Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-34025893-20180315053353

Here is the story.

On January 18, 2012, a group of 23 children, ages 7-10 went on a trip in the Rocky Mountains. They set up a short camp near a camp site where they intended to camp for 1 week. The camp counselors were 4 male and 3 females. They were each in charge of managing an activity.

The activities included in the schedule were lasting from 8 AM in the morning to 8:30 in the night. Twelve hours and 30 minutes. There were at least 5 breaks an hour. They could either play soccer in the fields or relax in their cabin. Phones were confisicated, but the kids were allowed to call their parents at night before going to bed. The days were recorded in a log below:

Day 1
The ride to the Rocky Mountains started from a school bus from a school in Aspen, Colorado. After 20 minutes, the kids reached a cable car where they were taken to the top of the Rockies. On the top, they were ready to have fun. The counselors arrived an hour later. Their names were Greta, Max, Alice, Shaw, Michael, Sophia, and Billy. They were in charge of the camp.

The camp rules were very basic to begin with. There were five:

1.Do not wander out at night.

2.Do not use your cell phones.

3.Don't attempt to call your parents. You will be given an opportunity to call them later in the night each day.

4.Girls and Boys are not allowed to mix with each other except during activities. Never visit cabins.

And, the most important rule. If you hear something at night, NEVER EVER go out. Just inform a teacher with a hotline phone in the cabin. Each cabin came with 2 hotline phones in case they needed a teacher or a counselor.

For the first day, all the kids were allowed to unpack and have 15 minutes of playing on their phone. Then, they had to give them to the teachers so they could be kept in a bag in the head counsellor's room. After unpacking, the list of activites were given. Basic stuff like Rock climbing, Swimming, Ziplining, Cooking, Kayaking, and Nature Exploring. Each one had a group leader and an instructor who knew about the current activity. Five kids could go in each activity and they lasted for 2 hours. At night, there were night hikes were a guide who was an old woodsman took them to the top of the Rockies.

The kids were divided into groups and all the activities were completed within a span of 7 hours. After they were done, it was dinner time. For dinner, there was hamburgers, corn on the cop, and pizza. A special treat. There would be no night hikes today, but they would start the next day.

Day 2
On the second day, the kids got up early and were able to choose from their activities. Most of the kids were excited for kayaking. Shaw was the instructor. He took the kids to a small lake were they would begin. When each of the 5 kids go kayak, they started to row in the lake. Shaw took the lead and together, the company joined him. Most of the time, it was simple nature watching.

The kayak trip ate up only 45 minutes and when they got back, they thought about going back. Shaw had to remind the kids that they couldn't go back due to the fact that activities had to be only done once. As Shaw was trying to ge the arguing kids to listen, the old woodsman appeared.

The old woodsman was a rustic looking man. He resemebled a tree that had lived for almost 3,000 years despite the fact that he was only 54. He carried a rake around wherever he went. He was known to get along well with the kids. Despite his friendly manner, the kids were scared of him.

When he appeared, he told Shaw that it was time for lunch and then turned towards the kids.

"Hiya kiddies." he said in an overfriendly tone. "How are you?"

At this, all the kids backed up in fear. Nontheless, he did not seem bothered. He winked at them and left. Shaw was a bit shaken up by the kids' behaviour. However, he bit his lip and ushered the kids to the cafeteria for lunch. As he sat down to eat, he did not inform the other chaperones about the kids' odd behaviour when the old woodsman came. It was probably just his appearence that scared them.

Once lunch was over, it was time for the mid afternoon exercises. Shaw was in charge of rock climbing. He began to take the kids to the rock climbing site where they started their actitvity. As he was watching, he decided to go into the woods to use the bathroom. The bathroom was an old outhouse. It reeked of old rotten vegetables. Nevertheless, Shaw had to use it. As he went inside and took a piss, he heard footsteps.

He thought it must have been one of the kids. If it was, they would be in big trouble. Kids were not allowed to leave their activities and come to the shed without permission from the instructor. "I'll get them." he said in an eager tone. He opened the door.

There was nobody outside. Not the children and not even the old woodsman. Curious, he called out.

"Is anybody there?"

No reply. He called out again. Still nothing. Then, the footsteps came again. They sounded like an animal. Probably a deer. Just then, something came out of the bushes into the clearing. It was just an elk. What a beauty it appeared as. It was just eating grass.

"What an idiot." Shaw said to himself. "Just a meer deer." Suddenly, the deer raised its head. It looked around and up on the trees. Just then, it let out a frightened call. Before Shaw could do anything, it ran off. This was very odd. Deer were not frightened that easily. He decided to continue back. Maybe the deer was just scared of him.

By the time he had arrived at the Rock Climbing area, the old woodsman was telling the kids a story. When he saw Shaw, he waved at him. He said that he was just telling the kids a story about the woods and what people thought about it. He continued to tell Shaw about it as they walked to the next activities. Eventually, it was time for dinner.

Dinner was soup, chicken, and again pizza. The kids ate it in a short mini restaurant. Once it was over, the counselor announced the first night hike. They would be hiking up the ridge and explore. The kids were partnered up with each other in groups of 3. They then set off. It was not very cold outside, but it was normal temperature. There weren't any deers or animals in the vicinity. The old woodsman was group leader and said he knew about these mountains. The animals wouldn't come out at this time.

At the top, Shaw continued to monitor the kids. He looked at the old woodsman who said that they would sit down and look at the stars. Shaw thought that the old woodsman was an odd fellow. Not that he did anything bad, but he was just weird.

Suddenly, Shaw and everyone else sat up in shock. They heard a roar. A roar that sounded not like a rock avalanche, but of an unknown beast. The only person not shaken up was the old woodsman. He just said "Ah do not worry. Just a group deers bellowing to each other. Forget it. Nothing will hurt you while I am here." He set off with the kids. Shaw forgot all about the old woodsman as he reached his bunk.

That roar did not sound like a deer.

Day 3
At breakfast, Shaw decided to find the old woodsman. He was curious about that roar. Without touching his oatmeal, he ran off the the office to look for the old woodsman. He was somehow not there at breakfast as he usually was. He entered the woods and began to look for him. Eventually, he found an old rustic cabin in the woods. Surrounding it were heaps of traps and barbed wire.

Shaw passed the traps carefully and entered. He knocked on the door and waited for a response. Nobody answered. He knocked again.

"Come in." said the old woodsman's voice. Shaw opened. The inside was completely filled with furniture. There were animal heads mounted on the wall as trophies. Somehow, there was even a tiger head mounted on the wall. Tigers did not live in any part of America. As Shaw sat down, the old woodsman offered him some rice wine. He then started to talk.

"Ok. What's your trouble? The kids? Nah. Don't worry. I would never lay a finger on them."

"No. It's not that. The issue is that..."

He couldn't put what he had experienced into a sentence. The old woodsman asked if he was ok. Shaw finally spoke.

"I noticed some strange things. They don't involve you.

"When I went to use the bathroom yesterday, I heard footsteps and saw a deer. When it stared at me, it just looked away. I remained still. Then, it suddenly burst into a fear and ran away as if it had seen something like a predator."

The old woodsman stared. Shaw then told him about the roar. He asked him if there was something else living in the forest aside from the deer. The old woodsman stared. Then spoke.

"Sorry lad. All I can say is that there IS some connection between the roar and the scared deer. I remember something similar happening when I was hunting. I was going after this deer. See, he was the buck male. Nothing scared him. He feared nothing. Even rival males. But, when I quietly approached, it also broke into a fright and ran off."

"Is there some kind of thing?" said Shaw. The old woodsman replied that there was nothing strange, but there was some kind of legend that he would tell Shaw later. He then beckoned him out of the cabin and waved at him. Shaw went back to the breakfast place only to discover that activities started. He went to his activity which was ziplining. While watching the kids, he started to wait and see if the old woodsman had arrived.

He did not.

Suddenly, Shaw saw something. The trees were shaking and breaking. And, something was moving behind the trees. Something large.

Shaw ran towards the trees to investigate the mysterious creature, but it vanished. As he looked around, the same roar from last night only this time, it did not sound like a deer, but of a kind of beast. An unseen beast. It did not appear again. Shaw became so curious at this. He started to feel he was hallucinating. Unless he was mistaken, this was the thing that roared and also what frightened the deer.

Shaw began to rush back to his station where the kids were waiting for him. They all seemed to be curious as to what he was doing. It seemed that he had left them for 1 hour. The old woodsman was nowhere to be seen.

"Nothing​." he said to the scared kids. "Just a bathroom break. Alright, let's go to lunch."

With that, he beckoned the kids to lunchtime. As he ate with the other camp counselors, he began to tell them about what he had experienced. Alice did not seem to believe him. Michael was curious.

"Describe what you saw." said Michael. Shaw thought. He could not remember that thing. All he could say was that it was large.

"And the old woodsman said that he experienced something similar going on. I do not understand. What is happening here?"

"Look here Shaw." said Alice. "You're probably just seeing things. Maybe it was just a falling tree. The roar must have been a tree falling down."

"Yeah right." said Shaw. "But it just sounded like a beast. Like a predator."

Michael laughed. "Probably Bigfoot pulling tricks on your mind!" He turned down and continued to eat his food. The rest of the day went well for everyone except for Shaw. He couldn't take his mind of the creature. How much of this was real?

The old woodsman did not appear again. In fact, he did not show up for even camp songs. When it was bedtime, Shaw went to his bunker to sleep. While the other campers dozed off, Shaw remained awake thinking to himself about only two things:the monster and the old woodsman. Where were they?

As he gave in to his thoughts, the door burst open. A boy from the dormitory was crying and his eyes were red and welled with tears. Alice jumped out of bed and comforted the child.

"I had a nightmare." said the boy. Before Alice could speak, Shaw intervened. "What kind of nightmare?"

"SHAW SHUT UP!" yelled Alice. "He's scared! The poor boy is scared. Its ok darling. Tell me. What happened?"

"Something came into our cabin. It had red eyes and a horrible breath. It stared at me before it..."

"It what?" said Shaw. Finally he thought. We're getting down to something.

The kid just stared. He suddenly started screaming and sobbing. He began to beg for his mother and grabbed his phone. Shaw did not try to stop him. The boy began to choke. He then tried to say something.

"D.d.jhaall." he said in a groggy manner. He then collapsed. Dead.

Day 4
The camp activities were cancelled for the rest of the day. The kid who died the previous night was buried in a grave near the lunchroom. The camp counselors began to grow worried and soon considered cancelling the trip and returned 3 days earlier. None of the kids wanted to go alone anywhere. Even from 5 feet.

Shaw continued to think about the old woodsman. He wandered to the cabin where he lived and attempted to look for him. The cabin's traps were all taken down and the inside of the cabin was destroyed. Nobody seemed to be inside.

Shaw looked around for the thing or the old woodsman. Nothing. He then decided to head back to the camp. No sooner than he arrived, he heard the kids screaming. All of them. They suddenly started chanting the same thing that the kid from last night said before dying. "Djhall. Djhall." they said. Over and over again. Well, not all of the kids. There were four who were huddled in fear. Alice was comforting them.

"What happened?!" yelled Shaw as he arrived.

"I don't know!" yelled Alice. "They suddenly had nightmares in broad daylight and then started chanting something. Sounded like Djak or some shit."

The kids stopped chanting. They then began sobbing. They fell in a group and started crying and screaming for at least 10 minutes. They then stopped and their eyes were red and bulging. Shaw realized that it was time to get the hell out of here.

"Inform the parents." Shaw said to the counselors. "We leave in 1 hour. We need to get out of here or that thing will pick them up and kill them or the old woodsman."

Suddenly, Michael burst in. He was panting and was exhausted. "Come." he said. "There's something you need to see Shaw."

Shaw followed. The two ran into the forest to the cabin. Michael ran to the back of the house when he suddenly vomited. Shaw arrived and he too vomited. Below their feet. Partly buried in the dirt, was the old woodsman. But, he was not in a good state.

His body was partly mutilated. He had a face of utmost terror. He seemed to have been in a struggle with someone or something. Michael stared.

"He must have been murdered." said Shaw. "Call the school bus. We leave in the evening."

"Right." said Michael. He ran off and Shaw stared at the house. "SHOW YOURSELF YOU ASSHOLE!!" he yelled. Nothing happened. Then, he noticed something on the old woodsman's chest. A paper. A tiny crumpled up piece in his hand. He picked it up.

It read: D'jhall:Demon of the forest.

Shaw ran back to the camp.

The kids had already been packed up. Alice was trying to ask the kids what Djhall meant. None of them remembered. Shaw then arrived. "I found it."

"What?" said Alice.

"D'jhall." said Shaw. "Listen. Djhall is the name given to some kind of demon living in the Rockies. I think it stalks the woods. It appears to be hunting for prey. The old woodsman tried to tell me about a legend earlier. I think this is it."

Alice read the paper. The other counselors agreed as well. They began to tell the kids to pack up. They were ready by 5. All 22 children were eager to go home. Greta called up the bus counselors while the kids waited with Shaw and the counselors. They waited for an hour.

"Where the hell is that driver?" asked Billy. Sophia shrugged. Shaw and Alice ran to the road to check it out. The bus was on the middle of the road. It was in a state of devastation. The driver was on the ground.

Or what was left of him.

"Oh my god." said Shaw. Alice huddled on the ground and began to sob. Just then, a scream. In fact, millions of screams echoed through the bushes. Alice and Shaw rushed back to the area.

Everyone was on the ground. Crying. Then, they went silent. They looked at Alice and Shaw. Shaw desperatly looked at Alice and she went blank. "Djhall." she said before falling down and going silent. The forest became so black. It was night.

Shaw turned his head slowly. It stood there larger than life. With glowing red eyes. A black shape. A growl that echoed through the forest.

"D.Jhall." said Shaw. He too fell and became silenced like the others. 