Is It Real?
She never was a normal one. Not one to follow the crowd, she walked her own path. From the food she ate, to the way she dressed, the activities she pursued, and even down to the way she would think. One thing that everyone could agree on was that she was definitely a one-of-a-kind. Unfortunately, it was her individuality that kept people away from her. No one understood her, therefore, mockery was found to be a viable replacement for what should have been compassion. It truly is a shame when someone finally realizes the consequences to their actions too late.
It was no secret that she was fascinated with death. If anything, she reveled in that fact. She always got this sick, sadistic rush of pleasure whenever she could terrify somebody merely talking about the subject. It made her feel powerful, as well as become her own little form of payback for the way others kept treating her. Normally she could handle whatever they could dish out, in fact, their condescending remarks and cruel pranks had become almost standard routine. Given time, she became emotionally numb to their antics, not much bothered her anymore. Tonight, however, they had gone too far. With a scheme so vicious, they had broken through her soul of stone and her anger was finally unleashed, thus sealing their fates...
5 girls. All of them could be considered your typical "material girls." You know the type; popular, pompous and full of themselves, gifted with a natural knack for beauty, and above all think they are better than all the rest. They were all out on a camping trip with all their fellow classmates, this includes our main girl. When they arrived at the head campsite, as one might expect, your typical ghost stories started circulating almost immediately across the student body. One of them, of course being the age old myth about a group of campers who were murdered on the grounds long ago only for their souls to haunt the camp to this very day. It really would have been an interesting story, if it weren't for the fact that pretty much every campsite across the country didn't already have their own variation of the exact same tale! I mean seriously, its almost as bad as watching remakes of old movies, nothing about it is original anymore. It didn't fool our main girl for a minute, unfortunately, she wasn't exactly surrounded by the brightest group of people at the moment. The previously mentioned 5 girls in particular believed every word, and freaking out a little more with each passing second they remained on the campgrounds. As much as our main character enjoyed watching them shudder in fear, she still felt complied to make her opinion know, "You guys seriously can't believe in all that nonsense, can you?" The other girls looked at her incredulously before the leader of the group spoke up, "Well, of course you wouldn't be scared, Crystal. Knowing you, you would probably just make friends with the ghosts, anyways!" The now identified Crystal simply crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She really didn't want to admit that the girl was right. If anything, she probably would befriend the ghosts - that is, if the story was true - but she couldn't let them know that, so she decided to stick with logic, "Whatever. That myth is just an old wives' tale that every camp has its own version of. It's not real, and I am not going to argue about it further." With that, she turned to start walking towards her cabin, but before she got there, she couldn't help but overhear one of the girls asking the others, "Do you think that any version of the 'murdered campers' story is true? And if so, is our camp the one?!" In Crystal's mind, she couldn't help but think, If only.
What Crystal doesn't know, is that if she would have stayed around just a little bit longer, or perhaps would have walked just the slightest bit slower, she would have heard the other girls pondering that question maybe a little too seriously. She would have heard the beginning plans of a vicious scheme cooking up between them. The leader, as usual, was the first to reply, "I'm not sure, Fiona, but that sure gives me an Idea." She said with a sinister smile facing the direction Crystal had gone. "What does?" Fiona asked, clueless. "What idea would that be, Danielle?" A girl who could be considered the now identified Danielle's second in command asked, ignoring Fiona. "Well Christine, let's just say that if Crystal wants to flirt with death so badly, then that's exactly what we'll give her." "You mean kill her!?" Another voice shouted from behind her in shock. "No of course not, Quintana, don't be ridiculous!" Danielle scorned. "Then what do you mean?" The last girl asked. "It's quite simple, Xania. If Crystal doesn't believe in that "old wives' tale" as she puts it, then we'll just have to give her a reason to believe. And this is how we're going to do it." All the girls listened in, prepared to enact whatever it was their leader told them to do.
That night, after all of the other campers were long asleep, Crystal couldn't help but sneak out of her cabin for a midnight stroll through the woods. She always felt more alive and at ease during the night, she figured it was because nobody else was ever awake at this time of night to bother her. It seemed to be the only time in the day where she could think freely without anyone being there to judge her. Needless to say, she could just be herself after the sun goes down without the hassle of retaliation. Tonight, however, was different. A certain bunch of girls also knew of Crystal's moonlit strides, and now that she was out, they were ready to put their plan into action. When Crystal was about halfway down the trail, she started to hear an unnatural movement coming from the surrounding trees. Now Crystal was far from being a gullible girl, instantly she thought that the movement was most likely due to the work of Danielle, Christine, Quintana, Xania, and Fiona. But now, because she was in the woods after all, she was still willing to give the benefit of the doubt and pass it off as a nocturnal animal simply passing through the trees, but that didn't cool her suspicions any. When she heard another similar movement on the other side of her, she was now certain. With a heavy, unamused sigh she shined the flashlight she brought with her into the trees and yelled out, "Whatever you five are planning, it's not going to work. You guys are terrible hiders!" At first, there was no response, not even movement. It was precisely this distinct lack of movement that only confirmed her suspicions further, "You know your stunned silence only makes you look all the more guiltier, right?" Finally that triggered a response, "Aww, come on, can't a girl have a little fun?" Danielle said finally coming down from the tree she was in. Crystal was not impressed, "Your idea of 'fun' is not exactly amusing." Trying to look as innocent as possible, Danielle defended herself, "It all depends on how you look at it. I, for one, think it's going to be to die for." She said, stressing the word, 'die.' This did not go unnoticed by Crystal, "Okay. Ignoring the obviously bad pun, is this all about that "murdered campers" story I told you wasn't true?" using air quotes to emphasize 'murdered campers,' "And what do you mean by "going to be?"" she quickly added as an afterthought. A devious smile returned on Danielle's lips, "Why, yes it is," she replied answering Crystal's first question, "and we got you!" At that moment, something big came swinging down from the trees while a horrible loud screech was heard coming from all the other girls. Crystal was positive that just one of the girl's screams' was loud enough to make a banshee jealous, but a whole concert corral of them? You might as well be waking up the dead! No doubt it woke up the other campers and counselors all the way back at the main-grounds. Highly annoyed, Crystal shouted, "What are your girl's problem?!" The other four that were still in the trees finally came down and stood behind their leader, "Nothing that won't be yours in a few minutes." Was all Danielle said as she gestured to the figure that was still swinging in front of them, though not as violently as before. Crystal took her her flashlight and shined it on the figure to get a better look at it. It looked like a body being hanged from the neck by a rope.
At first glance, even Crystal thought it was a real body. It even had blood on it and everything! Not one to be frightened easily, it came as a shock to her and all those around her when a small, frightened whimper escaped her. Again, it wasn't that she was afraid of death or of seeing a dead body in front of her, instead it was the very possibility that the girls before her may have committed murder just to pull a stupid prank that sickened her to her core. She couldn't help but cry out, "You murdered someone!?" She wanted to give those girls an even bigger piece of her mind, but she was too disgusted to continue. A little shocked at her expression, yet nevertheless undeterred, Danielle was all to calm as she replied, "Relax, it's just the CPR dummy from camp, and the blood is ketchup. Now I'm not one to brag, but it looks pretty realistic, doesn't it. We would never actually kill a real person." Out of nowhere, Fiona's voice split through the air, "Yeah, we're not ridiculous!" Relieved that she wasn't facing a real body, all Crystal could say through clenched teeth was, "I doubt that, highly." purposely making it unclear whether she was referring to Danielle's comment of never killing a real person or Fiona's. Either way, the girls were clearly offended, and Crystal didn't mind that one bit. Crystal still had one thing on her mind, "I don't understand, though, why go through all this trouble, what was even the point?" Suddenly, all the girls started hearing the footsteps and shouts of the other campers getting closer. The 5 girls took that as their cue to get going, but not before Danielle quickly answered her question, "To frame you. And to think, if we could fool even you, just imagine what the other campers will think." she finished with a soft evil chuckle before all of them made themselves scarce. As soon as they were gone, a flashlight that was not her own shined into Crystal's face, momentarily blinding her. Pretty much the entire camp was standing right in front of her, and when they saw the dummy hanging by a string, they too thought it was a real body. Without a moment's hesitation, the accusations started to fly. Shouts of "Murderer!" and "Cold blooded killer!" were some of the most predominant phrases that could be heard. Crystal knew it would do her no good to try and say anything in her defense as of this moment, for she knew no one would listen to what she would have to say. So she remained silent, but that didn't stop this sudden feeling burning deep within her chest. Pure rage was building up inside her as she finally had enough. This was the last straw and she knew exactly who she could take her anger out on.
