Duality (slashers x reader)

4. The Sanity Assassin

As hoards of children spilled out of the buses, I noticed Sarah stood by the lake, presumably waiting for her group. She turned to look at me and smiled. I smiled back and waved, and then nearly jumped out of my skin as a loud shout sounded right behind me. Turning round, I was met with the sight of roughly 15 small children crowding around me, all jumping and screaming at each other - or to themselves, it was impossible to tell. What had I gotten myself into?

'Attention, please! Hello! Hello there!' Keith tried in vain to shout over the cacophony, finally resorting to clapping his hands a singular time, which echoed through the forest. He winced, cleared his throat, and continued 'H-hi! Welcome everybody! I'm sure you're all very excited so I'll keep this short! My name's Keith and I'm the camp leader. Now, you've all been sorted into groups with a camp counselor, who will be leading you during your stay here! If you have any issues or questions, they'll be more than happy to help you. We have many activities on offer here, so while we do encourage everyone to try everything, if there's anything you're uncomfortable with doing, I'm sure we can find an alternative for you. Now, now that that's out of the way, your counsellors will lead you to your cabins, where you can leave your belongings, and explain the schedule for today! Alright? Thank you!'

I saw other counsellors start leading their groups so I decided to follow suit. 'Hey, guys! I'm Y/N and I'm your counsellor! Now, if you wouldn't mind following me, I'll lead you to your cabin. Stay together and follow close behind! We don't want anyone getting lost!' I started off, before stopping to see Keith running up to me waving a piece of paper.

'Y/N! Wait!' he came to an abrupt stop in front of me and placed his hands on his knees, struggling to breathe. 'Ha, sorry, give me a second. Phew. Sorry, I need to give you this before you go and if you have any issues with anything, just let me know.' He patted my arm before jogging off, leaving me with a sheet of paper listing all the kids in my group. 18. No surnames I recognised.

'Right, let's get going.' I started walking to their cabin, checking behind me every now and then to make sure they were keeping up. When we were roughly 2/3 of the way there, I felt a sharp tug on my arm. Looking down, I found a young girl looking up at me with frightened eyes.

'Mx Y/N, there's a stranger behind that tree' I looked to where she was pointing, but I couldn't see anything except said tree.

'I'm sure it's just another counsellor'

'But he was really big and tall!'

'Well then, he may be the caretaker or the cook. It's nothing to worry about, don't fret' I tapped her nose, which made her giggle and run back to her place in line with another young girl. I checked a bit apprehensively in the trees, I wasn't sure what the caretaker or cook looked like so it could have been one of them, but either way, I saw nothing.

We made it to the cabin, and I held the door open for the children to storm past me. I let them get settled, shouting over the noise for them to meet me outside once they were done. Whilst waiting outside, I absentmindedly kicked a pine cone between my feet, wondering what was taking them so long. A rustle and twig snap pulled me out of my thoughts, and I snapped my head to where I thought I heard the sound: a small clearing in the adjacent woods. A large shadow passed through the trees quickly, almost silently bar two more rustles.

'Hello?' I shouted. The shadow stopped, turning in my direction for a second, before quickly running away through the woods. 'Hey! Wait!' I started chasing the figure, which sped up and moved deeper into the trees. I struggled to keep up and gave in when I couldn't see them anymore. I wondered who it could be.

As I pondered the identity of the mysterious figure, I walked back to the cabin to find my entire group waiting outside.

'Where have you been?' the little girl from earlier asked, running up to me and clutching my arm.

I pat her hand and responded 'I'm so sorry, I just wanted to explore the woods a little.' She nodded and smiled slightly, looking considerably less concerned for me. How sweet.

'Is everyone ready to go?' A chorus of 'yes' sounded back at me, and I led the way to the archery section. The little girl, who I found out was called Katie, hung by my side the entire walk, asking me about the camp and what other activities we'd be doing. She was really sweet so I didn't mind, even though she was extremely talkative.

The archery instructor was a strong, intimidating woman, roughly 30 years old I guessed, who stood with a strong stance. She introduced herself as Angela and gave a very passionate demonstration of how to use the bow and emphasised the rules of using the archery equipment: in a nutshell, if you used them in any way they weren't intended to be or in a way that could harm anyone, you'd face 'severe punishment'. Though she never clarified what this would be.

I watched as the children shot arrows at the stuffed targets. Surprisingly, most made it onto the target itself, while only a few got wedged in the trees behind. With each added arrow to the tree bark, I swore the vein on Angela's forehead became more prominent.

With no major injuries acquired, the kids and I helped tidy up the stray arrows and pack the bows away. I apologized for the arrows stuck in the trees, and Angela stated it was okay through extremely clenched teeth, so clenched I was concerned her teeth would collapse in on themselves.

We waved goodbye and I walked with my group to the dinner hall, ready for lunch. As the children filed past me, Keith met me at the door and pulled me aside.

'No issues so far?'

'No, everything's gone fine.'
'Ah, good good. That's good to hear. Listen, I hope you've had a chance to look over your register sheet since I'm going to need it back. We only have one copy of each register and we need them for legal reasons. You get it.' He chuckled nervously and clasped his hands together. I rooted around in my pockets for the paper but was met with nothing. Shit. I left it at archery.

'Sorry, I've left it with Angela, I'll run and grab it now'

Jogging along the path back to archery, a loud series of thumps sounded past me in the trees, stopping me in my tracks. I turned to look back, and only saw branches swaying as if having been brushed past. 'Hello?'. No answer. It's probably just a deer or another counsellor. I wasn't sure how much I believed that. The thumps were created by something heavier. I didn't want to freak myself out, so I carried on jogging.

'Hi Angela, it's just me!' I pushed open the door and stepped in. 'I left my register here, have you seen it?'

Red.

Everywhere.

A blood-curdling scream sounded from my throat.