It was a hot August day. Almost too perfect to be real. The sky was bright blue like a robin egg and the sun was beating down on our skin. Woosh, a gust of warm air blew all around me as I walked down a trail with my friends. It just felt like one of those flawless days.      “It’s so pretty out,” I exclaim. 

My friends noded in response as we walked down the trails.  Everything was just so pretty there was absolutely nothing to worry about. The sun was glowing through the trees, and it looked like glitter scattering the ground. We finally made it to the reservoir. Once there was nothing blocking the trees it was like paradise. We all stood there in awe. 

“Let’s take pictures guys”, Georgia yells. Georgia pulls off her glasses and leaves them on a turtle shaped rock.

We all gather around the reservoir and start taking pictures.

 Snap…My eyes shoot at the bushes.  Nothing is there, I think…

Snap. I keep hearing more wrestling in the bushes. 

“There’s, there’s someone over there”, I whisper to my friends. We all come back together and listen. I heard a faint bird chirping and the ground was dry. My mind went back to the bushes before my thoughts carried me away. Two large figures wearing all black are now visible, but they are still hard to see because of all the brush covering them. Could there be more people,I think. Splash. A small rock makes little ripples in the water in front of us like a mirror being shattered. My throat tightens and my stomach has butterflies. (Obviously, I wouldn’t have been scared, but my friend who has gone on this trail before has seen some pretty sketchy people). Panicking was the last thing we should do, but there was no other choice. We all knew exactly what to do without any hesitation. Run. 

 

My heart is racing as we all fly up the trail. Every second seems like an hour, and the trail seems like it never ends. Yet, we had to keep moving.“AHHHHHH,” someone yells. I look around and it’s none of us….the sound was no doubt coming from behind us. We all sprinted faster. I was Scared to look behind me as I kept running. At this point the screaming is gone and all I can hear is  heavy breathing while rocks fly behind us. 

Finally, we reached the end of the trail in 5 minutes of sprinting that seemed like 10 hours. 

“What the heck was that,” I spit out barely being able to talk. My heart is still beating like a drum as I collapse trying to catch my breath. 

“Does everyone have everything?” my friend Jenna announces

“Yes,” we all reply as we dig through our bags. 

“Guys……guys, I can’t find my glasses,” Georgia gasps. We all focus our eyes on Georgia in disbelief. 

“Georgia, are you sure they’re not in your bag?”I ask

“No I checked everywhere”

“Then where could they be?”

“Well, I took them off to take pictures and put them on the rock.”      “Georgia, can we come back and get them later,” I question.

“No, my moms gonna kill me. And I just lost my last pair,” Georgia sighs. We knew we had to go back down that long endless trail and get her glasses. And instead of going right back down to the water again, we waited. The sun was still high in the sky and darkness wasn’t close at all. 

Even with it so bright outside those few seconds I felt frozen in time. Helpless.When I came back to reality. I realized I can’t look back, and we have to keep going forward even if we’re scared we should make the best of it.

As we march back down the trail one half of my friends are quiet while 911 is dialed on their phone, and the rest of us carry long sticks laughing. There’s no going back now, I think.

“Shhhhh,” Sophie murmurs.

As we reached near the reservoir we got more quiet and decided to be a little more serious. We all walked out into the beach part no longer hidden from the trees and started searching the area to see any signs of people. After we scattered the rocks looking for Georgia’s glasses. 

At Last, after minutes of searching Georgia finds them wedged in between two rocks. “Guys, I found them,” she chants with joy. We rushed over to Georgia,  satisfied with her words. 

“How did those people leave? They’re not here anymore and we didn’t see them leave,” Lindsay stuttered. “Guys come over here,” I exclaimed while leading the way to where we saw them before. “I- There was no trail….they came through the woods,” I blurted. 

We eventually made it back to the road and all I have left out of this experience is a story to tell.

I thought about his experience made me think to never look back and to keep moving forward. 

 

Everyday might not be an easy path no matter what the situation is. I also learned to never ever go down this terrible trail again.