Chapter 42

Miranda and I shuffled our way into the crowd and out of the hall, farther away from the party and I began to wonder how she knew the road around there so well. After walking for about twenty minutes, I began to feel so weak that I pleaded that we rest a while.

"I'm sorry but we are almost there. It's the road out of this camp. There's a restaurant and a bar over there. I hope you have enough money on you?"

"Yeah i should" I said. She pulled me up again and i followed her, with my shoulder and lower back supported by her hands and soon we got to the end of the road that led away from the camp. True to her words, there was a restaurant and a bar there. I was so happy. I ran ahead of her into the restaurant and ordered a large plate of chicken and chips plus lots of ketchup and a big bottle of soda. She only ordered a small hamburger but with apple fruit juice instead of soda.

I sat at the table and ate voraciously. I knew Miranda was staring at me but I didn't care. She only bit around her burger because she was filled already. To my greatest surprise, I ate up the whole chicken. When I was done eating, I relaxed my back on the chair and belched. Strength started to return into my being. I was glad mom gave me some money while traveling to camp, and I was even gladder I carried the credit card with me everywhere I went to. Yes, mom gave me her credit card, the one linked to one of her bank accounts. It didn't have much money in it but it was enough to order more foods.

So I bought two plates of soup, baked pork and frittatas, burgers, grilled fish, few cookies and five bottles of soda. I was going to feed on them for the rest of the time I'd spend in camp. The woman at the counter must have wondered if I had just escaped out of prison, because she kept staring at me as she received my order. I had them packaged for me while Miranda went to the counter to make payment. I was so grateful to her. What would I do if she didn't show me this hidden restaurant and bar? Nothing, except starve to death.

Those two things--My phone and her credit card were always following me everywhere, and thank God I was not too famished to remember her PIN, because if I called her to ask, she might not let it out anymore, because according to her when she was giving me the card, "Return it before you go to camp" she gave it to me on my birthday to get whatever I wanted, after the party she hosted for me. Thank God I hadn't returned it.

"Hey buddy" she tapped me on the back. "You feel good now?"

"Yes, Thank you so much" I found myself embracing her. She was holding a customized packaged bag which contained her own order, and I was holding mine as we walked out of the building.

"I have been coming here to eat and get fresh air" she said, smiling. "It makes me feel human coming here..you know... Staying at the camp makes me feel crazy" she muttered, and sighed after. It looked like she had a lot going on in her mind.

"Me too. Finally I met someone who thinks like me" i said. She was walking faster than I was, and I was only trying to keep up. She looked so cool, and I started to wonder why she was once rude to me.

"I used to think I was the only one who found everyone weird in this camp. But what did I expect after what my mother told me about it?" She sighed yet again. I wanted to ask her what her mother said to her, but she interrupted before I could start talking about it.

"We'll stop in the shade there; I'm not wearing enough sunscreen and I don't want to go back to the hall just yet" I nodded and as we walked towards the shade, we both fell silent. There was so much to talk about, and it was just right that she wanted us to get comfortable first.

We soon got there and sat on the grass under the shade. The sun was shining brightly and sweat was starting to gather on our brows. It was like a picnic. We sat, spreading our legs on the grass, talking and sipping apple fruit juice, the one she bought.

"So, ...." I started. "How did you find me?"

"I noticed you on the first day we arrived at camp. I didn't come with your flight, you know. I arrived earlier than y'all. "

"Oh" i said. That was true. She hadn't been with us.

"My mother brought me here. She purposely booked a flight to bring me to the camp. I didn't want to come but she forced me, so I had to just ..you know, come" she said.

"Why did she force you down here?"

"My mother thinks I'm crazy, so she thinks this camp will make me better."

"But how?"

"This is a camp of crazy people, I bet it with you. Because I experience déjà Vus, mom thinks I need help, and funnily enough, she thinks I'll find help in Meteors Contention Camp. Can you imagine that?" She half laughed. She laughed her mother to scorn. "I hate my mother" she said, fishing out a container from her small bag. It contained sunscreen.

"It's okay, tell me everything. At least you're not alone, I'm here too" i tried to encourage her and prompt her to speak to me. She rubbed her suncream

"What did you mean when you said it is a camp of crazy people?" I asked

"Everyone here has some supernatural substance in their blood. It's either they can do what a normal human being can not do, or they're simply non-human" she dropped the bombshell. It wasn't as if I did not know but she confirmed it.

"It hurts to think that mom thinks I'm one of them because I experience déjà vu every year. Do you know what a déjà vu is?" She asked, staring squarely at me

"Yes I do. I learnt it is a feeling of having already experienced the present situation, like a constant feeling that you've experienced a situation sometime ago" I said and she clapper.

"I experience this feeling of déjà vu every year. For instance, everything that has happened to me this year , I feel like it has happened before. This time last year, I was here at this camp, and here under this shade but talking to some other girl. This time last year, I was wearing this particular hairstyle. And I know this time next year, I'll be here again. It happens constantly, I already know the next line of process. So I kind of want to change it, in order to, you know, have a change in a particular way, but it doesn't change. Sometimes I even yell at mom for repeating the same process as last year's. During Christmas two years ago, mom was mad at me and she hit me with a burning wood, I still have a scar on my arm, she didn't do it deliberately I guess, she was just mad and she probably didn't realize that what was in her hand was not good for a weapon, because she was sorry, but you know what?"

"What?"

"She hit me again last year at Christmas with a burning wood, and now the scar is now prominent. I know it'll happen again this year. Mom thinks I'm crazy because things repeat themselves around me. That's why she brought me here. According to her, being with people like me would help me get better" she sighed again.

"She keeps bringing me here every year, so I know I'll be here again next year. Hopefully when I'm through with high school, there'd be a change as I'd not have to come here. Just hopefully"

"I'm so sorry, that must be really hard on you"

"Yes it is. I cry all the time because of this" she said with a teary voice.

"And you're going to hit me again next year in our classroom because I was rude to you, and I'm going to get hospitalized again and have another plaster on this same spot on my head." She said, not like a question but like she was stating a fact.

"Stop it. It won't happen" i said. It was scary having occurrences repeat themselves every year. It must have been really hard on her especially as none of her parents understood her and she was just termed crazy. That's what made it worse. She was growing in height, weight and wisdom but she experienced the same things each year.

"It will, I tell you. That is what I told the other girl too, when she said something I said would happen would not" I sighed and rubbed her shoulder.

"I know this feeling. The way you rubbed my shoulders just now, I know this has happened before"

Her words ignited the spirit of fear in me but I still kept her company. She was just a girl like me who didn't understand why she was feeling the way she felt, or had the power she had, she was a girl who wasn't understood because even if someone told her about feeling what she felt, she'd be tempted to call the person crazy as well.

So it was like, you didn't like how people did not understand or see what you were seeing but you do not blame because even you who experienced such felt that it was weird.

"When did this start?" I started to dive into the matter

"Mom said I showed signs of it as a toddler because I'd repeat some things I did the previous year, or go ahead and do something on my own without anyone's help because I was already strangely familiar with it. I think I was five at the time" she said resting on my shoulder while I rubbed hers.

"And how old are you now?"

"Eleven" Oh, so she wasn't ten. She held my hands and looked closely into my eyes like she was in a trance. "My daddy is gonna die again, Ariana" she said with the most emotional voice I've ever heard.

"I'm sorry" I said and patted her back. I thought about how much it'd suck to experience repeatedly your father's death.

"I just wanna have a new year. Do you think these people at the camp can help me?" She asked calmly now.

"I'm not sure, they're of no good to me. " I muttered. I didn't know what else to say.

"I'm sure not everyone here is weird, Look we already found two of us. There could be more" I assured her. "You'll have many more friends"

"What are you going to say tonight?" She asked me.

"What? I don't understand"

"At the Award night, every year, everyone talks about what they can do and then display those things. Everyone here has superhuman powers"

"Really?"

"Yes. You can't be here at the camp if you are natural. You must at least be able to do one thing that regular humans can't do. Every single person will display their powers. The Award night is like what most of us look up to because it's always so much fun. It lasts many hours, into the midnight sometimes. Afterwards, we dance and drink from the gourd"

"The gourd?"

"Yes, there's a huge gourd in the storehouse where everybody drinks from. I don't know what the drink is, and if you refuse to drink it, they immediately agree that you're a spy and so punish you by leaving you in the forest where snakes live." I was startled

"Oh my God"

"Yeah"

"When you drank it, how did it taste like?"

"I've never drunk it"

"And they never found out?"

"I pretend to. I think they do not know how to catch people who play along, except of course they read your mind. If so, all you have to do is not let it be in your mind. Just play along, act like you're drinking it and don't think about it. Then they'd never catch you. That's what I do every year"

It seemed to me that there was more to this camp thing than what I have ever known.

"Meteors Contention Camp was established by the leaders of the blue wolf pack, as a get together for supernaturals to commemorate the deaths of their members who died in the first war, and also to showcase their diverse superhuman powers to one another. I tell you, most of them do not want vampires here but they have no choice, they allow them on second thoughts because they think they can win them over and stop the yearly wars between them, (Vampires and Werewolves). This camp is just like a fun party with activities among different types of supernaturals. But it's dangerous for humans to be here. That's what I know" she explained and I listened with rapt attention. I thought as much. These people were not regular.

"Ariana, we are the only humans in the camp." She finally dropped the bombshell. "And no matter the mixture and association, we are still meat to them"

"Do you know that they can tell we are humans just by sniffing us? We smell like fresh blood to them , and that's what they like to eat- fresh meat with blood still fresh in it. Not all of them though. Only the werewolves and vampires in their midst. We are just humans with abilities that we do not understand. We don't have powers like they do. Moving close to any of them is very dangerous." She affirmed. I just nodded.

"Get up" she suddenly whispered after some minutes and I shivered within me. "Why?"

"One of them is coming this way" she said and pulled me up with one hand while using the other hand to pack together our picnic items which were sprawled on the grass. I hurriedly hopped up and lent her a helping hand. "How do you know someone is coming this way?" I looked back and saw no one, neither did I hear any footsteps

"Because it happened last year. We have to go now, he can smell us" she said and we both ran, with her grabbing my hands. I was grabbing a bag with my other hand and she was grabbing hers with her other hand too. We ran until we got back to the cabin passing another route so they'd not see us. I actually felt our running was useless because he could catch up with us in a twinkle of an eye. We soon got to the cabin and thankfully she had the key to her room, so we entered her room and locked the door behind us. I was glad I could breathe some fresh air and be away from the bustling of the party for a while. It was choky and very uncomfortable for me.

"Finally we are safe" she sighed and I rested on her bed, beside her.

"Are you sure they are not gonna find us here?"

"We'll be all right" she said and turned on the bed. "Who are your roommates?"she suddenly asked.

"Vicky, Lucas and Tim" i replied, "And you?

"None of my roommates are werewolves. Neither are they vampires. They are all fairies, and they're all boys. They're very caring and they don't hurt me. But then, I still feel very different from them. I feel alone. Thank God I met you" I nodded, smiling. I was glad to have met her too.

" What do you think your roommates are?" She faced me

"Well, I don't exactly know but I think Vicky is a bloody vampire. Her eyes don't look real"

"No she's not a vampire. She is a pontianak from Indonesia. Tim is a shapeshifter, but I don't know what Lucas is" she said and shook her head. "There's something about that guy"

"How did you know these?"

"I saw their profiles. You'll know tonight, you'll see everyone display their abilities. So, let's practise. What are we gonna showcase?"

"Errrm...I think I'll just tell them I'm human" I said, totally uninterested in the event. I couldn't imagine myself standing before a bunch of supernaturals and telling them I could lift something almost my weight without feeling any pressure, or that I could see things that were not there. It was really something I should keep to myself. Something I didn't know if I was proud of at all.

"You think they don't know? You think they don't know you're human? One of them could easily have torn your flesh apart. It's Uncle Robinson that's preventing you from coming to harm because he sincerely cares about you" I nodded. I thought that I had to stick to him then because if I didn't, I'd be in a big danger or worse, he'd get mad at me like he got mad at Anita and killed her. Right. They all could smell me, and Miranda.

"Where did you see their profiles?" I asked trying not to sound too curious.

"In the big book. I stole a look when Aunty Amanda was going through it last year at camp" she said and laughed. "I'm very bold and smart, aren't I?"

"Of course you are" i said and she blushed, while inching closer to me on the soft small bed and for the first time since I arrived camp, I felt comfortable and loved. Miranda Harley was indeed very bold. As a matter of fact, I shared in her boldness to rekindle my own dying bold spirit. There was silence for some minutes. We could fair you hear sounds coming from the hall. Everyone was still dancing and eating and spending their time having fun.

"So, tell me Ariana, what is your power?" Here the big question I didn't like to answer or talk about came up, and I had no choice to respond to her because if I lied, it'd be too obvious and she'd figure out I was lying because she was so close to my face. I felt like whenever I llie, everyone could see it on my face that I was blatantly lying. It made me feel self-conscious so that I rarely lied.

I looked down at my fingers and fell silent immediately I heard her ask that question, because I felt something move behind me. Yeah, I knew he was there but I didn't want to freak my new friend out by looking straight up at him and yelling. So I just sealed my lips and watched him. The spooky figure. He was there standing at the door and facing my direction. It was the first time he appeared to me when someone was with me.

At home, he didn't come if mom was by my side or Dr Brown or Mike, only if I was alone. The fact that he appeared to me even though Miranda was there made it a lot more strange. I looked at him and back at Miranda and she traced my eyes to where I was staring at, but it was obvious she did not see anything, just like every other person didn't see what I saw. Could there be any possibility that he had a mission for both of them?

I was about to open my mouth to answer my newfound friend whilst purposefully ignoring the spooky figure at the door, when it started to move, a step , two steps and towards my direction on the bed. This time when he got so close, i didn't care anymore; I screamed and Miranda covered my mouth quickly and made me sit up.

"What's wrong?" She looked more frightened than I actually looked

"I can see ghosts. There's one here right now" I hurriedly blurted out before I could stop myself. Her reaction was slow but simultaneous. She moved closer to me and hugged me tight, shut her eyes and I could feel her weight shivering on my chest. I looked up expecting the spooky figure to have disappeared as he didn't always stay for long; he always disappeared as soon as he came or lingered for 30 seconds but not more than that. I looked there and he was still there but he'd stopped walking over to me. He just stood there without moving an inch. Just then, I remembered what Uncle Robinson told me on our visit to the castle where he lived with his royal family: "If he comes to you again, ask him what he wants or how you can help. He definitely wants a conversation with you" It was scary

Why would he want a conversation with me? But I decided to try it. Hopefully he'd not appear after that day.

"Hey" I started. Miranda lifted her head and said "huh?" She thought I was talking to her. "Miranda, not you" I said and she began to cry. She was so frightened.

"Hey, stranger" I said to him. The spooky figure. He began to walk towards me again and sat on Miranda's wardrobe in the room. Then he started to make hand gestures like he was glad to meet me.

"What do you...?" I tried again but before I could land, he disappeared just then, leaving behind a choky smoke and smell. I coughed and coughed until my eyes became teary and red. Miranda wasn't coughing, that meant his disappearance and choky smoke only had effects on me.

"Are you okay?" She asked me. "I want to get you water but I'm so scared to get up" she was still crying.

"No I'm okay. Thank you. He's gone too, you can loosen up" i said, but that moment, she screamed. "Why are you screaming?" I asked. She pointed to her bedsheet. There was blood on it. Blood that poured from my mouth.

"Ariana, you're about to be possessed" she said impatiently. "I read it in my fantasy stories. The way you're acting now shows that he wants to use your body, wants to possess it. Tell him no!!!" She pleaded. "Please"

So I screamed, "I don't want you to possess me. Go use someone else. Don't use my body! Don't!" After a while, I stopped coughing and we cleaned up the sheets. I was already exhausted when we heard a sound from the hall where the party with other students were going on: " It's almost time for everyone of us to showcase our abilities and have fun!"

So, Miranda and I, hand in hand ran back to the hall, passing the back route , the same place from which we sneaked out of the party.

We took a seat at the rear of the hall and she massaged my wrist while I just breathed in and out. Her face was pale, and it looked like she was thinking about something. "Are you scared?" I asked her.

"No..I'm just worried about you. You must feel really miserable for seeing something we don't see. You're really special. I'm sure nobody here can see him" she shook her head and I just fell silent. She stared at me for a response

"Yeah I can't explain the way I'm feeling right now" I finally said. "But I'll be fine"

"But why are you making your head stiff though? You're not moving it.. is it stiff?"

"No it's fine, I just don't wanna look around...you know what I'm saying?" I didn't want to catch a glimpse of the spooky figure anymore

"The way you're feeling now is the same way I felt when my father died.. He hit his head on a rock while on a tour out with his colleagues and had it smashed. He didn't survive it. When he was being buried, I didn't look. I miss him so much", she said, wiping her eyelids which were already wet with the tears she had shed back in the cabin. Her make-up was ruined, but she seemed not to care.

"I'm sorry" I said.

"It's okay. At least I found someone I can talk to, someone who feels as bad as I do..you feel me? I'm not rejoicing in your situation but I'm just glad I found you..you know.. someone who gets me, okay?" she said.

I just nodded and rubbed her shoulder without saying a word, because I hadn't recovered from the previous incident. I was still pacifying her while she rubbed my wrist when Uncle Robinson walked towards me and sat beside me. I didn't hear his footsteps and I wasn't looking until he was right beside me. He looked like he had been very busy and only spared a little time to come over to my side because he was impatient.

"Ariana, you need to be careful" he said sternly. He bore his eyes into mine and said, "Okay?"

"Okay??" I didn't understand what he meant. How else could I be careful or how much care would let this people be unable to harm me on the long run?

"Tonight I don't want you to tell anyone of your powers. Let this be between you, Miranda and I" He said, looking from me to Miranda. Miranda looked away just then. She had never liked Uncle Robinson. As a matter of fact, she didn't like anyone in the camp actually, except me of course. She must have been really having a tough life because she hated her mother too.

The person she found the worst was Aunty Amanda. Aunty Amanda was a silent devil.

"I shouldn't tell them?" I asked. I wondered why he wanted me to hide my powers. I mean, I didn't like to talk about it too but why was he so keen about it and taking it so seriously?

Was he trying to protect me from these people? If he thought I could get to harm, then he should not have brought me to the camp in the first place. Right?

"No, don't tell them. I trust Miranda will not tell anyone as well" He looked at her again. I was sure that was a question begging to be answered by Miranda herself but she wasn't even looking at us.

"What if I'm summoned to the stage? I mean, what if it's my turn to showcase...

"Don't leave your seat. I'll make an excuse for you. Or if I don't, then go to the front, take the microphone and stammer, or tell them straight up that you have tried finding out but you do not know yet. There are many ways to it. Make sure while you're talking, you're not imagining your powers because they can read your mind. Most of them" he blurted out and stood up immediately. "I have something to attend to" he added, and disappeared into the crowd.

Honestly it was really hard to not imagine. To not think about something.

Imagine someone telling you "Hey, I want you to do something right now. Tell me five things you think about chocolate but while mentioning them, don't think about chocolate" or "Tell us what happened last night at your hangover without thinking about it"

Isn't that like the hardest thing to do?