I was trying to have a good attitude, but my head was throbbing and rattling and my stomach felt like a ball of cement. I knew she meant well, but you can’t just tear a guy away from everything he knows and loves and not expect some bitching. Shit, this was more than anyone had ever convinced me to do outside of working. I had to give her credit for that. Still, my body had other ideas.

Sabrina walked and I followed until the path all but disappeared. Suddenly I was surrounded by tree branches, pine cones, and dirt. Bugs were swarming and for a heavily wooded area, it was fucking bright. All I wanted was a case of beer, something to smoke, and my dark house to hide in. This was bullshit.

Sabrina finally came to a stop up ahead of me. I couldn’t see a cabin through the foliage, but anything indoors was going to be a welcome change. At the end of the trail Sabrina was standing in a clearing. She was taking off her backpack. I looked around.

“Where’s the cabin?”

She looked at me puzzled. “What cabin?”

“You said there was a cabin.”

Sabrina shook her head and let her pack fall to the ground.

“You said come to the cabin in the woods with me.”

“I said come camping in the woods with me.”

I could see she was trying to hide her face from me as she started undoing the button on her pack. She was laughing.

“You lied to me,” I smirked. “You unbelievable bitch.”

“Consider it payback for bailing you out.” She put her hand to her chin. “Gee, I’ve lost track. How many times?”

She had me. I unfastened the belt to loosen the backpack, but the weight caught me off-balance and dragged me backward to the ground. I rolled on the backpack like a tortured turtle. Sabrina started laughing until I bashed my skull on a rock and split my head open. It was totally humiliating. Even Mother Nature wanted to kick my ass.

“Poor baby. Are you okay?”

Sabrina pulled off my pack and started picking through my head like some kind of she-ape. I had a cut from the fall, but there was only a little blood. Once she saw I was okay, she launched back into laughing. I just sat there in the dirt like a discarded puppet and wished like hell I didn’t like her so much. If she were anybody else I would have pistol-whipped her by now.

It took a while to get the camp set up; one big tent and a fire pit with folding chairs. By the time we’d finished the sun was already down. And when the sun went down in the woods, it was gone. It was pitch black. And when I say black I mean like no light whatsoever. Damn woods.