14
I put down my phone and rummage around in my backpack, looking for food. I bring out a granola bar and some trail mix and quickly eat it. I'm more hungry than I realized.
I look for more food and find a bag of marshmallows and some jerky. Not being a big fan of jerky, I decide on the marshmallows. But marshmallows are only good roasted, so I reluctantly get up and look for firewood. It takes me about twenty minutes to find enough wood, another ten minutes to set it up correctly so it doesn't a fall, then another thirty just to try and get a spark going.
Finally, after what seems like forever, the fire is burning nicely enough for me to roast marshmallows. I take a stick and use my pocket knife to carve the end to a point, then put on two marshmallows and hold it over the fire.
And just because I can, I plop a marshmallow in my mouth. My mouth starts to water as I wait for my marshmallows.
Growing too impatient for it to toast perfectly, I put them in a flame and immediately they catch on fire. I bring my marshmallows up and wait exactly two seconds before blowing them out and eating them.
However, as soon as they get in my mouth I immediately spit them out, my whole mouth burned. Probably shouldn't have eaten them so soon.
I make another batch of marshmallows and wait more patiently for them to cool off and then eat them. I do this with the rest of the bag, and by the time I'm done the sun has already set and I'm getting tired.
I check on the camera, then walk back to my tent and go to sleep.
In the middle of the night I'm awoken by a sound. I don't know what it is, and I don't hear it again. Thinking it might be Mia trying to out, I quietly get up and walk to the cave, holding my flashlight but not turning it on.
The almost full moon provides light as I get nearer, and I find something very disturbing. On the ground is a trail of blood. It starts about six feet from the entrance if the cave, then there is more blood leading into it.
trying to out, I quietly get up and walk to the cave, holding my flashlight but not turning it on.
The almost full moon provides light as I get nearer, and I find something very disturbing. On the ground is a trail of blood. It starts about six feet from the entrance if the cave, then there is more blood leading into it.
I quickly run into the cave, turning on my flashlight and breathing wildly. I turn my flashlight this way and that, searching for Mia.
I searched this cave to make sure it was safe before Mia came, and this is the only place she could be. Nowhere else she could've gone except in this chamber.
I see Mia's stuff in the middle, all laid out and ready for bed-- but no Mia. After a frantic search with no sign of Mia, I rush outside and check the camera.
What I saw can never be unseen.
~~Matt's POV, Two Years Later~~
"Matt, are you finally ready to tell me what happened?" My psychologist asks.
Slowly, I shake my head. "No, I-I think I'd rather show you."
I pull slowly, painstakingly, take out a camera. The same camera I had two years ago on that day.
Nervous, I take a sip of water from the cup on the table before loading the video. I skip to the part where it all happened and hand it to her.
As she presses play, I can vividly imagine the scene that's being shown with all of her reactions.
When she tilts her head slightly, questioningly, I know she sees Mia running out of the cave, screaming her head off.