Murder Mystery Camp

Date: 1/28/2019

*i apologize in advance for any typos* Me and my little sister had been talked into going to a getaway camp for the summer. This would be my last summer home before going to uni abroad, and my sister was anxiety ridden about leaving the house for a night. It would be good for the both of us. The camp was supposed to be filled with activities but I don’t think any of us looked into it very well. All we knew was we didn’t need ANY luggage. We went to the meet up spot, the top of a roaring river. My mom dropped us off, and forwarded an email to me with all the instructions. She drove away and it was up to me and my sister to get to this camp. “Alright Audrey, let’s find out how to get to this camp” we peered at my phone screen, both reading the email. ‘If you’ve made it to the river, it’s time for you to find a raft, you’ll need it. Your camp is at the bottom. We’ve hidden fifteen rafts about the top of the river, all durable and ready to carry up to five visitors. One hint: tubing” my sister turned to be, squinting her eyes and eyebrows together in a confused look “what the fuck, is mom serious” I nodded. “I think so, come on, let’s find a raft” we rusted through leaves and rocks and trees together and that’s when we found it. A half metal pipe around seven foot long. Almost like a slide. The tubing hint made sense now. This was our raft. My sister asked what we should do now “well, the email just says to watch 8 informational videos on our way down, so we have to figure out how to make it down on our own, I think we should wait at the drop off area, maybe a couple more people will make it.” Three other girls did come around twenty minutes later. They were thankful to not have to have to find the raft/giant half-pipe on their own. We decided the two biggest girls would sit at the bottoms to anchor the three smaller girls in, and the three smaller girls would watch the informational videos and relay all the information from them to the two older girls in front (me being one of them). The videos contained information we couldn’t imagine needing, but we listened carefully nonetheless. We learned to dress a gun wound, safely search a dangerous environment, and activities alike. The travel down the river, which felt oddly artificial, lasted about 40 minutes. When we made it to the bottom we were immediately met by an obstacle course. It was said on a sign that once we made it to the end we would receive our bedding arrangements and be able to settle in, and look at what we were provided. Including clothes and toiletries. Me and my sister, her name is Audrey, we’re waiting to begin the obstacle course (we let the first three girls go first) when we saw a faint trail up the mountain. We both decided to explore and when we got back we could quickly go through the obstacle course without having to worry about it being too crowded. We walked about ten minutes up this mountain when we noticed five big mansion-like homes. Very different from the setting that they were in. “What’re you guys doing” audrey and I jumped in the air at the sound of a young girl’s voice. “Jesus Christ!” I remember exclaiming, “what are you doing? Have you been following us?” The girl shook her head “no, I just finished the course, and went exploring. Saw you two.” Audrey pointed at the houses telling the young girl that we had just come upon them, and we were thinking about checking them out. I was surprised. We hadn’t discussed going inside, but I was thinking it to myself. “Let’s go then” we went to the furthest house to the left, three stories, orange and navy blue but mostly white. It looked old and the architecture looked like it belonged in New Orleans, Louisiana. We got to the front door and it creaked open, almost like it knew we were there. I stepped in first, recalling some of the advice our videos had given us on the river ride. My sister and the stranger walked in next, carefully, both hanging onto my arm. The lights flickered like fluorescent bulbs, but they were a dark yellow color. We made it to the top floor and started into the first bedroom. Nothing. The second however, was horrible we knew the moment we stepped in. A feeling of dread blanketed me and I knew it happened to the young girls as well. My eyes searched the room and landed on a lump laying on the bed underneath the quilt like duvet. I walked slowly over, the object/lump/person? Didn’t move at all. When I arrived to its side, and still saw no movement I pulled the blanket off before being able to talk myself out of it. The girls gasped still at the doorway. Underneath the blanket was a body, the sheets underneath it rotting into a black stained color. The eyes had sunk in, the teeth showing through its cheeks. I felt the sting of nausea crawling up my throat, I ran out into the hallway, the girls close in front. The stranger ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. I could hear her retching and knocked onto the door to check in on her. My knock was greeted my two loud thumps and a whimper from the girl. I had a bad feeling and opened the door, luckily she had left it unlocked. This tiny sweet girl was on the floor, blood rushing from a deep cut on her forearm. I screamed at audrey to keep out of the room and kept into action. There were no towels, no cloths, not even a shower curtain. I took my shirt off leaving only my sports bra and held it onto the gash. I held so tightly I was afraid I might hurt the girl. She was turning white and her eyelids fluttered but wouldn’t open. I scooped her up and ran down the stairs. My sister running right behind me, holding onto my back. I stopped and demanded she run ahead. I needed to be able to see her at the least, she would not meet this girls date. Something wrong was happening in this house. The run down the hill was a small fraction of time compared to the journey up. At the bottom of the river and the bottom of the mountain a team of “camp counselors” dressed in lab coats took the girl from my arms. Only one woman stood behind to reassure me she would be taken care of. Blood was all over me, but the woman parted telling us we must go through the obstacle. That everything would be okay. It didn’t take me and audrey long. We are athletically built and both incredibly talented and smart (at least in this dream we were) at the end another counselor of sorts stood waiting for us. She found our names on the clipboard she held, and then told us we would be in separate cabins. After what we’d just seen however I refused. It took several minutes of arguing and shouting but finally the counselor and two others who had joined the conversation agreed to bunk us together. We were instructed to wait for ten minutes while they rearranged for us. When we were brought to our cabins it was filled with our own possessions, and items similar to what we might want or have. Our closets had our tee shirts, the bed side table had my planner and my book. Audrey’s had a framed photo of our mother and late father. Something was wrong with this camp. A loud siren like sound rang through the air. It was time for dinner, they warned us we would hear a sound like this. I felt like we were in a prison camp, hidden underneath this child-friendly description. I remember we had just grabbed our food and sat onto a table when a loud booming voice came onto the same speakers that rang out just moments before. “Welcome, you all must be curious as to what type of camp this is, it isn’t what we advertised, is it?” The voice sounded happy and like it was making a joke. A few kids around giggled, unsure. “This, boys and girls, is a murder mystery camp” more sounds “we have grouped you all into 5 squads of 7 campers. Tomorrow we will head up the hill to the first house. We have five houses that you will be able to search every day. You have nine hours only. You must complete the hidden tasks and gather all the clues, or else” the voice went silent, a girl across the cafeteria like area shouted aloud “or else what” but the voice was gone. The five houses. Like the one we wandered into already. This was apart of this camp? Dead bodies? A dying or maybe dead camper in result of searching? That’s when a stream of counselors came into the room. These ones were dressed in black, and all had ear prices. They guarded the exits and entrances, even the restrooms. Finally the voice returned “find the killer, before he finds you, and you may go home” everyone was silent. When it seemed that the voice went coming back and the counselors weren’t moving, we all settled into finishing our food. I reminded audrey to eat all of hers, it appeared as if we needed all the energy that we could get. We went to bed. I took my a long time to rest, but hearing Audrey’s steady breathing relaxed me. At least it was strangers so far, and not my dear sister. Sleep took over. The siren woke us up at 06:00 I knew because of the clock that hung above my bed, just like my bedroom. “Audrey, hurry get dressed.” I only took two minutes to get dressed. I dig through the bathroom and found camp make up and hurried to paint me and audrey. We would need it, knew. Next we ransacked the closets in the corners of the room and found a backpack of gear and a small revolver and knife. I tucked the gun into my hip and the knife wrapped into my boot. This too, I knew we would need. When we went to the kitchen I ate quick and packed a few extra snacks into our bags, including a bottle of water. No other kids seemed to be dressed or prepared like us. Of course, they still thought this was some game. They weren’t there yesterday. I felt horrible, they had no idea what was in store and I hadn’t a chance to warn anyone before the voice took over the air. “It’s time, this is your squad” a list of names was read out and we each found our teams. Me and audrey were in a team with four boys and one more girl, old and built like me. We had one hell of a team. “And these are your houses today” our group was assigned the same as yesterday. I don’t remember much else in between. I know that one boy broke his ankle in this house but that was it. The next day we were sent to the neighboring all yellow house. In here three boys, including the one with the ankle, were killed. The remainder of us had found their bodies, mangled and bloody. By the third day, everyone was taking it as seriously as I had the first day. The four of us in my squad made it to the fifth day. On the fifth day, I convinced my team to forget the house, we needed to get out of here. We were scouting the woods, when the girl found a camera up in a tree. These sick fucks were watching kids die. She took her revolver out “we know who the killer is, it’s you twisted fucks” the gun shot rang throughout the air and smacked into the camera’s lens. It shattered. Our team ran, we saw behind us around a mile a door opened out of nowhere and a team of armed counselors were coming out of it. This whole fucking thing was artificial. Everything was made and everyone was being watched. We ran and ran and ran. Audrey slammed into the air, into a hard surface, this was an end to their world. We couldn’t find an opening and no banging could open one. One boy put his hand on the glass and began running along it. We all followed in suit. What seemed like hours of being chased and chasing a wall we found a latch. I heard a bang, a ringing in my ears, my knee buckled underneath me. The ground was being shot at and of the bullets and ricocheted and hit me. My sister tried to stop and help me but I pushed her farther along, screaming that she had to keep running and limped on my own. Then I woke up :/