We walked around a little while longer before making our way back to the campground. I didn't want to go back and I didn't care if it got dark. I wanted to keep looking. Julian suggested we leave a little early tomorrow to get home, knowing there was a chance we weren't going to be able to find him at all.
Maybe I could sneak out once Sally and Julian has fallen asleep, continuing the search for him.
Sally sits on a picnic bench, playing a game on her phone while Julian and I set up the tent. As night falls, we place the baked beans over the fire. I found some sticks and used them to put the pieces of steak over the fire. My sister's phone rings and I knew straight away who it is.
"Lie and tell him you are staying at Megan's," I tell my sister.
"I can't lie to Dad," she tells me. "He will know something is up."
"I know. But if you tell him, he will drive up here and make us end the trip."
Sally listens to me and tells Dad she is with Megan. I didn't know whether or not if he will buy her lie, but hopefully he won't find out where we are. He will know where I am and I prayed silently to myself that he wouldn't come here. Thankfully we are the only ones on the campgrounds. I don't want to be dragged away with my dad in the middle of the night and waking the other campers.
"David?" Sally looks over at me, wide-eyed as she tried to figure out how to continued lying to dad. No doubt he has asked her where I am. "David is staying with Julian. He told me he is working on an assignment with him."
I held my breath, hoping Dad would not continue asking my sister so many questions. She wasn't great at lying. I don't know how well he could detect the tone of her voice over the phone, but if he was face to face with her, there's a chance he would know exactly if she is fibbing. He deals with so many criminals each day who would say anything just to get out of trouble.
Sally ends the call. "Do you think he will buy my lies?"
I shrug. "Not sure, but hopefully he does."
An owl suddenly hoots in a nearby tree. I jump and cursed softly. Both Julian and Sally laugh at me.
"Are you sure you will be able to get through tonight?" Julian grins.
I playfully punch him in the arm. "Shut up." I stick out my tongue.
"So what are we going to do for the rest of the night?" Sally asks as she grabs a piece of bread. She placed it at the end of a stick and placed it over the fire to toast it.
"Well there isn't much that we really can do. Our plans were to walk around and search for Bigfoot, but it's far too dangerous to wander around the forest in the dark."
"We could tell ghost stories if you like," Julian suggests.
We agree to do that as we ate our dinner. Julian tells the story. He uses Bigfoot as part of it where he meets a ghost. Together the duo terrorises a city. I'm surprised he never used aliens in his tale. In English assignments when we are asked to create a short story he always adds them as characters, depending on what we are told to write. I never really thought of him as a storyteller, but he tells it so well. I write a lot of short stories, but I never showed them to anyone. It's not like I thought they weren't good enough. I just think sometimes a writer's thoughts are best kept as a secret until we are ready to tell the world.
Maybe I should suggest to Julian to put together a collection of short stories on extra-terrestrials, and I could help him to co-write it.
The story doesn't leave me scared, but it does for Sally. She decides to head to bed early, climbing into the tent. I told her she can have my sleeping bag. Hopefully there will be enough room in the tent for the three of us.
Julian and I stay up a little while longer, talking about random stuff, mainly about Bigfoot.
"Sorry if we weren't able to locate Bigfoot," he apologises. I'm not sure why. There was no reason for him to say sorry.
"It's not your fault, Julian. I guess Bigfoot just doesn't want to be found. He just enjoys toying with our minds. Aliens are exactly the same. It has been six years since you started searching for them and you never discovered one of them."
"Even if I haven't, it doesn't bother me much. Some people may have already been lucky to spot them and that's good enough evidence for me to know they are out there somewhere. I may not have spotted one yet, but I will eventually when the time is right. Maybe when I move to Eastern New Mexico I will get my chance then."
"I can imagine you approaching an extra-terrestrial. You would be completely speechless." I chuckle.
Julian laughs. "Yeah, well at least they won't be as scary as Bigfoot would be."
"So, have you and Bethany decided on what you're doing for your play?" I ask, changing the subject.
A smile crosses his face. "We have class on Friday so we will brainstorm ideas then. On Saturday we are going to write and rehearsal the script."
"Need any advice on how to talk to her?" I give him a wink.
"No, I'm fine, David. I won't stuff up his time."
"Right."
I hear an owl hooting. I jump at the noise. Julian laughs at me. Not being able to sit out here with these owls, I know the best that I can do is just go inside the tent and get some rest before we leave in the morning. Julian puts out the fire and crawls into the tent as well.
* * * * *
I couldn't sleep. It wasn't because I had a stick lying directly under my lower back, stopping me getting any sleep at all. Even when I do move it, I still find lying on the ground uncomfortable. Outside the tent I can hear owls hooting, crickets chirping and frogs croaking. I sit up and look over at my sister and Julian. I wonder how they could sleep with all of this noise.
I hear a stick snap nearby, making me jump. It's probably just raccoons, wandering around the campground in search of food. I grab a flashlight that is lying beside me. I should go ahead and check to see if it really was raccoons. Maybe it's a bear wandering around for food. Not really sure if bears would come anywhere near the tents. I have never heard of reports where they attack campgrounds.
I climbed out of the tent. Shining the light, I glance around the campsite. I don't see anything and all of the sudden it becomes quiet. Maybe I imagined the whole noise. There doesn't seem to be any signs of any wild animal wandering around or wanting to attack us. I walk around, double checking to make sure I'm not completely losing my mind.
"Hello?" I call out.
No one answers me. When I see that there is nothing out there, I head back to the tent. I should really get some sleep. I'm so tired that my mind is starting to play tricks on me.
An owl hoots. Terrified, I started running back to the tent. Not looking where I was going, I trip over something. It's probably a tree root or a rock. I hit the ground hard, my knees hitting the dirt first before I put my hands out to stop from messing up my face. Pain shot up through my knees. I didn't have time to examine my injuries. I hear footsteps from behind me. I get to my feet, but I can't run. A picnic table is near me and I quickly crawled over to it and hid underneath, hoping there wouldn't be any spiders underneath there.
That's when I see him. He walks past and then stops right in front of the table. His feet are huge, larger than a size thirteen shoe. I don't even think there is a size bigger than thirteen. His toe nails were long and dirty. I held my breath so I couldn't breathe in his dreadful odour, as well as not wanting him to hear me breathing. I wonder if he has good hearing. Could he hear a person breathing heavily or even if their heart is pumping so fast?
Suddenly the table is lifted up and being thrown against the camp area. I look up and see him starting down at me, growling and showing me his large yellow teeth. I didn't even know if I should have scream or not to alert Julian and Sally. He puts his head back and puts his chest out, letting out a roar.
I scramble to my feet, but didn't get a chance to run. Bigfoot grabs the back of my sweater, lifting me off the ground. He lifts me up until my face is directly in front of his. I couldn't see his face in the dark, but I can smell his bad breath. I had to hold my breath so I couldn't breathe it in. The smell was so strong, I like something had died inside his mouth.
Using my torch, I shine the light in his face. His eyes were dark, his nose was the same shape as a human's, and his mouth was like a gorilla's, except his teeth were just like human teeth. He opens his mouth and roars into my face.
I scream at the top of my lungs, yelling out to Julian. Bigfoot grabs the torch from my hand and then drops it on the ground. He stomps on it until it breaks. It's now pitched black. Suddenly I'm no longer being hold on by his giant gorilla hand and I'm being dropped to the ground. Every part of my body aches. My chin hits something. I think it might have been a small rock. I lay there still, unable to move.
"David!" Julian yells my name.
I hear Bigfoot stomping away. I see a light coming my way. It's Julian. I quickly scramble to my feet no matter how much pain I'm in.
"Julian, turn the light off!" I tell him.
"Why?"
I reach him. He scans the light up and down, examining me.
"What happened to you, David?"
"It doesn't matter what happened to me, Julian. He doesn't like bright light."
I snatch the flashlight from Julian and switch it off. It's now pitched black and I couldn't even make out the outline of Julian. He grabs my arm so he knew I was still with him. We don't make any movement or any sound as we hear Bigfoot stomping around.
"Where's Sally?" I whisper.
"She is in the tent. I told her to stay while I get you."
It goes quiet again and I wasn't sure if it was safe enough to turn the light back on or not. After a few seconds of quietness, an owl hoots, something knocks against a tree trunk, and I hear something that might be a raccoon.
I switched on the light, but I don't shine it around in case it makes Bigfoot angry and he comes charging after us.
We head back to the tent.
"I think he doesn't like bright lights," I say.
"How do you know?"
"I don't know. All I know is he attacked me and then he snatched the flashlight from my hand, stomping on it. Maybe that's why he tried to attack us the other night. I was waving it around and he didn't like it. When I shone it in his face, he got angry."
"I would too if you tried to blind me with it."
"I'm serious, Julian. I don't think he likes lights."
"That's insane. If he didn't like the light then he wouldn't be out during the day."
"Maybe daylight is different."
"Okay, you have a point on that one. Do you think that's why they may not come near camp areas at night, especially if there is a campfire?"
"I don't know. I don't think he would come near a campfire. He might be afraid of fire, just like any animal would."
We halt for a second to listen for his footsteps behind us. I make sure the flashlight is facing the ground and not through trees where Bigfoot could be hiding and could get cranky if I point it directly at him. Everything is silent around us. Not even the owls or frogs were making a noise in the background.
Without waiting any longer to see whether or not he will jump put and show his face, we hurried back to the tent. My knees were killing me, but I pushed myself.
We reach the tent, and thankfully my sister was still there safe. As I climbed inside the tent, she pulls me close to her, hugging and began crying, thinking she had lost me.
"What were you doing out there?" Julian asks.
"I heard something, so I went to check out. I thought it was a raccoon, but it wasn't."
"You shouldn't have gone out there on your own."
"I know, I know. I'm so stupid for going out there."
Julian shines the light over my injuries so we could examine them. I had a scratch under my chin, a few scrapes on my on my palms and a gash on both knees. We didn't have a first aid kit with us, but these injuries weren't that bad I don't think so we didn't need to seek medical treatment. The hospital is miles away. They would want an explanation for any injuries as well. How do I tell them it was caused by Bigfoot? I would be laughed at, maybe even be sent to a psychiatric ward. What would I tell my dad when he finds out where I have been?
"Okay, these injuries aren't serious so we will check it out in the morning," Julian says. "Maybe you could wash the dry blood in the river. For now we will just stay in here so we don't upset Bigfoot anymore."
"If he was around in this area, how come we could never see him before?" Sally wants to know.
Julian and I shrugged.
"Bigfoot is a mysterious creature. No one can really explain the things he does," Julian answers.
"He won't attack us, would he?"
Julian shakes his head. "No. David was just being an idiot and upset him."
I wrack him in the arm. "I was not being an idiot. I just got scared, tried to run, which maybe had freaked out Bigfoot as much as he freaked me out."
"Look, we should get some sleep and we will see if we can find him in the morning. Maybe he will leave tracks for us to follow."