Chapter 1: Stories from Camp
Roxas eyelids fluttered. The soft music coming from the vintage movie he was watching was putting him to sleep. The quiet but lively music from the movie was guiding the blonde to a land that he longed for since the morning, eventually he got to his dreamland, but alas a shock travelled through Roxas's body and his body jolted up from his nap. Roxas shook his head and looked at the television. The movie ended.
"Did I fall asleep?" he asked himself as he stood up and tried to gather his mind.
"It's freezing!"
Roxas rubbed his shoulders to attempt to gain some warmth then headed for the kitchen.
Roxas pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the time.
"Its 1 am…Sora better be on his way home or I swear to god…"
The back door is wide open. Maybe the wind blew it open, Roxas thought. Or maybe stupid Sora got home and forgot to close the back door. Before heading to the door, Roxas flicked the switch for the kitchen light and waited for the light to fill the room before closing the door. He'd seen enough horror movies to figure out that randomly opened doors, being home alone, and the dark were not good combinations.
"Sora? Are you home?" he yelled from his spot.
He waited for a response but never got one from his brother, instead the sky rumbled and soon enough it started to rain.
"Great…and a storm is added to the equation. All I need now is a serial killer and I'm set for a scary film."
Roxas dialed Sora's number on his phone and cautiously headed for the mysteriously open door.
"Hello?" Sora answered
"Come home now, I wanna go to sleep!" he peeked his head out and looked to see if anything was out place.
"I am! I am! Riku and I are on are way there now."
"Alright, hurry…" He hung up and put his phone in his pocket then closed the door.
"On second thought, maybe I didn't check clearly enough…"
Right as Roxas was about to open the door, a flash of lightning came and a shadowy figure appeared on the other side of the window of the door. Roxas let out a scream and locked the door instinctively. He backed away from the door, jumped to the kitchen counter, grabbed a knife and fell to the ground, hiding underneath the kitchen island. He frantically pulled his phone out from his pocket and called Sora again. Suddenly the front door opened.
"Roxas, stop calling me I'm home!" Sora shouted from the front door.
"Sora!" Roxas jumped up and looked back at the door, terrified to see the shadowy figure again. It wasn't there anymore.
"Roxas I'm so…" Sora entered the kitchen and saw the knife in Roxas's hand "Are you cooking something?"
Roxas stuttered and dropped the knife onto the counter.
"what's wrong? It looks like you'd seen a ghost" Sora's eyebrows were furrowed and he held Roxas's trembling hands.
"I-I think I've been watching waay to many scary movies." Roxas started to calm down. "I accidentally fell asleep and when I woke up, the back door was open. When I closed the door, lightning struck and I saw this weird figure on the other side of the window."
Sora nervously chuckled "Yea…I agree, I think you've been watching too many scary movies. Your imagination has obviously taken over your mind!"
Sora headed for the fridge and grabbed himself a can of coke "I don't understand how you can even watch those kinds of movies."
"At camp, a friend and I would watch a few every night" Roxas rested on the counter. "Do you mind if I sleep in your room tonight? I'm still a bit shaken."
"Of course. But be warned, Riku's calling and we might go till early morning."
"Believe me I know how early you guys can go…"
Sora laughed and headed upstairs to his room. Roxas stared at the back door and waited for another flash of lighting to see if there truly was anything on the other side of the door. The thunder roared in the sky, followed by a flash of lightning which lit up the outside. There was nothing. Nothing but the raindrops that tapped the window. Roxas let out a sigh of relief and walked to the door to make sure that the door was locked. Another sigh was let out when the familiar positions of the lock showed that he was safe from whatever was outside, if there ever was anything outside. Without looking directly through the window, Roxas quickly placed a chair under the door handles, turned off the lights and dashed into Sora's room.
The sun arrived, and the fear which kept Roxas awake all night had sizzled and died. Roxas and Sora went through their daily morning routine, wake up, eat breakfast, take a shower, get dressed for school, and then waited for Riku to drive them all to school. At school Roxas went his separate ways from Sora and Riku, for he had some student council business he had to deal with.
Roxas held a folder in his hand and walked down the crowded hallway, greeted by other students with "Hey!"'s and "How are you?"'s to which he responded with a "hey" back and a "I'm good, you?"
"The other students seem to have taken a liking to our Roxas" Namine said as she watched the students greet the blonde.
"Yea since his story got out, people have been treating him like a God." Kairi responded as she played with the ends of her dark auburn hair.
Pence and Hayne arrived holding bags filled with boxes of pie.
"Did Roxas release a book or something?" Pence asked, dropping the bags in front of Kairi.
"Hey, be careful with those!" Kairi stood up and smacked the back of Pence's head. "we need them for the contest later during lunch time" Kairi pulled the boxes of pie from the bag and individually checked each box to see if the pie had broken in any way.
"Pence, you didn't hear about what happened to Roxas when he went to camp?" Hayner asked
Pence rubbed the back of his head, the spot that Kairi smacked. "Nope, what happened to him?"
Sora and Riku entered the group. Sora overhearing Pence's question, he answered. "When Roxas went to his camp's winter retreat, there was a camper who'd gone crazy and set all the cabins on fire…"
"That sounds like those stories you tell around a campfire." Pence was in disbelief, he'd heard lots of stories about people going crazy at a camp. "You guys are just making this up.
The group went silent. Not a breath was taken.
"This is no joke, Pence…" Riku broke the silence
"Roxas saved the campers, but while he was trying to save them, the person who had set the cabins on fire attacked him…" Namine added
"One of the campers saved Roxas, but the kid who set the cabins on fire got away. No one knows where he is and no one knows who saved my brother" Sora added
"When that story got out, everyone here has been treating Roxas as a hero." Hayner said while he helped Kairi look through the boxes.
"Holy crap…" Pence was shocked. Speechless. Every ounce of thought that once ran through his brain disappeared. He could not believe that something like that would even happen. That it wasn't just some make believe story that was told at a campfire. This was real. This is a true event that his friend had gone through. The lines of reality and fantasy had crumbled for a few moments for Pence.
Roxas sat in the library working on his english homework while listening to the songs that played on his ipod.
What is the symbolism of the sea in the poem and how does it relate to life?
"How much is this question worth?...10? How the hell am I supposed to give an answers about this that's worth 10 marks when it barely asked me anything?"
Roxas quietly sighed and let go of his pencil. He rested his head on his hands and stared down at his notebook.
"Maybe if I stare at it long enough it'll answer itself…"
Roxas's phone started vibrating. Quickly, he pulled it from his pocket to see that he got a text from a blocked number. The confused blonde opened the text and read it.
"Hello, Roxas."
Roxas raised a brow and responded back to the text, asking who it was.
"You don't need to know who I am. All you need to know is that I'm keeping a close eye on you."
"Stop texting me, freak" Roxas did not have any patience for any of this nonsense. He set down his phone and got started to work on his English. Suddenly his phone started vibrating again. It sounded louder now that it did initially. Roxas snatched his phone from the table and checked the text. It was a picture file. He opened the text and looked at the picture. It was a picture of a blonde haired person, sitting in a library looking at their cellphone. Roxas heart dropped. His breathing got shaky. It was a photo of himself. Roxas pulled the earphones off of his ears and slammed it on his notebook. He stood up and stomped to where it looked like the photo came from. It looked like it came from behind one of the bookshelves. And that's where he went. He checked every isle and didn't find a soul. He looked at his surroundings to see if there was anyone who looked suspicious. He carefully examined every face he passed by to see if there was any sign of them snickering. Any sign that might have shown who was messing with him.
It's probably a joke or something… he thought to himself. He headed back to his table and as soon as he got there he got another text from the blocked number.
"Check your ipod. I dedicated it for you."
Roxas gulped then looked around to see if there was anyone looking at him. He didn't see anyone. Slowly he reached for his ipod and pressed the button, lighting up the screen. It was the song Johanna from the musical Sweeney Todd. The lyrics were set across the screen.
"I feel you Johanna. Do you think that walls can hide you? Even now I'm at your window."
Roxas dropped his ipod on the table, to which he then got another message from the blocked number. It was a video this time, a video of Roxas picking up his ipod then dropping it, the video taken from one of the windows looking into the library. Roxas frantically packed up his things then ran out of the library. Sending the text "leave me alone you sick fuck!" as he scurried down the empty hallway leading away from the library and into the school's courtyard. Roxas's breath was heavy with fear. He tried to calm himself as he stumbled down the barren courtyard. He started to feel light headed. This could be some sick prank that his friends were pulling on him, but Roxas couldn't help but think that it was the mental person from camp who had come back to finish him off. Roxas looked over his shoulder to see if there was anyone following him when he ran into someone. Roxas screamed then fell to the ground, his books scattering all over the ground.
"Watch it!" a husky voice shouted. "Geez, chicken wuss, you almost made me drop my slurpie!"
It was Seifer. Tears fell from Roxas's eyes and his trembling started to calm down.
"What the hell happened to you?" Seifer asked. He looked around to see if there was anyone else around then he knelt to the ground and placed a hand on Roxas's back.
"What's wrong?" There was softness in Seifer's voice, the softness and calmness that comes once every blue moon. This is the second time Roxas has experienced this blue moon.
Seifer rubbed the back of Roxas's back, which seemed to calm Roxas a lot quicker than expected. Roxas shook his head.
"S-someone's messing with me…" That was the most Roxas could say at the moment. As much as he was being calmed down, the fear still lingered.
"I'm going to take you away from here, ok?" Seifer helped Roxas get back on his feet. The taller blonde quickly looked around to see if there was anyone there. Luckily everybody was still in class. Seifer picked up Roxas's books then led him out of the courtyard and into his truck.
Seifer drove Roxas far from the school and they went into a quiet and almost empty coffee shop.
"Go sit somewhere; I'll get you something to drink. What do you want?" Seifer asked as he watched Roxas pick a seat in the corner of the shop.
"anything…"
Seifer headed for the counter and ordered them both a drink while Roxas sat on a couch underneath the spiral staircase. He hid in the shadows. As he hid he looked out the window across from him to see if anyone had followed them. Roxas had no idea who this person who was messing with him could be. Ideas ran through his head that maybe he was just over reacting and it was just Hayner or Sora messing with him. But images the images of a worn out hoodie appeared in his head. The same hoodie that the crazy person wore. The same person who burned the cabins. What if it truly was that person who is messing with Roxas? What was going to happen to him if it was the crazy person.
Seifer held two mugs and set one down in front of himself and the other in front of Roxas.
"Alright, tell me what's going on." Seifer said sternly
Roxas looked directly at Seifer. He didn't know where to begin. A lump started to form behind Roxas's throat. The fear crept in the more he thought about the situation.
"does this have anything to do with camp?"
Roxas stopped breathing.
"Roxas, tell me now."
