What Are You So Scared Of? (JarDougall) DISCONTINUED

Four

The storm was over and we were gathered around a campfire. Everyone was conscious now for the most part. The light coming from the fire allowed me to see how much of in a bad shape everyone was. Most of them had cuts and bruises but were already taken care of by Mr. Drew.

Even though Tay was still in bad shape, she insisted in sitting outside with us. I looked up at the night sky, why did this have to happen to us?

"Since we're here, we might as well tell some spooky stories," Lynn said and others agreed, she was a sucker for dark stuff.

"You all think this is a joke, huh?" He said, taking a puff out of his cigarette, "Do you guys know where you are?"

"Obviously not since you drove us out of the road into the middle of nowhere," Kellin snapped.

"Ooh, you go, girl," Tay managed to say, wincing as she laughed.

"I haven't been in this area in over twenty years," he said, "Never planned on visiting this place again but fate brought me back."

Lynn leaned in closer as did Chris, already intrigued by Radke's stupid story. Vic just snorted and Kellin leaned on his shoulder, listening regardless.

"If you walk over to the west, you'll find a river. Nothing scary about a stupid river," he took a puff from his cigarette, "But what should scare you is what's past it."

"And what's past it?" Chris asked, eager to hear more.

Radke leaned closer and whispered, "The Forbidden Forest."

Tay scoffed, "Seriously? The Forbidden Forest?" She said in a mocking tone, "Couldn't you have come up with a better or at least spookier name?"

"It's name is enough to tell you to stay the fuck away from it," he said, making Mr. Drew shift uncomfortably. He wasn't very... "keen to vulgar language."

"Go on," Lynn urged, aching for more.

"As I was saying, me and a couple of friends decided to go there when we were teens. You know, dumb teenage stuff and they challenged me to cross the river to spend the night. Of course, I wasn't stupid enough to go alone so I dared them to come with me and like the little pussies they were, they said no... all except one."

I had to admit, I was beginning to feel a little... creeped out. I guess I wasn't the only one cause my other classmates were looking at him intensely and others were cowering away.

"His name was Jacky," he smiled, "Greatest friend I ever had. Once the night time approached, he told me he was feeling uneasy about this place. Who could blame him? After we went in that forest, I lost him and he never came back."

Lynn looked at him with a confused expression, "What happened between that time?" 

"That's where I was headed," he said, taking a sip from a liquor bottle he had in his jacket, "Everything was going fine but it was eerily quiet, no sound of forest animals or rustling of leaves could be heard. Just a deafening silence..."

*Radke's flashback*

"Hey, come on, man, let's get out of here," Jacky said, "They won't find out that we didn't stay, they're not even here to see if we did."

"Dude, it's just a forest," I laughed, kicking some rocks, "Just chill out."

He carefully looked around, "I don't have a good feeling about this place..."