Final Grave

I was slowly trekking through the dark creature-filled forest on a rocky, brown, dirt path with my friends, Zain and Lara. Suddenly Lara spoke up, mentioning how it looked to be around afternoon, and that we should start setting up for the nighttime. As soon as she stopped speaking my head snapped up, taking notice that Lara was indeed correct with her assumption that it was nearing dusk.

We pulled to a stop at the side of the track, and ever so quickly I pulled out Lara's parent's old green 6-man tent, that we were going to be sleeping in. I unrolled my dark blue sleeping bag and carefully laid it in between Lara's rose covered sleeping bag and Zain's bright forest green sleeping bag. We all sat down for a moment noticing the sky had merged with the softly-glowing golden sun, like roots twisting below a small growing shrub. The clouds were like cotton-candy as if they bled until the giant ball of fire disappeared, slowly sinking under the deep blue sea covered horizon. In a passing second the biggest star had set, giving way to a thousand others.

Once the sun had dispatched Lara quickly got up from her place on the ground, stumbling in the dark to the nearest tree to try and break off sticks to use as firewood. Zain grabbed his bag rummaging through it to attempt to find his bright green lighter, to, obviously, light our fire. I gathered some smooth stones from around the track to place in a circle, where our fire, if we were lucky enough to have one, would eventually go. I finished this quite quickly and just sat down across from Zain, watching him struggle to find his lighter. He found his lighter just at the moment that Lara returned with a lot of sticks in her arms. I quickly hopped up from my cross-legged position and helped her dump the sticks we needed in the circle outside of our tent. Zain, after being told to light the fire eight times, finally lit a stick and threw it into our homemade fire pit, giving us light that did not come from a black cylinder that used batteries.

It was starting to become pitch black, so I asked if Zain or Lara wanted to hit the hay. Zain quickly realised what I was talking about, and agreed. Lara just laughed and asked if either of us were paranoid. We both just ignored her, agreeing by eye-contact that she was just being annoying. Zain had said his goodnights, so the moment he zipped himself into his sleeping bag and his head hit the pillow, he was out like at light. I spoke up, telling Lara to wake me in the morning and telling her not to stay up too late. I could hear Lara laughing and telling me to stop being such a mother hen, then quietly confirming that she wouldn't. My eyes shut but something in my gut wouldn't let me sleep, so I opened my eyes got my watch out of my bag, and read the time. I was shocked. I could still hear Lara outside, the crinkling of the marshmallow packets meeting my ears.

"Lara, what are you still doing up? It's 2:30 in the morning." I could hear the crinkling continue. I wasn't that surprised, when Lara gets tired she doesn't always hear the best. I unzipped my sleeping bag and got up, putting on some shoes before exiting. I looked to where the marshmallow packets were and saw a racoon munching on the marshmallows. My mouth dropped in shock as I saw a splatter of blood on the spot that I had last saw Lara sitting. I covered my mouth with my hand, standing frozen. Just staring at where Lara was last sitting. I quietly called out for Zain, getting louder and louder as my brain started registering the seriousness of the situation. My voice got louder 'til I was screaming my lungs off for him to get up. My voice dropped, slowly climbing into the tent and shaking him awake as my all but screaming didn't even denter his sleep. He woke in a hurry rubbing his eyes, asking why I was panicking so much. I spoke much too fast for anyone to understand, explaining that I had found a blood splatter and, most importantly, that Lara was gone. He was quick to calm me down, as my breathing had started to come out in short gasps. Realisation had just set in, Lara was gone, and she might never come back. Zain grabbed a tissue packet from his bag, before he wiped away the tears that were a constant stream leaking from my eyes. He brought me inside the tent, telling me to hop into my sleeping bag and try and get some rest, I quickly followed his instructions and watched him do the same.

For a moment, I just stared at his sleeping face, dreading the thought of what could've caused the blood. I didn't sleep that night, my thoughts consumed by all the possibilities that could've happened to Lara. I pretended to sleep when I noticed that Zain was starting to wake. I woke up a second after him, trying to make it look like I had slept the whole night. We both got out of our sleeping bags, Zain exiting the tent so we could both get changed. After we had changed, and ate our breakfast and sat down. I realised that the blood was still there, and that Zain had avoided looking anywhere near where Lara sat. I spoke up, asking if he had heard anything before I woke him up. He hesitated for a moment, raised his left hand to massage his forehead, before replying that he didn't remember hearing anything. I asked him what we were going to do, he seemed unsure of what I meant so I explained. Were we going to wait and see if she came back, or if we were going to continue to travel to the cabin we were supposed to share with our five other friends. He said we could stay at the campsite for one to four more days before we were expected to arrive at the cabin.