"Daniel, why are you crying?" the room was dark, all I could see was a glow far away from me as a voice echoed. I didn't know if I should answer it.
"Umm... I don't know where my mommy is." I answered. I was only 2 at the time, the world was only a few meters long to me at the time, and I didn't know which meter my mommy was in.
"I don't know if she's ever coming back..." I coughed out, another tear fell down my face. A hand emerged from the shadowy room in front of me. It had long fingers, they skimmed my cheek. The touch was cold, but it wiped my tears.
"Don't hide what makes you feel pain, let it hurt you..." it whispered. Another tear fell from my blue eyes, I sniffed and the hand disappeared. I saw the glow of the eyes across the room move closer to me, I didn't move, I just watched them, I was paralyzed in my spot, it felt like my feet were glued to the ground.
"It's ok Daniel, even if your mom doesn't come back, I will be here for you, always here." the voice was deeper now, louder, closer. I shivered but I wasn't cold.
"Who are you?" I asked, a simple enough question, however, I got an answer I wasn't sure about.
"I am Zeemuug. I am God. I am the one and only." ...
My eyes shot open, sweat was forming on my brow line. I hated having dreams of my past, I always felt unsafe after, and as if I was being watched. I knew I shouldn't have went to sleep so early, but David said that we needed to be ready for tomorrow's "day of fun". David was a very energetic and happy go lucky person, it was a little exhausting, but he made me feel like I was worth something. I turned to the alarm clock sitting on the end table beside Gwen's bed. I had switched over to this one because Gwen had left and David reclaimed his spot in his own bed. Now that I thought of it, I liked the smell of his bed. It spelt like pine cones. The clock read 9:00pm. I rolled my eyes, it was so early. My body wasn't designed to sleep until well past midnight. I picked my phone off the ground and unlocked it with a swift flick. Every time I tried to load an app, it stopped half way and told me to check my connection. I tossed and turned in the bed, it smelled like cheap perfume and the pillow smelled like foundation. I tried to go to sleep again, but nothing was working. I didn't want to go back to sleep after the dream I just had. It made me feel empty, and afraid. I decided to see if I could wake up David, maybe talk to him more.
"Hey David!" I whispered yelled it so it wasn't that loud. I wasn't expecting David to answer me but he did and it made me jump slightly.
"What? You're awake?" I asked him, I saw him nod from his bed.
"Yup! I only sleep sometimes, most of my nights I lie awake, waiting for tomorrow! I'm just so excited!" David replied. I couldn't see his face but I knew he was smiling.
"Why are you so excited about tomorrow? Is something special happening?" I asked him, he turned to face me, sure enough a smile was on his face.
"Everyday is special at Camp Campbell!" David cheered, I shook my head at him.
"You sound like an advertisement." I told him, he pouted slightly, staring at me with his big green eyes.
"Is that a bad thing?" he asked, I laughed at him and sat up in my bed.
"Yeah it's actually a terrible thing. How am I supposed to get to know the real you if you act all commercial on me, huh?" I asked him, he sat up too, his green onesie was tangled slightly around his waist.
"I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other Daniel! In fact I think that if neither of us are going to sleep then we mine as well talk until we feel tired." David playfully suggested. I thought only for a brief moment, and then decided that this was probably the best option for me. I got out of the bed and sat my butt down on David's mattress. He smiled and got into a more comfortable position.
"It'll be like a slumber party! Only, we won't have any snacks because it's too dark to go to the mess hall." David explained. I had more of a nervous smile now. I had never had a slumber party before, one time when me and my friends were talking after lights out, we didn't get food the next day. David thought to himself before he spoke again.
"I always loved playing Truth or Dare when I went to sleepovers! But, I only ever picked truth, I didn't like doing the dares." David explained. I have heard of this game, some of the kids at one of my previous assignments used to play it. It usually ended up with everyone either kissing or answering questions about what sort of sex action they would or wouldn't do. I shot him an unsure look.
"That sounds pretty cliché David..." I admitted, because it honestly did. David shook his hands in defense.
"I swear if we do play it it's gonna be more of a 20 questions type of thing just to get to know each other better!" David explained to me. I stared at him, and the way he was smiling made me want to play any stupid game he wanted to play if it meant he would continue smiling. I agreed and he cheered, laying down on his stomach and propping up his head with his hands. We fought a little about who should go first until he finally decided he would. I searched my mind for a question to ask him, and then I finally got one.
"What's your favourite colour? Something simple to start off with." I asked him, he rolled his eyes and laughed.
"It's green, that was a useless question, you didn't learn anything about me!" David teased. I shrugged to him and leaned back.
"Well, I learned that you like green." I replied, David shook his head and shot me a look.
"Ok Daniel, I'm going for something a bit more personal," David gave me a smile, it had a hint of evil in it but I knew he was just joking around. It was easy to tell the difference between real evil and making a joke, at least for me it was.
"Is that your natural hair colour or is it bleached?" David asked. The question was innocent, purely regarding the bright hair I had, however, I felt a pit grow in my stomach. What was my natural colour? I didn't even remember now... I didn't remember when the last time I did anything with my hair was. Was it even growing anymore? I know as a child it was constantly bleached but I hadn't bleached it since those days and no natural hair had begun to show, unless the bleach soaked into my scalp, and made all my hair this colour. I didn't even know how to answer this question, but I was starting to take too long of a pause.
"It's all natural" I replied in a sheer panic. David scratched his head a little confused. My hair didn't look natural at all, I really wished I had said I dyed it instead of choosing the 'no this is my hair' lie I came up with. David just grinned at me and laughed, I think he knew I was lying but he didn't bring it up. He waited for me to ask him something.
"What's your favourite thing about camp?" I asked him, instead of just giving me a straight answer he listed off all of these things that I couldn't even keep track of. Archery? Hiking? Search and rescue? Maybe biking? I couldn't tell you. I just sat there and nodded every time he said something else, I didn't know what else to do. Once he finished he had to take a deep breath and then he proceeded to ask me a question.
"Where do you live?" David asked me, again a pretty standard question, too bad I didn't have a standard answer. I really needed to say something, I should've just made something up and hoped that I would remember it in case it came up again, but I decided to tell the truth, just without being too descriptive.
"I am actually in the process of finding a new place, I figure I can stay here for the season, but I just recently had a falling out with my previous partner I guess, and since then I've sort of been hopping from place to place." I explained as vaguely as possible. It was talking about Cameron, and how since I left him I was going from place to place killing people for Zeemuug, but David didn't need to know that. David scratched his head and frowned slightly.
"Well I'm sorry to hear that, I wish I could be of more comfort but I was never really in a relationship so who am I to give advice!" David said it so cheerfully at the end in almost missed the part where he said he had never been in a relationship before. He had to have been in his early 20's like I was, and he had never dated anyone. I know that I hadn't really been in a real relationship, but I did have my experience. It baffled me that David, looking like he does, has never dated anyone. I had to ask him about that, it had me interested.
"Did you just say you never dated anyone? No one at all?" I asked, David's face went a little red and he stared at the ground.
"Well, I've spent most of my life living for Camp Campbell, dating was never really something I got around to doing. I mean, I liked a couple of people and I may have gone to social events with some but I was never in a serious relationship you know?" David explained, I was still a little shocked. David really was a strange person, he wasn't like any 20 year old I ever met.
"Have you ever kissed someone?" I asked, I felt my cheeks burn slightly as I asked the question, I didn't know why exactly and I tried my hardest to get them to stop before David noticed. David raised his eyebrows at me and nodded quickly.
"Of course I have, but it was a long time ago." David admitted. I suddenly wanted to know all the details, and I know it wasn't my turn but I didn't care.
"What was her name?" I asked, David adjusted his sitting position and looked away from me nervously.
"His name was Jasper, but I barely remember it and it was a really long time ago, also you just went three times in a row so I get to ask you three questions now!" David's reply was rushed, however I did note that he said his first kiss was with a boy, so if I wanted to make any moves, sexual orientation might not be a problem. I laughed it off and let David start asking me his three questions.
"When did you have your first kiss?" David asked me, I puzzled over this for a second before giving him an answer, this time it wasn't fake or sprinkled with lies.
"That's a tough one because my first kiss was with a girl named Jen but, I feel like my first real kiss was with a boy named Myles. Jen I still talk to sometimes but I don't know what happened to Myles really." that last part was a lie, because I know I killed Myles because he owed Cameron some debt and Cameron was threatening me if I didn't kill him. All that blood, I didn't think a person could have that much, it reminded me of the Warm Bath. Before my mind could wander to the darkness again, David started queuing up with next question.
"Are you currently in a relationship?" David asked me, it made me feel strange, he was only asking me relationship questions now, what sort of information was he learning from only asking these types of questions? However from my understanding of Truth or Dare, these were usually the types of questions people would ask. I shook my head at him.
"No, no, I just got out of one recently and I haven't really had much time to find someone else you know?" I asked, David nodded in understanding.
"Also what's with all the relationship questions? Not that there's anything wrong with them I'm just wondering." I asked David, laughing it off even though I was asking seriously deep down inside. David stared off to the other side of the room and promised me he wouldn't ask anymore of them. We both laughed a bit and sat in silence. David still had one more extra question to ask me.
"Ok, what's your favourite thing about camp so far?" he asked, his green eyes tracing my face, shimmering in the dim lighting of the cabin. I froze, my body felt all weird. I wanted to say that he was my favourite part, but I didn't at the same time. That would come off weird, we had just met, even the feelings that I was having towards him were weird considering we had just met. I didn't know what was wrong with me, but it was something. I didn't say anything, and I waited too long to make this not awkward. We both just sat there, my eyes stuck on his, saying nothing to each other. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and broke our eye contact.
"Sorry I am really tired now." I stated, David nodded, agreeing with me as he curled back into his bed, blanket pulled up to his shoulders. I turned to face the wall and put the blanket over my head only leaving a small section for me to breath out of. David and I didn't say anything at first, then after another long awkward pause David said goodnight to me, I replied with the same, and I pretended to drift off to sleep.