Raelynn didn’t stop pacing until the lights were out. But even then she lay in her bunk, mind racing. Where was Kai? Becca had said that Kai had been pulled out of Art but hadn’t returned since. The consolers had said nothing, so Kai wasn’t missing. Raelynn turned on her side, staring at Jewel who was clearly pretending to be asleep. “Jewel!” She hissed, “Hey, Jewel!”
Jewel’s eyes opened irritably. “What! Raelynn- you could get us both into so much trouble!”
Raelynn rolled her own eyes at this, "Shh! I need to ask you something."
"What is it now?"
"Do you know where Kai is?"
"No," Jewel closed her eyes again, "I do not know where your girlfriend is."
Raelynn could feel a blush creeping up on her face, and she cursed her own fair complexion, and blessed the darkness hiding it, "They're not my girlfriend!"
Even in the dark Raelynn could see the answering smirk Jewel sent her way, "Sure, keep telling yourself that. Anyway. They're probably in the room or something." The way Jewel said that so casually- and just the mention of the room in general, made Raekynn's blood run cold.
"W-what?" Raelyhnn squeaked, "T-The room? But- what did Kai do?"
Jewel shrugged, "I dunno. They must've done something to get on King's nerves so badly. But-" Her voice went quiet, 'I don't reckon if they should ever get out..."
Raelynn didn't speak- she couldn't. Her heart was beating too fast- as if she was having a heart attack, "No! It's been too long!" She had heard stories from some of the older campers when she had gotten here at first- about what happened to people that were in the room for more than a few hours.
Jewel's expression turned sympathetic, "Raelynn, just, fall asleep. And we'll see in the morning if Kai is back okay?"
In the morning. Kai still hadn't returned. Raelynn was running herself sick with worry. All the time, her only thoughts were, Where is Kai? Are they safe? Please let them be safe! Raelynn wanted to run herself all the way down that damned dirt path in the forest, and all the way to the room. She wanted to break into it and see what the hell was going on with Kai. And how she could help.
"Raelynn!" Cherri was running prayer that day, luckily, she was one of the nicer consolers, but still to exactly kind. "Pay attention!"
Raelynn looked up quickly, "Sorry!" She murmured, Cherri shot her a suspicious glance and continued with the lecture.
Raelynn could only imagine what would go on in the room.
Kai lying spread across the floor, blood dripping from open wounds on their legs, arms, and face. King standing above them, a small dagger in hand. Laughing maniacally.
Raelynn shuddered and gasped. She needed to get her head out of the clouds. Surely if Kai was dead King or someone would've said something even if it was just that Kai had left the camp or something (which would clearly be a lie).
That night Kai still had yet to return.
She lay back into the bed, letting her muscles relax slightly as she attempted to force her mind into wandering elsewhere- or even better, into sleep. It didn’t work. Not at all.
Eventually, her mind descended into a space right before sleep but still in wakefulness. That was- until Raelynn heard a whisper. “Raelynn!” She sat up bolt upright and saw that the cabin door was opened.
“Kai?” Raelynn stood, “Where were you?!”
Kai glanced around themself, “No time. C’mon- we have to go!”
“Go where?!” Raelynn grabbed a sweatshirt and a duffel bag to begin stuffing a few articles of clothing in.
Kai bit their lip impatiently, “Just c’mon we don’t have a lot of time!!”
Raelynn slipped on her sneakers and quickly hurried out the door behind Kai. “Where were you? Do you know how much trouble we could be in? We could get sent to the room!”
Kai silenced her quickly with a finger pressed to their lips. “Shh. We’re escaping. Do you know where Becca’s cabin is?”
“Becca’s cabin? That one- wait. Escape?” Raelynn followed helplessly pleading with Kai to explain what they were doing.
Kai opened the door, making a loud creaking noise. Then they tiptoed gingerly across the stone floor, shaking Becca gently. “C’mon we’re getting out of here.”
It was a matter of mere seconds until the three of them were dashing into the forest.
Raelynn couldn’t hear anything, an eerie silence had fallen upon the trio. Kai was frozen. “Elise…” They muttered, “What do you mean… Three’s no one-” Their head snapped up, “Oh.”
Becca was holding on tightly to Raelynn’s arm. “What’s happening?” She whispered quietly.
Raelynn was speechless, staring at Kai talking thin air. “I have no idea.”
Kai suddenly turned and started speaking rapidly, “Okay. So There are somzzzzzzzzz dangerous ghosts over here. But Elise is going to help us- so. We need to hurry.” They started running down the path.
Raelynn shot one look at Becca and started chasing after Kai. Becca seemed to hesitate before taking off after the two of them.
This is crazy! Raelynn thought, tumbling down the increasingly steep path, Ghosts aren’t real. The room must’ve driven Kai mad…
Kai suddenly stopped, their face was pale. “What?” They hissed. “They can’t be I thought-”
Kai spun around. “Raelynn try to find a weapon or something. A sharp stone or think branch or something. Becca, you too.”
“What-” Becca turned around, “What’s happening?!?”
Raelynn pushed past her, plunging off of the path briefly to grab a large, thick branch. She even grabbed a sharp dagger-like stone for Becca.
“Here,” She shoved the stone into Becca’s hands, “Take this.”
Becca finally made a smart decision and stayed quiet, all three of them facing the path.
It was about half a minute. God knows how far they could have run in that time. He finally lowered her hands, “Kai, let’s go. If we’re closer to the wall it might be easier to do whatever it is we’ll have to do.”
Raelynn trusted Kai, she trusted that Kai wouldn’t lead them into a trap, or lie about their being dangerous and make such a big deal out of it. But even so, Raelynn let out a breath when Kai nodded reluctantly and said, “Yeah… I guess. But slowly. Let’s go.” Raelynn took the back, following behind Becca who was slowly tip-toeing after Kai.
They were just in sight of the wall, maybe a few hundred feet. A while away, but still, close in Raelynn’s mind.
Kai hummed and whispered, “I guess Elise was wrong. Let’s make a dash for the wall, then climb it or something. Okay?”
Raelynn glanced at the wall, it was a ten-foot chain-link fence with barbed wire at the top, “Y-Yeah….”
Becca was even more terrified, “Climb that?!” Her voice was high-pitched and squeaky.
Raelynn reached out and squeezed her hand reassuringly, “It’ll be okay.”
Kai glanced at the two of them and seemed to decide that they were ready. “Okay.. 3… 2… 1… GO!”
It was a blur in how they ran towards the fence, stumbling in their haste to reach it. Kai hit the wall and began climbing, Raelynn followed suit, struggling a bit more. But Becca- god Becca. She started climbing out of both fear and desperation but soon fell back with a shout, hitting the ground.
Raelynn called out to her, starting to hear sounds of heavy boots trampoline through the forest.
Becca stumbled onto her feet again, trying to climb. A consoler grabbed her heel and pulled her down again, pinning her to the ground. Kai continued up either not noticing or not caring for Becca. But Raelynn couldn’t leave her. She jumped down and started punching the nearest consoler until they were on the ground and bleeding. Then, she rounded on the others that were dragging Becca away. “KAI!” She screamed, “Goddamnit! Help me!”
Kai jumped down, muttering something about her imaginary friend, ‘Elise’. The wind picked up slightly around them, forcing the consolers to stumble. Becca pulled her foot out of their grasp and returned to Raelynn’s side.
There was only one consoler now, the others had run and abandoned them. Raelynn took a deep breath and charged toward them
____
KAI
Kai knew Raelynn and Becca couldn’t see the ghosts. But they could. And there were so many of them. Camper ghosts- kids who had died in this camp! And even a few consolers ghosts. They were all fighting. It was chaos. Elise had explained to her that the ghosts were from the many accidents that had happened at this camp. And all the camper ghosts were generally forced to stay in the room, les they were released by someone. So, Kai released them in the hopes that they would help them escape. But they hadn’t planned on their being consoler ghosts, but apparently, that was exactly what had happened. The ghosts were fighting a battle of their own- the consolers trying hard not to let even ghosts escape.
“Elise? Help?” Kai asked, running forward and attempting to kick the living consoler in the gut. He dodged.
Elise grunted something that sounded like a curse word and said, “I’m kinda busy!” But she still turned and managed to use *magical ghost telekinesis powers* to drag the consoler down to the ground.
The ghost behind her caught her by surprise with a knife to her chest. Elise swallowed. “Kai?” Her voice was wobbling dangerously. “C-come here!”
Kai hurried over to her, “Elise? What’s happening?”
“I’ve been stabbed. That much is pretty obvious.” She replied, gesturing to the knife point protruding from her chest.
“But-” Kai was stunned, Elise was already dead! “You’re already dead!”
Elise rolled her eyes, before wincing and sitting down slowly, “I have a few minutes before I…. go to the real afterlife. It was going to happen as soon as I left camp anyway… so…”
Kai was so confused. “What? But you’re a ghost!”
Elise grunted and her breathing started to turn irregular, “I know that. Just hold my hand…. Trust me?”
“Okay…” Kai slowly took Elise’s hand, they were confused but surprised to find that Elise’s hand was solid and cool to the touch. “DO you need emotional support while dying?”
Elise snorted, but it turned into a coughing fit where she was coughing up silver blood, “No-- nothing like that! I’ve got to give you something…. A gift you could say…. Since you can see me. If I don’t do this well… I could be doomed!” Her voice turned into a sarcastic cheery tone near the end of her sentence.
Kai looked around “what?” They muttered, “Can you just explain what’s happening?!”
Elise gave her a cold look and started talking- barely getting the words out. “G-Ghosts have a-a tele-telekinesis p-power. I-I think you kne-knew that. S-since you c-c-c” she struggled with the word ‘can’ for awhile, “Can see me… y-you’re close to b-becoming a g-ghost. So-so since I’m g-g-going to to leave this world a aagin. I-I want to gi-give y-you th-th-this…” her stuttering became even worse, “Other-wise I-I might b-e be cons-consumed by-by-by-by-by the guilt…” She shot Kai a sarcastic smile, “He-her-here, Kai.”
Kai tried to fasten their grip on Elise’s hand, but it was slipping away, And suddenly- she was gone.
Raelynn and Becca were soon by Kai’s side, Raelynn placing a hand on Kai's shoulder and wiping away tears Kai didn’t know were on their face. “I don’t know who Elise is but… she’s probably alright. Somewhere far away from here.” Raelynn whispered into Kai’s ear.
Raelynn helped Kai to their feet, “Let’s get out of here,” She murmured. “Becca? You ready?”
Becca nodded, determination blazing in her eyes. “Yes.”
They both charged the fence, this time, Raelynn going slowly, and helping Becca up until they reached the barbed wire. Kai followed. Raelynn was at the top, looking at the barbed wire closely and speculating the best way to bet over it.
Kai reached the top too and started wondering about the ‘telekinesis’ powers Elise had supposedly given Kai. How were they supposed to use them?
Kai stared hard at the barbed wire, trying to imagine it moving and like falling off the top of the fence or something. Then- it moved! It actually moved!
“Aha!” Raelynn said triumphantly, “I wasn’t being an idiot!” Raelynn was holding a six-inch switchblade and attempting to cut the wire with it.
Kai blinked, “Where on earth did you get a switchblade?”
“I nicked it off of the consoler. They were trying to stab me with it!”
“I got one too!” Becca piped up, holding up another, albeit smaller, switchblade. They both started hacking away at the thin strips of metal binding the barbed wire to the fence.
“Got one!” Raelynn said and started moving onto another portion of the fence.
Becca followed her. Kai was stunned, “What do you plan on doing after you cut the barbed wire? They asked.
Raelynn hummed then said, “Push it to one side of the fence, and climb down.”
“Oh. Okay.”
It took about 10 more minutes of insistent cutting and then rearranging the barbed wire before the trio could climb down and touch the ground on the other side.
As soon as they were looking into the camp and not out of it, Raelynn started breaking down in laughter. Kai looked at her and started cracking up too for reasons unknown.
Becca stared at them before crossing her arms and saying, “I’m at least two years younger than you guys- but I’m still the one not laughing their face off right now?!”
Raelynn clapped Becca on the shoulder good-heartedly, “Cause you haven’t been locked in a literal hell for a year. Y’know, they say gays go to hell…. And I guess that’s true!”
Kai started laughing even harder, even Becca breaking into a smile at their expense.
It took a few minutes for the three of them to finally calm down enough to get a move on. But when they did- things finally got serious. “What do we do now?” Raelynn wondered aloud.
Kai started thinking, “Well. We’re both 16, so we could get a job, theoretically… but I don’t think anyone would hire us- besides, we’d probably get put into foster care if we were caught since no one here is 18….”
Becca was silent. “I don’t want to get put into foster care..” She whispered.
Raelynn offered a soft smile. “Don’t worry. We won’t.”
Kai cursed, “Damn well we won’t,” They all looked around, “After all. We are lost in the middle of the forest. “
Everyone’s smile faltered. Becca started shivering, “Are there… animals here?”
“Yes,” Raelynn flipped out her switchblade, “So tread lightly.”
That terrified Becca more than Kai would have advised Raelynn to. “Coyotes, Wolves, BEARS!” Becca’s voice was growing frantic.
Kai smiled and placed a hand on Becca’s shoulder, “It’s okay. They usually won’t bother you unless you go near them. So keep an ear out. Okay?”
Becca grasped their arm, “O-O-okay…”
“You have a blade, don’t you?” Kai asked. Crouching down briefly to pick up a large stick.
“Uh huh!” Becca pulled out a small switchblade from her pocket. “Found it on the ground.”
“I wish I had nicked a blade off someone…” Kai complained loudly, “It would be so much better!!”
Raelynn looked back at them with a small smirk on her face, “Oh stop whining! You’ll be fine!” She started hacking away at some small branches.
“What are you doing?” Becca asked curiously.
Raelynn threw the branches down in a pile at her feet, “Building a fire we need one.”
“How are you going to light it?” Kai asked skeptically
Raelynn pulled a lighter out of her duffel bag and flicked it open, “Been preparing for this for a while you see.” She finished creating a pile of wood and then started covering it in dry pine needles. “The fire will keep away the animals,” She explained, “And hopefully we are far enough from camp so they can not see the flame. Anyway, I just don’t want to get attacked by any wild animals. By any chance, do either of you want to get attacked? Because that can probably be arranged y’know.”
Kai and Becca both shook their heads, “I’m good, thank you.” Becca replied. Raelynn snickered a little bit as she turned away from the two of them in order to light the pine needles on fire.
It proved useful in many ways anyhow, the fire. It provided them with light and warmth as well as protection from any predators that may be lurking near the shadows. Kai and Raelynn all huddled together, pressed up against each other from warmth as they talked and laughed during the night.
Becca yawned, “I’m so tired…” She muttered, “Are either of you tired?”
Raelynn shifted to lay a head on Kai’s shoulder, “Yeah… mind taking first watch, Kai?”
“Not at all,” Kai slung an arm around Raelynn’s shoulder and pulled her close.
Becca gagged in the background, “ANYWAY. RAelynn can I use your bag as a pillow since you have Kai’s shoulder?”
Raelynn blushed but didn’t move away from Kai, “Sure,” SHe replied, “Just make sure you don’t stab yourself or light anything on fire.”
Becca pretended to think, “Hmmm…. I’ll try my best not to!” She curled up, laying her head on the duffel bag and using one of the four sweatshirts Raelynn had packed as a blanket.
Kai leaned back onto the oak tree and stared up at the sky. It had been a while since they were able to just sit back and relax, even at night they hardly got any time in the camp. They stared up at the sky, searching for any constellations. It was a few minutes before Kai realized that they didn’t even know any constellations, save the ones like the big dipper.
Raelynn’s head was resting softly on Kai’s shoulder, and Raelynn was in a deep sleep, breathing quietly as Kai tried their best to ignore the comforting weight on their shoulder. Kai smiled softly as they heard a soft hoot echo through the forest, meaning that there was probably an owl nearby. Animals, they loved animals. When Kai had been younger, their only aspiration was to be a veterinarian and work with all kinds of animals and heal them. When they used to watch animal movies, they would always curl up under the covers and cry because one of the animals had died or something.
They used to have a dog, a brindle Basenji by the name of Echo. The thing about Basenji’s that would always make Kai laugh was their bark. Or rather- lack of bark. Most people would say Basenjis had a ‘fox-like bark’ but Kai had always called it ‘yodeling’. Echo was amazing, and was probably the reason Kai was so intrigued by animals even to this day. She had always led Kai into the most wonderful adventures, and together they did so many things.
But Echo was dead now. Gone. Just like everything else in Kai’s old life. They had thrown everything away- ruining every chance they had for a bright future This brought down their mood greatly. The slumped Raelynn grumbled in her sleep at the sudden change of position. “I’m sorry,” Kai whispered, “I was selfish.”
They had been selfish- knowing that they might die, they had escaped and dragged Raelynn and Becca with them. Raelynn and Becca, are two girls who would’ve been released and have gone back to their normal lives. But Kai had ruined that for them.
Tears started spilling down their cheeks, they bit their lip, trying to silence the sobs, and felt the blood being drawn from a freshly made wound.
Becca stirred, despite being the one further from Kai, she was first to wake before Raelynn.
“Kai?” She whispered, scooching closer to them, “Are you okay?”
Kai nodded, not trusting themself to speak else their voice broke and they completely broke down.
Becca looked around and said, “I’ll keep watch, you get some sleep. Okay? You need it.”
Kai nodded again and leaned back onto the tree, closing their eyes and willing sleep to come to them. It didn’t work. They tried to listen, hear the comforting sound of the forest and Becca murmuring to herself.
And finally, they felt a blissful sense of peace wash over them as sleep overtook them.
So wait, what happen with living consoler? And what was the outcome of the ghost battle?
Don't worry.... The answer is in chap5. I think. I know there's an answer I forgot what chapter I put it in