Catherine

I was somewhat aware of Josh's hands on my face, Sylvia's shrill voice, but everything was muted behind the searing pain in my leg and the ringing in my ears. Everything was happening very fast. I was jostled into Josh's arms and taken back down to the van. We rode back to civilization, bringing only the bare essentials with us.

My friends were shouting and crying in confusion, trying to talk to me, but I couldn't hear anything they said. In my mind, all I could hear were the screams. I'm sure you can infer what happened after that. Hospital, home, concerned parents, concerned friends, psych evaluations, a college graduation that I barely remember.

My friends were shouting and crying in confusion, trying to talk to me, but I couldn't hear anything they said. In my mind, all I could hear were the screams. I'm sure you can infer what happened after that. Hospital, home, concerned parents, concerned friends, psych evaluations, a college graduation that I barely remember.

I existed in a dense smog for a while, sleepwalking my way through a reality that never felt all that real to me. I'll let you make your own theories about what really happened on that mountain, because your guess is as good as mine. My friends all tell the story the exact same way. We all went to sleep after telling ghost stories around the fire.

I existed in a dense smog for a while, sleepwalking my way through a reality that never felt all that real to me. I'll let you make your own theories about what really happened on that mountain, because your guess is as good as mine. My friends all tell the story the exact same way. We all went to sleep after telling ghost stories around the fire.

Mikey woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of my screams. He found me collapsed with a broken leg and carried me back to safety. I was in shock and wasn't making much sense, but they all figured I had sleepwalked into the forest, tripped, and fell. The story makes sense, a lot more sense than my version anyway, but I've never really been able to accept it.

Mikey woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of my screams. He found me collapsed with a broken leg and carried me back to safety. I was in shock and wasn't making much sense, but they all figured I had sleepwalked into the forest, tripped, and fell. The story makes sense, a lot more sense than my version anyway, but I've never really been able to accept it.

The dissonance between our two distinct versions of what happened caused a rift. I lost touch with my friends not too long after we all graduated, and Josh and I broke up not long after that. I know what happened to me isn't their fault, but I couldn't separate them from it. After that trip, we all looked at each other a little differently.

The dissonance between our two distinct versions of what happened caused a rift. I lost touch with my friends not too long after we all graduated, and Josh and I broke up not long after that. I know what happened to me isn't their fault, but I couldn't separate them from it. After that trip, we all looked at each other a little differently.

I know it's crazy, but some small part of me still wonders if it was all some stupid prank gone terribly wrong. Maybe Mikey wanted us to become a part of the mountain's lore. Maybe they were just trying to mess with me, and they took it way too far, to a point they could never be honest with me about." There's one part of that theory that doesn't fit, though. The screams. My screams.

I know it's crazy, but some small part of me still wonders if it was all some stupid prank gone terribly wrong. Maybe Mikey wanted us to become a part of the mountain's lore. Maybe they were just trying to mess with me, and they took it way too far, to a point they could never be honest with me about." There's one part of that theory that doesn't fit, though. The screams. My screams.

Either way, I wanted to write all this out, maybe get a few of your opinions on what you think could have caused all this. Sleepwalking? A stress-induced psychotic break? Like I said, your guess is as good as mine. The only thing I do know is that it's been ten long years since that camping trip. and I've never been the same since.

Either way, I wanted to write all this out, maybe get a few of your opinions on what you think could have caused all this. Sleepwalking? A stress-induced psychotic break? Like I said, your guess is as good as mine. The only thing I do know is that it's been ten long years since that camping trip. and I've never been the same since.

Still, my memory of that night is eroding with time, and I wanted to jot it down before I forget everything. I hadn't seen Danny in over five years when he called me out of the blue that January. Said he was heading up to northern Wisconsin for a solo trip and asked if I wanted to tag along.

Still, my memory of that night is eroding with time, and I wanted to jot it down before I forget everything. I hadn't seen Danny in over five years when he called me out of the blue that January. Said he was heading up to northern Wisconsin for a solo trip and asked if I wanted to tag along.

His voice was the same, too confident for someone with a long history of half-baked ideas, but I said yes anyway. I needed a break, and something about the cold had always cleared my head better than any vacation ever could. We met up in Bayfield, a tiny town off Lake Superior's southern shore. The plan was to hike across the frozen lake and check out the ice caves along the Apostle Islands.

His voice was the same, too confident for someone with a long history of half-baked ideas, but I said yes anyway. I needed a break, and something about the cold had always cleared my head better than any vacation ever could. We met up in Bayfield, a tiny town off Lake Superior's southern shore. The plan was to hike across the frozen lake and check out the ice caves along the Apostle Islands.

The park service officially only opens them when the lake ice is thick enough, but Danny wanted to go deeper, beyond the marked caves and into spots that didn't show up on the tourist maps. You know the real ones, he said grinning, the stuff nobody sees. The locals weren't thrilled about that idea.

The park service officially only opens them when the lake ice is thick enough, but Danny wanted to go deeper, beyond the marked caves and into spots that didn't show up on the tourist maps. You know the real ones, he said grinning, the stuff nobody sees. The locals weren't thrilled about that idea.

One old guy at the gas station near our drop-off said it had been a weird winter, warmer than usual, unstable ice. He told us to stick to the main routes, and if we heard anything strange, especially after dark, to stay in our tent and don't follow it. I figured he meant wolves. Or maybe he was just trying to spook the out-of-towners.