Children of the Boss

Chapter 40: Gabriel

March 19th

Alyssa, Tamir, Abe, and I were lazy pieces of shit over break. We sat around in the basement, got so fat, smoked a lot of pot, slept in, played video games, and watched movies.

Eventually, after Dad came downstairs, told us we smelled awful, and ordered us to go outside, we decided to go camping with a few theater friends. We drove not too far away and found a nice, secluded camping spot that had big trees surrounding it and a small creek.

We set up our tents, blew up our air mattresses, and then Abe made a fire because none of us actually knew how to.

"We lost power a lot in my village," he said. "So I learned how to make a fire from a young age. Eventually, all of our power lines or whatever got updated. I don't know the logistics, but we stopped losing power after a while."

"I hate camping," LeTara said, holding her coat close around her. It wasn't too cold, but since the sun was setting it was getting chilly.

"Then why did you come?" Alyssa asked.

"I had nothing better to do. I've read too many camping horror stories though, and like real ones."

"Oh sure, real ones," said Bobby.

"No, it was a reddit thing and they compiled the creepiest ones. Some of them were typical, like creepy people coming from nowhere or bears, but the creepiest one shook me."

"What was it?" I asked.

"They were doing work out in the middle of nowhere in this forest and this guy went to go pee. He couldn't see anything into the trees but whatever was in the trees could see him because there was a fire behind him. He walks back and gets his with a rock. He's like 'what the fuck' and another rock comes at him. Again, he can't see anything. So he runs back and suddenly a lot more rocks come. The guy and his buddies start getting hit and they go into their tents with their knives. All night long there is this rumbling noise, like hail hitting their tents. They all stay awake, and in the morning when they get out of the tent there are hundreds and hundreds of rocks all around them. Some of them were big, like the size of their fists."

"What kind of fuckery is that?" Tamir asked.

"See! It's creepy. Like creepy people and scary animals are already expected, but the more unknown the more creepy!" 

"I don't want to camp anymore," I said.

"There's literally a gas station and high school right over there," Abe said, pointing to the county road where the gas station lit up in the distance. "This camping ground is here for a reason."

"Did creepy shit ever go in your village?" Alyssa asked.

"No," he said. "But one time my brothers and I went on a hike. It was cold as shit out, very snowy, and we went through some hills. The hills weren't inhabited, but when we walked through we actually saw this child in one of the valleys. White hair, white skin, like they had never seen sunlight. Freakiest shit I've ever seen."

"Wait, what were they wearing?" LeTara asking. 

"I don't remember. I think they were behind something, but they were completely white so hopefully white clothing. It was freaky though. We ran back immediately. The kid just stared at us."

"I bet if its mouth opened it would have sharp teeth," I said.

"Gabriel, oh my god."

"Anyway, who wants smores?"

We made smores, shared more stories, smoked a blunt, messed around, and then went into our tents. Alyssa and Tamir had their own tent, Bobby and LeTara had their own tent (even though they said they weren't a thing, they were), and then Abe and I had our own tent too.