ghost stories • 5sos

cameron // four.

I looked down at the ground, trying to gather my thoughts before I started to tell my story. I could feel Ashton slowly rubbing his thumbs across the bare skin on my hips. His touch itself enabled me to relax.

"Alright. So we all know what supposedly happened to Sawyer, Tyler, and Evan. But do any of us remember what happened to Joey Marshall?" I asked my friends.

Kenz glanced up at me briefly before moving her eyes back to her hands,"Wasn't he the one boy that they found cut in half?" she mumbled.

I nodded once, Ashton's grip on me tightening.

"A few years after Ethan's death..."

Joey Marshall had always loved being in the woods. No one was ever around to tell him what he could and could not do. He could get away with practically anything.

Lake Willow is where Joey would go when he was skipping school, which was quite often, might I add. The only reason he ever went to school was so that he could pick on Ethan Carver.

But of course, that all stopped after Ethan's death three years prior.

Joey had never ventured as far into the woods as he had today. He wasn't sure what it was, but something was just drawing him deeper and deeper into the forest.

Closer and closer to the lake, where Ethan was waiting for him.

Joey was walking along the secluded path, singing to himself as he drunkenly made his way to his destination.

Deep down, he knew something wasn't right.

He knew that he shouldn't be this far out into the unknown.

He knew that something bad was bound to happen.

But, thanks to Ethan, he didn't care.

After walking for what felt like only minutes when it had in fact been almost an hour, Joey found himself standing at the edge of the water.

The sun had set only moments ago, the sky a purplish color as he looked across the water. Locusts could be heard all throughout the forest. It almost made Joey feel at ease, except he still had the feeling of dread coursing through his veins.

He heard a twig break from behind him, and he quickly turned around. A fire was burning only feet away from Joey, a fire that had not been there before.

Joey slowly started to walk around the flames, keeping his eyes on the bright orange color as he was confused by where it had came from.

"All those years. All those years you were a bully to me."

Joey's head whipped to his left quickly.

Standing there, was Ethan.

Joey froze in place. Ethan was supposed to be dead, but there he was, standing before him.

Maybe Joey had been drinking a little more than he thought he had been.

"All those years you called me names. Told me I wasn't good enough. That I would never amount to anything."

Ethan crept closer to Joey, a long knife held in his hand.

With each step Ethan took forward, another Joey took back, until he was knee high in the freezing cold water.

Ethan lunged at Joey, knocking him down into the lake.

As Ethan climbed on top of him, Joey attempted to scream, but his cries were muffled from being pushed underwater.

He felt the knife start to dig into his back, a loud gasp emitting from his lips, which only caused him to suck water through his lungs.

He was at least thankful that he drowned before the bottom half of his body was disconnected from the top.

Before the lake turned blood red.