Day 18 of 31 Days of Halloween!! The Grip!! 

Years back in my country, we did not have much camping opportunities like western countries for school going kids have. Only international schools used to have them and those schools conduct several competitions for all the schools around the town and those who win prizes in competitions were selected to go for a camping completely sponsored by the school itself. Kids involved from so many schools and there was a great chance for making new friends. In one such events, me and my bestie won a debate competition and we were so excited for the camping. We were 14 or 15 I guess and as any other silly teen, my bestie was looking forward to meet boys from other schools but what I had experienced made me never even think about going into other camp. The camp I went was set for 2 days....

As a part of training, they taught us how to set a camp hut on day one and we did not have zip based ones and we had to build everything from scratch. They took us into a deep forest. They told us there was no wild animals around except foxes and deer but instructed to stick together with everyone just in case and never ever ever go alone without informing the camp leader. In the camp bus, my friend met a handsome boy and she became really close to him within few hours of drive and when we reached the camp place, she was already close to him. I was very annoyed because now I had to be alone and that boy also genuinely seems to show interest in her and was already asking her to call him her boyfriend and she did. He was very charming and nice.

Day 1, we were asked to introduce ourselves and to do some camping related work. Everyone was excited to do except my friend and her new bf. They stood in distance while holding hands while we were doing the work and crafts. A day went by peacefully and on that night, my friend found her boyfriend in distance standing and staring at something or someone. She approached him and said "what are you doing here alone? we are not supposed to be alone. come back to our tent". He looked at her silently murmuring and pointing at a direction, "I saw a man standing over there and watching over us from an hour". By this time, my friend got freaked out and said "come back, I'm scared". He intended to calm her down and hugged her and said ,"don't worry, maybe that guy also came for camping like us. Let us just not say anything to our staff because everyone might get scared. We are going to leave by tomorrow anyways right?" and kissed her on the forehead. She hugged him back and said, "yes alright".

She looked tensed when they came back when i asked her "what's the matter?". they eyed each other and she replied, "just talking" and winked at me. I dropped it and went to help the staff to make dinner but kept observing that they were standing alone together and never really involved in camping activities. Finally, it was night time and the boy went to his tent to sleep with other boys and my friend came into my tent. She then explained me what happened and she went to sleep. After a while, I guess the time was around 1 am, I suddenly woke up because I heard noises outside and slowly peeked out. I saw my friend and her bf standing at far distance drinking coffee or something. By this time, i really got irritated by their behavior and went close to them and shouted at them "you love birds should take the camping and its rules seriously..our leader said never stay alone during nights.. go back to your tents". My friend replied with a smirk, "someone's jealous" and they both laughed hugging each other. And they started kissing and that is when I really got annoyed and came back to my tent.

I waited for half an hour but she did not come back. I peeked out and found no one out there. I went to check in the boys tent but did not see the boy as well. I got worried and wanted to wake up the staff but the stupid girl in me also did not want to disturb them for unnecessary reasons, "they might have been gone for a short walk" I thought and started to search for them by slowly walking. I heard foot steps behind me and turned around to see our camping lead and I explained him they are not seen anywhere. He woke up the whole staff and they took rifles and knives just in case. One of them waited near the camp for security and the camp lead asked me to show the way those guys went. I pointed out the direction and also requested to go along with them. He hesitated a bit but agreed and we started searching. we would have walked a mile deep into the forest or and found no one. We were disappointed and about to go back to our place and decided to call the cops when we saw something shining at some distance. It was a low watt light and we slowly approached it. It was a small house or more like a cabin with only one light in the front and absolutely dark inside it.

We tried to get close without making any noise but the dry leaves on the ground wouldn't cooperate with us. We still reached the house slowly and peeked inside. We saw nothing at first but then when our eyes got adjusted to the dark, we saw two dark figures dressed in all black with a cap on their head covering their whole head except eyes and also a black cape like shrug. In the middle of the room laid my friend and her bf with their hands tightly chained using ropes with cloth stuffed in their mouths. I observed the writings on the wall and I was very much aware of those signs. It belonged to a cult, called "The Grip". It was all over the news the other day and they usually kidnap people, worship the Evil using the symbols and on the third day of worship, they sacrifice that human to the Evil to please him. They are famous for killing so many people and the cops always failed to catch them and their place of stay and here they are. Once they catch anyone, it was told that they would never let them go and that's why the name "The Grip" came from.

Those two people started praying and saying versus when one huge dude came from another room, untied the boyfriend and patted him on the shoulder. He said "you never fail to disappoint me. Satan is happy to have a devotee like you". The world literally crumbled beneath me and my friend looked terrified shivering lying on the cold ground and also crying. He slapped her and shouted to shut up and replied to the big creepy dude "I need to go back to my camp now. They would search for me.". We were worried because we were out but the big one said, "stay back tonight. you can go back early in the morning before sunrise so that they won't know you are missing". We very slowly backed out from the wall and tried to walk back by absolutely making no noise and when we reached a distance and was sure that we were far, we ran back to the tent and by that time, everyone was awoke.

Our team lead explained and alerted everyone and took our camping car to run to city asking all of us to leave that place immediately. One of the staff said "but we at least need an hour to take off all these tents and collect our belongings" and the team lead shouted, "nothing is worth right now except your life and these kids lives. we can come back and collect these. Just get the hell out of here RIGHT NOW". We all took our bags and the bus was waiting for us. We left the place. I did not know or have any idea of what happened after that. I never saw my team leader again in my life, he belongs to that international school and I never saw my best friend also.

I heard in news that by the time the cops went to that place, the hut was totally empty, those cult members were not found, so as the boy and my best friend and also the team leader. It was completely empty and someone painted the cult symbols with white paint to make them vanish beneath the paint. Police came to my house for investigation and I told them everything I saw and I asked them "what happened to our team lead?? they did not take him, he should have been alive. He informed you guys right? where is he?" the cops said this and almost killed me, "No, the team lead did not inform us. One of the camping staff did. They also never saw the camp lead again and we just found he could have been the potential leader of that cult." My parents were shocked to hear this and thanked God that I'm safe. But what happened to my friend? did they sacrifice her?? or did she escape? But no one saw her again, not even her dead body was ever found. Nothing really was found. Those cult members had their GRIP on her. I hate to say, it won, "The Grip" won.

Thank you for reading this lengthy post my friends, hope you liked it and also, please be careful out there when meeting new people...Thank you @MarcDeMesel for your continuous support so that we can unleash our inner imaginary story tellers...

Thank you lovely sponsors, ya'll so sweet..Bless you

Yours Bloggingly

@Theblackdoll