The Campsite Murder

Previously

…William, our boisterous, confident William, had vanished into the woods and left behind only a dropped flashlight, a scuffed boot, and a growing pool of blood. The playful adventure had curdled into a nightmare, and the first act had just begun. The forest, once a place of wonder, had become a trap, and one of us, we now knew with chilling certainty, was the predator. The whispers in the pines had become screams, and we were all caught in the suffocating silence that followed. The easy camaraderie of the campfire felt like a distant memory, replaced by a gnawing, primal fear. We were no longer friends on a camping trip; we were prey, and the hunt had begun.