AN: Thank you everyone who has been reading and/or commenting so far!
This chapter mentions Girl Guides, which is what Girl Scouts is called in the UK. Just like in the U.S, there are different levels (Guides are ages 10-14, Brownies are 7-10, and Rainbows are 4-7).
The large stretch of land referred to as the Chrysalis Creek Campgrounds was nestled in a secluded, forested area within a twenty minute's drive of Manchester. Towering trees, bubbling creeks, and winding paths made it the perfect getaway for those wishing to escape the bustling and bothers of everyday life.
One of those individuals was Kenneth Wilson, a fourth-year Muggleborn Ravenclaw student who had the misfortune of attending Hogwarts during the Blitz in 1940. Like many fellow Muggleborns, the thought of needing to return home during the holidays felt absurd and downright offensive. But when Kenneth begged Armando Dippet to bend the rules and allow the Muggleborns to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays, Dippet was adamant to stick with the precedent: No student was allowed to stay in the school during the winter holidays, regardless of circumstances—end of discussion.
It was the first rule that Albus Dumbledore changed when he became Headmaster, and for good reason.
Kenneth gathered a small, motley group of fellow fourth-year students concerned about returning home and suggested that, since no one else would do it, they needed to protect themselves. He thought of Chrysalis Creek, the grounds where his father—before he went off to fight and die in the war—would often take him to watch the Creek's famed butterflies. Kenneth suggested they hide out in a cave there, shield it with magic (the warning letter he would later receive from the Ministry would be burned in effigy), and wait it out until they could return to Hogwarts.
And, for two days, that's what they did, until a Gryffindor got bored and suggested visiting Manchester for just a couple hours before returning to Chrysalis Creek. All except a sullen Slytherin went into the city, and all except that sullen Slytherin ended up dying a fiery, painful death when the bombs dropped on December 22nd.
When the Slytherin returned to Hogwarts with a newfound terror and respect for the fragility of life, Dippet made a speech about the senselessness of "Muggle wars" and the "inescapable, unavoidable tragedy" that occurred to those six Muggleborns. The Slytherin and Albus Dumbledore would both listen intently, but would come to very different conclusions.
It would not be the first time Hogwarts failed its students with Muggle parents, and it would not be the last.
The shielding charm on the cave was never lifted; it never even crossed the Slytherin's mind to do so. And because of this, the "Missing Cave" of the Chrysalis Creek Campgrounds became a legend, and no Muggle was able to see it in the years since.
That is, until the summer of 1991, when a blonde haired, gray-eyed eleven-year old girl accidentally used magic for the first time.
"Diana, why don't you tell the rest of us how you discovered the cave?"
Goddamnit. Thirty different pairs of eyes belonging to girls of various ages locked onto her as she swallowed. There was nothing particularly threatening about those eyes, or who they belonged to; after all, every girl in the camp made the same Promise Diana did, saying that they would—on their honor—do their best, do their duty to God and country, help people at all times, and obey the Guide law. Still, they were giving Diana a lot of attention, and if there was one thing Diana White loathed more than anything else, it was attention.
She clutched at her sash—newly received "Explore, Stage 4" badge pinned at the top—and shot a panicked look to the other three inhabitants of her table. Help.
One of them, a freckled girl with sloppily-cut, shaggy red hair, spoke up. "Diana's got a sore throat, Ms. Layla," she lied. "I can tell the story since I was there."
Ms. Layla smiled, not falling for that bullshit for one second. "That's kind of you to offer, Claire. I know you're the Patrol Leader of your group, but I'd really like Diana to be the one to tell it, since she was the first to make the discovery. Diana, you can take a drink of water first if you need to."
Diana reluctantly took the glass in front of her and put it to her lips, sipping as slowly as possible. She knew this was coming. Layla Abbas—the Girl Guides unit leader and counselor—had been dropping not-so-subtle hints over the past week that Diana had "leadership potential" if she would only be willing to speak up more. Diana had the whole script written out in her head and was inwardly practicing it for hours. So why the fuck couldn't she remember it now?
Racking her brain, Diana stared blankly at the Rainbows, Brownies, and other Guides, who were now eyeing her with a mixture of wary, confused, and bored expressions. A table of Brownies started whispering and she heard a Rainbow whine to a nearby counselor that she was hungry.
She could feel the pitying expressions of her friends, which made her feel even more miserable. She looked at Ms. Layla, who was smiling at her encouragingly. Okay, the speech wasn't going to come back to her so…Screw it, I need to just start already. She put the glass down.
"Hi. I'm Diana. I found the cave." Jesus Christ… "I was walking outside with my Patrol. We wanted to see if we could find the missing cave because we thought that would let us, um, win the competition for who could make the best map of the camp." She winced at how tacky and un-Girl Guides-ish that sounded. "B-but we also knew it would be tough because it's been missing since World War II. Even the people who tried to reach it by traveling through the underground cave system couldn't see it either. It was like it vanished, as if by—-" Diana's mouth snapped shut. Nope. Not going to say it.
Her hands started shaking slightly from underneath the table. "I-I thought we could go to the historical center and the person at the desk let us make copies of the old maps of the campgrounds and the cave system. And t-then we used those maps to the area where the mouth of the missing cave was supposed to be."
Ms. Layla blinked at the abruptness of the ending. "Could you please tell us more about how you found the cave, once you received the maps?" she pressed, eyes shining in a way that Diana knew she wouldn't be off the hook until she told the story.
She hesitated. If she hadn't sounded like enough of an idiot already, the next part would seal the deal. "The other members of my Patrol fanned out a bit and I just kept looking at the spot where it was supposed to be." It was like I could sense it was there, but no way in hell am I saying that. "I just kept staring at this hill in front of me and was hoping it could somehow reveal where the cave was and then, um, I saw it. The cave. It was actually built into the hill the whole time but no one realized it, I think. It was strange, like everyone's minds just wandered whenever they looked at the hill and didn't notice it was actually a cave. It might have been an optical illusion or something"—or aliens—"But once I saw it, then the rest of my Patrol could too."
There was silence and Diana thought she heard giggles come from one of the tables. Were they laughing at her, or was she overthinking things again and they were really laughing at some other, unrelated joke? Her face started to heat up; this is why she didn't want to tell the story. It sounded so damn unbelievable and made her seem like a whackjob.
"And then we went into the cave!" Claire couldn't help blurting. There were excited whispers now from the tables, and Ms. Layla started frowning. She knew Claire said that to take heat away from Diana, but still…Goddamnit, Claire…
"I don't believe you mentioned this part to me yesterday."
"We just walked a few feet," Diana tried to reassure her. "We could still see the light from outside."
Ms. Layla looked a bit skeptical and addressed the unit as a whole: "As a general reminder, entering any of the caves in the camp are strictly prohibited. We have the barriers set up for a reason. Chrysalis Creek is designed to be safe to freely explore, but purposely bypassing the safety precautions and camp rules can result in serious harm for our campers."
"But it wasn't even blocked!" Claire protested indignantly.
Figuring it would be best to just go along with Ms. Layla (She's not wrong, either), Diana said, "You're right, Ms. Layla. It was dangerous, and we didn't handle it responsibly."
Ms. Layla's warm smile returned. "I'm glad that you realize it. Sometimes our mistakes can be the best teachers." She turned to the rest of the unit. "Given the initiative Dandelion Patrol showed over the past few days, I think we can all agree that they deserve to win first place in the map-making contest. Even without finding the cave, the map they created shows a great deal of effort and precision."
Ms. Layla gestured to the bulletin board near the entrance to the pavilion, which was covered with maps from the different patrols. The vast majority of the girls at camp clearly didn't give a shit and cobbled something together at the last minute, but there were two that stood out as showing actual effort: "Dandelion Patrol's" (aka mine, since Claire, Becky, and Olivia didn't do anything) and Tulip Patrol's.
Ms. Layla smiled as she went over to their table and gave them their prize, which was a cheap-looking piece of plastic in the imitation of a medal with a #1 on it. But Diana didn't care about the prize itself—prizes were never the reason why she worked so hard. Getting three hours of sleep the night before to finish the map was worth it for the validation alone.
Then why do I feel guilty, like I cheated somehow?
Diana's gaze drifted to Tulip Patrol's map, and then at their table where Samantha—the Patrol Leader—was looking at Ms. Layla with rapt attention. Samantha always put in 110% of the effort—her patrol would have no doubt won if Diana didn't find the cave. Diana suddenly felt inadequate, like some kind of imposter, as she always did when comparing herself to the brown-haired girl.
Ms. Layla continued, "And with that, it's time for our final breakfast before heading home to Amberton. Thank you all for a wonderful and successful camp experience!"
Polite clapping accompanied the end of Ms. Layla's speech as the Rainbows, Brownies, and Guides all began to chat away merrily. Diana eyed her plate with mixed feelings. The pancakes and strawberries looked so tantalizing, but she knew it would be a very long time before she had another breakfast that was anything like what they served at the camp.
" 'You're right, Ms. Layla. It was dangerous, and we didn't handle it responsibly,'" mimicked Claire, nudging Diana with her elbow. Diana looked up and relaxed a bit at the gleeful mirth in her eyes. "My God, Diana. You're more of a suck-up than even Samantha."
Diana snuck a glance at Samantha's table, who was listening to the conversation of one of her own patrol members while eating. To Diana's relief, she didn't seem upset about losing.
"Was anything I said wrong? It was stupid to go into a random cave that no one's ever explored. We could have died."
"Oh come one, we literally just walked in a straight line for a few feet," Claire scoffed. "Oooh, so scary."
"There could have been some monster hiding there or something. Like in It with the killer clown," giggled Becky, a stocky pigtailed girl.
Olivia took a biteful of her pancake and put a strand of long, dark hair behind her ear as delicately dabbed her mouth with a napkin, "I think it's more likely the roof or floor could have collapsed or something. Or maybe there were people who died in the cave and they left, like, malaria and the germs were on the cave walls and then we would die."
Diana thought back on entering the cave and shuddered. "It'll be interesting to see what they find when the actual professionals arrive to explore it, though."
"I'm sure it'll be on the telly or something. Anyway, I'm just glad we were able to beat them," Claire smirked, stabbing the sausage on her plate with a bit of extra force and jerking her head towards Tulip Patrol's table.
Diana frowned. "You should really ease up on Samantha."
Claire rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me? She's a snitch! You know she told Ms. Layla that I was the one who drew the dicks on the picnic tables! And then when I was watching the Rainbows, she acted all high-and-mighty."
"That's because you almost let one drown because you kept talking to Imani."
Claire's face grew red. "Ok, well, I didn't see her helping you out when you were floundering before."
Ouch. "Was I really that bad?"
"No, you weren't," Olivia rushed to reassure her while glaring daggers at Claire.
Diana turned her head. "...Becky?"
Becky looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Guess that answers my question. Damn it.
"Ok, well, I appreciate it, Claire. I do. I just think–"
The conversation was interrupted by Becky's shrieks as she spilled milk all over her sash, and in the resulting chaos, the topic was forgotten.
As breakfast concluded and the unit was told by Ms. Layla to go back to their cabins and pack their belongings, Diana hesitated. She felt an impulsive whim and decided to act on it before she chickened out. "Um, I need to do…something. I'll meet you back at the cabin."
Oh yeah, that wasn't conspicuous at all. Claire looked at her with narrowed eyes. "What 'something'?"
In spite of her twisting nerves, Diana said determinedly, "I-I want to try to smooth things over with Samantha."
Claire actually hissed out loud as if she was stabbed with a fire poker. "What the hell is wrong with you? She's the enemy!"
Diana giggled in spite of herself. "'The enemy,' really? Listen to yourself…this is Girl Guides, we're not storming the beaches of Normandy. Relax."
"Why do you want to talk to her though?" Olivia asked, tilting her head curiously. "She hates us."
"I'm pretty sure she just hates Claire, and to be honest, Claire, I don't really blame her. You've been acting like a bitch to her this whole trip."
"Well, that's because she's a bitch," Claire snapped. "It's called being reciprocal."
"Why so suddenly, though?" Olivia pressed.
Becky grinned mischievously. "It's because she's got a girl crush on Samantha!"
Claire spun around and looked at Becky, affronted.
"I do not," Diana protested, heat rising to her cheeks. "I don't have a crush on anyone." Besides River Phoenix, my future husband, she added mentally. "I admit that I admire her in a non-romantic way—"
"Why?"
Because I wish I was her and if I'm friends with her then maybe her goodness can rub off on me. "I don't know, she just seems like a decent person. She's so…self-assured all the time. And she's kind, and genuine." That was the big one: genuine. "I-I think we—not just me, but all of us—could get along and be friends if we just buried the hatchet. Wouldn't that be a good thing?"
Claire scrunched her nose. "Eww, I don't want to hear any more. Look, we'll go, but we're all going to forget this whole conversation happened once we leave the pavilion. Seriously."
Olivia and Becky started giggling as they followed Claire. Diana watched them go warily, but ignored her inner butterflies as she focused on her new mission. Well, it's now or never. Diana made her way over to Samantha's table, who was also finishing up.
"Hi, Samantha. IwaswonderingifIcould"-SLOWER—"talk to you for a minute." Diana asked. The other girls around Samantha gave her a weird look and Diana suddenly regretted this decision. Why am I like this? Samantha studied her with an impassive expression (How does she do that?) and nodded.
Now that they were alone, she didn't know how to start. She was never particularly good with social interactions. "I just wanted to say that I think your map looks really good."
Samantha gave a small smile. "Thank you."
There was a pause and Diana realized Samantha was waiting for her to say more. "If we didn't find the cave, you probably would have won."
"Yeah, probably."
God, she's like the damn Mona Lisa. What is she thinking? Diana's palms started to sweat. "Are you upset that we won?"
Samantha shrugged. "No. I didn't really care about winning. I'm more interested in the whole experience."
"Oh." Diana suddenly felt like shit. "That's…noble."
"Were you doing it for the prize?"
Diana thought of the crappy plastic medals that were probably bought from some bargain bin. "No, that's not it. I wanted to show others what I could do, I guess." Aaaand now I sound like an overconfident arse. Great.
"Well, I think it's good that you cared. I remember when you first joined Girl Guides and just complained the whole time."
Diana winced at the unfortunate but accurate recollection. "I didn't want to join. My grandma made me because…because she thought it would be good for me."
In truth, her grandma made Diana join because it doubled as another childcare service and she needed that extra time to work and provide for her granddaughter. Her mother, at that point in time, was in no condition to help.
"What changed?"
Diana smiled wryly. "I dunno, I guess I started believing the Promise the more times I said it. It's a nice goal, trying to make yourself a better person and help the world." Even though I know I'm not, and never could.
Diana considered saying that it gave her some kind of guidance and direction, perhaps even purpose, but it sounded so ridiculously corny in her head that she could only imagine how awful it would be if she actually said it out loud in real life.
Samantha nodded. "That makes sense." She paused. "You know, it's really nice of you to reach out like this. I don't know how much work the others did with actually putting the map together" —Not much— "but it's obvious to everyone that you were the brains behind the whole thing. You planned it out and gathered all the materials and stuff." Oh my God she's complimenting me. "You should have been Patrol Leader instead of Claire."
The inner butterflies she was feeling from the previous compliment turned to ice. "W-well, they asked me but…yeah. You saw why that wouldn't work out." Samantha just continued to look at her without saying anything, so Diana swallowed and felt compelled to continue. "I'm not really good with speaking up in front of people. I don't like drawing a lot of attention to myself."
"Why not?"
Diana felt a twinge of irritation. "You know why."
When a person from Amberton heard the name "Diana White," they thought immediately of Sarah White. And who in Amberton didn't know the story of her mum, crazy Sarah White?
Sarah White, who dropped out of university to run off with some bloke, only to get knocked up and abandoned after three months?
Sarah White, who—after several years of hoping he'd return—has some breakdown when she realized it wasn't happening and started changing her story, claiming she was raped instead?
Sarah White, whose stories and inconsistencies grew more and more absurd and unbelievable as time went on and developed an elaborate fantasy scenario instead of admitting she was pump-and-dumped?
Sarah White, whose mind cracked and was deemed an unfit mother by the courts at one point, and blamed it on wizards messing with her mind?
Yes, everyone in Amberton knew about Sarah White, and Diana hated it.
Samantha had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. "I was just asking because you mentioned before about making a difference. You can't really do that if you want to sit on the sidelines."
"Oh." Damn you and your logic. "Well, I guess I won't be making a difference then."
Diana wasn't joking, but Samantha took it as such and giggled. "We'll see. You've still got some years left."
In truth, Diana wasn't sure if she'd even be able to continue the program due to the financial expenses, but attempted to fake it anyway. "Haha. Yeah, you're right."
There was a short lull, and Diana knew this was the natural end point of the conversation but thought just saying "Bye" abruptly sounded weird. After mentally struggling for a few seconds, she settled on, "I'll see you at the next event!" If I'm lucky, considering how much this one trip cost.
"Yup, sounds like a plan. Bye!"
The two girls waved to each other and then parted ways, heading to opposite directions of the campgrounds.
It wasn't completely terrible, Diana thought to herself happily as a blue butterfly fluttered by her head. Thank God. This whole week felt like a dream, as if she were someone else's life instead of her own. She knew that in a few hours she'd be back in her dreary, run-down neighborhood, standing in front of her small shack of a house with its chipped white paint and overgrown lawn. Smoothing things out with Samantha was a key step to helping Diana achieve what she was hoping for this whole week: to end the trip on a positive note.
But of course, that didn't happen.
Walking closer to the door, she heard a crunching sound and looked down. Underneath her shoe was what looked to be some kind of envelope. Weird. She picked it up, brushed the dirt off it, and read the address.
Diana Marie White
Top Bunk Near The Window, Cabin 7
Chrysalis Creek Campgrounds
136 Sky End Road
Davis Hills, Greater Manchester
Diana flipped it over and saw a crest with four animals and an H on it, as well as a Latin inscription underneath. The only part she recognized was "Draco," which she knew meant dragon from Ms. Layla's discussion about constellations earlier in the week.
She was still looking at the envelope as she quietly entered the room, where the other residents of Cabin 7 were packing. The girls were in the midst of a heated debate about the best ways to sneak into the theater to see Terminator 2, something that Claire had her heart set on for almost a month at this point. Diana was grateful, as it allowed her a bit more time to herself to open the letter. After climbing the ladder to sit on her bunk, she unfolded the letter and read:
Dear Miss White,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl no later than 31 July.
Your Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
At the top was the name of the headmaster, as well as a list of what Diana could only assume were meant to be his credentials, though they sounded like complete nonsense. The second page included a rather detailed list of supplies mentioned in the letter. What. The. Fuck.
Disbelief, anger, fear, and suspicion all wrestled for control as Diana read the letter again. She glanced over from the bed and looked at her friends, who were still chatting away, oblivious. If this was a cruel, terrible prank, then surely they'd be looking to see her reaction. And she didn't want to believe that her friends could do something so meanspirited, even if they were annoyed at her for reaching out to Samantha.
Could it have been left by someone from a different cabin, someone else who knew about crazy Sarah White and wanted to mess around with Diana a bit? Maybe someone who was jealous that she discovered the cave? Or maybe it was some kind of widespread prank where a whole bunch of people got letters? But if that's the case, surely Claire, Olivia, and Becky would be talking about it now? Maybe there was a letter given to one person in a cabin, and they just didn't realize how insensitive it is for me to be the one to receive it?
Her reverie was interrupted by Olivia, who looked up at Diana's bunk and said, "Diana, you should really start packing. The bus is going to be here in a couple hours."
"What did you and Samantha talk about, anyway?" Claire craned her head away from her rucksack. Diana left the letter on the bed and climbed down the ladder, grateful for the distraction, and started grabbing her clothes from the dressers to fit in her rucksack. She didn't have much and knew it wouldn't take long.
"We talked? I don't remember anything after leaving the pavilion."
Claire rolled her eyes but smiled as she threw a pillow at Diana, who giggled. No, they couldn't have been the ones to write it—or so Diana hoped, at least.
But what if she was wrong? What if her friends really did hate her, like she knew everyone else in the world (probably) did?
Her smile faded. Claire seemed to notice, and furrowed her eyebrows.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," lied Diana. "I just saw something outside that was kind of weird."
"You know, we saw something weird too," Becky added suddenly. "There was an owl flying right above our cabin right before we walked in. I'm ninety-nine percent sure it had rabies because they're not supposed to be out in the daytime." Becky's eyes started to grow wide in panic. "I couldn't really see, but it looked like it was holding trash or something in its beak."
At the mention of an owl, Diana felt an impending sense of dread. The letter mentioned an owl too; maybe they were in on it. Was the letter supposed to actually imply that an owl would be used to carry messages?
"Animals don't get rabies from eating trash, idiot." Olivia rolled her eyes. "It probably wasn't an owl, anyway. It could have been a hawk or something, and it didn't even bite you, so—Diana, what's that?"
While Olivia was talking, Diana reached atop her bunk and clutched the letter in her hands. "Did any of you wri–"—no, I can't start with an accusation—"see where this letter came from?" Diana asked, holding it up, heart racing.
She surveyed the expressions of the other girls, who looked genuinely bewildered. But what if they're just acting? Olivia was one of the leading roles in the school play earlier in the year, after all.
No, stop it, you're being paranoid. Just like Mum.
She handed the letter to Olivia, and Claire and Becky scooted over to read as well. When they were finished, they looked at Diana, mouths agape.
"I have no idea what the hell that is. Where did you find it?" asked Claire warily.
"On the steps, right outside the cabin."
"Well, it couldn't have been there when we got to the cabin, otherwise we would have noticed something, right?" Becky started to unconsciously chew at the end of her pigtail, as she often did when she was nervous.
"We didn't hear anyone walk up to the cabin, though," said Olivia, frowning. "And these walls are crap—we could hear you walking up along the path, and you only weigh, like, seventy pounds."
"Why would they do something like this? Do you think it's because—" Claire hesitated.
"It's alright, you could say it. I'm pretty sure everyone at this camp knows Mum's nuttier than a fruitcake and thinks magic people are after her." It sounded so ridiculous and embarrassing to say out loud and, not for the first time, felt resentment towards her mother boil inside. "Maybe they're trying to see if I'm going to crack like her." Diana tried to play the whole thing off nonchalantly, but inwardly, the whole experience was causing her anxiety levels to spike off the charts. Who the hell sent this to me?
Becky bit her lip. "I think you should report it to Ms. Layla or Ms. Janet. Whoever did that should be kicked out of Girl Guides."
"We don't know who did it, and maybe the person didn't have mean intentions. They thought finding the cave was like magic or something, so they made this as a joke."
As Diana said it, she knew it wasn't likely. The discovery of the cave was announced to the rest of the campers at breakfast, and Diana returned to her cabin no more than thirty minutes after that. Who would have had enough time to create a forgery that in-depth? The only people who knew beforehand were the Dandelion Patrol and the counselors. Could it be a counselor? Maybe one of them has this hidden psychotic side I don't know about?
"Well, if it's a joke, it's not a funny one," huffed Claire. "I wonder if these names in the letter are actually real people."
"They sound fake," said Olivia immediately. "Look at this one. Min-er-va. No one names their kid that."
"It's the Roman name of Athena, goddess of wisdom," Diana said, ignoring Claire coughing out "nerd". "Whoever made this probably picked names that sounded exotic on purpose."
"They clearly had a lot of time on their hands," muttered Olivia, tracing the seal on the back of the envelope with one of her slender fingers. It did seem like an elaborate prank. Who could hate Diana that much, to send that letter?
"It's probably that bitch Samantha!" Claire hissed. "She's jealous we won."
"It's not Samantha," said Diana decisively. "And also, she's not a bitch." She had no actual proof that it wasn't Samantha, but after their conversation Diana felt deeply that Samantha wouldn't stoop to something so low.
Claire looked at her with a betrayed expression. "Ok then, explain who it could be. Who hates you enough to mess with you? A Brownie? A Rainbow? Samantha is the only possible culprit! If not her, then someone in her patrol."
"The letter wasn't there when we left to go to breakfast. After breakfast, I went back late and found it right outside the door. If anyone has the best idea of who it is, it should be you, Claire, or someone in the cabin."
Claire's face started to grow red. "We already said we didn't notice anything! Are you actually accusing one of us of writing the letter?"
Was she? Diana hesitated. Logically, it seemed the most likely possibility. They knew more details about her mum's delusions than anyone else besides her grandma. They knew about her "magical" discovery of the cave before anyone else. This might have been a way to get back at her for trying to make peace with Samantha.
But…would they really do something like this? They were her friends, after all, and always seemed to be sensitive as far as her mum was concerned. Also, the level of thought and effort put into the note seemed a bit beyond the scope of the rest of Dandelion Patrol's ability level.
"No," she said finally, and once she said it, she knew it was true. "I don't think you did. I just don't think it was Samantha."
Claire relaxed. Olivia handed the letter back to Diana and chimed in, "Maybe it wasn't anyone we even know; it could have been another random group."
Becky then brought up the part that creeped Diana out the most: "But it said where Diana was sleeping! How would they know, if they weren't in our cabin? Do you think someone was peering through the windows while we slept?"
There was a loud knocking sound on the door which caused all four girls to jump and Becky to shriek. Diana quickly tossed the letter off to the side before Ms. Layla popped her head in, looking around curiously. "Is everything all right in here? The rest of the Patrols are packed and waiting outside. I wanted to make sure everything was okay."
There was a brief silence, and Diana was aware that the rest of the patrol was waiting for Diana's cue. Should she tell Ms. Layla about the letter or not?
"...Everything's fine," Diana lied. "Becky had a scary story that she was going to tell us last night, but we were so exhausted from hiking and making the map that we fell asleep pretty early. Since it's about camp, she wanted to tell us before we left."
The part about the scary story was true, but the difference was that everyone in Dandelion Patrol completely forgot about it due to all the excitement with the letter. Ms. Layla nodded and looked around the packed rucksacks and folded beds. "You'll have time for the story while we wait outside for the bus. It's important to have everyone outside, that way we can get a head count."
The girls apologized, and after Ms. Layla closed the door. Diana picked up the letter and folded it into her pocket.
"She's right, we should start heading out," Diana said quickly. "I-I really don't want to talk about the letter anymore. It's just someone's cruel idea of a joke. I'd rather talk about how you think we're going to get into the theater."
Claire's eyes lit up as she launched into her Terminator 2 plan. The girls chatted about that all the way as they left the cabin and made their way through the campsite and to the designated area. The conversations drifted to a bunch of different topics as the counselors checked to make sure everyone was accounted for, and did their closing speech where they congratulated all the girls on all their hard work and achievements. During the speech, Diana saw Samantha in the crowd, who smiled broadly and waved. Diana shyly waved back; no matter what Claire said, making peace with her was the right choice. Afterwards, it was just a matter of waiting until the buses came, which was always the most boring part.
"Ughhh, I don't know why they make us come out so early!" complained Claire, kicking a pebble with her scuffed-up shoe.
"Becky, why don't you tell us the story now?" suggested Olivia. "The one that you were going to tell us yesterday night?"
This was Becky's moment to shine. Despite the fact that it was daytime, she yanked a flashlight from the outside pouch of her rucksack and lit it up under her chin. "It was the year 1977, in America," she began in a dramatic, spooky voice. Diana rolled her eyes, but smiled. "There were three girls, only slightly younger than us, Girl Guides—or whatever the American version is called—"
"Girl Scouts," supplied Diana.
"Girl Scouts, who were ready to have a nice week outdoors with the rest of their unit. Possibly trying to get their Explore badge. Perhaps, even, Explore Stage Four. But what they thought would be a night of fun, later turned into a night…OF DEATH."
"Maybe we should wait until we're on the bus," muttered Diana, gesturing towards a group of three Brownies who were looking at them with wide eyes.
"No way, I want to hear this now!" squealed Claire, eyes shining with glee.
Becky lowered her voice into a whisper, but continued, "The three girls stayed in a tent that was farthest away from the counselor's, and hidden by the showers. One night, there was a thunderstorm." Becky tried to make thunderstorm noises at this point, which sounded more like someone saying "shush" rapidly and repeatedly. Claire started giggling. "The next morning, the counselor was on her way to the shower, when she finds something unusual in the pathway. It was….a body," she whispered dramatically.
Diana frowned as goosebumps crawled up her arms. "If this is a real story, I don't think we should be discussing it like this. It seems kind of in poor taste. These were real people." Claire spun around with her hands on her hips.
"I'm Patrol Leader and I say it's fine. Keep going, Becky!"
"I agree with Diana. This is pretty tacky."
"No one asked you, Olivia. Becky!"
"Ok, ok. So she finds the one body, and it's in a sleeping bag. And then, she keeps walking, and finds another. And then…the final body. All on the trail, in their sleeping bags. The only clues were a flashlight with a fingerprint on it, and a bloody footprint that was found in the tent. Oh, and also two months before the murder, a counselor saw that someone went through her stuff and stole her donuts. Inside the box where they were was a note that said 'I'm going to kill three Girl Guides' or something like that."
"What the hell?" Diana asked, getting into the story in spite of herself. "They got the note and STILL didn't call the cops or anything?"
"They probably thought it was a prank," suggested Olivia, twirling her hair in contemplation.
"Still, you don't just—Becky, did they catch the guy who did it?"
"Ahh, I see you're getting preeeettttyyyy into this so-called 'tasteless' story, Diana. As for the answer to your question"—- Becky paused for dramatic effect—-"No." All three of the other girls gave cries of anger and protest. "BUT the cops did have a person in mind. He was someone who escaped from a nearby jail and was in there for, uh,"- here her dramatic storyteller persona slipped a bit as she glanced at Diana apologetically—"ra—um, forcing these adult women to do…stuff. And the guy who looks at the dead bodies and figures out how they died—don't remember what that job's called— said that someone strangled and hit them but also did, uh, the same thingwith them. So the sheriff thought the prisoner guy did it. But because the jury is stupid, they voted to not convict him, so the case remains, officially, unsolved."
Fucking hell, Becky. There was a noticeable change in the atmosphere as the girls stared at each other in silence, Becky biting her lip nervously. Diana's eyes started misting over and she realized she had tears in her eyes. Shit, I need to stop getting emotional over stuff like this. People are monsters, and that's just life. This stuff is everywhere and I can't turn into a faucet every time I hear a story like this.
Diana noticed that the three other members of the patrol were surreptitiously shooting her uncomfortable glances, and she felt her face grow warm. And now I'm a goddamn circus attraction again. And Ms. Layla wonders why I hate attention?
Desperate to say something, anything, to direct attention away from the elephant in the room, Diana started to ramble with the first thing that came to her mind, trying to make her voice sound as steady as possible. "I'm really not surprised. How many times do we hear stories about women and girls getting raped or killed and then they're never given any kind of justice? It's a lot. And that means there's a lot of evil men out there who just want to harm us and I don't understand why." By the end of her tirade, the tears subsided and Diana felt back in control.
"Seriously!" Claire chimed in with comfortable outrage. "And why the hell is it almost always men who are doing this crap? And now because I got this story stuck in my head I'm going to be wondering if any random man I meet is the Girl Guide killer. It might even be the postman for all I know."
"Y-yeah, same!" agreed Becky, relieved that Diana didn't seem to be upset anymore. "There's way too many weirdos out there."
"So are any of us going to bring up that creepy letter Diana got?" asked Olivia, who was now twirling her black locks with more force. "Like, you know, how that counselor got the creepy letter and then….bam. Three girls dead."
The group was quiet again. "I doubt there's any connection," Diana finally said. "The letter I got was….more bizarre. The other one was clearly a threat but this one was inviting me to go to magic school, and it was signed by a woman. It's completely different."
"But what if the killer changed his motive?" whispered Becky, face white. "It could be the same guy trying to trick you. It's called reverse psychology. He knows everyone will know it's him if he writes something threatening, so he's trying to get you off guard."
Claire scoffed. "So you think this killer from America moves to Britain and then decides to start killing again, except instead of writing a generic serial killer note he writes an extremely detailed letter where he pretends to be a woman and tries to get Diana to buy a bunch of witch supplies before he kills her?"
Becky grew red. "I'm just thinking of possibilities!"
"I-it doesn't really matter," Diana mumbled. "We had a fun time, and I don't want this stupid prank to ruin the whole thing. Olivia, why don't you get out your camera so we can take a few more pictures before the bus comes?"
Olivia, a bit taken aback by the sudden change in topic, awkwardly rummaged through her rucksack to grab her polaroid camera. Claire gave Diana a "this conversation is not over" look, which soon turned to genuine cheer as the conversation drifted to other, lighter topics. The girls spent the remaining time at Chrysalis Creek laughing, taking pictures, and simply enjoying being eleven.
The fear and anxiety did not fully disappear within Diana, however. The thought of evil men lurking in the shadows—in plain sight, even—creating webs to trap and lure their innocent, oblivious prey was a thought that often hovered in Diana's mind throughout her life like a persistent raincloud due to her mother's stories. Why do men like that treat other human beings that way? What compels them to violate, to murder, to ruin?
And why did Diana—the unplanned, unwanted child— live while so many other girls and women didn't?
It was times like these when the universe seemed so chaotic and apathetic, times like these when Diana questioned the idea that there was some kind of loving deity with a divine plan that she just couldn't decipher. She wanted to believe and hoped there was. Sometimes, she felt certain that there was.
But then, there were times when she would listen to her mother crying in the next room over, or hearing stories about girls her own age suffering terribly, and she felt less certain.
Nevertheless, Diana said a silent prayer to the three girls who were killed fourteen years ago. She wasn't sure if praying helped—it never seemed to help her, anyway—but she figured it couldn't hurt.
Whether it be fate or pure chance, Diana was alive. And she owed it to all those who died early to live her life the best way she could.
As the bus arrived at the campsite and the campers started lining up to make their way inside, Diana surreptitiously pulled out from her pocket the crumpled, unwanted letter that showed up outside of Cabin 7. Giving the seal on the back one final disgusted look, Diana threw the letter in the rubbish bin outside with more force than was necessary. And with that, she made her way onto the bus back to Amberton—back to crazy Sarah White.
