This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/beef-broth21 on 2024-10-07 01:34:53+00:00.
As we drove down the highway, I watched as the sign for ‘Silver Lake Park’ came and went.
“There’s the sign! We’re almost there.” Georgia yelled, already starting to collect her items and put them back into her backpack.
She’d been urging all of us to plan a weekend camping trip for months, and after some pleading and convincing, we caved.
Georgia had always been the outdoorsy type. Having grown up out in the country, she was always gardening, camping and fishing. But after moving to the city for school, those activities were a little less accessible. She’d always told us stories of her and her family going camping – walking the trails, having campfires, swimming and fishing in the lakes and seeing all kinds of wild animals.
I always thought it sounded fun, I’d done some hiking and went camping once when I was little with my dad and brother. I enjoyed it, but it had been a while since. A couple of the other girls weren’t as enthused. Hailey and Mel were more or less indifferent, they’d never done anything like that before but seemed relatively interested to try.
Laura, on the other hand, couldn’t be less interested. She hated bugs, thought dirt was disgusting and became an absolute menace if she had to go more than a day without showering. I don’t mean to fall on stereotypes, but she fit the ticket when it came to your typical high-maintenance big-city-raised girl. She was confident, demanding and dramatic. But, despite her nose being too high in the air sometimes, she was an incredible friend. So incredible that in seeing how excited Georgia was about the trip (even though the thought of having to sleep in a tent made her nauseous) she agreed to come with us on the trip.
It was about a 2 hour drive from the city to the park we had booked our campsite at. Being students, I was the only one with a car. Naturally this left the driving to me. Georgia was in the passenger seat, yapping on about all the fun things ahead of us on our 3 day excursion. Throughout the drive I would catch the eye of Mel or Hailey in the rearview mirror and we’d give a little smile at each other, shaking our heads in amusement at Georgia’s enthusiastic ramblings. Laura was pretty quiet during the drive, but we could tell she was really trying to be excited.
Finally, we turned into the small parking lot.
We all stumbled out of the car, stretching our legs and gathering our packs. I volunteered to carry the tent with Georgia, since it was in a large cumbersome bag. We ended up getting one of those big 6-person tents. Mel grabbed the cooking supplies, Hailey carried the cooler with all of our drinks, and Laura was left to carry the food itself. Once everyone was situated with their gear and camping supplies, we locked up the car and made our way to the entrance to the trails.
There were five campsites in this area. We were booked in at Pine Flatts, about a 30 minute hike in from the parking lot. We double checked we had everything, and entered into the shaded trail.
There was a main trail that began at the parking lot that eventually branched off to lead to each campsite. The trails were well kept, but relatively narrow, so we had to hike in a single file line. Georgia led, obviously, then it was me, then Mel, then Hailey, and Laura at the end. We chatted and played music as we navigated the trails to our campsite.
About 20 minutes in, we started hearing some complaints from the back of the line. Laura was slowing down, mumbling something under her breath. Hailey had turned to ask her if she was okay, but Laura kind of brushed her off, saying that her feet were starting to hurt and she felt a blister pop on her heel. Hailey assured her we were almost at the site, and we kept moving.
It wasn’t even noon and it was already a scorching hot day. The trees around the trail provided some relief from the sun, but the hot and humid air was inescapable. After a few more minutes of walking, Georgia turned and called back to us, almost as if she could sense how uncomfortable we all were, that there was a lake right beside our campsite. This was enough motivation for us to pick up the pace.
We came to a small bridge that crossed a mid-sized pond. As we reached the other side, we heard some rustling in the brush beside us. I glanced over, expecting to see a rabbit or even a deer, but instead I saw Laura climbing down the bank towards the pond.
I stopped, effectively halting Mel and Hailey as well.
“Laura, what are you doing?” I called out to her.
“My feet are on fire, and this stupid blister popped. It’s bleeding a bit and hurts like a bitch. I’m just gonna rinse them in the pond super quick and cool them off!” She yelled back.
Georgia quickly squeezed past me on the trail, approaching the bank.
“Laura I wouldn’t do that, stagnant pond water is really gross. There could be a lot of bacteria and stuff in there. We’re close to the campsite, just wait like 5 more minutes and we can all go swimming in the lake!” she said.
“I’ll be like 2 seconds! Plus, this water looks, like, crystal clear.” Laura said back.
I peered over the bank and realised she was right. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pond so clear. Although, there was an almost orange tinge to the water.
“You guys keep walking, I’ll catch up!” She said.
“A-Alright, don’t be too long.” Georgia stuttered. We continued walking.
Shortly after, we reached the campsite and began getting our things set up while we waited for Laura. Georgia and I were on tent duty, and Mel and Hailey were getting the cooking supplies organised. Eventually, Laura came waltzing into camp and we all got changed to go swimming.
The rest of the day was actually really fun. We swam for most of the afternoon, and did some sun tanning on the little sand beach. We finished setting up camp and snacked on some jerky and trail mix.
Once the sun started to set, we began making a fire to cook dinner – a gourmet meal of hot dogs and corn on the cob. We were all buzzing around the fire, getting food and drinks and talking about what we wanted to do the next day. We noticed Laura was being really quiet, kind of staring blankly into the fire.
“Laura, you good?” Mel asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just really tired.” She said lazily, without looking up from the fire.
“Okay, well, let us know if we can get you anything.” Georgia added.
Laura nodded her head.
The rest of us continued on drinking and talking.
A couple hours later, we thought it would be fun to go night swimming at the lake. We all got changed and asked Laura if she wanted to join us.
“No, I’m gonna go to bed.” Laura said, rather flatly. As she said this, she stood up and turned to face us more. Honestly, I was a little taken aback. Maybe it was just the shadow from the fire, but she looked pale and almost gaunt.
“Shit Laura, are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.
“Yes Sophia, I’m fine. I’m just tired, okay?!” She snapped back. She had a strange sharpness in her eyes.
“O-Okay, well, we’ll be at the lake if you need anything.” I replied, cautiously.
Laura didn’t say anything and just turned and walked towards the tent.
We all looked at each other, concerned, but thought it best that we give her space. She could be a bit of a diva sometimes, but rarely would she snap at us like that. We just assumed it was a mix of a long day in the sun, the fact that she probably wanted to be anywhere else but out here, and maybe a bad hot dog or two.
We made our way to the lake and swam for another couple hours, then walked back to camp and got ready to go to sleep. We were all very careful to move quietly in the tent, as to not wake Laura. She was sleeping on the far side of the tent, facing the wall. She didn’t move or say anything, so it seemed she was out cold. Soon enough, so were the rest of us.
I’m not sure what time I woke up, but it was still pitch black out. Some kind of noise broke me out of my dream. It sounded like a yell or a grunt, but I couldn’t place exactly what it was. I sat up on my elbows and squinted around the tent, trying to get my eyes to adjust.
The sleeping arrangements went myself, Georgia, Mel, Hailey, then Laura at the far side. As my eyes adjusted, I noticed that Laura and Hailey were gone. They must have gone to the bathroom, maybe one of them tripped or saw an animal or something. I laid back down and closed my eyes.
But I couldn’t get back to sleep. Something was stirring in the back of my mind. A bad feeling. But, why?
Several minutes later, I heard the tent unzip and footsteps stepping back over to the far side of the tent. The concerning part was, I only heard one set of footsteps. I looked over, without sitting up, and saw a figure climbing back into their sleeping bag. But was that Hailey or Laura? I was about to say something, but realised whoever hadn’t returned was probably still using the bathroom and would be back soon. I settled myself, closed my eyes again, and fell asleep.
A little while later, I was startled awake by a hand on my arm. I jumped and my eyes darted around, soon landing on Georgia.
“I gotta go to the bathroom, can you come with me?” She whispered.
I mumbled back, still half asleep, and realised I needed to go as well.
We tiptoed out of the tent and made our way into the trees, grabbing our jackets and flashlights from our packs on the way.
We stepped through the forest, careful to watch for rocks and roots in the ground. After a couple minutes, we got to the old outhouse. I told Georgia sh...
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