Camp Lashode

CHAPTER ONE

Chapter one

The rolling Montana hills swallowed us up as we drove through the dry lands, my pale hands tightening around an old map that I was using to direct us to our destination: Camp Lashode. It was my grandparents' old camp they ran back in 1995, one that was shut down when a murder had occurred the first year it was in business.

My Nana and Papa were devastated by the news, but insisted that the camp kept running for years to come even if a disaster had once occurred. Yet, no one signed up, and hence the camp had to be shut down due to lack of money. I, only being born a few months after the shutdown of the camp, never got to experience something my family had put so much effort into, but knew that when I was older, and if the camp was still there, I would venture out to it and experience what I had missed out.

So here I was, twenty years old cruising through the never ending hilly state of Montana with my boyfriend, best friend, and her fiancé, just a bunch of grown up kids going to camp.

"Why did you guys even want to tag along?" I asked Grace, my best friend, and Evann, her fiancé, in the back after looking once more at the map to make sure we were on the right path. Straight through the mountains. My grandma used to tell me when I was younger, making me smile now as I waited for their answer back.

"I'm your best friend. I'm not letting you go to some camp by yourself seventeen hours away from home in Wisconsin!" Grace desperately responded, acting like a teenager even if she was older than me by two years. Scoffing a bit, I grabbed onto my boyfriend, Charlies' free hand next to me as he drove my small, old, white Jeep Grand Cherokee and rose it up a bit for her to see.

"Grace, that's why Charlie is here," I laughed, as same did Charlie beside me nodding his head.

"And you think that bag of bones can protect you?" she questioned with a giggle, making me shoot glares behind me to her in the back seat with Evann. Her long, blonde hair definitely showed through to her personality sometimes, as she wasn't always the best with knowing what to say. Though, she was good at getting the guys, and I had to applaud her for that. Her pale, flawless skin, ocean blue eyes, and long skinny figure could work magic with any man if she was trying hard enough.

I mean, it apparently worked with Evann, then again he wasn't the smartest cookie in the jar. Not that Grace wasn't wonderful and all, but she certainly had her flaws. Wanting to marry Evann being one of them, in my opinion. He just wasn't mature, nor wanted to be. He was just another one of those dull headed football jocks you would point out in high school...

"That bag of bones? I think out of everyone here Charlie would be the only one that would know how to keep us safe in any situation. Unlike your fiancé, who's scared of grass-"

"Excuse me! I'm allergic, not scared. If I was scared I wouldn't of been playing football for all of the years in which I did," Evann interrupted, brushing through his buzzed dirty brown hair and nudging me with his ivory colored hand.

"But if you were as allergic as you say you are, then football, which you play on grass, would of been a terrible time for you," I said laughing, as I looked out of the window to notice the rolling hills decreasing as we seemed to be getting out of them a bit, but looked back to Charlie in the driver's seat after who was laughing still as well.

Charlie, though having drove the whole way here, ceased to not have a smile on his face. He was so cute, it was hard not to say it out loud every chance I got. His short brown hair, pale skinned, muscular body, deep green eyes, and tall six foot three figure was hard not to point out to everyone, for it was just so attractive. His laugh as well just sent shivers up my spine, that husky, low laugh...

"Claire, how much longer?" I heard Grace ask, knocking me from my thoughts and sending me to jerk back to reality. Clearing my throat a bit, I pushed away thoughts of Charlie long enough to look back at the map and estimate about ten more minutes. We were just about to get out of the mountains and come into a clearing of trees, where about a mile or so there would be a Camp Lashode sign and we would turn in.

"Ten minutes, keep your eyes open for the camp sign, it should be coming soon," I told her, as well as the others, as Charlie sped up a bit after getting out of the mountains and finally driving upon a straight cut road. No more curves! I cheered in my head, as I smiled and folded the map back up to place in my backpack near my feet. Trees upon trees flung past us then, some in which I didn't recognize, yet some in which I did somehow. I wasn't that big into nature, but I did know a few things about the outdoors from classes I was forced into taking in high school a few years back.

Slowing down increasingly fast, I tossed aside the memories and looked ahead to see why Charlie was doing what he was.

Welcome to Camp Lashode. The sign read, as it hung high, thrown it seemed, in a mangled tree in the distance. Who would do such a thing? I thought to myself, as I looked deeper out into the jungle like forest that surrounded us as Charlie drove cautiously slower, into the camp. Everything seemed much darker than anything else we had been traveling down, sending an eerie feeling to overwhelm me immediately.

"Maybe the little boy that got murdered here tossed that sign up there," Evann chuckled to himself, as I groaned and shook my head. Evann was the type of guy who would act all tough when he felt safe, but when any sign of danger came along would run for the hills crying like a baby. It was quite childish to be honest.

"You shouldn't talk like that," I told him angrily, before feeling Charlie's hand reach for my leg and rest upon it, calming me it seemed. "We should just make sure and check if this is even the right place," I said, hesitant of going in any more than we already have.

"The sign read Camp Lashode, Claire. I think we have the right place," Charlie responded, as I groaned once more and gathered up my long sandy blonde hair into a pony tail. I always did so when I knew things were going to get tough, for who wants hair to get in their way?

"Yeah, but...what if someone just threw it there to be rude? This could be the wrong place entirely!" I questioned, though even I knew no one just did that.

"Let's just check it out, okay?" Charlie said once more, as I looked back to Grace and Evann shrugging in the back. Sighing, I nodded and watched out of the passengers window as the once paved road we traveled upon became gravel and the plentiful trees that surrounded us turned into what seemed to of been parking lots. This must be the front of the camp. Where all the buses unloaded the kids. I thought to myself, as Charlie kept driving through the large gravel area until soon enough it all ended, and the only thing remaining in front of us was a small, barely visible trail.

"No way am I hiking anywhere, I didn't sign up for that," Grace whines, as Charlie parks the car and jumps out of it to examine what lies ahead. Jumping out of the passenger's seat as well, I go over to join him standing in front of the car, and look out ahead. The trail in front of us is only wide enough for one person at a time, for trees coat everywhere else, so our car definitely wouldn't fit through.

"We can park the car here, pack everything into backpacks that we need, and hike to the camp. Even if that's not on Grace's agenda," Charlie told me, looking over and smiling. Smiling back at him from force of habit, I nodded and walked on over to fall into his arms for a hug. Being wrapped up in his arms felt like the safest place on the planet, and I loved every second of it. Unfortunately, we had to get moving before dark and so our hug lasted much shorter than usual, as we both headed back to the car to tell Grace and Evann our decision.

From there, we didn't know of what was to happen. From there we merely thought we were walking ourselves into my grandparents old, shut down camp. Where memories were made even if only for one summer. But it was much more than that, for we were walking ourselves into something not even Charlie could keep us safe from. Something that not even our wildest nightmares could dream up. Something called Camp Lashode.

-Thanks for reading! This is a completely new idea, so feedback is always appreciated! :D-