Horror-able ending.

I didn’t have many friends. But I had them.

We ran as fast as we could through the woods, we knew where we were going, even though we were paying no attention to the direction. 

I probably wouldn’t have been able to breathe and collapsed if I wasn’t so full of adrenaline. Casey was only a few meters or so behind me but I still felt the need to whisper-yell the words, “Come on!” to her.

I could see her fight to speed up, the quick breath she took as she ran. Max was in front of me, along with Wiatt, Olive, and Jacob. I was starting to feel light headed, no doubt the result of all of this running. 

Although I’m barely keeping pace, when Casey gets closer, I grab her hand and pull her up ahead. She stumbles slightly but stays upright and doesn't slow. I can’t tell how much time is passing but it doesn’t really matter, sooner than I would have thought possible however, we arrive at a break in the woods. 

I slow down in response and start to realize how shallow my breathing is and how fast my heart is beating. My head spins and the thump in my chest is so strong that it hurts. No matter how hard I try, my lungs can’t seem to gather enough air.

I half sit and half fall as I try to stay conscious and catch my breath, I look up at Max for a moment, but when I see them glaring down at me, I quickly look away.

“That. Was. So. Cool.” Wiatt says in between breaths. Honestly, I’m surprised he managed to stay ahead of me the entire time, but it doesn’t really matter. 

“Right?” I respond, kind of warily and out of breath, afraid of what the others will think of me. I'm still out of breath so it’s more of a breath out but it’s obvious that the others heard me.

Max looked down at me, their expression a mix of shock and disgust. “What is wrong with you? That was not-”

They begin, but Jacob interrupts. I back up slightly, I’ve never heard that tone of voice in Max before, or seen such a dirty glare.

“Max, calm down.” Jacob says, but he’s also glaring at 

Wiatt and I.

“Calm down? Calm down! We didn’t just run a race or find a treasure chest, that was a dead body, someone who had a life, he had a ring on, he was married! People cared about him, loved him, he didn’t look even old enough to be my dad! That wasn’t cool, it was traumatic. We need to call the police, we need to- need to-” Max begins to hyperventilate and we all immediately rush over to calm them down.

Olive, while rubbing their back, begins to speak, in a stern 

but also a scared voice. “We can’t call the police.”
“Why not?” Max yells in a panic.

“Think about it! Then we’d be involved! Why did we run? Why were we there? How did we find it? Why was it in our hang out? We’d be suspects!” Olive counters.

“We ran because we were scared!” Max yells.

“Scared of what, getting caught? You know I like learning about law, they will think of anything to throw at us.” Olive says, calmly.

“Well, we can’t just do nothing.” Casey says.

“Yes, we can. We don't have to get involved.” Jacob interferes. 

“Guys,” I say quietly, frozen.

“We already are involved! We became involved the second we saw anything, the second that guy ended up at our hang out, the second we took a step away, the second we said anything. We’re already involved!”
“Hey, guys?” I say slightly louder.

They continue bickering. Eventually, I yell, which gets 

everyone’s attention. 

“Guys!” I yell, they all look at me. They follow my gaze and see the exact same figure I see. 

Jacob calls out a cuss and then it’s silent, the figure backs away into the woods on the other side of the opening. We’re frozen for a moment until Olive butts in.

“She… won’t tell anyone, right?” 

“That we found a dead body? No, the meanest girl in school, why would she say anything? It’s not like we look incredibly guilty of murder right now.” Olive says in a sassy voice.

We all shiver.

“Should we go after her?” Wiatt asks warily.

“And scare her half to death? If she thinks we killed someone, who’s to say that we wouldn’t kill her?” Olive says.

“I’ve thought about it.” Wiatt whispers under his breath. 

I ignore him. 

“If we go to the police now, then she won’t have any reason to turn us in.” I say.

Everyone is immediately fighting again, reasons why we should and shouldn’t go. 

“Maybe we imagined it. Let’s go home, get some sleep, and go back tomorrow, in the daylight. If there’s a body, we can go to the police, if it’s a badly positioned rock or coat then we go on about our lives.” Jacob says.

“Please, it was light enough to make out details. Remember the ring, how old he looked, his haircut and outfit, it wasn’t our imagination.” Max says.

“You’re right, but we didn’t do anything wrong and maybe this is all just a bad dream. We’re going to wake up and realize how silly we were all being. Come on, we left the trail, we’re probably almost half a mile from our house’s. We’d better get going now or Wiatt’s mom is going to call the police… for missing person.” Jacob says.

We all knew this was ridiculous and we were all quiet for a bit, but eventually gave up and began to slowly walk right. we all said good-bye, and although none of us would admit it, we all had a hard time falling asleep and many of us cried themselves to sleep. …

The next morning, we all woke up. No one mentioned anything about the night before as we walked to our hang out together. 

Wiatt and I were silent and just kept looking at each other. Olive, Jacob, and Max seemed to really hope it was a dream.

When we arrived there was nothing there, which surprised us all, but we were all grateful and mentioned nothing.

We all sat in silence until it was uncomfortable. 

Max claimed they had a paper to write and a lot of work to do and was the first to leave. Then came Wiatt, they claimed their favorite cousin was in town, which I doubted because they probably would have mentioned it and I doubted their mom would let them out if she was, but I let it slide. Then came Jacob, he had an event that was so soon that he couldn’t give us any details. 

Casey was simple and said she was hungry and had lunch plans with her mom, and Olive said his dad wanted him to go to his job with him to learn about the value of a dollar. I actually had a feeling that Olive was telling the truth, he’s always been a bad liar, which worried me in this situation, but this was something his father would absolutely do.

By the time I left, I was starving, but then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the same figure as the night before. By the time she was backing up, I was chasing after her.

“Mel!” I called out.

She continued to run but fell. I tried to help her up but she seemed terrified so I just waited for her to get up. I kept a safe distance, one that would allow me to keep up if she ran again but not so close that I could reach over and kill her with a knife or something. 

The thought scared me and I shook my head to shake the thought. She looked at me confused and scared.

“I just want to talk.” I say.

“About what?” She said in a salty voice, it sounded like she was trying to portray her usual intimidating voice. 

“I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to know what you….. thought you saw…. or heard last night.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She said, but it was clear she did. 

It wasn’t a dream, I thought.

“We didn’t do anything.” I say.

“Didn’t sound that way.”
“Look, there’s nothing there. We must have just been… mistaken by what we saw.” I say, more so trying to convince myself instead of convince her.

“Is that supposed to be making me feel better? That you got rid of it?” She asks.

“We didn’t!” I sound defensive and loud, she jumps back so I calm down. “Walk with me.” 

We start to walk, she still seems scared and distant, but we were never friends, she bullied me for years.

“Did you tell anyone?” I ask.

“N-no.” She responds, keeping her eyes on me.

“We really didn’t do anything, I swear.” 

Her response shocks me and she looks away from me, seeming to calm down. 
“I know.” She says in a cold and dead tone.

Just as I’m about to respond, I trip. I’m not quite sure what I tripped over, but I wasn’t paying enough attention and wasn’t able to catch myself. I land on something oddly soft. 

I didn't realize until now that I was staring at the sky and the sky only up until I tripped. When I gather myself, I look at what I landed on and freeze, stuck, frozen, unable to move. I look behind me at what I tripped on, and clench my jaw.

I begin to look around me and I’m horrified. Five bodies. Five bodies I knew very well.

I think back and remember all of my friends had exited this way, it’s the quickest path to our house. I tripped over Wiatt, I landed on Max, two or so meters to my right was Jacob and a few meters ahead were Olive and Casey.

I began to hyperventilate, I remember the guy from last night, his head bleeding and neck slashed, just like all of my friends around me. Mel, beside me, seems perfectly at ease.

I look at her confused, she should be freaking out. She bends over and picks up a large boulder.

“They all came this way, made my job incredibly easy for 

me.” She says, calmly stepping towards me. I crawl back a little.

I remember her words before, I know. 

I scramble back. “Y-you know.Y-you d-didn’t tell a-anyone. You knew where we w-were. You- you-” I stuttered.

“That guy was my dad, apparently he didn’t understand what leave me be meant and followed me when I was on my way to find you six. He got on my nerves. Unfortunately, you arrived before I could hide the body and then contemplated talking to the cops, which would have been very bad for me. I dealt with him last night, but you 6 were still an issue. You all left one by one, same way, it was really too easy, not a lot of fun.”
She pauses and takes in my expression. “Casey put up the biggest fight,” she continues. “It doesn’t hurt much once you’re unconscious, I’m sure. I’ll bury you guys together, don’t worry. You won’t be alone.” She keeps talking as if we’re talking about the weather. 

“Please-” I start. As I continue backing up, I bump into Jacob and freeze.

“It’s so cute when you beg. Olive begged too. Casey’s strong for fourteen, but I guess so am I. Anyways, time to get on with it. Enough chit-chat.”

She steps closer and I start to run, but then there’s a painful bash against my head and I fall down, on the second one I’m out.

Then it’s all over.

My last memory was their faces, their bodies so lifeless.