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Enthrallment

A Mysterious Entity in an Abandoned Swamp

By Elijah TaylorPublished 5 years ago 6 min read
1
The Haunting Art of Kim Myatt

The day starts like any other, with a hot shower and morning tea. After that, I get packed and ready to meet my classmates at this abandoned swamp. We're supposed to try and test the area for any spirits for our Occults class.

It takes forever to find the place. Every time I even got close to the area, the GPS would try and reroute. Upon arrival, it looks like I'm the first person there.

I take out a cigarette and smoke it. It's a disgusting habit and I hate it. Usually, I only smoke weed, but it curbs the cravings and I only smoke them every once in a while.

The other classmates carpool and arrive.

"Are you ready to find some ghosts?" Clark asks.

"Not funny. You know my family and I used to live in a haunted house," Staci states and hits Clark on the shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, Staci. We know. It's not like any of them will follow us back or anything."

"You just had to say that." Brain pipes up.

"Shut up. This will be fun as long as you guys stop being cowards about it."

"Whatever. As long as we get this over with by happy hour, I'm happy," I state.

Brian looks at me and beams:

"See! He's got the idea!"

We proceed to pull out an EMF measurer to measure the fields around the swamp. Pacing back and forth, nothing seems to pick up.

I start to read off the instructions from our professor aloud:

"Step 1: 'Pull out the assigned EMF reader and measure your group's agreed upon location for any activity. Check.'

Step 2: 'If any activity is measured, note it down and continue scanning the area.'

Step 3: 'If no more activity is found, return to the spot where you picked up the activity, and scan for IR changes/activity'."

"We also should scan the cabin, too," I add.

"I also brought tents and camping materials in case any of you guys wanted to set up camp!" Brain chimes.

"What?!" Staci screeches.

"What, are you worried that the ghosties will get attached to you and follow you homeeee?" Brian teases.

"Shut up." Staci rebuttals.

"This isn't helping. Happy hour is in three hours and I really want a margarita," I state.

The group switches from EMF to IR. We start to pick up faint signals by the swamp.

"Guys... I don't like this..." Staci pipes up.

We turn to her and discover that the EMF device is flickering between the first two lights.

"Holy shit! We actually got something," Brian exclaims.

"That's not all..." Clark points to this figure in the water that is covered in a black shroud. We barely can make it out.

"Hello? We aren't gonna hurt you," I state, trying to get the figure to reveal itself to no avail, as the creature gets spooked and sinks deep into the water.

"We have to stay the night now!" Brian runs to the car to get the camping gear.

"Umm... hell no. You guys can have your little gay-camping-fantasy. I'm not staying a second longer than I have to," Staci declares.

"So if we stay, even though we all carpooled, you're just gonna Uber back by yourself?" Brian pokes.

"Yeah. It's better than staying here with that... thing."

"We don't even know what that was fully... It could have just been a shadow or something."

"It doesn't matter." I point to the clock on my phone.

"What? It's already been two hours?!" Clark exclaims.

"Yeah. That doesn't make any sense. It feels like we just got here."

"It's moot. The time is the time and happy hour ends in an hour and we haven't even begun to come close to finishing this assignment."

"I'll get the tents." Clark begins to help Brian set up camp.

"I'll get a fire going," I state.

Staci looks around confused like as to her role in all of this.

After the fire is going, the tents are set, everything seems surreal and peaceful. It's a nice, cozy gathering.

"Anyone bring s'mores?" Clark asks.

"Actually..." Brian pulls out s'mores materials and vodka.

"Looks like you’ll have your happy hour," Clark jokes.

We start to drink and eat a bit before I realize.

"We really should finish this."

"What? This late? It's pitch black," Brain counters.

"That's what makes it even better! The chances of activity are increased at night. We already picked up something by the swamp. I'm sure if we tried again, we'd get a stronger reading."

"I'm just drunk enough to agree," Staci pipes up.

We gather our equipment and stoke the fire more to make sure that we won't be stuck in the dark. Brian takes a stick and wraps it with cloth and lights it on fire.

"Voila," he chimes in a slightly cocky tone.

We go by the swamp but this time the figure is prominent.

"Umm... hello?" Staci probes.

The creatures appear to arise from the water slowly, shrouded still. Brain's torch starts to flicker.

"We should get back to the camp... I don't like this..." Clark starts.

There is a piercing screech heard and Brian's torch is extinguished and we scream and run in separate directions.

We gather by the fire.

"Sound off."

"Alive," Brain states.

"Alive," Clark responds.

"Staci?" I query.

We all look at each other and Brian re-lights another torch. We scour the area searching for her.

"Staci?!"

"Staci?!?!?"

"SSSSTTTAAACCIIII?!?!"

"Guys... I hate to be that dick... but we have to check by the swamp."

The other guys look at me in disbelieve.

"You mean check out the area that caused us to flee in the first place?" Brain belittles.

"We have no choice..." Clark realizes.

"What do you mean?" Brain queries.

"Think about it. Group of four college students go out on an assignment and one mysteriously vanishes and the rest of us are unscathed, physically anyway. We're gonna have to be interrogated and I really don't feel like going through all that."

"God damn it."

"And when they interrogate it's no joke. They say they have methods that get people to confess to things that they didn't even do just as an attempt to be released," Clark adds.

"You're right..." Brian groans.

We go back to the swamp and discover two creatures now instead of the one.

"Fuck this." Brian grabs a rock and hurls it towards one of the creatures.

"Staci. Get out of there and stop playing with that mermaid."

I could tell Brian was trying to be overly-macho as an attempt to mask his crippling fear.

The creatures turn towards each other, then face us, and their mouths open wide. We go to cover our ears but before we are able to do so, they start to hum and sing. We face them in awe, and Brian blindly starts to step towards the water.

"Brian, stop!" I try and grab him but he turns to me with only the whites of his eyes showing, illuminated by the torch close to his face.

I back off in shock and Clark and I watch as Brain enters deeper and deeper into the water.

The creatures grab him and he quickly is pulled under and Clark and I turn to each other and run for the car.

When we get there, we find one of the tires slashed.

"You guys were just gonna leave me here..." Staci pipes ups. She flashes a knife and has those same eyes.

"Look, girl, I don't know what happened to you, but we REALLY need to leave," Clark states with his hands up facing her.

"You guys didn't like my singing?" she probes as she drags the knife across the windshield.

"What about mine?" an unknown voice beckons.

Clark and I huddle closer to each other before seeing all three creatures facing us.

"We always save the best for last," the original creatures state just before lunging at us with open jaws...

fiction
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About the Creator

Elijah Taylor

I guess I just took the term, "Gay Rights" to a whole other level.

https://www.paypal.me/ETaylor220

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