If only Jolene hadn’t worn that stupid mask, things might have ended differently. I might’ve called off the whole trip and saved everyone.
It all started as I stood at my mailbox waiting like a little kid who had ordered a toy from a cereal box. The mailman usually came at 3 o'clock never fail unless something had happened. I stood at my mailbox staring at my watch that said, ‘3:10’, so what was the holdup? Did he have a flat tire, did a terrorist attack, did a bear grab him when he was trying to deliver me my precious delivery?
Just as I was about to turn and go back to the house I saw the little yellow light flashing on top of a car coming my way and nearly jumped out of my skin.
This was it, if it didn’t come today, there was no way I’d have time to order another one before leaving for the camping trip.
The car slowly pulled up to the mailbox and I said hello. Instead of putting the mail in the box, he handed me a few letters and looked away. My heart sank as he turned and faced the road.
“Isn’t there anything else for me,” I said trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.
He turned and looked in the back seat.
“Oh, wait, it looks like there’s something I forgot,” he said, reaching into the back and handing me a brown envelope with the address on it I’d been looking for.
He smiled and waved as he drove off leaving me holding my prize.
This was going to be a good camping trip now.
I nearly skipped back to the house, threw the other mail on the table without looking at it, before ripping open the package. There it was, my glorious booklight.
I’m an avid reader and an avid camper. It’s always been a struggle to read during camping trips. I took along various battery-powered lamps and flashlights, but nothing seemed to work for me. Getting comfortable enough to really settle into my book was a challenge.
When I saw this light advertised on Instagram I instantly knew this was what I needed. It was a book light that wrapped around your neck with a light at each end that would shine on the book. There was no doubt it would be perfect and I ordered one right away. Finally, I could finish packing for the camping trip.
My friends and I loved to go hiking and camping. With a huge state park so close, it was a no-brainer that we would be there as often as possible. Every time we decided to go, we would all meet up at the trailhead and hike to the site together.
This time would be the exception. There were scheduling conflicts and if we wanted to go at all it wouldn’t be at the same time. Dawn and Rose could barely get away for the weekend.
They would have to catch up to us later at the campsite. At the last minute, even Jolene called and said she was running behind and might not make it until later.
In retrospect, I should’ve seen it coming, seeing what the date we had set for our trip. But instead of canceling and choosing another time, I just shrugged it off as conflicting schedules and hefted my backpack then started down the trail.
Being by myself on this trail never really bothered me before. I hiked this trail many times and never had a problem.
I decided to go early and get the camp set up so we could have maximum time together. My schedule had been cleared for the entire trip and I was going to take full advantage.
The sun had set until I started down the trail and it would be dark by the time I got to our campsite. Hiking at night wasn’t the best thing to do even though I knew the trail, but aside from getting camp set up, I was also excited to use my new book light.
It worked surprisingly well lighting up the trail and made it much easier to use my walking stick for the more difficult parts of the trail. Taking it slow, going at my own pace, and enjoying as much scenery as I could was a luxury I was enjoying. Usually, Dawn would lead the group and drive us hard until we got to camp.
I wanted to get out my book and read as I walked, but I figured that would be tempting fate and I had no desire to faceplant on the trail after discovering a tree root the hard way.
As I walked, lost in thought, suddenly the forest became eerily silent. The birds stopped singing, squirrels stopped chattering, even crickets stopped chirping. It was so quiet I could hear my own footsteps. It was very unsettling.
I stopped and slowly turned around, using my light to search for anything unusual. After a full circle without seeing anything out of the ordinary, I tried to shake off the feeling and just keep going.
It didn’t take long for me to begin speeding up. Every step was somehow more desperate than the last. As if getting to my campsite would somehow protect me from whatever was out there making the animals and creatures of the night afraid to make a sound.
By the time I could see the clearing where we camped rising in the distance, I was power-walking, nearly running. All of the sudden, the noises started back up again as if someone had flipped a switch or I had somehow stepped out of some invisible danger zone.
I paused and turned back to see if there was any physical sign of what had happened. If there was some creature lurking behind me or something but there was nothing. And nothing seemed to be even more unnerving.
It wasn’t until later, after everything was over that I realized how stupid it was for me to travel this trail by myself, let alone in the dark. I guess it was a combination of things that made me do it. First of all, just the disappointment of everyone nearly canceling at the last minute. Secondly was my surprise package that came on time and just wanting to use this cool new light in any way I could. But the really big thing that did it for me was my stubbornness. I had decided I was going camping come hell or high water.
I didn’t realize it would be the former.
It didn’t even register that I was heading out alone on a trail at night on October 30th, the day before Halloween. It didn’t take me long to get my tent set up and I didn’t bother with a fire. I just dove straight inside and zipped up the entrance, somehow believing that the thin layer of tent material would keep me safe from anything that went bump in the night.
I lay there on the bare tent floor, breathing hard in sheer terror, wondering why I was so frightened. There hadn’t been any tangible proof of anything following me. I had seen nothing. What had gotten me so worked up?
This is what I told myself over and over until my breathing slowed back to normal as I unpacked my backpack to settle in. Once I was secure in my sleeping bag, I finally dug out the book I’d brought along for the trip. It was a domestic thriller called, ‘Secrets’ about a woman whose life was turned upside down.
I turned on my light and began reading. It didn’t take me long to become so engrossed in the story that the world around me disappeared. That was when the adrenaline crash from the fear grabbed my face and said, “You’re going to sleep now.”
***
Sometime later I woke and pulled my face out of the small puddle of drool that had soaked into my sleeping bag. I sat up, wiped my mouth, and stretched. To my great surprise, the book light was still on and I hadn’t broken it by laying on it. The darkness outside had given way to a dull grey. It must’ve been just before sunrise. Pulling myself out of the sleeping bag gave me an instant reminder of how cold Autumn mornings can be in the forest.
While pulling on my jacket, I froze. There was something or someone moving around just outside my tent. Zipping up my jacket quietly, I slid towards the zippered tent window in hopes of getting a closer look. My hands shook as I pulled the tab slowly hoping to make as little noise as possible and sneak a peek at whatever was out there.
My eyes slid up to the opening and peered out. All I could see through the slit was dim outlines of trees through the growing morning light. I scanned around as much as I could through my limited view when suddenly a pair of glowing eyes appeared in the window.
I screamed and threw myself backward onto my sleeping bag, landing with a thump that took my breath away. The shadow of the creature moved from the window to the main tent flap. I lay there helpless as the zipper undid itself and the hideous face of the monster poked itself inside.
It roared so loud I clamped my hands over my ears. My life flashed before my eyes as it slowly entered the tent growling and snarling.
Regret filled me. Why didn’t I wait for my friends? But then they would die with me. Maybe it was better they were late. They would find my horribly mutilated and possibly eaten body, but they might survive if they ran away.
As these thoughts chased each other around my brain, I noticed something.
The creature was wearing a sparkly bracelet.
Not only that but it seemed to have a manicure.
Now that I looked more closely, it was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants.
I reached up and grabbed the creature’s face then ripped it off with all my might.
“Ouch!” it said as the fur came loose.
In a heartbeat, I was holding the creature’s face in my hand and Jolene stood there rubbing her ears.
“You think you could yank my ears off next time?” she said.
“Sure, after I’m done having a heart attack you jerk!”
She smiled, still rubbing her ears.
“Happy Halloween!”
“Screw you!” I said, throwing the mask at her and storming out of the tent.
“Wait, you’re not really mad are you?” I heard her say from behind me as I tromped down the trail.
I didn’t bother to turn, answer, or even slow down.
“Where are you going?” she said.
The thought registered in my head, but I couldn’t seem to answer the question. Where was I going? I was just stomping down the trail with no destination in mind. The sun was peeking over the horizon as I passed a clearing in the trees. Without thinking I slowed to a stop and stood there admiring the simple elegant beauty of the sunrise.
I heard and felt a presence beside me as I stared into the rising sun.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Jolene said.
I turned to her and smiled.
“I should throw you off this cliff,” I said.
She took a step back, her eyes filled with uncertainty.
“Sucks, being afraid, doesn’t it?” I said.
“Yeah,” she said staying a healthy distance away from me. “I guess it does.”
“You know what you should do with that mask?” I said.
“I’m sure you have a few creative suggestions,” she said carefully.
I turned to her with a gleam in my eyes.
“You should scare the hell out of Dawn and Rose.”
Her look slowly transformed from fear to confusion as the edge of her lip slid up into a grin.
***
It was late afternoon when Dawn and Rose came huffing and puffing up the hill to the campsite. I’d started a campfire and made some lunch. There was also some coffee brewing on the fire.
“Well, you two sure took your time,” I said, poking at the fire and adding another piece of wood.
“You’re lucky we came at all,” Dawn said. “I was going to call and cancel.”
“Like Jolene did?” I said, trying my best to sound upset and disappointed.
“Are you kidding me?” Rose said, dropping her backpack. “After we busted our butts to get up here?”
“’Fraid so,” I said.
“That’s great!” Dawn said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. “You wait until I talk to her.”
I wasn’t sure if Jolene had silenced her phone or not. Dawn’s call could ruin the whole prank. My mind searched frantically for something to do.
“Don’t bother,” I said. “I already tried calling her this morning. It went straight to voicemail.”
“Humph,” Dawn said, putting her phone back in her pocket. “She’s probably snuggled up in bed, sleeping.”
“Well at least you two made it,” I said, pointing to the logs around the fire. “Take a load off.”
They looked at the log with disdain but shrugged and sat. I guess exhaustion will lower your standards regarding where you rest.
We chit-chatted for a while, mostly about how upset we were with Jolene for skipping out on us. Then I helped them set up their tents. We had just finished when off in the distance we heard a roar and a scream.
“What was that?” Dawn said, looking around trying to determine what direction it had come from.
“I don’t know,” I said, putting on an Oscar-level performance of looking frightened while trying not to smile. Jolene had outdone herself. She said she would look for roaring sounds on her phone, but that was so loud. I didn’t know her phone could get that loud.
Light was just beginning to fade, making it even harder to see if there was anything coming out of the trees towards us. Rose was having a full panic attack.
“What do we do, what do we do?” she said.
“Let’s just go in our tents and hope whatever it is doesn’t care about finding us,” I said.
“We should leave,” Rose said, her eyes darting all around searching for danger.
“I think so too,” Dawn said. “If there’s something out there it could come after us.”
I tried to do a quick pivot to save the prank.
“Where would we go?” I said. “Our cars are miles away. If that thing was after us it would stalk us on the trail too, and we wouldn’t have our tents made up to hide in.”
They looked at me with what looked like suspicion that turned into resignation.
“I guess you’re right,” Dawn said. “We should just go in our tents and hope that thing goes away.”
“Are you kidding me?” Rose said. “Why not just wrap ourselves in our sleeping bags and serve ourselves up as burritos for that thing?”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” I said. “We don’t even know what that was. Maybe it was some animal calling for a mate.”
“And the scream?”
“Could be someone saw it and was scared.”
Dawn watched our back-and-forth conversation.
“Let’s just go to our tents,” she said.
“No,” Rose said. “I want to leave, right now.”
“There’s the trail,” I said, pointing. “No one’s stopping you.”
She looked from the trail to Dawn to me.
I turned and went into my tent. A few minutes later I heard another tent flap rustle, followed by a third. A smile crept across my face. This was going to be fun. I was so excited I barely read any of my book.
Within an hour I heard something outside the tent, rustling through the campsite and knocking things over.
“Here we go,” I whispered.
It was all I could do to stay in my tent when I heard Rose scream. There was no way I could watch Jolene chasing them around with that ridiculous mask on and not howl with laughter. I wanted to give the prank time for them to be scared before revealing our devious plan.
Fits of laughter fought to escape me, but I held them in as I heard Dawn's screams join the fray. From the sound, they were all running around destroying the campsite. Between the growls, running, knocking into things, and screams of terror, the whole cacophony of it was nearly impossible to sit through. Every inch of me was aching to jump out and yell, “Happy Halloween! We got you!”
After a few minutes, the noise died down. Everyone must’ve gotten tired. I was still waiting for the ‘aha moment’ when I heard Dawn or Rose curse at Jolene. The mask wasn’t that convincing once you calmed down and got a close look at it. Any minute now. I leaned close to the wall of my tent, but all movement had stopped. It was like everyone had just laid down and took a nap.
I couldn’t take it any longer, I ripped open my tent and jumped out, yelling, “Surprise! Happy Hallo… “
The rest of the word died on my tongue. The campsite wasn’t in disarray, it was destroyed. Both Dawn and Rose’s tents were flattened. As I stepped closer I saw rips and gouges in their tents as well.
As I looked around the campsite at the carnage, my first thought was, ‘Wow, Jolene really overdid it.’ But that thought didn’t hold for long. The more I moved through the camp, the more I saw claw marks and huge footprints, something that Jolene couldn’t do. All doubts ended when I came across Dawn.
She lay in a pool of blood and at first, I thought it was a trick. That they had turned Jolene back against me and now I was being pranked. However, that thought died a quick death when I saw Dawn’s severed arm lying a few feet from her.
Her eyes were wide open in shock. She looked at me with a blank stare of accusation and tried to whisper something, but I couldn’t hear it.
I leaned closer and she whispered again, her final words haunting me.
This couldn’t be Jolene. It wasn’t a trick or a prank. Something real had just invaded our camp and destroyed my friend.
Fear gripped me as I looked around to see if this creature was lying in wait to kill me too. As I searched the rest of the camp, hoping moment by moment that this thing was gone, I also didn’t find Rose. Eventually, I found a large pool of blood not far from her tent, but nobody was around. The trail of blood led from the pool off toward the woods, and I had no desire to follow it.
The next thought that came to my panicked mind was, ‘If this wasn’t Jolene, then where was she?’
She purposely didn’t tell me where she was hiding, so I wouldn’t unintentionally give away her position by glancing at a certain spot. It was a smart plan until she went missing and I have no idea what’s going on.
My next thought was calling for help but when I got out my phone I found it was also dead. Even though I didn’t want to, I went over to Dawn’s now-dead body and searched for her cell phone. But I found it in pieces.
There would be no call for help.
Despondency smothered me and pulled me to the ground. I sat in the middle of the campsite beside a pool of blood that used to be one of my friends, only a handful of feet away from the broken body that used to be another one of my friends, having no idea where my third friend was.
I’d never been in such a desperate place in my life, not only physically, but mentally, and I hoped I would never be in such a place again.
I had no idea what to do or where to go. The realization began to set in that I had lost three of my closest friends in the space of a day.
Tears flowed down my cheeks as I sat there in the growing darkness with only the embers of the dying fire to keep me company.
Should I sit here and hope that help would stumble by in the form of another hiker or even better, a park ranger? It was late October and the trails weren’t very well traveled once the weather turned cold.
As I sat there a gust of wind blew through tearing at the few remaining leaves clinging to their branches. They began to fall as if the forest was crying with me… or for me.
I wish I knew what the forest knew about this thing that had destroyed my friends and my life. About how I would get out of here alive and most of all about what had happened to Jolene. As much as I wanted to just sit there and mourn forever, I knew I couldn’t. I knew I had to get up and go figure this out.
How would I get out of here? How would I survive?
Maybe my tent held the key. By some miracle my tent was undamaged. I started digging through my backpack. There are always things in everyone’s backpack that they have for emergencies that never happen. Usually, it’s a snakebite kit, a length of rope, or bandaids that seldom if ever get used. But as I was digging, I came across some things that might be useful. There was a can of pepper spray and a small pocket knife. At this point, I was happy to have anything I could use as a weapon.
They went in my pocket along with the rope.
So now it was decision time. Do I pack up my stuff right now and leave, hiking down the trail in the dark, having no idea if this thing is still on the hunt? Or do I lay down and get some rest? Wait for morning and hope it doesn’t know I’m here.
Neither one was a great option. There was no way I could even consider burying Dawn. I didn’t have a shovel and I would need all my energy to hike back out of here if I hoped to survive. Thankfully, the decision was made for me. As I lay there, mind whirling from everything that had happened, I fell asleep.
***
I woke hours later to a bright morning sun peeking through my open tent window. I yawned and stretched thinking about what a beautiful morning it could be when suddenly I remembered everything that had happened. That’s when I heard the growling.
It was just loud enough to get my attention. Fear gripped me as I tried to figure out what to do. My brain went into full useless mode as, ‘Run out of the tent screaming’ rose to the top of possible options.
The growling didn’t seem to get any closer as I lay there awaiting my fate. Encouraged by the fact that I hadn’t become the monster’s breakfast yet, I got up to my knees and quietly looked out the window.
What I saw disgusted and enraged me. There were two mountain lions having their breakfast. Normally I wouldn’t care about such a thing more than staying as far away as possible. But today, their breakfast was my friend’s dead body.
I did exactly what was at the top of my brain’s list: ran out of the tent screaming.
At first, I ran straight at them, hoping it would scare them off. They both just stopped and stared at me as if I were some rude interloper interrupting them having morning tea.
The next thing they did was turn and take a few steps toward me.
As I stared at their blood-soaked faces, I realized I had done the worst thing possible. I lowered my hands and started backing away, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. This seemed to encourage them to increase their pursuit. I was almost back to my tent, but it didn’t seem like diving inside and hiding was an option now. They were aware of me and very interested in me, possibly as lunch.
As my list of potential actions dwindled to, ‘Wait for death’, my hand brushed against my leg and I felt something in my pocket. It was the pepper spray. I pulled it out, having no idea if it even worked on cats, and aimed it at them.
They didn’t slow in the slightest. It looked like a stream of water sprayed out of the can and landed on the first cat’s face. Its reaction was immediate.
It let out a massive yowl and began clawing at its face. The second paused in confusion, watching its companion devolve into convulsions of pain. When it looked back at me, I had already sprayed its face, causing the same reaction.
For a long moment, I was treated to the insanely comical sight of these two predators twirling in circles, trying to claw their own faces off.
And then the impossible happened. They both decided breakfast wasn’t worth the cost of admission and ran off.
I looked down at this small, innocuous-looking spray can that had just saved my life. It was tempting to give it a kiss in celebration, but I didn’t want to take any chance of getting any spray on me. Writhing in pain wasn’t high on my list of things to do today.
Having just escaped death, I decided on my plan of action. My backpack was packed in under a half hour and I was on the trail, having said my goodbyes to Dawn and what was left of Rose.
A sharp pang of guilt stabbed me as I left the campsite. Dawn’s last whispered words haunted me, “Shouldn’t have come.”
She was right of course. If any of us had known what was about to happen there was no way we should’ve been here. But that’s the whole point of life I guess. None of us know what’s going to happen at any minute.
As if I wasn’t depressed enough as it was, that thought sent me into near panic as my eyes darted all around searching for danger. Now it wasn’t only the monster, but the mountain lions and any other creature whose home I had invaded. Right then I knew I would never visit this place again.
Even the woodland creatures were quiet out of respect for my fallen friends.
Wait… how would they know?
As if in answer, the monster stepped out onto the trail and stared down at me. It was massive. I’d never seen anything that tall. Not only was it tall, but its shoulders were a good five feet wide. It was covered in dark fur that had splotches of wet dark stains down the front of it. My mind told me that was all that was left of Rose.
It unleased a deafening roar that made a small river flow down my pantleg. My mind was like a little dog chasing its tail trying to figure out what to do.
As I stood there, frozen to the spot, it took two steps and was right in front of me.
When it reached for me, some basic survival mode kicked in and I went back to the last thing that had saved my life.
I whipped out the pepper spray and emptied the can in the monster’s face.
It reared back and screamed so loud I had to hold my ears as I ran around it and sprinted down the trail.
My heart was pumping adrenaline.
My feet barely touched the ground.
I had never run so fast in my entire life.
The trees were a blur as I wound back and forth along the trail.
All I could think was, ‘Just get away! Just get away!’
As hope soared that I might be able to do just that, I heard a noise coming from behind me. It was like a bulldozer with legs. I heard pounding and crashing as if something was destroying whatever got in its way. I glanced back and the monster was gaining on me. But it was flailing its arms around in front of it as if to protect its eyes from whatever was there.
That momentary distraction was just enough. My foot caught on a branch I wasn’t looking for and I went tumbling at full speed off the trail and into the brush. I hit a tree hard with my back. I was sure I heard a crack. It was all I could do just to stay conscious. I watched through bleary eyes as the monster ran past me on the trail.
There was no way I could celebrate or even move. Running so fast for so long had taken its toll. And now having fallen and possibly injuring my back had just added to my immobility.
It took me a few long moments to catch my breath. Once I did, I slowly moved body parts to make sure they still worked. I saved the worst for last. Trying to sit up caused pain to shoot down my back.
That wasn’t a good sign.
It seemed like I would be here for a little bit. At least until I recovered enough to make another try for my car. I knew it was less than a mile away, but right now I couldn’t even think about getting up to walk let alone run.
I painfully pulled my backpack off and sat it beside me. Next, I tried to cover myself and my pack with the loose leaves that blanketed the ground. Within ten minutes I was satisfied that no one would be able to see me from the trail without looking very closely.
There was a peephole I had left open to keep an eye on the trail. The monster would be back eventually, there was no doubt about that. Once it realized I wasn’t on the trail anymore it would backtrack looking for me.
Spraying it may have saved my life, but it also doomed me to be its enemy forever. It would search high and low to find me, I was as sure about that as anything.
Even though it was mid-morning, the trees here were dense and light had to filter through a lot of them to make it to the ground. Reaching into my pack. I pulled out my reading light, which was surprisingly still in one piece. I used it to check my wounds and found they were mostly cuts and scrapes.
As my adrenaline crashed, I could feel myself being once again dragged into unconsciousness. My eyes drooped, then suddenly shot open as I heard something. The part of the trail I could see through my peephole was quite small. I leaned to the left a little bit trying not to make any sound. That’s when I heard the sniffing and saw the monster coming slowly back up the trail. It was on all fours, smelling the ground.
One eye looked like it was swollen shut and the other was bloodshot. It got to the point in the trail where I had fallen and stopped then turned and looked right at me.
My blood turned to liquid nitrogen.
The monster stalked straight towards me as if it could see me plain as day. I glanced down and realized to my horror that my reading light was still on.
I panicked. If I turned it off, the monster would know I was there. If I left it on, it was a beacon leading it right to me. I gently pulled it from around my neck, trying to move it as little as possible. Once I had it off of me, I set it on top of my backpack so it was at the same level as it had been around my neck.
As I slid away from the pack, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the knife, then opened it.
The monster was so close I could smell the stench of death coming from its mouth. It got right up to the light and brushed the leaves away to see what this thing was.
There was only one shot for me to survive. I swung the knife with all the strength I had left, stabbing it in the eye that wasn’t swollen.
It reared back and screamed in pain.
I didn’t wait around to see what was going to happen. Every ounce of energy I had went to running away from this homicidal monster. My back screamed at me but I ignored it.
The creature screamed again, this time in rage rather than pain. It tore off after me, but couldn’t see so it ended up slamming into a tree three feet behind me.
My legs kept pumping, driven by sheer terror. As I glanced back I saw the monster listening to me run away. It followed my sounds and ran after me again. I pivoted and ran up the side of the trail just in time for it to miss me and fall face-first on the trail.
It wasn’t far to the trailhead now. I knew it was getting close. There was a hard turn in the trail where I had to be careful of my footing. It was narrow and there was a steep drop that ended in a river far below.
I ran to where the turn was and suddenly stopped. The monster had gotten up and was listening for me again. It was a gamble, but I stood at the turn and jogged in place as though I was still running away.
It listened, then launched itself toward me. As soon as it began to run, I quietly stepped around the corner and softly walked down the trail a few feet. If my gamble paid off, I would be home free. If it didn’t, I’d be dead.
Time slowed as the beast galloped towards the turn. I watched and waited until finally, I saw the bloody fur of its face with the knife still sticking out.
At the last moment, it seemed to sense me around the corner and tried to turn, but momentum had already carried it past me and it had no chance of staying on the trail.
I leaned over and watched as it fell helplessly over the edge and tumbled down to the water below, hitting its head on several trees as it went.
It had just come to rest at the bottom when I took off running. The trailhead loomed in front of me and I didn’t want to take any chances of that thing recovering and catching me before I got to my car.
I’d never seen a more beautiful sight than my beat-up Toyota Corolla.
When I approached it, I paused yet again and looked around for who or what might be watching me.
Hanging from my driver’s side mirror was the mask Jolene had worn. I took it off the mirror and looked at it in shock and confusion. Inside was a note.
There was a crash from the woods that told me the monster hadn’t given up. I jumped in the car, threw the mask on the passenger’s seat, and broke every speed law getting out of the park. Even once I was on the main road, I pushed the pedal down to make the car go as fast as it could. My speedometer needle was vibrating when I hit eighty. It wasn’t until I was close to home that I slowed down.
I got out and went into my tiny house, bringing the mask. I collapsed on the couch as my back complained. I would have to schedule an appointment with my chiropractor.
Once I was safely inside, I picked up the mask and pulled out the note.
It read, ‘I’m sorry to leave without telling you. The girls were coming up the trail and I was about to jump out at them when I saw this monster following them through the woods. I couldn’t warn them or you without the monster seeing. When they set up their tents, it was watching from the edge of the woods. I panicked and quietly left while it was busy watching the camp. I hope you’re alive to read this and if so you can someday forgive me. – J’
I lay the note beside me on the couch and all I could think of as tears streamed down my cheeks was Dawn’s final words to me.
“Shouldn’t have come.”
​

​
If only Jolene hadn’t worn that stupid mask, things might have ended differently. I might’ve called off the whole trip and saved everyone.
It all started as I stood at my mailbox waiting like a little kid who had ordered a toy from a cereal box. The mailman usually came at 3 o'clock never fail unless something had happened. I stood at my mailbox staring at my watch that said, ‘3:10’, so what was the holdup? Did he have a flat tire, did a terrorist attack, did a bear grab him when he was trying to deliver me my precious delivery?
Just as I was about to turn and go back to the house I saw the little yellow light flashing on top of a car coming my way and nearly jumped out of my skin.
This was it, if it didn’t come today, there was no way I’d have time to order another one before leaving for the camping trip.
The car slowly pulled up to the mailbox and I said hello. Instead of putting the mail in the box, he handed me a few letters and looked away. My heart sank as he turned and faced the road.
“Isn’t there anything else for me,” I said trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.
He turned and looked in the back seat.
“Oh, wait, it looks like there’s something I forgot,” he said, reaching into the back and handing me a brown envelope with the address on it I’d been looking for.
He smiled and waved as he drove off leaving me holding my prize.
This was going to be a good camping trip now.
I nearly skipped back to the house, threw the other mail on the table without looking at it, before ripping open the package. There it was, my glorious booklight.
I’m an avid reader and an avid camper. It’s always been a struggle to read during camping trips. I took along various battery-powered lamps and flashlights, but nothing seemed to work for me. Getting comfortable enough to really settle into my book was a challenge.
When I saw this light advertised on Instagram I instantly knew this was what I needed. It was a book light that wrapped around your neck with a light at each end that would shine on the book. There was no doubt it would be perfect and I ordered one right away. Finally, I could finish packing for the camping trip.
My friends and I loved to go hiking and camping. With a huge state park so close, it was a no-brainer that we would be there as often as possible. Every time we decided to go, we would all meet up at the trailhead and hike to the site together.
This time would be the exception. There were scheduling conflicts and if we wanted to go at all it wouldn’t be at the same time. Dawn and Rose could barely get away for the weekend.
They would have to catch up to us later at the campsite. At the last minute, even Jolene called and said she was running behind and might not make it until later.
In retrospect, I should’ve seen it coming, seeing what the date we had set for our trip. But instead of canceling and choosing another time, I just shrugged it off as conflicting schedules and hefted my backpack then started down the trail.
Being by myself on this trail never really bothered me before. I hiked this trail many times and never had a problem.
I decided to go early and get the camp set up so we could have maximum time together. My schedule had been cleared for the entire trip and I was going to take full advantage.
The sun had set until I started down the trail and it would be dark by the time I got to our campsite. Hiking at night wasn’t the best thing to do even though I knew the trail, but aside from getting camp set up, I was also excited to use my new book light.
It worked surprisingly well lighting up the trail and made it much easier to use my walking stick for the more difficult parts of the trail. Taking it slow, going at my own pace, and enjoying as much scenery as I could was a luxury I was enjoying. Usually, Dawn would lead the group and drive us hard until we got to camp.
I wanted to get out my book and read as I walked, but I figured that would be tempting fate and I had no desire to faceplant on the trail after discovering a tree root the hard way.
As I walked, lost in thought, suddenly the forest became eerily silent. The birds stopped singing, squirrels stopped chattering, even crickets stopped chirping. It was so quiet I could hear my own footsteps. It was very unsettling.
I stopped and slowly turned around, using my light to search for anything unusual. After a full circle without seeing anything out of the ordinary, I tried to shake off the feeling and just keep going.
It didn’t take long for me to begin speeding up. Every step was somehow more desperate than the last. As if getting to my campsite would somehow protect me from whatever was out there making the animals and creatures of the night afraid to make a sound.
By the time I could see the clearing where we camped rising in the distance, I was power-walking, nearly running. All of the sudden, the noises started back up again as if someone had flipped a switch or I had somehow stepped out of some invisible danger zone.
I paused and turned back to see if there was any physical sign of what had happened. If there was some creature lurking behind me or something but there was nothing. And nothing seemed to be even more unnerving.
It wasn’t until later, after everything was over that I realized how stupid it was for me to travel this trail by myself, let alone in the dark. I guess it was a combination of things that made me do it. First of all, just the disappointment of everyone nearly canceling at the last minute. Secondly was my surprise package that came on time and just wanting to use this cool new light in any way I could. But the really big thing that did it for me was my stubbornness. I had decided I was going camping come hell or high water.
I didn’t realize it would be the former.
It didn’t even register that I was heading out alone on a trail at night on October 30th, the day before Halloween. It didn’t take me long to get my tent set up and I didn’t bother with a fire. I just dove straight inside and zipped up the entrance, somehow believing that the thin layer of tent material would keep me safe from anything that went bump in the night.
I lay there on the bare tent floor, breathing hard in sheer terror, wondering why I was so frightened. There hadn’t been any tangible proof of anything following me. I had seen nothing. What had gotten me so worked up?
This is what I told myself over and over until my breathing slowed back to normal as I unpacked my backpack to settle in. Once I was secure in my sleeping bag, I finally dug out the book I’d brought along for the trip. It was a domestic thriller called, ‘Secrets’ about a woman whose life was turned upside down.
I turned on my light and began reading. It didn’t take me long to become so engrossed in the story that the world around me disappeared. That was when the adrenaline crash from the fear grabbed my face and said, “You’re going to sleep now.”
***
Sometime later I woke and pulled my face out of the small puddle of drool that had soaked into my sleeping bag. I sat up, wiped my mouth, and stretched. To my great surprise, the book light was still on and I hadn’t broken it by laying on it. The darkness outside had given way to a dull grey. It must’ve been just before sunrise. Pulling myself out of the sleeping bag gave me an instant reminder of how cold Autumn mornings can be in the forest.
While pulling on my jacket, I froze. There was something or someone moving around just outside my tent. Zipping up my jacket quietly, I slid towards the zippered tent window in hopes of getting a closer look. My hands shook as I pulled the tab slowly hoping to make as little noise as possible and sneak a peek at whatever was out there.
My eyes slid up to the opening and peered out. All I could see through the slit was dim outlines of trees through the growing morning light. I scanned around as much as I could through my limited view when suddenly a pair of glowing eyes appeared in the window.
I screamed and threw myself backward onto my sleeping bag, landing with a thump that took my breath away. The shadow of the creature moved from the window to the main tent flap. I lay there helpless as the zipper undid itself and the hideous face of the monster poked itself inside.
It roared so loud I clamped my hands over my ears. My life flashed before my eyes as it slowly entered the tent growling and snarling.
Regret filled me. Why didn’t I wait for my friends? But then they would die with me. Maybe it was better they were late. They would find my horribly mutilated and possibly eaten body, but they might survive if they ran away.
As these thoughts chased each other around my brain, I noticed something.
The creature was wearing a sparkly bracelet.
Not only that but it seemed to have a manicure.
Now that I looked more closely, it was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants.
I reached up and grabbed the creature’s face then ripped it off with all my might.
“Ouch!” it said as the fur came loose.
In a heartbeat, I was holding the creature’s face in my hand and Jolene stood there rubbing her ears.
“You think you could yank my ears off next time?” she said.
“Sure, after I’m done having a heart attack you jerk!”
She smiled, still rubbing her ears.
“Happy Halloween!”
“Screw you!” I said, throwing the mask at her and storming out of the tent.
“Wait, you’re not really mad are you?” I heard her say from behind me as I tromped down the trail.
I didn’t bother to turn, answer, or even slow down.
“Where are you going?” she said.
The thought registered in my head, but I couldn’t seem to answer the question. Where was I going? I was just stomping down the trail with no destination in mind. The sun was peeking over the horizon as I passed a clearing in the trees. Without thinking I slowed to a stop and stood there admiring the simple elegant beauty of the sunrise.
I heard and felt a presence beside me as I stared into the rising sun.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Jolene said.
I turned to her and smiled.
“I should throw you off this cliff,” I said.
She took a step back, her eyes filled with uncertainty.
“Sucks, being afraid, doesn’t it?” I said.
“Yeah,” she said staying a healthy distance away from me. “I guess it does.”
“You know what you should do with that mask?” I said.
“I’m sure you have a few creative suggestions,” she said carefully.
I turned to her with a gleam in my eyes.
“You should scare the hell out of Dawn and Rose.”
Her look slowly transformed from fear to confusion as the edge of her lip slid up into a grin.
***
It was late afternoon when Dawn and Rose came huffing and puffing up the hill to the campsite. I’d started a campfire and made some lunch. There was also some coffee brewing on the fire.
“Well, you two sure took your time,” I said, poking at the fire and adding another piece of wood.
“You’re lucky we came at all,” Dawn said. “I was going to call and cancel.”
“Like Jolene did?” I said, trying my best to sound upset and disappointed.
“Are you kidding me?” Rose said, dropping her backpack. “After we busted our butts to get up here?”
“’Fraid so,” I said.
“That’s great!” Dawn said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. “You wait until I talk to her.”
I wasn’t sure if Jolene had silenced her phone or not. Dawn’s call could ruin the whole prank. My mind searched frantically for something to do.
“Don’t bother,” I said. “I already tried calling her this morning. It went straight to voicemail.”
“Humph,” Dawn said, putting her phone back in her pocket. “She’s probably snuggled up in bed, sleeping.”
“Well at least you two made it,” I said, pointing to the logs around the fire. “Take a load off.”
They looked at the log with disdain but shrugged and sat. I guess exhaustion will lower your standards regarding where you rest.
We chit-chatted for a while, mostly about how upset we were with Jolene for skipping out on us. Then I helped them set up their tents. We had just finished when off in the distance we heard a roar and a scream.
“What was that?” Dawn said, looking around trying to determine what direction it had come from.
“I don’t know,” I said, putting on an Oscar-level performance of looking frightened while trying not to smile. Jolene had outdone herself. She said she would look for roaring sounds on her phone, but that was so loud. I didn’t know her phone could get that loud.
Light was just beginning to fade, making it even harder to see if there was anything coming out of the trees towards us. Rose was having a full panic attack.
“What do we do, what do we do?” she said.
“Let’s just go in our tents and hope whatever it is doesn’t care about finding us,” I said.
“We should leave,” Rose said, her eyes darting all around searching for danger.
“I think so too,” Dawn said. “If there’s something out there it could come after us.”
I tried to do a quick pivot to save the prank.
“Where would we go?” I said. “Our cars are miles away. If that thing was after us it would stalk us on the trail too, and we wouldn’t have our tents made up to hide in.”
They looked at me with what looked like suspicion that turned into resignation.
“I guess you’re right,” Dawn said. “We should just go in our tents and hope that thing goes away.”
“Are you kidding me?” Rose said. “Why not just wrap ourselves in our sleeping bags and serve ourselves up as burritos for that thing?”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” I said. “We don’t even know what that was. Maybe it was some animal calling for a mate.”
“And the scream?”
“Could be someone saw it and was scared.”
Dawn watched our back-and-forth conversation.
“Let’s just go to our tents,” she said.
“No,” Rose said. “I want to leave, right now.”
“There’s the trail,” I said, pointing. “No one’s stopping you.”
She looked from the trail to Dawn to me.
I turned and went into my tent. A few minutes later I heard another tent flap rustle, followed by a third. A smile crept across my face. This was going to be fun. I was so excited I barely read any of my book.
Within an hour I heard something outside the tent, rustling through the campsite and knocking things over.
“Here we go,” I whispered.
It was all I could do to stay in my tent when I heard Rose scream. There was no way I could watch Jolene chasing them around with that ridiculous mask on and not howl with laughter. I wanted to give the prank time for them to be scared before revealing our devious plan.
Fits of laughter fought to escape me, but I held them in as I heard Dawn's screams join the fray. From the sound, they were all running around destroying the campsite. Between the growls, running, knocking into things, and screams of terror, the whole cacophony of it was nearly impossible to sit through. Every inch of me was aching to jump out and yell, “Happy Halloween! We got you!”
After a few minutes, the noise died down. Everyone must’ve gotten tired. I was still waiting for the ‘aha moment’ when I heard Dawn or Rose curse at Jolene. The mask wasn’t that convincing once you calmed down and got a close look at it. Any minute now. I leaned close to the wall of my tent, but all movement had stopped. It was like everyone had just laid down and took a nap.
I couldn’t take it any longer, I ripped open my tent and jumped out, yelling, “Surprise! Happy Hallo… “
The rest of the word died on my tongue. The campsite wasn’t in disarray, it was destroyed. Both Dawn and Rose’s tents were flattened. As I stepped closer I saw rips and gouges in their tents as well.
As I looked around the campsite at the carnage, my first thought was, ‘Wow, Jolene really overdid it.’ But that thought didn’t hold for long. The more I moved through the camp, the more I saw claw marks and huge footprints, something that Jolene couldn’t do. All doubts ended when I came across Dawn.
She lay in a pool of blood and at first, I thought it was a trick. That they had turned Jolene back against me and now I was being pranked. However, that thought died a quick death when I saw Dawn’s severed arm lying a few feet from her.
Her eyes were wide open in shock. She looked at me with a blank stare of accusation and tried to whisper something, but I couldn’t hear it.
I leaned closer and she whispered again, her final words haunting me.
This couldn’t be Jolene. It wasn’t a trick or a prank. Something real had just invaded our camp and destroyed my friend.
Fear gripped me as I looked around to see if this creature was lying in wait to kill me too. As I searched the rest of the camp, hoping moment by moment that this thing was gone, I also didn’t find Rose. Eventually, I found a large pool of blood not far from her tent, but nobody was around. The trail of blood led from the pool off toward the woods, and I had no desire to follow it.
The next thought that came to my panicked mind was, ‘If this wasn’t Jolene, then where was she?’
She purposely didn’t tell me where she was hiding, so I wouldn’t unintentionally give away her position by glancing at a certain spot. It was a smart plan until she went missing and I have no idea what’s going on.
My next thought was calling for help but when I got out my phone I found it was also dead. Even though I didn’t want to, I went over to Dawn’s now-dead body and searched for her cell phone. But I found it in pieces.
There would be no call for help.
Despondency smothered me and pulled me to the ground. I sat in the middle of the campsite beside a pool of blood that used to be one of my friends, only a handful of feet away from the broken body that used to be another one of my friends, having no idea where my third friend was.
I’d never been in such a desperate place in my life, not only physically, but mentally, and I hoped I would never be in such a place again.
I had no idea what to do or where to go. The realization began to set in that I had lost three of my closest friends in the space of a day.
Tears flowed down my cheeks as I sat there in the growing darkness with only the embers of the dying fire to keep me company.
Should I sit here and hope that help would stumble by in the form of another hiker or even better, a park ranger? It was late October and the trails weren’t very well traveled once the weather turned cold.
As I sat there a gust of wind blew through tearing at the few remaining leaves clinging to their branches. They began to fall as if the forest was crying with me… or for me.
I wish I knew what the forest knew about this thing that had destroyed my friends and my life. About how I would get out of here alive and most of all about what had happened to Jolene. As much as I wanted to just sit there and mourn forever, I knew I couldn’t. I knew I had to get up and go figure this out.
How would I get out of here? How would I survive?
Maybe my tent held the key. By some miracle my tent was undamaged. I started digging through my backpack. There are always things in everyone’s backpack that they have for emergencies that never happen. Usually, it’s a snakebite kit, a length of rope, or bandaids that seldom if ever get used. But as I was digging, I came across some things that might be useful. There was a can of pepper spray and a small pocket knife. At this point, I was happy to have anything I could use as a weapon.
They went in my pocket along with the rope.
So now it was decision time. Do I pack up my stuff right now and leave, hiking down the trail in the dark, having no idea if this thing is still on the hunt? Or do I lay down and get some rest? Wait for morning and hope it doesn’t know I’m here.
Neither one was a great option. There was no way I could even consider burying Dawn. I didn’t have a shovel and I would need all my energy to hike back out of here if I hoped to survive. Thankfully, the decision was made for me. As I lay there, mind whirling from everything that had happened, I fell asleep.
***
I woke hours later to a bright morning sun peeking through my open tent window. I yawned and stretched thinking about what a beautiful morning it could be when suddenly I remembered everything that had happened. That’s when I heard the growling.
It was just loud enough to get my attention. Fear gripped me as I tried to figure out what to do. My brain went into full useless mode as, ‘Run out of the tent screaming’ rose to the top of possible options.
The growling didn’t seem to get any closer as I lay there awaiting my fate. Encouraged by the fact that I hadn’t become the monster’s breakfast yet, I got up to my knees and quietly looked out the window.
What I saw disgusted and enraged me. There were two mountain lions having their breakfast. Normally I wouldn’t care about such a thing more than staying as far away as possible. But today, their breakfast was my friend’s dead body.
I did exactly what was at the top of my brain’s list: ran out of the tent screaming.
At first, I ran straight at them, hoping it would scare them off. They both just stopped and stared at me as if I were some rude interloper interrupting them having morning tea.
The next thing they did was turn and take a few steps toward me.
As I stared at their blood-soaked faces, I realized I had done the worst thing possible. I lowered my hands and started backing away, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. This seemed to encourage them to increase their pursuit. I was almost back to my tent, but it didn’t seem like diving inside and hiding was an option now. They were aware of me and very interested in me, possibly as lunch.
As my list of potential actions dwindled to, ‘Wait for death’, my hand brushed against my leg and I felt something in my pocket. It was the pepper spray. I pulled it out, having no idea if it even worked on cats, and aimed it at them.
They didn’t slow in the slightest. It looked like a stream of water sprayed out of the can and landed on the first cat’s face. Its reaction was immediate.
It let out a massive yowl and began clawing at its face. The second paused in confusion, watching its companion devolve into convulsions of pain. When it looked back at me, I had already sprayed its face, causing the same reaction.
For a long moment, I was treated to the insanely comical sight of these two predators twirling in circles, trying to claw their own faces off.
And then the impossible happened. They both decided breakfast wasn’t worth the cost of admission and ran off.
I looked down at this small, innocuous-looking spray can that had just saved my life. It was tempting to give it a kiss in celebration, but I didn’t want to take any chance of getting any spray on me. Writhing in pain wasn’t high on my list of things to do today.
Having just escaped death, I decided on my plan of action. My backpack was packed in under a half hour and I was on the trail, having said my goodbyes to Dawn and what was left of Rose.
A sharp pang of guilt stabbed me as I left the campsite. Dawn’s last whispered words haunted me, “Shouldn’t have come.”
She was right of course. If any of us had known what was about to happen there was no way we should’ve been here. But that’s the whole point of life I guess. None of us know what’s going to happen at any minute.
As if I wasn’t depressed enough as it was, that thought sent me into near panic as my eyes darted all around searching for danger. Now it wasn’t only the monster, but the mountain lions and any other creature whose home I had invaded. Right then I knew I would never visit this place again.
Even the woodland creatures were quiet out of respect for my fallen friends.
Wait… how would they know?
As if in answer, the monster stepped out onto the trail and stared down at me. It was massive. I’d never seen anything that tall. Not only was it tall, but its shoulders were a good five feet wide. It was covered in dark fur that had splotches of wet dark stains down the front of it. My mind told me that was all that was left of Rose.
It unleased a deafening roar that made a small river flow down my pantleg. My mind was like a little dog chasing its tail trying to figure out what to do.
As I stood there, frozen to the spot, it took two steps and was right in front of me.
When it reached for me, some basic survival mode kicked in and I went back to the last thing that had saved my life.
I whipped out the pepper spray and emptied the can in the monster’s face.
It reared back and screamed so loud I had to hold my ears as I ran around it and sprinted down the trail.
My heart was pumping adrenaline.
My feet barely touched the ground.
I had never run so fast in my entire life.
The trees were a blur as I wound back and forth along the trail.
All I could think was, ‘Just get away! Just get away!’
As hope soared that I might be able to do just that, I heard a noise coming from behind me. It was like a bulldozer with legs. I heard pounding and crashing as if something was destroying whatever got in its way. I glanced back and the monster was gaining on me. But it was flailing its arms around in front of it as if to protect its eyes from whatever was there.
That momentary distraction was just enough. My foot caught on a branch I wasn’t looking for and I went tumbling at full speed off the trail and into the brush. I hit a tree hard with my back. I was sure I heard a crack. It was all I could do just to stay conscious. I watched through bleary eyes as the monster ran past me on the trail.
There was no way I could celebrate or even move. Running so fast for so long had taken its toll. And now having fallen and possibly injuring my back had just added to my immobility.
It took me a few long moments to catch my breath. Once I did, I slowly moved body parts to make sure they still worked. I saved the worst for last. Trying to sit up caused pain to shoot down my back.
That wasn’t a good sign.
It seemed like I would be here for a little bit. At least until I recovered enough to make another try for my car. I knew it was less than a mile away, but right now I couldn’t even think about getting up to walk let alone run.
I painfully pulled my backpack off and sat it beside me. Next, I tried to cover myself and my pack with the loose leaves that blanketed the ground. Within ten minutes I was satisfied that no one would be able to see me from the trail without looking very closely.
There was a peephole I had left open to keep an eye on the trail. The monster would be back eventually, there was no doubt about that. Once it realized I wasn’t on the trail anymore it would backtrack looking for me.
Spraying it may have saved my life, but it also doomed me to be its enemy forever. It would search high and low to find me, I was as sure about that as anything.
Even though it was mid-morning, the trees here were dense and light had to filter through a lot of them to make it to the ground. Reaching into my pack. I pulled out my reading light, which was surprisingly still in one piece. I used it to check my wounds and found they were mostly cuts and scrapes.
As my adrenaline crashed, I could feel myself being once again dragged into unconsciousness. My eyes drooped, then suddenly shot open as I heard something. The part of the trail I could see through my peephole was quite small. I leaned to the left a little bit trying not to make any sound. That’s when I heard the sniffing and saw the monster coming slowly back up the trail. It was on all fours, smelling the ground.
One eye looked like it was swollen shut and the other was bloodshot. It got to the point in the trail where I had fallen and stopped then turned and looked right at me.
My blood turned to liquid nitrogen.
The monster stalked straight towards me as if it could see me plain as day. I glanced down and realized to my horror that my reading light was still on.
I panicked. If I turned it off, the monster would know I was there. If I left it on, it was a beacon leading it right to me. I gently pulled it from around my neck, trying to move it as little as possible. Once I had it off of me, I set it on top of my backpack so it was at the same level as it had been around my neck.
As I slid away from the pack, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the knife, then opened it.
The monster was so close I could smell the stench of death coming from its mouth. It got right up to the light and brushed the leaves away to see what this thing was.
There was only one shot for me to survive. I swung the knife with all the strength I had left, stabbing it in the eye that wasn’t swollen.
It reared back and screamed in pain.
I didn’t wait around to see what was going to happen. Every ounce of energy I had went to running away from this homicidal monster. My back screamed at me but I ignored it.
The creature screamed again, this time in rage rather than pain. It tore off after me, but couldn’t see so it ended up slamming into a tree three feet behind me.
My legs kept pumping, driven by sheer terror. As I glanced back I saw the monster listening to me run away. It followed my sounds and ran after me again. I pivoted and ran up the side of the trail just in time for it to miss me and fall face-first on the trail.
It wasn’t far to the trailhead now. I knew it was getting close. There was a hard turn in the trail where I had to be careful of my footing. It was narrow and there was a steep drop that ended in a river far below.
I ran to where the turn was and suddenly stopped. The monster had gotten up and was listening for me again. It was a gamble, but I stood at the turn and jogged in place as though I was still running away.
It listened, then launched itself toward me. As soon as it began to run, I quietly stepped around the corner and softly walked down the trail a few feet. If my gamble paid off, I would be home free. If it didn’t, I’d be dead.
Time slowed as the beast galloped towards the turn. I watched and waited until finally, I saw the bloody fur of its face with the knife still sticking out.
At the last moment, it seemed to sense me around the corner and tried to turn, but momentum had already carried it past me and it had no chance of staying on the trail.
I leaned over and watched as it fell helplessly over the edge and tumbled down to the water below, hitting its head on several trees as it went.
It had just come to rest at the bottom when I took off running. The trailhead loomed in front of me and I didn’t want to take any chances of that thing recovering and catching me before I got to my car.
I’d never seen a more beautiful sight than my beat-up Toyota Corolla.
When I approached it, I paused yet again and looked around for who or what might be watching me.
Hanging from my driver’s side mirror was the mask Jolene had worn. I took it off the mirror and looked at it in shock and confusion. Inside was a note.
There was a crash from the woods that told me the monster hadn’t given up. I jumped in the car, threw the mask on the passenger’s seat, and broke every speed law getting out of the park. Even once I was on the main road, I pushed the pedal down to make the car go as fast as it could. My speedometer needle was vibrating when I hit eighty. It wasn’t until I was close to home that I slowed down.
I got out and went into my tiny house, bringing the mask. I collapsed on the couch as my back complained. I would have to schedule an appointment with my chiropractor.
Once I was safely inside, I picked up the mask and pulled out the note.
It read, ‘I’m sorry to leave without telling you. The girls were coming up the trail and I was about to jump out at them when I saw this monster following them through the woods. I couldn’t warn them or you without the monster seeing. When they set up their tents, it was watching from the edge of the woods. I panicked and quietly left while it was busy watching the camp. I hope you’re alive to read this and if so you can someday forgive me. – J’
I lay the note beside me on the couch and all I could think of as tears streamed down my cheeks was Dawn’s final words to me.
“Shouldn’t have come.”

If only Jolene hadn’t worn that stupid mask, things might have ended differently. I might’ve called off the whole trip and saved everyone.
It all started as I stood at my mailbox waiting like a little kid who had ordered a toy from a cereal box. The mailman usually came at 3 o'clock never fail unless something had happened. I stood at my mailbox staring at my watch that said, ‘3:10’, so what was the holdup? Did he have a flat tire, did a terrorist attack, did a bear grab him when he was trying to deliver me my precious delivery?
Just as I was about to turn and go back to the house I saw the little yellow light flashing on top of a car coming my way and nearly jumped out of my skin.
This was it, if it didn’t come today, there was no way I’d have time to order another one before leaving for the camping trip.
The car slowly pulled up to the mailbox and I said hello. Instead of putting the mail in the box, he handed me a few letters and looked away. My heart sank as he turned and faced the road.
“Isn’t there anything else for me,” I said trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.
He turned and looked in the back seat.
“Oh, wait, it looks like there’s something I forgot,” he said, reaching into the back and handing me a brown envelope with the address on it I’d been looking for.
He smiled and waved as he drove off leaving me holding my prize.
This was going to be a good camping trip now.
I nearly skipped back to the house, threw the other mail on the table without looking at it, before ripping open the package. There it was, my glorious booklight.
I’m an avid reader and an avid camper. It’s always been a struggle to read during camping trips. I took along various battery-powered lamps and flashlights, but nothing seemed to work for me. Getting comfortable enough to really settle into my book was a challenge.
When I saw this light advertised on Instagram I instantly knew this was what I needed. It was a book light that wrapped around your neck with a light at each end that would shine on the book. There was no doubt it would be perfect and I ordered one right away. Finally, I could finish packing for the camping trip.
My friends and I loved to go hiking and camping. With a huge state park so close, it was a no-brainer that we would be there as often as possible. Every time we decided to go, we would all meet up at the trailhead and hike to the site together.
This time would be the exception. There were scheduling conflicts and if we wanted to go at all it wouldn’t be at the same time. Dawn and Rose could barely get away for the weekend.
They would have to catch up to us later at the campsite. At the last minute, even Jolene called and said she was running behind and might not make it until later.
In retrospect, I should’ve seen it coming, seeing what the date we had set for our trip. But instead of canceling and choosing another time, I just shrugged it off as conflicting schedules and hefted my backpack then started down the trail.
Being by myself on this trail never really bothered me before. I hiked this trail many times and never had a problem.
I decided to go early and get the camp set up so we could have maximum time together. My schedule had been cleared for the entire trip and I was going to take full advantage.
The sun had set until I started down the trail and it would be dark by the time I got to our campsite. Hiking at night wasn’t the best thing to do even though I knew the trail, but aside from getting camp set up, I was also excited to use my new book light.
It worked surprisingly well lighting up the trail and made it much easier to use my walking stick for the more difficult parts of the trail. Taking it slow, going at my own pace, and enjoying as much scenery as I could was a luxury I was enjoying. Usually, Dawn would lead the group and drive us hard until we got to camp.
I wanted to get out my book and read as I walked, but I figured that would be tempting fate and I had no desire to faceplant on the trail after discovering a tree root the hard way.
As I walked, lost in thought, suddenly the forest became eerily silent. The birds stopped singing, squirrels stopped chattering, even crickets stopped chirping. It was so quiet I could hear my own footsteps. It was very unsettling.
I stopped and slowly turned around, using my light to search for anything unusual. After a full circle without seeing anything out of the ordinary, I tried to shake off the feeling and just keep going.
It didn’t take long for me to begin speeding up. Every step was somehow more desperate than the last. As if getting to my campsite would somehow protect me from whatever was out there making the animals and creatures of the night afraid to make a sound.
By the time I could see the clearing where we camped rising in the distance, I was power-walking, nearly running. All of the sudden, the noises started back up again as if someone had flipped a switch or I had somehow stepped out of some invisible danger zone.
I paused and turned back to see if there was any physical sign of what had happened. If there was some creature lurking behind me or something but there was nothing. And nothing seemed to be even more unnerving.
It wasn’t until later, after everything was over that I realized how stupid it was for me to travel this trail by myself, let alone in the dark. I guess it was a combination of things that made me do it. First of all, just the disappointment of everyone nearly canceling at the last minute. Secondly was my surprise package that came on time and just wanting to use this cool new light in any way I could. But the really big thing that did it for me was my stubbornness. I had decided I was going camping come hell or high water.
I didn’t realize it would be the former.
It didn’t even register that I was heading out alone on a trail at night on October 30th, the day before Halloween. It didn’t take me long to get my tent set up and I didn’t bother with a fire. I just dove straight inside and zipped up the entrance, somehow believing that the thin layer of tent material would keep me safe from anything that went bump in the night.
I lay there on the bare tent floor, breathing hard in sheer terror, wondering why I was so frightened. There hadn’t been any tangible proof of anything following me. I had seen nothing. What had gotten me so worked up?
This is what I told myself over and over until my breathing slowed back to normal as I unpacked my backpack to settle in. Once I was secure in my sleeping bag, I finally dug out the book I’d brought along for the trip. It was a domestic thriller called, ‘Secrets’ about a woman whose life was turned upside down.
I turned on my light and began reading. It didn’t take me long to become so engrossed in the story that the world around me disappeared. That was when the adrenaline crash from the fear grabbed my face and said, “You’re going to sleep now.”
***
Sometime later I woke and pulled my face out of the small puddle of drool that had soaked into my sleeping bag. I sat up, wiped my mouth, and stretched. To my great surprise, the book light was still on and I hadn’t broken it by laying on it. The darkness outside had given way to a dull grey. It must’ve been just before sunrise. Pulling myself out of the sleeping bag gave me an instant reminder of how cold Autumn mornings can be in the forest.
While pulling on my jacket, I froze. There was something or someone moving around just outside my tent. Zipping up my jacket quietly, I slid towards the zippered tent window in hopes of getting a closer look. My hands shook as I pulled the tab slowly hoping to make as little noise as possible and sneak a peek at whatever was out there.
My eyes slid up to the opening and peered out. All I could see through the slit was dim outlines of trees through the growing morning light. I scanned around as much as I could through my limited view when suddenly a pair of glowing eyes appeared in the window.
I screamed and threw myself backward onto my sleeping bag, landing with a thump that took my breath away. The shadow of the creature moved from the window to the main tent flap. I lay there helpless as the zipper undid itself and the hideous face of the monster poked itself inside.
It roared so loud I clamped my hands over my ears. My life flashed before my eyes as it slowly entered the tent growling and snarling.
Regret filled me. Why didn’t I wait for my friends? But then they would die with me. Maybe it was better they were late. They would find my horribly mutilated and possibly eaten body, but they might survive if they ran away.
As these thoughts chased each other around my brain, I noticed something.
The creature was wearing a sparkly bracelet.
Not only that but it seemed to have a manicure.
Now that I looked more closely, it was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants.
I reached up and grabbed the creature’s face then ripped it off with all my might.
“Ouch!” it said as the fur came loose.
In a heartbeat, I was holding the creature’s face in my hand and Jolene stood there rubbing her ears.
“You think you could yank my ears off next time?” she said.
“Sure, after I’m done having a heart attack you jerk!”
She smiled, still rubbing her ears.
“Happy Halloween!”
“Screw you!” I said, throwing the mask at her and storming out of the tent.
“Wait, you’re not really mad are you?” I heard her say from behind me as I tromped down the trail.
I didn’t bother to turn, answer, or even slow down.
“Where are you going?” she said.
The thought registered in my head, but I couldn’t seem to answer the question. Where was I going? I was just stomping down the trail with no destination in mind. The sun was peeking over the horizon as I passed a clearing in the trees. Without thinking I slowed to a stop and stood there admiring the simple elegant beauty of the sunrise.
I heard and felt a presence beside me as I stared into the rising sun.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Jolene said.
I turned to her and smiled.
“I should throw you off this cliff,” I said.
She took a step back, her eyes filled with uncertainty.
“Sucks, being afraid, doesn’t it?” I said.
“Yeah,” she said staying a healthy distance away from me. “I guess it does.”
“You know what you should do with that mask?” I said.
“I’m sure you have a few creative suggestions,” she said carefully.
I turned to her with a gleam in my eyes.
“You should scare the hell out of Dawn and Rose.”
Her look slowly transformed from fear to confusion as the edge of her lip slid up into a grin.
***
It was late afternoon when Dawn and Rose came huffing and puffing up the hill to the campsite. I’d started a campfire and made some lunch. There was also some coffee brewing on the fire.
“Well, you two sure took your time,” I said, poking at the fire and adding another piece of wood.
“You’re lucky we came at all,” Dawn said. “I was going to call and cancel.”
“Like Jolene did?” I said, trying my best to sound upset and disappointed.
“Are you kidding me?” Rose said, dropping her backpack. “After we busted our butts to get up here?”
“’Fraid so,” I said.
“That’s great!” Dawn said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. “You wait until I talk to her.”
I wasn’t sure if Jolene had silenced her phone or not. Dawn’s call could ruin the whole prank. My mind searched frantically for something to do.
“Don’t bother,” I said. “I already tried calling her this morning. It went straight to voicemail.”
“Humph,” Dawn said, putting her phone back in her pocket. “She’s probably snuggled up in bed, sleeping.”
“Well at least you two made it,” I said, pointing to the logs around the fire. “Take a load off.”
They looked at the log with disdain but shrugged and sat. I guess exhaustion will lower your standards regarding where you rest.
We chit-chatted for a while, mostly about how upset we were with Jolene for skipping out on us. Then I helped them set up their tents. We had just finished when off in the distance we heard a roar and a scream.
“What was that?” Dawn said, looking around trying to determine what direction it had come from.
“I don’t know,” I said, putting on an Oscar-level performance of looking frightened while trying not to smile. Jolene had outdone herself. She said she would look for roaring sounds on her phone, but that was so loud. I didn’t know her phone could get that loud.
Light was just beginning to fade, making it even harder to see if there was anything coming out of the trees towards us. Rose was having a full panic attack.
“What do we do, what do we do?” she said.
“Let’s just go in our tents and hope whatever it is doesn’t care about finding us,” I said.
“We should leave,” Rose said, her eyes darting all around searching for danger.
“I think so too,” Dawn said. “If there’s something out there it could come after us.”
I tried to do a quick pivot to save the prank.
“Where would we go?” I said. “Our cars are miles away. If that thing was after us it would stalk us on the trail too, and we wouldn’t have our tents made up to hide in.”
They looked at me with what looked like suspicion that turned into resignation.
“I guess you’re right,” Dawn said. “We should just go in our tents and hope that thing goes away.”
“Are you kidding me?” Rose said. “Why not just wrap ourselves in our sleeping bags and serve ourselves up as burritos for that thing?”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” I said. “We don’t even know what that was. Maybe it was some animal calling for a mate.”
“And the scream?”
“Could be someone saw it and was scared.”
Dawn watched our back-and-forth conversation.
“Let’s just go to our tents,” she said.
“No,” Rose said. “I want to leave, right now.”
“There’s the trail,” I said, pointing. “No one’s stopping you.”
She looked from the trail to Dawn to me.
I turned and went into my tent. A few minutes later I heard another tent flap rustle, followed by a third. A smile crept across my face. This was going to be fun. I was so excited I barely read any of my book.
Within an hour I heard something outside the tent, rustling through the campsite and knocking things over.
“Here we go,” I whispered.
It was all I could do to stay in my tent when I heard Rose scream. There was no way I could watch Jolene chasing them around with that ridiculous mask on and not howl with laughter. I wanted to give the prank time for them to be scared before revealing our devious plan.
Fits of laughter fought to escape me, but I held them in as I heard Dawn's screams join the fray. From the sound, they were all running around destroying the campsite. Between the growls, running, knocking into things, and screams of terror, the whole cacophony of it was nearly impossible to sit through. Every inch of me was aching to jump out and yell, “Happy Halloween! We got you!”
After a few minutes, the noise died down. Everyone must’ve gotten tired. I was still waiting for the ‘aha moment’ when I heard Dawn or Rose curse at Jolene. The mask wasn’t that convincing once you calmed down and got a close look at it. Any minute now. I leaned close to the wall of my tent, but all movement had stopped. It was like everyone had just laid down and took a nap.
I couldn’t take it any longer, I ripped open my tent and jumped out, yelling, “Surprise! Happy Hallo… “
The rest of the word died on my tongue. The campsite wasn’t in disarray, it was destroyed. Both Dawn and Rose’s tents were flattened. As I stepped closer I saw rips and gouges in their tents as well.
As I looked around the campsite at the carnage, my first thought was, ‘Wow, Jolene really overdid it.’ But that thought didn’t hold for long. The more I moved through the camp, the more I saw claw marks and huge footprints, something that Jolene couldn’t do. All doubts ended when I came across Dawn.
She lay in a pool of blood and at first, I thought it was a trick. That they had turned Jolene back against me and now I was being pranked. However, that thought died a quick death when I saw Dawn’s severed arm lying a few feet from her.
Her eyes were wide open in shock. She looked at me with a blank stare of accusation and tried to whisper something, but I couldn’t hear it.
I leaned closer and she whispered again, her final words haunting me.
This couldn’t be Jolene. It wasn’t a trick or a prank. Something real had just invaded our camp and destroyed my friend.
Fear gripped me as I looked around to see if this creature was lying in wait to kill me too. As I searched the rest of the camp, hoping moment by moment that this thing was gone, I also didn’t find Rose. Eventually, I found a large pool of blood not far from her tent, but nobody was around. The trail of blood led from the pool off toward the woods, and I had no desire to follow it.
The next thought that came to my panicked mind was, ‘If this wasn’t Jolene, then where was she?’
She purposely didn’t tell me where she was hiding, so I wouldn’t unintentionally give away her position by glancing at a certain spot. It was a smart plan until she went missing and I have no idea what’s going on.
My next thought was calling for help but when I got out my phone I found it was also dead. Even though I didn’t want to, I went over to Dawn’s now-dead body and searched for her cell phone. But I found it in pieces.
There would be no call for help.
Despondency smothered me and pulled me to the ground. I sat in the middle of the campsite beside a pool of blood that used to be one of my friends, only a handful of feet away from the broken body that used to be another one of my friends, having no idea where my third friend was.
I’d never been in such a desperate place in my life, not only physically, but mentally, and I hoped I would never be in such a place again.
I had no idea what to do or where to go. The realization began to set in that I had lost three of my closest friends in the space of a day.
Tears flowed down my cheeks as I sat there in the growing darkness with only the embers of the dying fire to keep me company.
Should I sit here and hope that help would stumble by in the form of another hiker or even better, a park ranger? It was late October and the trails weren’t very well traveled once the weather turned cold.
As I sat there a gust of wind blew through tearing at the few remaining leaves clinging to their branches. They began to fall as if the forest was crying with me… or for me.
I wish I knew what the forest knew about this thing that had destroyed my friends and my life. About how I would get out of here alive and most of all about what had happened to Jolene. As much as I wanted to just sit there and mourn forever, I knew I couldn’t. I knew I had to get up and go figure this out.
How would I get out of here? How would I survive?
Maybe my tent held the key. By some miracle my tent was undamaged. I started digging through my backpack. There are always things in everyone’s backpack that they have for emergencies that never happen. Usually, it’s a snakebite kit, a length of rope, or bandaids that seldom if ever get used. But as I was digging, I came across some things that might be useful. There was a can of pepper spray and a small pocket knife. At this point, I was happy to have anything I could use as a weapon.
They went in my pocket along with the rope.
So now it was decision time. Do I pack up my stuff right now and leave, hiking down the trail in the dark, having no idea if this thing is still on the hunt? Or do I lay down and get some rest? Wait for morning and hope it doesn’t know I’m here.
Neither one was a great option. There was no way I could even consider burying Dawn. I didn’t have a shovel and I would need all my energy to hike back out of here if I hoped to survive. Thankfully, the decision was made for me. As I lay there, mind whirling from everything that had happened, I fell asleep.
***
I woke hours later to a bright morning sun peeking through my open tent window. I yawned and stretched thinking about what a beautiful morning it could be when suddenly I remembered everything that had happened. That’s when I heard the growling.
It was just loud enough to get my attention. Fear gripped me as I tried to figure out what to do. My brain went into full useless mode as, ‘Run out of the tent screaming’ rose to the top of possible options.
The growling didn’t seem to get any closer as I lay there awaiting my fate. Encouraged by the fact that I hadn’t become the monster’s breakfast yet, I got up to my knees and quietly looked out the window.
What I saw disgusted and enraged me. There were two mountain lions having their breakfast. Normally I wouldn’t care about such a thing more than staying as far away as possible. But today, their breakfast was my friend’s dead body.
I did exactly what was at the top of my brain’s list: ran out of the tent screaming.
At first, I ran straight at them, hoping it would scare them off. They both just stopped and stared at me as if I were some rude interloper interrupting them having morning tea.
The next thing they did was turn and take a few steps toward me.
As I stared at their blood-soaked faces, I realized I had done the worst thing possible. I lowered my hands and started backing away, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. This seemed to encourage them to increase their pursuit. I was almost back to my tent, but it didn’t seem like diving inside and hiding was an option now. They were aware of me and very interested in me, possibly as lunch.
As my list of potential actions dwindled to, ‘Wait for death’, my hand brushed against my leg and I felt something in my pocket. It was the pepper spray. I pulled it out, having no idea if it even worked on cats, and aimed it at them.
They didn’t slow in the slightest. It looked like a stream of water sprayed out of the can and landed on the first cat’s face. Its reaction was immediate.
It let out a massive yowl and began clawing at its face. The second paused in confusion, watching its companion devolve into convulsions of pain. When it looked back at me, I had already sprayed its face, causing the same reaction.
For a long moment, I was treated to the insanely comical sight of these two predators twirling in circles, trying to claw their own faces off.
And then the impossible happened. They both decided breakfast wasn’t worth the cost of admission and ran off.
I looked down at this small, innocuous-looking spray can that had just saved my life. It was tempting to give it a kiss in celebration, but I didn’t want to take any chance of getting any spray on me. Writhing in pain wasn’t high on my list of things to do today.
Having just escaped death, I decided on my plan of action. My backpack was packed in under a half hour and I was on the trail, having said my goodbyes to Dawn and what was left of Rose.
A sharp pang of guilt stabbed me as I left the campsite. Dawn’s last whispered words haunted me, “Shouldn’t have come.”
She was right of course. If any of us had known what was about to happen there was no way we should’ve been here. But that’s the whole point of life I guess. None of us know what’s going to happen at any minute.
As if I wasn’t depressed enough as it was, that thought sent me into near panic as my eyes darted all around searching for danger. Now it wasn’t only the monster, but the mountain lions and any other creature whose home I had invaded. Right then I knew I would never visit this place again.
Even the woodland creatures were quiet out of respect for my fallen friends.
Wait… how would they know?
As if in answer, the monster stepped out onto the trail and stared down at me. It was massive. I’d never seen anything that tall. Not only was it tall, but its shoulders were a good five feet wide. It was covered in dark fur that had splotches of wet dark stains down the front of it. My mind told me that was all that was left of Rose.
It unleased a deafening roar that made a small river flow down my pantleg. My mind was like a little dog chasing its tail trying to figure out what to do.
As I stood there, frozen to the spot, it took two steps and was right in front of me.
When it reached for me, some basic survival mode kicked in and I went back to the last thing that had saved my life.
I whipped out the pepper spray and emptied the can in the monster’s face.
It reared back and screamed so loud I had to hold my ears as I ran around it and sprinted down the trail.
My heart was pumping adrenaline.
My feet barely touched the ground.
I had never run so fast in my entire life.
The trees were a blur as I wound back and forth along the trail.
All I could think was, ‘Just get away! Just get away!’
As hope soared that I might be able to do just that, I heard a noise coming from behind me. It was like a bulldozer with legs. I heard pounding and crashing as if something was destroying whatever got in its way. I glanced back and the monster was gaining on me. But it was flailing its arms around in front of it as if to protect its eyes from whatever was there.
That momentary distraction was just enough. My foot caught on a branch I wasn’t looking for and I went tumbling at full speed off the trail and into the brush. I hit a tree hard with my back. I was sure I heard a crack. It was all I could do just to stay conscious. I watched through bleary eyes as the monster ran past me on the trail.
There was no way I could celebrate or even move. Running so fast for so long had taken its toll. And now having fallen and possibly injuring my back had just added to my immobility.
It took me a few long moments to catch my breath. Once I did, I slowly moved body parts to make sure they still worked. I saved the worst for last. Trying to sit up caused pain to shoot down my back.
That wasn’t a good sign.
It seemed like I would be here for a little bit. At least until I recovered enough to make another try for my car. I knew it was less than a mile away, but right now I couldn’t even think about getting up to walk let alone run.
I painfully pulled my backpack off and sat it beside me. Next, I tried to cover myself and my pack with the loose leaves that blanketed the ground. Within ten minutes I was satisfied that no one would be able to see me from the trail without looking very closely.
There was a peephole I had left open to keep an eye on the trail. The monster would be back eventually, there was no doubt about that. Once it realized I wasn’t on the trail anymore it would backtrack looking for me.
Spraying it may have saved my life, but it also doomed me to be its enemy forever. It would search high and low to find me, I was as sure about that as anything.
Even though it was mid-morning, the trees here were dense and light had to filter through a lot of them to make it to the ground. Reaching into my pack. I pulled out my reading light, which was surprisingly still in one piece. I used it to check my wounds and found they were mostly cuts and scrapes.
As my adrenaline crashed, I could feel myself being once again dragged into unconsciousness. My eyes drooped, then suddenly shot open as I heard something. The part of the trail I could see through my peephole was quite small. I leaned to the left a little bit trying not to make any sound. That’s when I heard the sniffing and saw the monster coming slowly back up the trail. It was on all fours, smelling the ground.
One eye looked like it was swollen shut and the other was bloodshot. It got to the point in the trail where I had fallen and stopped then turned and looked right at me.
My blood turned to liquid nitrogen.
The monster stalked straight towards me as if it could see me plain as day. I glanced down and realized to my horror that my reading light was still on.
I panicked. If I turned it off, the monster would know I was there. If I left it on, it was a beacon leading it right to me. I gently pulled it from around my neck, trying to move it as little as possible. Once I had it off of me, I set it on top of my backpack so it was at the same level as it had been around my neck.
As I slid away from the pack, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the knife, then opened it.
The monster was so close I could smell the stench of death coming from its mouth. It got right up to the light and brushed the leaves away to see what this thing was.
There was only one shot for me to survive. I swung the knife with all the strength I had left, stabbing it in the eye that wasn’t swollen.
It reared back and screamed in pain.
I didn’t wait around to see what was going to happen. Every ounce of energy I had went to running away from this homicidal monster. My back screamed at me but I ignored it.
The creature screamed again, this time in rage rather than pain. It tore off after me, but couldn’t see so it ended up slamming into a tree three feet behind me.
My legs kept pumping, driven by sheer terror. As I glanced back I saw the monster listening to me run away. It followed my sounds and ran after me again. I pivoted and ran up the side of the trail just in time for it to miss me and fall face-first on the trail.
It wasn’t far to the trailhead now. I knew it was getting close. There was a hard turn in the trail where I had to be careful of my footing. It was narrow and there was a steep drop that ended in a river far below.
I ran to where the turn was and suddenly stopped. The monster had gotten up and was listening for me again. It was a gamble, but I stood at the turn and jogged in place as though I was still running away.
It listened, then launched itself toward me. As soon as it began to run, I quietly stepped around the corner and softly walked down the trail a few feet. If my gamble paid off, I would be home free. If it didn’t, I’d be dead.
Time slowed as the beast galloped towards the turn. I watched and waited until finally, I saw the bloody fur of its face with the knife still sticking out.
At the last moment, it seemed to sense me around the corner and tried to turn, but momentum had already carried it past me and it had no chance of staying on the trail.
I leaned over and watched as it fell helplessly over the edge and tumbled down to the water below, hitting its head on several trees as it went.
It had just come to rest at the bottom when I took off running. The trailhead loomed in front of me and I didn’t want to take any chances of that thing recovering and catching me before I got to my car.
I’d never seen a more beautiful sight than my beat-up Toyota Corolla.
When I approached it, I paused yet again and looked around for who or what might be watching me.
Hanging from my driver’s side mirror was the mask Jolene had worn. I took it off the mirror and looked at it in shock and confusion. Inside was a note.
There was a crash from the woods that told me the monster hadn’t given up. I jumped in the car, threw the mask on the passenger’s seat, and broke every speed law getting out of the park. Even once I was on the main road, I pushed the pedal down to make the car go as fast as it could. My speedometer needle was vibrating when I hit eighty. It wasn’t until I was close to home that I slowed down.
I got out and went into my tiny house, bringing the mask. I collapsed on the couch as my back complained. I would have to schedule an appointment with my chiropractor.
Once I was safely inside, I picked up the mask and pulled out the note.
It read, ‘I’m sorry to leave without telling you. The girls were coming up the trail and I was about to jump out at them when I saw this monster following them through the woods. I couldn’t warn them or you without the monster seeing. When they set up their tents, it was watching from the edge of the woods. I panicked and quietly left while it was busy watching the camp. I hope you’re alive to read this and if so you can someday forgive me. – J’
I lay the note beside me on the couch and all I could think of as tears streamed down my cheeks was Dawn’s final words to me.
“Shouldn’t have come.”

My roommate Paulette had become my best friend over the few months that we’ve shared our college dorm. She had helped me to come out of my shell a bit, inviting me to any get-togethers she went to, and even forcing me to some if I was hard-headed about getting out for some fresh air. She had made me feel welcome and wanted, honestly, which is something I didn’t experience growing up as an orphan who hopped from foster home to foster home. I had never had any biological family reach out to me, or made any connections with the families I had briefly lived with, so feeling welcome was something I had always craved.
I wasn’t shocked whenever she invited me to her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. She had been telling her family about me for a while, even having phone calls where she would put it on speaker and have them talk to me, something I was always pretty awkward with. They did really sound like nice people, though, and I knew if I stayed at the dorm, I would just be sad thinking about everyone else getting to spend time with their families. I thought it would be a nice distraction, even though I knew I’d probably spend the whole time making awkward small talk.
So Paulette and I piled up into her Toyota Camry and headed out towards her house. They lived about an hour away in a tiny little town that had barely anything, most of it adorned by backroads full of pine trees. It was on one of these backroads where Paulette’s family had their two-story farmhouse, which had a very cozy and homey feel to it.
Although it was two stories, it felt cozy instead of roomy due to how much stuff was piled into it. It kind of reminded me of the Weasley house from Harry Potter except appearing more stable and less likely to topple over. Vintage furniture mostly filled the house, but it also had a healthy mixture of newer items, the newer items mostly electronics. My favorite part of it was the huge flat-screen TV that sat above the beautiful ornate fireplace, seeming so out of place. Little swirls stood out on the fireplace to resemble little puffs of smoke floating up, standing out on the brick and somehow looking delicate even though they were made of stone. A bookshelf with books stuffed into every open inch sat beside the fireplace, looking like it was a couple of books away from toppling over. A very comfy and worn-down-looking couch paired with two matching chairs sat in front of the fireplace, waiting for the visitors. We were the first two to sit down, and we were quickly surrounded by Paulette’s other family members that gradually showed up to the occasion. Soon, the sitting area felt just as packed as the bookshelf, and I felt very awkward and claustrophobic.
“What is your name, sweetie?” an older woman asked me. I looked over in the direction of her voice and almost jumped a foot out of my chair due to her strange appearance. Her wildly curly hair fought against the bobby pins she had holding it in, a strong smell of hair spray coming from it. Her pointy glasses reminded me of Roz from Monster’s Inc, although she had a rather sweet-sounding voice compared to that character. Her lipstick was the brightest shade of red I had ever seen, and it stained the filter of the cigarette she had in her hand.
Seeing how uncomfortable I was, Paulette reached over from her perch next to me and patted the woman’s upper arm. “Aunt Jolene, this is my roommate Piper,” she introduced.
The woman nodded as she took a drag from her cigarette, making that weird scrunched-up expression with her face that all smokers do to not release smoke into someone’s face. “Honey, you are so tiny!” she said. “You need to put some meat on your bones!”
“Don’t worry,” said Paulette. “I’m going to be making her plate for her.” They both chuckled at this comment before switching to discussing some distant relative they “hadn’t seen in forever.” I kind of zoned out as they talked, trying to cover my nose from the smoke without being obvious and seeming rude. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Paulette’s mom called us all into the dining room. I had never been happier to get off of a couch.
I thought the living room was adorable, but it was nothing compared to how phenomenal the dining room looked. The furniture in here was strictly vintage, mostly looking victorian and intricate in its designs. The table itself took up the entirety of the room, spanning from one end to the other. Its legs and edges looked hand-carved, with the legs specifically being made to look like a waterfall of roses was drizzling from it. The chairs matched that design, along with the fireplace at the opposite end of the room. A beautiful crystal chandelier sat above the table, with crystals hanging down and twinkling as sunlight beams bounced off of them through the window. Not only was the room beautiful, but the spread of food was just as amazing and smelled absolutely delicious. Dressing, chicken and dumplings, a huge ham, and a huge turkey were some of the dishes on the table, but they were far from it. A small table beside the fireplace overflowed with desserts as well. Plates, cups, and silverware waited before each chair, a huge glass of lemonade waiting to fill those cups. This room was truly something I had never seen besides similar ones that I had seen in movies.
“Well, dig in, guys!” announced Paulette’s mom, and everyone quickly picked a chair. My mouth was already watering, and by the time Paulette’s dad began cutting into the turkey, I felt like I was practically drooling. Excited chatter surrounded the table as everyone began filling their plates, and Paulette grabbed mine to begin filling it just as she said she would.
One of Paulette’s brothers, Jared, got up from the table and placed a record on a record player I hadn’t noticed beside the dessert table. It crackled a bit as it spun around, but soon a mixture of instruments began to play, like a piano, clarinet, and violin. Soon, a voice began to sound from the speakers, as well.
Oh, you’re my honey Oh, you’re my baby Oh, you’re my sweet piiiiiie
Myyy, don’t you see, My little sweet treat, What you’re doing to me?
The lyrics were quite strange. I found myself distracted from my food as I continued to listen to the lyrics, staring at the record as it spun round and round.
“Uncle Edgar used to think he could make it as a singer,” said Paulette’s dad as he noticed me staring. “But, I think his sense of humor was just too strange.”
I didn’t really know what he meant by that, and no one decided to explain, so I left the conversation at that and turned back to my plate.
“Wait, where is the special dish?” asked a young boy who I recognized from Paulette’s family picture book as her little cousin Richard. I glanced around the table, finally taking the time to get a good look at everyone that I hadn’t talked to yet. There were only a few people from the picture book that I didn’t see. The missing family members were quickly wiped from my mind as Paulette’s mom appeared from the kitchen holding another huge dish, this one containing a piece of meat that I didn’t recognize.
It took up the entire pan and seemed hard for her to carry. Everyone quickly scrambled to move the dishes already taking up the table so that she could set the heavy load down.
“What is that?” I whispered to Paulette.
“Oh, uh…” she started. “Pig, I think?” She shrugged, turning back to the conversation I had taken her from.
Her response was weird to me, but I thought it was probably just my nerves about the whole day getting to me. I looked back at the dish as her mom sliced into the meat, cutting thin strips off. Blood and other juices flowed from the cuts, filling up the bottom of the pan. I have never been squeamish of blood, in fact, I’ve always loved my steaks a bit bloody, but my nerves were still making me feel weird. Is that how pig was supposed to be prepared? I began to feel bile come up my throat as the blood continued to pour. I tried to distract myself by eating again, but I couldn’t ignore the feeling of goosebumps on my arm. I glanced around the table and saw everyone else was perfectly fine, eating away or conversing with each other. Why was I the only one freaking out over a pig?
You know that feeling like an answer to something is on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t figure out what it is that your brain is wanting you to say? It’s like the memory is scratching at your brain, trying to break free, but you don’t know why you can’t think of it. That was how I felt right now, and it made a mixture with the feelings of anxiety. The mixture overwhelmed me.
I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths to try and calm myself. It is okay, I thought to myself. There is nothing wrong right now. You’re surrounded by nice people and have a delicious meal to finish in front of you. I slowly opened my eyes, thinking I had things under control now until I realized my plate seemed a lot farther away than it should be. And then, I remembered what my brain wanted to, the word on the tip of my tongue.
“Oh, no,” I said out loud without meaning to. “Longpig.”
I heard Paulette ask what was wrong, but I was unable to respond. Everything seemed to fade out of existence besides me and the strange meat. I heard voices asking me if I was okay over and over, but I couldn’t focus on them. The only sounds that were able to break free of the walls I suddenly had around me were the lyrics still playing from the record player.
You look so scrumptious Oh so delicious My sweetie, sweet pea
Come on over here Oh, my precious dear And give me a little biiiite
I heard a muffled “Do you want to go to the bathroom?” come from beside me. I was unable to respond, though, and a moment later I felt arms wrap around me and gently lift me. I was practically carried away out of the room, my feet somehow still able to operate, and I felt like I was floating. Everything seemed dim, the sunlight there moments before now sucked out.
It felt like a total blur, but I was brought into a tiny bathroom and sat on the closed toilet. We sat there for a few minutes, me on the toilet and the person on the floor until I finally calmed down enough for the world to come back into focus. I realized it was Paulette sitting on the floor in front of me with her legs crossed, patiently waiting for me to be able to communicate again.
“Hey, you okay?” she asked in a soft voice.
I nodded. “Thank you.”
“It’s no biggie,” she reassured me. “What made it happen anyway?”
I thought about my response for a while, debating if I should make something up or not because strange meat sounded like a silly reason to have a panic attack. Why would they be eating longpig? Would she even know what that was if I told her? It took a while before I decided on telling her the truth. Well, not the longpig part, but the rest of it.
“The meat gave me a weird vibe,” I replied.
“The pig?” she asked.
I nodded, and she giggled. “Oh, that’s okay! I promise it was just pig! Why did it freak you out?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, just a weird vibe.”
She nodded as well, and then stood up from her position on the floor. “Are you okay enough to go back out there, now?”
“I think I’m just going to sit here for a bit.”
She nodded once more before exiting, slowly closing the door behind her.
It was a few minutes before I got up from the toilet. I figured I had been in there long enough, so I splashed some water on my face before taking a few deep breaths and exiting the bathroom as well. Walking down the tiny hallway and out into the living room, I was able to notice even more details I loved about the house: the mishmash of recent and vintage framed photos on the walls, the crazy patterned wallpaper, the random pile of shoes stashed around the front door. It all seemed so homey, something I had never had the privilege to fully experience firsthand. It made me feel safe.
Even though I felt safe, old habits die hard, so when I rounded the corner to the other hall, I paused in my tracks, deciding to eavesdrop for a bit on the conversation to see how much I had embarrassed myself.
“You didn’t tell us the one you were bringing was looney,” I heard Aunt Jolene say. That made me frown, shocked that my suspicions had been true. They had all seemed so friendly and inviting.
“And she is skinny as all get out!” I heard Jerad yell.
“Shh!” Paulette hushed them. “You guys are being way too loud. She was the best thing I could get!” That comment confused me. What did she mean by that? Did she not actually like me? Did she view me as a bad friend?
“Last year you got us a chubby one, though!” whined Richard.
“Shut, up, Richie!” whisper-shouted Paulette. “She will taste just fine.”
“I don’t know about that, Pauly,” said Paulette’s dad. “The fatty ones always have more flavor.”
My eyes grew wide as I realized exactly what they were talking about. Uncle Edgar’s weird song started playing in my head like a cruel serenade, mixing with the memory I had over and over.
“And why did she say longpig?” asked Paulette’s mom, reading my mind. “Did she know what the meat was?”
“No,” replied Paulette. “She said the meat gave her a weird feeling, but I don’t think she knew what it was.”
“Well, we better get started before she does find out.”
I don’t even know who said that comment. All I know is I sprinted full force to the front door. I didn’t bother putting my shoes on because I could already hear them discussing “what that sound was” from the dining room. I jerked on the door handle to no avail. I did the next best thing, which was to wrap my hand up in the white curtain decorating the window beside the door and smashed my fist through the glass until it broke. I got rid of the glass shards the best I could before hopping through, but, even if I was cut, there was too much adrenaline pumping through my body to feel any pain. I didn’t feel the pain in my lungs as I sprinted in the cold air, or the pokey branches on the ground, either. I had no idea where I was going, but I knew it had to be somewhere far away from them.
It was at that moment that a ray of sunshine seemed to glide through the trees surrounding their front yard, seemingly lighting up an escape route for me. A car was at the end of that route, one of the many parked ones owned by the family members on the edges of the yard. I ran to it, hoping against all hope that one of them had been stupid enough to leave their car unlocked. I tried out three cars with no luck. I began panicking as I heard footsteps approaching, but I kept trying cars. I approached Paulette’s car and looked into the interior, rushing as I could hear the person getting closer.
The moment I heard Paulette scream my name as she approached, it dawned on me: she had a push-to-start car, and I hadn’t seen her take her keys out of her sweater pocket since we got here. I unlocked the car and hopped in the driver seat in seconds, having the car started and already backing up in only a few more. Paulette chased after me as the car moved, shouting something I couldn’t hear. I didn’t let it phase me, though, placing all of my focus on getting the hell out of there. I quickly whipped the car around and then zoomed down the long driveway, trying to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.
I didn’t have enough service to GPS my way out of there, so I had to go off of memory. Paulette’s family tried to follow me, but with the number of twists and turns I was making out of confusion, they had trouble staying on my trail. Seeing their cars pop up randomly again and again still frightened me, though, and one time they even tried to ram Paulette’s car, but by luck, I made it safely back to the town. Their cars quickly disappeared, but I had no idea where. I didn’t really care at that point. As long as they weren’t still chasing me, I was fine. I quickly found the police station and tried to file a report. I say tried because I noticed the police officers were acting very strange when I explained where the house was. I finally asked what the problem was after they kept whispering and giving each other confused looks.
“No one has lived in that house for 4 years,” said one of the officers.
“That’s not true,” I replied. “Her whole family does. I just saw them.”
But it was true. When we went back to the house, they were gone, along with a few of the newer items. The house was never theirs, it was just one they had been lucky enough to find to set up shop in. It was owned by a wealthy family, one they had bought to restore as a possible vacation home, but they never really checked on it because it was so far out in the country that they figured no one could find it. Boy, were they wrong.
I later found out that Paulette wasn’t her real name, and I assume the same for all the rest of them. The FBI told me they had actually been on the hunt for them for a while, but with the constant name changes and them moving around so frequently, they could never stay on top of it. Paulette and her brother were the bait. They got to know people and became close with them so that they could bring them back home, particularly targeting people like me who had no one else. I guess we would be more likely to be forgotten about, a missing person case swept under the rug. The FBI didn’t have a definite number on how many missing person cases were their victims, but with the way they acted when discussing it, it seemed to be a very high number. I was lucky to not be added to that list.
When I managed to get back to the dorm, Paulette’s room had been cleaned out. The only things she had left were Uncle Edgar’s record and a picture of us together that we had taken when we first met, both of which she had placed on my desk. When I flipped the picture over, I saw two sentences scribbled on it in Paulette’s handwriting.
“You were right. The meat was human.”

A girl gets invited to Thanksgiving dinner at her roommate's family home, but the family isn't as nice as they seem.
My roommate Paulette had become my best friend over the few months that we’ve shared our college dorm. She had helped me to come out of my shell a bit, inviting me to any get-togethers she went to, and even forcing me to some if I was hard-headed about getting out for some fresh air. She had made me feel welcome and wanted, honestly, which is something I didn’t experience growing up as an orphan who hopped from foster home to foster home. I had never had any biological family reach out to me, or made any connections with the families I had briefly lived with, so feeling welcome was something I had always craved.
I wasn’t shocked whenever she invited me to her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. She had been telling her family about me for a while, even having phone calls where she would put it on speaker and have them talk to me, something I was always pretty awkward with. They did really sound like nice people, though, and I knew if I stayed at the dorm, I would just be sad thinking about everyone else getting to spend time with their families. I thought it would be a nice distraction, even though I knew I’d probably spend the whole time making awkward small talk.
So Paulette and I piled up into her Toyota Camry and headed out towards her house. They lived about an hour away in a tiny little town that had barely anything, most of it adorned by backroads full of pine trees. It was on one of these backroads where Paulette’s family had their two-story farmhouse, which had a very cozy and homey feel to it.
Although it was two stories, it felt cozy instead of roomy due to how much stuff was piled into it. It kind of reminded me of the Weasley house from Harry Potter except appearing more stable and less likely to topple over. Vintage furniture mostly filled the house, but it also had a healthy mixture of newer items, the newer items mostly electronics. My favorite part of it was the huge flat-screen TV that sat above the beautiful ornate fireplace, seeming so out of place. Little swirls stood out on the fireplace to resemble little puffs of smoke floating up, standing out on the brick and somehow looking delicate even though they were made of stone. A bookshelf with books stuffed into every open inch sat beside the fireplace, looking like it was a couple of books away from toppling over. A very comfy and worn-down-looking couch paired with two matching chairs sat in front of the fireplace, waiting for the visitors. We were the first two to sit down, and we were quickly surrounded by Paulette’s other family members that gradually showed up to the occasion. Soon, the sitting area felt just as packed as the bookshelf, and I felt very awkward and claustrophobic.
“What is your name, sweetie?” an older woman asked me. I looked over in the direction of her voice and almost jumped a foot out of my chair due to her strange appearance. Her wildly curly hair fought against the bobby pins she had holding it in, a strong smell of hair spray coming from it. Her pointy glasses reminded me of Roz from Monster’s Inc, although she had a rather sweet-sounding voice compared to that character. Her lipstick was the brightest shade of red I had ever seen, and it stained the filter of the cigarette she had in her hand.
Seeing how uncomfortable I was, Paulette reached over from her perch next to me and patted the woman’s upper arm. “Aunt Jolene, this is my roommate Piper,” she introduced.
The woman nodded as she took a drag from her cigarette, making that weird scrunched-up expression with her face that all smokers do to not release smoke into someone’s face. “Honey, you are so tiny!” she said. “You need to put some meat on your bones!”
“Don’t worry,” said Paulette. “I’m going to be making her plate for her.” They both chuckled at this comment before switching to discussing some distant relative they “hadn’t seen in forever.” I kind of zoned out as they talked, trying to cover my nose from the smoke without being obvious and seeming rude. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Paulette’s mom called us all into the dining room. I had never been happier to get off of a couch.
I thought the living room was adorable, but it was nothing compared to how phenomenal the dining room looked. The furniture in here was strictly vintage, mostly looking victorian and intricate in its designs. The table itself took up the entirety of the room, spanning from one end to the other. Its legs and edges looked hand-carved, with the legs specifically being made to look like a waterfall of roses was drizzling from it. The chairs matched that design, along with the fireplace at the opposite end of the room. A beautiful crystal chandelier sat above the table, with crystals hanging down and twinkling as sunlight beams bounced off of them through the window. Not only was the room beautiful, but the spread of food was just as amazing and smelled absolutely delicious. Dressing, chicken and dumplings, a huge ham, and a huge turkey were some of the dishes on the table, but they were far from it. A small table beside the fireplace overflowed with desserts as well. Plates, cups, and silverware waited before each chair, a huge glass of lemonade waiting to fill those cups. This room was truly something I had never seen besides similar ones that I had seen in movies.
“Well, dig in, guys!” announced Paulette’s mom, and everyone quickly picked a chair. My mouth was already watering, and by the time Paulette’s dad began cutting into the turkey, I felt like I was practically drooling. Excited chatter surrounded the table as everyone began filling their plates, and Paulette grabbed mine to begin filling it just as she said she would.
One of Paulette’s brothers, Jared, got up from the table and placed a record on a record player I hadn’t noticed beside the dessert table. It crackled a bit as it spun around, but soon a mixture of instruments began to play, like a piano, clarinet, and violin. Soon, a voice began to sound from the speakers, as well.
Oh, you’re my honey
Oh, you’re my baby
Oh, you’re my sweet piiiiiie
Myyy, don’t you see,
My little sweet treat,
What you’re doing to me?
The lyrics were quite strange. I found myself distracted from my food as I continued to listen to the lyrics, staring at the record as it spun round and round.
“Uncle Edgar used to think he could make it as a singer,” said Paulette’s dad as he noticed me staring. “But, I think his sense of humor was just too strange.”
I didn’t really know what he meant by that, and no one decided to explain, so I left the conversation at that and turned back to my plate.
“Wait, where is the special dish?” asked a young boy who I recognized from Paulette’s family picture book as her little cousin Richard. I glanced around the table, finally taking the time to get a good look at everyone that I hadn’t talked to yet. There were only a few people from the picture book that I didn’t see. The missing family members were quickly wiped from my mind as Paulette’s mom appeared from the kitchen holding another huge dish, this one containing a piece of meat that I didn’t recognize.
It took up the entire pan and seemed hard for her to carry. Everyone quickly scrambled to move the dishes already taking up the table so that she could set the heavy load down.
“What is that?” I whispered to Paulette.
“Oh, uh…” she started. “Pig, I think?” She shrugged, turning back to the conversation I had taken her from.
Her response was weird to me, but I thought it was probably just my nerves about the whole day getting to me. I looked back at the dish as her mom sliced into the meat, cutting thin strips off. Blood and other juices flowed from the cuts, filling up the bottom of the pan. I have never been squeamish of blood, in fact, I’ve always loved my steaks a bit bloody, but my nerves were still making me feel weird. Is that how pig was supposed to be prepared? I began to feel bile come up my throat as the blood continued to pour. I tried to distract myself by eating again, but I couldn’t ignore the feeling of goosebumps on my arm. I glanced around the table and saw everyone else was perfectly fine, eating away or conversing with each other. Why was I the only one freaking out over a pig?
You know that feeling like an answer to something is on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t figure out what it is that your brain is wanting you to say? It’s like the memory is scratching at your brain, trying to break free, but you don’t know why you can’t think of it. That was how I felt right now, and it made a mixture with the feelings of anxiety. The mixture overwhelmed me.
I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths to try and calm myself. It is okay, I thought to myself. There is nothing wrong right now. You’re surrounded by nice people and have a delicious meal to finish in front of you. I slowly opened my eyes, thinking I had things under control now until I realized my plate seemed a lot farther away than it should be. And then, I remembered what my brain wanted to, the word on the tip of my tongue.
“Oh, no,” I said out loud without meaning to. “Longpig.”
I heard Paulette ask what was wrong, but I was unable to respond. Everything seemed to fade out of existence besides me and the strange meat. I heard voices asking me if I was okay over and over, but I couldn’t focus on them. The only sounds that were able to break free of the walls I suddenly had around me were the lyrics still playing from the record player.
You look so scrumptious
Oh so delicious
My sweetie, sweet pea
Come on over here
Oh, my precious dear
And give me a little biiiite
I heard a muffled “Do you want to go to the bathroom?” come from beside me. I was unable to respond, though, and a moment later I felt arms wrap around me and gently lift me. I was practically carried away out of the room, my feet somehow still able to operate, and I felt like I was floating. Everything seemed dim, the sunlight there moments before now sucked out.
It felt like a total blur, but I was brought into a tiny bathroom and sat on the closed toilet. We sat there for a few minutes, me on the toilet and the person on the floor until I finally calmed down enough for the world to come back into focus. I realized it was Paulette sitting on the floor in front of me with her legs crossed, patiently waiting for me to be able to communicate again.
“Hey, you okay?” she asked in a soft voice.
I nodded. “Thank you.”
“It’s no biggie,” she reassured me. “What made it happen anyway?”
I thought about my response for a while, debating if I should make something up or not because strange meat sounded like a silly reason to have a panic attack. Why would they be eating longpig? Would she even know what that was if I told her? It took a while before I decided on telling her the truth. Well, not the longpig part, but the rest of it.
“The meat gave me a weird vibe,” I replied.
“The pig?” she asked.
I nodded, and she giggled. “Oh, that’s okay! I promise it was just pig! Why did it freak you out?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, just a weird vibe.”
She nodded as well, and then stood up from her position on the floor. “Are you okay enough to go back out there, now?”
“I think I’m just going to sit here for a bit.”
She nodded once more before exiting, slowly closing the door behind her.
It was a few minutes before I got up from the toilet. I figured I had been in there long enough, so I splashed some water on my face before taking a few deep breaths and exiting the bathroom as well. Walking down the tiny hallway and out into the living room, I was able to notice even more details I loved about the house: the mishmash of recent and vintage framed photos on the walls, the crazy patterned wallpaper, the random pile of shoes stashed around the front door. It all seemed so homey, something I had never had the privilege to fully experience firsthand. It made me feel safe.
Even though I felt safe, old habits die hard, so when I rounded the corner to the other hall, I paused in my tracks, deciding to eavesdrop for a bit on the conversation to see how much I had embarrassed myself.
“You didn’t tell us the one you were bringing was looney,” I heard Aunt Jolene say. That made me frown, shocked that my suspicions had been true. They had all seemed so friendly and inviting.
“And she is skinny as all get out!” I heard Jerad yell.
“Shh!” Paulette hushed them. “You guys are being way too loud. She was the best thing I could get!” That comment confused me. What did she mean by that? Did she not actually like me? Did she view me as a bad friend?
“Last year you got us a chubby one, though!” whined Richard.
“Shut, up, Richie!” whisper-shouted Paulette. “She will taste just fine.”
“I don’t know about that, Pauly,” said Paulette’s dad. “The fatty ones always have more flavor.”
My eyes grew wide as I realized exactly what they were talking about. Uncle Edgar’s weird song started playing in my head like a cruel serenade, mixing with the memory I had over and over.
“And why did she say longpig?” asked Paulette’s mom, reading my mind. “Did she know what the meat was?”
“No,” replied Paulette. “She said the meat gave her a weird feeling, but I don’t think she knew what it was.”
“Well, we better get started before she does find out.”
I don’t even know who said that comment. All I know is I sprinted full force to the front door. I didn’t bother putting my shoes on because I could already hear them discussing “what that sound was” from the dining room. I jerked on the door handle to no avail. I did the next best thing, which was to wrap my hand up in the white curtain decorating the window beside the door and smashed my fist through the glass until it broke. I got rid of the glass shards the best I could before hopping through, but, even if I was cut, there was too much adrenaline pumping through my body to feel any pain. I didn’t feel the pain in my lungs as I sprinted in the cold air, or the pokey branches on the ground, either. I had no idea where I was going, but I knew it had to be somewhere far away from them.
It was at that moment that a ray of sunshine seemed to glide through the trees surrounding their front yard, seemingly lighting up an escape route for me. A car was at the end of that route, one of the many parked ones owned by the family members on the edges of the yard. I ran to it, hoping against all hope that one of them had been stupid enough to leave their car unlocked. I tried out three cars with no luck. I began panicking as I heard footsteps approaching, but I kept trying cars. I approached Paulette’s car and looked into the interior, rushing as I could hear the person getting closer.
The moment I heard Paulette scream my name as she approached, it dawned on me: she had a push-to-start car, and I hadn’t seen her take her keys out of her sweater pocket since we got here. I unlocked the car and hopped in the driver seat in seconds, having the car started and already backing up in only a few more. Paulette chased after me as the car moved, shouting something I couldn’t hear. I didn’t let it phase me, though, placing all of my focus on getting the hell out of there. I quickly whipped the car around and then zoomed down the long driveway, trying to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.
I didn’t have enough service to GPS my way out of there, so I had to go off of memory. Paulette’s family tried to follow me, but with the number of twists and turns I was making out of confusion, they had trouble staying on my trail. Seeing their cars pop up randomly again and again still frightened me, though, and one time they even tried to ram Paulette’s car, but by luck, I made it safely back to the town. Their cars quickly disappeared, but I had no idea where. I didn’t really care at that point. As long as they weren’t still chasing me, I was fine. I quickly found the police station and tried to file a report. I say tried because I noticed the police officers were acting very strange when I explained where the house was. I finally asked what the problem was after they kept whispering and giving each other confused looks.
“No one has lived in that house for 4 years,” said one of the officers.
“That’s not true,” I replied. “Her whole family does. I just saw them.”
But it was true. When we went back to the house, they were gone, along with a few of the newer items. The house was never theirs, it was just one they had been lucky enough to find to set up shop in. It was owned by a wealthy family, one they had bought to restore as a possible vacation home, but they never really checked on it because it was so far out in the country that they figured no one could find it. Boy, were they wrong.
I later found out that Paulette wasn’t her real name, and I assume the same for all the rest of them. The FBI told me they had actually been on the hunt for them for a while, but with the constant name changes and them moving around so frequently, they could never stay on top of it. Paulette and her brother were the bait. They got to know people and became close with them so that they could bring them back home, particularly targeting people like me who had no one else. I guess we would be more likely to be forgotten about, a missing person case swept under the rug. The FBI didn’t have a definite number on how many missing person cases were their victims, but with the way they acted when discussing it, it seemed to be a very high number. I was lucky to not be added to that list.
When I managed to get back to the dorm, Paulette’s room had been cleaned out. The only things she had left were Uncle Edgar’s record and a picture of us together that we had taken when we first met, both of which she had placed on my desk. When I flipped the picture over, I saw two sentences scribbled on it in Paulette’s handwriting.
“You were right. The meat was human.”

Thursday night was theirs — a time when they could be alone together despite living so far apart, despite living in such an unwelcoming world — every Thursday night, they were able to live as they wanted. Cathy Thomas would drive up from Virginia Beach to visit her girlfriend, Becky Dowski, at the College of William and Mary on Thursday nights.
It was 1986. Ronald Reagan was in office, unions were being crushed, HIV/AIDS was decimating the gay population and the government didn’t care, our hair was as big as our homeless population, and our anti-Russia sentiment was even bigger. At the time, a young graduate of the United States Naval Academy who was fluent in Russian would be assumed to have a glowing career of patriotic service ahead of him — but the same would not be true for a graduate of the Naval Academy whose name was Cathy.
Cathleen Thomas was born on July 29, 1959, to an Irish Catholic family in Massachusetts. Her father was a graduate of the Naval Academy and Cathy and her brother both followed in his footsteps — becoming the first father-son-daughter team to graduate from the Academy when Cathy graduated as an Ensign in 1981. After graduation from the Naval Academy, sailors are required to perform five years of active duty, which Cathy did in Norfolk, Virginia. She served as a Logistics Officer on the L.Y. Spear, in charge of the movement of cranes and torpedoes.
Cathleen Thomas was one of the first female sailors to become Surface Warfare qualified.
If Cathleen Thomas had been heterosexual or male or (luck of the gods!) both, she would be alive today and this article would be about her stellar military career, or her talent at the art of diplomacy, or even about a senator who was a former naval officer now running for the highest office in the land. But Cathy was gay so this article is about her murder instead of the gifts that she would have offered to her nation.
The murder of Cathleen Thomas was identified as the first in a string of murders known as the Colonial Parkway Murders but Cathy’s brother (Bill Thomas) and other investigators now believe that her murder was a hate crime connected to other anti-gay hate crimes in the area — but unconnected to the string of murders committed on the Colonial Parkway in the late 1980s.
Is it possible? Could there have been two serial killers at large in the same small area at the same time?
On October 12, 1986, a jogger found Cathy Thomas’s white Honda Civic pushed down an embankment just off of the Colonial Parkway and called the police. National Park Service Rangers arrived to investigate what they believed to be a car accident and smashed out the back window of the Honda Civic to reach the two supposed accident victims inside. In the hatchback of the car was the body of Cathy Thomas and in the backseat was the body of her girlfriend, Rebecca Dowski. Both women had rope burns on their necks and wrists and both women’s throats had been slit.
The murderer had poured diesel fuel inside the car and attempted to set it on fire with a lit cigarette but the flashpoint of diesel is too high to ignite, so he gave up and pushed the car down the embankment to hide it from the clear view of the road. Both women’s wallets containing cash were found inside of the vehicle and the glove box was open. There was no evidence of sexual assault. There was an important difference in the way the killer had treated the two women though.
“Becky’s wound isn’t as deep as Cathy’s wound They’re very very different in force and intensity. Becky was collateral damage” ~Dr. Laura Pettler, Forensic Criminologist
Because of the perpetrator's clear focus of violence against Cathy, initial investigators assumed that Cathy had known her murderer and their primary suspect was her ex-girlfriend, Jolene. Jolene and Cathy had dated seriously but had broken up amicably and Jolene had even introduced Cathy to her new girlfriend, Rebecca. Jolene and Rebecca were in a computer class together at the College of William and Mary and had become quick friends — close enough for Jolene to introduce Rebecca to her ex and wish the happy couple well. This scenario is easily recognizable to anyone in the lesbian community (or anyone who’s watched the L Word) and yet investigators at the time were determined to paint the murder of Cathy and Rebecca as the act of a jealous ex-lover.
“What the FBI knew about the gay community could fill a thimble” ~Bill Thomas, brother of Cathy Thomas
The FBI pursued the wrong suspect by pursuing Cathy Thomas’ ex-girlfriend and also based their investigation on a seriously flawed timeline. They believed that Cathy Thomas and Rebecca Dowski were killed on the evening of October l0, 1986 but all of the evidence pointed to the two women dying on the night before, October 9, 1986.
Cathy did not show up for work on Friday, October 10, 1986, and Rebecca did not show up for her classes on that day. Also, Cathy and Rebecca always met up on Thursday nights and drove to the same secluded spot on the Colonial Parkway together — the spot where Cathy’s car was found. In order to fit the FBI’s theory of events, the women would’ve had to meet up on a Friday instead of their usual Thursday night rendezvous and would’ve had to both be no-shows at their jobs and schools on Friday for no reason.
The timeline matters. Suspects who had an alibi for Friday night may have been falsely excluded when Cathy and Rebecca had already been dead for 24 hours.
Cathy Thomas died clutching a handful of her killer's hair — this and the butts from the cigarettes the perpetrator had thrown into the car in an attempt to light it on fire could both be important sources of DNA and help in one day bringing the killer to justice.
On September 20, 1987, David Knobling and Robin Edwards were shot to death in Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge on the south shore of the James River near Smithfield, Virginia. David was 20 and Robin was 14. They were both last seen alive on September 19, 1987. Knobling’s black Ford pickup truck was found abandoned in the Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge parking lot on September 21, 1987, and two days later, Knobling’s own father found David and Robin’s bodies washed ashore in a sandy cove of the James River. Robin was shot in the back of her head and David was shot twice, once in his upper left shoulder and once in the back of his head. There were no wallets found at the scene and David had only fourteen cents in his pocket — a clear sign that robbery may have been a motive for this slaying.
Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey both disappeared on April 10, 1988. Keith was 20 and Cassandra was 18 years old. On April 11, 1988, a National Park Service Ranger found Call’s red 1982 Toyota Celica abandoned on the Colonial Parkway. The front door was ajar, the glove box was open, and the driver’s seat was pushed far forward — too far for the five-foot-ten-inch tall Keith to have been that seats last occupant. The driver’s side of the backseat was full of debris (newspapers and other garbage) but the passenger’s side of the backseat and floor was clear — as if someone had been sitting there. The bodies of Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey have never been found.
Daniel Lauer and Annamaria Phelps were last seen near the I-64 rest stop in New Kent County on September 5, 1989. Law enforcement found Daniel’s 1973 Chevrolet Nova at the rest stop with the keys still in the ignition and Annamaria’s purse still in the vehicle. Six weeks later, two hunters found the bodies of Daniel Lauer and Annamaria Phelps off of a logging road that was one mile from the rest stop where their car was found. Their remains were skeletonized and some of their bones had been scattered by wildlife in the area. The extent of decomposition made it hard to determine Daniel and Annamaria’s cause of death, so their remains were eventually sent to the Smithsonian Institute. Daniel’s cause of death remained undetermined but the Smithsonian was able to find marks on Annamaria’s bones indicative of stabbing.
The Colonial Parkway Murders have been viewed as the work of a serial killer by many investigators. The murders of all four couples occurred within a 30-mile radius, at night, on weekends or holidays, in areas that resemble lover’s lanes, in cars, and in all instances, there were two victims.
“To me, this is the work of a serial killer. I see the killer evolving, not just in his methods but in his motives.” ~ Maureen O’Connell, Former FBI Special Agent
All due respect to a highly trained FBI Agent who knows more about these things than I (a self-educated true-crime writer) do — but I don’t see it. And some professionals don’t see this as the work of a serial killer either.
“Law enforcement (and) journalists have come to the conclusion that all four were done by a serial killer. But to me, there (are) obvious differences. There’s no fingerprints in common. There’s no DNA in common. There’s no weapon in common. As a prosecutor, I couldn’t put that in front of a jury.” ~Loni Coombs, former Prosecutor for Los Angeles County
Some of the victims were robbed, some were not. Some bodies were left in the cars of the victims, some were left outside, and some were never found. Some of the victims were shot, some were stabbed, and some had their throats slit. Three of the pairs of victims were heterosexual and one of the pairs was a lesbian couple.
Almost seven years after the “last” Colonial Parkway Murder, on June 1, 1996, National Park Service Rangers found the bodies of Lollie Winans and Julie Williams at a Shenandoah National Park campsite almost 200 miles west of the Colonial Parkway. Lollie and Julie were a lesbian couple who had left their home in Vermont thirteen days earlier to hike the Appalachian Trail. The murderer bound both women and slit their throats — almost exactly replicating the murders of Cathy Thomas and Rebecca Dowski ten years earlier. Cathy’s own brother, Bill Thomas, believes that the murders of Lollie Winans and Julie Williams are “substantially similar” to the murders of his sister and Rebecca Dowski.
“Lesbian couples, isolated, rural areas, knives used, throats slashed, two extremely athletic women but limited sign of struggle.” ~ Bill Thomas, brother of Cathy Thomas.
Despite all of her talents, Cathy Thomas had left the Navy in the year before her murder. She had been subjected to the “special” treatment reserved for women in the early days of the integration of women into the service and, as an officer, it can be assumed that there were quite a few enlisted men who did not take kindly to taking orders from a female superior. On top of all of this, Cathy was gay during a time when that was an inarguable reason to be kicked out of the military. When Cathy was murdered, forensic experts have said that she was the primary target and her girlfriend was “collateral damage”. Because of this, I believe it is highly possible that Cathy was targeted by a man who had served under her and resented her deeply — perhaps a man who had subsequently left the Navy and gone to work for the park service. The murders of Cathy Thomas and Rebecca Dowski may have been the first killings of an anti-gay serial killer who then went on to murder Lollie Winans and Julie Williams in Shenandoah National Park — and perhaps other women in national parks. The murders of David Knobling, Robin Edwards, Keith Call, Cassandra Hailey, Daniel Lauer, and Annamaria Phelps may be the work of a separate serial killer with different motivations.
All of these murders are unsolved many decades later and it is critical for there to be new thinking and a new approach to these cases.
Cathy Thomas was trying to be an American hero and some hateful little man decided it was his role to put her in her place. It is time for all of us to help make sure that her murderer ends up in the place he belongs — jail.
If you have any information on the murders of Cathleen Thomas, Rebecca Dowski, or any other Colonial Parkway victims, please call the Norfolk, VA FBI Field Office at (757) 455–0100.
Bill Thomas, the brother of Cathy Thomas, has set up a Facebook group to help solve his sister’s murder and bring her killer to justice and also hosts a podcast with Kristin Dilley https://mindovermurderpodcast.com/ .
Sources:
Predators On the Parkway by Steven Spingola (Book)
Who Were the Colonial Parkway Murder Victims? on oxygen.com
Personal experience (I'm a lesbian and my mother was in the Navy at the same time as Cathy Thomas)
** I originally published this article on Medium.com and my other work is available here https://quinnzane.medium.com/ if you'd like to check it out. **

Scroll to the comments for some interesting data.
Note that OldRank is updated as of an hour ago, while NewRank is based on plays from a week ago: this means that top plays set in the past few days weren't considered (e.g. Zestiny's, which made him rank up from #1244 to #891).
Missing values are either because of recent namechanges, players having a NewRank above 1000 or some other reason I haven't thought about.
I can't write more than 40.000 characters, so here are the first 900 players, sorted by OldRank.

Name	Country	OldRank	NewRank	DiffRank	OldPP	NewPP	DiffPP
idke	United States	1	9	8	14576	13751	-825
Mathi	Chile	2	1	-1	14505	14671	166
Sub2PewDiePie	France	3	6	3	14147	14001	-146
firebat92	South Korea	4	4	0	14048	14136	88
Karthy	United Kingdom	5	10	5	13886	13551	-335
nathan on osu	South Korea	6	3	-3	13884	14269	385
Rafis	Poland	7	2	-5	13857	14399	542
azr8	Lithuania	8	5	-3	13703	14024	321
Vaxei	United States	9	7	-2	13699	13937	238
Freddie Benson	United States	10	11	1	13559	13492	-67
_RyuK	Canada	11	8	-3	13485	13767	282
Abyssal	Estonia	12	13	1	13434	13160	-274
FlyingTuna	South Korea	13	12	-1	13308	13361	53
uyghti	Australia	14	14	0	13201	13094	-107
fieryrage	United States	15	20	5	13096	12542	-554
Dustice	Germany	16	15	-1	12959	12929	-30
Kitsu on osu	Russian Federation	17	17	0	12946	12720	-226
Varvalian	Japan	18	28	10	12285	12059	-226
Spare	United Kingdom	19	19	0	12271	12556	285
lain	United States	20	35	15	12249	11915	-334
Emilia	Singapore	21	23	2	12207	12372	165
a_Blue	Japan	22	30	8	12169	12017	-152
ThePooN	France	23	32	9	12156	11967	-189
Toy	United States	24	31	7	12154	12009	-145
Mlaw	United States	25	34	9	12120	11922	-198
wuhua	Malaysia	26	42	16	12102	11807	-295
mcy4	Hong Kong	27	29	2	12072	12048	-24
Wakson	Poland	28	37	9	12060	11864	-196
jot_bab	South Korea	29	22	-7	12045	12375	330
Micca	Austria	30	41	11	12024	11833	-191
Yaong	South Korea	31	46	15	12021	11775	-246
- Nikliu -	Germany	32	26	-6	12000	12252	252
WubWoofWolf	Poland	33	33	0	11966	11932	-34
Bubbleman	United Kingdom	34	24	-10	11961	12349	388
Dumii	Australia	35	18	-17	11933	12561	628
badeu	Romania	36	44	8	11921	11786	-135
-Hebel-	Mexico	37	43	6	11913	11794	-119
Kip	United States	38	39	1	11906	11842	-64
MrBooM	Poland	39	47	8	11881	11703	-178
BeasttrollMC	United States	40	67	27	11855	11421	-434
Rohulk	Romania	41	36	-5	11822	11865	43
Piggey	Poland	42	25	-17	11796	12289	493
Nameless Player	South Korea	43	50	7	11779	11665	-114
MoeYandere	United Kingdom	44	27	-17	11755	12135	380
smh	Indonesia	45	52	7	11718	11589	-129
Monko2k	United States	46	38	-8	11718	11848	130
bro_gamer72	United States	47	16	-31	11682	12756	1074
Umbre	Germany	48	66	18	11677	11460	-217
_index	Russian Federation	49	40	-9	11657	11835	178
Musty	France	50	68	18	11621	11401	-220
Viveliam	Netherlands	51	73	22	11620	11374	-246
Koba	Italy	52	54	2	11616	11565	-51
Wilchq	Poland	53	56	3	11606	11560	-46
okinamo	Germany	54	59	5	11554	11521	-33
DanyL	Chile	55	45	-10	11549	11785	236
Astar	Poland	56	70	14	11496	11396	-100
Skydiver	Indonesia	57	82	25	11470	11258	-212
Red_Pixel	Russian Federation	58	48	-10	11469	11698	229
Zain Sugieres	Poland	59	53	-6	11461	11576	115
obtio	Hong Kong	60	63	3	11459	11481	22
Vamhi	Poland	61	99	38	11432	11007	-425
ItsKevZii	Norway	62	71	9	11402	11382	-20
4RTRAID	South Korea	63	65	2	11401	11463	62
ffury	South Korea	64	88	24	11393	11169	-224
hallowatcher	Germany	65	64	-1	11386	11473	87
Neliel	Germany	66	55	-11	11370	11561	191
Jordan The Bear	Australia	67	60	-7	11346	11503	157
Blobby3000	Australia	68	69	1	11341	11397	56
Flaven	France	69	51	-18	11327	11600	273
Arnold24x24	Peru	70	62	-8	11302	11488	186
HappyStick	United States	71	49	-22	11300	11667	367
SoraRoxas01	United Kingdom	72	80	8	11299	11264	-35
dokidokilolixx	Hong Kong	73	57	-16	11293	11550	257
Risiing	Germany	74	78	4	11293	11315	22
Xilver	Israel	75	81	6	11292	11259	-33
Informous	United States	76	21	-55	11283	12404	1121
Blubber	United Kingdom	77	83	6	11267	11235	-32
Mystia	Brazil	78	85	7	11254	11225	-29
Rizer	Taiwan	79	86	7	11254	11218	-36
Afrodafro	Norway	80	74	-6	11247	11361	114
SadnessWillSear	Russian Federation	81	89	8	11234	11145	-89
goosefedora	Austria	82	94	12	11223	11075	-148
Bloo	United Kingdom	83	93	10	11222	11101	-121
Adamqs	Poland	84	84	0	11193	11233	40
Andrej	Serbia	85	79	-6	11148	11296	148
[ Zane ]	Taiwan	86	92	6	11139	11108	-31
Skill	United States	87	108	21	11133	10932	-201
talala	Russian Federation	88	58	-30	11130	11533	403
Zmatureeno	Czech Republic	89	87	-2	11127	11190	63
_shinji	Portugal	90	100	10	11099	10995	-104
Zeisen-	South Korea	91	61	-30	11070	11502	432
Apraxia	United States	92	76	-16	11044	11333	289
FGSky	Morocco	93	137	44	11031	10691	-340
Mizuru	Portugal	94	72	-22	11022	11376	354
[ Xia Relia ]	Taiwan	95	97	2	10996	11043	47
Stoof	Canada	96	109	13	10969	10926	-43
alien	Poland	97	91	-6	10952	11122	170
ikaNyai	Taiwan	98	106	8	10948	10943	-5
Ayla	Ukraine	99	121	22	10942	10827	-115
Num5119	United States	100	113	13	10930	10888	-42
Azer	Canada	101	101	0	10922	10988	66
Rhythm blue	South Korea	102	112	10	10910	10895	-15
imagaK	Germany	103	114	11	10904	10885	-19
ASecretBox	Australia	104	96	-8	10894	11046	152
theez35	United States	105	115	10	10892	10877	-15
GfMRT	Taiwan	106	103	-3	10892	10978	86
Rean-K	Japan	107	104	-3	10887	10974	87
Moffo	Japan	108	90	-18	10878	11123	245
Ampharos	Australia	109	170	61	10872	10488	-384
CXu	Norway	110	105	-5	10864	10953	89
-PloX	Uruguay	111	111	0	10844	10904	60
-Hideki-	Spain	112	98	-14	10840	11023	183
Jerekek	Finland	113	107	-6	10807	10933	126
Reyuza	Indonesia	114	116	2	10802	10875	73
Mastasz	Poland	115	129	14	10799	10749	-50
kazamabc	Spain	116	102	-14	10784	10984	200
Resia	South Korea	117	-	-	10776	-	-
ChitogeOP	United States	118	95	-23	10762	11074	312
chankoma	Japan	119	110	-9	10739	10915	176
-Machine-	Australia	120	142	22	10731	10666	-65
G4SH4	Russian Federation	121	162	41	10727	10533	-194
ReaL motion	South Korea	122	135	13	10725	10712	-13
Mathyu	United States	123	146	23	10697	10626	-71
Blairzey	United States	124	139	15	10694	10685	-9
Sanze	Finland	125	75	-50	10685	11357	672
MouseEasy	Brazil	126	134	8	10679	10734	55
-raizen-	France	127	151	24	10678	10590	-88
FunOrange	Canada	128	138	10	10641	10685	44
AxewB	Russian Federation	129	120	-9	10630	10832	202
Recia	Japan	130	118	-12	10604	10850	246
bango	Sweden	131	117	-14	10603	10872	269
DigiDrake	United States	132	130	-2	10592	10744	152
Telomere	Denmark	133	124	-9	10573	10803	230
Spazza17	Italy	134	169	35	10570	10492	-78
_Shield	Taiwan	135	155	20	10568	10577	9
Snorlaax	France	136	171	35	10566	10486	-80
-Syncro	Italy	137	141	4	10556	10668	112
Neta	South Korea	138	149	11	10553	10594	41
Clarity	United States	139	165	26	10542	10514	-28
Ansol	South Korea	140	160	20	10534	10542	8
dunois	Canada	141	125	-16	10529	10803	274
Korilak	Australia	142	128	-14	10525	10751	226
Aristia	South Korea	143	163	20	10517	10526	9
Toushi	Argentina	144	131	-13	10516	10740	224
Gifted	United States	145	194	49	10499	10395	-104
Knalli	Germany	146	164	18	10496	10516	20
TheOmyNomy	Australia	147	174	27	10492	10479	-13
iMey	China	148	132	-16	10492	10737	245
Fangzy	United States	149	119	-30	10486	10845	359
Tomadoi	Austria	150	191	41	10480	10403	-77
WillCookie	United States	151	152	1	10467	10579	112
Danidesu	Chile	152	148	-4	10466	10615	149
LoidKun	Indonesia	153	126	-27	10461	10759	298
TinyLoliGirl	Estonia	154	199	45	10451	10359	-92
Hasawa Kraenes	Russian Federation	155	213	58	10439	10298	-141
Mayoler	Japan	156	188	32	10438	10411	-27
-NeBu-	Poland	157	173	16	10436	10479	43
OPJames	United Kingdom	158	182	24	10431	10429	-2
Nadir	Mexico	159	156	-3	10427	10566	139
Tomatonium	United States	160	150	-10	10425	10591	166
Axarious	United States	161	143	-18	10424	10665	241
BlueSky-	Germany	162	133	-29	10419	10735	316
M4-K1	Singapore	163	177	14	10418	10460	42
Malolat	Poland	164	178	14	10414	10453	39
[-Lockon-]	Singapore	165	176	11	10400	10473	73
-Zirba-	Japan	166	-	-	10396	-	-
Akcel	Jordan	167	136	-31	10395	10705	310
Epiphany	Germany	168	157	-11	10392	10553	161
gissirianko	Japan	169	154	-15	10385	10578	193
Sieela	Japan	170	185	15	10385	10413	28
Yuuzinho	Brazil	171	197	26	10377	10388	11
Ceptin	United States	172	77	-95	10371	11324	953
My Angelsim	Brazil	173	204	31	10369	10338	-31
- akari-	Bulgaria	174	175	1	10368	10473	105
Smiljko	Serbia	175	127	-48	10360	10756	396
Idealism	Brazil	176	234	58	10355	10165	-190
Orbi	Czech Republic	177	-	-	10352	-	-
WakaiYuki	Canada	178	207	29	10349	10328	-21
kyle	Canada	179	224	45	10344	10229	-115
Diallo	Trinidad and Tobago	180	201	21	10341	10345	4
Spork Lover	Denmark	181	159	-22	10328	10548	220
Soujiro Seta	Lithuania	182	167	-15	10320	10508	188
Dizick	Russian Federation	183	168	-15	10317	10506	189
flae	Russian Federation	184	250	66	10314	10106	-208
Delis	Japan	185	147	-38	10310	10617	307
iFakeRz	Germany	186	195	9	10296	10394	98
Flask	Taiwan	187	184	-3	10282	10422	140
Tarulas	South Korea	188	-	-	10276	-	-
Aknama	United States	189	216	27	10262	10268	6
NerO	France	190	189	-1	10255	10411	156
Aden	Russian Federation	191	223	32	10255	10230	-25
Kurogami	Poland	192	203	11	10252	10340	88
Wario	United Kingdom	193	215	22	10248	10273	25
dectopia	Japan	194	232	38	10243	10182	-61
Vettel	Japan	195	144	-51	10241	10659	418
Beafowl	Germany	196	180	-16	10235	10437	202
Unexpected	Puerto Rico	197	236	39	10234	10156	-78
MINEMINE	South Korea	198	209	11	10233	10324	91
Squapple	Canada	199	220	21	10228	10247	19
fea	Brazil	200	239	39	10214	10150	-64
Vento	Japan	201	211	10	10213	10300	87
rustbell	China	202	-	-	10206	-	-
Plz Enjoy Game	Singapore	203	145	-58	10204	10633	429
zeluaR	Japan	204	161	-43	10201	10539	338
MiruHong	Canada	205	193	-12	10201	10398	197
EmertxE	China	206	166	-40	10194	10509	315
Reimu-Desu	South Korea	207	122	-85	10192	10816	624
- G I D Z -	Hong Kong	208	226	18	10192	10225	33
Cappy	United States	209	262	53	10191	10054	-137
xootynator	Canada	210	210	0	10188	10309	121
Woffel	United Kingdom	211	218	7	10185	10253	68
Dereban	Australia	212	-	-	10179	-	-
Firstus	Germany	213	192	-21	10178	10398	220
Rekaru	Uruguay	214	205	-9	10177	10335	158
fuduhasio	United States	215	228	13	10175	10196	21
DenierNezzar	Hong Kong	216	206	-10	10168	10334	166
eternum	Romania	217	217	0	10168	10266	98
Weabole	United States	218	-	-	10166	-	-
Frosiito	Spain	219	231	12	10161	10187	26
he rack	United States	220	187	-33	10141	10412	271
SlimeDrippy	United States	221	153	-68	10117	10579	462
VoProSSoFF	Russian Federation	222	253	31	10106	10102	-4
Karuna	South Korea	223	222	-1	10098	10232	134
Emperorpenguin83	Japan	224	158	-66	10092	10551	459
Calcium	Japan	225	214	-11	10087	10298	211
kevjn	Germany	226	267	41	10085	10039	-46
Myst1k	Austria	227	200	-27	10081	10355	274
follon	Russian Federation	228	269	41	10079	10031	-48
nick1324	Canada	229	248	19	10074	10112	38
Cerkie	Denmark	230	249	19	10073	10106	33
DuNai	China	231	230	-1	10069	10190	121
Math God	United States	232	300	68	10069	9918	-151
BlueFlame	Austria	233	243	10	10065	10136	71
waywern2012	Latvia	234	255	21	10056	10099	43
ftg	South Korea	235	241	6	10054	10144	90
jpeg	Hong Kong	236	276	40	10051	9998	-53
Veth	Germany	237	235	-2	10042	10161	119
Chamosiala	Romania	238	-	-	10039	-	-
[Trafis]	United States	239	242	3	10037	10141	104
twoja stara	Poland	240	279	39	10037	9988	-49
Bartek22830	Poland	241	240	-1	10036	10147	111
Article	South Korea	242	254	12	10034	10100	66
DoKito	Germany	243	198	-45	10027	10362	335
Demonical	Singapore	244	293	49	10027	9943	-84
jackylam5	Netherlands	245	172	-73	10023	10480	457
waaiiru	Spain	246	221	-25	10019	10239	220
-Kazuki-	Italy	247	190	-57	10017	10406	389
TopSp1n	United Kingdom	248	322	74	10017	9851	-166
- Phantasma -	Thailand	249	291	42	10015	9961	-54
HaruTachi-	Philippines	250	186	-64	10012	10413	401
Area	United States	251	181	-70	10012	10432	420
MyAngelMiku	China	252	278	26	10009	9990	-19
karott90	Germany	253	273	20	10009	10014	5
Corim	United States	254	233	-21	10007	10167	160
gasanww	Japan	255	219	-36	10007	10252	245
AvA Pacifica	South Korea	256	245	-11	10006	10122	116
hshs	Japan	257	244	-13	10002	10129	127
DomenCherry	China	258	251	-7	9998	10104	106
Zabijaka	Poland	259	306	47	9996	9896	-100
Doomsday	United Kingdom	260	277	17	9996	9995	-1
kuu01	Japan	261	140	-121	9991	10683	692
yuilemo	Japan	262	256	-6	9984	10096	112
Lexalia	Argentina	263	260	-3	9982	10061	79
Envy_ss	Russian Federation	264	282	18	9978	9982	4
Juandissimo	United States	265	283	18	9966	9977	11
Toke	Canada	266	238	-28	9965	10153	188
FeriOP	Poland	267	123	-144	9963	10811	848
aleho8	Hungary	268	-	-	9945	-	-
KoaLeahq	United States	269	264	-5	9945	10053	108
Save Me	Estonia	270	288	18	9939	9961	22
Spark-desu	Austria	271	319	48	9930	9853	-77
Gaiava	Brazil	272	225	-47	9929	10226	297
CPUGeek	United States	273	289	16	9927	9961	34
respektive	Germany	274	299	25	9914	9930	16
Lilily	Netherlands	275	303	28	9914	9910	-4
GSBlank	Singapore	276	229	-47	9913	10191	278
Stereo	South Korea	277	367	90	9911	9697	-214
crisco13	Colombia	278	266	-12	9904	10041	137
-Wolfy-	Mexico	279	290	11	9900	9961	61
MioMilo	Philippines	280	280	0	9896	9984	88
mniminwoo	United States	281	263	-18	9889	10054	165
Worne	France	282	247	-35	9882	10112	230
r0ck	Poland	283	183	-100	9880	10428	548
Akashii	Greece	284	400	116	9878	9603	-275
SpicabuP	Japan	285	323	38	9875	9850	-25
GHAngeloid	United States	286	307	21	9874	9890	16
PikaPwn	Canada	287	274	-13	9873	10005	132
Twintail	Japan	288	252	-36	9872	10102	230
Jup3KW	Finland	289	270	-19	9866	10026	160
ZekGS	Vietnam	290	335	45	9861	9816	-45
LittleDan	United States	291	329	38	9858	9825	-33
Avenging_Goose	United States	292	281	-11	9847	9983	136
Woey	United States	293	324	31	9841	9847	6
Lolisim	South Korea	294	258	-36	9835	10068	233
CrtReXn	Taiwan	295	257	-38	9831	10080	249
Sheba	Japan	296	302	6	9829	9910	81
Theaceae	United States	297	237	-60	9828	10153	325
CeilingWaffle	Australia	298	328	30	9824	9826	2
Riven	Greece	299	284	-15	9822	9975	153
YesTak	Poland	300	309	9	9818	9877	59
Zavarka	Russian Federation	301	296	-5	9818	9936	118
Elysion	France	302	227	-75	9814	10198	384
eden1109	South Korea	303	354	51	9809	9744	-65
KevstracK	Mexico	304	365	61	9809	9709	-100
Sickoh	Brazil	305	287	-18	9806	9962	156
Splinter572	Germany	306	312	6	9801	9866	65
Texats	Brazil	307	271	-36	9801	10023	222
XVoIR	Poland	308	364	56	9799	9711	-88
Rucker	Taiwan	309	-	-	9797	-	-
Kyoko	Israel	310	-	-	9793	-	-
ededed028	Philippines	311	311	0	9793	9874	81
Landegre-	Indonesia	312	346	34	9789	9787	-2
[Lunatic Bell]	South Korea	313	268	-45	9784	10035	251
favela	Brazil	314	-	-	9784	-	-
Avenito	Czech Republic	315	370	55	9773	9691	-82
Nalian	Israel	316	352	36	9773	9774	1
Kynan	France	317	212	-105	9766	10299	533
heikneuter	Netherlands	318	379	61	9759	9667	-92
Koalazy	Taiwan	319	314	-5	9746	9862	116
Fiorela	Colombia	320	358	38	9745	9732	-13
La Valse	South Korea	321	275	-46	9743	10001	258
Iliekwaffles	United States	322	411	89	9741	9569	-172
AtHeoN	Slovakia	323	259	-64	9731	10063	332
-Dylson-	Chile	324	326	2	9725	9842	117
[ Blue ]	Sweden	325	378	53	9723	9668	-55
JejuneDeity	Singapore	326	337	11	9721	9810	89
PandaCattle	China	327	340	13	9720	9801	81
sayonara-bye	South Korea	328	208	-120	9719	10326	607
Rupertion	Canada	329	351	22	9712	9775	63
Garch	Taiwan	330	338	8	9711	9806	95
im a fancy lad	United States	331	390	59	9710	9635	-75
Shironi	Vietnam	332	310	-22	9709	9876	167
Jameslike	United Kingdom	333	339	6	9708	9802	94
wavezz	Germany	334	297	-37	9704	9934	230
w1sp	South Korea	335	350	15	9702	9780	78
thaibuy	United States	336	406	70	9697	9582	-115
raser1234	Denmark	337	321	-16	9693	9852	159
watun	United States	338	-	-	9687	-	-
Shiny Chariot	Germany	339	330	-9	9686	9823	137
Miko	United States	340	308	-32	9684	9878	194
-DuckLeader-	United States	341	301	-40	9682	9916	234
Rektygon	United States	342	432	90	9671	9497	-174
cmnk	Germany	343	295	-48	9669	9937	268
Elscar	Austria	344	313	-31	9666	9863	197
-Trinity-	Trinidad and Tobago	345	360	15	9663	9716	53
Titus	United Kingdom	346	333	-13	9655	9818	163
Passara	United States	347	265	-82	9654	10050	396
MrPotato	Israel	348	304	-44	9652	9905	253
[Riot]	Mexico	349	410	61	9650	9574	-76
[C u r i]	South Korea	350	341	-9	9646	9800	154
Yentis	Belgium	351	327	-24	9646	9836	190
Crystal	China	352	317	-35	9642	9859	217
Reedkatt	Sweden	353	416	63	9640	9550	-90
Loli_Schwi	Hong Kong	354	272	-82	9633	10020	387
Fenrir	Brazil	355	292	-63	9628	9960	332
ThatRandomguy	Czech Republic	356	398	42	9624	9604	-20
semaphore	United States	357	383	26	9622	9650	28
Razuh	United Kingdom	358	442	84	9617	9478	-139
872316468	China	359	345	-14	9617	9788	171
Arua	Argentina	360	412	52	9615	9560	-55
Reira	Japan	361	382	21	9613	9650	37
Hundur	Norway	362	196	-166	9610	10388	778
Monk Gyatso	Australia	363	343	-20	9607	9799	192
Purps	Canada	364	353	-11	9593	9771	178
Anroyz	Germany	365	305	-60	9587	9898	311
worst dt player	Germany	366	373	7	9584	9685	101
MaKenanbuReraaa	China	367	318	-49	9581	9853	272
explosionboom	United States	368	357	-11	9579	9732	153
Tiger Claw	Estonia	369	393	24	9573	9625	52
-Triton-	Poland	370	434	64	9569	9496	-73
Niii-san	Brazil	371	315	-56	9567	9861	294
Marek Marucha	Poland	372	376	4	9565	9673	108
Cellina	South Korea	373	392	19	9563	9627	64
fyre	United States	374	503	129	9561	9314	-247
Totoki	China	375	332	-43	9560	9818	258
Arceus	Canada	376	202	-174	9558	10341	783
Harpy	United Kingdom	377	368	-9	9556	9696	140
Zekker	Brazil	378	325	-53	9550	9845	295
KwAIMSuckASFuk	Hong Kong	379	482	103	9548	9380	-168
Electrovoid	Czech Republic	380	363	-17	9546	9712	166
onyaga	Australia	381	405	24	9542	9584	42
Ritzeh	United States	382	366	-16	9537	9706	169
neko ds	Russian Federation	383	372	-11	9535	9685	150
FlySlime	Sweden	384	387	3	9532	9637	105
KingLizardYT	Portugal	385	385	0	9532	9644	112
Topoi	United States	386	334	-52	9532	9817	285
xxluizxx47	Brazil	387	426	39	9529	9510	-19
TheCooN	Germany	388	374	-14	9522	9684	162
mcy3012	Hong Kong	389	344	-45	9522	9793	271
Meltina	South Korea	390	298	-92	9518	9932	414
My Aim Trash	South Korea	391	347	-44	9517	9786	269
SkyArrow	Vietnam	392	371	-21	9514	9686	172
Kalal331	Spain	393	377	-16	9509	9672	163
Sakke	Finland	394	388	-6	9506	9636	130
Noname0	United States	395	418	23	9506	9544	38
Haida	Israel	396	446	50	9503	9474	-29
Saimonea	Japan	397	261	-136	9501	10059	558
kodama	United States	398	349	-49	9501	9783	282
[Shaiden]	Russian Federation	399	450	51	9501	9459	-42
Numbers	United States	400	445	45	9499	9475	-24
Maiaz	South Korea	401	495	94	9498	9346	-152
little Agile	Taiwan	402	369	-33	9485	9693	208
-Urushihara-	Argentina	403	423	20	9484	9518	34
VilaZ	Czech Republic	404	461	57	9482	9442	-40
NinjaFish	United States	405	331	-74	9482	9822	340
Anze	South Korea	406	359	-47	9481	9719	238
Serena	Argentina	407	342	-65	9481	9799	318
Mahou Shoujo	Poland	408	422	14	9477	9520	43
WORSTPOLACKEU	Sweden	409	469	60	9474	9424	-50
- Daichi -	Czech Republic	410	320	-90	9473	9852	379
Lexion	Hungary	411	417	6	9469	9546	77
Milo Milkshake	Australia	412	431	19	9469	9498	29
Tekkito	United States	413	429	16	9461	9502	41
hlo	United Kingdom	414	286	-128	9456	9963	507
Pray	South Korea	415	425	10	9456	9512	56
Yuuki-chan	Canada	416	408	-8	9449	9577	128
Malvin	Germany	417	449	32	9445	9465	20
Flonka	Germany	418	380	-38	9441	9666	225
bahamete	United Kingdom	419	285	-134	9438	9967	529
xaxreid	Chile	420	389	-31	9437	9635	198
Rekens	Spain	421	419	-2	9430	9531	101
TheKid217	United States	422	391	-31	9430	9631	201
Flami	United States	423	-	-	9429	-	-
SkyzWai-	Hong Kong	424	402	-22	9427	9597	170
Leaf	South Korea	425	-	-	9423	-	-
[ ATChunG ]	South Korea	426	435	9	9417	9495	78
shineroo	Lithuania	427	428	1	9407	9504	97
Boggles	United States	428	474	46	9402	9400	-2
[ nong422 ]	South Korea	429	403	-26	9401	9587	186
TheLamaHD	Switzerland	430	362	-68	9398	9713	315
MightyDoc	United States	431	294	-137	9396	9938	542
Hellbeak	Chile	432	384	-48	9394	9647	253
Mekuru	Canada	433	-	-	9392	-	-
a12456	Hong Kong	434	440	6	9387	9484	97
Ahmnesia	Netherlands	435	466	31	9385	9428	43
My Aim Zogs	Denmark	436	381	-55	9381	9652	271
Raniemi	United States	437	-	-	9374	-	-
Venrue	Turkey	438	356	-82	9373	9734	361
Fried beans 1	Finland	439	-	-	9370	-	-
Freezd	Finland	440	447	7	9368	9474	106
Warrock	Norway	441	409	-32	9366	9577	211
---Mikoto	Philippines	442	455	13	9365	9453	88
Yellowl	Brazil	443	424	-19	9360	9518	158
Pein	Argentina	444	399	-45	9351	9604	253
RememberUrLies	Thailand	445	246	-199	9344	10119	775
Myko	France	446	386	-60	9341	9642	301
[ ZhengS ]	Australia	447	394	-53	9341	9624	283
Sanjilift	Brazil	448	361	-87	9337	9716	379
BakaChiChi	United States	449	460	11	9330	9445	115
Astris	Brazil	450	457	7	9330	9450	120
Yazone	Japan	451	-	-	9330	-	-
Jace	United States	452	462	10	9330	9438	108
Pumbossable	Russian Federation	453	401	-52	9322	9601	279
fixedbyglue	Philippines	454	413	-41	9318	9558	240
AmaiHachimitsu	Poland	455	397	-58	9316	9611	295
- Matha -	Hong Kong	456	559	103	9310	9200	-110
berkay2ooo	Turkey	457	459	2	9307	9447	140
sk0	Netherlands	458	395	-63	9304	9618	314
Saix	Japan	459	-	-	9303	-	-
Kaido	United Kingdom	460	473	13	9302	9405	103
-HERO-	Japan	461	348	-113	9301	9785	484
ShaneLiang	Malaysia	462	491	29	9300	9348	48
- Niwata -	Thailand	463	518	55	9299	9287	-12
Dsan	China	464	336	-128	9297	9812	515
Eddie-	Canada	465	-	-	9295	-	-
AstroFP	Poland	466	436	-30	9294	9494	200
Leotic	United States	467	465	-2	9293	9429	136
Doomsday fanboy	South Korea	468	490	22	9292	9348	56
Elegant Loli	Singapore	469	438	-31	9292	9491	199
Jumbo	Israel	470	529	59	9284	9256	-28
Rexeez	Indonesia	471	439	-32	9282	9486	204
Yuza	United States	472	404	-68	9279	9587	308
Otters	Canada	473	-	-	9279	-	-
Astana	United States	474	-	-	9278	-	-
Sinch	Japan	475	427	-48	9276	9507	231
MBmasher	Australia	476	739	263	9272	8887	-385
B e N i	Japan	477	517	40	9272	9288	16
lespi6	France	478	657	179	9271	9033	-238
KingOKarma	Canada	479	443	-36	9270	9477	207
Chronomarly	Sweden	480	456	-24	9266	9453	187
Nakano-	Singapore	481	695	214	9263	8966	-297
Hyppyri	Finland	482	396	-86	9259	9612	353
Timowoof	United States	483	471	-12	9258	9418	160
_Riffo	Chile	484	514	30	9258	9293	35
Identical	Canada	485	441	-44	9257	9479	222
Fr0zen	Russian Federation	486	543	57	9257	9230	-27
chokma	Japan	487	578	91	9254	9179	-75
Sebu	Norway	488	528	40	9254	9256	2
Gomo Pslvarh	South Korea	489	421	-68	9254	9523	269
shrug	Netherlands	490	-	-	9254	-	-
JAPRON	Norway	491	577	86	9254	9180	-74
InBefore	Thailand	492	811	319	9253	8755	-498
Snepif	Uruguay	493	452	-41	9251	9458	207
Avernus	Russian Federation	494	463	-31	9251	9437	186
DenObscure	Belgium	495	316	-179	9248	9860	612
alkalde	Canada	496	520	24	9248	9275	27
Reegi	Czech Republic	497	485	-12	9246	9376	130
Izuko Gaen	Austria	498	504	6	9246	9314	68
Aoba Karingo	Japan	499	530	31	9245	9256	11
davidqu2	China	500	470	-30	9244	9420	176
Asunamaru	Germany	501	451	-50	9244	9459	215
Yakui	Austria	502	549	47	9243	9215	-28
-Electro-	United States	503	492	-11	9238	9348	110
Klakson	Poland	504	512	8	9234	9302	68
Python	United States	505	458	-47	9234	9449	215
SeeL	Singapore	506	-	-	9233	-	-
Qu1z	South Korea	507	516	9	9233	9289	56
ABERON	Russian Federation	508	478	-30	9231	9392	161
Brown	United Kingdom	509	476	-33	9224	9397	173
Sooki	Brazil	510	407	-103	9224	9581	357
Kabu	France	511	468	-43	9219	9425	206
Shimotsuki	United States	512	487	-25	9218	9361	143
NuHaru	Austria	513	499	-14	9215	9333	118
Nakocchi	Japan	514	472	-42	9212	9416	204
Bolek_gamer_05	Finland	515	509	-6	9209	9310	101
Hippo	Poland	516	600	84	9207	9141	-66
uvrv	South Korea	517	375	-142	9201	9673	472
nomaiza	Russian Federation	518	522	4	9199	9270	71
Nuggel	Germany	519	623	104	9198	9099	-99
Jinpe	United States	520	602	82	9197	9139	-58
GranDSenpai	Australia	521	496	-25	9196	9345	149
nr_pm	Japan	522	554	32	9196	9208	12
Deruz	Chile	523	585	62	9192	9157	-35
Urania	South Korea	524	415	-109	9191	9552	361
Unikenl	Russian Federation	525	633	108	9189	9088	-101
Aldrouch	Poland	526	-	-	9188	-	-
Soliloquy-	United States	527	488	-39	9186	9351	165
FastoFreezu	Argentina	528	580	52	9184	9165	-19
DraguinZZ	United States	529	511	-18	9183	9302	119
Yura Rin	Netherlands	530	448	-82	9183	9466	283
Tetla	Japan	531	479	-52	9181	9390	209
SylvieLism	Thailand	532	609	77	9176	9117	-59
Shirasaka Koume	Japan	533	486	-47	9176	9363	187
Hidemi	Russian Federation	534	567	33	9170	9191	21
pajwoj	Poland	535	573	38	9166	9185	19
MCNortrom	Russian Federation	536	481	-55	9166	9380	214
SP33DW33D	Canada	537	-	-	9162	-	-
CatBagasm	Norway	538	712	174	9162	8936	-226
Big Z	New Zealand	539	548	9	9161	9218	57
Happy New Year	South Korea	540	414	-126	9157	9556	399
Pupper	United States	541	500	-41	9157	9333	176
-Yato-	France	542	-	-	9155	-	-
Vandabe	Denmark	543	430	-113	9154	9502	348
callmebatya	Russian Federation	544	454	-90	9153	9454	301
Junjou	United States	545	510	-35	9152	9309	157
Kitichu	United States	546	483	-63	9149	9378	229
Ceja	Argentina	547	507	-40	9149	9312	163
- e - v - b-	United States	548	484	-64	9147	9377	230
- Heatwave -	Australia	549	652	103	9144	9048	-96
suffix	Australia	550	613	63	9144	9113	-31
Irizu	Italy	551	558	7	9142	9200	58
rip fc	United Kingdom	552	775	223	9140	8818	-322
Al3x	Austria	553	596	43	9137	9147	10
Hicool	Hong Kong	554	501	-53	9136	9326	190
Sakurauchi Riko	Germany	555	536	-19	9135	9247	112
ExLeaF	France	556	597	41	9134	9146	12
Jageko	Sweden	557	686	129	9134	8987	-147
Exarch	United States	558	-	-	9128	-	-
-Miky-	Italy	559	547	-12	9127	9221	94
-Archangel-	United States	560	506	-54	9124	9313	189
Cerillion	Netherlands	561	531	-30	9121	9254	133
sinon	South Korea	562	643	81	9120	9065	-55
diciestaking	United States	563	575	12	9118	9180	62
FayeurSystem	France	564	541	-23	9114	9235	121
kiiro127	Germany	565	477	-88	9111	9394	283
Okinotori	Russian Federation	566	622	56	9109	9100	-9
[ Enju-chan ]	United States	567	656	89	9106	9033	-73
MegaMK	United States	568	556	-12	9106	9206	100
FreeDom	South Korea	569	612	43	9106	9113	7
KonKonKinakoN	Japan	570	627	57	9106	9094	-12
Kaanibaru	France	571	498	-73	9104	9338	234
Psycopath-	Mexico	572	433	-139	9102	9497	395
PCBetaphish	United States	573	453	-120	9101	9458	357
Areox	United Kingdom	574	737	163	9100	8889	-211
- Dark -	Brazil	575	540	-35	9094	9236	142
BAKKALO	France	576	683	107	9093	8995	-98
RosaChampagne	China	577	464	-113	9090	9434	344
GGBY	China	578	561	-17	9087	9198	111
Iylwrychi	United States	579	762	183	9082	8841	-241
R Y A N	United States	580	533	-47	9081	9251	170
Medokin	Poland	581	467	-114	9079	9425	346
Snowslide	Russian Federation	582	502	-80	9077	9315	238
Fichi	Spain	583	689	106	9070	8981	-89
ZeCryptic	Norway	584	671	87	9069	9015	-54
Enon	South Korea	585	494	-91	9068	9347	279
Tank A13	China	586	619	33	9065	9104	39
haga1115	Japan	587	673	86	9065	9013	-52
nickerdead3	Australia	588	550	-38	9061	9214	153
Lunirs	Australia	589	587	-2	9060	9156	96
oxycodone	Japan	590	-	-	9059	-	-
- WildTom -	Latvia	591	701	110	9059	8954	-105
mellowboyyy	Latvia	592	607	15	9058	9126	68
Fjell	Norway	593	650	57	9056	9053	-3
Sonoda-Umi	Finland	594	594	0	9056	9150	94
Hanori	Belgium	595	508	-87	9054	9310	256
benki	Japan	596	534	-62	9054	9251	197
----	Japan	597	546	-51	9051	9221	170
zin	Russian Federation	598	611	13	9051	9114	63
Rimuru	Kuwait	599	584	-15	9050	9158	108
-NexT	Poland	600	570	-30	9048	9186	138
Haganenno	Lithuania	601	497	-104	9048	9342	294
[- Momo -]	Chile	602	545	-57	9047	9227	180
Rainflower	China	603	598	-5	9044	9144	100
Maqua	Argentina	604	590	-14	9043	9153	110
prhtnsm	Germany	605	569	-36	9042	9189	147
Shiorii	United States	606	582	-24	9039	9162	123
phalanx	Netherlands	607	593	-14	9038	9150	112
amateurdrink	Canada	608	571	-37	9038	9185	147
Mayoi Hachikuji	Denmark	609	493	-116	9037	9347	310
Sakayaneegi	Brazil	610	420	-190	9036	9530	494
woo6821	Australia	611	179	-432	9036	10447	1411
Ephix	Germany	612	565	-47	9034	9193	159
Reifos	Spain	613	489	-124	9029	9350	321
ItsWinter	United States	614	631	17	9029	9089	60
I hate myself	Thailand	615	595	-20	9029	9148	119
Pittigbaasje	Netherlands	616	-	-	9028	-	-
Snarrot	United States	617	660	43	9025	9031	6
[ Umaruun ]	Saudi Arabia	618	-	-	9024	-	-
- Slice -	Germany	619	525	-94	9021	9268	247
DazzLE_Wind	Taiwan	620	606	-14	9021	9127	106
Crezz	Indonesia	621	647	26	9021	9056	35
minus	United States	622	641	19	9020	9066	46
DeMSKii	Israel	623	728	105	9014	8907	-107
AbrahamR	Venezuela	624	630	6	9011	9089	78
Astrafe	Poland	625	560	-65	9010	9199	189
Angel Arrow	Japan	626	539	-87	9006	9238	232
[ Hyung ]	South Korea	627	527	-100	9003	9257	254
Cheese Kai	South Korea	628	-	-	9002	-	-
Emula	Latvia	629	505	-124	9000	9314	314
WhiteOnion	Hong Kong	630	676	46	9000	9009	9
Dungeon	South Korea	631	553	-78	9000	9208	208
Miseration	Finland	632	682	50	8992	8998	6
MKSA	Germany	633	659	26	8990	9031	41
- Akira Len -	China	634	639	5	8989	9074	85
gonzup	Argentina	635	526	-109	8987	9257	270
Ayeka	Switzerland	636	669	33	8985	9020	35
Akane-Yuki	Austria	637	574	-63	8983	9181	198
Anzu Takakura	Philippines	638	513	-125	8978	9300	322
feces	Singapore	639	551	-88	8978	9214	236
ruexia	South Korea	640	523	-117	8974	9270	296
Ponytail	South Korea	641	645	4	8973	9062	89
No01	Poland	642	654	12	8971	9039	68
Ryuti	United States	643	688	45	8969	8981	12
Riley	United States	644	-	-	8966	-	-
_WinRAWR	United States	645	-	-	8966	-	-
Oxia	France	646	564	-82	8964	9194	230
Saika-	Sweden	647	781	134	8961	8811	-150
- Firmament -	Hong Kong	648	-	-	8960	-	-
Daren	Italy	649	568	-81	8958	9191	233
SpajdeR	Poland	650	532	-118	8957	9251	294
WadsyaName-	China	651	583	-68	8957	9160	203
Seouless	United States	652	576	-76	8952	9180	228
intenseGoat	United States	653	586	-67	8951	9157	206
- Hakurei Kou -	Chile	654	661	7	8945	9028	83
karalis	Canada	655	-	-	8945	-	-
_Degenerate	Germany	656	519	-137	8942	9278	336
Ambre	France	657	804	147	8941	8771	-170
Agni	United States	658	566	-92	8940	9193	253
[Takaga]	Portugal	659	702	43	8937	8954	17
Astrovia	United States	660	444	-216	8936	9475	539
gadrin	United Kingdom	661	521	-140	8932	9273	341
Fudy	Chile	662	720	58	8929	8920	-9
Warbreon	Lithuania	663	675	12	8928	9011	83
Mooha	France	664	678	14	8927	9007	80
esio	Poland	665	603	-62	8926	9130	204
My Angel Haruna	Taiwan	666	475	-191	8925	9398	473
Azers Mom	Canada	667	750	83	8924	8867	-57
Rampax	Malaysia	668	562	-106	8924	9197	273
Jesus[Krists]	Latvia	669	636	-33	8917	9080	163
-GN	Norway	670	625	-45	8915	9098	183
Nakatoru	Venezuela	671	544	-127	8911	9229	318
Shiawase	Russian Federation	672	-	-	8905	-	-
Timpai	Netherlands	673	620	-53	8902	9103	201
Sadness	Ukraine	674	621	-53	8897	9102	205
Kaoru	United States	675	610	-65	8896	9116	220
Arcadeas	Canada	676	635	-41	8896	9081	185
gusrua123	South Korea	677	-	-	8892	-	-
Gokuri	Japan	678	552	-126	8891	9214	323
kyorii	Singapore	679	747	68	8890	8876	-14
s3552515	Taiwan	680	-	-	8889	-	-
Touchette	United States	681	617	-64	8889	9105	216
qtz	South Korea	682	672	-10	8888	9014	126
IZesch	Chile	683	784	101	8881	8806	-75
legekka	Hungary	684	601	-83	8879	9139	260
Geryy	Luxembourg	685	681	-4	8873	9002	129
Mira-san	Philippines	686	-	-	8873	-	-
Psyical	Israel	687	855	168	8873	8691	-182
vuru	Romania	688	779	91	8872	8814	-58
Leebs	United States	689	742	53	8868	8881	13
Autistic Kid	Germany	690	668	-22	8868	9021	153
vitoco09	Chile	691	649	-42	8868	9054	186
Grey-	United States	692	572	-120	8868	9185	317
Sonix	Sweden	693	629	-64	8867	9090	223
Duke	South Korea	694	740	46	8866	8886	20
harunaruna	South Korea	695	555	-140	8862	9207	345
fartownik	Poland	696	640	-56	8861	9073	212
itzpigeon	United States	697	667	-30	8861	9021	160
[ UMU ]	France	698	-	-	8861	-	-
[ Lili ]	France	699	581	-118	8860	9165	305
Eileyn	South Korea	700	524	-176	8856	9270	414
Shelbis	Lithuania	701	515	-186	8855	9290	435
BDDav	Germany	702	608	-94	8854	9121	267
eoehd1ek	South Korea	703	604	-99	8852	9129	277
Sjizu	France	704	699	-5	8851	8955	104
SolaEclipse	United States	705	780	75	8849	8813	-36
Vall	Belgium	706	557	-149	8849	9206	357
schlafen	Japan	707	624	-83	8847	9099	252
Tem	United States	708	679	-29	8845	9005	160
ahegao	Finland	709	735	26	8844	8893	49
Zakura	Denmark	710	730	20	8839	8902	63
Cocaine dog	Norway	711	605	-106	8836	9128	292
yellowy246	New Zealand	712	644	-68	8835	9063	228
Yellow	South Korea	713	563	-150	8834	9197	363
ChronoTrig	Canada	714	-	-	8834	-	-
Yasen	United States	715	782	67	8831	8808	-23
Toyota Wellman	Poland	716	760	44	8829	8843	14
SinonTopWaifu	Russian Federation	717	771	54	8829	8822	-7
Astellis	Australia	718	704	-14	8826	8952	126
Kyoushouryuu	Germany	719	616	-103	8825	9105	280
IDAN	Canada	720	766	46	8823	8833	10
Lua	United States	721	592	-129	8822	9150	328
Jyu Viole	Canada	722	706	-16	8822	8948	126
Ar1s3	Russian Federation	723	827	104	8820	8723	-97
Seichi	Iceland	724	666	-58	8817	9024	207
BNY963	Japan	725	687	-38	8817	8987	170
Kiirochii	Italy	726	759	33	8810	8846	36
meltz	United Kingdom	727	717	-10	8810	8929	119
Last Order	Italy	728	658	-70	8808	9033	225
--w--	Sweden	729	634	-95	8806	9082	276
c00kiezecky	Poland	730	662	-68	8806	9027	221
love you	Poland	731	651	-80	8805	9050	245
Shye	Thailand	732	809	77	8805	8760	-45
Jonimay	Germany	733	674	-59	8802	9012	210
Maffe	Finland	734	618	-116	8802	9104	302
Cnya	China	735	615	-120	8801	9110	309
Broodich	Mexico	736	535	-201	8801	9247	446
Rakyero	United States	737	736	-1	8800	8889	89
MetoA	Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of	738	579	-159	8800	9168	368
Death	United States	739	480	-259	8800	9389	589
SpringLane	China	740	538	-202	8800	9239	439
Summer Solstice	United Kingdom	741	708	-33	8799	8946	147
egemenbsrms	Turkey	742	-	-	8799	-	-
My Angel Anzu	China	743	723	-20	8798	8916	118
Crisanton	Spain	744	817	73	8797	8745	-52
esemoka57	Poland	745	632	-113	8797	9089	292
BLooDBuRSTiNG	Czech Republic	746	690	-56	8792	8981	189
TheBlueEight	Italy	747	752	5	8790	8862	72
- Peki	Serbia	748	899	151	8790	8629	-161
Shiina Noriko	Taiwan	749	646	-103	8789	9060	271
momura	Hong Kong	750	758	8	8789	8847	58
Yuria	South Korea	751	638	-113	8789	9077	288
lorelai	South Korea	752	709	-43	8787	8943	156
Syph	Netherlands	753	637	-116	8784	9078	294
_Kix	Croatia	754	664	-90	8783	9025	242
Yuiteru	Australia	755	589	-166	8782	9154	372
Duftende Pizza	Germany	756	680	-76	8780	9003	223
Valsora	United States	757	756	-1	8777	8853	76
Tuon	Vietnam	758	614	-144	8776	9110	334
KagenoKami	Philippines	759	707	-52	8775	8948	173
Mrotaku	United States	760	665	-95	8769	9025	256
_demo	Poland	761	803	42	8763	8781	18
kolgar	Czech Republic	762	741	-21	8760	8881	121
wooz	Netherlands	763	714	-49	8755	8935	180
Hranolka	Slovakia	764	685	-79	8754	8990	236
ShotgunApe	United States	765	805	40	8754	8771	17
Neko Mimi	China	766	642	-124	8749	9066	317
seegii	Mongolia	767	749	-18	8749	8875	126
Teachu	United States	768	663	-105	8748	9025	277
nayarii	Canada	769	835	66	8745	8711	-34
RivenXLukario	Spain	770	693	-77	8743	8969	226
surume yotyan	Japan	771	722	-49	8742	8916	174
Netsuzou	Argentina	772	713	-59	8740	8936	196
scuoa	Hungary	773	-	-	8740	-	-
Daizy	United States	774	877	103	8735	8651	-84
serea	Japan	775	839	64	8732	8708	-24
Kosmonautas	Lithuania	776	725	-51	8731	8910	179
YummyinmyTummy	Canada	777	833	56	8731	8715	-16
[ Reol ]	United States	778	-	-	8728	-	-
-Felix	Italy	779	-	-	8723	-	-
VINXIS	Canada	780	648	-132	8722	9054	332
Deppyforce	Thailand	781	748	-33	8721	8876	155
Anya Maki	China	782	746	-36	8721	8878	157
LilDoc	Russian Federation	783	653	-130	8717	9047	330
My Not	France	784	628	-156	8717	9092	375
Kafuu Chino	China	785	588	-197	8717	9155	438
cezgru	Poland	786	754	-32	8717	8858	141
DT-sama	Italy	787	-	-	8717	-	-
PemiX	Slovakia	788	729	-59	8715	8906	191
Megure	Germany	789	767	-22	8711	8829	118
raycoN	Germany	790	834	44	8711	8715	4
Domco	Slovakia	791	711	-80	8709	8937	228
Suva	Brazil	792	801	9	8706	8783	77
Teppi	Austria	793	764	-29	8705	8835	130
DeadZoNeD	United States	794	897	103	8705	8631	-74
amano megumi	Canada	795	815	20	8704	8749	45
Mirtrax	Brazil	796	794	-2	8704	8794	90
Marcin DziDT	Poland	797	705	-92	8702	8949	247
Chaltier0	Japan	798	721	-77	8702	8919	217
- Kataomoi -	Taiwan	799	694	-105	8700	8969	269
Faces	United States	800	798	-2	8700	8790	90
vekt0r	United States	801	847	46	8698	8699	1
Shigure chan	Japan	802	696	-106	8697	8957	260
Tled	South Korea	803	703	-100	8695	8953	258
Minil	Guadeloupe	804	886	82	8693	8645	-48
Aspher	United States	805	770	-35	8692	8824	132
Commy	Czech Republic	806	710	-96	8687	8938	251
MarthXT	Germany	807	734	-73	8686	8899	213
moca	Japan	808	684	-124	8684	8991	307
Dragito	United States	809	-	-	8683	-	-
Willy	United States	810	796	-14	8683	8791	108
PizzaLovers007	United States	811	-	-	8681	-	-
[ Splash ]	Canada	812	-	-	8680	-	-
kyokyo	Russian Federation	813	822	9	8677	8739	62
DudsonZ	Poland	814	789	-25	8676	8798	122
iCurse557	Slovakia	815	769	-46	8672	8826	154
Sarasa	China	816	655	-161	8671	9038	367
Rairiku	Australia	817	792	-25	8671	8795	124
Fortuner	Japan	818	778	-40	8670	8814	144
Doginator	Australia	819	772	-47	8669	8821	152
Peruna	Finland	820	733	-87	8669	8901	232
xXD4rk_Sl4y3rXx	Canada	821	715	-106	8664	8933	269
ithgyu	Australia	822	744	-78	8663	8880	217
Brandon-	United States	823	842	19	8662	8705	43
Myth	United States	824	765	-59	8657	8833	176
Hanabi Shira	Russian Federation	825	853	28	8656	8694	38
Radusek	Poland	826	858	32	8655	8681	26
SoMad	Russian Federation	827	542	-285	8655	9233	578
Haynoru	France	828	-	-	8655	-	-
rinkon	China	829	724	-105	8653	8915	262
Chiu	Romania	830	751	-79	8652	8863	211
Bonk	United States	831	850	19	8652	8696	44
Grappoz	United States	832	795	-37	8651	8791	140
Sakurai Momoka	Japan	833	697	-136	8649	8956	307
Cinia Pacifica	South Korea	834	691	-143	8646	8979	333
Besta	France	835	883	48	8643	8646	3
ncuh	Russian Federation	836	718	-118	8642	8928	286
_Twent	Russian Federation	837	974	137	8642	8536	-106
ltasia	China	838	727	-111	8638	8908	270
Raiin	United States	839	726	-113	8638	8909	271
momotayan	Japan	840	768	-72	8638	8828	190
spaceman	Denmark	841	799	-42	8636	8788	152
unberlin	Russian Federation	842	599	-243	8635	9142	507
Shinkei	France	843	670	-173	8633	9015	382
Lovestruck	United States	844	716	-128	8632	8933	301
e7793279	Taiwan	845	810	-35	8624	8756	132
Lolzep	United States	846	878	32	8623	8651	28
xClusion	Australia	847	866	19	8622	8663	41
ChaosRaidz	United States	848	944	96	8622	8567	-55
EIGER	Japan	849	773	-76	8620	8821	201
papika	Germany	850	802	-48	8618	8782	164
- Justin	Gibraltar	851	793	-58	8617	8794	177
Ghouru	United States	852	865	13	8617	8663	46
ByYoshi14	Spain	853	-	-	8616	-	-
CutieDemon	Turkey	854	820	-34	8613	8740	127
Rion-	Japan	855	743	-112	8609	8880	271
zzx	South Korea	856	-	-	8609	-	-
Lyra	Poland	857	825	-32	8609	8731	122
Vinsu	United States	858	731	-127	8608	8901	293
Arastelia	United States	859	846	-13	8607	8699	92
Slips	United Kingdom	860	898	38	8606	8629	23
Chitogod	South Korea	861	836	-25	8605	8711	106
Principe	Canada	862	830	-32	8605	8717	112
My Angel Jeremy	Hong Kong	863	901	38	8604	8625	21
rafalbrew	United Kingdom	864	777	-87	8602	8816	214
LopezzPro	Mexico	865	960	95	8601	8556	-45
Specksan	Finland	866	774	-92	8601	8820	219
Decu	Poland	867	990	123	8600	8513	-87
wallyk	Czech Republic	868	806	-62	8598	8766	168
SneakY NickY	Slovakia	869	884	15	8598	8646	48
[KOR]Kosaki	South Korea	870	-	-	8593	-	-
SrueyaF	France	871	831	-40	8593	8716	123
ondines	Poland	872	848	-24	8593	8697	104
Slizzer	Sweden	873	761	-112	8592	8842	250
Thorfinn	Philippines	874	880	6	8589	8650	61
Haru -	Sweden	875	889	14	8589	8641	52
Ilormo	Belarus	876	999	123	8586	8506	-80
Akiko-	Hong Kong	877	-	-	8583	-	-
WardoX	Mexico	878	890	12	8578	8640	62
Ayamy	South Korea	879	-	-	8577	-	-
-Anastacia-	South Korea	880	843	-37	8576	8703	127
Cres	South Korea	881	837	-44	8574	8709	135
-Kupo-	Sweden	882	841	-41	8574	8706	132
kth180591	South Korea	883	902	19	8573	8622	49
Zenoha	France	884	757	-127	8573	8852	279
helix	United Kingdom	885	856	-29	8571	8687	116
Jekel	Netherlands	886	861	-25	8570	8666	96
Jolene	Singapore	887	828	-59	8568	8720	152
EiW	Norway	888	874	-14	8568	8653	85
JustMan	France	889	864	-25	8567	8664	97
Zestiny	South Korea	890	437	-453	8565	9492	927
FreeZeR	Russian Federation	891	-	-	8564	-	-
Blackskyline	Hong Kong	892	832	-60	8560	8715	155
Bangom	South Korea	893	626	-267	8558	9094	536
Rekia	Turkey	894	783	-111	8557	8807	250
-Shouta-Kun-	Mexico	895	812	-83	8556	8755	199
Desew	Russian Federation	896	862	-34	8556	8666	110
Cien	Japan	897	-	-	8552	-	-
NeruNeru	Hong Kong	898	976	78	8550	8529	-21
Hectique	United States	899	991	92	8549	8512	-37
Elzbieta	Ukraine	900	921	21	8543	8594	51