Camp Leighbrook

Hi!

This is an original story i started writing i think in 2021? It is based off of an improv. scene i was in at an acting class. I hope it makes sense.. i don't really know where it'll go, but maybe someday in the future i'll be able to properly finish it. Enjoy and thankyou for reading!

-

Monday, 12th August. 10:34 am

On the bus. Other schools usually go to some place like Robe or even Kangaroo Island. But no, at Oakland College we're sent to the worst of the worst. And this year, for Year 10 school camp, we are driving 5 and a half hours to Camp Leighbrook. I haven't heard much about this place - didn't really know that it existed. It seems that as soon as I mention Mount Leighbrook, every dull-minded adult in the room goes jittery, as if merely the utterance of the name could summon the Devil himself. And the people who do talk, speak of ghosts and demons tormenting people until they go mad.

Sounds like a load of rubbish to be completely honest, but you never know. I mean, I was told my school was going to be supportive, modern and encouraging but turns out it's pure torture. Anyway. I'm sort of excited to go somewhere new. And who knows? Maybe something slightly creepy will happen and I'll be partially traumatised... but that can be used an excuse for my terrible grades so I'm not complaining.

-

I had no idea what to expect. For most of the camps we've been on, there's plans made by the teachers for all these activities. Apparently they're meant to bring us together, connect us as a year level or something, but they pretty much cause of all our friendship issues. There is seriously more drama, fights and plain bitchiness at school camp over a stupid "teamwork" game than at school, ever. My point is, a bunch of Year 10s - tired, phoneless and at each other's throats - sharing dorms and showers for a week in the middle of nowhere. What could possibly go wrong?

-

Monday, 12th August. 3:25pm

Finally arrived at the camp. In cabin 7 with Callum, Leila and Cara. I'm on the bottom bunk, below Leila, but I don't really mind. Callum is below Cara across from us. We've settled in alright. It started raining almost immediately after we got into dorms. Looks like it's gonna be gloomy for most of the week. I'm surprised how far away we are from the teachers' block. We might actually be able to stay up late without them knocking on our door every 10 minutes.

-

We had soggy pasta for dinner at 5:00 and pretty soon we were all cold and ready for bed. The path down from the teachers' block is windy and muddy, and the teachers were warning us to travel in pairs. Our dorms were little wooden sheds spread down a big grassy hill, ours the closest to the forest. The small, dark windows made it impossible to tell from the top of the hill if any lights were still on, and even harder to find your way in the mist.

-

Monday, 12th August. 9:07pm

The rain has settled on a slow, constant drizzle. The dorms are surprisingly cozy, despite the cobwebs and rattley bunk beds. There's something nice about the whistling wind outside and the low hum of the single lightbulb above us. This week may actually not turn out so bad.

We've played about 7 games of UNO and so far, Cara is unbeatable. I brought my travel chess set and Leila brought her Ouija board and a deck of cards, too. At some point, (if it ever stops raining) I'd love to go out and explore that old shed I saw as we drove in. There's something nagging at me to find out what happened here, since everyone seems to think this place is haunted or cursed or something.

-

I was lying in bed, reading, when Leila pulled out her Ouija board. She had always been the person that loved scaring kids with her stories and psychic visions. I had a feeling Leila would try and turn that creepy old place into one of her horror stories. And for some reason, considering the eerie vibe of the place, I wasn't completely against it.

It was late, quiet except for the occasional shuffle or sniff as we tried to relax in our rock-solid mattresses and impossibly tight sleeping bags. With that daring smirk of hers, she suggested that we all climb out of bed and put that darn thing to use.

We were reluctant at first, but what else were we going to do? And besides, Leila had that thing about her, that fearless look that seemed to banish all worries or "what ifs".

We sat on the floor of the dorm, darkness except the faint glow of Cara's keyring-sized torch. It was about 10:21. We waited, unsure of what to expect. What to think. What to make of the deep, instinctual feeling of there is evil here.

I was half expecting Leila to light some black candles, pull out some rosemary and start chanting in Latin or something, but we soon learnt that all you have to do is place your fingertips on the little planchette thing, ask a question and then wait for it to move.

Our first question was the typical are there any spirits here? Not a moment passed before it was moving towards Y, then E, then S. We had our first answer - we were not alone.

Now what? was what our nervously-ticklish glances said to one another. We dared not make a sound. It felt as if the universe was listening now.

A moment passed, then Leila, swallowing hard and speaking gently said, "What is your name?"

We let it slide to the letters it desired, too mesmerised to know better. First G...Then to R, slowly to A...H..A and then finally, M.

Graham.

The one we were talking to had a name. If we were skeptical... if we didn't believe in spirits or ghosts, it was his name that changed it all.

I could tell Leila wanted to ask something else. It was on her tongue, the words, but she couldn't, now as the planchette was already gliding across the board, daring us to follow it's mismatched pattern and somehow make out a message.

We raced to make sense of the letters.. Graham seemed to be in a hurry...

They will come closer.

A warning? Too many questions darted through our minds, igniting the rain to return and the world to resume its chaos. That feeling of darkness seemed to escape us, then. We were out of the void, pushed back from the edge... yet something seemed beckon us towards it.

I studied the dimly lit faces of my friends. Leila, opposite me, a worn and curious expression on her too-pale face. Cara, on my right, hands unconsciously fidgeting with her plaited. And Callum, to my left. A strangely... blank and bruised... expression on his face. There was something unsettling about seeing my loudest friend so... distant.

And then he changed.

Being stared at with those misty, hollow eyes is the thing I will never forget about that night. I knew from the way his neck swivelled and his eyes narrowed that it was not him with us there... but something else.

The scream that escaped my lips pierced through the thunderous drumming of the outside storm. It was shrill and uninvited, but my only defence as this...monster consumed my friend. Seeing me rush backwards from him, the girls moved to attack. Leila knew to grab for the lightswitch, and leapt toward the door. Cara, confused, improvised and shone her tightly gripped torch directly at his eyes. This at least stopped him from snatching at Leila or I.

Without any warning, the room was flooded with light. Callum.. or, rather, the Thing Controlling Callum, quickly curled in a ball, rocking and scratching, protecting itself from what seemed to be the brightness of the room. I glanced at Leila from my position against the wall. She stood across the door, hand perched cautiously on the lightswitch. Cara had moved silently next to me, making Leila the closest one of us to Callum.

We all just watched him claw at the air, face scrunched in an infinitely silent scream. There was nothing we could do but wait for it to leave him. But it soon became clear that they never want to leave.

I felt the air shift within the room. The silence resumed, and "Callum" went still...the only movement coming from his lungs desperately stretching to find air in a pattern plainly ticking like clockwork. He unravelled, then, from his protective ball, head and eyes bowed low to the ground and hands gripping the wooden floor like a cat crouching to stalk its prey.

He looks up. Not at Leila, on his left by the door, or us, against the wall to his right. His head cocks to the side in curiousity at the thing we've all distanced ourselves from the most.

The Ouija board.

-

I refuse to recite what followed. But I will give you this, a warning:

Do not look into the faded, dead eyes of the one you do not know anymore. The tilted, hungry grin is your cue to beat it to its last oblivion. And always, always, fear the void.

-

Fin.

...

(kinda)

Websites I used to help me:

https://daily.jstor.org/how-to-use-a-ouija-board/

https://www.scoopwhoop.com/inothernews/summon-spirit/