After I got by but chewed up by my grandmum, I guess I had to go and get ready for this sticking camping trip that I just found out about. I do not even like camping! But, a week of it? Are you kidding me? I cannot believe that they are doing this! It should be child abuse to make your kids stay out in tents in the mountains away from electricity and civilization for a week!
I filled my bag with as many batteries and electronics as possible. My bag was getting super heavy, and I could not really move with that thing on. That freaking Neanderthal picked my backpack up with just a pinky finger with a butt load of other things not even noticing my struggles with it. Something was just not right with him, and my mom had her blinders on. I did not think that grandmum would like this brute, but I was wrong. Am I the only one going crazy?
We drove for an hour, but it felt longer with my mom's music, it must be werewolf day. At least Randall was just as annoyed as I was with it. She seemed to get a good kick out of torturing us with loud screamo-emo music or that stupid Werewolves of London song. Then again we were dragged out into the middle of nowhere. Nothing but trees, mountains, and the lake. We drove past the H.J. Andrews experimental forest what was that all about. We are on across the lake, but what the heck is an experimental forest? What do they do there?
No one seemed to be worried about camping here, but no one at the campgrounds seemed normal either at Lookout Campgrounds we drove by, or Mona where we were staying at. The men were huge, hairy, and savage. The kids were extremely hyperactive, and I mean like really hyperactive. They were running up, down, around and through our campsites, the lake, or the forest, chasing each other, screaming, and horsing around. I heard about some mudslinging fight at the lake. It was just pure chaos and disorder while all the parents were getting their campsites set up.
My mum looked like she was having a horrible time trying to get the chairs set up. I cannot understand why she was so happy and did not mind those kids bumping in to everything. Emily and I stayed in the truck like we were surrounded by rabid wolves. I could have sworn they were foaming at the mouths.
I do not know what would happen if they bumped into the tents that Randall was building, but he had a huge tent. Well ours was pretty big, but holy crap his was a 20 person tent. I know he was a big guy, but that's a little overkill. But hey, my mum was a sucker for huge strong men anyway.
She looked towards us and opened the door to the truck coaxing us to come out to play with the kids. We both thought she was crazy, but all the kids set their eyes upon us. I could read their mouths saying fresh meat. I mean those teeth they were razor sharp!
Randall stared at us with the wicked most grin saying. "What's gotten you two so spooked? They're only just kids" he said.
Emily and I looked at each other and gulped. My mum just giggled and looked towards the kids unafraid. She bent over and lowered herself to their level. "Just so ye know. This is their first time camping...Why don't ye all show them how to have fun out here"
I could see some of the boys were looking down my mum's shirt, and I shot them a death glare. My mum started to whisper something into their ears, and they all looked towards Randall who shot them more of a scary than I could ever do. "Don't you even think about it!" he warned them.
Those kids looked like they were going to pee their pants, but my mum rolled her eyes at him and laughed at him. "That goes for ye as well, love" she told him placing her hand upon his chest firmly though it looked more like she was grabbing his leash and pulling him back. She looked over at us and shooed us off, which the kids sort of ran us off in a stampede. I want to fall and get trampled to death, but somehow Emily ended up even farther ahead than me; although, she was being pulled along by some girls.
I think we were going to the lake, but we were cutting across all the campsites. Did I forget to mention that all the men there were scary and big. Well, they were not nearly as monstrous as Randall was, but still, even some of the mothers looked like you would not want to mess with either. The teenagers were out in their own crowd wrestling each other on the beach and being even more rough and rowdy than the kids were. They seemed to be imitating most of what they did. I do not know why they would like to act like such savage animals.
I did not have any place to escape to, but I did not feel like I fit in with any of them. That was when this kid around my age came over and looked at me closely as if judging me. He had just gotten from conversing with a few of his cousins/siblings? I don't know the relation they all had.
He smirked and flashed his fang/tooth? "Heya, My name is Terry! I saw you come in with Randall" he said.
"Why are you talking to him? He's the reason why we can't have any real fun here!" One of the younger kids said.
Terry looked back over at them with a smirk. "Didn't they tell us how to show him how to have fun?"
"I'm going to tell mom that you're being stupid again!" a little girl told him.
Terry growled at her like a dog would. "I didn't do anything, Zoe!"
I did not know what they were talking about. "What do you mean? How is he being stupid? You weren't thinking about sneaking over to the Experimental Forest...were you?"
"Well there's an idea" Terry said evilly.
"We can't go over there...not with them!" Zoe protested.
"What's so special about that forest anyway?" I interrupted the two.
"Heheh, since you're not from around here, and you're family, I guess we're going to have to tell you about what the Government has been hiding in that forest" Terry told us. The teenagers stopped their antics and looked towards us as if called upon. Though they kept their distance, Terry went on. "You see back over there they keep humans out...well...only if you have a badge. There are some truly terrifying creatures living in that forest. OSU has a lab somewhere in that forest. They cover up stuff so no one will know!" Terry explained.
The teens came over and grabbed Terry by the head giving him a noogie and pestering him. "There isn't anything special about that forest. My uncle, just has a heck of an imagination. Don't you?" one of them asked. Terry winced at how roughly he was being treated.
"Well, what do they do over there?" I pushed them. "Wait...you're his nephew? How does that work?"
"Yup! Get this. Our dad is Terry and Zoe's brother. Our Grandpa Bernie is the brother to Randall's mom. I think that makes you two our...what are they like second cousins? Randall's our First cousin once removed?" he asked. They all shrugged their shoulders.
"I dunno...I don't keep track. All I know is that Grandpa Bernie side of family is on one side of the lake, and Auntie Connie side of the family is on this side. I would be more worried about one of the family members getting up a midnight for a late night snack instead of that forest" his sister said.
"There's a lot of us that do that...don't we?" one of them mentioned offhandedly with a snicker.
"Yea, I mean if there were anything top secret going on...wouldn't they have a fence and barbed wire?" Another one asked.
"Well...there's this lake, and then there's the mountains. It would be kind of hard to put in a fence right? And what did you all mean by we would ruin the fun here?" I asked them.
They all looked at each other, and the five teenagers laughed. "If you survive the night, then we might reconsider our opinion. We all know your mother dragged you two along here...This isn't a place for your kind" their leader said before one of the cousins jabbed him in the back with her elbow.
"What he means is that. You're a city boy. It's a lot more different out here than it is in Eugene" the girl said.
"I live in Springfield" I corrected her.
"Same difference...it's still in the city" she muttered.
"Not really...just trailer parks and sketchy houses. I got my bikes stolen there a couple of times...and my skateboard" their leader said.
"Psh, no, it isn't. You just hung out on the bad part of town" His sister interjected.
"My Daddy lives in the better part of town" Emily spoke up.
I had no idea what she was talking about, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I stomped off and went back to our campsite where the beds were being inflated. I found my dog's leash and hooked it up to his collar. "Mom, I'm taking Cerberus out for a walk to the park!" I shouted.
My mom turned and smiled at me. "Okay honey, oh and take your sister with you" she requested.
"Psh, Oh fine" I huffed. I waited for my sister to stop roaming around and gave back over, but I decided to just take off anyway. I wondered towards the bridge where Emily skipped down the gravel road looking off to the river bed. The lake was low exposing mud, but there was a section where there were river rocks. I walked out and underneath the bridge.
"I like this place. Cerberus likes it here too" she said happily. I glared and kicked a rock down the riverbed. The rock hit Cerberus's hind leg causing him to jump and yelp. He look back whimpering with his ears pinned back hoping that he did not upset me.
"Hey! Don't hurt him!" Emily shouted.
I did not know who I could trust. I felt betrayed by my own sister. "He's just a stupid dog. He doesn't even know who his master is" I said coldly.
Emily walked up to Cerberus and stroked the fur on the back of his neck. "You're mean! You're not his master! He's our family! Our protector" she argued with me before she leaned her head into her dog's ear. "It's okay" she spoke into his ear softly.
"Tch, He hid from Randall when he first saw him. Some protector he is..." I muttered to myself.
She glared back at me like I was a hypocrite or something. "Randall is super big...he's got a scary voice too. You ran away too you know!" She said.
"Shut up! I didn't run from him! He's not our dad either! You wouldn't know! You never met our real dad!" I shouted at her.
She looked down at the ground, and her lip quivered. "But...I never heard mommy or granny, or granda say good things about him. They don't like to talk about..." she said before I interrupted.
"You're just stupid! They don't like to talk about him because he's in prison! Just you wait! You'll see that he's not a bad guy!" I muttered before I walked faster. Emily ran off crying, and I guess some of the adults had overheard us. I never had that look given to me before. They were pissed, but they took Emily back to the campsite with them. My dog whimpered looking off toward her and tried to go with her. He kept whimpering and pulled against the leash, and I yanked it back trying to get him under control. He slipped his collar and ran towards Emily.
I dropped the leash and ran off before those people could say anything to me. I did not know where I was going. I just had to get out of there before they beat me. I ran and ran until I lost my breath. Well, I actually got light headed and blacked out. When I woke up I had rolled down the hill, and nothing looked the same. I could not see the campgrounds or the lake. I was...alone.
At first I thought about how much they would freak out and forget about being mad at me. They will send a search party for me, and my mom will end this stinking camping trip. After the first thirty minutes, I got bored. I started to wonder about the forest aimlessly. Everything looked the same. I did not know where I was going. I heard something about moss on the North side of trees. Who knew in Oregon moss grows on all sides to the trees even on top and bottom. These trees looked like they had fur all over, and even the rocks.
Where the heck am I? I should not have gotten that far. Did I just pass that rock not too long ago? Oh crud! I have been going around in circles the whole time! I had to stop before I got even more lost. I had been wondering for an hour or so. Surely they have noticed that I was gone...I hope.
The sun had set behind the mountains, and it was starting to get cold...and dark. I did not think anyone would find me. There were some strange sounds coming through the forest, so I panicked an ran behind a tree to hide. It was Terry, his sister, and his cousins running through the forest. What the heck? "Hey! What are you doing out here!? Where are all the adults?"
One of the teens scowled at me. "Well if it isn't the dog abuser..." the leader muttered to me lowly. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and I thought I saw his eyes glow. "I don't know why they can't let me gut you like a trout" he said in a scary voice. I thought he was just being tough, but his cousin stopped him.
"Hey, you don't want to upset Gramps...or Randall for that matter. You might have begun to grow fur but they can still bury you into the ground" she told him before she looked back at me with contempt.
The leader snorted. "Tch, but still...I'm not dragging that little shit back to camp" he muttered as he started to walk off.
Terry and Zoe looked at each other then towards their elder cousin. "We're just going to leave him? What would happen if dad found out?" he asked.
The leader stopped and glared at him. "What are you going to tell him that we saw him?"
Terry growled back at him. "He'll find out...he always finds out! He's a cop you know!' he raised his voice. The leader continued off and bolted into the forest. Some of the others followed, but Terry and Zoe remained as well as the only teenager that seemed to care. She pitied me...I did not need to be pitied!
"Come on! Let's go back" She told us.
I did not have any choice but to hold my tongue and follow them through the quickly darkening forest. I do not know how they were able to get around through it. "Watch out!" Terry shouted as he grabbed me just before I ran into a boulder. I almost scraped my knee into it. It was jagged and not softly padded with moss. My hand brushed up against its sharp surface.
"Ow! What is that!?" I asked them.
"It's a lava rock" Terry told me.
"Lava? You mean like Volcano Lava?" I asked them.
"Well, duh...where else does lava come from?" His cousin scoffed.
"But...where's the volcano?" I asked.
"I dunno...which volcano it came from...could be one that's long gone now" His cousin muttered.
"You mean there are more!?" I shouted.
"I'm pretty sure like every mountain here used to be a volcano. There's like tons of these rocks all over the place around here" she mumbled pushing against the rock with her foot, and it moved. We made it back into the campground, and there were still tons of kids running around.
The parents and teenagers were devouring hamburgers, hot dogs, everything in sight. My mom was in the giant tent laying on a giant inflatable recliner with her hand stuffed under Randall's shirt rubbing his belly like some dog. Emily was on a cot with Cerberus petting him, while she looked towards them imitating her. Did they even miss me? Did they know that I was gone? Why were they not worried?
I snuck in as best as I could, and that monster told my mother that I was here. He did not even open one eye. My mother looked towards me kind of worried, but I would have expected her to be crying. She got up and walked up to Terry and his cousins. "Thank you for bringing him back. Would you like something to eat?" she asked.
Randall sat up and stared at her. She looked back at him giving him this strange look. I could not tell if she was angry or just really amused. "They deserve a reward don't they?" she asked. She batted her eyes at him and giggled. "We have plenty of food lying around" she argued.
He stared at her and snorted watching us menacingly. Terry and his cousins gulped, and they backed up. "Um, well thanks but...we have plenty of food at our campsite" Terry's cousin muttered.
Before they turned to go back, my mum smirked and sighed heavily. "Oh well...I guess I bought too much peanut butter for peanut butter smores" she said. I looked at her like she was crazy, but Terry and his cousins looked back at her shocked.
"You mean you know?" His cousin asked.
My mum nodded very pleased with herself. "I know a lot more than you think. Do you think Randall would have invited someone like me here if I didn't?" she asked.
"That's not how you make smores mum! You use chocolate!" I corrected her.
"Well, that's how we always make them" Zoe said.
"Are you sure they know?" Terry asked looking towards Emily and me.
My mum shook her head. "They don't understand. They haven't been around your people before" she told them. "Please, welcome them into the pack. They don't have to know everything...well, not right now. Leave that to Randall and I" she told them before she placed a hand over her lower belly. "Your family is going to get a lot bigger now"
I do not know what kind of doubletalk or code she was saying, but Terry's cousin's jaw dropped. "You mean?" she shrieked before my mum nodded and blushed. "Oh wow! How did you manage to tame a wolf like Randall?"
"I didn't really tame him. I more like bribed him with food and other things" she said before she looked towards Randall and grinned evilly. "I would rather have the wild stay in him. That wouldn't be healthy for him" she said before she winked at him. Terry's cousin blushed and giggled at Randall's reaction.
Zoe and Emily looked between them, but I guess they saw the love my mum had for this beast. "Daddy is the biggest wolf I have ever seen!" she shouted. They all laughed at her, but I hated that she called him her father.
These people were so weird. I never seen so much peanut butter slopped onto on a gram cracker. I put chocolate on mine, but none of them would even touch it. My mum went back to Randall and did the same as she was before with treating him like a dog. No one seemed to care or notice. Was I still the only one going crazy here?
As night fell, I was welcomed with the strange slapping, squishing, and slurping sounds and deep low growls coming from my mum's tent. She was giggling and making the weirdest moaning sounds with him chuckling evilly. It felt like forever this was going on. Could they give the making out a rest?
It was hard for me to sleep, so I got out my game and turned it on. My mom told him to relax stop moving around or else he would pop the mattress. Emily giggled and looked up at me smiling. I looked up at her annoyed, but she kept smiling at me. "Hehe, mommy keeps calling him big bad"
I rolled my eyes at her. "So?"
Emily grinned evilly. "You think she found someone to play dress up with?"
"I don't even want to think about that! She's too old to be dressing up in costumes" I raised my voice at her.
She stuck her tongue out at me. She got up out of her sleeping bag and opened the tent. "You know, there's a lot of people dressing up in costumes around here. Do you think Randall has one too?" she asked.
I looked up at her confused and sat my game down. "Tch, his whole family is weird! They act like a bunch of wild animals!"
"They are just fun" she said as she looked outside and gulped hearing an owl screech out loud. "Um...I gotta go pee"
"Then go to the bathroom then!" I shouted at her.
"I'm scared"
I do not know why she could not have mom take her. "Argh! Fine!" I raised my voice. I threw the sleeping bag open and stuffed my game in my pocket. She looked at me nervously and gulped. I went past her and walked out onto the blacktop. There was a shadow that moved across the moonlit road. Emily ran up to me, and I looked up at an owl swooping down and catching a mouse in the clearing.
Emily freaked out and pointed. "Jack! What was that!?"
"Tch, It's just an owl! Stop being such a baby!" I told her.
Her face puffed up and crossed her arms over her chest. "Am not a baby!" she muttered.
Once we got to the bathrooms, I sat up against the wall and pulled my game out. I got so soaked into my game that I did not realize my sister was already out. "Hey!" she spoke abruptly.
I jumped and dropped my game on the ground. "What the hell, Emily!" I shouted.
She stuck her tongue out at me and laughed. "Scared you!"
"You didn't scare me!" I shouted at her. I picked my game up and checked it for damages. I could not see anything, but I was sure a chip was taken out of it. We walked back to the campsite, and we could hear howling...and it was all over the place. I got a little nervous because it sounded really close, like from that experimental forest across the lake.
I heard Cerberus start to bark his head off at the howling. Something was not right. Usually my mom would shout at him to shut up. When we got to the campsite, he was hiding under the picnic table whimpering. "What the heck! What are you doing under there!?" I raised my voice. Emily and I tried to coax our dog out, but she looked back and gripped onto my shirt tugging at it.
When I turned around there was one of Terry's teenage cousins only...he had grown hair and sharp fangs. "Nice costume! But you aren't going to scare me!" I told him.
My mum unzipped the tent and poked her head out. "Hey!" she shouted. She walked out in her pajama bottoms and t-shirt and marched over to him. "What do ye think yer doing here!" she told him off. She got in his face and stared him down. "Ye get yer arse out of here before Randall gets up!"
I heard a deep vicious growl come out from inside her tent, and she looked back at a pair of glowing eyes peering out in the darkness of the tent. The teenager ran off, and my mother went to whatever was inside. "Just get back to bed handsome. I'll cuddle with you in a wee bit" she told him. She spoke to him endearingly and not at all threatened. Was this all some sort of a dream?
Emily was curious and walked towards the tent, which my mom stopped her. "Um, it's late...ye should get some sleep" she said.
"Is Randall in a costume too?" Emily asked.
My mother giggled, but it sounded nervous. "No...he's naked. Now get to bed. Mummy has to take care of the big bad wolf" she told us. The eyes vanished into the depths of the tent. I went back to bed and my mum went back to whatever she was doing. The howling did not stop, and my mum made a joke about him not going out to join the howling. All Randall said was that he would rather stay with her and assert his claim...whatever that meant. She then said that he was only staying behind to keep us from going out into the woods, which he laughed at her.
His whole family was freaking weird. A pack of wolves they were. I was glad to be out of the forests with those creatures. Now it was just Randall, the biggest one of them all. I needed to get away from the sight of him being with her, and like usual I got stuck with Emily. Wait, Is that Sam? As I got to the park, I met a boy whom I recognized from school.
He was a black haired kid looked a bit like a young Elijah Wood from the Good Son. "Jack!? Is that you? What are you doing over here?" he shouted. He was just as excited and shocked as I was.
"Sam? This is where you moved to? I thought you moved far away?" I asked.
Sam shook his head. "Nope, Just to a new school. Hey! Wanna see my new house?" he asked.
"Yeah!" I answered back before he took me straight to his house that was only a couple blocks away from Randall's house. He knocked on the door, and soon a dirty blonde haired sixteen year old girl came to the door. She smiled at me before she turned back. "Mom! Jack's here!" she shouted up the stairs.
"What?" She shouted before she rushed back down stairs. She stood behind her daughter looking over, and her eyes widened in shock. "Oh, Jack...where's your mom?" she asked me as she looked around outside hoping to see her car.
"She's back at the house" I explained.
His mother looked at me horrified probably thinking I ran away again. "You walked all the way from Mohawk with your sister!?" she asked.
I shook my head and pointed towards the direction of Randall's house. "No, mom is found a guy down the road..." he said.
Emily nodded. "Uh-huh, he's really big and super nice" she said before the mother let out a huge sigh of relief she let us inside. Sam followed him into the family room to play video games.
Sam's sister followed behind then leaned against the wall acting cool. She looked down at us and smirking. "So did you see that house down the road?" she asked. I looked at her confused before she snickered. "Okay, okay since you're not from around here. I'm going to fill you in on a little rumor I heard from David...He says that he and his friends were out in the fields last month and they said they saw the guy who lived there" she said.
Her thirteen year old brother came out of his bedroom and crossed his arms over his chest grinning. "You telling him about the werewolf?" he asked.
I stared at him confused. "There's a werewolf around here?" I asked.
Her brother laughed. "Yup! He ate a hunter two years ago. There was hardly anything left of him...in fact the only thing left to identify the body was from a tattoo on a chunk of putrefied flesh" he said before he pulled out his phone. "Check out how freaking huge this werewolf is!" he said showing a picture.
I squinted at the picture seeing the large dark blurry figure in the field. It looked like it was running towards the camera, but the lighting was too poor to make out much of anything. "You're just trying to scare me. Werewolves aren't real!" I told him. Her brother flipped through his phone showing a better picture of the figure but a figure of a woman on her tip toes holding hands with the larger figure about ready to kiss it.
I shivered familiar with the woman's figure and enormous boobs, but the other shape looked very human as well. "Mom?" I muttered.
"What's your mom doing with the werewolf?" David asked.
"I don't see a werewolf" I raised his voice.
The mother came in the room and put her hand on her hip. "David! I thought I told you to quit making up stories! That was a bear in the field and you know it!" she shouted at him.
David snickered. "I wasn't mom! I was just showing him the pictures of the bear" he said before he started texting someone. The mother rolled her eyes at him before she looked at me severely.
"Why don't you go back outside? Emily is waiting for you outside" she suggested before she left.
David's phone vibrated, and he smirked. "Tony's meeting us at the corner...he's got video of the werewolf on his phone. He can show us it" he said. Sam and I got off the couch and followed David outside. Tony stood at the corner before we met up with them. David grinned. "Hey! Hey! Show him the video of the werewolf!" he said eagerly.
Tony stared at him and gulped. "Uh...my baby sister got a hold of my phone, and she deleted all my pictures" he said.
David growled. "Dude! You serious!?" he yelled clenching his fist. "How are we supposed to prove that there's a werewolf in the neighborhood now!?" he yelled.
"What's a werewolf?" Emily asked cutely. They ignored her, and she looked to Cerberus sadly feeling left out.
There was a loud howl and a woman's scream turned into a moan. David's sister held out her phone playing a video. The all looked back at her in shock. "You have a video?" David shrieked.
"I might...maybe I should delete it" she said.
"Come on Katie! Show us it!" David begged.
Katie turned around smirking. "Nope...not until you promise to let me go to the fields with you" she said waving her phone.
"Deal! We'll do whatever you say!" David shouted while he stretched his hand out.
Katie grinned wider knowing she had them. "And you better give me all the chocolate bars I want during Halloween...and don't hold out on me either!" she said. David hesitated, which she pushed delete. "Oops!" she muttered showing him the message deleted on her screen.
"No!" David shouted falling to his knees.
"I'm down to the last ones...want me to delete 'em too?" she asked.
"Tch! I bet you're trying to trick us! You don't have any video" David said.
Katie turned to Emily and showed her a video. "Oh cool! So that's a werewolf? He's really big and scary!" the little girl said.
David stared at her and growled. "That could be any Youtube video" he said.
"Look! It's Randall's house!" Emily said pointing at the phone.
"Who's Randall, sweetie?" Katie asked.
"Randall is my new daddy. Mom and Grandma really like him" Emily said innocently.
"How long has your Mom been with him?" Katie asked.
"Uh...I don't know, the whole summer?" Emily said cutely.
Katie thought about it for a moment before she looked back at me and her brothers. She started deleting her videos in front of them covering up the dates, and David gasped in shock.
"You dumb blonde! Do you know what you just did?" David shouted.
Katie rolled her eyes at him. "I don't want to start up drama with a werewolf. He hasn't done anything to us. The video wasn't that good anyway" she said before she walked inside.
David grabbed onto Emily looking into her eyes intensely. "What did it look like! Did he look like a wolf or man? I gotta know!" he shouted.
"Uh, both! I think he was dragging a deer across the field" she said.
Tony sighed. "Maybe next full moon we can go back out to the field" he said.
I began to feel very uneasy. Things were starting to make sense, but that cannot be true. Werewolves do not exist, do they? That boy! That was not a costume! My mom could have died! Wait, that thing in the tent...that does not make sense. Does she know? "Uh, maybe I can stay the night at your place?" I said feeling nervous with Katie's reaction. I never saw her get cold feet midway through one of her extortion bouts.
"Yea...wait...when is the next full moon?" Sam asked.
David pulled out his phone and held it near his mouth. "Okay google! When is the next full moon?" he asked.
"The next full moon will be on Monday the Seventh of October" the phone said, but the phone also showed a couple nights before was the last full moon.
"Shit! That's a school night!" David shouted. "Uh...what about the next one?" he asked as he skimmed through the full moon chart. "Well we can do it in December" he muttered before Jack gulped.
"But by then my mom will be living with him!" I shouted.
"And?" David muttered.
"That means I'll be living with him too, dummy!" I added.