The Cavern

Chapter One

I looked out my window at the uninteresting forest, the never-ending branches, the green mass that would become my home for the next three weeks. My mom babbled nonsense the whole drive up here like,

"You'll have fun!" or " This isn't some form of torture." or the worst one yet, "You need to socialize more and put yourself out there." 

She had no clue why I didn't want to 'put myself out there'. The only good part about this was that there was no cell phone service, which meant no talking to my parents for three weeks, no looking at my friends Instagram pages and feeling jealous, no meaningless posts from every girl I've ever know. 

"I'll miss you, baby." My mom sighed as we parked on the gravel road. She still calls me baby when I'm sixteen years old.

"You know you can't talk to me for three weeks right?" I asked, hoping she would take me back home.

"I know that." She said giving me her Look.

"You won't know if I die here." I continued as we grabbed my bags and walked to the sign-in sheet. 

"Stop that! It's perfectly safe here, your not going to die." My mom yelled. People turned there heads to look at the screaming mother.

"That's what every horror movie says before you die." I said, just to annoy her. She turned around and I could see the annoyance all over her face.

"And you wonder why I leave you here." She sneered. I rolled my eyes. " Your all signed-in now." She said, cheerful again. We hugged and she went back to her car.

"Bye Mom." I groaned. 

"Try to have fun okay? Love you!" She sighed before driving off. I decided the first thing to do was find my cabin and put my stuff down. It was easy to find with all our names on the outside. 

My cabin had three other girls in it. Two of which were already there. They were twelve or thirteen at the most. Great, I sighed. I put my stuff down and changed clothes. My mom made me bring anything I could possibly need on this trip. Before this, I had no hiking clothes or shoes at all.

"So, are you Laura or Eve?" One of the girls asked me. She had blonde curls that were put into two buns on the back of her head. 

"Eve." I responded. 

"I'm Sara and that's Sasha. We're sisters." Sara smiled. Now it made sense why they looked identical. Sasha had the same hair, but it was in a ponytail instead. 

"Cool." I said. They ran off after that, leaving me to settle in. Laura came into the cabin twenty minutes later. I was still unpacking my stuff. She had black hair and dark brown eyes and was dressed in all black.

"Please tell me we have normal roommates?" Laura asked. She looked just as excited to be here as I did.

"Two sisters. They look like they're twelve or thirteen." I told her. She sighed and flopped onto her bed.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Eve, your Laura right?" I asked. She nodded.

"Your parents make you come here?" she asked me as she unpacked her stuff.

"Yeah, you?" I asked. 

"Yep." She sighed.

"You're going to die dressed in that you know." I said.

"I'm going to change, but I wanted my mom to think I was stubborn enough to wear this all summer." She growled. Wow, that's different.

Later that day, we were forced to go to a bonfire. The sun was starting to go down and we all had to get to know each other. We did exercises that helped us know about everyone as we cooked hot dogs. I didn't listen to anything that was going on because I didn't really care. I sat close to the fire next to Laura. She didn't seem to be listening either.

After everyone ate, we had to split into groups based on age. Thank God! The 12-14 group had been screaming all day. The group I was put into was 15- 17. There were seven of us.

Laura, me, three guys, and two other girls. The two girls were jointed at the hip and silent.

We had to introduce ourselves again.

"I'm Laura, I'm sixteen, and I'm obsessed with heavy metal music." Laura said first. That explains the outfit.

"I'm Owen, I'm seventeen, and I'm bored as hell." Owen had glasses and burgundy hair. He was taller than the other guys, but gave off a goofy vibe.

"I'm Bryson, I'm sixteen, and I like basketball and drums." Bryson was muscular and tall, with a hard face. He had green eyes and light brown almost blonde hair. Laura's head popped up when She heard drums. She smiled for the first time before putting her head back down.

"I'm Ella, and I'm Emma, we're fifteen, and we want to see aliens here." The two girls said. They had black hair and dark makeup on. I don't know if it was an act or not, but they looked bewitched. I locked eyes with Laura, and even she was weirded out.

"Well, uh, I'm Ryker, I like nature I guess, and I'm sixteen." Ryker seemed nervous and annoyed at the same time. He had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. He was shorter than the other boys here, but he made up for it with his presence. He seemed calming and grounded.

"I'm Evelynn, but call me Eve. I'm sixteen and I like people with a sense of humor." I said. The rest of the night we made 'smores and barely anyone talked. The camp instructor eventually gave up and let us be dismissed. 

I went back to the cabin as soon as I could. The barbie sisters were still at their fire pit. Laura came back seconds after me. 

It was hardly even nine, but I didn't know what else to do, so I went to bed and pulled out a book. After a while, Laura moved around. She propped herself on the end of my bed.

"I didn't take you for a romance girl." She commented. The book I was reading was Always and Forever by Jenny Han.

"Ehh, Not in real life, but in books sure." I shrugged. She had a book too, called Twilight.

"I agree, too much work, but you'd like this." She said and handed me the book. We switched and read the summaries, then agreed to switch when we finished the first ones.

We went back to our fantasy worlds, and didn't even notice when the other girls came back.

The next thing I heard was a guy screaming. I looked up and threw my book down. The four of us rushed to the window.

"We about to die!" I said. Told you mom!

"What?" The little girls shrieked. Great, I forgot about them.

"We aren't going to die, I was exaggerating." I said trying to stop them from screaming.

"Is that Owen?" Laura asked. We decided to leave the cabin, well me and Laura decided to.

Most of the other teens were out here too. Owen ran up to everyone.

"Guys! There's a cave here. It's so cool. Come on! " He yelled. Half of the kids went back inside.

"It's just a cave." Laura asked in disbelief. 

"No, it's hidden and there's a lake in it." Owen talked a mile a minute.

"Maybe tomorrow, but it's late." Ryker said. I turned around and saw that none one else was out here. Ryker did say he liked nature.

"You don't understand! Both of you, listen." Owen cried out angrily. Ryker turned to his side. I'm assuming he didn't think anyone was left outside. We locked eyes for a second.

"It has powers." Owen whispered to us as he leaned in. I bit my lip and looked at Ryker. We stayed silent for a moment. When we looked back at Owen, his face was so serious that I threw my head back laughing.