Be Careful Out There

Writing prompts, for the win!

"'Be careful out there,' your mom said as you grabbed your duffel bag and headed on a camping trip with friends. 'You know that tonight is the anniversary, don't you?' You nodded, then shut the door behind you before getting in the car and taking off. "

The ride to Denali was as beautiful as you remembered it. You hadn't been there since it happened, but you had really grown and changed since then. Your therapist reminded you of that every time you saw her. It had been 12 years since that night. Since the last time you ever saw your older brother, but you couldn't live your whole life avoiding one of the most beautiful places on earth because of one bad camping trip.


You helped with the tent setup. You helped with building the fire. You even helped cook dinner while drinking a beer and laughing with your best friends in the whole world.


You did not meditate on the fact that you were less than 10 miles from where it all happened. You did not think about how everything might be different if your parents hadn't made you stay in their cabin, rather than in the tents with your older brother and his best friends in the whole world.


After dinner, you went to your tent alone. Your friends were being rowdy and having fun, but they knew what tonight was. They didn't harp too much when you bowed out early. You listened to them laugh and have a good time. Those sounds sang you to sleep.


The sun was bright in your eyes and your clothes were cold and wet when you woke up in your car the next morning. With a resigned sigh, you looked into the passenger seat to see a blood-soaked hunting knife sullying the upholstery. As you opened the car door, it was like you were at once living the present and the past. The scenes were nearly identical. In fact, the more you looked, the more you could see that this particular scene had been staged to be identical to that scene from so long ago. The tents mangled in just the right way. The bodies posed in a macabre tribute to that night 12 years past.

Sometimes history just couldn't help but to repeat itself.