The sky above the forest seemed to have swallowed up the stars, and the remnants of the moon did little to light the way as Delilah Lewis drew in her breath and cautiously waded down to the shore of the river. She was careful not to slip on the rocks her father had just warned her about two seconds earlier. If she had her cell phone with her, she could use it as a flashlight, but her dad had insisted, “No electronics on the camping trip.” She knew he relished days like this, and even though it was fairly warm outside for February, Delilah didn’t want to let him know how absolutely miserable she was already, just one day into the long weekend.
She squatted down at the water’s edge and rinsed the dinner plates. Her dad was always very careful about keeping things tidy at camp, especially since there’d been rumors of bears or something else large meandering around in the woods recently. One more reason why she hoped this was the last time the two of them ever had to go camping together. At fifteen and a half, there were a lot more fun things she could think of to do on a long weekend then drive out into the mountains with her dad, even if it was a tradition and this was the thirty-second time she’d found herself at Angeles State Park in sunny Southern California.
Thoughts of what her friends were likely doing back home had Delilah pausing, taking a seat on a larger rock and examining the night sky. It was usually beautiful out here, but tonight something seemed off, like the stars had neglected to take their places. It was probably prettier from the beach where her friends were staying. Or from Robby Lee’s house where an epic party was happening without her.
“Delilah!” her dad called. “You get lost? Hurry up! It’s late. We need to get to bed soon if we’re going fishing at dawn!”
She looked up the slope to see her dad, Kent, had taken a few steps closer before yelling. The moonlight seemed to reflect off the top of his balding head.
“I’ll be right back, Dad!” she called, glad they didn’t seem to have any other campers too close by. She’d hate to wake anyone else with their shouting. This was her dad’s favorite location, even though it was pretty close to a new road the park service had recently put in, and he wasn’t a fan of hearing vehicles in the middle of the night—not that that happened much. Occasionally a ranger would drive by on patrol, but that was about it.
Delilah sighed and brushed her long red hair over her shoulder, carrying the dinner plates back up the hillside. A rustling sound from the tree line had her frozen in her tracks. It actually sounded like footsteps crunching on top of the fallen leaves. When she stopped and turned to face the outliers of the forest about twenty yards in front of her, the noise stopped, too, as if whatever was there was intelligent enough to know she was looking. Whatever it was making that sound, it seemed large. Delilah swallowed hard as little beads of perspiration sprang up along her forehead.
“Lilah-Bug!” her dad shouted.
“C—coming.” Her response probably wasn’t loud enough for him to hear, but Delilah turned and headed back up the incline as fast as her legs would carry her.
When she reached the campfire, she was glad to see her dad standing there in the orange glow. She took a deep breath, certain he would find a way to protect her from whatever animal that might’ve been in the woods.
“Are you okay?” he asked, taking the plates from her and sliding them into their storage case. “You look a little pale.”
“I’m fine. I just… heard a skunk or something,” Delilah replied, taking deep breaths. She looked around for her canteen and found it next to the log she’d been sitting on earlier. Her dad tried to rough it as much as possible. No folding chairs for them.
Her dad immediately began to laugh. “Oh, my gosh! Do you remember that time your mom got sprayed by that skunk?” he asked as Delilah took a sip of water. “That was the funniest thing that has ever happened to us while camping.”
“Yeah, Mom didn’t think so,” Delilah replied, screwing the lid back on her canteen. The woods ran up the incline and narrowed in closer to the small, quick-pitch tent they’d brought with them. Whatever was out there could just as easily stay under cover and make its way up here. She peered into the darkness between the trees but didn’t see anything.
“I know. I think that was the last time she ever came with us.” Her dad’s voice didn’t sound so colorful now, and Delilah thought about how hard the divorce had been on him, how hard everything had been on him since her mother remarried and had her little brother. That was one of the main reasons why Delilah had come. She couldn’t bear to see him disappointed even one more time.
“Well, I think everything’s cleaned up here,” Kent said, surveying the area carefully. “I need to go visit nature’s restroom one more time, and then we’ll get to bed.”
“Okay,” Delilah said. Kent gave her a meager smile and headed off toward the tree line. Delilah thought she saw something moving there again, though she didn’t hear anything. “Dad!” she called as he came within a few steps of the first patch of darkness beyond which she could not see.
“Yeah, Lilah-Bug?” he called, pausing to look over his shoulder at her.
Swallowing back her unfounded fear, Delilah said, “Uh… watch out for skunks.”
Kent Lewis gave a little chuckle. “Don’t worry about me. I’m immune to skunk spray.” He was still laughing when he crossed in-between the trees and disappeared into the inkwell of forest.
Despite feeling silly, Delilah stood perfectly still, staring into the darkness, forcing herself to breathe. Something was wrong; she could feel it in her bones. In all of her camping trips, she’d never felt like this before. She glanced down to see the hairs on her arms below the pushed up sleeves of her flannel shirt, all standing on end. She inhaled deeply again, refocusing her attention on the line of trees.
The rustling sound began again, this time to her left, closer to the water, but not far enough into the forest to be her father coming back unless he’d gotten lost and wasn’t taking the same path to return. That didn’t seem like him. Delilah wanted to call out, to tell him she thought the animal was moving in his direction, but as the leaves continued to crunch, she realized whatever this was had to be much bigger than a skunk. Images of her father being torn apart by a bear filled her mind, and then the forest grew silent.
Delilah took a hesitant step forward. With quivering lips, she shouted, “D-dad?” An eerie silence hung in the air between her and the forest. Her pulse was racing as she fisted and unfisted her hands at the sides. Delilah took another step so that she was standing at the edge of the fire pit. “Dad!”
Once again there was nothing, and then, from between the trees, weaving in and out like a smoky finger tracing its way through the air, a gust of air descended upon the campfire, extinguishing it like a deluge of water had been poured from an invisible bucket, leaving Delilah surrounded by a thick darkness.
No longer able to shout, Delilah’s ragged breath echoed around her as she searched the tree line frantically for any sign of her dad. She couldn’t formulate the words to yell for him again. Thinking she heard something behind her, she spun around, but there was nothing there. The trees there were almost as still as the ones that had been in front of her, the ones that had devoured her father. Delilah spun back around just in time to see another shift in the tree branches. Footsteps crunched through the leaves, hurried ones, and branches began to snap. Tears filled her eyes as Delilah began to pray it was her dad, but before she could find the strength to shout for him again, a terrifying scream punctuated the night sky.
“Delilah! RUN!”
“DAD!”
Something was coming through the trees, but it wasn’t her father. She could tell by the distance from which she’d heard his voice, which sounded unnaturally gravely, almost as if he were underwater. Just as a form broke the veil and stepped out into the clearing, Delilah recovered her ability to move and instinctually turned and took off as fast as she could toward the road.
The path was rocky, with fallen branches and twigs that reached out and swiped at her hair. She felt thorns dig into her face as she lost her footing and tumbled into a bush. Regaining her footing as quickly as she could, she continued to fight her way uphill toward the road, her only chance at finding someone to help. The sound of footsteps behind her grew nearer, but Delilah didn’t dare turn to see what was behind her. The overwhelming sense of doom filled her soul as she ran for her life.
About twenty feet in front of her, she could see the edge of the pavement. She realized that just because she reached the road, that didn’t mean she’d find help. Seldom did anyone even use this access path, but she knew there was a park ranger cabin about a half a mile down the street, closer to the park entrance. Maybe she could outrun it. Something told her that whatever this was it was toying with her. If it wanted to catch her, it would’ve done so already. This was a game, and Delilah was the ball. Nevertheless, she kept running.
