Camp Spirit Bear

June 20, 2011

I guess Spirit Bear is not that bad but, still. . . Something weird is going on.

Huge rivers surround the entire camp. The rivers join at both ends and are too deep to wade. They also don’t put bridges.  In order to get across, you have to use the boats. My favorite part is that the island is covered in trees and there’s a small duck pond at the center. Nice peace and quiet. The cabins are scattered around and at one end is a large building. Next to it is the shed where they keep the supplies.

I was instructed to go to the large building next. There we were assigned rooms and cabins. Each cabin had a cabin name. The mammals were the girls and the reptiles were the boys. I was assigned the Cabin Wolf and room 202. I headed there and peeked in. The room contained 6 chairs. One chair was occupied by a lady with red hair and a dazzling smile. She invited me in and I sat down.

Soon, other girls started filing in.  One by one, the seats were taken and the four girls, other than me, began talking amongst themselves. The lady with the red hair cleared her throat and then introduced herself as Tana.

“I will be your councilor here at Camp Spirit Bear.” She explained. “Now I know that we are here to have fun, but there are still a few rules. One, don’t try to cross the river. Two, you must stay in your cabin after Lights Out. Three, do not go into the forest alone. Always take a buddy.  Four, have fun.” Tana smiled her dazzling smile and winked.

After that, we played some get to know you games. I sat down and looked over at the wall. For some reason I was transfixed. As I stared longer, a mist began to appear. Slowly, the purple mist began to take shape. I could make out the torso, then the head, then the arms and legs, and all I could do was stare. I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I was afraid.

Finally, the spell was broken when the rooms began to glow red and an alarm went off. The figure disappeared and I was free from its grasp. I shivered and got up like everyone else.

When we entered the hallway, there was a stream of kids all heading for the exit. The councilors were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I have never seen anyone in a panic like they were. I began to worry greatly.

Soon we were outside and hurried into our cabin groups.  The other cabin groups were also huddled up around their counselors. I counted 7 cabin groups and 5 kids per cabin. That meant that there were 35 kids outside. I thought that there were 40 kids in all. I asked Tana where Cabin Bear was.

Tana’s eyes grew wide.  Then she turned to the Cobra’s councilor. “Ben.” She asked. “Where is Cabin Bear?” Ben quickly looked around.

“Has anyone seen Kelly?” he called. All the other councilors shook their heads.  Does any one know where the Bear Cabin girls are?” The kids shook their heads.

The counselors exchanged one worried glance at each other and they left one counselor with us. The rest rushed into the building.  We waited for along time but it wasn’t until well after 10:00 PM  when the counselors came back out. I noticed that their weary eyes seemed to mask almost dead souls. It’s as if the hope-bird has dropped dead in its cage and has stopped singing.

The Cabin Bear girls were trailing behind them.  Unlike the counselors, their eyes where alive and awake, like their hope-birds were well, singing into the night. Maybe a little too crazy, like their hope-birds were corrupted from killing others.

The councilors sent the antsy girls to their cabin and then turned to us.

“The gasses that where accidentally released often cause hallucinations, but it is not harmful.”  The lady who was speaking paused dramatically. “We just wanted to tell you to stay in your cabins tonight, no matter what you see or hear. Just hallucinations, but not real.” With that we were sent back to our Cabins.

Hallucinations. That’s all. Well that purple figure was no hallucination. I know that. It was too real. It could not have been a hallucination.

As we walked past the Bear Cabin I realized that the giant scratches on the side were not hallucinations, either.

                  Sincerely,

Taylor