Chapter 1

Not Even Kids Like Summer Camp

The 2014 Camp Shooster Sleep Away Camp for Youth had gone off without a hitch for Sophie Miller and Caroline Strauss. They hadn't been nailed in the face with water balloons spiked with rocks, shoved off the dock into the waters of Lake Shooster with all their clothes on, or even dealt with shameful attempts of flirtation made by some fifteen year old who was attempting to woo the two girls and impress his juvenile friends. No this year was going to be much different. This year Sophie and Caroline were senior members of the staff, which meant minimal work on their part and a bigger paycheck at the end of the month.

Only it would have meant a bigger pay check if they had been around to collect it...

Caroline P.O.V

I blew my whistle signaling that the little monsters, I mean campers, could go collect their arrows from the firing range. Once they were all back I half- heartedly blew the little silver whistle again, and the group of about twelve kids began to fire arrows at the mulit-colored targets once again. I sighed and let the whistle fall from my mouth to land on my chest held up by the leather cord strung around my neck.

'Wow, I thought being a senior member this year would mean going out on the lake on the jet ski, or taking a nap in the 'special' hammock, not doing the same thing I did last year...' I thought to myself, 'This sucks.'

A rather annoyed 'ehem' brought me out of my own mind and back into reality. I looked down off the surveyor platform to see a kid about thirteen taping his foot below me, his arms crossed, no bow or arrows in sight. He looked like the kind of child that would rather be sitting at home in a recliner in front of a computer with a butler at his side fetching him whatever the heck he could think of, rather than here at a summer camp shooting bows and arrows and sleeping in cabins with no wifi.

"What is it?" I say trying to sound as nonchalant as I possibly could, while glancing at his t-shirt so I could see the name printed on his name tag, Maxwell. What a snobby name.

"The bow I was given has a defect, it won't shoot the arrows into the target and it keeps hitting my arms giving me these hideous marks," He then unfolds his arms, which look more like porcelain noodles to me, and angles them so the bottom of them are faced up so I could see the rising red welts forming on both his arms.

I take in a breath and run my hand through my hair to grab the base of my pony tail, I then let the breath out and flick my wrist so my pony tail swished up and lands against my neck, "Fine I'll show you how to do it again Max." I say as I grip the top railing of the tower and use it to swing the four or five feet down to the ground and begin to walk to the only empty station where a bow hand been tossed to the ground.

He scoffs at me, "My name is Maxwell, not Max," and lets out a 'tch' then follows me to the station he abandoned.

I pick up the bow and notch an arrow, it's way too small for me and I'm not even able to bring the string of the bow anywhere near the base of my jaw where it should be. The target is only about fifteen feet away and all the other kids seem to have no problem whatsoever hitting it even if it's only the edge, which means it should be a breeze for me to hit somewhere near the yellow center. Once I feel as if I've lined the shot up as best as I could I uncurl my fingers from the string and the arrow flies faster than my eyes could follow it. I hear a thud not a second later and see that the arrow has landed in the red ring closest to the yellow.

"It looks pretty not defective to me," I say handing the bow to the kid standing beside me. He looks like he wants to be impressed but has decided I'm not worth wasting the breath on, "Now you try it so I can see what I can fix."

Maxwell scoffs again but takes the bow and notches an arrow bringing it to his nose.

"Ok first you should have three fingers on the string not all five and only to the first knuckle," I say then demonstrate on an imaginary bow; Maxwell complies and adjusts to my advice. "Now pull the string back further, try to get it to your jaw," I explain he opens his mouth to say something then closes it and pulls the arrow to his jaw, " Good now line up your shot along the shaft and let it loose, and take take your time it's not a race."

His face scrunches up as he concentrates on the target, then lets his fingers go, the arrow along with it. The thud sound is heard again and when Maxwell sees where it landed he jumps and fist pumps the air, he's gotten a bull's eye.

I fold my arms and mutter under my breath, "Kids lucky he's got such a great teacher like me."

The other eleven kids look over to see what Max is jumping about and just about loses it along with him when they see his arrow sticking straight out of the center of the target. They run over and start yammering.

"How did you do that?"

"Can you teach me to do that Maxwell? Pretty please?"

"Oh please it was probably the hot counselor that did it for him."

And on that last comment I clapped my hand then picked up my whistle and blew into the small silver instrument, "Ok tiny children back to your stations, go get your arrows and keep at it." They groaned then went back to their stations all in hopes of getting a bull's eye just like Maxwell. When they were all shooting again I went back to the platform and climbed back onto its height so I could keep an eye on the group of children basally training to kill things with two sticks and a string like they were in some medieval battle movie.

"Man now that would suck," I say to myself, "Being in some crazy battle or something with only a bow and arrow. Who would be that stupid?" I laugh at my own hilarity and go back to making sure the campers don't point the arrows at each other.

This goes on for about another twenty minutes until a loud fire truck siren blares over the loud speakers signaling everybody that dinner is ready and its time to chow down on some good old fashioned camping food. I rush over to the shed that holds all the archery equipment and try to get the kids to orderly place the bows on hooks and the arrows in bins. Needless to say I fail miserably and am left with a mess of bows and arrows strewn all about the ground.

"I am never ever going to ever have children if they all act like this!" I growl though clenched teeth then bend down to begin cleaning up the mass of equipment.

I hear snickering behind me and turn to see my best friend in the entire world leaning against the cream metal shed, "How's it going there miss grumpy buns?" she says a smile plastered on her face from ear to ear.

"Ha ha Sophie, very funny but at least I don't walk like I have a stick up my butt all day." I say back.

She gasps and dramatically holds a hand to her chest, "You wound me with thine words good lady! How shall I cope knowing the world can observe the thought of a stick up my bottom in their minds? The embarrassment shall be the death of me!" By now she was lying on the ground her hand against her forehead, "Leave me my dear friend else the embarrassment shall spread to you too!" she coughs, "You must, cough, go on. Without. Me!" she whispers before falling fully on the ground not moving.

"So, you done with your thespian fit yet?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

Sophie laughed and struggled to get up; I walk over and help her get to her feet. She places a hand on her lower back and lets out a groan, "Those horses are going to be the real death of me, I mean, Lauren can't expect me to do this every day for the rest of the summer can she?"

"She's the big bad boss, and we are just simple peasants under her iron fist of eternal summer camp."

"That just about wraps her up." Sophie laughs. "So you want help putting all, well, this away." She says gesturing to the archery equipment.

"Would you? The little monsters kinda just chucked them around expecting me to take care of it all. Like I know it's my job but they could be a little bit considerate, ya know?" I ask while bending down to grab a hand full of arrows.

"I know, those poor horses probably want to just buck every kid that attempt to get on their back and pretend like they know what their doing, when in fact they do not." Sophie said a matter of factly while taking the arrows from my hand to put them in one of the four buckets that lined the wall meant specifically for the arrows.

"But hey at least were not working at fast food."

"Or being a janitor, cleaning up after other people and being in school all summer is not my idea of a good time." Sophie stated.

"Uh, Soph, we're still cleaning up after people just in the great outdoors instead of some educational prison." I said back.

"I know that Care, but it's still better. I mean I seriously can't imagine us scraping gum off the bottom of desks, it's just gross and people should know better." She said putting the final bow in its place on one of the few remaining hooks in the shed. "We're missing one."

I look into the shed to see that we are in fact one retched dinky little bow short, "Crap, we'll have to look for it after dinner or else Lauren will skin us and turn us into shoes."

"But only after she gives the lecture of a life time!" Sophie jokes.

I laugh then hold out my arm, "Well, shall we go to dinner?"

Sophie giggles then loops her arm through mine, "I do think I am in the mood for a well-deserved hot dog this night."

We both laugh some more then begin the walk over to the dining hall which is already packed with hungry children.

Sophie P.O.V

I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up on getting some awesome hot dog with everything I like on it and a bag of chips too. No, because by the time Caroline and I got there all the little munchkins had ravaged the place barley leaving a speck of bread and not a bag of chips to be seen.

My face fell from its usual happy smile filled with sunshine to that of disappointment, I love hot dogs and now I wouldn't be able to enjoy their taste until next Friday. Caroline glanced over at me and let out a sigh.

"Come on, I have some granola bars in my bag back in the cabin we can munch on, and we can get some water bottles from the kitchen so we don't suffocate ourselves trying to swallow dry granola."

She tugged at my arm and my smile returned slightly, that's Caroline for ya always taking care of me ever since we were kids. We walked through the "Staff Only" door leading back into the kitchen and each grabbed a water bottle from the cooler then shut the lid before any more coldness could escape. Caroline rolled her eyes at me, "You do know that the same amount of cold will escape from the time you open it to the time you close it right?"

I smile then reply, "Ya it's just a habit from my mom always telling me to never keep the fridge or freezer open for too long, especially in the summer."

Caroline sighs again, "Ya I know, now let's get to the cabin it's starting to get dark and I want my hoodie before the mosquitos start eating my arms alive."

I nod and Caroline starts walking out of the kitchen, I start following her when I see something move in the corner of my eye. Turning quickly I scan over the totally empty kitchen.

"Are you coming?" I hear Caroline ask from behind me.

"Ya just a second, I thought I saw something." I reply over my shoulder my eyes never ceasing to look over the kitchen.

After a few seconds I shake my head and decide to blame it on the diminishing light of the day, forcing ordinary shadows to look like something else. Turning away I walk to the door frame where Caroline is leaning against the smoothed wood casually sipping water from her water bottle. She straightens herself by pushing off the frame with her shoulder and walks through. As I follow behind her I can't shake the feeling like there was something or perhaps someone watching us while we were in the kitchen.

When we get back to the staff cabin we share with four other girls, we barley have time to take of our boots, open Caroline's bag to get some granola bars and get on the bunk bed we shared before Lauren's shadow fills the screen door before slamming it open. Our heads snap up to see our middle aged boss standing in our door way arms folded, eyes dull, and her mouth in its signature frown. Caroline and I look at each other sharing in the mutual thought of, what could she possibly want now?

"Tyler just informed me that the canoes down by the southern side of the lake were never tied down before dinner and the forecast calls for a storm sometime after midnight tonight, I would have him do it but he's busy cleaning up after dinner." Lauren stated.

"We didn't even get dinner though." I mutter.

Lauren glared at me then continued, "That your own fault Sophie, so I need you two to go down and tie the canoes up so they don't float away during the storm."

"But I just took my boots off." I said.

"Lauren," Caroline said flatly, "It's an hour hike to the southern docks and-."

"You can take one of the golf carts," She interrupted and threw a set of keys from her pocket to Carline who caught them one handed nearly falling over in the process to catch the falling keys. "Just make sure they won't float away, or else you will be the ones going out to get them in the morning." She then began to walk out of the cabin before stopping, "Oh and you guys are scheduled for fire time again tonight be sure to be there, heaven forbid we let those rich kids get their hands dirty making a s'more." Then disappeared out of the cabin.

I sigh and slump further against the bunk beds mattress, "At least we don't have to walk? Right?"

Caroline let out what seemed to be a pained laugh, "I guess," Then jumped down off the top bunk, slipped a light blue Camp Shooster hoodie, and shoved a granola bar in its front pocket, "Let's get this over with."

I moan and turn over in my bed, "Ugh fine." I let myself fall off the side of the bunk where I grab my own hoodie from beneath the bunk.

"Soph that's nasty, there are probably mice and cockroaches crawling around down there." I hear Caroline say as she pulls her own boots on over her jeans.

"I know," I declared, "I'm just so tired after doing stuff all day I just flop down and go to sleep every night then wake up and it's gone and disappeared under my bed every night."

Caroline laughs then tightened her blonde ponytail, "Right, come on I'm already ready to go and you're lazing around on the floor."

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Just wait a few more seconds." I hear Caroline let out a low chuckle and decide to push myself up and put my hoodie on.

Striding over to the front door I grab my black zip up boots and stick my right foot in making sure to shove the ends of my pants in them, and then repeat the process with my left foot.

"Ok we can go now, happy?" I ask sarcastically.

"Very," Caroline says with a corner of her mouth hooked up, "Now let's go even with the golf cart it's still a fifteen minute drive."

We exit the cabin and make our way to the side of the dining hall where the golf carts are chained up to their own individual 'U' post. Caroline spins the keys in her hand until the small green painted key is between her thumb and pointer finger. She unlocks the front of the cart and we both get in the small vehicle, Caroline in the driver's seat and me in the passenger seat. The blonde starts up the engine and put the cart in reverse then back into drive, and we start to make out way down the path to the south docks of the lake.

Caroline was wrong. It took us almost thirty minutes to get to the lake and by then dark clouds were swirling above our heads and in the distance the defining roll of thunder could be heard followed by flashes of lightening. A few times I could have sworn I saw red in the lightening, instead of the usual yellow-whiteness.

"Did you see it that time?" I asked Caroline as I pointed to the sky where another flash of that red lightening had appeared then snapped away.

"Soph, first of all I'm trying to drive, and second it was probably just a trick of the light like what you saw in the kitchen earlier." She stated trying to sound factual, which coming from her would have normally made me laugh then correct her. But in this instance I just decided to let it go.

"Ok maybe I didn't see anything in the kitchen but I swear the lightening is red." I said for about the twentieth time in the past half hour.

"Sure Soph, but leave your red lightening alone for a few minutes, we're here." I looked down from the ever darkening sky to see the lake right in front of us, the dock littered with green canoes poorly tied to the sturdy wooden dock. "They didn't even take them out of the lake? Tyler usually isn't that irresponsible." Caroline said.

"That is weird. You get the backs and I'll get the fronts?" I offer suggested a bit timidly.

Caroline just looks skeptically at me, "No offence Sophie but you aren't exactly the strongest person in the world. I'll bring them around and you use that brain of yours to tie them securely to dry land." She proposed while flicking my forehead.

"Deal. Let's get to work!" I said in agreement. Truth be told I am pretty much a weakling so I was hoping Caroline would say something along those talents lied int the more, intellectual, side of things.

Caroline then walked to the dock and easily untied the sloppy knots barely holding the canoes in place and dragged the first one through the water walking along the shore giving ample room for the other fourteen canoes. Once she had gone a ways down the shore she flipped the canoe over and drug it the rest of the way up the shore until the canoe was completely out of the water.

While she was doing that I decided to organize the ores and life jacket into the bins chained to slabs of concrete. Neatly stacking the ridiculously orange jackets in one of the bins and lining up the ores in the other. That didn't take up that much time and when I looked over at Caroline she was already dragging the eighth canoe onto the shore.

"I think we should be able to tie five together," she started as she walked over the get the ninth one, "That way we'll have three groups of five, and if Lauren or Tyler say we did it wrong then oh well."

"Sounds like a plan," I reply giving a thumb up. Caroline returns the gesture a little less enthusiastic and goes back to dragging the canoe to the others.

Out of nowhere a gust of wind rushes though nearly nocking myself over followed by another drum of thunder and that mysterious red lightening.

"There!" I rave, "it's right there!" I yell at Caroline while pointing to the sky where the lightening had just disappeared. I look to the canoes still pointing to the sky to see Caroline laying in one the plastic green boats her legs hanging over the edge at her knees. I gasp," Are you ok?" I say as I rush to help her up.

The look on her face is priceless and I wish I had a camera to remember the moment forever; honestly she looks like she's seen my dad in nothing but his underwear.

"So did you see it?" I ask as I grab one of her arms to help her up from her predicament, "Please tell me you saw it."

She doesn't say anything at first then nods, "Ya I saw it, red, just like you said." She says shakily while standing up. "But that's not possible, lightening can't be red, like this isn't some kind of magical movie or book where stuff like red lightening just appears."

"I don't like begin out here, lets hurry and finish up here so we can get back and have some s'mores."

"That is a wonderful plan Soph."

Dragging the rest of the canoes onto the shore didn't take too much longer and we only had one left. I had figured out a way to loop the dock rope through a ring on the front of the canoes so they wouldn't get blown or washed away. But in the time it took us to finish the task the wind had picked up and it had started to rain; hard. It whipped around my face the wind stinging my face as it sliced through the air. Caroline wasn't fairing much better and was struggling to get the last canoe onto the shore it kept slipping though her fingers and the bottom half of her pants and boots were soaking wet from running into the lake to grab the side of the canoe to keep it from drifting out to the lake. The rain was pelting against our faces and the hood of my hoodie kept blowing off so I just gave in and let it flap crazily against my neck.

"That's the last one!" Caroline yelled trying to be heard above the raging storm her blonde ponytail whipping against her cheek.

"Thank goodness!" I yelled back as I strung the rope through the last loop and tied it off., "I thought the storm wasn't supposed to come until after midnight?"

"Never question mother nature Soph! She kind of does whatever she feels like!" she helped me up and we began to run to where we had parked the golf cart, and that's when I saw the shadow again this time far more defined.

"Wait!" I bellowed, grabbing Caroline's arm to make her stop.

"Sophie! What is it this time!"

"The shadow I saw in the kitchen it's out on the lake!" I cried, turning my head to see the still shadowy figure floating just above the surface of the water seemingly not affected by the rampant storm going on around it. "You saw the lightening just look! It's there I promise!"

Caroline rolled her eyes and let out a sound I can only guess to be a growl, "Soph there's nothing there but murky water being thrown around by this storm, now let's go!"

She grabbed my arm around my non-existent bicep and started to trek through the wind and rain toward the golf cart. I didn't look away from the figure, as I was dragged away from the lake. The figure didn't seem to like this and raised what I would guess to be arms. As soon as it did that the storm picked up even more if that was even possible. Caroline was having a hard time walking in a straight line with the wind trying to rip her in every direction.

I put my arm not currently in the iron grasps of Caroline and used it to shield my eyes trying to keep the eerie shadow in my sigh only to be met with a wall of wind swirling around us. The storm certainly had picked up, and I had a feeling it was about to pick us up right along with it.

Not but a second later I couldn't feel the ground beneath my boots, I looked down to see that we were beginning to swirl around with the wind.

I screamed and pulled myself closer to Caroline, locking my fingers around her wrist.

We rose higher and higher into the swirling wind until the green canoes looks like a little patch of bushes and the cabins back at the camp grounds could be seen the lights from inside them like little flickering firefly's.

By now we were both screaming at the top of our lungs as they were flung every which way in the vortex. The figure no longer visible above the violent black waters of Lake Shooser. Then as suddenly as the winds picked us up they ceased abruptly, we stayed in place in the sky for a moment before gravity remembered its job and we began to free fall back to the earth.

I could hear the blood pumping through my ears faster and faster as the ground became closer. My vision became spotted with black dots and I can vaguely hear Caroline screaming my name before I completely black out losing all sense of sight. I can feel myself falling into unconsciousness when there's a slight pressure around my chest and stomach. Then. Nothing.

A/N: Muahahaha cliff hanger, I'll try not to do too many of those but I make no promises. Also I probably won't be updating every day I just really had to get this written down before I lost it in my mind. But I will be starting my senior year of high school tomorrow so updates will probably be a lot less frequent but I will be working on it I promises. Don't forget to review because they let me know what I can to better and they just make me happy so yes review!