Camp Classy

Camp Classy - 1992

12:26 am

Day 15

"The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window," Jodie Pie spat over the wincing tree branches, thick and glowing a deep marigold in the blazing campfire.

"Hey, I heard once you share this story, you'll be visited by Sky!" Whined Juniper, behind a shaking head of raven curls.

"Oh, hush up, and let's hear it!" Kie squawked back at Juniper, who'd stuck out a sharp tongue.

Shadows of wispy ebony in the heart of the woodlands cast all around our sister circle that sat under the old moon, lustrous, ashen, unnervingly still.

The woodlands were never quiet, though. Always shifting, humming, dancing for the old moon, masking its eagerness to consume.

Jodie's eyes, a toasty topaz, shot a glance to the right; I recoiled. Then, taking notice of a hunched and stumbling figure crushing every piece of earth, I gripped Leyla's frail arm and wailed as loud as I could into her pointed shoulder. The campfire burst with feeble cries, slicing the tension in the midnight air; Kie, Emma, Lawny, Muna, Juniper, and I tossed all forms of grace aside and thrashed what we could find beneath our feet. Each of us screeched incoherently in what sounded like a pitiful attempt at intimidation.

"IT'S JUST ME, CAMP COUNSELOR BO!" She hollered over the heap of blubbering.

"Why the hell would you sneak up on us like that?" I sighed, my breath hitching. A fever sweat coated my entire body; I hated these nighttime campfire stories when we would slink away from the main grounds in a fit of disobedience.

Smothering the oil lamps only at midnight, waiting for the prissy counsellors to rest their flawless heads, I'd catch a glimpse of Mrs. Emry through the screen window in the cardinal cabin snoring like a boar caught in a bear trap. She was an eyesore, unrefined and improper, all the things she constantly blabbers about. A hypocrite. I'd tell her that she should use duct tape over her mouth to cure it, but I don't think she'd be all that impressed nor feel my recommendation as sincere. Then, just as the clock struck 12:01am, we'd dash into the woodlands just before Emry pond, now called the bog. The rancid smell during the day's high point kept everything at bay, including the woodland creatures, but miraculously dissipated during the cover of night. Brushing past the swaying tree branches nipping at our cheeks, we felt enchanted. Twirling, prancing, a display of undignified bouncing that I dare say Mrs. Emry would call an obscenity to be held as young ladies flounced in-floor lengthed cotton nightgowns in the dead of night! Unlike the rigid chores of camp life and feminine etiquette classes we were to endure for the 3 months of summer, I welcomed the unruliness of our tangled hair; the declarative singing of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and hurling sugar and salt into the fire Jodie Pie always got started for us. Once we tired ourselves out, we'd take a seat around a circle of logs we'd secretly found deep in the woodlands, each carving our names into our chosen spot. Then the worst part, the only part I despised, would begin, the haunting hour. Jodie and Leyla we exceptional at telling a tall tale, and I was just as skilled at being anxious, jittery and squeamish.

"Girls, what are you doing up so late?" Mrs.Bo called out, swiping at her wild copper locks that sat above her shoulders, usually pulled back in a low bun, now knotted with leaves and sticks.

"We're telling ghost stories, and I was just about to get to the good part," Jodie Pie beamed.

"Well, is that right?"

Mrs. Bo was our favourite camp counsellor; she was also a legacy at camp Classy. She and Mrs. Emry joined the 1941 cohort and have stuck around ever since. Mrs. Emry's mother started the camp in 1932, hence the outdated ideals of girlhood, but this was a behavioural corrections camp now and was better than juvenile detention in Nevada, which I doubted I'd survive.

"Do you want to hear the rest?" Leyla buzzed.

"Oh no, my dear, I believe we'd better be off to bed now. That old bat Emry is stirring, and I assume you'll all be caught soon enough with this fire glinting all the way down to the campgrounds. If caught and Emry is sound of mind, she'll send you all out to the bog to clean the banks of litter, and if not, she'll send you to the old Echo cabin for a sennight." Mrs.Bo shuttered at the sound of Echo cabin.

"Not the bog Mrs.Bo!" I sobbed hard.

"Now, there is no need for tears Delilah. We only need to put out this flame and race back before Emry's roll call." Picking up a yellow bucket we kept hidden behind a rotting oak tree, Lawny splashed the fire that hissed in protest before going out.

The sound of our laboured breaths laced into the darkness, reverbing as our crushing feet rushed between broken branches and soft earth as though they had a mind of their own.

1:06 am

The blond wooden doors swung, carrying the bit of a chill summer night. Under my blanket on the top bunk, I could sense a swift, sturdy and focused stride making its way over to each of us, first to Jodie Pie, who was sleeping in the single bed closest to the door, then to Muna in the lower bunk, and finally to me. The form hovered near the edge of the bed frame, exhaling, warm and repugnant against the back of my head.

'Tap. 'Tap. 'Tap.

Heavy hands slapped my shoulder, and every inch of me stilled; holding in my gasp, my eyes shaking, I tried to contain my exhausted heart that thumped against my chest for the nth time that night.

'Tap.'Tap.'Tap.

The hand lifted, and a whisper of pen on paper sounded near the bunk. A moment of silence fell over the cabin, and then she was gone. Slamming the door behind her, Mrs. Emry was off to the next cabin.

I exhaled, ragged, and let out a resounding whimper.

"Jodie!" I wept.

"Delilah, you can share my bed if you want." She called out.

I hurried over and curled beside Jodie, her small frame allowing the bed to fit us oversized and comfortable.

"Hey, I want a sleepover too, ya know," Muna whined, kicking her legs over the ledge of her bed that squealed. Damn rusty springs.

She jumped feet first, almost causing Jodie to fall off the other side.

We giggled and then nestled in. It was so quiet I could feel my roommates circling in their heads, thoughts about leaving, running away, but the court of law sentenced us here, and the far-out stretches past the bog were secured, wired to electric fences. Leaving only one way out, which was down the mountain, steep and 30 miles to any form of civilization.

We were stuck. Each of us serving time for something different; armed robbery, arson, and aggravated assault.

"Hey, Jodie?" Muna said, low and uneven, "you gonna finish that story or what?"

Before she could answer, I was already begging her not to.

"For someone who beat the daylights out of your mother's boss for robbing her, you scare so easily," Jodie replied, teasing.

1:26 am

A misty stifling air set upon camp Classy. The only window in the room was wide open, and the screen was torn in the middle, letting mosquitoes bite at our foreheads. In the distance, I could hear the resident owl hooting towards the moon that stayed painted and fixed in the hollow of the night sky.

"The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window." A fire during the 1932 cohort in Echo cabin killed 13 campers. So when Mrs.Emry's cohort began in 1941, they were tasked to restore it. A mission to imbue young women with household skills in handy work when the men were off to war." Jodie began, making sure she kept an even pace.

"So, how the hell did this place turn into a behavioral corrections camp?" Muna huffed.

"I'm getting there." Jodie spat.

I chuckled lightly.

"They spent nearly two months finishing repairs, day in and day out, buring a single candle on the window's ledge in the middle of the top floor. At night they would stay in the woodlands and play games, but one evening the girls stayed past curfew, falling asleep and forgetting to blow out the candle. It fell from a soft breeze and set the cabin on fire again.

Mrs.Blaine became sickened with loss and guilt. Two fires in the same decade, but this time, Emry's twin, died in the fire that consumed the building. Her body reduced to ash. She couldn't cope, often lashing out at the girls for being improper and ill-mannered; your families expect to come home to genteel young ladies, not rowdy girls; she'd screech at them! It was said Sky was the apple of Mrs. Blaine's eye, an embodiment of class, so her death fractured her love for Emry."

"Damn." Muna plainly replied.

"Mrs. Blaine growing increasingly erratic; the camp girls would often see her pace around her room, gesturing feral at the mirrors and windows, speaking in broken letters. Eventually, Emry asked the nearby county to come quickly with a doctor."

"What did they say was wrong with her?" I asked, a slight quiver escaping on the last word.

"Depressive state. The doctor believed it would pass after some treatment and scheduled her an appointment after the summer was out."

"They didn't close the camp?" Muna disapproved.

"No, because Sky died, and Emry, Bo and the other girls hoped Mrs.Blaine could hold out as they wanted to finish the cabin in her memory and rename it Skyway. Mrs.Blaine, beside herself, allowed it despite her deteriorating condition."

"Sounds like a lot of bad choices!" Muna scoffed.

"Or not many options. It was war times, Muna." I scolded.

"The only rule now was a zero candlelight tolerance, and as dusk kissed the horizon, the girls scurried back to the main campgrounds. Then, last week before they were complete with the finishing touches, Mrs. Blaine stayed exclusively in the cardinal cabin, and at night, when all lay bare by a glaring moonlight, the girls could faintly hear two voices cackle."

"No one thought that was odd?" Muna muttered.

"Hush up, Muna." I shot back.

"The camp girls clouded by grief; completing the cabin was their only release. At dusk on the evening before camp closure, they added the final touch, a mantel that beholds a pair of black ankle boots baring a white toe cap that Sky favored, designed by the Kathrin Wytin. In excitement, Emry called Bo to gather her mother, directing the girls to hide around the cabin and wait till she signaled. Emry fluttering, sure it would brighten her mother's mood seeing Sky's favorite colours decorate the cabin, she thoughtlessly lit a candle as the sunset."

"I don't think that was very smart," I whispered.

"No, it wasn't," Jodie pressed on.

1:45am

"Mrs. Blaine entered the cabin in a frenzy, twisting her head back and forth as if she were being followed. The overwhelming cheering of girls and Emry's face that looked identical to her dear Sky crushed something inside her. Then the candle, swaying in the breeze, caught her attention. In a moment, she was screaming, pounding her chest with fury. I told you not to light the candles, you insolent girls, she cried out, storming towards the porch, Bo trailing behind her, apologizing and teary-eyed."

"Sounds like Mrs.Bo." Muna half-smiled.

"That's not funny, Muna." I sniffed, tears welling in my eyes.

"She tossed Bo aside sharply and locked the door behind her, shutting it so hard the candle tipped over. She threw the key into the treeline and returned to the campgrounds believing that locking them in to think about their wrongdoings would teach them a lesson. Never taking a second look back, she went back to the cardinal cabin."

"Oh my god!" Muna gasped.

"The girls began using tables, lamps and sharp objects to open the door, but it was no use; the 8inch thick oak wooden frame was impenetrable. The windows were too high and cramped, and the upper floor had been permanently shut for uneven flooring after the 2nd fire. Bo was frantically racing between looking for the keys and slamming her total weight into it till she could no longer use her shoulders. That's why she's always complaining about them."

"Makes sense," Muna reassured.

"She had stayed out the whole night, consumed by dread and hysteria once the silence of the woodlands returned; the camp counsellors would come back up the mountain at daybreak after packing up half the camp to close for the year and setting up checkpoints for parents coming to pick up their children. So when dawn greeted Bo, who had felt broken by the loss of her friends, she got up off the grass to examine the fire's damage. The door was falling off its hinges, hung on fragile screws, and the smoke wafting off the entire building twisted the pit of her stomach. The paint had entirely melted off, leaving an ash coating and the smell of sawdust and flesh in the air. But then..." Jodie trailed.

"But then what!" Muna and I cried.

"But then the door creaked open. Unscathed, not a hair misplaced or a touch of a blister on her porcelain skin, out walked Emry." Jodie taunted.

"Okay, you've lost me," Muna replied flatly.

"All the girls stepped out one after the other in a single line, soot covering their hands and clothes, yet no injuries. Bo collapsed. When she came to, the camp counsellors had returned, alarmed by the state of Echo cabin and questioned her as the only person found near Echo cabin. No one believed her. She got the sense if she didn't quit tearfully pleading, she would be blamed for the ruins the cabin was left in. After a few days, it was time for the camp to close for the school year, and soon enough, parents from all over the country began picking up their well-mannered daughters. Mrs.Blaine was back to her usual self after the fire, but not Emry or the other girls. All 14 of them had avoided Bo, kept to themselves, speaking in hushed tones. Even when Bo confronted them about the fire the night before, they began weeping, begging Bo to stop harassing them."

"So that's it, Mrs.Bo just left it be?" Muna questioned.

"Of course not; Bo was on her final few hours at the camp packing her belongings, thanking God she was finally going to put this summer behind her, when Emry stopped by her cabin one last time. Bo watched her inquisitively as her posture stood true and her immaculate earthy hair hung below her shoulder, smiling with a perfect set of pearly whites. Then, just as she was about to head out, Bo called out using their old chant, praise be...

"What was she supposed to respond with?" I stuttered.

"You're finally leaving! Before Bo could call her out on it, Mrs.Blaine hollered from the field, Sky, we're leaving."

Muna and I both gaped at Josie, who had a wicked grin on her face.

"Cold sweat prickled at the nape of her neck as Emry waved at her mother; I'll be right out. She turned a slow neck back to face Bo and wished her a wonderful school year; her eyes, a deep umber, flickered as she stuck out her hand. Bo hesitated as Emry took hold of her hand, wrapping a free arm around her to bring her in close and whisper, I'm finally back. Releasing her grip to let Bo stumble, she skipped out of the cabin and into her mother's arms, walking hand in hand to mountain carts headed downhill."

"So that's why Mrs.Bo hates Mrs.Emry." I stated.

"Explains why Mrs.Bo spends so much time around the Echo cabin. I always thought she had a few loose screws, but I guess not." Muna added.

"I mean, in theory, one could connect many dots, but this story can't be true, right?" I coolly asked.

"I don't know; in total, 14 girls died on this camp, and 14 prim and proper girls survived a house fire without explanation." Jodie posited.

"Allegedly!" Muna retorted, "I'm pretty sure this story gets told yearly by Mrs.Bo. I mean, how else would anyone else come up with this?"

We heard a crackle of lighting followed by a steady drizzle of rain. We'd been so caught up we hadn't realized the humidity had set in.

"I'm going to bed." I quickly changed the subject. Tossing over to face the ceiling, I shut my eyes tight.

"Good night, scaredy-cat!" Muna laughed, turning over.

"Don't listen to her," Jodie mumbled, "good night."

2:26am

Drowsiness was overtaking my faculties, but I still had questions; what did she mean by "I'm finally back"? Mrs.Emry couldn't be possessed by her twin sister Sky. No way. I took a long moment before it dawned on me, why would Mrs. Bo come back, if she knew good and well her dear friend Emry was gone and replaced by a distorted version of Sky? She must have come back to protect every following cohort. It would explain her tense demeanor, always looking over her should to see if Mrs.Emry was nearby, and warning us to never cross her. Goosebumps covered my arms as my mind raced with sinister thoughts about Mrs.Emry, but I soothed them away by reminding myself that every camp has eerie legends, which doesn't mean they're true.

With that last thought, I let the sweetness of slumber drift me away to the backdrop of splashing raindrops, rocking me into a clouded state I almost didn't hear someone heavy heave up the porch steps. My eyes flew open, my heart drumming in my ears; I shot upright.

Thunder muffled the drag of something along the plywood, rough and jagged. Two footsteps stopped at the door. The flash of lighting, clear as day, amplified my capacity to see a pair of women's boots. Pointed with a glaring white toe cap that stood still beneath the gap in the door. An alarm went off in my mind, and the pit of my stomach hollowed, a crushing thunderclap shook the cabin walls, but everything inside me froze. A chill crawled up my spine, my face paling when I called out to Jodie and Muna with such a tone I could barely hear it myself. No reply. The doorknob pinged, locking into place, and the clatter of what looked like a candelabra with three lit candles, set a blaze to the cabin.

'Tap.'Tap.'Tap.

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Camp Classy- 1992

6:00am

Local News outlet:

Camp Classy has been permanently closed!