Chapter 11 - Shadows and light
The evening campfire burned brightly, adding the fiery heat to an already sweltering night. The large bonfire burned, crackling away, as the whole camp sang along to the cheesiest, yet well loved camping songs that echoed over the lake.
Mandy was in the crowd, but seemed like she was not to into any of the songs that boomed out from her fellow campers. She looked over at CC, who was actually going along and singing with the others, but even the sight of her girl did not lighten her mood. She just was not into any of this.
She had avoided Donna for the most part, as the girl was too occupied by the tall yet very striking looking boy named Barry. Mandy had seen them more than once, hunkered behind a building or just hidden by a bus, kissing away like crazy like they were attached to one another. The lad was not too bad to look at, he was a seriously a good looking lad as Donna had stated, but Mandy was not into meeting this Kirk person Donna had told her about.
CC was just logical about it when Mandy had explained the situation to her. She kept saying that she could meet him, and just say that he was not her type or something like that. Knowing Donna, that would not be enough, but she was hoping to slip back to the cabin and just avoid it.
The campfire soon broke up and campers went back to each one’s cabins for bed. CC and Mandy hurried off towards their far flung cabin, still feeling the heaviness of the night’s heat.
" Did ya see Donna?" Asked CC.
" Never saw her at the fire..." She said, obviously relived. " It seems like she snuck out on supper as well..."
" She’s suckin’ face with that boy probably somewhere in this darkness." Giggled the goth girl. " She probably has long forgotten her little ‘set up’ for you, when that dude started to try and take out her tonsils with his tongue." She smirked and whispered with a impish tone. " I sort of do the same, kissing you."
Mandy laughed at the girl’s rather crud observation of the situation, and at the little admission she made for themselves...as CC thoughts were probably the exact reason for Donna’s absence this night. She began to feel a little more relaxed, Thankful for not having to brush off this boy like she had to. She did not want to hurt anybody’s feelings in any way... but the way she felt and all made her know that was more than likely would have happened in the end.
When they neared the cabin, Mandy spotted something laying just in a grassy area next to a crop of trees. She was unsure of just what it was, but she knew that something was there, and had not been there before.
Mandy tried to look at whatever it was in the grass, the darkness making it rather hard to actually identify what was laying there. She stopped walking to look at it a little more from the distance she was at, but when she did drew a sideways look from a curious CC.
" What the hell?" The girl asked, seeing Mandy stopped like this. " Why did you stop?"
" Look over there... next to the trees..." Mandy said. " There is something laying over there."
" What?" CC said, looking through the darkness. " I don’t see a damned thing."
" Beside those trees..." Mandy said, trying to explain where she was looking.
With CC still unable to see what it was the girl was pointing out, Mandy hurried over to the object as she thought it looked more than familiar. CC watched, still seemingly a little perplexed at what the shorter girl was seeing.
Mandy Got real close to the object, then she realized what she had stumbled upon.. something more horrible than she ever had seen in her short life.
" Oh my god!!" She spat, actually screaming the words..
Laying int the bushes was a bloody and battered form. She saw it was Donna laying there half naked, clad only in her tank top. The missing shorts and underwear lay tattered and ripped a few yard away. Blood heavily coated her the white skin of her inner thighs, and big blotchy marks covered her face, neck and stomach.
" CC... Get Miss Olivia!! Get anyone!!" She said, falling to her knees beside the groaning form that writhed in obvious pain. " It’s Donna!!"
" Jesus fucking Christ!!" Said CC, realizing the gravity of the situation as she spun on her heels and was off..
As CC raced off back up the trail to the administration building, Mandy tried to comfort the girl, who was breathing very oddly, her eyes filled with fear.
" Help is coming..." She whispered, stroking her blood covered hair in an attempt to comfort the girl.
" B...Barry... girl..." She moaned, a trickle of blood flowing out of the corner of her mouth.
" Easy there... we are going to get help!" Mandy said, noting the girl’s words as she tried to settle the girl.
Mandy watched as the girl lapsed quickly in to unconsciousness, and fear began to grip her. As She wondered what was taking so long to get help, she started to hear the running of many feet and the din of many voices hurrying down the path, but all she could while waiting for the last few moments was to cradle the girl’s head in her lap.
******
It was very late in the evening, everyone in Cabin Five was awake. Each one seemed to be staring at the empty bed that was Donna’s. Even the normally irritating Tracy was silenced.
" She was raped?" Said Mary with a very soft tone, seemingly in near tears.
" Are they sure of anything? Who would do this?" Asked Tracy, looking right at the councilor.
The woman nodded her head, her eyes showing her own disbelief at what had happened only hours ago.
" It is clear that she was raped and beaten up pretty badly, girls... She was taken to the city’s hospital by MedicVac flight..." Said Miss Olivia, standing there in the dead silence of the cabin. " The Local police are her in Camp and are already investigating right now the boy named Barry who was the last one to be seen with her.."
" Did he do that?" Lori surprisingly spoke up, her shyness probably overshadowed by her intense fear.
Miss Olivia looked at the frightened girl and took a long breath in. She stood there and looked at ever face that was on her.
" We are not sure of anything right now..." She said, seeing the distress that this was putting on everyone. " All that we know is that Barry Windam was the last person seen with her, just after supper tonight... that was all we could venture to know right at this moment. The officers are checking everything out and hopefully will get answers fast."
Lori nodded and went quiet again, the answer she had gotten obviously did not make her, or anyone else in the cabin, feel better. It was the fear of the unknown factor of this, that each were struggling with at the moment. No one felt safe right at the moment.
CC stood up and started to walked off.
" I’ll be back in a few minutes, Miss Olivia.." She said, her voice tight. " I need some air."
" Take Mandy...." Said Miss Olivia. " No one is allowed out there to be alone until the Police have the time they need to figure out of this stuff here... that is not a suggestion girls, it is straight from the administration.."
Mandy hurried with the tall girl, as CC only paused long enough for her to catch up. The two left the cabin, and headed for their little hidden smoking area with a quickened step.
The two stood there, smoking away faster than usual. CC seemed more than a little disturbed with the events of the night. Mandy seemed to be as well, but her concerns were with the very upset girl next to her.
" I cant believe someone raped Donna..." CC said, trembling a little bit. " Jesus... first my ex shows up, then this... man, this is all so fucked up!"
" I know..." Mandy said, leaning into the girl. " There is talk about cancelling the rest of the Camp time and sending all of us home."
" I heard the rumor also..."CC said, after taking a pull from her smoke. " That is just as fucked."
" What if they decide to actually cancel the rest of Camp just like that?" Posed Mandy.
" Right now... let’s just not think about it." Suggested CC. " Noting has been settled on... we have no power to change it if it does happen."
Mandy could not dispute how CC was feeling or the insight brought forth, as she herself also had the same exact feelings. She took a puff and looked at the girl. CC leaned in and kissed the shorter girl on the cheek, then snuck on right on the lips. Mandy sighed and kissed back, as that single action made her feel better.
A movement from the darkness made the two girl look over, a little surprised. A figure stood there, looking at them both.
Raven stood there in the darkness, lit by the moon overhead. Her eyes were piercingly dark, as she stared at them
" I see you have found another girl, CC." She said, dripping with indignance. " Hope she is looking for a frigid bitch."
" I told you that I was not ready yet..." Said CC, her eyes turning into anger. " And you were the one who cheated on me when I asked to wait."
" Wait for what? For you to actually show me what you were feeling for me? I give you two weeks, and you simply were not at al showing me anything" She spat back. " Was I suppose to do? Buy a dildo and entertain myself while I waited around for your ass to be ready?"
Mandy felt her anger getting up, and turned to face the girl that stood there.
" She wanted to wait because she was not ready for a step like that." She said, defending her girlfriend.
" Oh, ho... it speaks!" Said Raven. " The virginal doll doth speak."
" Hey... shut the hell up!" Jumped in CC, her one anger now very much out.
" Have you given her the cold shoulder yet?" Raven smugly shot, glaring at CC. " Is she going to have to wait until your lesbian virgin ass is ready as well... "
CC looked right at the girl and gave a large grin, but said nothing. Raven stared at the goth girl’s face then got a very disgusted look on her face.
" You already have done it with this little doll of a girl... haven’t you?" She almost growled.
" If it is any business of yours...Yes.. we have!" Mandy piped up with a smirk of her own. " we were each other’s first!"
Raven stormed right up to Mandy first. The girl with the piercing eyes stood nose to nose with Mandy, as CC tried to push the two apart.
" What did you have to do to that tall dyke? Get her drunk? High? She could have had me, but she gave it to you?" She questioned with a huff. " What is it about you, that made her give it up to you? She could of had me!"
" Because I’m not a slut!" Plainly said Mandy, a grin flashing to the girl. " I see her for her.. and she is a kind and good person...In short, I have fallen in love with her for exactly who she is!"
Mandy’s words were cut off by a sudden flurry of lobbing punches from Raven. One actually caught Mandy on the side of the head and she spun to the left but she stayed on her feet. The short girl whirled around with anger flaring, ready to launch herself at her attacker, CC had already stepped in between them both and violently had shoved Raven away.
" Fucking cool it!" She shouted, giving the girl a second harder shove that took the girl off her feet. " Don’t fuckin’ hit my girl, ever!!"
Raven fell back on the grass unceremoniously, and just stayed there for a moment and glared up at the two.
" Fuckin’ tease of a bitch!" She hissed, dripping with hatred that was directed straight at the goth girl. " Your getting what you wanted... a little doll rather than someone who could have taught you so many things?"
" You should know about ‘Bitches’.. " Shot back CC. " That ’doll’ is a doll, because she loves me, not for what I can do for her or her for me."
The girl glared at CC, seeing her looming over her with her fists at the ready.
" What are you gonna do? Beat me up now?" Said Raven, scrambling back to her feet. " Come on then... we settle it right now, you Bitch!"
" I should deck you for what you did to me, and to Mandy..." Warned CC, her fists clenched if the girl was going to get physical again. " I am seeing that your not worth the trouble of bruising my hands."
The girl stood there, weighing her options. She started to back off, seeing that more brawling would not be a good option. She started to slink back into the darkness, her voice came out one last time as she vanished.
" You’ll be sorry for ever giving it up to that little cunt... you’ll see..." She spat with such venom. " You’ll end up regretting never doing it with me! You were suppose to be mine!"
Mandy looked at CC, as the girl finally was gone.
" What do you think she meant by that?"
" I am not sure...." The goth girl said, as she lovingly touched the red mark on her Girlfriend’s face. " She’s not the girl I had fell for.. or the one I thought she was either."
" You said that she could do nothing..."
" I really don’t know what, if anything she is planning..." CC said, taking Mandy’s hand in her’s. " All I can say is that it don’t change a thing between us."
" She thinks that she owns you.." Pointed out Mandy.
" I own me..." Said CC, seemingly calming down just a little bit. " You love me.. there is a difference."
" I know..." Mandy whispered, melting int CC lean frame. " But I am afraid of what she could do to you..."
" She can’t do anything to me.. she already hurt me.. and you..." Whispered back the tall girl, pulling Mandy into herself. " Can’t hurt what has been destroyed."
The two embraced and kissed, listening to the silence of the Camp around them. They were both worried about the state of the camp with what had happened, and slightly fearful of the hollow styled threats made by Raven, but they were somewhat optimistic. They had each other right now.. for the time being, that was good enough.