You know how we had nightmares when were little, like how there is a monster under our bed, or there is a clown in our closet. Our parents just told us “It’s ok, it was just a dream, that won’t happen, I promise.” We believed them. We always believed them. Then we woke up and nothing happened, we were fine. So as I have grown up I always thought that everything will be just fine, it was only a dream, and it won’t happen. But is that always true? I guess I will just have to keep thinking it’s fine, until it isn’t. 

I go on this yearly summer trip to my family’s lake house. All my cousins come up and we have a week full of adventure. It is always a blast when I’m up there because me and my favorite cousin Tyler always get into some sort of trouble. Ever since we were little we have always been goof-offs. Going on adventures deep in the woods, getting so many ticks on us, and just being little rascals. Our parents couldn’t separate us even if they tried. We were attached at the hip, always. Going up north does come with its scary times though. My older cousins and aunts like to get out the Ouija board at night and see if there are any ghosts present. Somehow there always is. But my parents won’t let me and my younger cousins play. One time I heard a story of the time they played and I got super scared. My parents just told me “It’s not real, it’s just fake, they move it with their hands.” I believed them. Like I always have. But the story that I did hear was of a ghost named Cathy. Supposedly she has lived on this lake house for over 100 years. From what I have heard she can be nice and she can be mean too. One time my older cousin told me that he went into the closet to get a red solo cup, then forgot he needed to get another cup for his friend went back and they were all gone. I don’t believe him but he said it was true, on his moms’ life. Another creepy Cathy story is that we always have nightly bonfires, make smores, and create good memories. Our family friend always likes to take pictures and one day she took a picture and in the background was a smoky figure. You know I would like to believe it was just the smoke, but when I took a clearer look it really looked like a human in the background. It had all the outlines of a human, the chiseled chin, and broad shoulders. We immediately were spooked after that day. 

Though putting that beside us, going to the lake house is fun! Me and Tyler like to fish and hunt, recently our uncle has let us ride the four-wheeler around the trails. It has been a blast. While my aunts, uncles, and parents are at the beach having a good time, Tyler and I are whipping around on the four-wheeler. I mean we are only 14 so we can’t drive yet and we can’t drink yet. We have to make our own fun. So shooting squirrels and whippin’ in the woods is what suits our attention. 

On July 7th, 2018 something strange happened. Something no one will forget.

“Tyler, Tyler wake up!” I say jumping on his bed.

 “Brooo what do you want Nicki? Im up, im up.”

 I stop jumping on his bed and run towards my pile of clothes to try and find an outfit. “I wanted to know what you wanted to do today, it’s already 11:30 times a tickin!”

 He rolls out of bed taking a deep big yawn, with his arms punching the air as he inhales. “ I don’t know, maybe fish or go four-wheeling,” He says in a yawning manner. 

“Bet let’s do it!” I reply just so excited to get this day going. We only have 3 more days left and it feels like we just got here yesterday. We both quickly change into our suits and put our bucket hats on. Grab the speaker and upstairs we go. Breakfast is already made, which consisted of maple sausage links and pancakes with our very own maple syrup made here at the lake house.

 “Hey let’s get our fishing stuff and go out for a bit before we go four-wheeling, the fish are only going to be out for a little bit longer.” Tyler says as he is shuffling pancakes down his throat.

 “Ok ill go get the minnows and get the boat cushions. You grab the poles and tackle boxes.” I say as I go clear my plate. I went out to the garage to get the minnows, the slimy suckers are disgusting. We head over to the boat and make sure we don’t step on a sharp rock or bee on the way, because everyone knows we don’t wear shoes when we are at the lake house. “Come on Tyler lets goooo!” I say from the boat as he is running across the road with the tackle boxes in one hand and the rods in the other looking like a baggage porter or bellhop with a bunch of luggage from a hotel in his hands. He finally gets to the boat after what felt like forever, maybe not, I’m over-exaggerating a bit.

 He pushes the boat out and says “Let’s get some biggins!” We were out on the boat for an hour, and caught nothing, absolutely nothing. 

Though the scenery was beautiful. We saw the pretty loons gliding through the lake, and the green pine trees in the distance making the lake feel cozy and enclosed in a up north vibe. We saw some fish, like the shiny bluegills and the big bass in the deep trenches of the lake. But caught nothing, which was kind of disappointing because our annual fish fry is coming up this Friday. 

Tyler and I pack up the boat and head back to the garage to put our stuff away. My dad comes up to us and asks us what we are doing and we reply “Just went fishing and caught absolutely nothing, now I think we are going to go on the four-wheeler.”

To which my dad replied “Oh that stinks, well have fun, be safe! Wear a helmet and stay on the paths Uncle David told you to stay on!” 

Tyler and I run down to our Uncle David’s house and ask him if we can ride on the four-wheeler, to which he almost always says yes. 

He always follows it with “Just make sure your stay safe, wear a helmet, go slow, and stay on the trails don’t go off of them.” 

I say “ Ok thank you so much!”

Then Tyler and I hop on. Strap our helmets and go for the trails. Tyler and I have always been curious as to why we can’t go off the trails. We have never asked though. We just assume that they don’t want us to get lost in the woods or get attacked by a bear. The little intrusive and impulsive thoughts in our head always come into mind though when someone tells you not to do something. We refrain from doing it though, we stay on the trails. We do our usual routes, up the hill, down the hill, on the road, and all over again. We wanted to try something new though, so we went further on the trails and noticed that there was a fork in the road, but the trail to the left was very faint compared to the right. 

“Which way?” Tyler yelled loudly over the humming of the four-wheeler and the blaring song of Pop Out by Polo G.

“Let’s go right since it looks more in use than the left.” I say clueless and just up to an adventure at this point.

“Ok!” Tyler yells again and then he revs the engine of the four-wheeler and we zoom off. Doing a little skid out of the mud we zoom down this trail. To our surprise it is very bumpy, our heads were rocking back and forth. I was gripping the seat so tight because it was so bumpy. All of a sudden there was a stop in the trail, a dead end. 

Tyler looks at me and says “Bro, what? A dead end?”

I reply saying “ Dude this is ridiculous, I thought there was a trail that went all away around the lake?” 

“So did I? Maybe it’s the one to the left?”

“Maybe but that wouldn’t make sense, I don’t know, do you want to go back and try it?”

“Ummm yeah, yolo!”

As we start turning around to go back to the other trail the thoughts of what my Uncle David said start running through my brain. Technically this isn’t going off the trails because it is a trail, but still, this isn’t one that he mentioned to us before. Actually, I have never even heard anyone talk about these trials ever. I can’t worry too much, everything will be ok. 

We head down the trail which from the looks of it is about a half-mile long. To my left is all trees but to my right is a pond. It looks pretty beautiful, peaceful, and calm. Once we pass all of the bumps and scary dips that come out of nowhere we enter this open patch. Upon entering there was a whole shift in the aura. Everything got very silent, almost too silent. So silent that you could hear any animal there or a needle drop on the floor. We turn the four-wheeler and speaker off just to process where we are.

Tyler says “Nicki where are we?”

“I have no clue, but wherever we are is beautiful, it’s so calm here and so quiet,” I say.

“You can literally hear every chirp from the birds and every russell from the squirrels in the trees,” Tyler said while he was looking agaze in the woods. 

“Do you want to keep going or turn around? It seems like there is some cool stuff over there” Tyler asks

“Sure let’s do it! But just be careful because I don’t know what’s back there and I don’t want to get lost.”

As we go along there are more and more trees that start to appear, it’s like there are sections to wherever we are. To my left, there are sand dune-type hills that have different paths going in between the hills but to my right, there is woods for miles on end. There is also a pond with some cute flowers in it. Tyler and I keep moving, we go over the hill and back down to where there are some woods. We see another trail and go in and enter. 

But once we enter there is another shift in the aura. It’s almost cold and misty. It got a lot darker, but I’m assuming that’s from the trees covering our heads. I start to worry a little bit at this point because I feel like we are getting a little too deep back in here. All of a sudden the four-wheeler stops. 

“Tyler what happened?” I say in a panic 

“Dude I don’t know, it just shut off, there is still a quarter tank left!” 

The four-wheeler is from 2006 so it wouldn’t surprise me if the fuel gauge was wrong. 

“Try and restart it,” I say while I look around my surroundings making sure we don’t get attacked by any animal back here. The four-wheeler makes that idle sound and or the click click click click sounds of the key in the ignition but it won’t start. Tyler tries again click click click click, it goes again. No start.

“Sh*t. This thing is too old, it fricken broke down” Tyler says

I mumble under my breath “sh*t.”

“What are we gonna do?” I say starting to panic at this point

“I think we are going to have to walk back and get someone to help us” Tyler says starting to look a little panicked.

We start walking but it is so dark and cold. I try and get my phone out but when I looked at it it said I was locked out of my phone from trying too many times on my password. But I didn’t even go on my phone. Weird. 

“Hey did you try and go on my phone?” I ask Tyler

“No why?” he replied

“Because it says I’m locked out and I haven’t even gone on it”

“Weird. Maybe it’s just because there is no reception. Let me check mine…. What the frick?!”

“WHAT?”

“Mine is like that too!”

“Oh my god! Dude we better run! This is scary!”

As we start running it starts to feel like the more we run the longer it takes to get back. We have been off of the four-wheeler for probably 5 minutes now. But since we have been back here it has just gotten weirder and weirder. We run and then come to a stop. Another fork in the road. We take a left not remembering what way we went. Running, running, running we go. Then all of a sudden Tyler stops. He looks at me. And he points and says 

“HOLY SH*T!”

I look 

“WHAT THE ….

TO BE CONTINUED