Summer Nightmares

Nineteen

Miguel Torres

"Would you please leave me alone!" I couldn't hold it in anymore. Ms. Warren was taking care of me like I was a baby and she was the one loving mother I always wished for. But she was too late. "I can't believe you were getting Emily killed-" I hid my face with my hands as tears fell down my cheeks. "What if she would've shot her?" It was over.

And for the first time in seven years I felt the urge to run away, again. The only difference being this time I was going to run forever and ever till I die.

"I had no idea- Miguel are you even listening to me!"

"No, you knew!"

"I didn't! I swear I didn't! That woman told me she was her aunt and they hadn't met in years and she wanted to surprise her and I let her."

Liar.

She kept on explaining, repeating the same words over and over again. Telling me she was sorry for what happened but she didn't have a hand in that.

And I wasn't listening. I was looking outside the window where Regina was listening to everything. She looked scared when I first looked at her but she didn't move when she saw I wasn't telling Ms. Warren anything.

And then she stopped in between when a loud crashing noise came from outside the cabin. Did she trip onto something? Jesus, I had to save her!

"It's a racoon." I said, trying to sound as normal as possible. "By the way have you still kept the keys to the underground basement near the lake under your cabin's floor?" I asked rather loudly because I wanted answers. It wasn't okay. Everything happening here.

"Yes. Why do you wanna know?" Ms. Warren looked at me confused. "Do you wanna join me, Miguel?"

"I was- uh- thinking about it."

Late at night, I snuck out to Emily's cabin and knocked on her door because she needed to know everything. I wasn't sure how long we had but I wasn't letting go of her. I had already messed up enough things.

When she opened the door she looked at me with dead eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I- you need to know everything about this camp, Emily!" I said as I walked in and she stopped me with her hand.

"You can't come in, Miguel! Not anymore."

"Please, I- trust me!" Tears fell down my cheeks as I pleaded for the trust of the one girl who trusted me the most a few days ago. "Every year a girl disappears at Camp Lakesville." I said just as she was about to close the door on my face.

"What are you talking about?"

"You need to leave! That's all I'm saying and it's not going to be easy. And I wanna help you!"

"Get in." She whispered.

I stepped in as the heat and comfort surrounded me. Sydney wasn't in the cabin.

"She- the kids begged me to let her sleep with them tonight. I was thinking about leaving tomorrow, anyway so I let her go." She explained and I nodded.

"I'm going to tell you everything I've known in the past seven years I've been living here! I don't have a family. They're rich but they kicked me out of the house because I am not good enough. And just forget about every good memory I told you about because I never lived it. It was something the kids at camp would tell me when they'd miss their parents."

"So, you live here?" She looked at me with pitiful eyes and I felt like I had been stabbed. This was the girl I betrayed and she still felt bad for me.

"I- It'll be easier if I showed you everything. I promise nothing's going to happen to you. The kids might already have reached there!"

"Where are we going?" She asked me the fifth time. Of course she didn't trust me enough.

"The basement near the lake. You don't know about it but the kids know. I told Regina where this basement is and there's no way they ain't going there to figure out the answers."

When we reached there I felt relieved to see the basement door was half open. The kids were inside.

I helped Emily get down and then got down myself. I could hear Regina talking to this other girl about the rituals. They had figured it all out. Better late than never.

I was going to do everything I could to fix this.