July 24th, 1995

There's something seriously wrong in this camp. I don't know what to put on but I'm starting to feel scared and uneasy.

Ever since I found this creepy symbol I've noticed strange things happening around here. My map was nowhere to be found yesterday. I searched everywhere in my tent but wasn't sure I put it there. I asked the guys if they knew where my map was but none of them had seen it.

Now we only have two maps between the four of us, so it's going to be a problem. For the whole morning, I searched for it. During that time Miles was drunk and didn't help. Oscar was too upset to do anything and just sat there.

Ryan came along with me to look for it, but we couldn't find it. This never happened to me before. I always spot anything that crosses my path. I was desperate and frustrated. I didn't know what to do.

So, we eventually dropped it and got on with the day. We found all kinds of strange objects around the camp. Ryan found all kinds of letters from previous campers.

One of them was from a girl named Anna who wanted to run away. One of them was a boy named Peter who was looking for his lost dog. The most disturbing letter is the last one from Adam who warned everyone about a monster in the woods.

Honestly, that's creepy. Even Ryan was scared and didn't know how to respond. Rather than spreading panic among the others, he ignored the letter and told me to keep it to ourselves.

But it didn't end there. When we walked, we heard strange noises like heavy footsteps from the woods. We looked around but could not see anyone. Since Ryan had his gun with him, he wasn't as anxious as I was. I left my dad's gun at camp.

Ryan asked me if I wanted to investigate. I shook my head, too scared to move. We slowly backed away from the woods and ran back to camp.

At dinner, we had little food. Just plain beans and cornbread. We talked about what we saw in the woods and decided we'd never go back there again.

Ryan, however, insisted we should go back and explore more. He said he knew something was out there, something strange and mysterious. And might be the source of the children's disappearance and the cause of the forest fire years ago.

The rest of us were scared, but Ryan was adamant. He said that if we found anything, it could help us solve the mystery of the children's disappearance and gain 100000 dollars from it.

At this point, I don't give a damn and told him none of us care about the reward. We just want to leave this camp. As we could expect, Ryan called us pussies. He then said he would look for the source himself.

We begged him not to, but he ignored us. He wandered off into the forest.

As we waited for Ryan, Miles and I played the picture game. The rules are simple: one of us takes a picture and the other has to guess what it is. We had fun guessing each other's pictures. Until it was my turn.

After taking a photo, I waited until my photo became clear. When I looked at the photo, I noticed something in the photo. I took a photo of a tree next to Oscar's tent but noticed a dark figure in the background, standing motionless.

I was scared and quickly showed the photo to the guys. All looked around for the same figure, but nobody was there. Miles and I got worried, but Oscar suggested it might be Ryan. Oscar called Ryan but received no response.

Due to my fear, I grabbed my dad's gun. We all walked towards the tent and saw Ryan lying unconscious on the ground. He fainted from exhaustion and dehydration. We quickly got him some water and revived him.

Once he was awake, we told him about the dark figure in the photo. Ryan seemed confused and scared. Ryan said he hadn't seen anyone in the forest. He had been walking in the forest for hours and was tired and thirsty but he remembered feeling watched.

I broke Oscar's promise and told him the creepy symbol I discovered. I told him Oscar knew about it and said it was a cult symbol before the camp was rebuilt.

Oscar got mad and shouted at me. He said I shouldn't have informed them and known better. Ryan then got mad because Oscar should have told him earlier instead of ME. He said it was critical information he should have known.

His project eventually came to an end when Ryan became tired of it. Because of our lack of food storage and evidence that strange "things" walking through the forest might be the cause of the kidnapping of the campers, he decided to notify the authorities and let them investigate.

He said we'd leave tomorrow morning and head to the nearest police station to inform them of what we'd found. We all agreed with his decision and quickly packed up our campsite. I was so relieved that we were finally leaving.

I just wanted to get away from the creepy feeling I had since we found that strange symbol. While writing this journal, I hear sounds behind my tent. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm sure it's not an animal. I'm scared and ready to leave this place. I just hope we don't have to return here.

Only six hours until the sun rises. I just want to leave here.

Chapter end