Chapter Seven: EVENT I

Chapter Seven:

Event I

Introduction & Camp Setup

Suddenly, a stranger was in front of Raven; unconscious and yet it felt like she knew her, but was this possible? It seemed she had never seen her before.

Anyways, Raven could not just leave the girl there, also considering they were not even allowed to be out at that hour. Confused about what to do, Raven finally decides to take her to her room because she cannot leave her out there in the dark. She brings her into the room that Valerie and she shared, Room Number 3.

She walks in with the stranger hanging over her shoulder and drops her on the bed. She couldn't help but fall to the ground as well, it was tiring to carry someone for such a long time & distance.

She sighs as she notices Valerie was already getting dressed up.

She wonders to herself, ‘at this hour?’.

"Hey V, why are you getting dressed at this hour?"

"Fau dinner" Valerie replies as she manages to apply lipstick perfectly over her lips in the dark.

"It's dark, nobody will see you V" Raven sighed.

"I kant miz chance auf luking gud infraunt auf a ga..ahem!! guy" Valerie remarked as she cleared her throat.

Raven rolled her eyes. It was difficult for Raven to believe how obsessed Valerie was with makeup. Even in the absence of light Valerie couldn't help but put on more. Out of her thoughts, Raven picks herself up, she remembers the floor was still covered with dust.

" Yuck I got it all over my pants" Raven complains as she dusts some off her clothes.

*Raven sneezes*

"Blez Yu" Valerie says when interrupted by some announcement.

**Campers are requested to reach the dinning hall in 15 mins or no dinner will be served later.**

The room echoed with the announcement when both Raven and Valerie tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. Soon later Valerie figured out there was a speaker in the corner of the room. It was not that big and could be easily overlooked by the naked eye.

"What if they have cameras too?!" Raven pointed out.

"Then they see yew being an arse, get up" Valerie tries to annoy Raven yet again.

Raven walks up to Valerie with a grumpy look on her face and lips tightened up. Looking at Raven’s expression, Valerie decides to use her fingers to push a streak of Raven's hair away from her face and tucks it behind the ear.

"Atles waush yu face" Valerie demands, Raven makes a pout.

"Fine!" Raven says as she grumpily walks out of the room.

“Now, where is the freaking washroom? How do I even find it in this darkness?” Raven talks to herself.

Raven takes a couple of steps to the left only to find out that a torch lit up, automatically. This time it was green, amber green.

“Might as well be the right way mm?” Raven says to herself as she proceeds to walk in the same direction.

A couple of torches lit up, at every 7 feet distance. It was enough to light up her path.

As Raven continued to walk in frustration, cursing the whole camp and why she even decided to come here in the first place, mostly talking to herself, “What are you murmuring about?”, a voice calls out to her. She looks in the direction of the voice.

Well of course it was Tim, again.

“Where were you at that time? I almost thought that I lost you! You disappeared into thin air!!!” Raven exclaimed.

“You didn’t even let me know if you were going back,” Raven added.

“It was too dark for me to see so I decided to go back before you. And honestly, don’t you think there is something fishy about this place?” Tim marked in suspicion.

“The only thing that smells like a fish is you here" Raven mocked Tim.

“Anyway, do you know where the Washroom is? I've been circling all night long and I still haven’t found it yet...” Raven asks in embarrassment.

“Oh hah! It’s this way. Straight across down the hall then left”

Tim shows her the way to the washroom and asks her to meet in the dining hall.

“Alrighty, see you in the dining hall then?” Tim winks as he walks away in the opposite direction.

“Ah, surzies...” Raven flirts back and walks away.

Raven heads to the washroom and finds it weird how she meets Tim all the time yet there is no other soul to be found around. Except for the stranger.

Raven finally finds the washroom, it almost felt like a treasure hunt to her. But hey, she was there now. As soon as she enters, she bumps into another person. A girl.

“The f*ck!!” The girl curses.

“Uh Sorry,” Raven apologises and notices the girl - with her now ruined lipstick, it was all over her face except where it was supposed to be.

“Watch where you are going, you dumbass!” The girl replies in frustration.

“Woah, you don’t have to be so mean, it was an accident jeez. Let me help you” Raven replies and uses her fingers to wipe off the lipstick but then realizes they are covered with dust from dusting her clothes earlier.

“Uh actually I think you can do it on your own! Ciao!” Raven hurriedly gets inside one of the stalls.

"Ahhhh Biatch Ruined my face!" The girl curses again.

“Who the fuck does she think she is? Looks like a witch if you ask me!!” Raven starts cursing as she washes clean her dusty hands.

Lyla, a blonde, full of makeup because she thinks she ain’t pretty otherwise, hides behind tons of makeup; wearing a bodycon short golden glittering dress, with a Louis Vuitton handbag. She is the kind of girl that almost looks slutty all the time but is not really, yet is mean to everyone cause why not? She is too full of herself! Of course, she is beautiful.

Raven waits for her to leave before she heads back to her room. After her very much mean encounter with Lyla, she is very much critical and frustrated.

Valerie had already headed out for dinner. As she walks towards the dining hall she catches up with Valerie at the entrance, she was waiting at the door for her.

The dining hall was oddly peculiar, Raven and Valeri had never seen such a grand yet ancient-looking dining hall before.

It almost looked as if they were back in the 70s. It was magnificent but weird at the same time. A very ancient chandelier hung from the middle of the roof. It was lit with candles to light up the whole place. All the little things that caught Raven’s eyes seemed to be oddly weird but she didn’t want to sweat on it. Also, she was hungry. They walk in and find a long dining table that takes up most of the space in the room.

Valerie and Raven were spellbound at how magnificent the dining hall looked, they were looking around the hall when suddenly something caught Raven’s eyes.

There were plates arranged on the table, Raven found this very strange, why you ask? There were specifically only 7 of them with food already served.

Valerie quickly took the seat and started gulping down the food. On the other hand, Raven couldn't even figure out what it was and hence only had a few bites.

There were others in the dining hall, she could see Tim and hey, the mean girl she bumped into earlier. Both of them are very talkative. Raven sighed at this sight. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their meals but even though Raven was too hungry and tired at this point she didn't bother much. Also, the questions didn't leave her mind.

She was now back in her room but sleepless. She noticed the stranger was no longer where she left her, which again added to her thoughts. Valerie at this point was fast asleep as if she had been drugged. Raven could not process what was actually going on in here. She was even more sleepless at this point.

“God knows how she can be asleep in this type of environment.” Raven sighs.

She looks out of her window staring at the night sky while holding the curtain back from her bed; it was a beautiful sight. She was finally thankful for once that she decided to come here.

As she stared quietly into the abyss of the night sky, it was clouded and no stars were visible. It was difficult for her to spot any of them, she tried her best and when she couldn't, she caught a glimpse of something or someone lurking behind the tree. A silhouette of someone staring back at her.

This creeped her out, she immediately dropped the curtains and whether sleepy or not, either way, she decided to lay down and shut her eyes.

Raven was slowly getting some shut-eye when suddenly, she was awakened by the sound of the speaker going off again.

*** Announcement ***

“Campers are requested to gather at the crossroad by 6 am.”

This wakes up Raven completely, as she sits up & looks in the direction of the speaker. She realised the tiny speaker was at the very corner of the room and had a clock hanging underneath.

It took some minutes for Raven's eyes to adjust to the daylight. She pulls the curtains away again this time to uncover the hills covered in fog. It was a delight to her eyes which seemed to be in darkness for a very long time.

She rubs her eyes and looks the other way. It was Valerie, already up and ready to go.

Raven looks at the clock, 5:50 am. She is already almost late.

"When did you get up?" Raven asks Valerie.

"When did yu get to bed?” Valerie says.

"Yu luk lyk a ghaust" she continues.

"Hah! Funny V" Raven makes a face at her.

"Get op yu lazy bum" Valerie tells her.

"I'm up, you bum" Raven, now completely irritated.

Valerie quickly dresses up and walks out of the room ignoring Raven since they were already running late.

Raven rushes to brush and freshen up, how unlucky can she get? She bumps into the mean girl again.

Lyla was in her Tracks but goddammit her makeup never leaves her face just like Valerie. She looked gorgeous, Raven said to herself.

‘Ugh not you again’ Raven murmurs in frustration.

“Oh my G! Looks like someone is gonna get punished today ahahha!” Lyla says in an annoying tone.

“Good morning by the way, ‘Ms. Watch where are ya going’” Lyla added.

Raven ignored her and headed towards the washroom, she finished up everything as fast as she could. She headed back to her room, got changed into her tracks and finally ran to the crossroad.

The Clock tower was pointing at 6:05, Raven was the last one to reach the venue.

‘I am dead for sure’ Raven thought to herself.

She saw Valerie and the others in their tracks, all gathered in the middle of the road. The in-charge was already there standing strictly and his eyes as if he had no life in them, next to him was a man giving out instructions, holding onto a staff-like-thing. She couldn't help but stare.

The in-charge notices Raven, she was the last one to reach of course.

“Ms. Raven, I see that you are way too early for the gathering!” The in-charge said in a sarcastic tone.

“But I am only 5 mins late” Raven replied defensively.

“5 mins or 1, you should be on time.” The in-charge just doesn’t want to let this go.

“It..it’s my fault” A voice from the group said while raising her hand. It was Roxie.

‘Uh, isn’t that the girl from last night, how did she appear suddenly?’ Raven questioned herself, perplexed.

“I was lost last night and she was helping me. She must have not gotten enough sleep.”

”Okay, I don't want any of you wasting more of our time" the in-charge stated.

“Join in Raven,” the in-charge said.

“Now all of you, as the instructor stated, have a run to the campsite following him” the in-charge directed, “this will be for warming you up to start off the day” The in-charge commanded.

The in-charge announced to them to run to the campsite but Raven was still dumbstruck with the instructor, she couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

To be continued…