The Experience I Had in Girl Scouts

It happened when I was about thirteen, maybe fourteen. My best friend Kristin and I were in Girl Scouts.

We were spending half the summer camping with our troops, as we did every year. This year, however, we went to a different campsite, due to the usual one being flooded.

On the day we arrived, we were all gathered in the lodge to listen to what the head troop leader had to say about the camp area. She discussed what areas we could go through and areas that were off limits. Sadly, the woods were off limits: Kris and I had been excited about hiking through that area.

After the head troop leader was done speaking, we were told to go to our cabins. Luckily, Kris and I had been assigned to the same cabin. When we arrived, there were other girls who were already unpacking and placing their belongings alongside their bunk beds. Kris and I shared a room with one other girl named Adelyn, who I had become well acquainted with. I told her that my name was Lizzie. I usually didn't go by my full first name, which is Elizabeth. I thought that it sounded boring.

We talked with the other girls while unpacking in our rooms until we were then told to go to the lodge to have dinner. When I entered the lodge, Kris was already sitting down, eating at one of the long tables. Of course, I sat next to her and began to talk.

"Wanna stay up and play card games?" she asked.

"Sure," I answered, "I'm probably not going to sleep tonight anyway due to my screwed up sleep schedule." I usually stayed up late during summer.

"Same here." She chuckled.

As Kris spoke, I looked through the large glass window, which was only a few feet behind where she was sitting. I saw a silhouette of a tall woman, standing just in the corner view of that window.

Kris caught me staring behind her.

"Hey, you alright?" she asked, trying to get my attention.

I looked at her, then back at the window, but the figure had disappeared.

"Oh, nothing," I assured her. I told myself that it was probably just my imagination.

After we had finished our meals and cleaned off the dishes, we walked back to our cabins and sat on our beds. I chose the top bunk. Since the bed that I had at my house at the time was so low to the ground, it was a new feeling for me. Kris chose the bottom bunk bed because the bed at her place was the opposite of mine.

"So, what game are we going to play? Poker? Go Fish?" I asked.

"Nope." She answered with a smirk, she reached into her backpack and pulled something out of one of the inner pockets. It was a large deck of Pokémon cards.

Now I knew why she hadn't specified on what game we were playing, Pokémon cards were banned at our summer camp. Kids kept getting caught trading or stealing them.

"You brought those?" I exclaimed. "Your brother is going to be pissed!"

Kris laughed, "Well he can go screw himself. Half of these are mine anyway!"

Kristin and her brother, Jared, were both fans of Pokémon. Jared was always taking her cards, while Kris just took them back from him. They never were very fond of each other.

Kris climbed up the ladder and sat on my bed, we started our Pokémon battle.

Hours seemed like minutes as time flew by. Soon it was 2:00 am. We were still playing.

"...And now, I choose Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Kris exclaimed.

I giggled. "That's not a Pokémon!" and we both started laughing.

Suddenly, I heard a whisper coming from just outside the walls. "Lizzie?" it said.

I immediately stopped laughing and looked around, thinking that we had woken someone up.

Kris stopped laughing and looked at me, curiously.

"What?" Kris whispered.

"I think we woke somebody up."

She had a confused look on her face. "What are you talking about?"

"Didn't you hear someone whisper my name?"

"Everyone here is asleep except for us, you must be hearing things."

To my surprise, she was correct. Everyone in the cabin was still sleeping.

Maybe. I thought.

Then I heard it again, along with the sound of tapping.

"Lizzie." Tap, tap, tap.

This time, Kris had heard it too.

"Hey! Who's there?" She whispered loudly.

No answer.

We looked around, but everyone was still sleeping. I got up and tried to follow the tapping noise.

Kris whispered, "Hey! What are you doing?"

"I'm going to find where that tapping is coming from."

"What? Hell no! Are you crazy? That's how you die in horror movies."

"I'll be fine," I answered.

She joked, "I guess I'm coming with you; if Michael Myers is trying to kill us, we'll take him down together."

I chuckled, "Okay Kris, whatever you say."

We searched along the halls, but the tapping noise seemed to move along the walls as if it were leading us to something.

"How long have we been following this sound?" Kris asked.

"About five minutes," I replied.

"Damn."

Suddenly, the tapping stopped at the window, I slowly peeked through it, but nothing was there.

I sighed, "There isn't anything, it might have just been a raccoon or something."

"Well crap, we were led on a wild goose chase only to find out that there’s nothing!" Kris said, disappointed.

"Let's go to bed now, I'm tired."

"Alrighty." She said cheerfully.

As we turned to walk back to our beds, I glanced behind to look at the window once more. I froze.

In the window, there was a tall woman, with long brown hair, staring at me. She wore a mask that looked like something you would see at an old-fashioned carnival.

I turned and started running back towards my bed. Kris followed. As soon as I got to my bed, I quickly scurried under the covers. Kris walked over my bunk.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

I slowly pointed to the window where I saw the woman, but she was gone.

Kris walked to the window, then back to me.

"What am I supposed to be looking for exactly?" she asked, puzzled.

"B-but she was right there!" I stuttered.

Before Kris could reply, a voice came from within our room. It was Adelyn.

"What's going on?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

I quickly explained what had been happening. Adelyn's tired expression soon turned fearful.

"So you're saying that there is a tall creepy lady outside the cabin?" she whispered.

"I'm not sure." I paused. "She just disappeared when I looked back."

"Do you think it might be one of the counselors trying to scare us?"

"I thought that at first, but I've seen all of them and none are that tall."

"What are we gonna do then? We can't tell any of the adults. We'll get in trouble if they find out that we stayed up late." Kris added.

"I'm not sure what we're going to do about this. All I can think of is to be quiet and wait until morning." I opened my bag and reached into it. "In the meantime, here are some spare flashlights just in case you need them."

Everyone grabbed a flashlight and set them on their beds, close enough for them to reach. Then we sat in our beds, watching and listening for any movement.

An hour passed. Nothing happened and we grew tired. Everyone was silent until I spoke.

“Kris?”

“Mmhmm?” She barely lifted her head. Nearly dozing off.

“When we were at the lodge, I saw a tall silhouette standing just outside the window. I think that might have been the same woman I saw.”

“Hmm.” She grunted, unable to stay awake any longer. I didn’t want to keep her up since we had been awake most of the night. Adelyn was still wide awake, looking around in a paranoid manner. She barely even blinked and jumped when she heard any noise. I guess I probably shouldn’t have told her about the woman.

Suddenly, the sound of the cabin door opening and closing interrupted my thoughts. I got under the covers and slightly peeked through them. Adelyn did the same. Kris was sound asleep. I heard soft footsteps coming down the hall, closer and closer to our room. When they finally arrived outside our room, the door slowly creaked open.

It was the woman. She slowly walked around our room until stopping at my bunk bed. She was standing right over me, her long hair just barely touching the covers. I was completely still. I didn’t even breathe. She then crouched down to where Kris was sleeping, she looked down at her as Kris slept. Then gently picked her up without waking her. I have to do something! I thought, I can’t just let that thing take Kris!

My body began to move automatically. I turned on my flashlight and shined it in her face.

What are you doing you idiot!? I yelled in my head. She just looked at me for a moment, then quickly walked away. I climbed out of bed and followed them. The woman started running soon afterward. I ran after them, but it was too late, they had already vanished into the woods. I stood in the open doorway.

That’s all I could remember from that night, because I woke up the next morning surrounded by policemen. I had apparently passed out due to shock. I asked where Kristin was, but they said that there was no sign of her since this morning. Adelyn and I told them about the woman we saw and what she had done, but the police hardly believed us. We had been through a traumatic experience after all. When they were done questioning me, I stood outside and looked into those woods once again. I thought about all of the times Kris and I had spent together, all of the moments, and all of the fun we had over the last few years.

Tears flooded my eyes as I realized that my best friend... was gone.