Beca really didn't see the point of going on the retreat. Okay, fine. Maybe they had eaten a huge bag of "Aaargghhh" as Chloe had said after the Convention performance, but did it really warrant going to some stupid camp?

No. It did not.

She had more important things to do, like homework (ha) and her internship. The one that no one knew about. She felt kind of bad about that little secret, but hey. Chloe was already riding the Crazy Train and didn't need any other stress in her life. But really, if Chloe thought that the retreat was going to fix all of their problems, she was in for a nasty shock.

And yet, here they were, all packed on a bus headed for God-knows-where.

Beca leaned her head back against her seat, eyes closed and earbuds in. She really didn't want to have to listen to the other Bellas relive their performance. Fine. Maybe the gold jumpsuits hadn't been their greatest outfits, but she'd thought the arrangement had been fine.

Well. Okay, it wasn't her best. But considering she'd put it together in, like, five hours, she thought it could have been worse. And the choreo had been decent. Ish.

The fire was pretty bad. Cynthia-Rose still brought it up.

Beca's phone vibrated in her hand. She looked down to see a message from Jesse asking how the road trip was going. She swiped it aside, not wanting to talk about it.

They'd broken up right before the Bellas had left for the Convention performance. It had been mutual(ish); she'd barely seen him during the school year and had found she didn't miss him. He had felt the same, and together(ish) they'd decided it would better to just be friends.

She was fine. They still talked. It was just weird.

The other Bellas, strangely, had been almost excited when she'd told them about the breakup. Beca had no idea what that was about. The only one who hadn't said anything was Chloe, who had been acting kind of weird ever since. She didn't know what that was about, either.

She tried not to let it bother her. She just missed talking to Chloe about things, that was all.

Jesse had talked about Chloe when they broke up. About how she looked at Beca sometimes, and how Beca looked at her. Beca hated that he might be right (Chloe was beautiful and funny and her best friend), but she didn't believe for a second that Chloe could think of her as anything other than as a friend.

"We're almost here!" Chloe's excited voice sliced over the sound of the music in Beca's ears. She cracked open her eyes to see Chloe standing at the front of the bus, staring at them all expectantly.

She craned her neck to peer out the window, only to jerk back in surprise. The last time she'd looked outside, they'd been driving on a wide-open road, blue skies and sunshine all around. Now, though, her line of vision was filled with trees. Hundreds of trees, so densely packed together that she couldn't see anything beyond them; they must have been deep in the woods. Fog filtered through the tree trunks, making it even harder to see. Everything was dim. She glanced up to see gray overcast skies with low, menacing clouds. She shivered automatically, wondering if a storm was rolling in.

She looked ahead of the bus, searching for any sign of a camp site or a cabin or anything, but saw only more trees and fog. Awesome.

She thought Chloe had to be mistaken; they must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Gradually, though, the trees thinned enough to reveal a small cluster of about five cabins ahead. Except…

"Um, what the hell are those?" Cynthia-Rose spoke for the first time since they'd boarded the bus.

Beca privately seconded her question. As the bus drew nearer to the cabins, she saw that they were incredibly run-down, with shingles missing, window panes broken, siding damaged, and doors lopsided. They looked abandoned, like they'd been taken over by the forest.

"They're cabins," Chloe replied firmly, gazing out the windshield.

The bus ground to a slow stop outside the "cabins." The Bellas stared at them in silence. They looked worse up close; Beca could see cobwebs strung in their rafters and plants overtaking the foundations. They were awfully dark inside, and the cloud cover and the fog weren't helping. Stacie and Emily exchanged incredulous looks in front of her.

"Chloe? Are you sure this is the retreat?" Amy muttered from the driver's seat. "I followed what you put in the GPS…"

Chloe nodded. "Yeah, this is right. Why?" she asked, blinking at Amy.

A coyote or a wolf or something howled outside. Flo crossed herself.

Amy shifted. "Um, it's just a little…"

"Murdery?" Beca suggested, she thought helpfully.

Chloe's eyes zeroed in on hers almost angrily, but Beca refused to back down. If Chloe was pissed at her because of the Convention performance, well, she needed to get over it. It wasn't like Beca could go back in time to fix it.

"'Murdery'?" Chloe quoted back at her. Beca didn't like her tone.

"Yeah. Like, creepy backwoods murder cabin," Beca fired back, her temper flaring slightly. If Chloe could be angry, well, so could she.

Chloe sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look," she said bluntly. "We need help. This will help."

"If we don't get stabbed first," Stacie whispered from the corner of her mouth.

Chloe glared at her, but before she could say anything, Emily raised her hand. "So, why is it all foggy and cold? It's April."

Beca hadn't noticed until Emily said it, but it was definitely colder here than it had been when they'd left Barden that morning. She shivered again, wishing she'd packed more sweaters. And pepper spray.

"It's 'cuz we're at a low zone on the lake," Chloe said airily, waving a hand. "Come on, let's go meet our host!" she turned, duffel in hand, and charged down the bus stairs, clearly intending them to follow.

No one moved.

"Yeah, right," Cynthia-Rose muttered. "I've seen this movie. I'm not getting off the bus."

Beca agreed. She hadn't seen the movie – whatever movie it was – but she knew enough about creepy cabins in the woods to not have any desire to move from safety. Lilly muttered something then that had Ashley and Jessica shifting away from her, looking horrified.

Something pounded hard on the window by Beca's head. She jerked back, feeling like she was having a heart attack, only to see the top half of Chloe's very angry-looking face. "Move!" Chloe shouted through the glass. "Let's go!"

The Bellas all looked at each other in silence, unease filling the bus like water. Finally, Flo stood with a shrug and said, "Well, I wasn't expecting to live this long." She grabbed her bag from the overhead bin and trekked off the bus.

Muttering, the others started to move after her. Beca didn't like it, but she reached for her own bag and hauled it down, bringing up the rear.

Once off the bus, though, Beca couldn't help but think they'd made a terrible mistake. The cabins, though large – they were all two stories – appeared even worse up close, as if no one had been there for about thirty years.

Dense woods surrounded them on three sides, and from the new angle, Beca spotted what looked vaguely like an empty concrete pool off to the left of the cabins, and what could be a medium-sized body of water several hundred yards behind the them. If they had a lake, Beca wondered, why the pool? She spotted power lines running between the cabins and toward the pool, so at least that meant they'd have electricity.

Something still seemed off, though. The hairs on the back of Beca's neck rose and she looked around nervously. She felt like she was being watched.

"Where is everyone?" Amy asked loudly, making Beca jump. "Why is it so… quiet?"

She was right; Beca hadn't noticed until then, but it was unnaturally quiet. She strained her ears, searching for anything. Surely, there had to be other people at this retreat, right? She stared at the cabins uneasily, seeing and hearing no one. Even the usual nature noises were missing; no birds chirped, no squirrels rustled around. There was just nothing. In fact, the only noise they'd heard so far was that lone howl.

Great.

"Welcome, to the Lodge at Fallen Leaves, Bellas!"

Beca jumped again, so violently this time that she trod on Lilly's foot. She wasn't the only one startled; Emily screamed, Stacie grabbed her own boobs in self-defense, and Amy swore loudly. All of that was drowned out, though, by the sound of Chloe's excited cheer.

"Aubrey!"

Aubrey? Like, the Aubrey?

Beca spun around; sure enough, there was Aubrey Posen, clad in a khaki skirt and a pink polo, a relaxed smile on her face, a shotgun over one shoulder, and a marionette cradled in her other arm.

Wait. What?

Beca did a double take, blinking rapidly. But no, she hadn't been mistaken; Aubrey was most certainly carrying a gun and a large puppet. She stared at puppet first. It looked like one of those ventriloquism dolls, complete with painted brown hair and black eyes, fancy clothing, and a mobile jaw. It was horrifying.

"What the fu –"

"Hey, everyone!" Aubrey exclaimed. "It's so good to see you all!"

Chloe rushed forward to give her a hug, but the rest of the Bellas stayed back. Beca saw that most of their eyes were fixed on the creepy doll.

Aubrey must have noticed; when Chloe pulled back, she nodded down at the marionette in her arm and said, "Oh, this is Chippy. He's going to help us out with some group bonding exercises."

That's when it clicked.

"Oh," Beca breathed, trying hard to make eye contact with Aubrey instead of with Chippy (that thing was fucking weird), "you're running the retreat, aren't you?"

Aubrey turned sharply to Chloe. "You didn't tell them it's my retreat?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

Chloe shook her head no. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"If I woke up with a third boob I wouldn't have been more surprised," Amy muttered, earning a dirty look from Chloe.

Beca cleared her throat and asked, trying to keep her voice steady, "So… are there other people around? Like, business people or anyone for the retreat?"

She really, really didn't like the thought of them being the only ones stranded in the woods.

Well. Them and Chippy.

Aubrey waved a hand at her. "Just us! No one else since the accident. But I promise we'll have fun!"

Emily raised her hand. "Um, what accident?"

Aubrey ignored her in favor of adjusting Chippy's shirt.

"Are there any other, you know, witnesses?" Cynthia-Rose chimed in.

"And what's the gun for?" Jessica asked timidly.

Even Chloe looked interested in that answer. They all waited, Beca becoming more uneasy by the second, but Aubrey only continued to fidget with the puppet. Lilly smiled happily.

A twig snapped behind them and they whirled; Emily fell over. A tall, muscular man walked up, his clothes caked in dirt, his gloved hands gripping a long, lethal-looking shovel. He was probably in his mid-twenties, with brown hair and a serious expression; his brown eyes traveled around the group, as if he was deciding on who to murder first.

His gaze lingered on Chloe.

"Everyone, this is David," Aubrey introduced, moving to stand next to him. "He's our gardener and maintenance person."

Beca quirked an eyebrow, noting the massive thistles springing up around the rotting foundations of several cabins.

David really needed to stop looking at Chloe. And Chloe really, really, needed to stop flipping her hair and biting her lip at him. Beca felt her face twist into a scowl and did her very best to ignore the way Amy's eyes flicked between her and Chloe.

"And don't forget about me," a new voice said, drawing their attention to the left. As if out of nowhere, a woman about their age stepped out from the trees, wearing a similar outfit to Aubrey's, but with shorts instead.

Really short shorts. Shorts that showed off her really nice, tan legs. Beca's eyes traveled up; the nice legs were attached to a nicer set of hips, which led to a perfect torso, chest and neck, up to the most beautiful (or maybe second most beautiful) face Beca had ever seen. She had long, natural-looking blonde hair that fell in waves to frame blue eyes, sharp cheekbones, a great jawline, and a small beauty spot to the right of her nose.

Beca felt like she'd been clubbed over the head; no way was this woman real.

Chloe cleared her throat loudly.

"And this," declared Aubrey, gesturing to the woman, "is our camp counselor, Paris."

Paris. That was a nice name. She grinned at Beca, who smiled back automatically, wishing that she'd brushed her hair before getting off the bus.

Chloe cleared her throat again. Beca wondered vaguely if she needed a cough drop or something.

"Why don't we head inside a cabin," Aubrey suggested, still holding Chippy and her gun. "We can all catch up there."

Before she really knew what she was doing, Beca nodded and started following the three camp guides into one of the decrepit cabins. She wouldn't mind getting to know Paris at all.

It turned out that Aubrey actually lived in one of the larger cabins ("It's not a cabin, it's a lodge," Aubrey had explained loftily) along with David and Paris, who trooped upstairs to leave the Bellas in the living room with Aubrey (Beca tried to ignore that Chloe's eyes followed David up the steps. She distracted herself by watching Paris.)

Beca couldn't imagine why they lived in a lodge. The place was creep-central. Aubrey flicked on a light as they walked in, casting an orange glow over everything. Beca looked around to see it was as alarmingly run-down on the inside as on the outside, with paint chipping off the walls, dirt coating the light fixtures, and clearly broken appliances. Everything had an overall damp smell, including the musty-looking couch and the armchairs scattered around the room. A cracked fireplace adorned the side wall.

Something rectangular and brown was hung on the wall; wondering if it was an exceptionally bad painting, Beca moved closer. After a moment, she realized it was a mirror turned around, so the reflective glass faced the wall.

Um. Okay. Beca walked past it and further into the living room, not caring much for Aubrey's taste in decoration.

"Hey, Commander Posen," Amy called out, making Aubrey snap around to look at her. "Where can I plug in my phone?"

With a somewhat manic smile (Beca really wished Aubrey would put Chippy away), Aubrey replied, "Oh, you won't be needing your phones. There's no service here."

A general outcry of dismay ran through the group, then a flurry of movement as they all dug for their phones. With some difficulty, Beca extracted her phone from her jeans and checked. Sure enough, no service.

"But we had service on the road in…" Stacie's voice trailed off under Aubrey's stern look.

"It doesn't matter anyway," she said, "because you're actually going to be handing your phones over to me."

"What?"

"But –"

"Ladies!" Aubrey shouted with enough force to jostle both Chippy and her gun. They all stared at her in stunned silence.

Aubrey took a deep breath before forcing another wide smile. "You won't need your phones," she said with a forced calm, "because this is a group bonding experience. There isn't any service, and this way, we can all talk to each other."

Cynthia-Rose looked nauseous at the thought.

"So, I'm going to pass around a basket, and you're going to put your phones in that," Aubrey said, turning to place both her shotgun and the freaky puppet on the couch. She lingered over Chippy, making sure he was sitting upright and that his clothes weren't crooked or wrinkled. With a last smile at the puppet, Aubrey made her way over to a stand in the corner of the room, on which sat a small wicker basket.

Beca caught Amy's eye; they both raised their eyebrows. The doll needed to go.

"Phones in, please," Aubrey said, turning with basket in hand.

No one moved.

Aubrey took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Beca wondered if she was counting to ten in her head. "Phones in, please," she repeated, forcing a painful-looking smile on her face.

"We might as well, guys," Chloe said bracingly. "We are bonding, and Aubrey knows her stuff!"

And with a happy bounce, Chloe reached forward and dropped her phone in the basket before taking it and passing it to Lilly, who was standing next to her. Glumly, each of the Bellas in turn dropped their phones in the basket.

Beca sighed when it got to her. At least it would give her some space from Jesse. She dropped her phone in and handed the basket to Stacie.

"Great!" Aubrey enthused, clapping her hands together once and sitting in an armchair directly in front of the fireplace. "For our first exercise, we're going to –"

"Exercise, what?" Amy asked loudly. "Don't put me down for cardio."

"Yeah, when's dinner?" Emily raised her hand. "I really think a balanced meal –"

"For our first exercise," Aubrey spoke over them loudly, "we are going to sit around this table and tell some stories. Like a get-to-know-you."

Beca resisted rolling her eyes, but only just. They already knew each other. And she really didn't need to hear any more of Stacie's sexcapade stories. Or Amy's, for that matter.

Chloe, however, nodded sagely and perched herself on the couch as if there was nowhere she'd rather be. Though, Beca noticed that she kept a sizeable distance between herself and Chippy.

Reluctantly, the rest of the Bellas followed suit, and Beca found herself seated in a rickety chair that smelled like someone had died in it recently.

"Great!" Aubrey cheered once they were all seated. "Let's keep this informal. You can talk about whatever you'd like. Who's up first?"

Lilly's hand shot up. Without waiting for them to say anything, she whispered, "Once I was abducted by aliens and they implanted a chip in my arm and taught me to beatbox."

Flo shifted uncomfortably.

After a moment, Chloe nodded encouragingly. "This is just what we need, you guys," she said. "We need to bond and get our sound back."

Beca felt bad for her. It was kind of painful, actually, how much Chloe wanted this to work. She realized with a pang that she was largely to blame for the rift in the group. So, with a soft sigh, Beca leaned forward.

Before she could say anything, though, Cynthia-Rose jumped in. "Yeah, let's not do that. How about you" – she looked pointedly at Aubrey – "tell us about this camp? What's with the accident and that freaky-ass doll?"

"And the fog," Emily added.

"I want to know about the creepy cabins," Flo stated.

Aubrey silenced them with a raise of her hands. She glanced at Chloe, who nodded in support. "Okay," she said finally, "Look…"

The lights went out.

Someone screamed and Beca heard a huge thud; reflexively, she jumped to her feet, only for the lights to flare on again.

Everyone blinked up at her in confusion. "Who screamed?" she asked, quickly doing a head count.

"It was me," Emily said sheepishly from the ground; evidently, she'd fallen off her chair.

"The lights do that sometimes," Aubrey said calmly. "Don't worry. It's just because we're so far out here."

But Beca was only half-listening. Her gaze was drawn down to the puppet now sitting squarely in Aubrey's lap. Chippy stared back at her balefully.

"Um," Chloe said, looking from the empty spot beside her on the couch to the marionette in Aubrey's lap. "How did –"

"You asked about the camp," a voice said from behind Beca, making her whirl around.

There, framed in the doorway, was Paris the camp counselor, hand on her hip and smirk on her lips. Chloe crossed her arms. Cynthia-Rose looked gleefully at Beca.

"What do you want to know?" Paris continued, moving to sit at the recently vacated spot on the couch (Chloe shifted away).

Beca returned to her seat but didn't take her eyes from Paris. Speaking to her, Beca said, "We want to know about the camp, and how you guys got it, and what that accident Aubrey mentioned was."

Aubrey cleared her throat, snaring everyone's attention. "That's easy," she said. "The camp used to be a getaway for middle school kids. They'd come in the summer, play in the lake, stay in the cabins, that kind of thing," Aubrey waved a hand dismissively, then continued. "Well, a few years ago, the camp had to close, and it's been vacant since. I heard about it after leaving Barden, and I figured I'd reboot it as a team-building camp for stressed business people. My caring nature is just perfect for it."

Amy snorted.

Aubrey glared at her. "Fine," she said through gritted teeth, "I like the yelling."

Beca nodded, as did the other Bellas, including Chloe. It made sense.

"But why did the camp close?" Flo asked. "In my country, a small accident wouldn't close a camp like this."

"Who said it was a 'little' accident?" Paris threw in with a grin and a wink at Beca. Beca felt her face heat up and looked in the opposite direction. Smooth.

Aubrey sighed and raised a hand to smooth back her hair. "A camp counselor died about twenty years ago," she said bluntly. "The second-to-last year the camp was open."

"What happened?" asked Chloe, aghast.

Grimacing, Aubrey said, "It's not nice. He was cleaning the pool in a rainstorm, and lightning struck the water; he was electrocuted instantly."

"What kind of idiot cleans the pool in a storm?" Stacie muttered to Jessica, who shrugged.

"And the year after that," Aubrey continued, "Weird stuff started happening. Lights flickering. Weird weather. Dishes would fly from the shelves. Writing would appear on the mirrors in red ink. And then, one night, they found a kid in the pool. He'd been electrocuted. And beside the pool, written in that same red ink, was a message."

"What did it say?" Emily squeaked out, leaning forward.

Aubrey took a deep breath. "It said, 'If you ever open this camp again, I'll be back.'"

A deafening silence filled the room. Beca wasn't sure whether she should laugh or not; she didn't believe in ghosts, but that was a creepy story.

"It's not true, though," Chloe's voice jarred them from their thoughts. "I mean, it can't be. Ghosts aren't real, and they definitely don't kill people. You made that up to scare us, right?" She asked Aubrey, smiling uncertainly.

Aubrey didn't smile back.

"It's true," Paris said suddenly from the couch. "Look in the local newspapers if you don't believe it."

"And where the hell are we going to get those?" Amy muttered to Cynthia-Rose. "That's a load of horse shit."

But, before Amy crossed her arms, Beca saw that her hands were shaking.

"Anyway," Aubrey sighed, "that's what happened, and that's why you guys are the only ones here. You're the first to arrive since the camp closed."

Beca turned sharply to Chloe. That couldn't be true. No way would Chloe have dragged them out here as a trial run for Aubrey. However, Chloe didn't meet her eyes; she chewed her lip, looking lost in thought.

A resonating gong sound rang through the room, startling everyone except Aubrey and Paris. Looking around, Beca saw it was coming from a huge clock on the mantel behind Aubrey, who twisted in her chair (one hand holding Chippy in place) to check the time.

"Fall in line, Bellas!" she exclaimed, turning back to face them. "It's time to make dinner, and then you're headed off to bed."

"What?" Beca asked incredulously. "It's, like, 6."

"Unfortunately," Aubrey plowed on, ignoring her, "we don't have enough lodges for you guys to stay in."

Jessica frowned. "I thought you said –"

"But there is a tent waiting for you all outside," Aubrey spoke even more loudly. "You will have to erect it, then you can come help with dinner. You can spend the night in the tent."

Amy raised her hand and said quietly, "Not a good enough reason to use the world 'erect.'"

Chloe bounded to her feet, looking around the group at them all (but ignoring Paris). "You heard her, Bellas, it's just another bonding exercise!"

Beca rose to her feet, grumbling. She couldn't believe they'd have to spend the night in a tent, especially after that story. But ghosts weren't real, and, in looking around the lodge, she wasn't entirely convinced being indoors was any safer.

"Come on, guys," she sighed, figuring that as co-captain, she should at least try to be helpful. The beaming smile Chloe sent her way almost made it worth it. Almost.

With much grumbling, the Bellas rose from their chairs. Paris stood as well, walking past Beca (did she mean to brush by that closely?) to stand next to Aubrey.

"Someone take away that creepy puppet," Stacie muttered as they trooped out into the fog.