The Return to Summer Camp

Chapter Six: Underneath the Bed

    That night Evan, Connor, and Jared staked out Zoe and Alana's cabin, ready to see what exactly was happening. While Evan and Jared hide outside in the bushes near the cabin, Connor was hidden on the inside, ready to see if anything happened in there.

    Jared sat against a tree, a perfect viewing spot for the front door of the cabin. Evan sat across from him, using his binoculars he had brought for bird watching.

"You see that bird up there? It's a black-throated gray warbler-"

"I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be watching the cabin, not the birds." Jared said, writing in the dirt with a stick.

"Right, right." Evan said, aiming his binoculars back at the cabin.

"What time is it?" Jared sighed, erasing what he wrote in the dirt. "It feels like we've been out here forever."

Evan checked his watch, "It's midnight."

Jared groaned, "We've been out here for like two hours and nothing has happened."

The two returned to silence. Jared squirmed, he hated staying still for so long. He wanted to jump up and sprint into Zoe and Alana's cabin. He wanted to go and do something with his friends and instead he was trapped sitting in the bushes waiting for something that probably wouldn't happen.

"So, uh, how're things with you and Connor." Evan asked, obviously trying to be subtle.

"How do you think things are, genius?" Jared replied, trying to hide any emotion regarding Connor.

"No, I just want to know how you are." Evan shrugged, putting down his binoculars. "I mean, you only broke up two months ago, and now you're living together-"

"Thanks, didn't realize." Jared said sarcastically. "Listen, things are fine, it's like we never dated."

Evan looked at him sadly for a second, "Okay."

From the corner of Jared's vision, he saw something move, "Quick, give me those." He said, snatching the binoculars out of Evan's hands. Putting them up to his face, he was able to see a couple boys sneaking over to the cabin.

"What is it?" Evan asked, Jared quickly shushed him.

The boys crept over to the cabin and tapped on the window before quickly ducking down.

"What the actual fuck?" Jared said.

"What! What is it?" Evan whined, reaching for the binoculars.

"Shh!"

Another boy snuck over to the door, reaching for the doorknob and opening the shutting the door quickly. With that, they all rushed off, clearly laughing and joking as the fled back to their cabin.

Jared lowered the binoculars, a grin on his face, "Ev, I think we have pranking to do."

The next morning the group sat at breakfast, talking as they ate their delightfully soggy French toast.

"Why would Cabin H want to prank us?" Alana asked, waving her fork as she talked. "What'd we do to them?"

"Wait, weren't the boys in cabin H in cabin B last year?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah, I think they moved in after the kids in that cabin moved out last year." Jared agreed.

"Wait, are you saying that they scared those in cabin B so bad that they moved out so they could have the cabin for themselves?" Evan asked Jared, a concerned look on his face.

"I mean, cabin B is better than most other cabins, it's closer to the bathrooms, it's slightly larger due to a building error, and it has a secret compartment under one of the beds." Connor said.

Everyone else looked at him quizzically.

"Oh yeah, that's what I forgot to tell you guys." Connor said, munching on his french toast. "Well last night I hid under one of the empty bunk beds and I noticed a small latch on the floor, I opened it up and it looked like there was a ton of stuff down there, but I didn't go check because it was dark."

Jared grinned at the group, "I think we'll be skipping our hike today."

After pretending to have food poisoning, the group was sent back to their cabins. Instead, however, the group prepared to go into the secret compartment.

"I have a flashlight." Evan said, pulling it out of his backpack as they headed to cabin B.

"What could be in this compartment that is so important?" Alana asked curiously. "Maybe some sort of ancient relics?"

"This is isn't a book or something, Alana." Jared laughed, obviously that would be ridiculous, they weren't some story on a page. "I bet it's food. Good stuff that they don't have here, sour patch kids, Kit Kat's, jolly ranchers-"

"Okay, Willy Wonka." Connor said playfully, rolling his eyes. Jared blushed and quickly turned his face away to hide it. "I think it's something more sinister than that, maybe it's a murder room, you remember that kid that went missing a couple of years ago?"

"No?" Jared said.

"Oh, right, last year was your first year at this camp." Connor said. "Well a couple of years ago a kid in cabin C did disappeared one night, never to be seen again."

"To be fair, they figure he ran away because his parent's weren't the nicest." Zoe pointed out.

"Yeah, tell that to the blood stains I saw Greg washing away in front of cabin C." Connor huffed.

"Blood?" Evan said in a small voice.

"Why would they need a murder room if they were just going to spill his blood in front of cabin C?" Alana asked.

"Ugh, I don't know, maybe for hiding the body or something?" Connor grumbled.

The group arrived at the cabin and prepared themselves to go into the compartment. They moved the bed aside to be able to reach it easier. Evan was too scared to go in first with his flashlight, so Connor volunteered.

They opened the latch and Connor hopped down, turning on his flashlight when he hit the floor.

"What do you see?" Zoe called.

"Uh, not much yet, this is roomier than I thought it would be." Connor yelled back up. There was the sound of a couple steps before Connor stopped, "Guys, you have to see this."