Janine trudged through the heavy brush on her way through the forest. She had always loved hiking, but she had to admit, she was a bit lost. She thought she was following the path, but then the path seemed to just disappear. She must have made a wrong turn. She thought about turning back, but she figured she wasn't far from the road, and she should just trudge on ahead. It would have taken too long to try to go back and find where she could have possibly gone off the path.
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She pulled out her compass and moved it around to check which way was north. Then she pulled out her map and looked at it. There should be a small river around here, somewhere. The road shouldn't be that much farther past the river. Of course, if the river is too wide here, she'd have to find a place to cross. She sighed, and put her compass and map away.
Janine continued hiking until dusk. She still didn't find the river or the road. With the sun setting, she figured she should set up camp and found a small clearing between a few trees. She cleared away some brush and set up her small tent, then placed her pack and sleeping bag inside, after retrieving her camping stove and a can of soup.
She took her small metal butane lighter from her pocket and lit the stove after putting a few twigs and some brush in the bottom. Thankfully it was pretty dry, so it caught fire easily. Her father had bought her that lighter when she was going camping a number of years ago. It served her well and it almost always lit the first time she tried to fire it. She made sure she filled it up every time she went out into the wilderness. On the bottom, he had inscribed her initials, JB, in a heart.
Soon enough her soup was hot, and she used an oven mitt to remove it from the fire and pour it into a small dented metal bowl she always took camping with her. It wasn't that good, but how good can you expect soup from a can to be? It at least filled her belly. At least, it mostly did. She found herself still a little hungry afterward and ate a granola bar for dessert.
It was already getting dark, and with not much to do, Janine decided to retire to her tent. She dumped the embers from her camping stove, kicked some dirt onto them, and stomped them with her boots. Then she got in her tent, took off her boots, put them in a bag so she wouldn't get dirt everywhere, and zipped it closed. She took the flashlight from her belt loop, and rifled through her pack, then pulled out a small reading tablet. She liked to read sometimes before bed, and its backlight was better than wasting her flashlight batteries reading a book.
Janine spread out her sleeping bag, then laid down on it, and settled in to read her book. It was an interesting story about a lone woman's journey across the ocean. Before she knew it, she had read three chapters. Then she started getting sleepy and inevitably ended up dropping her tablet on her face. With the sudden jolt of pain to wake her up, she put her tablet to the side and went to sleep.
Janine woke up suddenly in the middle of the night to the howl of the wind and the flapping of the fabric on the sides of her tent. The walls of her tent glowed with the moonlight. She closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Then her eyes flew open! She could have sworn she heard voices! Then suddenly a cackle broke out somewhere outside the tent. Just who was out there?
Janine turned on her flashlight and quickly put on her boots. Slowly she opened her tent flap. The wind was blowing pretty fiercely and the trees were swaying to and fro. She could definitely hear people talking as well. It seemed to be coming from every direction though. She tried shining the light around to see if there was anyone there but she couldn't see anyone. For some reason, what frightened her more is that she couldn't figure out what they were saying.
"Is there anyone out there?"
Suddenly the voices stopped. All she could hear was the whistling of the wind. Then, just as suddenly, laughter broke out from all around her, and the voices began talking again. She didn't know what they were saying, but it was freaking her out a bit. She retreated back into her tent and zipped up the flap.
The cackling continued as Janine tried to keep it together. There have been quite a few times where she was afraid, alone in the woods at night. Especially when she first started camping alone. You hear noises late at night and don't know what they are. This time was different though. Someone had to be messing with her.
Then something brushed against the tent. It looked like fingers scraping along the side, but maybe it was just a tree branch. In any case, Janine wasn't having any of it! She quickly unzipped the tent and ran outside. She looked all around with her flashlight while she was running, but she saw nothing. The whole time she was running though, she kept hearing laughing and cackling. They were laughing at her.
She just kept running. She didn't know where she was going. Then she tripped and fell. She found herself sitting in water up to her waist. The laughing and voices had stopped. Now all she heard was the sound of rushing water, and the wind whistling through the trees.
Janine raised the flashlight and looked around. She was in the middle of the river she had been looking for. There didn't appear to be anyone around. She tried to raise her knees and winced in pain. Her knees were bloody and bruised. She managed to finally get her legs under her and hobbled over to the side of the river.
The wind continued to howl, and there was seemingly nothing around her. She was wet and cold and hurt, but she couldn't even get back to her camp. She couldn't risk getting lost in the middle of the night. Janine sat down under a tree on the side of the river, drew her bloodied knees up into her body, and waited for morning.
As the first light of the morning sun peeked through the trees, Janine raised her head. She stood up despite the pain and looked through a break in the trees at what was one of the most beautiful sunrises she could recall. For a moment she wished she had her camera, but it was back in her pack. She looked back at the way she thought she had come from and set off to find her camp again.
After what seemed like hours, Janine finally found her camp, but what she found was not like when she left it. Her tent was collapsed and destroyed, with what looked like claw marks all over it. It was ripped to shreds. Her pack was likewise ripped, but seemingly intact, and all her belongings were spread across the campsite. With heavy resolve, she took her belongings and tried to pack them up. Much of them were destroyed, but she didn't really care at this point. She just wanted to go home.
After packing up, she headed off back to the river, crossed it at a shallow point, and made her way to the road. After an hour or so walking down the road, she managed to catch a ride back to the local town.
She never much talked about her experience in those woods that night, but the following year, on her birthday, her father bought her a new backpack and she broke into tears. Maybe it had all been her imagination, but something changed for her that night. She never had quite the same passion for hiking and camping that she one did.
