The Lake house

INTO THE WOODS

"Hey, pretty ladies! Care to join me for a.....huh.....dance?", Leo asked trying to keep his balance in order for him not to collapse and embarrass himself in front of the pretty girls while Max and Jake watched spellbound at the scene waiting for a chance of laughter to erupt.

"Of course not, we can't join...a boorish guy like you. You aren't even cool enough to impress us with your style like Michael over there", one of the ladies whose name was Amanda, rejoined harshly and sneered at him with her lean arms folded together. Michael had overhead her harsh statement and patiently waited to observe Leo's reaction, if he decides to retaliate back but he did not because he didn't quite heard what she said and stood there moping gently as if being pushed by the wind.

"Please.... just one dance with me and that'll be all. I won't... request... for another round", He pleaded raising his forefinger to demonstrate his eager demand as he gently stumbled with his arms swaying in the wind while staring at the pretty ladies who seem to abhor his presence greatly. The ladies eventually walked away leaving him stranded alone by the bar in utter shame and displeasure which brought out hard tears from his eyes, caressing his pale cheeks while Jake and Max chuckled heavily from afar where they were observing the whole scene together with Michael at the other side of the counter. He was about to return to his seat beside Jake when he slipped and finally collapsed into an empty table nearby, falling down hard on the sandy ground which made the onlookers gaze in horror as he went down hard with a loud thud. Max and Jake including Michael instantly came to his rescue trying to revive him from the murky ground while the others especially Amanda looked paralyzed at the incident which occurred after they had left him alone all by himself.

"Help him! Come on Jake! Help him up, now!", Michael ordered shouting loudly with his fawn beard dancing to the rhythm of his voice and took Leo's fragile arms from the ground while Max and Jake both lift up his shoulders including his torso with a great effort to lift him back on his feet again from the sandy ground. He tried to regain his balance after he had been toss upwards by the trios but failed to keep his foot firm on the ground and fell heavily on Jake's shoulders totally engulfed with sleep which made him lose sheer control of his body.

"Don't worry about him, I'll take him back to camp", Jake said to both men who were shaking off dirt from their hands.

"The camp is quite far away from here, are you sure you don't need any help carrying him back to camp?", Max asked after cleaning off sands from his hands and rearrange the broken plastic table back to his former position.

"No, thanks man. I appreciate you for trying to help me but I can do it alone. Besides, you have to handle issues here at the party especially stacking up used tables and empty bottles until the campers retire back but I'll come back to assist you with the arrangements", Jake replied and toss Leo's heavy body on his back and left with Leo on his back taking the obscured path towards the campsite which was quite a distance away but he didn't relent and bravely conveyed Leo on his back to the camp where he remarkably arrived in forty-five minutes before midnight. Arriving at the empty camp, Jake plodded with Leo on his back to his tent rather than Leo's tent which was a bit far away from the entrance while his tent was close by which made him decided to do lay him down in his tent rather than Leo's. He struggled to move on due to Leo's weight and managed to open the tent which swallowed him inside including sleeping Leo as he went into the tent very weary but still energetic to lay down Leo's heavy body on the blue mattress. Then he shroud oblivious Leo with his thick blanket and placed a soft pillow under his damp hair that was partly stained with sand which he ruffled out with his cold hands. He stood up peering at Leo in order to ensure that he's safely tucked into the blanket and left him after fully satisfied with his placement of Leo in a cozy spot under the thick blanket. As he went outside the tent, he noticed that the was way too quite and serene which hovers round the atmosphere in the entire camp, making it look like a total graveyard. He decided to check if anyone else was present in the camp when he came in with Leo, through the entrance of the camp especially Stanley and Stacy who he had seen leaving the party earlier as well as headed towards the campsite through the dark route which he had earlier taken. He went to Stanley's tent but found no one else inside except the rumpled red blanket on the mattress, and the neatly arranged luggages beside it on the right while two outfits lay lifeless on the soft red pillow. He peered at the empty tent looking for any sign of Stanley's presence but found only the rumpled red blanket as a possible indication of Stanley's presence in the camp. After that, he went out and search the other tents as well especially Stacy's but found one one else inside the tent except for sleeping Leo.

"What on earth happened to Kelvin and the others?", He asked himself after a long weary search around the camp and came out of Kelvin's tent looking perplexed at the sudden disappearance of his brother including the others who wasn't at the party when he left with Leo. As he walked outside deep in thought, he noticed that the door to the store house had flung open into the bright yellow light which glittered its green color, with the huge padlock dangling loosely on the door which dances to the calm flow of the cool wind. He slowly walked towards the door and stood wondering who had entered inside and left it completely unlocked placing the store house in a vulnerable position.

"How did this happen?", He wrenched the huge padlock away from the door as he questioned himself, "I thought I shut this door earlier when my shift ended", he added looking more confused at the scene. Then he went inside the store room carrying the huge padlock with his left palm and found it in utter mess being totally muddled by an unknown intruder who broken into the storage and ransacked the neatly arranged cartons leaving everywhere muddled with pile of cartons mixed together on the floor in front of the first wooden shelf which housed the boxes earlier while some other box were torn open revealing some vital items that had been sealed inside the brown cartons.

"You got to be kidding me.....I thought I sealed the door tight with the padlock before I went back to the party and everyone else were at the party when I went there. Who might have made this place a complete mess?", He questioned himself staring transfixed at the sheer mess in the store room with his hands akimbo on his blue trousers.

"And Stanley and the others aren't in their rooms right now. Only Rose is left behind at the party.... maybe one of them did this... It could be Rose or Stanley since they had the other spare keys to the store house", He said peering into space thinking about who might have broken into the store house. Then he tried to place some boxes back into their shelves but failed.

"No, I can't do this alone...I have to think of something.....", He said after putting down a container on the ground and began pacing around contemplating hard on how to handle urgent issues with out the guidance of Stanley. He kept thinking for a while until the time strucked thirty minutes before midnight and came up with an idea to solve the resolve the urgent problem.

"Okay...I think I know what to do..... I'll tell the others at the party that they should stop the party for awhile in order to search for the missing campers especially Stanley and that.... the guys will share themselves into groups to look for them while Rose will lead the ladies to put things in order in here", He mumbled his plans to himself and dash outside after switching off the lights leaving it in total darkness, then he slammed the door bolting it inside and sealing it with the huge padlock since he already had the keys to the storage room inside his yellow knapsack which he left at the party. Then he hurriedly departed from the camp leaving it empty once more except for Leo who had been drooling on the blue blanket the entire time which sheerly shroud his weary body except for his head which protruded outside the blanket, resting upon the soft pillow that held his head upright while he kept snoring away inside the tent.

.... "Ouch! That hurts!", Stacy shrieked in pain slapping her smooth thigh with her left palm after getting bitten by a hungry mosquito inside the bush. Bloodsucking mosquitoes had been swirling around her ever since they ventured into the dark forest and were attracted to her because of her cologne she had swiftly put on when she changed her previous outfit earlier at the camp. They have been walking in circles for some time now unable to reach their destination which seems far into the dark bushes even though they had large flashlights they held in their hands. She had fallen behind trying to wrestle off the angry mosquitos which were sheerly invisible inside the darkness while oblivious Kelvin kept on treading on the wrong path showing no concern about his partner behind him but he suddenly stopped for a while after noticing that he was in the wrong track again and that he had outrun Stacy leaving her to the brutality of the mosquito bites. Then he went back to where he had left her and met her hitting her whole body In a funny way that made chuckled out which caught her attention.

"Do you think it's funny, huh? Can't you see that I need your damn help right now?!", She squealed in anguish as angry mosquitos pierced her smooth skin with their hard proboscis.

"No, I don't but can't help it but laugh at your funny moments", He replied stifling another laughter that was trying to burst out his lungs. Then he pointed his torch at the map he held with his right hand and walked over to a nearby tree where he rested his back ignoring her to duel with invisible mosquitoes while he observe which correct direction to take to the old signpost using the map as his guide. She noticed that he had ignored her to the mercy of mosquitoes which she hardly caught with her fragile arms inside the darkness, and became irritated by his willingness to neglect her totally while he kept on peering on a piece of paper he held gently with his back touching the tree.

"Kelvin! I need your help to chase away this bugs!", She exclaimed trying to get his attention without paying heed to another bite laced on her neck by a small mosquito beside her ear.

"Please don't bother me, I have to figure out the right path to take in order to get outta here", He answered still peering at the map with his flashlight. She almost flared up in anger and wrench the map away from him tossing it to the ground leaving him dumbfounded with utter shock.

"How could you do that?! That's our only way out of the bushes...", He exclaimed in shock which almost infuriated him after regaining his voice to speak out and picked up the torn map which wasn't severely damaged.

"I don't care about that piece of trash you call map or whatever. I've been suffering the entire time from severe mosquito bites and all you seem to care about is that silly piece of paper", she snapped at him angrily and glared hard at him making her ready to pounce on him with slaps but she decided to cool down her temper after recalling that she was the one who persuaded him to follow him into the dark woods.

"You decided to come along despite warning about entering into the bush at night which you aren't used to but didn't listen. Besides, some bugs are quite attracted to sensitive perfumes, that's why they keep following you around", He responded and hit a mosquito against her left arm leaving out a stain of fresh blood on her arm. "And your outfit isn't helping you either especially your short skirt which exposes your smooth thighs", he explained further scanning her body with his bright flashlight revealing some red rashes on her thighs. She felt irritated by his comments about her especially her legs which almost made her mad but she refrain herself from hitting his forehead with her large flashlight.

"I only wore this outfit because I thought we wouldn't waste much time in the bush but I was totally wrong and now we seem to have gotten lost", She retorted in sheer frustration with the poor outcome of her desire to get away from the camp in order to find a quiet place to clear her mind from the ugly incident that took place not long ago and only used Kelvin's departure from the camp as a gateway to get away from Stanley immediately but she wasn't aware that he was going somewhere else inside the dark bushes.

"What do we do now?", She asked him searching for answers on his face.

"We could turn on our bleepers first so that the others can find us but we still need get out of this bush because we can't wait for them since they are currently at the party", He replied still searching for a way to find the signpost he saw in the afternoon but he wasn't able to decipher it anymore because Stacy had torn a vital part out of it.

He had tried going back to the lake but couldn't because his tracking device began to malfunctioning in the forest, and had decided to return back to the camp in order to retrieve the map which will manually guide him back. He was getting closer to the camp back when he heard her screaming for help from being forcefully taken advantage of by Stanley and rescued her from her plight but now he wasn't able to figure his way back again because of the thick darkness that enveloped them completely. Stacy had turned on her bleepers and was patiently waiting for him to come up with an idea of how to get out of the dark bushes.

"Any ideas?", She asked him hoping for a favorable response but he shook his head.

"If only my tracking device is didn't malfunctionexd, then we wouldn't be in this place right now", He muttered out peeping at a millipede crawling on top of a dry leave on the ground.

"You didn't mention anything about a tracking device earlier..... I thought you said you were only going to check out the perimeter, tell me what's going on?", She asked after hearing about his statement about him having a tracking device which she found strange.

"It's really nothing... don't think much about it", he said raising his head towards the sky to decipher the direction he had taken earlier in the afternoon using coordinate points which he started from the campsite as his starting point which read north of the whole area while he had taken the northwestern trail into the forest using the sun as a means to speculate the accurate direction he had earlier taken. Since the sun rises in east and sets in west, he recalled having seen the sun shedding it last light behind the clouds on the sky where he stood watching the lake which means that he ventured into the forest using the northwestern pathway to find the lake and they had left the camp into the left wing of the forest and derailed into the wrong direction of the northeastern trail instead of northwestern pathway where the lake is situated.

"I think I figured out where we were should go next", He said to Stacy but she didn't heart him since she was feeling weary with sleep which made weigh down on her eyes while she squatted on her knees trying to rest her body. He gently tapped her shoulder and she stood up facing him.

"I know a out of the forest. Let's us take the western route so that we'll find our way out of this bush", He said feeling delighted that he had recover his eager desire to get to the lake without her awareness. He kept the map on his front pocket and stride forward hoping she would follow him but she stood where she was glaring at him.

"Come on, Stacy. Let's get the hell outta of here", He said smiling at her which faded into a nervous countenance. She had figured out that he wasn't going back to camp but some unknown location which confirmed her hunch correctly that he had left in the afternoon in search of that unknown place.

"You lied to me...... Didn't you? Just like Stanley did to me", She said shedding a tear which dropped to the ground. He knew she would figure his plans out sooner or later and would throw a tantrum about it if she finds out that he was going on a wild goose chase like he did last winter which cost her the precious life of her dear friend, Matty Adams who passed away in a snow storm when they were in search of him.

"Yes...I know I did a terrible thing hiding it away from you but we can talk about that later, right now we gotta leave the dark forest", He replied trying to postpone any further hostilities between them. She glared at him a second time and decided to wait until they were out of the woods before pouring her down hard all her suppressed anger on him. She kept and walked past him following his directives towards the right path with him following her from behind until they arrived at a cross roads with dry trees densely situated on both sides and using a flashlight, they saw a corroded signpost which read, "DO NOT TRESPASS",. but unknown to them, a figure of a man had been following them from behind lurking in the shadows and had been listening to their conversation silently when they were lost in the wrong direction. The figure under the cover of darkness had wearily find his way to a short distance away from them and hidden himself behind some dark shrubs near a huge tree at the boundary mark between the densely dry trees and the fresh ones.

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