Camp Twin Tails

Chapter 18: Hazel Gets Possessed

Someone's crying. Who? Why am I being shaken? 

I squint open my eyes to see Josie huddled over me. It only takes me a second to see the tears running down her cheeks. I quickly sit up. "Hey, what's wrong? It's still dark out."

Josie looks over at her bunkbed she shares with her twin. The one that lays completely empty. "Hazel... I can't find her. She's gone."

Well shit. 

Maybe she's just in the bathroom. The bathroom's empty. There's only one person in all the other beds so she didn't slip into someone else's bed. I rush over to Calder's bed and start shaking him. He wakes up and stares at me in confusion. 

"Hazel's gone and Josie's crying," I whisper.

That gets him right up out of bed. He kneels next to Josie and hugs her, rubbing her back all the while. Meanwhile my twin and I share a silent conversation. We both nod after a minute. We need to find her fast, before anything happens to her or anyone else notices she's gone. 

I put my sneakers on and help Josie put her shoes on while Calder finds his. Mr. Emmet can be a light sleeper, he's woken up countless times any of us have gone to the bathroom at night and make just a little too much noise. With any luck, he'll stay asleep while we sneak out. He must not have woken up when Hazel got up, or whatever happened to her. 

Calder takes the lead and tip toes to the door; I take my phone from the drawer Mr. Emmet keeps them in at night in one hand and Josie's hand in the other. I try to rub soothing circles with my thumb but I'm not sure it helps her. 

My twin slowly opens the door and continues outside to the porch, the two of us following behind him. He's the one to ever so carefully close the door behind us. The door clicks and we all freeze. I strain my ears to hear any movement from inside but all remains silent. 

As soon as we're off the porch, I call Reed. It rings a few times before he picks it up. Sorry to whichever campers he shares a cabin with. 

"Hello...?" he answers in a half asleep tone. 

"Reed! It's Marina!" I hiss. 

"Mari? What's wrong? It's like one am."

"Hazel is missing."

"What do you mean she's missing?" he asks, sounding much more awake now.

"I mean she's missing, you idiot! She's not in our cabin and Josie's freaking out! Get the others up!" I hang up and look over at Calder trying to comfort Josie. "Come on. Let's go meet up with the others." 

By the time the rest of the group is awake, Josie's no longer crying. She's worried out of her god damn mind but at least she's not crying anymore. We're all worried. What with ghost kids and suspicious adults and DD running around acting like some kind of spy for them. 

"So... what happened again?" Theo asks, trying to rub the sleep out of one eye.

"Hazel's disappeared. Josie woke up to her bed being empty and woke Mari and I up in a panic. We've already checked around the outside of our cabin and no luck." Calder crosses his arms. 

"Let's try to be as quiet as possible. We don't want to wake anyone else up incase this has anything to do with the ghost kids or the camp directors. It'll only get more complicated," Reed says. 

I frown and start walking. "The real question is, why would Hazel leave the cabin by herself in the middle of the night? Sure, she likes ghost stories, but there's no way she would go this far just to meet some ghosts. Not after everything we've already seen and learned."