Campfire Tales: A Horror Anthology

In The Pines

At the beginning of camp you have to pick someone to be your buddy, for the buddy system, which is very important for safety. The counselors had said to make sure you picked someone you can get along with. You can't switch, and you don't want them to ditch you.

Nestor had not chosen well.

Elias was horrible. They shared a birthday, so they at least didn't have the conflict of an age gap, but the difference of personality was enough. Nestor didn't talk often, didn't smile often, (when he did it was a grim type of satisfaction that made people want to lean away from him), he was serious, and goal oriented. The people he had actually become friends with were all in a contest to see who could gain the most camp activity certificates by the end of the summer.

Elias was loud, insufferably so. All the time. It didn't matter how politely you asked him, he never shut up. Nestor didn't have a lot of patience for irritation in the first place. Elias was clumsy and oblivious, and because of this had nearly gotten Nestor killed more than once, and didn't bother to help him when he did. He was annoying, he was rude, irresponsible and obnoxious, he got them both into trouble and expected Nestor to fix it.

Needless to say, Nestor's patience had really run out

"Hey Nestor." Camp Counselor Bethany said as he walked into the main hall. She and Camp Counselor Alex handled the certification challenges. Nestor, Vernon, and Pepper were in here pretty often. "Got something else you wanna apply for? Not gonna lie, your interdimensional hiking was pretty impressive."

"I want to apply for a buddy hike." He said. Bethany gave him the buddy hike sheet. You had to sign in and out for these, because you would be going on the trails with your camp buddy by yourselves. He put his and Elias' names down along with the trail number and time of departure, and she handed him a pair of red passes on lanyards.

Bethany rested her elbows on the desk and asked, "So what certificate do you wanna shoot for this time?"

He didn't even have to glance at the laminated list on the wall next to Bethany. "Violent Revenge."

Bethany raised her eyebrows and smiled. She had large canines. Not many campers went for violent revenge, but it warmed her heart when they did. It proved they were making real memories at camp. Plus, she liked Nestor. He was an interesting kid.

She gave him the certificate to sign and look over the rules, "Does it have anything to do with your hike today? Do you and your buddy not like someone?"

"Maybe." Nestor said, not looking at her as he glanced over the paper, signed it in pen, and handed it back.

Bethany giggled, "Alright ya little scamp, be mysterious. Come back with proof of your revenge and I'll give you your medal and put this with your other certificates."

Nestor exited the building, stopping to blink in the sunlight.

"Did'ya sign us out or what?" Elias asked. Nestor held up the red passes. "Cool." Elias picked up his own hiking pack and gear, and left Nestor's on the ground where it had been waiting for him. "Let's go already, I wanna get this over with, dinner is supposed to be good today."

Nestor silently picked up his pack and followed behind.

Elias didn't even give Nestor the grace of listening to the songbirds. He just kept talking. "I have no idea why you like to hike so much, it's god awful. Don't you get tired all the time?"

"No, I'm used to it." Nestor said, his gaze still fixed at the point between Elias' shoulderblades as he got his words in edgewise.

"Ugh, I don't know how." He said, "This trail is too uphill, why did you pick it?" Nestor opened his mouth, but Elias kept talking, "Doesn't matter. I just wanna get it over with. I only came because you get in trouble for doing it by yourself so much and you'd probably whine. Did you bring any bug spray? This is so annoying."

"No." Nestor said. He didn't mention that they were both supposed to carry their own bug spray. His grey eyes were admirably focused.

"What kind of idiot doesn't bring bug spray on a hike? If you go all the time why don't you bring the crap you need? I should've just let you go on your own again so Eret would finally chew you out, that would be funny. They like you way too much, you never get in trouble with them." Elias. Just. Kept. Talking. Nestor very calmly started counting his footsteps, waiting until the end of the trail.

"And it's not even like you're super nice or funny, man, I'm not gonna lie, okay? I'm just mentioning this cause I'm not sure you know, but everybody thinks you're kinda creepy. You're so quiet and you never talk or smile or laugh and it just puts people off, you'd probably have more friends if you didn't act so weird-"

"We're here." Nestor said suddenly, stopping.

Elias let out a tired, overdrawn groan, "Finally." He dumped his bag in the dirt. There was a resting spot at the end of this trail, and it was uphill most of the way because they were getting into the mountains. Not a lot of people went up this trail for that reason. In fact, practically nobody did, which made the trail a little rougher, but Nestor was a very experienced hiker, and wasn't even winded.

Elias started digging through his bag. At the beginning of camp, along with their assigned cabins, the campers were given uniforms and gear, both for hiking and camping, consisting of two backpacks with their survival supplies and a tent between them and their buddy.

Some items of gear would be reissued if you lost them, but the larger or harder to lose pieces wouldn't. One of those was the survival blade. It wasn't a pocket knife, or a hunting knife, it was a dagger. A simple, silver blade and handle, almost as wide as Nestor's hand, and a few inches longer.

Nestor's was in his hand. Elias was still crouched, digging in his pack. Nestor dropped his own into the dirt, sheathed dagger held loosely in his fingers. He unbuttoned and removed the holster, staring at the point between Elias' shoulderblades the entire time.

"Hey, Elias."

He turned around and saw Nestor, survival blade raised.

Nestor was a lot stronger and faster than he looked, and though he was smaller than Elias, his regular exercise and ice cold hatred gave him the upper hand as he made and almost hacking motion with the dagger. Nestor didn't stab, he just hacked with the side of the blade, like it was an axe.

A few minutes later, Nestor put the survival blade down on a rock, and went behind one of the trees, where he had propped up a shovel last night. The blood made his hands slippery, but he was still in a good mood. Whistling the tune of a campfire song he half-remembered, Nestor began to dig.

Bethany heard the door to the main hall open, and after nobody made themself heard after a second, she finally looked up. Nestor was standing in the middle of the room, bloody up to almost the elbows, survival blade in one hand and his buddy's hiking bag, but no buddy. There was a lot of fresh dirt on his shoes.

She grinned, and drummed her hands on the wood in front of her, "I'll go get your medal. Put the bag on the desk." She and Alex had a bet going on who would kill somebody first, Nestor or Vernon, and she had just won. Vernon really didn't have it in him, but Alex didn't want to believe it.

Nestor took the medal in his bloody fingers, and gave her a smile.