Underneath the Sun

The First Night

I found my cabin without difficulty as it was smaller than the rest and the only one with lights. It was also separate from the other cabins with just enough space to show others this was specially built to be on its own. All it needed was a moat and someone to defend it.

That or a big sign painted on the front door that said I am better than you.

The inside of the cabin was strictly functional. There was a single bed in the corner on a wooden frame and the two windows in the room were covered with beige blackout drapes. I needed a closer examination to see what else they did to prevent the sun from coming in during the day. Pressing my hand to the window, I felt the peel of vinyl they stuck to it.

Clever.

Beside the bed against the wall was a nightstand with a lamp. A door, which I assume led to the bathroom, was on the other side. Somebody brought my stuff to the foot of the bed.

If I had to guess, this cabin was originally meant for a camp counselor, but now they use it for special cases like me.

VIP.

All I wanted was a normal experience of camp, but instead I've been singled out twice in one night. Maybe I'll skip tomorrow's breakfast and figure out if I should stay here any longer. I threw my stuff on the floor, flopped on the bed and turned out the light.

Morning came at 3am.

The deafening crack against my cabin wall jolted me awake. It was followed by two smaller thuds and a chorus of screeching. My heart pounded and my neck tensed up while waiting for what was about to happen next. A pounding on the window.

More screeching.

Pounding on the door.

Then the sounds stopped.

I leapt from my bed and creeped to the window to peek behind the blind. My fingers lightly touched the edges, peeling back just enough to get a sight line of what I assumed to be the last place the noises came from.

While my eyes were forcibly trained to see in the night, I could only make out the outlines of the surrounding nature. No movement caught my attention, causing me to pull the blind out completely for an exposed view.

A large shadow stood in the distance, then disappeared a moment later. It looked like a giant of a figure with its outline augmented by fluttering ribbons. I rubbed my eyes and pressed my forehead to the window to see if I was just imaging things or if the shadow was caused by another light source.

With nothing in sight, it was time to do a systems check on myself to ensure I wouldn't have a heart attack from the panic I was enduring. If this was the camp's idea of another prank to welcome the new member, I wasn't going to last very long.

It took me an hour to fall back asleep.

My sleep was interrupted once more by a knock at the cabin door. Unlike the middle of the night, this one was polite and obviously a person looking for a response. My eyes opened a sliver and the cabin looked slightly brighter. Bits of light were making their way through the outside edges of the window, indicating the morning had come.

Getting out of bed, my heels felt a pain to them. I don't even know why, but it hurt to walk on them as I made my way to the door.

"Yeah?" I called out.

"Good morning!"

It was Pat and he sounded extra cheerful. I took a few steps from the door to get out of its view.

"Come in."

The door opened slowly and just enough to fit his frame and Pat dashed on, slamming it behind him. He was wearing a stereotypical camper's outfit of a white shirt and blue jeans, but sported a gray toque and canvas tote bag slung over his shoulder. He looked at me as if his coming in was the equivalent of shooting me on the spot.

"How did you sleep?" he asked.

"Okay," I lied. "There was a lot of banging outside my cabin in the middle of the night."

I didn't want to accuse the other campers outright, but I thought he should at least know. Pat scrunched his face at the comment.

"Myself and the other counselors were the last one to bed," he said, hoping I would believe none of the others would do such a thing.

I didn't say a word in response. A moment later, his eyebrows shot up and his mouth opened slightly as if struck by a minor shock.

"I think you may have met the spirit of the woods here."

Spirit of the woods? I wanted to find something to throw at him.

"There's a legend," he continued, "about a spirit of the woods that haunts all those who come its way. This camp is notorious for having at least one person claim to see, or hear it, every year. You should tell the other campers, I'm sure they would love to hear about your experience!"

This was getting so aggravatingly juvenile that I wanted to just head back to bed after giving him a few choice words.

"Anyway, it's breakfast time and I thought I would escort you today. I brought over a uniform we put together to help you transition from place to place during the day."

He reached into the bag and pulled out what I immediately assumed to be yet another practical joke played upon me.

It wasn't.