Stood in the middle of the river I called to him,

"Paul!"

Nothing. Again.

"Paul...what the f- "

I almost slipped to the rush of the current, the louder I tried to be the quicker Id lost my balance it seemed. Even in this moment I remember thinking how funny that is. I guess I still didn't believe all of the stories at that point.

When we talked about our plans to go camping out by Walder River you should have seen their eyes widen, like every person we told had the same reaction. They'd try to give some vague camp story that, honestly, seemed right of an 80's horror movie. When we looked it up online you couldn't tell which stories came from legit sites and which were bogus.

Besides, we thought, if the rumors were true, well we were always up for a good scare.

A good scare. "This better be worth it!" I yelled to him as I tried to keep from slipping

The flow of the river was becoming more intense by the minute. I turned back to see our campsite. I swear it was glowing then, the same way the other side of the river had before Paul decided he absolutely needed to check it out. He had to cross.

That was the one consistency in all of the stories we heard and read; 'Don't cross the river'

Well, Paul crossed the river, so now I had to cross the river.

Damnit, Paul.

When I'm just a step away from reaching the bank I look to him to reach for his hand, "Paul, will you say something? Can you help me out of here please?"

I could barely make his face out from the shadows of the trees, I would have told you he was laughing at me if I hadn't heard him finally call back to me....from the other side of the river