I felt a pair of hands grabbing my shoulders from the back and squeezing them in a way that made me jump. I turn around to see my idiot of a best friend grinning like a fool.

‘’Let go, dipshit’’ I say, giving Arthur my worst glare. He took a second to stand  there, staring right into my eyes with an unreadable expression before he started giggling

‘’What’s the matter, sweet pie? You look like absolute shit right now.’’

‘’Don’t ask, dude..’’ I sighed

‘’Had a rough night?’’ he asked, squinting his eyes. Arthur may have a pretty face, one of an angel’s, to say the least. He must’ve been blessed by the gods ‘cause he’s always looked like a well-made sculpture, ever since we were kids. Though when he wore an unreadable expression, similar to the one he made earlier, he looked fucking intimidating; like he was staring right into my soul.

‘’Like I said…’’ 

‘’Gotcha.’’ 

Me and Arthur understood each other. We knew our boundaries, and we knew better than to cross them. I guess that’s a given, considering our long history. He was the one guy I felt completely comfortable with. When I was with him, I didn’t need to pretend. He's the kind of friend you can't replace, not in a lifetime.

‘’We’re almost there, you looking forward to it?’’ he asked. We were on our way to our very first camping trip. The school decided it would be good for our class to take a break and have some outdoor camping experience. I disagreed though, I’ve had enough of the high school drama and would prefer to sit home and invite some close friends over. I guess I get to spend time with those friends here as well, but the whole idea of sleeping in the middle of the woods didn’t sound as appealing. Plus, since teachers are tagging along, and we’re under their supervision, anything fun is off-limits.

‘’Not really,’’ I responded, glancing down at my phone only to see that it’s started to lose signal. This trip couldn’t get any better.

…

My eyes pried over the window, and I noticed the small sign of the camping site we were headed to. The bus started slowing down and I looked at Arthur once again, who had settled next to my seat from the beginning of our short-lasting conversation. He was quite a popular and outgoing guy, which was quite the opposite of me. Even as we were sitting down he was talking to the guys sitting beside us.

‘’I think we’ve arrived’’ I announced, putting an end to the talk he was having with the dudes. Everyone started grabbing their things and slowly getting up from their seats. The school bus parked near the campsite sign and we walked for about ten minutes from the sign to where our teachers decided to set up our tents. We all chose our groups of three, and in our group was Arthur and one other student named Julie. I suspected that Arthur had a crush on Julie, but he never really talked to me about it, which was weird because we didn’t hide our relationships from one another. I doubted that he was aware of his little crush himself, so I decided I would ask him about it after the trip.

After everyone finished setting up their tents, the teachers invited us over to the campfire that they had set up while everyone was busy setting up their tents. Our tent, though, was set up by me only. I expected Arthur to help since he was quite a muscular guy, like me. But when I was about to ask him to lend me a hand, I saw that he was occupied, talking to Julie. I honestly rooted for them since Julie was a nice person, sometimes too nice for her own good.

The rest of the day was uneventful like I’d expected. When the sun set, we all returned to our tents and I grabbed a few of the snacks the teachers had brought, in case we got hungry during the night. Julie and Arthur tugged themselves inside their sleeping bags instantly, it seemed like they were exhausted from the trip. I wasn’t exactly sleepy since I’d chugged down a cup of coffee earlier, and I’d never been able to go to sleep in unfamiliar places easily, anyways. I kept tossing and turning, trying to find a better position to sleep in, but the tent wasn’t  exactly spacey enough for much movement and I didn’t want to wake the others.

Before I knew it, it got real quiet and it seemed like everyone, including the teachers, was asleep. I reached down to grab my phone and saw that it was 3:07 

I didn’t know if it was because of the coffee i’d drank earlier but I really had to take a piss. I slowly got up from my bag and quietly stepped out of the tent. I walked a bit further to make sure I wouldn’t get interrupted while I was in the middle of urinating. After walking for a few minutes I finally found a nice spot. At that moment I wished I was home, I’d gotten used to living comfortably and this was too much for me. Looking at it from the bright side, I’d only have to experience this hell for one more day before returning home, and this would all be a part of a nice high school camping memory. 

As I zipped up my pants, I heard a few footsteps, along with murmurs. The voices sounded like they belonged to middle-aged men, which was odd because the only middle-aged male on this trip was Mr. Williams, who sounded like a squeaker; all the other teachers were females. I heard a branch cracking near me, which made me tense up. After it seemed like they passed me, I hurried back to the camp, with the intention of waking up one of the teachers and informing them that there were strangers near camp, in the middle of the night. Overall, I had a bad fucking feeling about this.

As I got closer to the camp, I heard a commotion. Everyone was sleeping when I left, so when I got closer and the noises grew louder, I knew something was up. 

AAAHHH!!!

I heard a goddamn scream, like the kind of shit you only hear in horror movies, and I felt my stomach drop. What was following the scream was far more disturbing. I could hear the sounds of people screaming, and crying for help, followed by gunshots, it was absolute terror. Were they the guys from before, did they have guns? Why would they start a fucking massacre out of nowhere? I was scared out of my mind and didn’t know what I was doing. I only followed my instincts and started running to our tent as fast as I could. I finally got close enough to see what was going on. Everywhere was covered in blood. And I saw one of the teachers lying on the ground. I started going dizzy and my mind went blank. One after another. The guys I heard earlier, were shooting everyone. Every single person in sight had a bullet somewhere in their body, some trying to hold on to dear life, some long gone. 

I finally saw Arthur, he— he was alive, he had to be, 

He was lying on the ground, along with the rest but there was no bullet on his face.

As I ran to him I heard one more gunshot, this time it was aimed at me. I hit the ground, and my face, well my face hit the dirt, hard.. As blood flowed from my shoulder down to the ground, I started losing consciousness. 

06.06.24