Camp Oak Spring. The lakeside glistened with the hopes of new friendships and aspirations of new beginnings. The deep brown paint on the multiple large cabins started to flake and float away in the wind. The canoe rack hung at least 5 large luminous canoes surrounded by flies and mosquitos.
The prolonged car drive felt like eternities. Sitting in shotgun with my sister, Natalia bouncing up and down with enthusiasm in the backseat made me enraged. My mom pulls up to a huge parking lot with the view of many tall two-story cabins in the distance. One large building that looks to have been remodeled recently rests a couple of yards away from the two large pillars and the dark, rusted metal sign that read ‘Camp Oak Spring’ across it. We pull into a parking space and Natalia tries to open the car door, but it was locked and caused her to smash her head into the glass window. I let out a chuckle and get a stern look from my mom.
“Miriam, I know that you don’t want to be here but just try and have fun. Make new friends, I couldn’t have you stay in the house all summer, you need to take some action into your life” My mom said before unlocking the car doors.
“I doubt this will be a better time than watching Netflix, but I'll try to not be bored out of my mind,” I say and click the unlock button that was on my side of the car.
I open the trunk with all of my strength. It gets halfway open and opens the rest of the way itself. I grab my two bags, a giant duffle bag full of clothes, and an old backpack that carried makeup, toiletries, and the other necessities that would help me get through this week at hell. I wipe the backpack onto my back and put the duffle bag strap over my shoulder. I wait for my sister to get her things and start walking towards the entrance. The three of us walk into the big building and go to the fold-out table with a homemade paper sign that said ‘sign in here!’
“I'm here to sign in Miriam,” my mother says and gestures to me, “and Natalia” She gestures to my sister. The worker hands a small stack of papers to my mom and turns to us.
“You both will be in cabin 13, the rest of the day is for kids to settle in and explore the camp, so feel free to do whatever you please until dinner at 6 in here,” she says with a smile. I hug my mom goodbye and walk with my sister out of the building.
We pass cabins, noticing them going in numerical order. The lake becomes apparent to us and we find cabin 13 with the view overlooking the expansive lake. I rush into the cabin and notice that there was nobody else in there.
There were two levels to the cabin, the second level contained all of the bunk beds and some regular beds. The first floor had two couches that were tearing at the seams and a large bathroom with 5 small stalls and 5 showers that were only divided by shower curtains.
I go up the narrow set of stairs and put my stuff down at one of the single beds in the corner nearest the window. Underneath my bed were three pullout drawers in which I set my stuff. I put my pillow and blanket I brought with me onto the bed to signify that my bed had been taken already and that nobody else should pick that bed. My sister chose a dark-stained bunk bed in the middle of the room. She put her bag on the top bed and began unpacking.
“You know that if you chose that bed, you are going to be around a lot of people,” I say.
“Yes I know, no need to state the obvious. Unlike you, I actually want to have a good time here and make friends” She says with a frown plastered on her face. I roll my eyes.
“I want to have a good time, I would just rather not be here surrounded by bugs and sweaty kids” I walk back down the stairs and out the door, leaving Natalia alone in the cabin. I walk towards the front of the camp, I wanted to start my tour from the beginning, I also would remember where everything is located better if I started at the front.
As I make the long tread to the entrance, I notice a brunette with piercing green eyes struggling to carry her luggage. She was on the shorter end, maybe 5’3 at most. She was wearing light-washed jean shorts with multiple small rips. The bright red thick-sleeved tank top she was wearing made her eyes stand out. I go over to her.
“Do you need some help, it looks like your struggling a little” I say with the fakest smile I could manage.
“Yes I really do need some help,” she says and I pick up a bag from her small stack. “I'm in cabin 13, if you know where that is?”
“Yeah that's my cabin, it’s just this way. I’m Miriam by the way” I start walking towards the lake.
“I’m Kalista, are you new to camp also”
“Yeah, I was forced to by my mom, my sister Natalia is also in our cabin.”
We make it to Cabin 13 and I walk inside. There were three more people in the cabin than before. Natalia was making conversation with the youngest-looking one. I waited for Kalista to choose her bed so I could set down her belongings and go back to my tour of the camp. She chose the bed next to mine. The beds were a good space away from each other even though they were neighbors to each other.
I rush back out to the grassed over gravel path that created a walkway from cabins to the main lodge. I walk up to the entrance and start my tour without any interruptions from other campers. I pass the archery range with all different colored bows lined up neatly with color-coordinated arrows, canoe racks filled with mosquitos, a small metal playground that looked as if one wrong move the whole thing would collapse, a bunch of small cabins that were falling apart, and eager kids running around with parents close by carrying a large amount of luggage.
The sun dims and the breeze started to drift in from the large windows that had been left ajar. The smell of mashed potatoes and chicken fingers stained my nostrils as everyone either went up for seconds or threw away their plate. I walk out of the mess hall before we were dismissed, so I could get a head start on getting to my cabin. The rush of kids running to cabins was only going to confuse me and make me dizzy. The sound of scraping makes me stop in my tracks. I look towards the dimly lit forest right next to me. I continue walking, making sure to pay more attention to my surroundings. A carving sound pierced my ears, the sound was now right next to me. I stand frozen, unsure of what I should do. I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could, it could be a dangerous situation and I would prefer to leave this camp with my life. I also wanted to confront whoever this is, they were wanting to make me run away scared and I didn’t want to give them that satisfaction. I walk a few steps and look around the tree. The light brown of the tree is shown from under the dark bark. I took a 360 turn to be sure I wasn’t in danger and walked closer to the tree. On the tree is a large slash as long as an arms wingspan vertically. I gasp and get back onto the walkway. Campers were starting to come my way, which meant that dinner had been dismissed. I put a slight jog into my walk as I left the forest. I didn’t stop until I got to Cabin 13. I close the door after me, making sure that the door is closed all the way and the draft won't swing it open. I go upstairs and to my bed area. I close the curtains to the window closest to my bed, but not before I scan the camp. I look at the forest where the noise had been and see movement from a tree close to the path. I lay down on my bed and take a deep breath. It was probably nothing and it was myself getting freaked out over nothing.
A rush of footsteps and talking ambushed the quietness as everyone got back from dinner. Kalista was the only person that came upstairs though.
“Can you come with me to get some firewood for the fireplace, a bunch of girls are complaining about it being cold in here” Kalista says not moving far from the stairs.
“Yeah, sure I can go with you,” I say hesitantly, but ultimately getting up and putting on my beat-up brown high-top converse. I dig in my duffle bag for any kind of light jacket to wear over my short sleeve t-shirt and black ripped jean shorts. I find a black windbreaker that says ‘Brigantine Varsity Girls Lacrosse” on the back with my name ‘Miriam De Luca’ smaller on the front. I put it on without zipping it up and walk down the narrow stairs. Kalista is waiting at the door for me and goes outside as soon as she sees me walking towards her. I follow after her and I meet her a couple of feet down the path.
“How much wood do you think we will need,” I say, my anxiety becoming greater with every step. The regret settled and my fear overcame me.
“I think a handful of good-sized logs will be enough, one of the workers said that there was an open area a little way into the forest that has a log rack with precut wood that we are welcome to take for either an outdoor fire or to fuel the cabin's fireplace” Kalista picks up her pace and causes me to jog to catch up with her. We get to the entrance to the forest and there were lampposts were spread out along the path, leaving little spots of the path with barely enough light to see 3 feet in front of you. We follow the path and I frantically look to my right and my left. Not only did I have to worry about animals, but the possibility of someone may be wanting to harm somewhere out in the woods. The further we got from the cabins, the less likely they would hear our screams.
“Are you okay, you seem a little paranoid” Kalista says while stopping and turning to me. I come to a halt.
“I left dinner early and I found a marking on a tree, it was deep so I think it was a knife,” I say in as calm of a voice I could manage.
“Oh, I’m sure it was nothing, let’s just get the wood and get back to the cabin as soon as we can” We continue our journey along the path.
The open area was in view and a branch snapping came from behind us. I quickly turned on my heels and held up my fists close to my chest, ready to fight if I needed to. I see nothing so I turn back around and there stands two figures a couple of feet in front of me
“BOO” they both yell and come closer to the light as they do. I scream and jump a little. Kalista gasps and the figures start laughing. The light illuminated their faces and they looked to be about 16 or 17.
“What is wrong with you,” I say and felt as if my eyes were bulging out of their sockets. They stopped and stared at me for a second.
“It was only a joke, I came to camp to have fun” The taller one with dark brown hair that could be mistaken as black hair stated in a serious tone. I start to walk towards them and hold my fists up. Kalista puts her arm in front of me to tell me to back down. She walks past them and into the large opening. I quickly follow after her and give both of the guys dirty looks.
“Hey, we’re sorry, I'm Cory and this is Adriel” The blonde guy who looked to be around 5’10 and athletic yelled after us.
“I don’t care who you are and why you’re here, leave us alone,” I say, making sure to not turn and face them and show them that I wanted to engage in conversation. The sound of something flying right in front of my face startled me and caused me to jump back an inch. I turn and see a bright yellow arrow with two feathers still attached sticking into a tree trunk. Kalista looks back at the tree and then at me. I turn around to see Cory and Adrial looking as terrified as myself.
“What the hell” I whisper yell and walk towards the arrow. I plant one of my feet into the ground and the other onto the tree trunk. I pull at it with all my might and it finally dislodges. I get sent backward and land on my back with the arrow feathers two centimeters away from my neck. I throw the arrow to the side of me and quickly get up off of the muddy, bug-covered grass. Kalista starts to walk over to me and another arrow emerges from the pitch-black forest and lands on the ground after it ran out of power to get itself stuck in another tree.
“Okay, we need to get out of here, that almost hit you,” I say to Kalista while looking into the forest where the arrow seemed to have come from.
“Yeah, and we need to report this to someone” Kalista adds. I start walking towards the opening with Kalista following close behind me. Cory and Adrial stand there, in shock. I push their shoulder to not only get their attention but make them move and let me through. They snap out of their daze and step aside. Three more arrows come flying towards different trees, each arrow getting closer and closer to us. A batch of two come and are even closer. I start a light sprint out of past Cory and Adriel and don’t stop until I’m halfway out of the forest. The path lights had dimmed which caused me to trip over a large branch that I hadn’t seen. I stop, take a breath and look back to see Kalista come into view. I continue until I’m fully out of the forest and a couple of feet away from the opening. I bend over and put my hands on my thighs in an attempt to catch my breath. I hear loud footsteps coming right behind me. I quickly turn around and see Kalista, Cory, and Adriel running up to me.
“We need to get out” I start saying.
“Oh my god,” Kalista says under her breath, interrupting me.
I turn to what she was looking at. A tall shadow covered from head to toe in black emerged from the tree slowly. His left hand carried a bow and his right carried a large kitchen knife.
I yell to Kalista, Cory, and Adriel, “Run!” I start a sprint in whichever direction I could. The lighting had not been enough to identify where I was or where I could go. The smell of dirty lake water punctured my lungs. The lake was not going to be the safest place, but it’s better than the forest. I run right over a canoe paddle that had been left out, causing me to fall forward right into the sandy grass. I lift my upper body and flip onto my back. I attempt to get up as a sharp pain runs through my left ankle. I stand up and put all of my weight into my right side and continued limping to the canoe rack. I hid behind one of the large canoes to examine myself. Tilted nails scratched my arms and legs, cutting open the fabric and leaving small trails of blood along my body. A feminine scream of terror and sorrow made my bones chill. I stood up and ran as fast as I could, given the circumstances that were affecting me.
The large overhead sign that said ‘Camp Oak Spring’ was right in front of my eyes. I was able to leave and get help. I could run away and never come back, live my life far away from here. The thought of Kalista’s scream overtook my brain. I could get help and someone else could deal with this, but that could take hours at least. I could also attempt to go save her but was putting myself in danger for some random girl that I had just met. She wasn’t just some random girl, she was my friend, I can’t leave my friend behind. I walk up to the lodge and attempt to open the front door, side door, and back door, but none were successful. I knocked on the doors and yelled out, “Let me in, I need help”. Nothing changed except for the direction of the wind. I look into the windows in hopes to catch someone's attention. Inside a backroom was a telephone strung up onto the wall.
“Sometimes I just need to take action” I whisper to myself while picking up a medium-sized rock and chucking it at the back glass door, causing hundreds of glass shards to fly all around me. It felt like pins and needles across my whole body. I carefully go in through the hole the rock created and get to the room. I try to open the door, but it remained shut. I backed up, turned to my side, and sent my shoulder right into the center of the door. It flew open, hitting the wall behind it. I go to the phone and quickly dial 9-1-1. It rings for a bit before it hangs up. I dial again.
“Nine one one, what’s your emergency”
“I’m a camper at camp Oak Spring and there’s a killer somewhere in the camp, we need medics and police right now” I get out before the phone line cuts off. I slam the phone back into its holder and hope that someone would still come promptly. I had to find Kalista and more importantly my sister. Before I knew it I was jogging further into camp and focused on the lights instead of the excruciating pain in my ankle.
I saw the sign in illuminating lights ‘Cabin 13’. I let out a sigh of relief and quickly run inside. The lower level was absent of anybody, so I ran upstairs. The relief of seeing only two beds empty ran through my bloodstream.
“What took you so long, and where is Kalista,” My sister said looking annoyed and cold.
“Long story short, there is a possible murderer somewhere in Camp and I lost Kalista when we ran,” I say between breaths. The room went dead silent. “I need all of you to stay together and stay in here, lock the door after me”
“Why are you leaving, according to you there’s a psycho out there” Natalia exclaimed.
“I need to find Kalista, I think I may have heard her scream and I can’t just leave her to die,” I say and start limping down the stairs. I look by the fireplace and take the fire pokers and a heavy-duty flashlight. I carry the pokers at my side and the flashlight close to my chest as I walk out the door. I turn on the flashlight and the path lights up.
There was something about being out in the dark by yourself, a feeling that you may love or may hate. The thrill of adventure or the fear of what may surround you. The warm air lightly blowing on your face or the harsh wind suffocating you in the feeling of being watched.
I quickly walked down the path with unforeseen confidence, now that I not only had a source of light but also a weapon, I felt unstoppable. The feeling of fear was replaced with anger. I make a sharp turn and bump right into someone. I fall onto my back, which made it impossible to see who I collided with. I raised my head slightly and see Adriel laying on the ground and let out a groan.
“Oh, it’s just you,” I say and prop myself up onto my elbows. “Please tell me you know where Kalista is”
“No, I lost her when we were running, do you know where Cory is,” He asks and gets up onto his feet. He reaches down to me and offers a hand. I take it and put my weight into my non-injured foot.
“Well, let’s find them quickly and figure out what to do about this whole situation”
We start walking down a path that went through the middle of the camp, in hopes to see as much of the camp as possible to up the chance of seeing Kalista or Cory somewhere along their way. Heavy breathing comes into earshot. I stop and Adriel does too after he notices me looking around. I quietly walk towards a boarded-up cabin and look over each side. I walk to the back and see Kalista and Cory sitting down trying to contain their breathing.
“I finally found you guys, thank goodness” I whisper to them and signal Adriel over. I look to Kalista and see scratches all over her face and a large gash in her leg. It didn’t look deep, but still had fresh blood and a little dried blood running down to her white socks, leaving them with two red stripes down the side. “What happened to your leg”
“The guy, he got me and cut me a little but I moved my leg right in time so it isn’t as bad as it could have been. Cory hit him over the head with a pretty big tree branch and he let me go and fell over onto all fours and then we ran until we were out of breath.”
“We probably should try and get help or at least find a better hiding spot since we are out in the open” Adriel cuts in. I grab Kalista’s hand and help pull her up. We start walking.
“Why aren’t you walking right,” Kalista asks me.
“Funny story, I tripped over a canoe paddle and I did something to my ankle, I then tried to hide in the canoe rack and got all scratched up from that. I’ll be fine though” I say trying my best to walk as normally as I could. “And I already called nine one one before I went to find you so I hope someone will get here soon”
“Wow what happened to the lodge, the back door is smashed” Kalista exclaims as we get into viewing distance of the lodge.
“I needed to take action,” I say and shrug my shoulder which was still a little sore from breaking open a door. A flash of red is seen in the distance. I move to my right to see two police cars darting down the road followed by three medics and a firetruck. “They’re here”
I jog to the entrance and wave my hands around like a mad man.
“OVER HERE” I yell as if they could hear me over their sirens. The first police car pulls over next to me and gets out.
“Are you the one who made the call?” he asks me as more police officers head into camp.
“Yes, yes I am. I’m fine but my friend over there might need some medical attention” I say and point to Kalista.
“You’ll still need to be looked at, head over to that ambulance there and they can check you over,” He says and points to the further ambulance. “I’ll go over to your friend and get her the medical attention she needs” I nod
I walk over to the ambulance. “I was told I needed to be checked over,” I say standing outside the ambulance.
“Come in, you can have a seat on the bed,” The paramedic says. I do as she says and she starts to look over my scratched and moving my limbs. She gets to my ankle and starts to move it and I gasp. She gets out an ice pack and wraps. She wraps my ankle and hands me the ice pack. “It looks as if you have a sprained ankle, just rest and put some ice on it and the pain should stop in a couple of days, other than that you're good to go, if the scratches start burning put some burn cream on it” I walk out of the ambulance and start to head over to the camp. So many people have accumulated in such a short amount of time.
A microphone and camera are shoved into my face. The bright light turns on and a tall guy in a nice outfit and neatly kept hair starts talking. “I’m here with Miriam De Luca, if you are just tuning in now, there have been three murders and multiple injuries here at Camp Oak spring. How does it feel to have saved the day”
“Umm I wouldn’t say I saved the day, I did what any rational person would and called the police,” I ask.
“What were your experiences with the killer”
“They shot an arrow at me, chased me, hurt my friend, that’s about it”
“And is there anything you would like to say to the viewers at home”
“Sometimes you just need to take action”