text: The End “How am I supposed to sleep after that?” “RAWR,” I shout, making several campers scream themselves, “That was the scream of a Black Panther. It may or may not be the demon of legend, but I wouldn’t want to find out. Now, time to go to bed.” I heard one camper say, as they all huddled together, as they walked back to the cabins, “That sounded like a woman screaming bloody murder,” A spooked camper stuttered in awe. “The demon remains and now and then, a couple of campers that wander off by themselves disappear, never to be seen or heard from again.” Just then a scream rends the air. “So why can’t we go into the woods, if everyone was arrested?” “We subdued the guards, obtained the key to our freedom from one of them, and made our escape. Long into the night we walked, until we were in the next town, where we made our way to the police station. We told our harrowing story, and they started an investigation into proving it. Everyone involved was arrested, and they sealed the prisons up for good. The cabin, on the side of the mountain, still stands there, but deserted. Eagle Ridge came under new management, because every adult was arrested.” “I worked, when the overseers were standing guard, but when they took a break, I would talk to some of the other prisoners and I found the adults had been there since they were children. There were even some, I was told, that had died of old age, so that told me it had been going on for a very long time, even before Eagle Ridge was established. I got the idea one day to get the others to start a revolution, with me, and that we would take down the guards, by any means possible. I told them I refused to die down there without a fight, and they agreed. The ones that were in charge of the wood, secretly made weapons and the ones that sewed made restraints. We waited until the time was right, then, we attacked.” “I crept forward and encountered the door, which had a handle, and when I tugged, the door opened. I was being blinded by light, and when my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I saw several children and adults. They were doing a lot of different menial chores, and all the chores were being monitored by overseers. Some chores that I noticed immediately were sewing and mending stuff like sheets, pillows, and camping tents. One was making wooden items such as benches, picnic tables, and bunk beds. I was in a sweatshop, of sorts, for Eagle Ridge.” “The other campers did not believe them, so they did not turn me over to them. We made our way back to our cabins, and they took me to the camp nurse. She removed the stitches, from my mouth, and told me not to tell anyone how this happened. When my parents came to pick me up, they were told the same. She whispered to me about the prison that tellers would go to, if they told, but I knew that someone needed to tell, so that the authorities could arrest everyone that did these atrocities. I told a cop, whom was my dad’s best friend, and in the middle of the night I men that I didn’t know came and took me away, from my home. I was blindfolded and when the blindfold was removed, I found I was in a dark void. Had I dreamed my escape, I thought, but when I felt the wall, I found it was cement blocks. I felt my mouth and found no stitches, only healing wounds.” “I saw moving lights, further down the side of the mountain, and I headed for them, as hard as I could run. It turned out to be the rest of the campers, returning to the campfire pit, as we had planned. After I made it to them, one of them was about to untie my hands, when my pursuers caught up, and told them to give me to them. They were told no and the shortest, of the two men, told them they didn’t understand; That if they, the men, did not offer me as a sacrifice that we all were doomed. He said a demon lived in a cave at the very top of the mountain and that it enjoys eating people, but that it only eats two people every week.” “When I felt I had gone far enough, I started digging above my head, trying to make a shaft that would bring me to the surface. I made footholds to aid in my ascent and I kept going until I had to stop. The bone struck something solid, and when I reached my bound hands up, I found more wood. I surmised my prison had been in a basement, under the cabin. I turned to my left and dug along the wooden cabin floor, until I encountered more dirt, then I started digging upwards once more. Then I was out in the open and running down the side of the mountain, falling over roots, rocks, fallen trees, and other unseen things, with the sound of running feet closing in on me.” “I felt around for anything that to use, as a weapon, and found what felt like a bone. Cringed at the thought of it being a human bone, I steeled my nerves and I brushed the side, of the end, of the bone against the wall, opposite of the door. Doing that a few times, trying to make the end into a sharp point, then when I touched it I found not changed. I felt the wall and found that the bone was gouging out a hole, because the wall was dirt. I began rubbing faster, and the dirt began falling away. Before long I had a hole big enough to crawl into, which I did and kept digging.” “There were some for a long time, after I escaped the camp prison, but my parents paid a lot of money to have a plastic surgeon fix my mouth. I wanted to scream, but couldn’t. A noise came from somewhere behind my prison door and I slowly made my way through the black void. Keeping my hands held out, my fingers touched wood. Groping for a door handle, but there was not one. I banged on the wood, until my hands bled, then a dim light appeared around the edge of the door. I hoped that someone let me out, but a raspy voice on the other side, warned me that my time would come soon enough.” “If someone had sewn it shut, then you would have scars,” Scoffed a camper. “They had sewn it shut.” “What was it? What had they done to your mouth?” “I went to yell for Josh, but found my mouth unable to speak. I raised my hands, which were shackled together, to my mouth, but what I touched there had me very frightened.” “Well, I looked over to tell Josh to run, but he wasn’t able to. The man had his giant hand holding the top of Josh’s head. He was squeezing Josh’s head until Josh stopped flailing his arms, trying to hit the man. His eyes rolled back until all you could see where the white of his eyes. I shouted to the man to stop that he was killing Josh. I was looking back up at the man’s chin, when he slowly looked down and grinned. His mouth had no teeth and his eyes had no irises; And, what should have been white was a light yellow, as if he had yellow jaundice. He opened his mouth, wide enough to look like he was going to bite something and sharp teeth sprang forth, from his gums. I screamed and when I came to, I was in the dark, by myself.” “Where was Josh?” “I’m getting to that, just be patient,” I answered, “I went to take a step forward, when a twig under my foot snapped. The music stopped, as if someone were listening for another telltale sign that there was someone outside the cabin. I turned to run, but found myself nose-to-chest, of a giant man. He was so tall that I had to look up, in order to see his face, but even then I was staring at the underside of his chin.” “It will be happy then? What is it and what will make it happy?” “Josh and I made our way into the spooky woods. I forgot to bring batteries for my flashlight, so when mine died, we only had Joshua’s. We came upon a cabin that seemed like it was deserted, except there was a haunting song coming from it. The music sounded out of tune and gave me the creeps,” I said and then I sang the words, “One two... I hear you... Three four... I’ll get some more... Five six... Just for kicks... Seven eight... leave them at the gate... Nine ten... It will be happy then.” “We met, right here, beside the darkened campfire pit and hatched a plan, one that was sure to shed light on the mysterious disappearances. We partnered off, so that we could scour more ground. Most of the teams had three or more campers, but there was one team that had only two. I and Joshua Baker were the ones that made up the two-person team.” “A week later two more campers disappeared, without a trace, and some of us older campers formed our own search party. So, after the official search party came back and went to bed, we snuck out, into the darkness, of the night; Much like the way it looks tonight.” A piece of firewood popped, making us all jump, although I pretended to. “I had been there when, one night, a girl and her brother went missing, from this very camp. A search party was formed, but it was told that they could find nothing, not even a footprint. It was like they just vanished.” The kid next to me gasps and, in a hoarse whisper, asks what happened to the offenders, “There are asylums, which are under the ground beneath our very feet, that they’re admitted to. I know about them, because I was in one, but I escaped.” “As you know, the counselors have advised you to stay out of the woods. They give no reason, except to say that it is unsafe and that it is very easy to get lost. That is not the only reasons, but it is taboo to speak of the real reason. If someone’s caught telling the reason...,” I shiver for their benefit, “that person’s sent away and never seen again; By anyone, not even their families.” “Let me just start off by saying that you must never, ever, tell let the counselors catch that you telling what you are about to hear this night.” I held up the story stick, and all became quiet, except for the crackle of the fire. Even the frogs and crickets hushed, so that they could hear the story. “Did they get lost?” “What happened?” “Enough,” I commanded, as the two girls argued, “I think you all need to hear this story; Especially the two of you, Rachelle and Betty, because it was an argument, among the campers, that perpetrated a night of terror, for a boy and girl.” “We’re not babies, Betty,” Rachelle Dimwitty rebutted, with an equally mocking sneer, as she said Betty’s name. “Tell us, Carolina,” Betty Rankin said, “the babies can just go back to the cabins, if they don’t want to hear the scary story,” She put an emphasis, with a very mocking sneer, on the fifth word and the last two. “Tell us,” Micah MacDonald said, and several others agreed with him, although a few others did not. “What I learned when I was camper, at Eagle Ridge, when I was your age, is scarier than any urban legend.” I shiver, although the temperature is a nice, balmy seventy-five degrees and I wrap my arms around my midriff. “Why not,” Veronicka Balducci shyly queries. “I know what it is,” I tell the group, “However, I don’t think I should tell you guys.” “I don’t know,” Replies Adam Rizzoli, as he peers into the darkness, “but it sounded huge.” “What... was that,” Angelina Braxton asked, as she holds her hand to her heart. I am a counselor at Eagle Ridge, a youth summer camp, and this is my first time being a camp counselor. My name is Carolina Stokely and I am about ready to hand the story stick to Jerrod Hemsley. A noise from out of the darkness, beyond the circle of firelight that is created by the campfire, has made us all about to jump out of our skins. The Beginning