The Ring Part I

      It was well after dark, and we were gathered in our tent preparing to watch The Ring on Shelby's portable DVD player. It was looking to be a pretty epic evening, honestly. I was with my best friends, Kira and Shelby, and our other friend, Lisa, and we were having a camp-out in Shelby's backyard. As activities of camping go, it sounds safe until you find out that it's communal and there are three different entrances to said back yard, meaning our only real defense was the fact that if we screamed a whole hell of a lot, someone might come help us, and maybe one of us could sprint fast enough to make it to Shelby's apartment before we were all slaughtered in our sleep. 
      We popped the movie in and settled down. Kira was right beside me, sort of clinging to my arm for comfort before we even got to the point of pressing play on the menu. Lisa got up, saying something about going to the bathroom or getting food or something and telling us to go ahead and start the movie. I didn't think much of it and I was actually sort of glad for the reprieve from Lisa and her habit of pretending she was being inhabited by that guy from Yugioh, which was growing increasingly creepy, so I was content to focus on the movie. 
      If you've ever seen The Ring, you may share my current opinion of it - damn that was a fucking boring movie. Back then, however, I thought it and The Grudge were the king and queen of the horror genre, because everyone kept saying how scary they were.  So I was ready to be scared by the movie, because not only was it supposed to be scary, but I was also watching it with one of the biggest horror light-weights I know, Kira. The minute she started getting really scared, I'd start sponging off her and get scared as well. 
      That minute happened to be within the first few minutes of the movie. I watched mesmerized, unable to tear my eyes away from what might potentially scar me for life if I watched it with Kira. My heart rate quickened; my breathing grew shallow, quiet with fear; my eyes became acutely aware of the movie; and my hearing sharpened considerably. These same things happen to me almost every time I actually get scared, and my hearing will get so sharp that I will hear things that either (a) aren't there or (b) should be inaudible (ex. I sometimes hear the character(s) talking when the TV is muted). In addition to those things, my mind also begins to race down dark, paranoid avenues, and I'm distracted and focused completely at the same moment. 
      We're less than ten minutes into the movie when I swivel my head around toward the opening of the tent - which is less than six inches away from my back and zipped closed. What was that? Chances are it was just Kira fidgeting or my ears making crap up, but I could have sworn I heard something out of the ordinary. There it was again. Breathing, the heavy, creepy kind; it was the kind of breathing that horror stories make a huge deal about. 

      Brad had been gone for twenty minutes when Alice heard someone breathing outside. It was heavy, wet breathing, as though its owner's throat was constricted or they were in pain. Brad! Alice thought, he must be hurt. Grabbing her flashlight, she unzips the tent's door and steps outside. Slowly, she searched her surroundings, looked for Brad; he'd sounded close. Everything seemed fine, and she was sure she'd imagined the noise after all, when her flashlight caught a flash of red, just like Brad's jacket. 

      She jogged over. He was laying on his side, his back to her. "Brad?" He doesn't respond, so she reaches out to him, putting a hand on his shoulder an shaking him a little. Instead of waking, he rolls lifelessly onto his back. Alice screams. Brad's eye have been gouged out, his jaw hangs open, showing the empty space where his tongue used to be, and his chest has been pried open, like a wardrobe with stubborn doors, and his heart removed. 

      She backs up quickly, tripping over a branch and landing on her rear. Her flashlight beam momentarily lights up a spot high on the truck of the tree above them. It's long enough for her to see Brad's eyes, tongue and heart nailed up there, still bloody. She's shocked into silence for a moment, unable to comprehend what she'd just seen. 

      Suddenly a hand comes down on her shoulder. Startled, she screams and attempts to get away. "Miss, Miss," a soothing voice says. "Are you okay? I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you." She calms down enough to look up at this stranger. He looks innocent enough. "I was just finishing changing the tire on my car when I heard you scream and came running to help." She didn't want to trust him, but who else could she trust? She was alone. "Your friend's dead, Miss, why don't you come back to my car with me, I'll give you a lift into town and we'll get the police out here looking for the killer."  Against her better judgement, she took his hand and allowed him to lead her back to his car. 

      A family of campers stumbled upon an abandoned tent and a corpse not three yards from it. The corpse was missing its eyes, tongue and heart, all of which were nailed to the tree above it. There was evidence of a woman in the tent, the police found, and this mysterious woman became their prime suspect. However, she was never found.

      Suddenly this entire night seemed like a horrible idea. "Guys, did you hear that?" I asked, shivering with my fear and the coolness of the night. They both look at me quizzically, Kira looking more scared by the second, as if to say, "what?" "That," I say, hearing the breathing again. 
      Kira whimpers and clings to me more seriously. Shelby finally notices that Lisa's been gone for a long time. "Maybe I should go check on Lisa," she says, getting up. Talk about bravery, I thought, watching her leave. That left just Kira and me, the biggest chickens of the quartet. 
      As we're sitting there, waiting for Shelby and/or Lisa to return, we grow more apprehensive. After what feels like an eternity, we've gotten to the point where we've shut the movie off and are currently leeching off each other's fear to create more fear in a vicious circle of unending fear that could only be worse if it spiraled straight into the bowels of Hell itself. 
      I felt safer with something against my back, even if it was a flimsy cloth tent wall, and I somehow managed to put myself on one of the walls despite the older girl clinging to my arm in fear. I heard something outside, and then something spoke behind me, "Do you want to play?" Its voice was deep, gravelly and it scared the shit out of me and Kira. We took to screaming, and I dove toward the center of the tent. 
      When nothing further happened, we slowly calmed down. There was nothing to be scared abou- Ohmygod! Laughter, crazy, maniacal, serial killer laughter. Kira and I clung to each other in fear, screaming with fearful abandon. Whatever was out there, it had already killed Lisa and Shelby and it was after us now! We continued to scream as it began to harry our tent, shaking it and scratching at the sides, laughing all the while.