In The Night

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The sleepover was pretty uneventful. You couldn't do most --if not all-- of the things you would do at a slumber party at home. Camp Bethel had a strict, "No Fun Allowed," rule inside the cabins. As if mind-numbing boredom would encourage prayer.

After you showered, you and Jezebel took turns brushing and braiding each other's hair while you talked.

You tried to get Louise and Chaeyoung to join in, but they weren't interested. Louise was tied up with her rosary. Chaeyoung was busy with a spiritual cleanse, which consisted of ringing a bell and spritzing every inch of the cabin with water scented with sage and lavender oils. The smell made Jezebel sneeze every so often.

You watched as --one by one-- the other cabins turned their lights out, waiting for Elizabeth to arrive to tell you lights out. She arrived right on time but was curiously still dressed in her uniform, not her pajamas. "Get dressed, girls. We're going out," she ordered, letting the door swing closed behind her before standing guard in front of it like a sentinel.

"Elizabeth, are we performing the ritual tonight?" Chaeyoung eagerly asked. Louise looked anxious. She was good at looking anxious, though. You couldn't tell if she was nervous at the mention of this so-called ritual or if this was just her typical nervousness.

"What ritual?" No one told you about any ritual. No one told you anything!

"It doesn't concern you. Just get dressed."

"Can I come?" Jezebel asked, hopeful as Cinderella before the ball.

Surprisingly, Elizabeth didn't immediately take on the role of wicked step-mother and shoot her down. Instead, she smiled graciously and said, "I wouldn't dream of leaving you behind. You're the same size as Louise, right? She'll lend you a clean dress."

Now that all your friends were going, you had no good reason to refuse. Still, you couldn't help but ask, "Is this really allowed?"

Elizabeth stood that much straighter and stuck her chest out slightly, like a proud bird. "What I say goes. If I say we're going for a midnight hike to bring us closer to God, none of the other camp counselors will raise a brow."

What about the camp director, though? What would her mother say? You didn't dare breathe either of those questions, however. You just got dressed.

Once everybody was back in uniform, they exited Temperance in a single-file line with Elizabeth as the lead. She liked being the leader, the one in control. You couldn't imagine any of the camp counselors didn't get something out of controlling others.

From what you heard, having been a camper at Camp Bethel was a requirement to be a counselor. In a way, they were continuing the cycle of abuse going on at this place. How many of them had experienced Confessional? How many of them then knowingly subjected their campers to that?

"Elizabeth, where were you assigned when you were a camper?" You asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"Temperance," she said without pause. "All four years. Temperance, Temperance, Temperance, Temperance."

"What did you do to get assigned to Temperance for three years in a row?" Jezebel asked incredulously. It seemed everybody knew something you didn't. It was very irritating. Still, she asked so you didn't have to.

"My mother knows well what lies in my heart," she said cryptically as she led you girls deeper and deeper into the woods. "Take that as you will."

"Where are we going?" You asked at one point, once your feet had started to hurt. You wished you had a way of measuring time here at Camp Bethel. It took the edge off of suffering to know that there was an end in sight.

"You'll know when we get there."

She was right about that. You knew instantly when you arrived at your destination, because there were others there waiting for you. Five teenage boys sitting around a roaring bonfire, passing around a bottle and a tupperware container. They stood up when you happened upon them.

Where did they come from? Camp Bethel's brother camp? Did they really hike all the way here just to meet up with a few girls? Who were you kidding? Of course they did.

"She-wolf!" The tallest of the boys crowed, throwing his arms open with a shit-eating grin. At his greetings, the rest of his pack let out playful little howls.

"Don't call me that, jackass," Elizabeth snorted with the widest smile you'd ever seen on her. Still, she ran into his arms and gave him a bear hug in an uncharacteristic show of affection. "How's your camping experience been so far?"

"Great. Just awesome," he drawled sarcastically. "I wish I was dead."

"Awww, I wish you were dead too," she answered, her voice seemingly tender. He grasped her slender waist with his big shovel hands and leaned in real close, but she put a hand over his mouth and pushed him away. "I'm not drunk or high enough to kiss you right now."

Surprisingly, he wasn't offended. Instead, he laughed like a lunatic and motioned to his friends. "Let's fix that, then, shall we?" The bottle was passed to her and she drank deeply from it, head thrown back and throat working double time. When she was done, she used the back of her wrist to wipe her mouth and then handed the bottle to you.

It smelled like lighter fluid and tasted even worse. You didn't take more than a sip before passing it on. You were more excited about the tupperware container. You thought they would have brought along marshmallows or weenies, something for you to toast over the fire, but instead it contained brownies!

You shoved three in your gob before the plastic tub was taken away for you by Louise. "Slow down," she urged you. "You're dealing hard and fast with the Devil's lettuce."

"What do you mean?" You asked once you'd swallowed your mouthful.

"Y/N, those are pot brownies," Elizabeth said with a condescending smile. She might as well have said, "Oh, you're dumb, aren't you?" The group had a little laugh at your expense.

Well, shit.

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