When I was in high school, I was one of the reporters for the school news. There were Kyle, Mark, Kevin, and me, Cole. It was time for our last article, since we were all going to graduate at the end of that year. So to make this occasion special, we all decided to go on a camping trip for one night, on the weekend. Kyle, who was the leading reporter said we weren't going to have regular camping trip, he said we were going to have "horror" camping trip. He said we were going to the Blueside Forest, which was infamous for its dark history of murder, suicides, people gone missing, and haunted.
Since all the "haunted" places we visited so far were nothing but bogus and bullshit lies, we all thought this was going to be the same case. We all agreed to make preparation and meet in front of the school on saturday morning. When the day came, Kyle brought the tent and blanket on back of his truck, Mark brought the cooking utensils, Kevin brought the camcorder (since he was also cameraman) and foods, and I brought drinks. We all loaded up on the truck, and we drove to the forest. It was good 1-2 hour driving, and Mark was snoring next to me, which was really beginning to bug me.
We finally arrived at the enterance of the forest. As we began unloading our stuff from the truck, I looked at the enterance. Something was telling me there was something very wrong about this place and we shouldn't go in.
"Hey, Cole!" said Kevin, "Snap out of it and help us unload this!"
"Sorry, man" I replied, "Hey, Kyle. The camp site is not that far right?"
"Oh it's not that far." said Kyle, "Just 10-15 min walk."
"With all thes shits to carry? Man, I really hate you sometimes" said Mark in frustration.
"Okay....aaannnddd....we're....rolling!" said Kevin as he turned on the camcorder.
The weather was really hot and sunny day that day, and we were soaked in sweats in the first 5 minutes of walking. Eventually, Kyle told us to put down the luggages.
"Are we.....finally....here?" I said as I tried to catch my breath.
"Yeah." said Kyle with a smile "Okay everyone, we're going to take five and then set up the camp."
We all collapsed and breathed heavily. I looked around our surroundings. We were in a small clearing surrrounded by trees. That's when I noticed something unusal.
"Hey, guys," I said "What's this on the tree trunk?"
It was a humanoid figurine made of hay. The figurine was nailed to the tree trunk.
"That's vodoo doll." said Mark "Supposely, if you make a vodoo doll of someone and nail it to the tree, that person will be cursed for a long time"
"Umm, what's a thing like that doing here?" I asked, now with uneasy feeling.
"It's a haunted forest, what do you expect?" said Kyle. "Now, give us a hand with the tent"
It took longer thatn expected to set up the tent. by the time we settled in the tent, it was already night. Thankfully, Mark brought a candle for us. Kyle suggested we tell creepypastas and other scary stories we know. So we talked and listened. It went well over midnight. and as time went by, we found ourselves soaked in sweat once again, now accompanied with heavy heartbeats, minds full of fears.
"...and the old man said 'I have spoken with god. And he has abandoned us'. His vitals stopped after that" Kyle finished his story.
"Guys, let's go to bed. I barely can stay awake" complained Mark with yawn. "The candle is almost dead, too."
"Yeah I agree." Kevin said "The camcorder is almost out of juice, too"
Speak of the devil, the candle went out. After a half second of silence, we were panicking. Kyle had to calm us down. Yeah, it really was a good time to go to sleep. As we laid down on the uneven surface of earth under the thin layer of tent, I realized there was no light. It was complete utter darkness, encapsulating my body. There was not even a moon that night. That's when we all heard it.
snap
The sound of tree branch breaking. Followed by sound of footsteps through the grass. We al got up to sitting position.
tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap
The footsteps stopped in front of our tent. We couldn't say anything. Kyle who was colsest to the door was slowly backing away. We were all sacred of whatever outside coming into the tent. I felt like my heart was going to break out of rib cage and burst out of my body. It wasn't animal by the sound. We knew it was human being. I gulped in fear. Then the footsteps begin to draw away from the tent. until I couldn't heear it anymore. I let out a sigh of relief. I laid down again. Who was that? And why did he not come in? My eyerids felt heavy as I succumed to the sleep.
"COLE! WAKE UP!" A yell awoke me. I looked around, and everyone was already awake and calling me outside. I got quickly dressed and headed outside. They were all gathered around something. Kevin was using last of the camcorder battery to film whatever it was.
"What's wrong?" I asked
"Take a look at this" Mark said as he got out of the way.
The vodoo doll. It had lot more nails pierced through. There was only one yseterday. Now, there were 7-8 nails, piercing the arm , leg, head, thigh, and various places/
"What the fuck?" I said
"Yeah, it was like this when I first got up." said Kyle.
"Hmm..." I desperately tried to think of logcial reason. "What about that person last night?
"If he hammered the nailes to the doll THIS close to the tent," Kyle explained "We would've heard it. We would've awoken up by it"
Nobody wanted to stay there anymore. We disassembled the tent and quickly exited the forest.
two days later, I got a call from Kevin. He said he finished recharging the camcorder, and put all the video recordings from that day. He wanted all of us to come over and view it. We all got to his house, and sat down on the couch in the living room.
"Now, I only put all the recordings from that day, and didn't do any other editing." said Kevin.
As we watched ourselves in the tv, we were laughing and talking about the moments in the video. We also took notes on what cilps should stay and what should be deleted.
At the final 30 seconds, we were all expecting the vodoo doll with many nails through its body. But instead, we were cut to scene in our tent, showing all four of us sleeping soundly.....Wait, who was filiming us sleeping?
We were patrified and could do nothing but stare at that scene. We once again found ourselves sweating, now with loss of words. We all felt as if madness has taken over us, pulling us back to that camping place.