Hunted

It was growing very dark. As the three of us sat by the small fire, an owl called out with a gentle, within the still of the night, hoo. I looked up, trying to see if I could see it, hidden in the treeline, but alas it was nowhere to be seen in the dark. I glanced over at my boyfriend Noah. He had just cracked open another beer. I groaned internally as I was not looking forward to seeing him as a hungover mess in the morning. The orange flames of the fire flickered. The owl let out another lone cry, hoo.

My best friend Vivian came out from inside the tent. "Did you guys hear that?" She asked. Vivian was sporting a new pink sweater that she had just thrown on. With a small smile, she plopped herself in the camping chair right next to me.

"Relax babe, it was just an owl." Vivian's boyfriend Chase reassured her. Vivian held her hands out towards the fire, in an attempt to warm up her hands. It was a couple's camping trip. The four of us had decided to go camping before the start of our first year at college. The early September air was chilly at night. Viv and I had been friends since we were thirteen years old. The four all got along for the most part very well and before parting ways and heading off to school, we decided to have one night just the four of us away camping.

"Do you guys want to play a game?" Noah asked with a wicked grin on his face. Now I groaned out loud. Vivian matched my energy.

"Noah I am not in the mood for a drinking game tonight." Vivian looked up from the fire angrily and tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder. I agreed with a nod. Drinking games and Noah did not mix well.

"Nah guys come on, it's not a drinking game." He chuckled.

Chase cracked open another beer. "What are you thinking man?"

"How about we play a game of Truth or Dare?" Noah smiled. The lone owl hooted again in the distance.

I shugged. "Still seems like a drinking game Noah."

"More like a chance to get us naked." Vivian winked at me. Noah leaned over and grabbed my hand gently.

"Sure, why not," Chase replied casually. I rolled my eyes. Of course, this was a childhood game Viv and I had played together many times over the years, but not with Noah and Chase.

The flames roared before us as Vivian laughed. "How about no?" I nodded in agreement. A branch cracked behind our tent set-up. Viv's perfect face scrunched into a frown. "What was that?"

"I'm sure it's just some animal Viv." I replied. "Could you pass me another beer babe?" I asked Noah.

He flashed his gorgeous smile at me. "Sure, no problem. I'll grab one from the cooler." Standing up and approaching our tent set-up, he broke into one of the coolers and returned with four beers for us. The owl hooted again softly in the distance as if to prove my point.

"So really guys? You don't want to play Truth or Dare?" Noah asked, feigning hurt.

"I don't think anyone really wants to play, people just get coerced into playing Truth or Dare like you're trying to do to all of us." I replied with a laugh.

Vivian shivered. "Well I don't know about the two of you but I'm game."

Chase laughed. "Alright, anything to get my mind off of that creepy owl."

"Okay, Viv, truth or dare?" Noah asked.

"Dare." Vivian replied snottily still shivering.

Winking at me, Noah replied with "Okay, I dare you to take your shirt off." I rolled my eyes. Of course that's what he would go with. Glaring at him, Vivian took her pink bunnyhug off and threw it behind her.

Her yellow sports bra was all out there for us to see. Shivering by the fire, she put her hands on her hips. "Happy now?" She asked him before sitting on Chase's lap.

Noah chucked before taking a swig of his beer. "Very." I punched him in the arm.

Chase laughed before saying. "Alright Viv, your turn."

Vivian curled up in his arms before saying very sweetly,"Babe, truth or dare?"

"Hmmm," Chase paused before carefully selecting. "Truth. I'm not about to run off into the woods chasing after an owl yet."

I laughed. "Well, that gives me some ideas."

Vivian laughed along with me. "Damn it, you stole my idea."

Chase chuckled. "Sorry babe, truth."

Pausing in thought, Vivian smirked. "What is the worst thing that you have ever done? Like could have gotten you in serious trouble worst thing?"

Chase smirked at her. "You really wanna know?"

Vivian giggled. "Yes."

Chase winked at her. "Sex on the park bench with you. We could have gotten in some serious trouble for that."

I groaned. "Seriously Vivian? You guys could have been arrested for that."

She cackled. "Oh, and what your boyfriend is doing right now is so much better hey?"

I smiled, Vivian's laugh was contagious. Chase puckered up and gave Vivian a cheesy smooch. "You guys are so gross." I smirked. Taking a sip of my beer, I listened as the lone owl hooted silently in the background.

Chase looked over at Noah. "Okay mate, your turn. Truth or dare?"

Noah chugged the rest of his beer before replying with an evil glint in his eyes, "Dare." I rolled my eyes. This game just felt dumb to be playing.

"I dare you to find that damn owl." Chase laughed.

"Man, and do what with it?" Noah replied sarcastically.

"I don't know, anything to make it stop. It's creeping the hell out of me."

I looked over at my boyfriend, gauging his reaction. Knowing Noah, he would charge headfirst into the forest. "Don't even go there. You're too drunk for this." Noah shot me a look. I rolled my eyes back at him. As if for dramatic effect, the owl let out another cry into the night sky.

Noah grabbed my beer from me, chugged mine too. With a grand gesture, he stood up and proceeded to prance his way over to the edge of the woods. Without knowing what he was doing, he managed to frighten off some form of wildlife from the trees. I shook my head. Hooting and hollering his way around back to the fire, he sat down next to me. "I think I scared the owl away from our campsite. Happy now wimp?"

"Yes, very." Chase laughed.

Vivian got up off of his lap. "Guys, I think I'm ready to call it for the night. Can we go to bed?"

I gave her a smile. "Sure Viv."

Shooting him a look, before my knuckle-head boyfriend could get a word in otherwise, she laid the law down. "Noah don't even try to start with us. Nobody wanted to play Truth or Dare in the first place."

With a pout, the boys agreed to stay awake until the fire was burnt out. Vivian and I headed back inside the tent. Moving our bags around inside, we arranged space inside the tent for the four of us. Before she slipped into her sleeping bag, Vivian turned to me and said, "You know, he may be important to you, but your boyfriend can be a mega douche sometimes Clare."

I stared at Vivian in wonder. She gladly took her sweater off for my so called douche boyfriend just to tell me that he was a douche. I loved her but she could be unbearable at times. "You're right. Sometimes he can be a bit much. He did scare off that damn owl though."

Vivian laughed before settling into her sleeping bag, she still had her yellow sports bra on. "Well you're right about that. Goodnight Clare."

I smiled at her before settling down in my own sleeping bag. "Goodnight Viv."

The boys joined us inside the tent only a few minutes later. The fire had died down rather quick it seemed. I snuggled up next to Noah. He may be a knuckle-head, but he was damn well my knuckle-head.

***

In the middle of the night I woke to a strange noise coming from outside the tent. Thinking it was the owl, I turned to look for Noah, but he was nowhere to be seen. Puzzled, I glanced hazily over towards, Chase and Vivian, but I couldn't see much in the dark. Groaning, I unzipped the tent, expecting to find a puking Noah. Instead, I was graced with the sight of my now ex-boyfriend and my best friend fornicating on the damn lawn chairs. Good news for me, the moonlight was bright enough to see the two of them. My flashlight from my phone kind of helped too. "My fucking eyes you guys." I said. Vivian couldn't even look at me with the flashlight in her eyes. She scrambled off of Noah's lap, looking for her yellow sports bra. "Vivian, of all things, this? Really? I can't even believe you two."

Noah looked at me sheepishly while pulling his pants up. "Clare look, it's-"

Vivian cracked him on the head with her hand. "What? It's not what it looks like? She caught us dumbasss." She looked at me sheepishly. Good news for

"I can't even believe the two of you." I was seeing red. I wanted to go back in the tent and wake Chase up myself but I thought I'd leave that mess for them to clean up. I paused for a moment before deciding I had enough of being humiliated. "I'm just going to go home."

As I started to walk over to my red SUV, Vivian's tears started rolling. "No wait, Clare please don't leave. I'm just sorry. Things just happened."

Noah tried to follow her lead but before he could start. I turned around. "You guys don't want to hear anything that I have to say right now. I mean that." I turned away from them and hopped into my driver's seat. The minute I started the engine, I knew in my heart that I made the right decision. They can explain it to Chase themselves. I wasn't hanging around them to continue being humiliated any longer. As I drove away from that shitstorm of a camping trip, I started to regret it. Noah was blowing up my phone in some desperate attempt to apologize. He called me three times in a row as I was driving away. Ignoring his phone calls, I started to speed up. I just wanted to go home. I knew I was in no shape to be driving but I thought that I had made the right choice. I drove so fast, that I could hardly see with the tears behind my eyes. Like a flash, a weird shape whizzed in front of my SUV. Panicking behind the wheel as I tried to avoid whatever flew in front of me, my SUV managed to fly straight into the ditch. My airbags deployed and as glass shattered around me, I collapsed. I knew I should have just stayed at the damn campsite. Everything went black.

***

I woke up in the hospital to the sounds of the EKG monitor beeping. My mother was sitting beside my bed. I groaned internally. I never should have been behind the damn wheel in the first place. When she noticed me stirring, her eyes widened. "Clare, thank God you're okay." She scooted her chair closer to me and grabbed my hand. "I'm so glad you're awake baby."

My heart melted and I just about started bawling. I knew I needed her after what happened to me last night. "How did I get here?" I asked my mother slowly.

"You were in an accident, last night baby. I don't know how much you remember. Hours, after you crashed is when someone found you. You're so lucky to be alive Clare. You lost so much blood and somehow managed to hit your head during the accident." My mother's blue eyes were swarming with tears. "I do need to tell you this though, after you were found and the hospital called me, I phoned Noah and Vivian to find out what exactly happened."

Trying to interrupt her, "Mom no, I don't want to talk about them. Whatever they told you-"

"Listen Clare." My mother interrupted me. "Something else happened last night. They never answered their phones when I called them so I sent Jennifer back to where you guys were camping." I stared at her. Vivian's mom was a very good friend of my mother. "All she found when they got there, was three bodies. I'm so sorry baby. But they are gone. Vivian, Noah, and Chase were all found passed away this morning." She gripped my hand tightly. "Now I need you to trust me, they haven't determined the cause of death. But Jennifer needs to understand why you left in the first place."

"What are you trying to say?" Before we could get another word in, a white-coated doctor appeared in my room. "Oh good, you're awake. I was expecting that. How are you feeling Clare?"

Studying the doctor carefully, I replied with, "Just, sore and tired."

He smiled at me. "You did give us a scare last night. You'll probably be disoriented for a few days. Let's just take things one step at a time. You'll be resting here for a few more days so we can observe you for just a bit longer. Sound like a plan? I'm going to check your vital signs and then I'll leave you two be for a little while."

After the doctor checked a few things, he left the room. I looked over at my mom. "I caught them cheating last night Mom. When I left, Chase was still asleep in the tent."

She studied me carefully. "I'm so sorry Clare..." She paused for a moment before saying these words carefully to me. "They really are gone. All three of them. I don't know what happened to them yet. Whatever happened, it had to have been some sort of animal attack. That's how bad things were when Jennifer got to the campsite Clare. It's being investigated. And because you left and crashed, I need you to trust me because they found alcohol in your system. And I'm not blaming you for anything because I'm just glad that you're okay. But Jennifer is beside herself knowing that you could have been there too, with them."

An aminal attack, I thought to myself for a moment before responding. "Mom, we didn't see anything. There was no wildlife other than a stupid owl that kept hooting. That's all. We didn't even see it. An animal attack doesn't make sense to me."

My mom paused for a moment. "Vivian's sweater was hanging from a tree branch surrounding the campsite. That's the first thing Jennifer had seen when she got out there this morning... before she found all three bodies in pieces by the fire." I shut my eyes and just let my tears fall down. All of them were gone and I left them there. I thought of the odd white shape that whizzed in front of my car in the first place. Could it have been? There is no way it could have been the owl.