Thriller? Mystery or a Nightmare?

Freddy Zalta
9 min readDec 22, 2021

There was a car parked, a teenage boy and girl inside it with the windows fogged up and soft music playing. It was one thirty two in the morning, there were coyotes somewhere in the area, crickets singing in unison and clouds were shadowing the moon that was trying in vain to make its appearance. They were parked within the campgrounds of Gravesend Bay, not a soul around.

Teddy and Brenda were locked in an embrace, she bit his lip softly and he felt her push against him. Brenda had her shirt off and her shorts were by her knees; Teddy had his pants by his ankles and his shirt pulled over behind his head. They were sweating and they were 18 years old — no stopping them. As Brenda eased her grip, Teddy stepped outside the car to put himself together. He took around thirty steps, stood away from a rock and made his mark. He smiled thinking about the past hour and wondered if Karen had any clue he was with her sister. “Hell, thats what being 18 is about, isn’t it?”

He made his way back to the car and opened the door to find that Brenda was not there. Figuring she needed to pee or whatever, he turned the ignition on, dialed up the air conditioner, turned on the radio and lit up a cigarette.

When his cigarette had burned away all the tobacco he became alarmed. He opened the door and called out her name. Coyotes answered and what seemed like a pack of dogs — but no Brenda.

He texted her phone and heard it respond from somewhere near the car — he called it and he heard ringing. It was on the floor right outside the door — damp from the wet floor it was still ringing when he picked it up.

“Brenda?” He called out. No reply, no rustling of branches or sounds of feet stomping on the leaves on the floor. No sound of anything, not even the coyotes or the crickets. He didn’t know what to do. He threw her phone through the open window of his car, walked towards the woods and turned on his flashlight on his phone. Pointing it up and down he saw nothing but bushes, rocks and trees. He called out her name but, once again there was no answer. He spoke,

“Please stop this, come out and lets get out of here. I admit it, you got me, I am scared. Now come out and lets go.”

Silence.

Freddy Zalta

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