"Hey remember that day, Neil?" Xavier asked with a tone of mockery in his voice.

We were all sitting in a circle around the campfire we made, out by the woods behind our wonderful, yea right, gated community. These are not as great as they seem gate or not if someone or something wants to get in it will!
It is hard to believe what I remember happening that day. They all mock me when I tell them that, so I just prefer not to even try and reminisce.

Xavier seems to be the one who believes the least. That of course surprises me because he is the one who is and has always been fascinated by the supernatural as he likes to call it. I simple think he enjoys all the vampire nonsense and everything else. He says that he is always looking for that edge that seems to bring truth to everything he reads, but I think that it is all nonsense. He seeks good books, stories that send chills up your spin. Whatever it is, I just don’t understand why he doubts me. If only he would have been there.

What happened that night is not as complicated or as frightening as it sounds. Peer pressure is always bad remembering that, because that is what caused me all the trouble that I got into that time.

We were off on a school trip. It was one that didn't really excite me at the time, but I still decided to go. After all, I could not miss out on a three-day trip that would keep me away from home, even if it was to explore a museum of natural history. We were headed to the museum of natural history because our teacher, Mr. Thebes, wanted us to write a report on one of the many wonders found outside our iPods.

He said to the class, "I have scheduled this trip because both your parents and I believe that you need a time off the iPods and video games. The trip consists of exploring and a campout. Oh, and yes, a research paper."

It was the most ridiculous thing we had ever heard! Why would we need to go camping and exploring as he called it in order to see "the wonders of the world", as Mr. Thebes said, when there were pictures of them right in front of us in our computers.

Well, Eliza, a popular and well kept girl in the class, almost past out when she heard the news of this new trip. She thought she could get out of it but apparently the trip was the final for that semester, so that meant that if you missed the trip, you could fail the class.

"What? You can't do that, I'll tell my dad and he can excuse me. I am not going on no trip to some filthy place full of old junk!" Eliza yelled to Mr. Thebes.

"I have already spoken to all of the parents, and sent a letter to yours Eliza, and they all agreed. Some thought it to be an excellent way for all you to learn to appreciate all the new technology and everything that you have." Stated Mr. Thebes.

I thought it was amazing how fast he was able to shut and sit Eliza. I knew that I would hear comments, especially from my friends about her later.

"hahaha, I can’t wait to see her get all muddy trying to get her tent up!" Ruby said as she laughed and commented on Eliza's reaction to the trip.

It was hard to believe that I would spend a whole weekend out camping in some unknown place, but as long as it was with my friends I thought that this lame trip would be fun. We would make it fun.

Eventually the day of the trip came. My friends and I were more excited than I thought a bunch of seniors could be about the trip. We had plans about "exploring" as the teacher had told us, and of course they were reckless.

The place we went was called Loneville. We all thought that it was a very interesting name, but it suited it because it was out in the middle of nowhere.
We all enjoyed the trip there. Four hours on a bus with the company of your friends is not at bad time at all. It was somewhat difficult for us to take this trip as anything more than a trip away from home with friends. When we got there Mr. Thebes made us begin our project immediately. My friends and I all told him that we had a basic idea of what our project would consist off. We asked if we could work in pairs, luckily he agreed. It was divided evenly, Xavier was with Ruby, Johnny was with Eric, and Adam and I were a team.

We began by entering the museum. It was a trip. There was so much old junk in there that it was hard to stay focused. Most of what we saw consisted of old tractors and used parts. There were lots of used engines. Mr. Thebes explained to us that some of the contraptions we saw were original machines that once were the only way people could get water out of a water mill. He said that this was their technology. We all laughed at that. How could people ever live that way?
What came not only to my mind, but rather to everyone’s, was cave men. We all laughed at the thought.

After that we came to an area where there was the story we had only heard bits about. Mr. Thebes had told us that when the town nearby had been started that there was a series of events that occurred that no one in the town liked to talk about. Of course, these comments were what lead me and my friends to make our project on that story in particular. We found that the museum did have a section on that event. They were very limited though in what they had. There were newspaper clippings, old pictures, and copies of the pictures the police probably took. Then we found the actual story:

On the eve of November 1910, the first victim of the horrid Loneville serial killer was found in the west area of the woods. This victim, a male of about 23, was found completely mutilated and missing part of his wrist, and bled to death. The victim has still to be identified. He was a foreigner and no one in our town or in the nearby towns had heard of him or seen him before. It is sad to think that his death will go without the notice of his family. The police never gave clear information, but the killer was never found. It is unlikely that the police had or have any leads. Given that the victim was a foreigner, it is believed that the killer is most likely a foreigner as well.

This first death frightened the residents of Loneville for a few weeks, they would not go out to the woods alone after dark, but that fear soon lessened. This was only so until two months later the second victim was found.
This victim was a teenage girl, well known in the local high school. Not all of the details of her death were given to the public in order to identify the killer more easily. The information that was given to the public was that she had similar lacerations on her wrist as the previous victim. When they found her she had been dead for only a few hours.
More details were later given to the public to see if these could help identify the killer when the local sheriff ran out of options. The sheriff’s statement said that her clothes were torn as if there had been a struggle. He also wanted to know why a teenager would be out late and that deep in the woods. A trail of blood that lead in the opposite direction of the town was found but it was not long enough to lead to anything significant. In addition to this he also disclosed that she too had been drained of blood. Her wrist was intact, but her cloths had been desecrated. They believed that the killer could be the same as that of the first victim. They said that the first victim had most likely been dead for a week and the mutilations were due to animals. In any case the local police believed that the girl, Murray Nickels was murdered by the same person.
It was all fine again in the little town, or so it seemed. Not ling after the second homicide, a third occurred. This time it was a little girl who had gone after her kitten, as the mother stated.
When questioned, the mother said that she was cooking and her little girl was there in the living room playing with her kitten.
“All I heard was, ‘mommy my kitten ran outside, im’ ona go catch it’,” said the sorrow filled mother. “After a few minutes Amie didn’t come back, so I went to look for her and I couldn’t find her,” she said between sobs. “I went deeper into the woods behind the house and I found the ribbon that she had on her hair, that’s when I really got scared and ran to call the sheriff,” she continued.
It is really not a fact that she was murdered, since there was never a body to be found. Her disappearance struck not only the parents, being this, their only child; but the entire town. Most of the people in the town had never known of anyone being murdered, nonetheless, three people. These events served to bring that original fear back. No one would go into the woods alone specially women and children.
Even hunters were careful, since the police never said if this could have been the work of some animal.
After the death of this child there was yet other victims, most of which varied in age and gender. And then the appar—

“How are you doing boys?” Mr. Thebes asked.

He startled us out of the story. “We are doing great sir, Adam and me are sure of what we will write about,” I said. Of course, we had decided to write about these killings. We also thought about going out to explore where some of the victims had been found.

We decided to tell our friends the story. I told them of the four victims we read about. Ruby was most interested in what may have happened to the little girl who was never found. When I finished telling them of that there were more victims after these first four, I realized that Adam and me had not had a chance to finish the story. We moved on when Mr. Thebes came to us. We didn’t even notice. We knew that we had to go back and finish the story in order to be able to do our project. But that would have to wait until the next day.

It was too late that day we had to eat dinner, and set up our tents. Could you believe it, they were actually making us sleep outside! After we got over this fact, we decided to tell stories until everyone got tired. I was not sleepy at all. I was far too excited to go to sleep. So, in the end I was the only one left outside by the campfire. I actually enjoyed sitting out there in the dark cool night.

Well, it was fine until I heard the voice.

The voice I heard at the time was that of a young girl. She said, “could you help me? I’m lost.”

That was enough for me to make me jump. I wasn’t able to see her clearly, because she didn’t come out to where the light hit her, but I could tell that she was young.

I’m not sure why, but I got up to see her better, and then followed her. A mistake I advise you not to make, if you know what’s good for you. Anyway, I was very surprised that she was all on her own. I figured that she was from around the area, since she looked well feed and clean. I thought that she must have gotten lost because she must have wondered out of her house at night.

As I was following her, she took me deeper and deeper into the woods. Eventually even I lost track of the way back. I’m not sure what was on my mind that night, but I kept up with the little girl.

We finally stopped at a cave like place. I don’t know how much we walked, but I felt like I could collapse. My legs were just so tired. She directed me into the cave and there was some dim light whose origin I could not find. I sat down at the wall of the cave and waited for a moment in order to catch my breath. She saw me and giggled.

Now that I recall, I don’t remember her ever talking to me, since I followed her.

I slowly started to lose consciousness because I was just so tired. I began to hear her talking, but at first I could not tell who she was speaking to.

I was in and out consciousness.

I tried to a pay as much attention to the people in the cave with me. It was hard but managed and I got to hear a few things.

“Daddy, I know there were a lot of them this time, but I was only able to bring this one. He was the only one awake and that would follow me.” The little girl said.
“It’s ok Murry. I know you tried. I was watching you. You did well, now we —”, said the man to her.

After that I only felt as though someone was carrying me and then nothing.

Honestly, that night felt eternal. I don’t remember how long I walked or how long I was asleep. As it is the nights in the mountains are longer so that may have affected my internal clock.

Well, I eventually woke up, but I had an acute pain in my neck and my wrists. I felt around since this time there was absolutely no light, and eventually tried to stand up. I couldn’t really manage. So I sat down again and just rubbed my neck to try to ease the pain I felt. I noticed that I felt a little rough spotted, but there was nothing, no injury, any scratch, nothing at all to produce such a pain. The same was with my wrists.

I eventually managed to get up and walk towards the woods again. I have got to admit that I had no idea what way to go. As I finally came out of the cave I noticed that the sun was beginning to rise. I walked faster and faster. I felt as though someone was following me. I can’t really explain it, but it made me walk faster. In the end I decided that I would keep a straight course away from the cave. So I just walked faster and faster, or as fast as I could, just straight. Eventually as the sun rose more and more, that feeling of someone following me ended.

It didn’t take long for me to reach a clearing with a big building. I didn’t recognize the building, but I could tell that it was the back of it. I sat and leaned against the wall of the building, and then everything went black.

“Hey, wake up! Wake up! We’ve been looking for you for about half an hour,” said, or yelled Ruby. Of course, this is what I woke up to.

Adam was right behind her and a short while later Mr. Thebes arrived also. Between all of them, they helped me up and walked me to the campsite.

When we were there seated and all, Mr. Thebes called the towns local doctor.

When he arrived he asked me a couple of questions. I answered them and then he told Mr. Thebes that I just needed to rest a little and eat.

Now that I remember, I was really very, very, hungry and thirsty. I ate and just sat there for a while, and then they all started asking me questions. I told them exactly what I remembered.

I told them about the little girl, and the man, and the cave. The people from the museum and some other town’s people were there. Apparently they had been looking for me for a while. I told them about the cave, but they didn’t find anything or told us about anything either, though I believe that this has happened before.

Since no one found the cave, none of my friends believed my story. They thought that I must have been dreaming and sleepwalked to where they found me. Mr. Thebes also thought as much. He figured that the story I read must have affected me.

As I thought back at the story, which I hadn’t until he mentioned it, I knew I recognized that name. The name that the man called the young girl was that same as that of the girl that had disappeared all that time ago.

I tried to go back and read the story, but by the time that I felt better it was time for us to leave.

When I got home I looked up the museum’s web page and looked up the story. I finished reading and all it said after that was that some other people had seen the little girl throughout the town at night. Everyone thought that that was the ghost of the little girl who was still suffering since she died so young. The story ended with her death and her apparitions, it never mentioned the many deaths that followed hers.

I looked into the museum’s online archives and there wasn’t much, but enough to show that the deaths and disappearances in that area never ended.

I doubt that what I saw and heard was an apparition. For me that was an event that proves that there are things out there. By things, I mean all that supernatural stuff that everyone reads and never wants to discuss or admit that it exists. I gave up with my friends. They always just make fun of me, but I know what I saw and what I heard and felt. They can’t change that. They may not believe, but I sure do now.

Do you?...