(Doesn’t relate to the prompt.)

Chelsey POV

I reached into the Lays bag, grabbing a small, brown cooked chip. I grimaced, forcing it into my mouth and swallowing it with a gag. A tanned hand appeared in front of me. Looking to my left, Hazel has a smirk on her face with an extended arm. Her hand is cupped in front of the bag. “May I have some?” She asks with an innocent, over exaggerated blink.

I groan sarcastically, shoving my hand into the chip bag, grabbing a handful of yellow-beige chips and dumping them onto Hazel’s hand. “There. Happy?” I chuckled, and she took one delicately and put it in her mouth. “Mhm.” She said, mouthfull.

Hazel put back on her headphones, to which I raised an eyebrow. “You have Wi-Fi?” I asked. Hazel raised the side of her headphone. “Nah. Downloaded playlist. Caitlin had wanted to call me but I explained I couldn’t.”

Caitlin was one of their friends. She was popular and pretty, ginger and slim, and not to mention extremely charismatic. But, as of recently, she had gotten extremely sick and hadn’t been able to see any of them. “Dang, that sucks. Hope shes doing oka-“

I was cut off by the car hitting a shocking stop. “The hell, Mikayla?!” Tasmin, in the seat in front of me, smacked my older sisters arm. “Hey- that wasn’t me!” Mikayla furrowed her brow, pressing her foot on the right pedal aggressively. The car wheezed in response, not moving despite the constant press of her foot.

“Fuck! Of course this junk full’a shit breaks down in the middle of a dirt road!” Mikayla screeched. She got out of the car, slamming the door. Tasmin got out as well, and Hazel raised an eyebrow as she took off her headphones.

“What happened?” Hazel asked. “I thought we just hit a stoplight.” I nudged her, a grin creeping on my face. “We’re in a wooded area. What do you mean?” I laughed. “Okay okay, I’m gonna go outside so I feel important.” Hazel giggled, getting up out of her seat and opening the door.

I followed her outside the car quickly. Mikayla had the front engine opened, and her and Tasmin were staring at it with blank expressions. “It’s not like we can just look up if the cars like- broken. None of us have Wi-Fi. We’re in the middle of nowhere..” Tasmin chewed her thumb nail.

Mikayla, stressed out, angrily shut the front engine door. “Of course! Why wouldn’t this happen?!” She ran a hand through her blonde, wavy hair. Tasmin put a gentle hand on Mikayla’s shoulder. “Hey now, girl- take a chill pill. It could be so much worse.” Tasmin tried to reassure her.

“So much worse? So much worse?! What do you mean? We’ve been living off of a Lays chip bag for an hour, and we’re at least another hour away from the campsite! Goddamn it- if we hadn’t needed to get more gas, we wouldn’t have been here!” Mikayla swatted Tasmin’s hand away, closing her eyes and turning away in frusturation.

Tasmin retracted, a scowl on her face. “Look. I’m trying to not get you even more stressed! You’re making it worse by panicking!” She pointed a finger at Mikayla.

They kept yelling at each other, and Hazel whispered down to me. “What do we uh.. do??” She asked. I shrugged. “The GPS said to continue going up. So.. I’m just gonna go. Have fun dealing with them.” I waved at Hazel.

Walking up the dirt road, my feet began to burn. Thankfully, nobody except Hazel had known that I had begun to walk away. The sky had turned a mist of reds and purples clashing against each other.

I began walking uphill, my feet sinking into what seemed to be mud rather than dirt. The hill easily dragged me down, practically making me claw my way up to the top.

After many minutes of treading upwards, I made to the flat surface of the top. The mess of trees split into two ways. Not knowing which way to go, I hesitantly walked the left pathway.

Immediately, anxiety and paranoia filled my body with every little noise that echoed in the forest. A bird chirping, a twig snapping. But something- something- I know wasn’t just an animal.

A loud creaking noise. Like an old door in a house. I shook that thought out of my head- I’m in the forest. There’s no houses out here.

Then I saw it.

In a sectioned off portion of this path, there were no trees. Only three carved into stumps. These stumps were clearly shaved to be pointy. With my heartbeat racing, I walk closer to these stumps.

A twig snap sends a wave of electricity down my spine, making my hands and face drench with sweat. I feel a presence wrap itself around my waist, lifting me into the air.

In the air, I get a better look at whats holding me. Sheer panic runs through me as I look down.

A tall, slender, void black figure with glowing white eyes stares at me. It’s greasy, oily fingers are hoisting me up.

“Let go of me!!” I screech, clawing at its face. But, my hand goes through as if it wasn’t there. The figure places me on its shoulder, somehow carrying me with immense strength.

It takes me closer to one of the carved stumps as I desperately flail my way to no avail. I get a strong whiff of a nasty smell- which leads me to the conclusion that the oil coming out of the figure isn’t oil at all- its gasoline.

My body feels jittery as it moves its void hands to my underarm, taking me off of its shoulder. I felt relieved for an instant, before the feeling is replaced with boiling hot pain.

The creature had thrown me stomach first onto the stump, stabbing through my abdomen. I couldn’t scream at all, my vocal cords feeling as if they had been severed by some force.

The last thing I saw were the green tops of the trees, a single leaf falling down onto my face. It covered my right eye for a moment, before it got picked up by the anomaly.

It held the leaf in between its skinny fingers, taunting me. The leaf had burnt in an instant, the ashes falling to the mud ground. The figure had no face except its eyes, but I felt it smiling at me.

It placed a hand on my waist, which was covered in gasoline. A red and orange flame burst open as it removed the hand.

Hazel POV

After around eight minutes of them two arguing, Mikayla pinched the bridge of her nose. She looked at me, then next to me. Her face falls. “Where’s Chelsey?” Mikayla asked in a hushed voice.

I forgot about her. “Oh- she uh, went up.” I pointed up the hill. “To find people. Someone who can help us. I think.” Mikayla furrowed her eyebrows. “She’s the youngest out of all of us! You just let her go?! You didn’t bother to go with her?-“

“Don’t even blame Hazel.” Tasmin interferes. She grabs my hand. “We’ll go find your sister, since you’re too ignorant to look for her yourself. You’ll probably start yelling about how its my fault.” Tasmin dragged me up the hill, leaving Mikayla behind.

As we went up, we found footprints. “Let’s follow these.” Tasmin pointed out the obvious. Her curly black hair that was kept in a bun flailed as we climbed up.

Continuing to follow the footsteps, we reached an area that was portioned off from the rest. An odd smell wafted in the air, making me retract in disgust.

Tasmin pinched her nose as she continued walking. Then, she gasped. She pulled her fingers away from her nose, backing away. A shaky pointer finger was raised at a black burning mess. “Oh hell no!-“

Tasmin stumbled backwards, turning around before she stopped. A tall black figure grabbed her chin aggresively, lifting her off the ground.

Tasmin kicked her legs aggresively, signaling for me to help. I lunged at the creature, before I went through it like a shadow. My arm landed in a bush, tangled in the branches.

An odor oil dripped from Tasmin’s chin as it led her to a group of stumps, where the burning body was. But, instead of placing her on a stump, the creature mounted Tasmin on a thick and sharp curved branch that came from the heavy trees.

I ripped my arm free frantically out of the bush, my arm bloodied. Thorns. Blood pooled out of the immense tiny cuts that scowered my arm.

Tasmin had stopped moving, the branch being stuck in between her chest. Blood stained the visible part of the branch coated in red. The liquid dripped out of her mouth, dribbling down her chin.

The creature came over to me, panic running through my body. I shook my head, anything to get it to stop. But, instead, it stuck one of its fingers through one of my cuts, widening it.

At the same time, a flame burst out of my arm. The creature removed its finger, a pleased look on its “face.”

Mikayla POV

As they left me, anger and sorrow built up in my body. Where was Chelsey? I hope nothing bad happened to her. The woods are dangerous.

After a couple minutes had passed with none of them back, I began to slightly panic. Finally, I heard someone. But it wasn’t someone. It was something.

A tall black mass came down the hill, its bright, lifeless white eyes staring directly at me. I backed away from the car, beginning to run away from it.

Tears began to fog my vision, blindly running down the dirt path. I stumbled into a wooded area, several stray branches hitting me in the face as I flashed through the woods.

Then, I fell to my knees as the woods lead me to a dip. It’s a cliffedge. I’m corned, the black shadow figure walking toward me with that horrible stare.

I stand back up, facing it. In a moment of mixed emotions, I raise my middle finger at it, a grin spreading across my face. I walk backwards, stumbling off of the cliffedge.

I fall back, my blonde hair flailing in the sudden wind. Looking back up, I see the figure looking down at me. A grin returns to my face.

The last thing I feel are the icy cold waters shooting up my back as I land in a river.