Haunted With A Trapped Spirit

Summary: Dillon experiences a trauma from a friend who was hit in an accident but their last encounter was a bitter moment for they were in an argument and 2 years later he is able to forget the pain of what the 2 years have caused him. Only one day after visiting his old school he sees his old friend in the flesh on the other side of the crosswalk. He notices how the person looks just like Ethan, but when he runs to him he sees only the flesh of what the accident caused him. The worst part is, the ghost of his old friend gave him a message, “Take everybody camping where you must discover something you missed two years ago” 

With that chilling message, Dillon grabs the 4 others for camping after a two year hiatus for them to figure out what is wrong with their old friend that passed away that started their disputes at a camping trip? The answer Dillon finds may end up costing their lives… 

Two years ago

Dillon walked out of the main doors of his high school building to catch up with his friend Ethan who was storming off who was not in the mood to talk anymore with his rush to be away from one of his closest friends. Dillon didn’t understand the problems that Ethan had for he kept his distance from the tight friend group ever since their traditional camping event ended last year. He had been friends with Ethan since they met way back in grade school, and to see him troubled caused concern for him. “Ethan, will you slow down and talk to me instead of running away from your problems?” he yelled out to Ethan which made the 5’6 freshman stop before the crosswalk. Ethan was sensitive to what people heard as he scanned around for people to eavesdrop, but it was only the two of them. He realized this was his chance to make some sense in Ethan as another camping trip was coming up, and Ethan was part of the tradition to show up. “Listen I don’t know what has gotten into you but-”

I’m going to stop you right there” Ethan interrupted sending shock emotions to Dillon as he never heard Ethan speak in a commanding voice. “Apparently you and the rest of the crew don’t get it, and I don’t need to explain anything to you, so back off okay?” Ethan clarified and with that he walked closer to the crosswalk where Dillon could see Ethan’s new friend Landon waiting in his new corvette his mother gave him. He was never impressed with Landon for he always tried to lure Ethan away from the crew to go to high school parties where he would end up missing school the next day. It was up to Dillon sometimes to grab Ethan from missing as much school as he would have. Landon was the equal of bad impressions and he noticed Landon giving him a sneer for satisfaction as Ethan stormed away from him. The chilly October wind picked up as he watched one of his best friends walk away from him. He felt angry at this moment for all the years he tried to protect his younger friend who was two grades below him. All the years that only lead to betrayal and the damm wind blowing in his face, “Fine, if that’s what you what to be Ethan, then I don’t care you're a changed man for the worse because you're nothing but a traitor!” he yelled out and he noticed that it caused his old friend to stop in the middle of the crosswalk with a hurt impression on his face. For a second it looked like to Dillon it was an answer to be saved from a long-term torture but the impression didn’t last long. He only wished he paid more attention to a 2006 blue Chrysler van speeding down the road with no intentions of stopping. It was only too late as he watched with horror as the van crashed into his old friend and the chilly wind was not letting up…

2 years later 

Every October Dillon noticed it was windy and cold. Not that he cared anymore for he learned to like the cold, and it gave him a chance to wear his fancy green coat his father gave him for Christmas. His father said it was a coat made in England long ago and it was now a gift passed down to him. It was likely his father gave it to him then for it was a couple of months after his friend’s death two months before. Although his friend group were always in remorse for their old friend, they were not the ones that witnessed the final moments of Ethan in the flesh. He decided to get his mind off the incident for once and headed out of the main doors of the high school building. He figured one of his friends Stephen would be there waiting. “Ah there you are Dillon, I was wondering what took you so long for I was about to walk home as I still can you know, I’m not expecting a ride home” his friend exclaimed to him. He took a deep breath as he would repeat the same speech to his friend who couldn't drive a vehicle. It wasn't his fault entirely for the man was going to drive until news of the incident reached him and his fear of driving escalated further from that day. “You're not going out there where there is a chance you can be hit from walking, you're on my way you know that, so let’s go it’s chilly out here” he announced and Stephen took that as a signal his friend was not in the best mood. He wasn't in the best moods anymore since the incident.

 He started to walk out to the crosswalk to the parking lot where Stephen was already crossing. He made sure three times there were no cars coming for a mile and started to walk only to stop dead in the middle. No way, he thought. At the end of the crosswalk on the side was his old friend Ethan in a baseball cap and in his jeans with his cowboy boots. He even had a grin on his face. He shut his eyes and opened them to make sure he was not having a nightmare only to see the same person in the flesh. He ran over to the side only to see a different version of Ethan this time. It was Ethan, but with blood all over his body and scars across his face. His face was badly messed up and his arms and legs were all badly twisted into different angles. He was seeing the image of his friend from the accident. Although the image was enough to send him to the ground, what came out of the ghost was the worst part, “You should have seen the signs Dillon, gather the group for camping this saturday and go back two years, may we all rest after that…” and with that the ghost was gone. He realized that a car was honking at him as he was simply standing in the middle of the crosswalk. He was sure he was on the other side of the crosswalk a minute ago with… he didn’t know what to think right now. As he crossed the road, Stephen asked him what was wrong with him. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but It may be time to do another camping trip again” 

The traditional camping trips were 3 to 4 times a year in Dillon’s woods at the back of his parents property in the middle of nowhere. The atmosphere of darkness and the cold air was the best feeling for these trips. Now as he hiked with 4 of his friends to do this camping trip, he felt tired and confused. He shut down these trips for a reason as the last one caused his old friend to have disputes with him and his friends. Now a ghost that kept coming back every day until Saturday was telling him to go camping again. Nothing made sense. After that first day of seeing the ghost, it came back every day up to the camping day to send the same message and to show the same image of what Ethan looked like the day of the accident. He told his friends to hope they had the same situations as him, but they saw nothing. They ended up coming anyway for camping. It was always their excitement and they tried hard during the last two years to do it in honor of Ethan. He thought it would not be the same without Ethan, and some parts he was right for when they walked through the cornfield to the woods he would imagine Ethan walking past them all racing to the camp first. The crew consisted of him, Stephen, Jacob, Ayden, and Zach. Jacob and Ayden were also close to Ethan as much as him since they all grew up together. Stephen and Zach joined the crew when they all collided at the same high school.

When they reached the campsite, everybody started setting up their tents and started to do what they always did. He just stared at the empty spot of where Ethan would set up and would start making his famous apple pie for the crew. Jacob came over and put an arm around him to understand his pain. They all knew it would not be the same, but they all knew they had to be here tonight.

 When it got dark, they all sat by the fire burning in the middle of the area with their logs as chairs. They did this two years ago where they would talk of scary stories and then lead to personal stories. Now they all sat in silence and watched the fire flicking. It was about 30 degrees and the moon was not as bright as usual. Ayden was the one to break up the silence,”So the ghost of Ethan apparently wanted us to figure out something, but what could it be?” he asked, looking at the crew for answers. He didn’t have any answers and he didn’t want to go back two years, but luckily Jacob was able to give his take, “Well two years ago me and Ethan got into a huge fight about Landon and I remembered everyone here giving the disgust about Landon and calling him a bad influence on him” Jacob announced to the crew. Dillon remembered they all hammered on Ethan about Landon and how he shouldn’t be around him. Dillon was furious at how clueless Ethan was about Landon that he called him a… a… traitor. He remembered the last time he saw Ethan and how he called him a traitor. He was hurt because even when he was still with landon he still cared for his crew, we were all oblivious he thought to himself.

  Zach was the one to speak, but not of Ethan entirely, “There is an old legend of a demon that comes after a weak spirit that dies. They saw the spirit weak of confusion and ended up turning the spirit to feed its souls by luring them into a trap. The only way to beat the demon is to show the spirit the truth, but the demon puts a stronghold on the spirit where only a true heart the spirit will hear” he explained. The story sounded foolish to Dillon, and it was typical of Zach to make up stories about that.

 He got up after that and went into the woods. Nobody chased after him, they knew he wanted to be alone. He went to a spot where they all played airsoft games. He remembered helping Ethan in those games. He heard twigs cracking and he noticed a shadow approaching. He figured it was one of his friends, but it was a shadow of a figure that could not be identified in the dark. “Who’s there, come out now” he demanded but got no answer. He went further in the woods, but he would hear footsteps from behind him. Dillon turned around only to see the shadow figure, but the figure gave no reaction. “What do you want from me?” he screamed out into the woods. He figured he wouldn’t get a reaction, but this time he did. The figure reached out to him and placed a cold hand on his shoulder. It stinged of pure cold, but the voice was the coldest part, “You will be mine" and then he blacked out.

“Dillon wake up man, Ayden is gone” he heard a familiar voice reach out to him in the dark. His head hurt from being knocked out, but he was able to clear his vision to recognize Stephen who was shaking. “What, what do you mean, he is gone?” he asked him. “He went into his tent a minute ago and never came back out. We went in to check on him to see if he went asleep, but the tent was empty, and we would have seen him go somewhere” he explained. Dillon went on to tell him about the shadow figure, and finally the two came up to a conclusion that they believed Zach’s story or Ayden was messing with them. They choose the second option.  They had no time to argue about the realistic views of what made sense and what didn’t for they heard a scream from the camp. That was Jacob! They sprinted back to the campsite only to witness a real life horror scene in front of their eyes.

 Zach who was the tallest out of them had an ax in his hand who seemed to be possessed by something. His eyes were black and hollowed out, His mouth was covered in blood. He had chopped up pieces of Ayden over their camping table and Jacob was roasted alive in the fire. Then when Zach noticed them approaching, he crumpled to where he would be turned into ashes right before their eyes. Dillon didn't know what to do, and neither did Stephen. The only thing to do was run from the forest but their fear led them back deeper in the forest. Dillon would lose track of his direction as he lost sight of Stephen only to backtrack a few paces back to see him hanging above a tree. He now was not scared, he was pissed at this ghost. The two years he spent in remorse for his friend only to have some cursed spirit or demon go around and make his life more miserable than ever.  He got down to his knees and yelled out to the shadow figure that was now in front of him. “Go on now I’m not afraid of you for the real Ethan would know we only said those words because we cared about him, you're nothing but a fake image of what he truly is” he yelled out. The shadow figure came up to him and he saw the demon who took the shape of Landon.  “You may be a clever little one, but your spirit I will enjoy the most. Your friend Ethan’s I captured when I possessed the driver of that blue van to hit him. Oh how you all will be fuel to my power!” the demon cackled only to stare in horror as he turned his direction to see another figure approaching him with a ball of light as their aura.

 It was the Ethan he always saw, the friend he knew.  He remembered a part of Zach’s story, Only a true heart can the spirit hear to be saved. Ethan gave him the grin and his casual wink, and then turned his expression to the demon that looked like Landon. “I may have made a deal with you a while back where I would be famous in school, but I was tricked and it cost me my life. You will not take his life though for he never betrayed no one” Ethan declared giving Dillon a look that showed his remorse. He remembered that one day that Ethan suddenly got to be the most popular freshman of his class out of nowhere. After that he started to drift away from them. The demon snarled and launched after Ethan only for him to attack the demon with a ball of pure light that blinded Dillon. The two collided where the demon burst into flames and Ethan went flying in midair to be dropped hard on the ground. He noticed he was fading away, “Dillon I’m sorry for what I did, but tell the crew to keep on going with the old me in them” he said to him with trembling words. 

“I will Ethan” and from there he was gone. He noticed his friends coming up where they were perfectly normal and were confused with what was going on. “Dillon, what’s wrong?” Stephen asked him. He got up and had a promise to make. He had a smile on his face, “Nothing man, now let us go back to the campsite where I have much to say and much for us to do”

From there the crew would live on with the memory of Ethan in their memory and would have many camping events in honor of him.  

6 months later…  Connor walked into the office of the principal who beckoned him to sit down and had news for him. The principal told him he could make him the all star of the band and captain of various clubs. He would get endless scholarships, women, and fame. He asked him what the catch was, and the principal gave him a smile and showed him a piece of paper. “Nothing too complicated, only a signature that I would need in order to continue these lessons for you” he explained. Connor noticed how cozy the room was and how there was an atmosphere of safety placed in the room. His mind was clouded by trickery as he signed the paper with excitement. The principal gave him another smile and all of a sudden Zach felt the room turned cold and dark.