Prologue:
"I don't see why we had to be the ones to wake up early to make everyone else breakfast," Volt said.
"We drew straws. The others will have to wake up early tomorrow," Betsy reminded Volt wearily.
Early morning sunshine danced between the trunks of trees, not yet high enough to be obscured by the thickly-leaved branches. The group of campers, so bright and energetic the night before as they sat around their campfire roasting marshmallows and singing campfire tunes, were now sluggish and ill-tempered. They were the ones who had been tasked with going out to gather twigs and leaves to build the fire for breakfast and coffee.
"Yeah and I bet they'll come up with a reason for everyone to sleep in tomorrow," Volt countered.
"Guys stop arguing!" Catharina gasped.
"Oh, there always has to be one. The 'can't we all just get along' person," Betsy replied sarcastically.
"No, I'm serious. Look. On that tree," Catharina insisted.
As the group fell silent, the sound of paper flapping came to them on the gentle breeze. Hanging from a nearby tree was a sheet of paper. The group picked their way off the trail, over some bushes and roots, to better see the strange missive. Written on the paper in what appeared to be black marker were the words: "You got off lucky tonight but don't count on that luck lasting. Someone WILL die tonight, no matter what you do. We just thought it'd be more fun to watch you panic before it happens. We've been waiting to get you alone out here for a long, long time and we want to savor it. Have fun."
A heavy silence blanketed the group as they each read and re-read the note. The complete and utter silence - no cars, no voices, nothing - seemed to press in upon each and every one of them.
"So... what do we do?" Volt broke the silence by wondering aloud.
"Let's get out of here!" Catharina screeched, eyes darting around in panic as if looking for an immediate escape route.
"Don't panic! We can figure this out! Let's just get back to the campsite and get everyone on the same page," Betsy insisted.
Back at the campsite, the early morning group was shocked to discover their fellow campers were also already awake. The group that had stayed behind was currently standing around the two cars that had brought them to the campground with their hands on their hips.
"What happened?" Volt asked as they approached.
"Someone slashed the tires on both cars, look." Sheep Villager pointed at the cars.
"That tracks..." Betsy murmured thoughtfully.
"Tracks with what? Do you know something?" Geoni asked.
The group that had went out early procured the paper they had brought back in lieu of twigs and leaves, their appetites forgotten in the face of such a threat. The group that had discovered the slashed tires passed the threat-riddled paper around in a numb silence.
"Who would write something like this?" Bianca wondered in disgust. "Who would plan something like this?"
"One of us. Or, more than one of us from the sounds of it," Dan replied grimly.
"What do we do?" b100ming asked.
"Well... we can't leave. Whoever left the note made sure of that by slashing the tires. It's a long walk from here to the ranger station," droqen pointed out.
"I'll go," Betsy offered.
"Yeah, that's convenient. You just want an excuse to sneak off. I bet you left the note and you're going to pretend to go help us but really stick behind and pick us off!" Sheep Villager accused.
"But -" Betsy protested.
"No, they're right," Dan replied with a sigh. "Everyone only trusts themselves right now. Either we all run off alone and try to make it, in which case everyone who's not a psycho will get picked off. Or we can figure this out ourselves, together. Before it's too late."
Chapter one:
"You know, when we pulled out those straws last night, I didn't think we'd end up using them for this," Dan mused as he held in his hand one long straw and one short straw.
"I don't think anyone did," b100ming snapped back, fidgeting in agitation.
After spending a good chunk of the day deliberating, the sun began to set below the horizon. Its last rays bled forebodingly through the trees and bathed the assembled group in a suffocating red. Two groups had formed: one group felt that Geoni was the type to write threatening notes, while the other group was convinced that b100ming would slash car tires. Unable to come to a consensus, they had decided to rely on the old fall back of grabbing straws.
"Just grab one and get it over with," jeered Antonio.
b100ming and Geoni each nodded to each other and put their hands on a straw apiece. Dan could feel in his hands who was grabbing which straw. A part of him felt guilty; he hadn't wanted it to go like this. But he felt it would look suspicious if he tried to intervene. And so Geoni drew a long straw. b100ming, the short. b100ming's short gasp was matched by Geoni's long sigh of relief. Around the group, some people looked relieved while others still looked worried.
"What do we do now?" droqen broke the silence after the straws had been drawn.
"Let's stash them in the old boathouse by the lake," Koopa suggested. "It locks from the outside and it has a really high window so we can drop food in while whoever's inside can't climb out. Just because some of us are secretly murderous psychos doesn't mean the rest of us are. We can put away anyone who we think is guilty and when we're sure we're all innocent, then we can get the police."
"Sounds good to me. C'mon you," Bianca said, as the group frog-marched b100ming to the boathouse.
"You're making a mistake! I'm begging you, please don't do this!" b100ming sobbed.
"If people still die, then we'll consider it, but for now you're staying in here," Catharina said.
***
b100ming watched through the tiny window as the sky grew darker and darker. Once, they would have appreciated the inky black sky and the view of the stars. But now, from their prison, it felt like the world had swallowed them whole and they were just waiting to be digested.
Every now and then, they could catch snippets of camp song through the window that they had managed to jimmy open for the hope of a breeze. Idiots, they thought savagely. Someone's still going to be dead tomorrow morning, so why celebrate? The note said there were two killers and they didn't even get one.b100ming started to ponder that maybe they were the lucky one. The killers thought they were out of the picture, so maybe they would be safe. It'd suck to lose a friend in the night, but... with friends like those who needs enemies, right?
Eventually the noise around the campfire died down and b100ming knew the rest of the group was settling down to bed. Well, all but two of them. I know, they thought suddenly. I'll try to peek out the window and see if I can recognize anyone sneaking around!
As they clambered onto the old bench and peered out of the grimy window, they were taken aback by a noise behind them at the door. Their foot slipped and they crumpled into a heap at the base of the bench. The door opened silently. Through the haze of pain, b100ming peered up at the shape looming over them. "Whuh... what do you want now?" they asked, screwing up their eyes. "Wait... wait, no... Stop, stop!"
Reflected moonlight glinted coldly through the air and a piercing scream was cut short, it's brief shrillness enough to disturb a murder of crows slumbering in the tree above. They swirled, cawing their displeasure at being awoken, into the night sky before settling again. And still, the group of campers slept ever onward.
Chapter two
The group had drawn straws again before bed to wake up early for breakfast again. Business as usual... right? Maybe the paper and the slashed tires had been just an elaborate prank? Catharina and Antonio dragged themselves out of bed, rubbing sleep from their eyes as they pushed through the flaps of their tents into the chilly morning. A crow squalled and flapped away at the sudden noise and movement. It drew the eyes of Catharina and Antonio to the center of their camp where the fire had burned the night before.
A chair was seated with its back facing the tents. In the chair they could see a form sitting up, unrecognizable from behind. "Why did you make me wake up early if you were just going to get up anyway?" Catharina grumbled.
Antonio held his arm out to bar Catharina's path forward and made a shushing gesture. As the noise from the crow had died down, a soft, rhythmic splat could be heard. Both of their gazes were drawn to the ground beneath the chair which was stained a dark brownish red. They followed the path of a droplet as it traveled from the seat of the chair to the ground, where it struck the existing puddle.
Antonio let out a scream while Catharina stumbled backwards, her vision blurring from the shock. The scream alerted the other campers and heads began poking out of tents.
"What?"
"What's wrong?"
"Why all the racket?"
Sluggishly, the group pulled themselves together. Despite the fact that one face was ominously missing from the assembled lineup, the group was still hesitant to approach the chair. Eventually, droqen took a deep breath and walked around to face the final member head-on. The rest of the group followed somewhat reluctantly. Koopa's face was buried in his hands and it was all he could do to peek through his fingers.
Geoni's head lolled to the side. His eyes were open and his mouth was agape. Other than that, he had been arranged into a sitting position. His shirt was stained the same brownish red as the ground with a large clean slice over his chest. No weapon could immediately be seen. It was impossible to tell if he'd been killed in the chair or if he'd been put there after the fact.
"Well, we know it wasn't just a joke now," said Betsy grimly. "Someone here really does mean us harm."
"What do we do now?" asked Dan.
"What else can we do?" Bianca asked. "We have to keep figuring out who could be responsible for this and putting them away. That's the only way to stop it."
"Bianca's right," Koopa said. "Maybe b100ming was guilty and if we get the other person today, then this can all end tonight."
"That's a big if, but it's all we've got," sighed Antonio. "Alright, let's get this sorted out."
Chapter 3
"Well at least we didn't need the straws today," Betsy said.
Dan glared at her. "You're making a big mistake," he warned. "Someone else is going to die tonight."
"We don't know that," said Catharina. "For all we know, you and b100ming were the killers. So you can go in the boathouse too."
After the shock of discovering Geoni had worn off, the group had spent the day deliberating. As the moon began to rise and stars began to appear in the darkening sky, the group had come to the consensus that Dan was to be locked away because Dan and Geoni had engaged in some good-natured ribbing that rubbed the group the wrong way given their dire circumstances.
"It was a joke," Dan protested. "I'd have to be stupid to kill Geoni after jokingly saying 'ooh, I'm totally going to kill you' right in front of everyone. This is a setup and you're all falling for it!"
"Look on the bright side: if someone dies tonight, we'll know you or b100ming was innocent after all," Antonio pointed out.
"Yeah," Dan said sarcastically. "If someone I care about dying is the bright side then I don't even want to know what the dark side looks like."
"Come on, let's just go to the boat house," Bianca replied.
Droqen unlocked the door to the boat house as Bianca prepared to shove Dan inside. Koopa stood outside the door waiting to intercept b100ming if they tried to leave. None of them was prepared for what they found inside.
The food Catharina had pushed in for b100ming just that morning was scattered all over the bench that had been moved under it. A large bloodstain marred the center of the room. b100ming was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh come on, you can't leave me here after seeing this," protested Dan. "What happened to b100ming? What's going to happen to me?!"
"You worry about you, and we'll worry about us," Koopa grumbled as he, droqen, and Bianca backed out and locked the door.
Dan pounded on the door as their footsteps walked away. He carefully edged around the stain in the middle of the room, not wanting to step in all that was left of his friend b100ming.
***
The group around the campfire was markedly more subdued. Dan could hear hushed voices coming on the night breeze. He remembered just the night before when they'd all sat around and sang after feeling on top of the world catching b100ming red-handed. How naïve they had been.
Did Geoni know he was going to die in the night? Had his killers been sitting beside him, laughing and joking with him, knowing what they were going to do to him?
I wonder if they thought about killing me...
Regardless, Dan was not going to let them get away with it! He had a plan. Just before the group had made their final decision, he'd ducked into his tent and leaned a stick up against the transmit button of his walkie talkie and stashed it under the wall of his tent to hopefully hear what went on outside in the night. He had also hid the second in the inner pocket of his jacket.
Dan could hear the muffled sound of the group getting ready for bed. Just a little while longer and he'd hear exactly who the killers were. They'd have to believe him then! He'd shout it until his voice was dead when they came to bring him food if he had to.
The sounds of cloth shuffling as people clambered into tents and sleeping bags gave way to a thick silence. Oh no, I hope the battery didn't die, Dan worried. He jammed the receiver up to his ear in an effort to make out even the slightest of sounds - leaves rustling, a twig cracking, anything to indicate the walkie talkie was still alive and transmitting.
A loud wailing came through the earpiece, unintelligible and inhuman. In his shock, Dan dropped the walkie talkie on the ground and staggered backwards until he leaned against the wall, holding his ringing ear and screwing his eyes up from the sudden dizziness. Did the killers suspect what he'd done? Were they jamming the signal? The hard landing on the concrete had done nothing to stop the walkie talkie's discordant shrieking, and over the noise Dan could not hear the door to the boathouse opening. He caught a peek of the lake outside while attempting to get his bearings.
"You can't blame me for trying," he snarled loudly over the cacophony. "Joke's on you, though, someone is bound to hear all of this. They're all going to wake up and you'll only get me!"
As he lifted his gaze to the door fully, Dan realized that no one was there. But they'd locked him in - he was sure of it. Were they waiting for him to walk outside into an ambush? Only one way to find out. Dan took a couple of cautious steps forward - hey, at least it got him away from the deafening noise. Nothing. Nothing on either side of the door. Could he make a break for it. But someone had to have opened the door.
It doesn't matter. I should just run for it.
He couldn't shake the feeling. Couldn't bring his feet to move without knowing. (Or was it that he was just too dizzy to run?) Glancing over his shoulder, Dan saw a large figure looming just behind him. So close, Dan should have felt it standing there. He staggered forward, away from the figure and spun gracelessly to face it. "But we... who..." His head hurt, his ears hurt, his stomach hurt. He couldn't make his mouth form the words. "Hurgh!" Dan's last vocalization came out as a strangled gargle as the figure behind him advanced swiftly onto him.
Chapter 4
The sun crept over the horizon and spilled its watery light through the trees and onto the dew-soaked ground. Five tent flaps whispered open in unison, as if dawn was a sort of signal. A sign that they could not hide away from what had happened in the night. There had been no need to draw straws the night before. Sleep had been fitful and far between for most of the group, despite the oppressive silence around the camp.
The campers all looked at each other and took in their group. It was obvious who was missing, just like the previous morning. No one wanted to speak it, however. Saying it would only make it feel more real that yet another person in their friend group had been killed overnight.
"So one of Dan or b100ming was innocent after all," Antonio said finally.
"Looks like it," Koopa agreed.
"They didn't leave the body in camp this time," Catharina pointed out.
"Yeah," droqen sighed. "Come on, let's go and look. We don't want a wild animal to get them."
The group began to spread out into the woods and search. Bearing in mind what they were looking for, they searched in bushes and behind trees. Eventually one voice sounded loud in the still morning air: "Guys, I... I've found Bianca."
Betsy wrung her hands as she looked down at the foot of the trail marker. Bianca was slumped against it. Near her right hand was a steak knife. Her head was bowed low over her chest. Her jacket had a few smaller cuts aside from the large gash across her chest, so similar to Geoni's.
"Looks like she put up a fight, or at least tried to," reasoned Antonio.
"She didn't trust us but she tried to sneak off in the night to go get help," Catharina explained, awestruck.
"Looks like she also tried to do us the favor of taking her assailant out with her. Doesn't seem like it worked though," sighed Koopa. "Everyone else is still here."
"This is getting ridiculous!" exploded Betsy. "We've voted out two people and we're still dying. We absolutely need to get a guilty person tonight! Otherwise the killers are just going to get away with it."
Chapter 5
"It has to be you Catharina," Koopa said grimly. "You thought you could fool us acting all innocent."
"Yeah, but we're wise to your tricks," droqen replied.
"I'm not acting!" Catharina protested. "You're making a big, big mistake!"
"Yeah, tell it to the judge," sneered Antonio.
"What judge?" Catharina replied hotly. "Did you forget what happened to b100ming? You put them in that boathouse and people are still dying."
"We'll just have to see what happens tonight," Betsy replied. "I had a pretty good feeling about Dan so you could be the last killer."
"Yeah, don't make this any harder than it needs to be," said Koopa. "There are four of us and only one of you. You may have the advantage when we're sleeping, but not when we're awake!"
"Fine!" Catharina exploded. "When you - or you - or any of you die, you'll see that I'm right and then you'll be sorry you didn't listen to me!"
Everyone, including Catharina, was stunned into silence when they gazed upon the scene at the boathouse. The door was flapping on its hinges in the breeze blowing in off the lake. Dan was nowhere to be seen. Much like they had seen with b100ming, only a dark red stain on the ground a few paces outside the boathouse served as a clue as to what happened.
"Whoops, I forgot I was on prisoner food duty," Betsy apologized. "Looks like it didn't matter, though, right?"
"Honest mistake," droqen replied. "Anyway, in you go Catharina."
"You can't be serious," Catharina protested, leaning back away from the entrance.
"Killers get what they deserve, Catharina," Betsy replied as she and droqen gave a large shove to push Catharina into the small enclosure.
Catharina could only stare helplessly as Betsy and droqen sealed the door to the boathouse. A million questions ran through her mind: what had happened to Dan and b100ming? What's going to happen to the people who aren't killers out there?
What's going to happen to me?
On the floor of the boathouse, kicked into a corner, was a smashed walkie-talkie. Catharina didn't remember seeing it there before, so maybe Dan had brought it? He was trying to listen in and see who the killers were, she realized. Dan was a good person after all! But it was broken now. Whatever had gotten him in the night had seen to that.
Maybe I can pull a wire to jimmy the lock open?
It was worth a try.
Catharina was not planning any heroics, however, beyond just making a mad dash for civilization and telling the cops there were two killers among the remaining four and to sort it out themselves. If all of them got arrested, she wouldn't even be upset.
She banged the walkie talkie against the wall until its casing cracked open fully and she could get at the internals. It was a relatively simple device, and she was able to cleanly pull out a thin wire and use the broken plastic to help peel the casing off of it. Catharina had never picked a lock before, but her life depended on it, so she was determined she could figure it out.
As she turned to the door, however, her hand went slack and the wire fell to the ground.
A tall figure stood in the boathouse with her. How had it gotten in? The door was firmly shut and she knew she would have heard it open. The figure was shrouded in darkness, and Catharina couldn't get a good look at it. All the same...
"Who are you? What are you?" she gasped. The figure raised its arm high. Moonlight glinted one - two - three - four times as it brought its hand down toward Catharina, raking across her chest. "Ack!"
Epilogue
The sun rose in the morning. Birds chirped, squirrels rustled around in the newly fallen leaves to scrounge for fallen nuts, fish were leaping from the water to catch their breakfast of bugs. Life went on.
Except for the seven for whom it didn't.
Only two tents opened and neither occupant was surprised to see their fellow. Considering all the work that had needed to be done last night, both were shockingly chipper. Turns out that their little vacation had helped them to work through all their stresses after all.
The campsite was nearly pristine. The other tents and belongings of the other campers had been disposed of. The bloodstains had been cleaned up. The bodies had been sunken into the lake. The cars - they had belonged to Geoni and Dan anyway - had been shoved off a cliff; by the time they were found no one would be able to connect them to what had happened.
With nothing left to do, the pair decided to set out on the long walk back to civilization.
"So what was your favorite part?"
"Just one?"
"Mine was probably Bianca. It was so cute that she thought she could take both of us with a butter knife."
"Honestly, I'd have to say I liked the entire segment there at the end. Catharina was totally innocent but those other two just went along with it. And then two quick kills in the night was very nice. Do you know how hard it was to restrain myself to just one a night?"
"Yes, because I had to as well."
The pair lapsed into silence as they walked along the trail. The sun was rising higher into the sky, promising another nice, warm day. A while later, "Do you think anyone suspected us?"
"Deep down, maybe. But not enough to ever act on it. Besides, it's more fun that way. To see the look of shock in their eyes when they realize it was us."
"Oh, Koopa, you're so naughty. But I agree, it is a nice feeling."
"Do you think we'll ever get to do this again?" Koopa asked.
"Of course! This group let us into their friend circle easily enough. We can probably find another friend group to do this to next summer!"
"Even if we don't, this was a pretty good week," Koopa replied, stretching his arms over his head.
"Yeah. It's like I told Catharina before we stashed her in the boathouse: killers get what they deserve."
"What? A chance to do what they love and get away with it scott-free?" Koopa laughed.
"Exactly!"
"You're a sly dog, Betsy. That's what I like most about you."
"There's just one thing I'm confused about," Betsy said. "What happened to b100ming, Dan, and Catharina?"
"I thought you snuck out and took care of them," Koopa said, shocked.
"I thought you snuck out and took care of them," Betsy repeated back, equally stunned.
"Well, whatever. No loose ends, right?" Koopa said nervously.
"Right."
Headlights appeared on the horizon as a SUV drove down the path toward them. Both of the friends lapsed into silence. They weren't about to spill their guts to a third party and ruin all the work they'd done! The SUV pulled up to them and rolled its driver's window down.
"You kids alright? It's a long walk, you know," the ranger inside said.
"Yes, we know," Betsy replied. "Our friends left without us this morning. We wanted one last afternoon by the lake, and planned to walk back. We didn't realize it'd be quite this far."
"Well, why don't you hop on in and I'll get you back to civilization?" the ranger offered.
Betsy and Koopa clambered into the back of the ranger's vehicle and departed in comfortable silence, leaving behind their former friends - and whatever had taken out b100ming, Dan, and Catharina - forever.
-In book form
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