Camp Camp GC Fic

The Ritual

He went back down. His body was screaming. His calves ached, his fingers were lacerated, the skin where the rock had touched was peeling. Every nerve in his brain was telling him to stop and take a break,  but he wouldn't. The quicker he got back, the quicker Nikki would return. 

The sun was rising when he returned. He was tripping over his own legs by the time he was on leveled land again. 

His eyes could barely stay open. His eyelids were heavy and hurt; they were aching to close. But he stumbled over to the dining hall and pushed open the doors exhaustedly.

The hall turned silent, heads turned to him. 

He couldn't register this, though. His eyes caught the QM and Harrison, and he started walking again, but couldn't.

He collapsed and fell into a deep sleep.

His body felt light. His head was spinning, yet at peace. He looked around. He was in a field. The breeze blew cold across his face, and he realized where he was.

Woodstock! When they were 13, David took them all on a bus trip down to the Shakespeare festival in the park in Woodstock. It was where he and Nikki had first held hands.

The memory filled him with deep nostalgia and deep sadness. These memories of her... they hurt. They hurt him so bad, even in this slight dream sequence he recognized.

And then, a bustling sound in the grass. 

A beautiful, tall, teal-haired girl appeared before him. Like an apparition would, her face rocked his mind egregiously. Her smile was lovely as ever. Every detail on her was correct. The freckle on the left side of her nose, the chipped front tooth from her first year on varsity volleyball, and everything else, so, so perfect. She was delightful.

But Max was afraid. She didn't speak. She just smiled at him and let the wind blow her hair around wildly. 

He just stared. He was too afraid to initiate the conversation. Was this what it was going to be like? When she was back? Just silence, staring, fear? 

No. The real Nikki would be talking immediately. She would never shut up. Loud-mouthed bitch.

"Max," someone said loudly. Max's vision was fuzzed. Where was he? Where was Nikki? A hand waved over his half open eyes. "Max."

"Huh?" Max muttered, rubbing his eyes.

"Passed out, bud," Gwen pat his head and helped him sit up. She handed him a cup of water. "Drink up."

Max downed the water and saw his hands were all bandaged up. The QM was no where to be found. It was just him and his mom.

"What were you thinking climbing the mountain alone, huh? Pretty fuckin' dangerous," she said softly, with a slight chuckle. 

He shook his head and rubbed his neck. His entire body still ached and burned like fire. Fire. He pat his pocket to check that the rock was still there.

"Fuck!" Max exclaimed as he felt the empty pocket. He tried to stand up, but Gwen put her hands on his shoulders and shushed him.

"Chill out, dude," she said. "Sit back down, you're dehydrated."

"Where's dad?" He asked.

"With Eva and the arts and crafts campers," she said with a soothing nod. 

He looked around and breathed in heavily. "Um... have you seen quartermaster? I wanted to ask him about... um..."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and scooted closer to him. "Harrison told me about it. The ritual?"

Max nodded slowly.

"Max, kid, you know that... you know that it won't work, right?" 

His heart dropped. Something in him went cold, but he shook his head fiercely. "It worked with Harrison's brother."

"His brother was always going to come back eventually, he had disappeared," she said and began rubbing his back. "You were doing so well, please don't let this set you back. You were doing so well, Max."

He tore his body away from her and tutted. "She's coming back. Just need to do the ritual." He stood up again and she grabbed his shirt.

"Please, Max. We could-"

"No! Fuck you, Gwen. She's coming back," Max said and threw up his middle finger quickly before running out.

Gwen sat, silent and perplexed. He hadn't called her Gwen in over a year and a half, maybe. Not even when he was mad. And now...

Fucking Quartermaster, she thought. Fucking Harrison, stupid magic freak.

Her son was not being set back ten months because of a stupid magic trick that creepy old Quartmaster had come up with. Fuck that. Fuck that! She worked too fucking hard for this shit to happen. She was a mother to a two year old and almost nineteen year old, and this was not about to make her bend over backwards even more than she already did. Fuck. That. 

She understood the grief. She understood the delusion. She had felt it in that dreadful September after the accident. But no. She had set aside her own horror at the tragic situation to be there for her child. And she was lazy in every way possible. So, keeping Max happy and healthy and in fucking therapy was all preventative.

And then, these idiots tell him they're going to bring her back to life and make him climb a fucking volcano, leaving him near dead and all scraped up... what kind of sick joke were they trying to make?

-

Max raced through camp to the area where the bonfires were held, and he saw Quartermaster holding the lava rock, thankfully. Max had really thought he lost it. Harrison was staring at an open book on his lap, his mouth moving silently at a fast pace. QM was seemingly admiring the rock, inspecting it, even. The fire was lit, body not in sight. Max had already given the necklace to QM in a cardboard box.

"Max!" Harrison said, and slammed the book closed. "I have been practicing the spell. It should work perfectly!"

Max nodded. His world was still spinning. He couldn't get dream Nikki out of his head, or Gwen's words out of his head.  His head felt cloudy. Like he was floating through water. Like he was going insane. 

It was already past noon, he could tell. He had been knocked out for hours, then. He wanted to sleep more, but knew he couldn't even if he tried. Nikki.

Nikki. Nikki. Nikki. Nikki would be back in a matter of moments.

She would be standing in front of him once again. The most beautiful person he would ever know would finally come back to him. Finally. After all this time. 

"Ready?" Harrison said, startling Max by putting a hand on his shoulder.

Max whipped his head towards him. He found he couldn't speak, so he nodded. He felt tears pinch the corners of his eyes, and he blinked them back. Harrison led him towards the bonfire.

Harrison must have sensed his anxiety, so he patted Max's back and said, "Go sit down. You don't need to watch."

Max nodded again, and sat down on a log. He knew that she would be alive in a few seconds, but seeing her body would be too much. The image still haunted him, even if he had only seen it briefly. He let his head sink into his hands. His stomach was full of butterflies- anxiousness, anticipation, love? Maybe.

Max heard the Quartermaster say something in latin. His baritone voice boomed. Then, Harrison spoke in more latin. This time, the speech lasting more than twenty seconds. As he spoke, Max felt the wind pick up, the temperature in the air rise unnaturally quick, and his forehead broke into a sweat. When Harrison stopped speaking, the temperature dropped again, and even though it was still warm as it was before, it felt freezing. Like the city in a February. And the wind stopped abruptly as well.

"What the fuck?!" 

Max's head snapped up and he saw her. 

Horrified. Terrorized.  Panicked. Ill. Her eyes crawled up and down her body, then met Max's eyes.