Camp

The autumn leaves littered the campsite and pattered over the roof of the tent as Mei and her siblings assembled the shelter. The fresh air, sweet with the scent of berries and decomposing leaves, made Mei glad they had decided on camping for her birthday. Though, based on Yin's sulking pout and Blake's stubborn silence as they pulled rods from sleeves and fashioned together the support for the tent, she was the only glad one.

If the three of them could get through this one weekend of no phones, then maybe the tension in their home would lessen. It's hard to deal with certain… feelings, when you're constantly medicating yourself with social media. A few days without any distractions except for the beauty of nature would do them good, regardless. Or so Mei hoped.

"Yin," Mei called. Her younger sister's black curly hair bounced as she turned to Mei, looking up from her squat on the tarp, hands pausing in the middle of fishing out the last tent rods. "Would you mind moving? I'm going to lay out the tent on the tarp."

Yin rose with the petulant sigh that only a preteen could manage, dusting off her skirt and fleece lined leggings, and removed herself from the blue tarp. She crossed her arms and moved to stand beside her brother Blake as he slotted together the last of the rods. His new black hoody had a bright red leaf stuck to it.

"I don't understand why we have to share just one tent, Mei-Chii." Yin complained as her elder sister patiently shook the rolled tent onto the tarp. It was a bright orange, contrasting sharply with the noisy blue of the waterproof plastic beneath it. "I'm twelve years old now, can't I have my own tent?"

Mei only hummed thoughtfully, trying to keep the mood light despite Yin's best attempts. It was best not to say anything… probably.

Blake, the tall and lanky middle child, ruffled his younger sister's hair. "No can do, Yin-Hime. Your big sis wants to bond with you, and that means locking you in a small enclosed space with nothing to do but stare at her for a few days."

At his bland slight, Mei frowned a bit. Things had been hard enough lately; she really didn't need Blake's help making matters any worse. "Blake, that's not fair. You know that's not the only reason to share a tent. It's safer if we're all together."

The teenage boy scoffed at her. "Safer? What's going to happen to us? A bunny gonna sneak in and eat Yin in her sleep?"

"Oh! That would be kinda cute." Yin seemed to perk up at that. Are there bunnies around here?"

Mei couldn't help but feel a bit sour but answered her anyways. "Well. Of course there are. We're in the Appalachians, there's bound to be plenty of them."

Her light eyes widened with wonder and excitement. "Oh! I can't wait to find a cute little bunny. If I catch one, can I keep it as a pet?"

Mei felt the instant refusal budding on her lips, but pressed them shut. How likely was it that Yin would actually catch a wild rabbit? Pretty unlikely. With a sigh, Mei relented. "Sure. If you can catch a live rabbit, you can keep it."

With a peal of squeals and claps, Yin bounced around the camp plot, looking like a bunny herself. Her pigtails flopped like rabbit ears as she bounded off through the trees to begin her hunt. "Yaaaay! I'm gonna name it Bon-Bon!"

With a smile, Mei couldn't help but feel a bit guilty knowing that her enthusiasm was consigned to a likely demise. Well, at least Yin was looking forward to something. Now, all Mei had to do was convince her younger brother to… do something other than give her cold looks from under his dark fringe of hair.

"Great. Now that the princess has run off, it's just us left to put the tent together." Blake muttered sourly, head shaking miserably as he stooped to hook a pole into a loop of the main tent body. Mei put her hands on her hips, the soft fleece of her spring green jacket was lost to her cold, numb fingers.

Mei tried to sigh light heartedly. "Well. It's not like it's particularly difficult."

Blake chose not to reply, silently working on threading the pole through the roof of the tent. The deep 'v' between his brows spoke plenty to Mei. It said that he was going to make this weekend as much of a hell for her as it was for him.

By the time Yin returned to their camp site, the sky was a spill of tangerine and strawberry, framed by the reaching fingers of trees. The tent was erected facing away from the gravel road they had arrived on, away from the van that had brought them.

The fire pit was piled high with wood, but had not been started yet. Yin paused in her jog back into camp when she saw it; the prospect of a fire. It was as if there were some invisible barrier of ten feet between Yin and the firepit. There was horror written on her young face.

Mei felt her younger sister's panic and gave her a grim smile. "I know… I wasn't sure if we should start it without you."

Yin remained rooted to the spot, as if afraid the matches in Mei's hand would leap from her fingers and bite her. Blake sighed noisily, slapping his thighs as he rose from his spot on a log adjacent to the unlit logs. It was the first sound he'd made since Yin had taken off.

"I knew your head is in the clouds, trying to chase some fantasy of a whole and happy family, but I didn't know you were that much of a dunce, Mei." He grumbled, gathering his frozen sister into his arms and rubbing her back soothingly. Yin's wide eyes glittered wetly, locked onto the little sulfur tipped sticks in Mei's hand, unable to look away from them. "No fucking fires."

Mei looked down. The weight of his statement sagged her shoulders. She returned the sticks to their box and sat the matches beside the ring of stones. "Right. No fires."

"You know, I noticed that there weren't that many people camping out here." Yin chirped, her legs wrapped up in her pink sleeping bag. The box of graham crackers laid out in her lap was steadily vanishing as she munched away like a woodchipper. "There's only like… two other groups here."

Mei tried her best to smile. But it was hard, when dinner was such a pitiful affair. All she could eat of what they brought was unheated baked beans. Without a fire, the three of them had significantly limited their food options. "Really? Just two?"

Yin bobbed her head enthusiastically, mouth full of cracker bits. She squawked indignantly when Blake's hand came down and mussed at her hair.

"Did you go snooping around people's tents, Yin-Hime?"

She swatted at his arm, a cracker in hand. He snatched it from her and took a bite as she swallowed her mouth full of cookie dust.

"Nooo! I didn't snoop!" She whined, trying to fix her hair back into its pigtails with her hands. She groaned in defeat as she recognized the lost cause and pulled the ties from her hair. In the lamp light, Blake's eyes gleamed with mirth, to which Mei could only shake her head. "But, I did notice some cute guys at one of the camps."

Yin's eyes flashed with mischief in the electric lantern's light as she bounced her brows over at her elder sister. It was a comically evil look. At her teasing, Mei immediately felt words of condemnation flow to the tip of her tongue. It took a concentrated effort not to loose the flood of scorn on her sister, but Mei had to remind herself of the purpose of this camping trip. This was supposed to be bonding; it was intended to lighten the mood.

So Mei laughed instead. Softly, behind her hand. In response, Yin's face brightened more than Mei anticipated, and she felt a warmth wash over her at the sight. Warmth, and gratitude.

"So do you want to go meet them tomorrow?" Yin asked excitedly.

A moment of anxiety struck Mei. "Oh, well…"

Across the tent, Blake snorted, drawing their attention as he settled into his sleeping bag. "No way. Your Nee-San is only brave when she has to scorn people younger than her. But social interaction? That's her worst nightmare."

Blake folded his arms under his chin, dark eyes locked with Mei's as she frowned at him. He was smirking. A bait. Mei smelled it a mile away; she knew Blake's games. Yin swiveled to look at her sister, bubbling over with excitement.

"Come on, Mei-Chii! I'll go with you!" She urged, one hand on her elder sister's arm and rocking her. "There's at least one really cute one, I promise! You won't even have to talk!"

Mei sighed, feeling the tide of impending doom rising up to swallow her. "Yin-Chan, why must you always be so boy crazed? You're only twelve, can't you stay a kid just a little longer?"

Yin's eyes were round as Mei began stroking her hair, but she pouted when her age was mentioned. However, she did not stop Mei's gentle ministrations.

"I'm not that boy crazy… I just think maybe it would be good to meet some other people." Yin yawned and stretched tiredly. "We're going to be stuck out here in the middle of nowhere for a few days anyhow."

Mei, recognizing that her sister was likely to just sleep in crackers if she was left to her own devices, rolled up the bag inside the box and sealed it. "Well… maybe you're right. We'll talk about it some more in the morning."

As Yin curled up in her pink sleeping bag, Mei wished that her sister would cuddle up with her, as she did when they were little. It would be comforting to hold her, to be sure she was safe through the night. But the times when Yin would crawl into her bed after a nightmare were long ago.

Mei turned out the lamplight. And the dark swallowed all illusions. Nothing was left to distract from the ache of loss. Not even the chorus of crickets could block out the phantom sound of crackling wood that rang in her ears.

Behind her eyelids, the fire still blazed. The rabid beast that tore their childhood with it's molten teeth, and spat out the ashes of innocence. Mei could still smell her grandfather's funeral pyre.

She believed she could still smell the stench of burning flesh and human hair.