House Across The Lake                           by: Paul G. Jutras

 

The wheezing gray camp bus - CAMP THUNDERCRACK read the faded rust covered lettering- slowly bounced along the winding road. The bus was practically empty; since most of the parents had sent their kids to camp the week before.

Pushing the londe hair out of my face, I pulled out a detective novel from my knapsack and stopped listening to the boys and girls cracking jokes. There is a reason my school was late in starting summer vacation. We used up all our snow days and ended up getting out a week after other schools going to camp. The boy next to me was Steve. He was slim with muscular arms and legs. He had short black hair and was wearing a T-shirt of his favorite baseball team.

I'm thirteen, but never been to a camp before. Since Steve had been to sports camp the previous summer, he was able to help me through the long bus ride. Although he had never been to CAMP THUNDERCRACK before he figured all camps were the same.

"There's nothing here, Steve!" I exclaimed.

"I'm sure we're almost there, Jason." He replied as his sling shot took aim and fired a paper ball at the girl in front of him.

I thought of what camp would be like. I was determine to have the most fun I ever had, unafraid to try any activity the camp offered. I recalled from the camp brochure mentioned swimming, archery, and horseback riding.

"How can a trip to camp be so boring." Called a blonde hair girl who was hit by Steve's sling slot, and returned fire with a spit ball.

"Who are you?" asked Steve.

"Susan." Said the girl. "This is my first time to camp. I just hope that it's as good as their pamphlet claims."

The driver sped up on the down slope. In the far distance, I could finally see the totem entrance of the camp's main gate above the trees. The camp's sign was stretched between the totems with its name written in broken sticks.

Most of us campers on the bus murmured and glanced toward the front of the bus. One boy; however, remained in his seat and folded a piece of paper. When he stood up, he tossed a paper airplane at Susan.

"Hey!" Susan turned around angrily. Crumbling the paper plane into a ball, she threw it back at the boy. "watch it!"

Suddenly the driver slammed his foot on the brake. The tires squealed to a halt in front of the camp, sending all of us flying against the seat in front of us. I had wished that the camp had invested in seat belts like school bus I rode on.

As the driver pulled open the door, we stepped out in a large open area. The bus was parked beside the totem poles, which held up the camp sign. The woods that surrounded the camp were the spookiest we had ever seen.

Steve frowned and walked over to me. Then he gazed at the cabins. "This place is completely deserted," he said. There wasn't any sign of campers anywhere. I couldn't help but feel like I had stepped in the middle of a horror movie.

"Here." The driver grumbled , taking our stuff from the luggage compartment. His strength hardly seemed human.

I whirled around to see a couple step from the shadows.

"Hello." A young man said in a creepy voice. "I'm counselor John and this is counselor Mary. Welcome to camp."

The two stood with clipboards in one hand and pencils behind one ear. They had a whistle around their necks and wore T-shirts with the camp name on it. Pointing with one finger they took a silent head count of the new arrivals.

"This is camp? This is a ghost town." Steve joked. Grabbing my gear by the bus, I hurried over to join the campers being separated into lines of boys and girls by John and Mary.

"I'm glad you all choose to join our group," John spoke loudly. "First we'll drop you boy off at your cabins. Once everyone is settled in, you can join the others at the lake. They'll be more to do here than you can possibly image."

As John raised his clipboard, he looked over at a cabin and made two check marks with his pencil. The cabin sat upon a hill and looked haunted. I couldn't help but notice the odd smile that formed on my counselor's face as he turned toward us.

"Jason Wells?"

I grabbed my stuff and stepped out of line when I heard my name. John pointed to the cabin on top of the hill. "You and Steve will be sharing that cabin." He bellowed. He then made another mark and headed for the next cabin. "You're bunkmates arrived in last week group. Rest of you follow me."

Suddenly I felt the urge to stare up at the cabin. Its walls could us a touch of paint and the screens on the door and windows could use some mending. The number 7 on the front was covered in a fine layer of dust, and the building itself was kept in the eerie shadow of the surrounding trees.

As I climbed the hill, I notice the lake behind the cabin seemed to go on forever. The surface gleaming in the dimly lit sky.

Suddenly we heard a scream coming down by the lake. We dropped our gear and ran down the far side of the hill. Staring at the lake in horror, we saw a lifeguard pulling a male camper from the dark water. I ran to the lake shore, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Sir, what happened?" I asked. "Is he hurt?"

"I told him not to cross the lake," The lifeguard narrowed her eyes at me. She raised her right arm and pointed at the lake. "That house is off limits to campers."

I paused briefly on the small green dock at the edge of the lake, rowboats tied to its supports. Then I saw it. It didn't scare me, but it cried mystery. I felt totally confused and wondered what I real detective would do.

"Why?" I asked.

"Forget it, kid." The lifeguard said. She waved over two other counselors. "Take our mer man to see the camp nurse."

She walked over behind us and placed a hand on each of our shoulders. "You two just forget what you saw here. You're here to enjoy camp. Just remember the camp's main rule is to stay away from that house!"

But I wasn't listening. I was only thinking about the old house. AS the lifeguard left, I turned toward Steve. "What's the big deal about an old abandoned house? Looks like we've got a mystery on our hands. I just love a mystery."

The wind started to pick up in my face.

"I'll look in on the boy later." The lifeguard said, returning to her station while the two of us walked back to the cabin.

"Oh, man." Another one." Said a new voice from earshot. We turned to see a boy standing behind us in a baseball cap. He walked over beside us. "Third one this week. If this keeps up they won't be any boys left at this camp."

"I'm Adam, cabin 7." He said.

"I'm Jason. He's Steve. We're your new bunkmates." I explained, but couldn't help but stare off at the house across the lake.

Adam started for the cabin and then stopped and turned toward us. "You know the rules? They won't let you go across the lake. And they won't let you phone home. The only phone's in the nurse's office."

"So, is there anything else we should be aware of?" Steve asked, walking back toward the cabin with Adam and me.

"Lights out is up to us," Adam replied. "I've heard the girls are stricter, but I've only had a few hour sleep since I got here. Wen I'm not out playing, I'm reading my comics."

We walked through the woods. Reaching the cabin, we notice the light inside was moving about. It was clear that our fourth bunkmate was reading something by flashlight. I wondered if he might provide more information.

"Oh, man." Complained a new boy in the cabin. He set his book aside and looked down from the top bunk. "Are they assigned here?"

"Get a life." I snapped. Saying that only made me think of the poor boy who almost drowned. I covered my mouth and coughed. My mind was back on the idea that I had only just gotten to camp and already witness a near death. I didn't know what to say about it.

"Knew it." He grumbled. "You're new here, aren't you. That's why..." he bean to say one thing, then I realized he had chosen to say something completely different. "That's why I don't recognize you." He completed his sentence. He then dropped down to the cabin floor with a loud thump.

Before I could say anything, Adam spoke up. "Mike takes pride of knowing everyone here. At least he claims to know every camper by their face. If you ask me, I'd say he doesn't know half the campers he claimed."

"Real impressive." Steve joked.

We went through our duffel bags and each pulled out a bag of marshmallows. I was looking forward to roasting them over a camp fire. It was obvious from our bunkmate's attitude that he wasn't going to be any help with the mystery.

"I hope we'll run into Susan at the campfire." I started. "Maybe her counselor knows why that kid almost drowned. Have you checked with their counselors?"

"Probably nothing to learn," said Adam.

"Whoa! You don't know what!" I walked over and opened the door. "There just might be a connection between the accidents and that house. I'm pretty sure something is going on at this camp."

I suddenly ducked as a bat flew in the cabin. Steve had grabbed a tennis rack and tried to swat the flying rodent. Almost hitting me in the process.

I think that everyone from the lake was outside the screen windows and laughing. Adam and Mike just took a seat on their bunks with amused looks on their faces. Mike started stuffing his face with potato chips and Adam was holding a bottle water in one hand. I had a feeling that CAMP THUNDERCRACK wasn't like any summer camp that Steve had been.

Then the bat swoop down without warning and nearly landed on top of my head. I couldn't help panicking. "Hey!"

"Hold still." Steve said, taking careful aim and swinging the tennis racket. As the bat flew off of me, the racket hit me on top of the head. "I got it!"

"Oww!" I rubbed the top of my head. "Get it...not me."

"Open the window while I try to scare the bat out!" I cried. Rolling up a magazine I tried to swat the bat better than Steve. The two of us only ended up swatting each other as Adam opened a window. The rolled up paper swished the air as I chased the bat outside. "I have a feeling that it's going to be a long summer."

Mike just flashed a really weird smile and grabbed a bag of marshmallows as he walked out the door. He stopped as he passed us and said: "Too bad."

The smile left Mike's lips. "Best not be late." he added. "Counselor John doesn't like campers who show up late for the nightly camp fire."

Mike started off and Adam quickly joined him. "If this wasn't so creepy it'd almost be funny." Steve looked at me. "Where do you think that bat came from?"

"Chill," I said. A bad start to summer camp wasn't about to get the best of me. I stomped down the front porch of the cabin. "Forget about that bat. We need to find the cause of the near drowning if we're going to solve the case."

"Are you going to check out that house in the morning?" Steve asked.

Ducking our heads, we tried to keep the low branches from smacking us in the face. "Don't worry," I said. "I'm sure that they're a logical explanation to what's going on."

Finally we reached the evening camp fire. The groups were sitting in a circle on logs, separated by their counselors. John started the campers off with a camp song - Michael Row His Boat Ashore," but I had other things on my mind. I could see Susan sitting in the group across from me.

Then John gave us one creepy look. "How would you like to hear a scary camp story?" he asked in a weird voice.

The silence was broken with the chirping of crickets.

John just kept starring with his eyes darting from one group to another. "Does anyone know why you're not allowed across the lake?"

All the campers started to look at each other in complete silence. I just stared at John with intense interest. Gathering important information was what any good detective would do. Counselor John was telling the one camp puzzle story I wanted to hear.

John took a bit of his roasted marshmallow, keeping everyone in suspense. "The people who died in that house own the property the camp was built on. Rumors have it, they're buried in the cemetery on the other side of the lake."

"So what?" Steve said.

"The camp reminds them that they are no longer alive," John said. "That's why it is said that their ghosts haunt that house across the lake every summer. They watch over the camp like they did when they were alive."

"Ghosts?" The word made Steve burst into laughter. "No kid in their right mind would believe such a story." He whispered to me.

"That's why nobody is allowed to hike anywhere near that house during the course of their stay." John said, keeping his weird smile plastered on his face. While I knew Steve was right about ghosts not existing, I also knew John was hiding something.

"The first counselor to go near that house was never the same again." John went on. "He was by hiking by himself when he found himself near the house. When the camp employees found him the next morning, he couldn't even speak. He was rushed to the camp nurse as fast as possible, but she couldn't find a pulse when he arrived. "

"How did he die?" I asked.

"That's the mysterious part." John said. "Nobody knows if he died or not. When the nurse when to examine his body... it was missing."

"Yeah, right," muttered Steve.

"How do you know this?" Susan asked.

"The counselor who vanished," remarked John. His skin started to melt off his face. "Was me."

I jumped up from the log - and backed away from John.

Everyone laughed.

I glanced over at John. He was removing his actors make-up and laughing his head off. "Sucker! We really had you going, didn't we?"

I couldn't help but laugh at myself. I had fallen for one of the oldest camp jokes around. I was sure that all the campers that arrived the week before was in on it. I even began to wonder how real the bat in the cabin or the drowned boy was.

John took a bit out of one final marshmallow and then stood up. "Everyone fall out to their bunks," he grinned his weird grin. "While this camp doesn't have an official lights out, I suggest you get ready for a big day ahead."

"It's something we do to a chosen first timer." Explained counselor Mary.

"Right." John said. Giving me a pat on the shoulder, he smiled at both Adam and Mike. "None of the past late arrivals were more fun to fool than you. Boy, were you an easy target. Looks like your bunkmates were a real help putting you in the correct frame of mind."

The next day at the lake shore, I stared at the house across the lake. I was impressed with the great joke that counselor John and the others played on me. I didn't see the shadows of one of the camp's lifeguards fall over me. "In the water, kid."

"Here I go." I said as I jumped off the dock and swam through the dark water. It didn't take long for Goosebumps to appear on my arms.

I felt the familiar feeling of being watched as I moved away from the shore. I had to remind myself that the near drowning was all part of the joke. The picture of the lifeguard pulling the camper from the lake filled my head. I remembered John's face melting and how scared I felt. More scared than I ever had in my life.

"Could John of gotten this lake any more frigid?" Steve joked. He looked around only to see me way out in the middle of the lake. I didn't have any idea just how far out I had gone.

Steve peered behind me.

A green slime oozing on the surface of the lake, started to come up behind me. Doing the back float, it was about to take me unaware.

"Hey!" Steve cried out as he tried to stay afloat and pointed at the slime at the same time. His voice echoed in my ears. As Steve got my attention, I sat up and glanced over my shoulder. Panicking, I tried to swim for the dock. Not knowing what it was, I could only think of getting away from it. Each time I opened my mouth to scream, I swallowed water. My blurry vision saw Steve heading toward me.

"What, what's going on?" I gasped for air.

"Swim," Steve cried, trying to reach me.

"I can't believe this is happening."

"C- C- Cold." I said, feeling the green slime sticking to my feet. It felt like the bottom of my bare feet was walking across ice. Just when I started to go under, I spotted Susan up on the dock.

"Got you!" Susan said, dropping to her knees and reaching an arm out to me. I finished climbing on the dock and felt myself being pulled free of the slime. When I looked back I saw the slime was retreating in the direction of the house.

"No way," I said with a look of fear in my eyes.

"Check it out." Steve said, climbing ashore. He jogged along the beach and over to us. "It's heading toward that old house."

"Weird." Susan muttered. "This can't be another camp tradition, can it? Part of another practical joke?"

"Perhaps there is a mystery to be solved after all." I said. "I think we'd better change and get over to that house."

"Count... me .. out." Susan suddenly spoke as if she was in a trance. I heard a hum that sounded like a bee hive, but couldn't see one if the nearby trees. "I...have...better..things...to...do."

Steve and I selected a pair of fine stallions from the stables and rode off to the far side of the lake. We were surprise to see the camp being parked in front of it. "Did John spot us riding off and come to get us back?"

The ground began to shake around the cemetery, causing some of the gravestones to fall over. Caskets were trusted to the surface. We watched a man get up from his grave and shuffle toward the cemetery entrance. It was a wonder that such a bag of bones could even stand.

Its sunken, leathery head had skin pealing off its skull. The jaw bone appeared ready to fall off and its eyes gave an eerie glow. Pieces of flesh stuck loosely to its bony body as it moved stiffly forward. All around him rose up from their graves. I noticed the dead look in their eyes and the fact that; except for one, all the bodies were female. It looked like Steve and I was about to live the camp fire story's final chapter.

Terrified, the two of us scrambled toward the house's open doors. They were moving at such a speed and such panic, that we were tripping over their own feet. Running inside, I crashed into a pile of junk. A photo album dropped onto my head and opened to a picture that read: CAMP THUNDERCRACK SUMMER CAMP FOR GIRLS."

"What the?" I muttered as my eyes shifted from the photo to the shadow that had fallen over me. I was surprise to see it was Counselor John. "Sir, I know we weren't suppose to come here, but after than lake monster, I had to see for myself."

"I see you found out about the part of the story I left out last night." John gave one of his weird smiles as he reached up to his neck. He then started to pull his own skin off as easy as the zombies I saw outside could. It was then that I realized that John was wearing a mask.

"Call me Counselor Janet now." My former counselor said with her typically weird smile. "I didn't die or disappear. The reason I disappeared and became nothing more than a ghost story is because the owners of the camp didn't like the idea of the camp going Co-ed. Now any boys who are foolish enough to come here are turned into girls."

Steve and I just stared in horror as Counselor Janet pulled out a medallion and touched it to our camp uniforms. We instantly could feel our hair growing down about our shoulders. The hair on our bodies dropped off on to the dusty floor.

I just put my hand to my chest and felt the start of growing breasts any thirteen year old would have, when the beehive hum filled both my and Steve's ears. We fell into a trance, our minds forgetting who we once were. We'd soon be campers for life as well as beyond the grave.

END.

 

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