Sunday July 16th, the smell of salt and palm trees filled the air of California, but the sky faded and the warm sun that kissed my olive skin had waved goodbye. I ran towards the Persian blue water, diving deep and soaking my skin in the empty ocean. Thoughts slipped off my mind and floated away, I drifted away from shore and watched the warm orange sky blacken at the blink of my eye. I pushed my arms through the cold water, toweled myself dry and opened my coral-colored beach bag. Grabbing a large sweatshirt which had my high schools name on it and a pair of Nike shorts. I tossed my clothes over my suit, walking in the cold sand towards the road home. I knew I had to be home soon since the streetlights just turned on.  

The air’s wind sent a chill through my whole body and my eye looked at a dark green forest. I was hesitant to walk near it, “I need to get home” my brain urged, something inside of me wanted me to explore the deep, empty, wooded area. Walking towards the tall spruce trees I looked around, continuing to go deeper into the forest. My foot dropped down in a ditch filled with leaves and small but thick twigs.  

“Oh my god, what the-” My heart raced as I could not move my foot; pain is all I felt. 

Large cuts were arranged on my right foot, I ran my hand over the cuts and screamed in pain. My hands met with the ground as I pushed my body up, I tried my best to walk around but I knew I needed to get to a hospital. The pain filled my screams, limping towards the end of the dark tunnel the untouched forest created…But it was not the way out. I went the wrong way. I threw my bag down, ripping it open to grab my phone and call my mom to get me, my heart sank when I realized my phone was on 2%. I typed my mother’s phone number in… straight to voicemail. I’m running out of time; I go to re-call her.

I was out of time.

My phone was dead, I’m lost in a forest, and the sun has set.  

I resorted to my only option, “HELP” My voice began to break as I continued screaming, pleading for my life. Tears slipped out of my eyes, I have nowhere to go, I don’t even know where the end of this stupid forest is.  

Trees rustled, but there was no wind. 

My head hurts, I’m dizzy. My vision is turning darker. I fell to the ground. 

I can’t move. My throat is dry, and my eyes open to the sight of a house. It wasn’t a nice friendly house; it was the kind of house u see in like old scary movies. I looked around for things to set me free. I was taped to a chair, my hands were zip tied together and my legs were chained up to the legs of the chair. My head spun around behind me, and I caught a glimpse of tools and toolboxes. The name read “Michael,” I pushed and squirmed to move the chair, it dragged across the cold wooden floor and screeched loudly. My body freezes with the chair, steps approach the room I am in. A tall man opens the door, he has a mask over his face. The man walks towards me, My lips quivered as I began to cry. 

I took a large inhale, and my exhale shook my body, “W-w-what do you want from me?” I could barely get the words out of my mouth. The Unknown man just looked at me and said nothing. 

“What are you going to do with me?” He raised his finger to his mouth signaling me to keep quiet. He began to walk towards me and leaned forward to grab something, I did not know what else was behind me besides tools. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him grab the large toolbox with the name on it. Maybe it was his toolbox? Was he Michael? My mind pushed out more questions than I could ever answer.  

The toolbox opens and he pulls out a knife, it looked like a big butcher’s knife. My heart drops quickly because in my head I was repeating “I’m going to die.” He holds the knife close to me. 

I was shaking and could feel my throat begin to close, “Please don’t.” I whisper, but he proceeds to move the large knife closer to my neck as a continue to whisper, “What do you want from me? Please don’t, please I’ll do anything you want.” The cries continued; I was really fighting to keep myself alive. 

“Please let me go, LET ME GO, I’m begging you please.”  

“Michael, what do you want from me, I’ll do anything please just let me go.” He walked away from me. My vision was blurry from all the tears building up and soaking my skin, when he returns to the chair that I’m stuck in he shows me a newspaper titled “Brutal massacre killed 15 campers,” I continued to read into the article and slowly put the pieces together. The massacre happened in San Diego, in a large overgrown forest, the victims of the brutal murder were people just camping. All the locations led to one point, and it was directly north of the beach. I was in that spot where the massacre happened. Not only that but that massacre happened the day my sister went missing. 

“You were the man that killed them…” I gradually spoke. 

“So then why did you come after me? Michael why are you so upset. You killed my sister you monster.”  

I began kicking at him and screaming, “Why did you do it? Why did you kill my sister?” Finally, he spoke.  

“Your sister was a liar, she was rude. Your sister was nothing but a cruel girl that crushed people.” His voice was thick and deep, he sounded older but not terribly old. How did he know Isabel? 

“My sister never meant any harm to anyone; she was having a fun time with her friend’s you psycho. How did you even know my sister?” 

“We went to school together; she was the girl I always dreamed of. She crushed me, ruined me and was completely insane. She got the word around about me being this strange man in the corner who would stare. Yet nobody knew my name…” 

“You killed her…” My voice was shallow, and my breath shuddered. 

He walked towards me and before I could scream for help, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. My hands gripped around the knife that pierced my stomach and my eyes lifted to stare at the faceless man.