R. Stine - The Curse of Camp Cold Lake

I rubbed my arms. I couldn’t feel the touch of my hands. Couldn’t feel the water pouring off me, running down my back.

Couldn’t feel anything. Numb. Numb all over.

“Where is everyone?” I called.

But did I make a sound? Did I have a voice?

I couldn’t hear myself.

I stepped onto the grass and shook myself. Like a dog trying to get dry.

Trying to shake some feeling into my cold, numb body.

“Where did you all go?”

Hugging myself, I stumbled forward. I stopped when I saw the canoes. All tacked upside down by the shore and tied up.

Weren’t kids canoeing today? Weren’t the canoes all out in the lake?

“Hey!” I shouted.

But why couldn’t I hear my shout?

“Where is everyone?”

No one on the shore.

I spun around, nearly losing my balance. No one in the water.

No one. No one anywhere.

I stumbled past the life preservers and rubber rafts. Covered with a canvas tarp.

Isn’t anyone going to use them? I wondered. Why are they covered up?

Why did everyone leave the lake so quickly?

Shivering, hugging myself, I made my way toward the lodge. I gasped when I noticed the trees.

Bare. All winter bare.

“Noooooooo!” a frightened wail escaped my throat. A silent wail.

Could anyone hear me?

When had the leaves fallen? Why had they fallen in the middle of summer?

I started to trot along the path to the lodge. Cold. So cold.

Something stung my shoulder. Something tingled my eyelids.

Snow?

Yes. Tiny white flakes drifted down, blown by a steady breeze. The bare trees rattled and creaked.

I brushed snowflakes from my wet hair.

Snow?

But I knew that was impossible.

All impossible.

“Heeeeeeey!” My shout echoed through the trees. Or did it?

Could anyone hear my frightened call?

“Hellllllllllp!” I shouted. “Somebody hellllllp me!”

Silence, except for the creaking tree limbs overhead.

I started to run again. My bare feet moved silently over the cold ground.

The cabins came into view as I made my way out of the trees. Their flat roofs were covered by a thin layer of snow.

The ground was as gray as the sky. The cabins were all dark, the shingled walls gray. Gray all around me.

A cold world of gray.

I pushed open the door of the first cabin I came to. “Hey-I need help!” I cried.

I stared into the empty room.

No one there. No camp trunks. No clothes scattered about.

I raised my eyes to the bunk beds against the wall. The blankets, the sheets-the mattresses-had all been taken away.

I guess this cabin isn’t being used, I thought.

I backed out of the door. Turned and ran down the row of cabins. All dark and silent.

My cabin stood where the path curved up the hill. With a sigh of relief, I ran up to it and pushed open the door.

“Briana? Meg?”

Empty. And dark.

The mattresses gone. The posters pulled down. No clothes. No bags or trunks.

No sign that anyone had ever lived in here.

“Where are you?” I shrieked.

And then, “Where am I?”

Where was my stuff? Where was my bed?

Uttering another terrified wail, I lurched out of the cabin.

Cold. So cold and numb. Running through the cold in my wet bathing suit.

I tore through the camp. Pulling open doors. Peering into bare, empty rooms. Calling. Calling for someone-anyone-to help me.

Into the main lodge. My cries echoing off the high, wooden rafters.

Or did they? Was I really making a sound?

Why couldn’t I hear myself?

I burst into the mess hall. The long, wooden benches had been stacked on top of the tables. The kitchen stood dark and empty.

What has happened? I wondered, unable to stop my trembling.

Where did everyone go? Why did they all leave? How did they leave so quickly? How can it be snowing?

I stumbled back out into the gray cold. Wisps of gray fog floated low over the gray ground. I hugged my frozen body, trying to warm myself.

Terrified and confused, I wandered from building to building. I felt as if I were swimming again. Swimming in the thick gray mists. Swimming through endless layers of gray.

And then I stopped when I heard a voice.

A tiny voice. A girl’s voice.

Singing.

She was singing in a high, frail voice.

“I’m not alone!” I cried.

I listened to her song. A sad song sung so softly.

And then I called out to her, “Where are you? I can’t see you! Where are you?”

I followed the tiny voice to the lodge. I saw a girl perched on the wooden steps.

“Hey!” I called. “Hey! I was looking for someone! Can you help me?”

She kept singing, as if she didn’t see me. As I walked closer, I realized she was singing the Camp Cold Lake song in her tiny, light voice.

She had long curls of white-blond hair that flowed down the sides of her face. A pretty face, delicate and pale. So incredibly pale.

She wore a sleeveless white T-shirt and white short shorts. Snowflakes fell all around us. I shivered. But she didn’t seem to notice the cold.

She tilted her head from side to side as she sang. Her round blue eyes stared out at the sky. They reminded me of shiny blue marbles in her pale, pale face.

I stepped up in front of her. I brushed snowflakes from my forehead.

She didn’t turn to me until her song was finished. Then she smiled. “Hi, Sarah.” Her speaking voice was as soft as her singing.

“How-how do you know my name?” I stammered.

Her smile grew wider. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she replied. “My name is Della.”

“Della-I’m so cold,” I blurted out.

She rose to her feet. Turned. And pulled something out from behind the steps.

A white bathrobe.

She held it up and slipped it around my trembling shoulders.

Her hands were so light. I could barely feel them.

She helped me tie the belt. Then she stepped back and smiled at me again. “I’ve been waiting for you, Sarah,” she said. Her voice was a sigh, a whisper.

“Excuse me?” I cried. “Waiting-?”

She nodded. Her white-blond hair fluttered with every move of her head. “I can’t leave without you, Sarah. I need a buddy.”

I stared at her, trying to understand.

“Where is everyone?” I cried. “Where did everyone go? Why are you the only one here?” I brushed snowflakes from my eyebrows. “Della, how did it get to be winter?”

“You’ll be my buddy-won’t you, Sarah?” Her blue eyes burned into mine. Her hair glowed around her pale face.

I blinked. “I don’t understand-” I started. “Please answer my questions.”

“You’ll be my buddy, won’t you?” she repeated, pleading with those amazing eyes. “I’ve waited so long for a buddy, Sarah. So long.”

“But, Della-”

She started to sing again.

I shoved my hands into the pockets of the robe. I shivered. I couldn’t get warm. I couldn’t stop shaking.

Why was she singing the Camp Cold Lake song so sadly?

Why wouldn’t she answer my questions?

How did she know my name? And why did she say she’d been waiting for me?

“Della, please-” I begged.

Singing her strange, sad song, she floated up the wooden stairs to the lodge. Her hair shimmered, golden in the gray light. Swirls of fog curled around her as she moved.

“Oh!” I cried out when I realized I could see right through her.

“Della-?”

She floated over the stairs, tilting her head from side to side, singing in that breathy whisper of a voice.

“Della-?”

She stopped singing and smiled at me again. Snowflakes covered her blond hair. The fog still swirled around her.

I could see the dark shingles of the lodge through her body. I stared right through her.