Cursed Tree

 Kenneth and his three friends stood outside Camp Cider Hills. They were all very excited to get here. They had all been waiting to come here for weeks, but soon they learned that this year they couldn't repair the bridge, and almost everything was closed off.

They went in anyway in hopes that it would still be fine, but they found nothing to do. They decided to leave the camp asap, but none of their parents were free, and they had to stay the night. 

In the night, they all sat down watching other kids play with old-style toys. They weren't impressed by these things and wanted the thrill they came there for.

"I am getting so boreeeeeddddddd!!!!" Jack said with a whine.

Kenneth smiled as Jack whined about his boredom and said, "Come on, guys. We are four people. We can find something fun to do. We are leaving tomorrow anyway. I doubt they would be mad even if we do a little damage. They ripped us off with fake advertisements anyway!"

"Woah! If Kenneth is saying this, then it means he won't scold us later on for anything stupid!" Fiona chirped in, and Edward laughed.

Kenneth rolled his eyes, "You say it like I am the party wrecker!"

"You are a party wrecker!" They all said in unison and laughed. Kenneth gave them a look but laughed nevertheless.

Edward stood up. He had found a plan. If you knew him, you would know that he had found mischief!

"Well, since we are leaving first thing in the morning, I say let's play games and scare these kids! We can even prank Mr. Owens!"

"Hey! Hey! Keep your pranks to a limit. No pranks that can lead to something too serious, you hear me?" Kenneth warned everyone right away.

"Yeah yeah. Sure, but now you know why we call you party wrecker." Edward teased.

Soon they were making plans. Kenneth always kept them in limits that wouldn't let any of them get in trouble and wouldn't cause any harm or trouble for others. One could say that he was the reins that kept all these hooligans in line.

After an hour, they finally got Kenneth to agree to a harmless plan. They all sat in a circle and started to draw on blank papers.

Soon, they all had multiple drawings, all creepy. They all said weird things. One had a scary drawing of a demon, the other had 'help help' written over it again and again, and another had 'He's coming! Run!' written over it, and one that Edward held to everyone had a demon drawing and names of all the kids in the camp.

Kenneth was looking over them all and wondered if they were too scary. After pondering it for a while, he decided to let it go. One would wonder soon if he just needed to remain the party wrecker to keep things under control.

They all set out to put these papers in the woods and to scare everyone. They messed up the papers a bit with mud to make them look very old. They put them on the floor, on the trees. Everywhere they thought they looked scary enough.

They would hide behind bushes or trees to see the reactions of other campers who were always gasping, getting pale, and running back to Mr. Owens.

They were all laughing and were finally able to enjoy this camp. Fiona was laughing and grabbed a paper from the tree. She read the contents out loud, 'I have been trapped here for ages. He won't let me go. Please help me. I am scared!' She chuckled and looked at her friends. "Was this you Edward? You even wrote it like your hand was trembling."

"Nah! I wanted to do something like this, but Kenneth was keeping an eye on me. Mine are simple. It was probably Jack." Edward replied with a grin.

"I only wrote 'help help' ones. I couldn't think of anything else." Jack replied with a roll of his eyes.

But then everyone fell silent. They knew Kenneth hadn't written anything except 'Run!' ones, so who wrote this one?

"That's enough, you know? I told you all not to prank me this time. Who wrote this?!" Fiona yelled as she felt her body shiver from the slight fear that was creeping up on her.

They all stayed silent for a moment. They were all just wondering. Then Kenneth spoke calmly, "It's not a big deal, guys. We were pranking other campers. Maybe someone saw us and tried to copy us. It happens, you know? They probably found it funny."

They all exchanged looks but decided to accept that as an answer. They were all slightly shaken up, so they all decided to go back to the cabin. 

As they started to walk, they began to feel a very prominent drop in temperature. They were walking closely when one of them found another page on a tree. They all looked at each other. Kenneth knew that everyone was scared, but being a protector by nature, he decided to be the one to grab it.

'YOU THINK IT'S FUNNY?! I HAVE BEEN STUCK HERE FOR AGES! YOU READ MY PLEA AND IGNORE IT?!'

They all saw the big words on the paper, and without thinking twice, they started to run towards the cabin that wasn't even in sight anymore. All they could see was more trees and the darkness of night.

After running for hours, they all got tired. It felt like they weren't even on earth anymore. The woods were never-ending. It looked like suddenly the whole world was just trees and empty darkness.

Soon they were back to walking. The pages increase suddenly. They ignored them and kept walking. But they kept increasing, and eventually there were heaps of pages on the floor. Their eyes caught sight of what was written in them. 

'YOU IGNORED ME, YOU SELFISH BRAT!'

'I AM TRAPPED IN A TREE!'

'HELP ME!'

'I AM ASKING NICELY! COME HELP ME! I WON'T BE NICE NEXT TIME!'

Fiona and Jack were near crying. Kenneth and Edward knew they had to do something. Edward moved forward, "How do we help you?" He asked loudly.

Kenneth felt a shiver and quickly regretted his decision, but soon a boy appeared in front of them holding a heap of pages. He looked innocent, but his eyes.....Kenneth could see how dull they were. What could have caused such dullness? Pain? Anger? Torment? Fear? Tiredness? What?

Kenneth couldn't figure it out, just like he couldn't figure out how to calm the trembling Fiona and Jack, who were holding him so tight that he could hardly move from his place.

"You see that tree? I was stuck there. I came out, but I think something is still in it. I can't reach it. Please help?"

Edward didn't say anything, but he wanted to say no. Before he could even get a single word out of his mouth, the boy screamed, and a black smoke came out like fog, but it was unnatural, "DO IT! LOOK AT THE TREE! I WON'T ASK NICELY AGAIN!" His voice was so loud. It felt like it could break the curtains of their ears.

Kenneth tried to move forward and look at the tree, but Fiona and Jack were still clinging to him. Edward took a deep breath and moved forward towards the tree. Kenneth didn't want Edward to get in trouble, so he tried to move towards him, along with Fiona and Jack. But suddenly, a thin, long hand came out of a small hole in the tree, and it grabbed Edward. 

Before they could do anything, three more hands came from the tree and grabbed Fiona, Jack, and Kenneth. They struggled and struggled, but the hands started to pull them into the hole.

The little boy was yelling loudly as he saw them getting sucked in. He was indeed happy. 'I AM FREE NOW! AND YOU ARE THE STUCK ONES! I AM FREE! I AM FRE-'

He was interrupted as he started to age. What happens when you are stuck in a place for ages, and you are finally returned to the real world? You age quickly to catch up for all the years. One can only hope that they haven't been stuck for too long. Otherwise, they would be nothing but ash, just like the boy.

A loud cackling laugh was all they heard as the boy fell down as ash, and the four friends got sucked into a tree that took them to a hole so dark that they felt they became nothingness, and the place so vast that it felt like they were in space. 

In the morning, when Mr. Owen finally decided to check what was happening in the woods all night, he only found the pages everywhere that had been written on:

'Help! Please help us! We are stuck! Help us! My friends and I are stuck in a tree! Help us!

 -Kenneth'       

THE END.