite.

Not too long after Jen feels a weight on her rod. “Hey Ryan, I think I caught something.” Quickly she starts to reel up her catch. The rod then starts to get heavier as if something is pulling down on it. “Ryan, I can’t get it. I think it’s caught or a bigger fish is trying to eat my catch.” “Here give me the rod, I’ll get it up, we don’t want to lose it.” After many minutes of tug of war with the fishing line, they start to see a light color figure show in the water. “It’s almost there. I almost have it, one more tug.” And with that last tug, up comes the winning catch, except it’s not a fish. It’s a flesh rotting human hand.

Short Story Step 3

“Camping? Really? You think that’s what’s going to save our marriage?” Jen says to the couples therapist. Ryan looks at Jen annoyed, going “Honey cmon I love camping maybe this’ll be good for the both of us.” After bickering for the rest of the meeting they finally agree to go camping. The rest of the week went by slowly, Jen dreaded the idea of camping and being stuck in the woods. She feared the idea of the unknown deep within the trees. Ryan was restless every night in bed rolling back and forth hoping this trip brings them back together like old times. They’ve been married for 5 years now and after the miscarrige Jen had 2 years ago things just haven’t been the same. Jen developed severe postpartum, and started distancing herself from Ryan, and arguing constantly over everything, to the point that it was best to take some space from each other and live separately. The past year Ryan has been dragging Jen to couples therapy in hopes to get to the bottom of things and build the bond back.

After Jen took forever to get up and get ready they both were finally ready for their first task. “Fishing! No no no I hate the smell of fish.” “Jen please don’t do this right now just for a few hours please for me.” “Fine.” Jen says all grouchy. They both get in a small row boat by the lake and start to paddle out to the middle of the lake. “Alright let’s stop here it looks like the birds have found a hot spot for fish with the way they’re diving into the water.” Both cast out their fishing rods and wait for a bite.

Jen screams, backing away and bumps into Ryan, making Ryan, frozen in shock, drop the hand and the whole fishing rod into the lake. Jen panicking starts grabbing an oar and paddling away, “Ryan snap out of it we need to get out of here right now!” Ryan snapping out of it grabs the other oar and starts paddling along.

Reaching land Jen jumps out and starts collecting their belongings and cramming it into bags. “Jen stop”, Jen continues to frantically pack, “Jen stop!” Jen looks up “Ryan we just saw a human hand, a human hand..rotting, which means there is a whole human body that was below our boat.” Ryan trying to ignore what he just saw goes “Jen it could’ve been anything, a person could have drowned. These lakes are pretty deep.” “Yeah and your whole hand can be ripped off from your body from drowning. Say what you want but I know what I saw and I’m getting out of here.” “Jen, you need to calm down, this is out of our control.” Jen rolls her eyes and grabs the last of her items then looks back at Ryan, “Do what you want but I’m going back to the car and leaving, if you want to stay here so bad I’ll come back and pick you up Monday morning.” “Fine!” Ryan snaps back and goes into the tent and zips it shut, Jen teary eyed turns around and walks away from the campsite.

“This shouldn’t be too hard. I just got to follow this trail back to where we parked the car” Jen said to herself. The sun starts to set and Jen starts to pick up the pace knowing the trail will be much harder to follow in the dark. She suddenly gets goosebumps with that feeling again that the trees are watching her.

The wind starts to pick up, almost sounding like whispers in the distance. “I should be getting close to the car now. I’ve been on this trail for over an hour now.” Jen whispers to herself. Frustrated, she kicks a rock in a bush ahead of her. As she begins to pass the bush and the rock, the same rock she kicked into the bush, comes rolling out in front of where she was about to step. Jen gasps and stumbles back a few steps and quickly flashes her flashlight at the rock and then slowly moves it towards the bush. Two blood red eyes stare back at her. “Ugh its just the stupid fox…go away! Shoo!” Jen gestures at the bush, then she continues to follow the trail to the car.

With the sky basically dark with some stars starting to appear, Jen starts to pick up the paste and jog. She sees the dirt road in the distance and feels a sign of relief. There sits the car, Jen runs and hugs the car knowing she will soon be safe and far away from the dark, cold, ruthless wilderness. The car was already unlocked which she found odd because she remembers Ryan locking it. Not putting too much thought into it she opens the trunk and throws her stuff in the back. She then makes her way to the front of the car and gets in the driver’s seat. Jen sits there and sinks into the seat in relief. She manually turns on her headlights to see two red eyes staring right back at her. The eyes are growing bigger the closer it comes. This isn’t a fox this time but something bigger.

Jen reaches into her bag for the keys to start the car. The eyes are getting closer now she is starting to see the figure of what’s coming her way. Thick coat of fur, around 6 ½ ft tall it stands, sharp teeth. “A wolf…shit” Jen stutters out. Now digging aggressively for the keys she starts to panic. The wolf now stands in front of the car headlights and staring directly at her, then it starts to howl. The howl makes Jen jump in her seat and she looks up to see a bunch of red eyes in the dark slowly approaching the car surrounding it. Jen now dumps her whole bag out looking for the keys.. Nothing, and that’s when she realized Ryan had put the keys in his pocket before fishing….

Short Story Step 4

“Camping? Really? You think that’s what’s going to save our marriage?” Jen says to the couples therapist. Ryan looks at Jen annoyed, going “Honey cmon I love camping maybe this’ll be good for the both of us.” After bickering for the rest of the meeting they finally agree to go camping. The rest of the week went by slowly, Jen dreaded the idea of camping and being stuck in the woods. She feared the idea of the unknown deep within the trees. Ryan was restless every night in bed rolling back and forth hoping this trip brings them back together like old times. They’ve been married for 5 years now and after the miscarrige Jen had 2 years ago things just haven’t been the same. Jen developed severe postpartum, and started distancing herself from Ryan, and arguing constantly over everything, to the point that it was best to take some space from each other and live separately. The past year Ryan has been dragging Jen to couples therapy in hopes to get to the bottom of things and build the bond back.

Jen screams, backing away and bumps into Ryan, making Ryan, frozen in shock, drop the hand and the whole fishing rod into the lake. Jen panicking starts grabbing an oar and paddling away, “Ryan snap out of it we need to get out of here right now!” Ryan snaps out of it, grabs the other oar and starts paddling along.

With the sky basically dark with some stars starting to appear, Jen starts to pick up the pace and jog. She sees the dirt road in the distance and feels a sign of relief. There sits the car, Jen runs and hugs the car knowing she will soon be safe and far away from the dark, cold, ruthless wilderness. The car was already unlocked which she found odd because she remembers Ryan locking it. Not putting too much thought into it she opens the trunk and throws her stuff in the back. She then makes her way to the front of the car and gets in the driver’s seat. Jen sits there and sinks into the seat in relief. She manually turns on her headlights to see two red eyes staring right back at her. The eyes are growing bigger the closer it comes. This isn’t a fox this time but something bigger.

The wolves now surround the car closing in closer and closer as if they are hunting down their prey leaving no room for escape. Jen jumps into the backseat to be more hidden from the wolves. Oddly enough the wolves never tried to attack the car and break in, they were smarter than that. They know not to waste their energy on trying to break through steel but to wait the prey out knowing sooner or later she will have to come out and face them. Jen sits up peeks out the window to see the wolves all sitting and lying around the car patiently waiting. The wolves take turns being on lookout for her attempt to escape. Jen slides down and curls up in the back seat and closes her eyes as tears stream down her face.

Back at the campsite Ryan sits at the firepit still upset from the argument earlier. He wonders if she was right, but he hates admitting he’s wrong. The night has never been more cold and lonely for the both of them. Ryan pours water on the fire and gets ready for bed. Staring at the ceiling of the tent for at least an hour Ryan starts to doze off when suddenly he hears a cry in the distance. It almost sounds like a baby crying. Confused Ryan sits up wondering if he’s just hearing things. “It’s probably just an owl or something, I need to sleep.” Ryan mumbles to himself. He starts to doze off again and finally falls asleep.

About 30 minutes later he hears a cry in the distance again. It sounds like a baby screaming and crying in terror. Ryan sits up all disoriented and pauses to see if he hears it again or if it’s just a dream. Then again he hears the crying of a baby but the sound seems much closer. Ryan jumps out of bed and runs out of the tent alert looking for where the source of the crying could be coming from. Again the crying starts back up coming from the direction of the lake, Ryan starts running that way thinking there’s a baby somehow drowning in the lake. The cry grows louder and louder the closer he gets to the dock. The cloudy sky is only making it harder for Ryan to see where he’s going as he trips over roots and rocks. Finally reaching the dock he turns on his flashlight in search of the mystery crying baby. The lake is calm, no trace of life, no baby.

Ryan, out of breath, tired, and confused starts to turn around and slowly heads back to the campsite when the screaming and cries for help start again but this time it’s not a baby’s voice it’s a womens, it’s Jens.