Family Camping

• Caleb Pellowe, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2015

Hell. I’m in a living hell. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, left to fend for myself. Fighting for every breath, for every meal. My phone’s battery drains like my life force, slowly and agonisingly. My family doesn’t know what they are putting me through. What they are making me become. If you are reading this, it might already be too late for me.
Today my family went on what they call… hiking. I tried to hide, tried so hard to avoid the pain of whatever hiking is, but I failed. For hours we walked along an endless gravel path. Are they trying to kill me? The answer remains to be seen. The battery power of my phone lowers every minute, every second. I don’t know how long I’m going to last.
Tonight my family performed some kind of demonic ritual. Roasting the squishy remains of their past victims on sticks, then eating it without hesitation. Even worse, they must have hid them in the marshmallow packets they passed around! All this while reciting some kind of ancient spells to each other. I must have been adopted, or their next victim, for I felt no connection to the spells each of them chanted. I only caught one spell. It went like this:

If you feed it
It shall grow
But if it drinks
Death will follow

I need to get out of here. Fast.

I’ve started planning my escape, though it’s not easy when demonic beings who you thought were your family are outside your tent. I have given up on escaping using the car. They have probably cursed it. I have resorted to calling 000. I dial quickly, each ring making my heart beat faster. The phone emits a sound that might mean my escape. A voice. I whisper the words, telling my story. I’m afraid of what the hellish beings will do to me if they find out. The voice laughs at me. I start screaming. “Save me, please. I don’t know how long I can last!” The voice just sighs and hangs up. My family walk in. Staring at me. I’ve been found. I might never…
I survived! I did it. Without any phone I managed to make it. I did run into the forest a few times. Waiting there for several hours, but I did it. I won’t ever go camping again, even now that I know that my family aren’t actually demons. They said they were just doing normal camping traditions. I can finally relax. The car ride is slow so I decided to ask my dad a riddle.
"Feed me and I shall grow, but if I drink water, I die. What am I?”
My dad leans over the drives seat and looks at me, smiling. Suddenly he rips off his face, revealing a nightmarish demon. I scream in fear, but no sound comes out my mouth. He laughs and in a demonic voice says. “It’s time for you to join us!”