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I spent the first nine years of my life in a suburb, provincial town named "Borasca". It was weirdly ironic actually, as the word "borasca" actually means a thunderstorm. The town was actually as dry as a bone, rain was a rare phenomenon and was often regarded as a bad omen instead of a blessing.
The town was a normal dwelling just like what you expect when you live in the outskirts of a state like Colorado. Most residents were loving, humble, and kind families who wanted to get on with their lives despite the harsh, unforgiving circumstances.
I'm not trying to digress, but I needed to get it all out from my own perspective, not from the reports you may find in interviews, newspapers and documents.
It all happened late summer, when my older brother, Chris, and his two other friends, Will and Eddie were running from some bullies to a nearby grove down the town's main road. No one knows how could that dense grove existed in that dry weather, maybe it was due to the wells or the groundwater storage.
Anyhow, during their escape, they came across a tree house. With all that greenery and moss circling around the structure, it seemed to be inviting them to venture inside and enjoy the thrill of the unknown. A perfect headquarter for a bunch of twelve-year-olds. Adventure and excitement were definitely what was lacking in Borasca.
Some days later, Chris told our parents that he and Will were invited to camp the night in Eddie's family yard, and apparently, Eddie had told his parents the same, except it was supposed to be our yard he was going to. Then Chris borrowed my pocket camcorder in exchange for his weekly pocket money and told me to not tell our folks that they were actually going to camp in that treehouse, and I happily obliged.
He took off with my camcorder, food and a sleeping bag in tow at 5 p.m. He was trying to record the experience and make a documentary out of it, well, he succeeded.
The treehouse was built on some thick tree barks and branches with a ladder falling to the ground. At sunset, the house seemed suspended in the air because of the dark shadows from the trees.
At first, Eddie decided to climb. He was trying desperately to keep his balance while climbing the ladder, he slipped a few times, nearly falling off, but managed to reach the top. "You better watch your mouth, Chris!" he yelled a couple of times while Will and Chris were doubling over with laughter. "Stop recording me! If I catch myself on that video falling head first to the ground, I'll haunt you for the rest of your lives!" he threatened them when he finally put his feet on a stable level. "Oh, I bet you will!" Chris mocked him and elbowed Will on the arm. Then, they threw their stuff up for Eddie to catch and started their ascend.
The door creaked heavily as Chris opened it. They all took a deep breath and peeped into the house. It was unsurprisingly dark and smelled of dust. The eerie silence lasted for only two seconds before Eddie threw Chris out of the way and ran inside. "Bro, I really dig this place! We can make it fit just for ourselves!" Eddie commented excitedly. Chris and Will were still lingering at the door, taking all the place in.
It was definitely bigger than it looked from the outside and reeked of dampness. Empty bottles and cans carpeted the floor and all different pieces of junk, garbage and cigarette snips were spread there and there. Windowpanes were rusted and their glasses were blurry. In short, describing it as "messy" was an understatement.
Eddie drawled: "Won't you two gentlemen give us the honor and enter our humble dwelling? Or are you chickening out?" Chris yelled back: "You idiot! I'm just assessing the situation man!" he entered without complaint and smacked Eddie on the back of his head. Will fumbled with his sleeves and ran after Chris, nudging him on the arm. "Chris, you really sure we should stay?" Will whispered in his ear. "Come on, man. Why not? We hit the sack at 10 and head back tomorrow at dawn. Nobody will know.”
"Hey, you two! Give me a hand over here, would ya? Chris, for God's sake put that cam down for one sec and help me throw these stuff in a corner." Eddie exclaimed while throwing a bottle over to the left. Chris put the camcorder on a small table and all three kept cleaning the place for some time.
After a while, Eddie found a door in the back of the house. "Why should a tree house have two doors?" Eddie laughed incredously. "Look at this, it's written 'Descending into hell' here. What kind of creep has written this gibberish?" Chris asked and turned the handle. The door was opened, but there was only the trees, identical to the view from the front door. There was even another ladder descending down to the ground. "They probably wanted to build it from this side them decided not to." Will said. "What kind of logic is that? It's probably a prank from the previous kids how cramped this place." Eddie answered back. The video was then cut abruptly.
The next thing I saw was Will showing them a dead butterfly he'd found the other day. They were eating sandwiches and talking gibberish about what teenage boys would normally talk about, but for some reason there was a different air to it. Chris was visibly perturbed and Will kept swallowing even after he was finished eating.
It was completely dark outside, but they had put up a couple of flashlights to illuminate the place. Eddie stood up and brought out his set of Monopoly and deck of cards.
"Look what I haaave!" he boomed, smiling ear to ear. "I'm not complaining, but I wish we could bring a TV here." Chris said. Will took the cards from Eddie. "Yeah, maybe next time." They spent the rest of the night playing stupid games and listening to songs on the radio.
Two hours later, they laid down their sleeping bags and slept. The video was cut off again.
At 7:30 a.m, all of them were wide awake. Will was trying to hold the camera with trembling hands. “It’s 7:30 a.m, the sun is still down, it should've been up, like, two hours ago. That guy warned us. We should've listened to him." Will's voice was shaking and he was breathing rapidly. In the back Eddie yelled: "Maybe our watches are dead, or, uhhh, I don't know, maybe it's because of the clouds." Chris yelled back: "Because of some clouds out of freaking nowhere? It never rains, idiot! It wasn't even this dark when we slept!"
The camera panned to the view of pitch blackness, Chris turned his flashlight out in the night, but the flashlight showed nothing. Absolutely nothing. "Can you feel the ladder, Chris?" Eddie asked nervously. Chris bent down and affirmed. "Ok, boys. I can't stand this garbage anymore. I'm taking this ladder, I'll put my foot on the ground in no time." Eddie growled and started the descend when Chris grabbed his arm. "Wait, Eddie. You can't see where you're going. Let's go through the backdoor like that guy said. Sun has come up there." Chris pleaded and tightened his hold on Eddie's arm.
"Back or front, there's no difference. It all ends up in the same place! Better go through where we came from. Just hold that flashlight for me. If I didn't find anything, I'll turn back up." Eddie reassured him and stepped down slowly. Somehow, it was even harder to keep his footing than when he first climbed up. His hands were clammy and slipped from time to time, but he continued. His feet never reached the ground, as if the ladder went on forever. He tried stubbornly not to look up at the tree house, but he heard Chris calling him: "Eddie, are you there? Talk to us." Their sound was coming from far away. He looked up.
"No! There's nothing here. We go from the backdoor. I'm coming up." Eddie yelled back and put his foot up to climb back, but something suddenly shifted, the step he was on crumbled and he grasped for the ladder's rope. His clammy hands slipped, and he fell down. "Help me!" Eddie's scream was mingled with Chris's and Will's, it's echo rippling through the dark. They never heard the sound of his body hitting the ground.
Will started to cry, tears were pouring down his cheeks like a waterfall. "We made a huge mistake, we should've never come here, we should've listened to the guy and kept pretending everything is okay." He Hiccupped. "No, Eddie's not dead, can't be." Chris denied the obvious, and took hold of Will's shirt, pulling him towards the backdoor. He put the camera in his front pocket and gripped Will's shoulders. "We'll go down from this side, help Eddie up and run as fast as we can towards the town, you got it?" Chris yelled breathlessly into Will's face.
Will took a shaky, deep breath and mumbled: "Ok, ok. Let's go." The door was opened to the same grove. The sun was up there and light flooded the room. Chris went first, and Will followed close behind. They reached the bottom safe and sound, turned to the front of the tree, but couldn't find any trace of Eddie. "How on the Earth—?!" Chris gasped. Will looked towards something that was out of shot and his eyes went wide. "Chris, run." Chris looked towards the same thing and they both bolted. The camcorder's battery on the left side of the screen was beeping red. It was going to shut down soon. All at once, a shrill scream came from Chris: "Will, he has the horns!"
Chris fell down, and the camera with him. At last, I heard a glottal sound that no animal or human is capable of making. Then, the camera shut down.
After they didn't return that day, our families searched for them. The day they went missing was rainy after God knows how long. They managed to find Eddie's body right down the treehouse. His neck was broken. He had died instantly. However, there was no trace of Chris and Will. We searched everywhere. Everywhere! But the only thing left of them was my camcorder with this video on it.
The police couldn't believe it, me and parents couldn't either. But there it was. People said it was a hoax, that they wanted to record a movie with special effects or they had recorded the video before, and went into the grove and a killer took them away. It was a story they told themselves to make up for the unbelievable scenes they were witnessing. My parents also gave up, believed the video to be fake and took off to another town a year later. Away from the grief.
I tried desperately to figure out why and what the hell happened that night? Who did they spoke to without recording and if they were actually lost.
The police declared the case closed after some officers went there for a night but never came back. People burned the house down and the last memories of that tree house turned to ash, until today. I believe it was a sign from my brother, a warning. It was what prompted me to write this story.
I was walking down the street I always walk when I saw a paper sticking to a tree. It was a photo of a missing girl named Chloe, under which someone had written in dark red: "Descending to hell."