The Haunted Traveler Vol. 1 Issue 1

54
now!” Jason broke free of the hold and pushed Devlin straight
into a thorn bush. Guilt bit at his heels before his friend even
hit the ground.
“Look, I’m sorry,” he said, offering Devlin a hand to pull
him out of the tangled mess. “I didn’t mean it. I’m just tired,
is all.”
“Well, let’s set up camp. No point in searching blind,
right? We’ll continue at first light.” The two hikers set up
their tent beside a tall oak tree and climbed inside as twilight
succumbed to the reign of a full moon.
“We never should have left the trail,” Jason said. “We’ll be
lucky if we ever find our way back.”
“Will you relax?” Devlin responded with a chuckle. “We
have a compass and we’ll have some light in the morning. We
can’t be far from the burial ground anyway.”
“Burial ground? Will you give that up already? I’m through
searching for that nonsense. Tomorrow I’m heading straight
back to the trail and then on to base camp. I’m not spending
another night up here trying to scare up a bunch of ghosts
that don’t even exist.”
“Ok, ok. Keep your pants on. Get some sleep and we’ll talk
in the morning.” Devlin used this strategy almost exclusively.
Jason called it his delay method, kind of the equivalent
of a parent’s “we’ll see.” But as Jason nodded off to sleep he
could do nothing but remind himself of how badly he wanted
to find the trail and make it home safely.
After about an hour of restless sleep, most of which was
interrupted by Devlin’s nasally snoring, Jason decided to get
a bit of fresh air outside the tent. As he reached for the entry
flap he heard a distinct crack, as if someone or something
had taken a rare misstep through the brush. Jason froze and
then he slowly and cautiously unzipped the flap to reveal no
more than a half inch hole he could peer through. He placed
his eye to the hole and panned left to right. Nothing.
He began to unzip the tent further. Snap. His heart pounded
in his chest. A lonely bead of sweat rolled from his temple