Would You Rather

44 - WYR: Candle Lake or Casey's Night

guys omg this is the chapter with my absolute favorite dialogue line I've ever written in it. if u think u know what it is, pop a comment on it. i, like, crack myself up every time i even think about this line. fr fr. 

it's also 6k words so double a normal chapter. so enjoy that too. 

FIDAN

 Candle Lake, Saskatchewan is four and a half hours north of Regina. Supposedly it's a good spot for swimming. I have no idea why we're going in December, but I'm sure it's pleasant in the summer and the general hype from the group that's been around for more than one year is enough to get me sort of excited about whatever lies ahead of me in this strange little town. They say it's like a resort town. I don't know why anywhere north of the 53rd degree latitude would be considered a resort, but I'm willing to roll with it.

We break out of Farm Saskatchewan and into Forest Saskatchewan (with a slight intermission of Mine Saskatchewan) right after a town called Prince Albert which...

I mean. Come on.

Saskatchewan.

At least admit that naming cities Regina and Prince Albert was part of some long going bit and not completely on accident.

Seriously. It's getting weird.

Not to mention that Prince Albert is just north of a town called Hoey and south of a town called Honeymoon.

It has to be a bit.

I would ask Finley, but I think she has me blocked because my mostly-drunk 3am text of Hey, we should probably talk, right? didn't get delivered.

Anyway. The point is that the land becomes hard to farm on and still flat as all hell. I think this is the closest to utter and complete barren wasteland that I've ever come to. I don't think I've ever been further away from civilization. Four hours north from a city that's barely a city in the first place and the biggest 'town' we pass is six houses.

I lean over to Rocket after a certain point of barren wasteland. Håkon, for some reason, is asleep against his shoulder. It's likely the longest I've ever seen Rocket stay still.

"So," I start. "Why... do we come out here?"

"Shit in a bowl," he lifts his free shoulder. "You gotta refrigerate salsa for it to come together."

"That had to be the least conclusive thing you could've possibly said."

He smiles at me, "Nico had this thing in her first season that the team wasn't cohesive enough. She knew everyone was good but nobody could work together, so she, at random, booked a cabin for thirty in the middle of absolutely nowhere and forced everyone off the grid for a weekend of team cohesion and they came back stronger than ever to win the cup. So they've done it every year since."

"Which has only been one year."

"Yeah," he nods. "And this is year three."

"Okay, so," I waffle with my options. "What if someone starts having a heart attack."

"Jorgen."

"The nearest hospital is where?"

"Three hours."

"Great, fantastic, just what I like to hear." I bite my lip. "This is seriously something that's fun for everyone? What do we even do?"

"Dunno. I just sort of roll with it. I think they've booked a different place this time around so I'm not actually even sure where we're going."