Rumors

Kimmy & Natasya, Grade 8A

One day, Donica and her three friends decided to go camping for a week. Everything went well for the first four days until the middle of Friday night. Donica, Amir, and Iris were eating their food, not paying attention to their surroundings, while Basil was taking pictures of the forest. Suddenly, one of his pictures seemed off—there were footprints in the dirt. Curious, he followed the footprints into the dark forest.

Thirty minutes later, they noticed that Basil had not returned, but they saw his shoe prints. They followed them into the darkness, even though their small flashlight couldn’t light the entire path. Finally, they found “Basil” standing there with the camera, but the aura of the surroundings felt uneasy and gloomy. They didn’t mind it, though.

“Hey guys! I found this painting, it seems unique, so I took a picture of it!” Basil exclaimed with an uneasy grin. Donica nodded and smiled nervously while Iris and Amir were busy chit-chatting. Donica investigated the painting and found a hidden message behind it. It said, “ijijijnhiikdl!!” Donica called Iris over because Iris knew many languages. Iris approached, her eyes widening. “…it says ‘get out’… WE SHOULD GET BACK!!” Iris shouted in fear. None of them trusted Iris, who ran away as fast as she could.

Meanwhile, Donica and Amir laughed, but when they turned around, they saw Basil's gloomy grin. Suddenly, they tried to run away as well, but it was too late—long roots surrounded them. “Basil” started stepping back and then ran in the direction Iris had gone, but couldn’t find her.

Iris finally reached the tent, quickly picked up her phone, and called the police. After a while, the police arrived and decided to bring her back home while the investigators explored the forest. A few months later, no news was received, and her friends remained missing with no apparent result.