"Mikey!. Mikey, wake up!" I hissed, shaking my little brother awake. He blinked groggily.
"Are we there yet?"
"Well, why do you think I'm waking you up?" I said in exasperation.
"Sorry. But seriously, I'm so excited!" Mikey giggled and bounced around in his seat.
Let me explain. We were on our way to Camp Wild Spirit. Dumb name, I know, but when Mom found it on the internet, the place sounded so cool, that we just had to go. So we would spend summer here. The bus journey was long, and these kids up front kept singing.
But when we got off the bus, we just laughed happily. Freedom!. No Mom, no Dad. It would be awesome!.
A camp guide met us and took us back to our cute lil' log cabin.
There was me, Mikey, a really short kid called Frank, a guy called Bob, and someone called Ray.
The guy who ran the camp, Dave, came in to see us. He shook hands with us all, and when he went to shake hands with Frank, Frank gave the guy a huge hug.
"Guys, sort the beds out for yourself. There should be someone else arriving shortly." said Dave in a loud, booming voice.
Me and Mikey shared a bunk bed, but I stayed on the lower bunk because I sometimes have bad dreams and fall out of bed.
The door flew open and a tall girl with black hair tied up in a ponytail, pale grey eyes and a tee-shirt which said 'Zombies Have Rights Too!" entered.
"Hiya, people!" she cheered.
We soon found out that she was Brea. She had been here before, and she loved it.
Soon, we were settled in, and just waiting to be called for the Welcoming Campfire.
"So…are you guys spending all summer here?" asked Brea.
We all nodded.
"Woah…you guys are pretty brave" she said softly.
"Huh?. Why?" frowned Ray.
"Never mind. You'll find out tonight"
At the campfire, we all sat in a circle. The fire was huge!. The heat radiated off it.
"How old are you?" asked Brea.
"I'm 13, Mikey's 11" I answered
"I'm fifteen years young, and I'm still awesome" she beamed. Is this gal high or something?.
Suddenly, the sky grew darker. I saw Mikey gulp, but he continued talking to Ray, Frank and Bob. Mikey's a little scared of the dark, see.
"Do you believe in ghosts?" enquired Brea. Her skin was pale and strange shadows flickered off her face. Her eyes seemed huge and luminous.
"No, of course not!" I said.
Brea looked away, a mysterious look on her face.
"After tonight, maybe you will"
A chill ran down my spine.
"What do you mean?" I tried to sound brave, but my voice trembled a little.
"I-It's best you see for yourself" she said.
"Tell me!" I begged. She sighed and looked around, then grabbed my hand and pulled me into the woods. She opened her mouth, but the voice of Dave interrupted her.
"Hey, you two!. No sneaking off in to the woods together!"
Every one laughed and there was some wolf-whistles.
I blushed hotly and sat back down, trying to ignore Mikey's curious gaze.
"Okay, story time, guys. It's time we told you some of our traditional stories" said Dave seriously.
"Long ago, in this very camp, around sixty campers were gathered around this very fire place. They sang and laughed, and told stories. A camp guide brought out a guitar and they sang some more. But suddenly, a thick, foul fog rained down. And when the fog cleared, no body was singing. The campers, everyone, was left dead. Cold and limp."
I giggled nervously. I glanced at Brea, whose eyes were wide, scared and serious.
"Brea?. It's just a story"
"But-but it's true" she said, her eyes wide.
"Right" I rolled my eyes.
That night, I lay on my bed, staring at a spot on the ceiling. A loud curse made me look in the direction of Brea, who was standing in her bra and a pair of shorts, gathering up some make-up she'd dropped. She caught me staring.
"What?. Oh!. Oh, I'm sorry!" she giggled.
I smiled weakly, rolled over and tucked my knees in to my chest, trying to ignore the awkward, uh, problem between my legs. My very obvious and frequent problem. Oh, shit, this is embarrassing!. I hope she doesn't notice-
Too late
"Oh, Gerard, I'm way too old for you" she chuckled, staring at it.
Oh, fuck.
The next day
I sighed. Kids were tossing food everywhere. It was dinner time at camp. Suddenly, a kid I didn't know looked at me.
"Hey, Gerard, look at this!" he cried, then stuck a fork straight in to his eye!.
I moaned in horror. My stomach turned, and my face went white. Then the kid pulled the fork out, with his eye attached to it, leaving a gaping hole. The kid grinned wickedly, then stuck his eye back in the socket with a sickening pop.
And there was no blood. His eye was fine.
"It was just a trick" he beamed.
"But-but" I stammered.
"Just a trick" the kid repeated. I nodded slightly.
After dinner, it was decided to play football in the dark. The boys were on one team, the girls on the other. I found Mikey and told him what happened.
"Something pretty strange happened when I was swimming earlier" he admitted.
"Yeah?. What?"
"Well, there was these girls, and as I was swimming under water, I saw one, she was just lying on the river bed, not moving, not doing anything. I thought she was…dead. I just dived down, and pulled her up to the surface. I was so scared. Then she-then she laughed at me, splashed water in my face and swam away!"
"Woah…weird" I frowned.
Suddenly, the ball roared along to Brea, who was goalie. She didn't see it, and before she could turn, the ball smacked in to the side of her head with a horrible thock . The ball rolled away, and as Brea fell to the ground, her head rolled away as well.
I gasped, and ran over to her. I nervously picked up her head. What am I doing?.
But her head, it feels too hard, too round, it's…it's the football.
"What gives, Gerard?" frowned Brea, sitting up.
Her head was attached and fine!.
"But-your head fell off!" I blurted, then immediately regretted it. Brea laughed and wriggled her head.
"Still here and fine"
"Some body better check your head's still attached, Gerard!" called Bob.
A kid with bright ginger hair walked up behind me, roughly grabbed my hair and sharply yanked my head upwards.
"Ow!" I screamed. Cruel laughter followed me as I stormed away back to the cabin.
I flung myself on the bed, choking back embarrassed tears. The door opened and Ray walked through.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his eyes wide with concern.
"Yeah…I guess I'm maybe a little freaked out. Maybe a good nights sleep would help" I smiled weakly.
"Yeah, maybe. Some of the kids here are weird, don't you think?"
"Just a little" I shuddered.
Ray's cell phone beeped, and he glanced at it.
"Bob and Frank want to see me. Do you wanna come?"
"Nah. I think I'll catch an early night.
Ray nodded and left, and I curled up on my bed. I didn't intend to fall asleep, as it was only around nine-thirty, but I did.
I woke up from a bad dream and fell out of bed, my head hitting the dresser with a sharp crack. I bit my lip as pain, a horrible pain that made me feel sick, swept through me. I bit my lip against the tears. Why do I keep wanting to cry!. I'm thirteen years old!.
"Gerard?. Are you all right?" asked a soft voice from the darkness. I jumped when I saw Brea.
"I'm fine" my voice sounded a little wobbly.
"No you're not" she sighed, and to my surprise, she hugged me!.
I blushed a little.
"Sorry. But when my little cousin has a bad dream he likes me to hug him. I thought it might make you feel better." she explained.
"Yeah." I could feel my eyelids getting heavy as she rubbed my back soothingly, the way mom did when I had a nightmare. I sighed comfortably.
"You don't really seem to like camp, Gerard…" her voice trailed away and I fell asleep…
I woke up the next morning with blankets tucked around me. I was warm and cozy. I could see everyone, including Brea, asleep, so I got out of bed and quickly dressed in a Black Flag tee-shirt and jeans.
Mikey woke up soon after, and got dressed too.
"Morning, Gerard" yawned Brea, ruffling my hair. I rolled my eyes and went to get breakfast with Mikey
When I got back, Brea was listening to music, and Frank, Bob, Ray and Mikey all went to collect fire wood.
I went to pull my i-Pod from under my pillow, and as I moved my blankets back, hundreds of bugs, hundreds, were swarming on my mattress.
I screamed in horror, and Brea pulled me away, wrapping her arms around me.
I screamed into her side, all those bugs…oh god
Brea's POV
Gerard screamed shrilly in to my sweater, and I couldn't calm him down. I wrapped a load of blankets around him, trying to placate him. He eventually quieted down in to a shocked silence, which to me sounded even worse than his screams.
I rubbed his back tenderly. He seemed lost in his own world, his eyes wide and terrified.
I tried to ignore the seething mass of insects writhing around on the bed.
"Gerard, it's okay" I soothed.
"No…no, it's not…." he shuddered.
I stroked his hair.
"They're only bugs."
"They just seem weird."
He was right. There seemed to be an aura of malice around the ugly little beasts.
Someone had deliberately put them there. A lot of strange things have been happening to Gerard recently. Someone is behind this.
Gerard's POV
I blushed. Why would someone take pleasure in embarrassing me like this?.
I sighed and nervously assisted Brea in sorting out the bed.
Three Days Later
Things are still weird. Very weird. I can't say all of them, so much has happened.
I stormed in to the cabin, growling. We had just played football, and hundreds of kids were still teasing me about the head incident.
I heard Brea come in, but I ignored her.
I slammed my bag on to the table. And gasped in pain.
I saw red. Blood. My blood.
As I had slammed my hand down, I had cut my self on a pair of sharp pointed scissors.
I looked at my hand. A deep nasty cut. I blinked back tears. But with the pressure of the past few days, a tear dripped down my face. Soon, I was crying with pain, confusion, anger and fear. I felt Brea put her arm around me, and she pressed a towel to my hand.
"Gerard, it's time we told you" she murmured. I sobbed out a "What?"
"Gerard, you know all the strange things that have been happening?. Well, it's because…it's because we're…I don't know how to say this, but some of these kids are… okay, this camp is a government testing zone. The kids who have done the freaky stuff are robots. The rest of us, everyone in this cabin, we are normal, but we all get paid. The government are using us to see how the robots react to humans."
I froze. Holy fuck. I pressed closer to Brea.
I looked at her, fear in my eyes.
She burst out laughing.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!. No, really this is where practical jokes are tested. Sorry you got hurt, baby, but this is a joke factory. We are the crème de la crème when it comes to practical jokes!"
We never did go back to camp.
THE END