Chapter 7
I woke up to a thud on the window. I glanced at my phone to check the time, it was almost 1. "Shit! Duncan." I threw my pillow on the ground and jumped on it. "Whose there?" I turned around and saw that Heather was awake. "Relax it's just me." "Where are you going? It's 1 in the morning." "I can't sleep so, I'm gonna take a walk." She layed back down, I grabbed my coat, backpack, flashlight and left.
I walked over to the table and saw Duncan was waiting for me irritably. He got up and headed towards the woods. I ran after him and walked with him silently. When we got to the cave, my phone beeped. "Shit the camera!" I thought. I turned off the sound real quick. "What was that?" "Sorry, I forgot my sound was on." He rolled his eyes and entered the cave. I followed quickly behind him and flashed my light on the walls. "Duncan?" I turned around and saw that he's already turned the corner. "Duncan!" He was ignoring me, "Great, the guy that I've trusted to bring me in the woods at night is now ignoring me." I rolled my eyes and continued to look at the walls. I shined my light all around the cave.
CRASH! I turned around to see where the noise came from. CRASH! It came from where Duncan was. "Duncan?! Duncan are you ok?!" I ran around the corner and saw that he got the door opened. I ran through the door and down the stairs. "Duncan? Duncan are you in here?" I shined my flashlight and looked around. I could hear something coming from the left. "Duncan?" I jogged left and saw Duncan laying on the ground with a bunch of boxes and stuff on top of him. "Duncan!" I ran over to him and knelt down. I started taking boxes and stuff off of him. We heard something from inside the cave, I was just finishing up getting the last of the extra stuff off him when someone closed the cave door. I looked up and saw a shadow coming down the stairs. I helped Duncan up and looked around for somewhere to hide.
I pushed him off to the side and covered him up with some stuff I found. "Stay here and stay quiet I'll be back." I ran over to the stairs and looked up. Whoever it was, is gone now. I looked around to make sure that they were, in fact, gone. I went back over to Duncan and uncovered him. I grabbed his arm and walked up the stairs. I set him down and tried the door. "It won't budge" I looked around for another exit. "You're the one that found the cave and got the door opened. Did you find any other exit?" He just looked up at me and looked away. I rolled my eyes and tried the door again. I remembered about the camera and checked my phone. I watched as someone walked into the cave just after I ran to find Duncan. They looked awfully familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on who they were. They looked around then walked over to the door, walked through, left, and closed the door. (I was able to sneak a camera inside the cave.) I looked around behind us and decided that I should set up some cameras in here too. "That's a plan for another day" Duncan looked up at me and cocked an eyebrow. I walked down the stairs and started to look around to see if there was any other exit. After 30-40 minutes I returned to Duncan. "Well, looks like we're stuck here all night." I plopped down across from him, "You ever gonna talk to me again?" He looked over at me and I finally got a good look at his face. He was cut and bleeding. "Oh my god Duncan! What happened?" He looked away and I crawled over to him. "Duncan, look at me." He closed his eyes and turned his head further away from me.
"Duncan, please. If you're mad that I was late, I'm sorry I fell asleep and didn't realize what time it was." I looked at him and saw that he started to bleed more. I took my backpack off and got out my first aid kit. He kept squirming away from me, finally I pinned him down and started to wipe the blood off. "Duncan, stop squirming and let me help." He finally stopped squirming and gave in. I finished cleaning up the blood and put some bandages on. I wiped up his hands and got up. I threw out the used gauges. He looked over at me and sighed "Clover?" I refused to look over at him. "Clover listen, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stormed off like that" I sighed heavily and made sure to keep all eye contact with him at zero. He sighed and came to sit next to me. He grabbed my hand and I pulled it away. He grabbed my hand again and this time, he held it tighter. "Sorry Clover. Really, I am. But, there's something I've been meaning to do." He pulled me to my feet and pushed me up against the door. His eyes were locked onto mine, slowly, he leaned in. His lips met mine, at first it was slow but, it quickly escalated. His lips were soft and warm. I didn't want to continue the kiss but, I couldn't bring myself to pull away or stop it. The next thing I knew was that he was moving to the ground and pulling me with him. Not breaking the kiss. I ended up on the floor on my back, and he was on top of me. We were still in a very passionate kiss. His hands started to caress my face and body. He slowly moved up to my hair and pulled it a little bit. I felt his hands move off of me, and while not breaking the kiss he started to take his shirt off. That was it. I kneed him in the nuts and he fell to the side.
"What the hell!?" I asked, wiping my mouth.
"Well,I told you I've been wanting to do that." He responded.
"For how long?"
"Since we met." He rubbed the back of his neck, got up and walked away.
I looked up and looked in the direction he went. I closed my eyes and decided to try to get some sleep. I was woken up by something that sounded like a rock being thrown. I looked across to see if Duncan was back, he wasn't. I got up and walked to the back of the cave room. I looked around and saw Duncan laying asleep in a corner. I smirked and went to pick him up. I got him back over to the stairs, I set him down on the platform and sat next to him. I laid my head on his shoulder and slowly fell back asleep.
When I woke up the next morning I was laying down with my head on Duncan's chest. I sat up quickly and looked down at him "Good, he's still asleep." I got up and looked around, I saw some light coming from the top of the cave. I couldn't believe that I stayed in that cave all night with Duncan. I was walking around the back side of the cave when I heard a scream. "Duncan!!" I ran back to the stairs. "Duncan! Duncan are you ok?" He stopped screaming by the time I got up to the platform. "Duncan?" He looked up at me and frowned. "Duncan, are you ok?" "Y-yea. Where are we?" "We're still in the cave. We got locked in, so we had to stay the night." He looked around and that's when we heard Chris' megaphone. We exchanged glances and started to yell for help. "Campers! You're probably wondering why 4 of your fellow campers are missing" "4?" "Well, late last night, two of your fellow campers decided to wonder off. So, I took that as an opportunity for a challenge! The challenge for today is to find your teammates! Each team has been given a set of clues to help find them! Good Luck!" "Wait- Wait- Wait. The challenge is to find us and 2 others?" I looked over at Duncan and I could tell that he was as shocked as I was.
I checked the cameras surveillance from last night. I still couldn't recognize who it was that locked us in the cave. I zoomed in and enhanced the video. "Got it!" Duncan looked at me and cocked his eyebrow. I looked at him and smiled awkwardly. "I set cameras up because I was curious of who keeps going in here. Whoever came in last night is on video. Look" He looked down at my phone then back at me. "When did you do that?" "Remember when Owen wanted to hang out with you yesterday?" He nodded. "Well, I told him that I had a surprise for you and that I needed him to keep you distracted for a while so I could get it set up." "And this was it? Getting us locked in a cave to test out your stupid cameras?" "No. I needed to get the map to the cave, so I could get the cameras set up. And to be fair. The whole 'coming to the cave and exploring' was your idea." He looked at me and frowned. "Look, I didn't mean for us to get locked in here and I also didn't mean for it to become todays challenge. But I was just trying to help you out with your stupid theory of this cave!" I got up and left. I walked to where I found Duncan asleep the night before. I punched the wall, then slid down the wall and sat down. I put my head in my lap and tried not to cry. I could hear people running past us outside and talking. It was almost sundown by the time I finally went back to Duncan. When I got to the platform I saw that he was asleep. Once again I sat down across from him and put my head on the railing. I sighed heavily and closed my eyes.
I'm not sure what time it was when they finally found us. Gwen came over to me and shook me awake. "Clover, Clover. Hey. Wake up." I slowly woke up and saw that the whole team was there. I got up and hugged Gwen. "Thank you." I looked at Duncan and kicked his leg, "Wake up." He woke up in shock and looked around. "Come on. The team found us, time to leave this bloody place." He got up and walked out, the team and I followed. "So, how was your night with Duncan?" I glared at Bridgette and sighed. "I mean, it started out rough because we had this stupid argument. But I guess it ended on a good note. Not sure though" "Why not?" "I don't know. It was just a weird night.. we kissed too." "You kissed!?" "Yeah, it was weird. But, I kind of liked it." I looked ahead and saw that Duncan was much further than the rest of us. "What's his deal?" I looked over at Heather, "He mad 'cause he didn't get any? Or is he mad 'cause we interrupted?" She smirked. "What are you talking about? Interrupted what?" She got out her phone and showed me a picture of Duncan and I. I looked up at her then looked at Gwen and Bridgette. "Girl, you have got to be embarrassed by that." I looked back and saw Leshawna. "Wait, so you're telling me that when you guys walked in you saw us laying like that?! And let Heather take a picture?" "Well, we didn't let the white girl take a picture. She just took it." Heather started to walk faster, and that's when all the anger that I had built up came out. "Heather!!!! You stupid Bitch get over here!" She started to run and I chased after her. We got caught up with Duncan when I finally tackled her. I started swinging, she started screaming and trying to block her face. Gwen, Bridgette, and Leshawna tried to pull me off her, but failed. It took Trent, Geoff and Owen to get me off her. By the time they finally got me up, her face was all bloody and her clothes were ripped. "Delete the picture. NOW!" She looked at me in shock, along with everyone else, I looked around and saw that even Duncan was in shock. I looked down at my hands then at Heather. I stood up and ran away. I wasn't sure where I was going but, I didn't want to stay there. I passed the camp and saw that we had lost, "Oh well. I'll probably be voted off anyway" I shrugged and went to a little forest by the docks. I was trying to figure out why I just did what I did. I could hear the others back at the camp. I finally stopped and sat against a tree. I leaned my head back and let my emotions flow out. I was there until sundown, I decided that, since I was going to be voted off anyway, there was no point in going back to the camp and joining the rest with the camp fire. My mind wandered to what had just happened. Over the years I was taking anger management classes, and I guess I let myself forget everything I was taught.
"You know, I think I'm gonna start calling you Phantom." I turned my head and saw Duncan. "How'd you find me? Wait. Why Phantom?" "Because you're always disappearing. But anyway, I kinda figured that you would find comfort in either a forest or at the dock. And then I saw this forest by the dock and I thought maybe you'd be here." I turned my head so I was facing forward. He walked towards me, "Clover, what you did was kinda wrong. I mean it was pretty cool, but it was wrong. I think." We stayed there in silence. "You know, this silence between us isn't even awkward anymore. It feels normal now." He laughed. I smiled and turned to face him. I stood up and walked over to him. "It's kinda cold out here. And theres a nice warm fire back at camp." I looked at him with bugged eyes. "Heathers fine. She changed and got cleaned up, Gwen told Chef that she fell down a hill. You'll be ok to come back." He grabbed my wrist and lead me to the camp. When we got there I was shocked to see the team happy to see me. I sat down in between Gwen and Bridgette. "OK Campers! Unfortunately you have lost this challenge. I have 10 marshmallows on this plate, whoever doesn't get a marshmallow has to take the dock of shame onto the loser boat! When I call your name come get your marshmallow! Leshawna! Gwen! Bridgette! Geoff! Trent! Owen! Lindsay! Duncan!" The finally three were Heather Noah and me. "Heather!" When she sat back down she gave me her 'evil eye'. There was so much tension that I could practically touch it. "And the final marshmallow goes to... Clover!" I was in shock. "Wait. I lost? You guys will regret this!" I got my marshmallow and as Noah passed me I said "Well, maybe if you were a better Cheerleader you'd still be here" I smirked and walked back to the fire. We were dismissed and headed back to the camp. After a while of hanging out and eating, Owen stunk up our cabins. We went and joined the other team at a campfire. Beth brought out a green gelatin with a gummy worm inside to Courtney, who panics and rejects the dessert. DJ asks Courtney if she's on a diet, and Courtney says that she simply does not like green jelly. Beth then brings it to DJ, who looks at the jelly and sees the gummy worm in it, then frantically knocks it out of Beth's hands, thinking the gummy worm was a snake. After Cody shows him it is just a gummy worm and tells him to relax, DJ apologizes for causing a scene, explaining that he's scared to death of snakes. We all sat around and told our greatest fears. (Stupid I know).
Tyler told us that he was scared of chickens. "What's my greatest fear?" Gwen pondered on the question before shuddering slightly. "I guess... being buried alive." Lindsay shivered. "I would never walk in a minefield in heels." None of us noticed the camera that was perched on a tree branch. "Flying man" Owen said before adding "That's some crazy stuff." Izzy chimed in "Ha I would never go in a plane. Ever." "I'm scared of hail." Geoff stated. "It's small... but deadly, dude." We stayed around judging and laughing at each other."I'm scared of being covered in bugs." I looked at Beth and shuddered. "Yea. Bugs aren't my strong suit but, I'm not scared of them." "Ninjas man." Harold said with a small amount of confidence. "What about you Heather?" Leshawna gave Heather a smug look, she hesitated to answer but finally spoke. "Sumo Wrestlers, ok? I'm scared of Sumo Wrestlers." "What about you Leshawna?" Leshawna gave Heather a look of hatred. "I hate spiders." She said with a shiver. Bridgette chimed in and said that she was scared of being alone in the woods. "Bad haircuts." Lindsay agreed with Sadie and said that bad haircuts were a lot worse than a minefield. "My greatest fear is defusing a time bomb." Cody said sheepishly. "I'm not really scared of anything." Courtney said with a smug look on her face. Everyone just kind've looked at Courtney and knew she was lying. "What about you Duncan?" I smirked and glanced over at Duncan. In a whispered voice he said "Céline Dion music store standees." I couldn't help it. I started to laugh even though I didn't hear what he said. "Wait. What?" Again in a whispered voice he said "C-Céline Dion music store standees." "The big bad Duncan is scared of a Céline Dion music store standee?" He glared at me and I lost it. "Alright Ms. Laughs a lot. What's your greatest fear?" I instantly stopped laughing and went silent. I thought about it for a minute and then spoke "You know, I'm honestly not sure. I'll have to get back at you." Trent spoke up. "Mimes. They're freaky man. With their makeup and weird box trick." He shuddered. "Courtney you have to have at least one fear." She looked at him and firmly stated "I don't have any." "Clover? Your turn come on. Spill." I thought about it for a little bit longer. "I honestly don't know." Duncan cocked an eyebrow "You're lying." I glared at him. "No really. I honestly have no clue. I've never really thought about it, I've always been adventurous so the woods don't bother me and I-" "I thought you were scared of heights." I looked up at Gwen and cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" "The first challenge. You didn't want to jump because of your fear of heights." I lowered my head. "No. It's not heights. But my fear is so stupid." I lifted my head "Honestly. It's stupider than Duncan's." "Well, we've all confessed. Now it's your turn." I looked at Courtney, "Not until Courtney confesses." She sighed. "I don't have one." "Quit lying Courtney!" She finally spoke up and confessed. "FINE! I- I don't like green Jelly." "Wait. That's your fear?" "Yes Clover. Green Jelly is my fear. Now it's your turn." I sighed heavily and spoke in a quiet voice "Water." Duncan started to laugh. "Wait. You're scared of water?" I glared at him. "Yes! Why do you think I didn't want to jump in the first challenge?"
"But, you're always at the dock."
I looked over at DJ and sighed. "I'm always at the dock because of my family."
DJ looked at me, then at Duncan as if he knew something. Duncan shrugged and Geoff spoke up. "We've all had a bad family memory dude. But it doesn't make us weak. It makes us stronger."
I looked at Geoff and shook my head. "Not mine. Mine was terrible"
It was about 10:30-11 when we all went back to our cabins and went to sleep. It seemed like we all slept fairly good, considering the fact that none of us were ready for tomorrows challenge.
"Good Morning Campers!" I woke up and walked out of the cabin. I looked around and heard a whirring sound above us. I looked up and saw Chris in a helicopter. "I hope you're all well rested and ready for some team encouragement! Today's challenge is to face your worst fears." "Face our own fears? But how could he have known about them?" I looked at Beth and sighed "They have cameras everywhere. They heard our conversations last night." I went back and got ready for the day. I finished getting ready and headed back to the mess hall. Before I got there, I saw a crowd of people around what appeared to be a chicken coop. I walked over there and Gwen stopped me. "Clover! We need your help!" She ran off and I followed her. We got to a giant wrestling ring and all I could see was a man in a diaper. I then saw Heather yelling at Chris saying that she didn't want to do this blah blah blah. "Wait is this Heather's challenge?" "Yea, and we lose a point unless she does it." I looked around to find another option or diversion. I walked over to the sumo wrestler an whispered in his ear. I walked back to Gwen "Watch this." The sumo wrestler got ready for a wrestle then spoke up. "Hey Heather! Those shorts, they make you look fat. And your makeup, it's uglier than a rats!" That did it. Heather got mad and ran towards him.
She was ready for a fight, she was no match for the wrestler. She tried so hard to win, but failed. Our team ended up getting the point anyway. "Bridgette you're next!" We got to the edge of the woods. "Ok Bridgette, for the next 6 hours, you will be in the woods... alone." She took a deep breath and slowly made her way into the woods. Chris decided to go torture the other team for a while. He made Tyler eat a chicken then stand in the middle of the chicken coop. He made Sadie and Lindsay put on bad looking wigs. He covered Beth in bugs, pelted Geoff with hail from a remote control cloud, put Gwen in a coffin and buried her. Tried to cover DJ in snakes but, he chickened. Got Izzy and Owen to ride in a rusty old plane with Chef as the pilot, made Harold fight ninjas but, he fell back in to the toilet after knocking himself out with nun chucks. Courtney had to jump into a pool of green jelly. But, she chickened out, Leshawna had to face Chef in a spider costume but, she ran away, and Duncan had to hug a Céline Dion music store standee. Of course, I was the last person who had to do a challenge.
"Ok Clover, you're the tie breaker. And your challenge is to... get. into. the. water." I hesitated for the longest time. "Just get in it already!" I shot Heather the worst glare I could come up with at the moment. Duncan pulled me aside. "Look, it's hard facing your fears. Trust me I know. And you don't have to do it if you don't want to but, I have faith in you." He looked me dead in the eyes and smiled. I took a deep breath and walked back over to Chris. "Alright. Let's do it" He got me onto a boat and took me to the middle of the ocean. "Ok. Jump in, and if you get scared just scream. I'll try to get out here as fast as possible." I looked at him with a shocked look. "Wait! You're not staying?!" He laughed. "Of course not! There are sharks out there!" "Wait- wha?" Before I could finish my sentence he pushed me in. I started to sink then, regained consciousness and swam back to the surface. I caught my breath and pushed the hair out of my face. I looked around and saw that the shore was miles away. I was having a little bit of trouble keeping myself afloat, considering that the water was really choppy. (A/N: If you don't know what 'Choppy' means according to water. It means that there's a lot of waves. A simpler definition is that the water is NOT calm). I wasn't sure how long I had to stay out in the water but, I knew that I wasn't going to like one bit of it. *From inside the confessional* "I can't believe Chris just dumped me there I mean really? Who even does that?! I mean he even frickin' knows that I'm terrified of water!" *Back in the water*
I looked around a bit more and saw something coming from the left. Not sure who or what it was but, it was coming up fast. I started to panic and looked towards the shore once again. I started to swim towards the shore as fast as I possibly could but, no matter how hard or fast I swam, it seemed like I couldn't out-swim the thing. I didn't give up though. I swam harder and faster. I kept trying to get to shore even though I knew that it was probably just Chris and Chef playing a prank. But, no matter what I was getting to that shore. It took me what felt like hours to get to shore but, I don't think it was actually that long. I finally got back to the dock and climbed up. I layed down to catch my breath, considering the fact that I just swam miles on end in choppy water, something following me, and no breaks. I was proud of myself yet terrified. Duncan ran out to the docks and knelt next to me. I was still trying to catch my breath. "Clover? What happened?" I opened my eyes then closed them again. He got me onto the beach and sat me on a beach chair. "What happened out there?" I looked over at Bridgette. "I-I saw something coming in fast towards the left of me and I panicked. I wasn't sure if it was Chef and Chris playing a prank on me or not. But, I didn't care. I swam as fast as I could to get here but, once I finally got here it left." Still catching my breath I tried to get up. I instantly fell back into the chair I sighed heavily and looked at Duncan. I tried again to get up and when Duncan tried to help I pushed his hand away. I looked over at Chris and gave him a cold glare. "If I'm ever and I mean EVER forced to go into water again, I won't hesitate to sue!" I walked back to the cabins and grabbed my bathroom bag. Duncan met up with me. "Hey, you ok?" "I'm fine Duncan. Don't worry about it." I walked into the bathroom and took a shower. When I got out, both teams were gathered around the campfire again.
I got dressed and grabbed my guitar and notebook. I passed the campfire on my way to the dock. "Clover! Clover hey! Come join us!" I payed no attention to Cody as he called out for me. I continued to the docks and looked towards where I was forced out of the boat. I took in a deep breath and smelled the air. I sat down with my feet dangling off the dock and started to strum. "I don't understand what I'm doing here. I don't know why I'm even still here. Yes, I've made friends. Yes, I believe I've fallen in love but, I don't belong here and I never did from the start." I heard a twig break from behind me and I turned around. "Duncan? Duncan is that you?" No one answered. "Whose out there?! Come on! I don't bite!" Owen emerged from the trees. "H-Hey Clover." "Oh hey Owen. I didn't realize you were out here." He walked closer to me. "I-I heard singing and I wanted to check it out." I gave him a sheepish smile. "Oh heh- thanks." "Did you write that?" "Oh! uh- Yeah- Yeah I did." He gave me a shocked look "Was that not the answer you were expecting?" He studied me before answering shyly. "Oh. Uhm n-n-not really haha" I chuckled and got up. "Well, I think I'm gonna turn in for the night. Goodnight Owen." I started to walk away, "Wait!" I stopped and turned around. "Clover, I uh- I got this letter or something for you." "Oh? Who's it from?" I walked over to him and grabbed the envelope. "You know? I'm not actually sure. I just found it on the steps and decided you should have it." I examined the envelope and noticed my name written on it in familiar hand writing. I thought about it for a while then smiled. "Duncan" I thought. "Thanks Owen. Well, goodnight." I walked back to the cabins and got my pajamas on. I climbed up to my bed, and examined the envelope once again. I placed it under my pillow and fell asleep.
I woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I looked around and saw that it was still pretty dark out. I checked the time and saw that it was only 1:30am, I layed back down and looked at the ceiling. I looked around the cabin tossed and turned. I tried all I could do to go back to sleep but, it didn't go as planned. I ended up getting out of bed and going for a walk. I walked around for a couple hours then sat down on a bench. I'm not sure what time it was when I ended up falling asleep but, I woke up on the bench with Duncan, Gwen, Bridgette, Leshawna, Heather, and basically everyone else there. I glanced around the circle then sat up. I rubbed my head, "What time is it?" "It's almost 9." I looked over at Duncan, who had just checked his watch, "Seriously?! And nobody thought to wake me up earlier?!?!" "Clover, we tried. But, you were out. You didn't wake up for anything." I looked at Gwen and got up. I rubbed my, now, stiff neck. I walked over to the cabins to get my actual clothes on, when I got back outside Chris was explaining our challenge for the day.
"Campers! Your challenge is to row to the other side of the camp to Skull Island! From there you must carry your canoe to the other side. The team that gets there first gets to choose what box they want. After that you must start a fire, each box has different items. One box has little to nothing for help, and the other has everything you might need to help you start your fire. The biggest fire wins!" We started to head off to the canoes. "Oh! and one more thing. Don't take anything off that island or else you will be cursed! GO!!" We headed off to the canoes and chose partners. Of course Duncan wanted to be my partner. We got into the canoes and I immediately started to freak out. Duncan stopped rowing, "Calm down." I took a deep breath and nodded my head. He continued to row and I just looked at my feet the entire time, when we got to the island we picked up our canoe and started to run to the other side. We got to a 'Y' in the trail. "Which way Duncan?" He looked down the trails then at me, "I don't know, you pick." I looked down the trails and pointed to the left. "Let's go this way." We picked the canoe back up and followed the trail all the way down. Turns out, it was the right one. Our team got there first and got to choose the box. "Let's choose the big one!" I looked at Heather. "No! Let's take the smaller one." "Why? The big one probably has everything we need." I gave her a cold glare. "Look, I know that it looks like there won't be anything much in it. But, trust me I know." I chose the small box. "Why did we let her choose?!" I hit the box with my hip and it opened. In it there was everything we needed for the fire. I gave Heather a smirk "You were saying?" We finished getting our fire built just as the other team showed up. Chris was waiting above in a helicopter. The other fire blew up due to some type of fire starter thing from Courtney. So, they won. We got back to camp and, of course, I fell asleep.