Camp Sunshine

8:40 am

Tyler, his brother, and his parents were waiting by the side of the forest road, along with a couple other 16-year-old boys and their families, huddled by a small sign supported by a wooden stick with the words 'CAMP SUNSHINE REGISTRATION OFFICE - GROUP C' scribbled on it. Under the hot Georgia air, these boys were waiting for their camp counselor to pick them up. Unlike the name suggested, Camp Sunshine had almost nothing to do with sunshine for these boys.

Created in 1923, Camp Sunshine used kindness, love, and friendship to convert troubled teenage boys into loving children. In 1957, a Washington journalist exposed the camp, revealing that many of the Camp Sunshine 'tactics' were very much illegal. Although Camp Sunshine still exists today and no longer performs any illegal practices, boys still describe it as ‘worse than prison’. This was Tyler’s first time going to the camp.

Tyler only knew about the camp because of his brother, Dylan, who had had gone the year before, after punching one of his classmates in the face. Multiple times. On separate occasions. After being expelled from four different schools in the area, Dylan’s parents were recommended by some friends to send Dylan to Camp Sunshine, whose son had also gone many summers ago. The camp was a big success for Dylan, as he had come back from the three months a different person. He helped around the house unprompted, he volunteered at the local church on weekends, and most importantly, he no longer punched people.

That’s why, when Tyler and his best friend Mitch accidentally set fire to the chemistry lab after trying to light a cigarette, Tyler’s parents didn’t hesitate to sign both of them up to Camp Sunshine that following summer.

Tyler looked around the dense forest landscape. He had never been this deep into the woods before. He stared far into the covered bushes, sensing something staring back at him.

"Jeez, I hope this isn't where our campsite is" Mitch whispered while interrupting Tyler's thoughts.

Camp Sunshine had many unique traditions, including their yearly campsite relocation. This tradition hadn’t always existed; in fact, it only resulted due to a group of teenage boys raiding the camp one year in attempt to ‘free’ one of their friends staying at the camp. During the raid, two of the counselors had been sent to the hospital, and one child passed away. Since then, the summer camp enforces a strict no-contact rule between the children and the outside world, and the location in Georgia is changed every year. No one knows the exact location except the camp counselors three days before the camp start date. The parents receive even less details. All they get is a cryptic email with a location near their hometown, a date, and an hour to meet. When all the children are present, the children take a bus to the exact camp location.

Tyler’s father, who overheard Mitch, replied whilst staring off into the forest: “You should be grateful it's not prison.” Tyler, who was also staring into the forest, now fixed his eyes on the dirt road. He felt his father's gaze shift to the back of his head, now burning hot. Tyler had always felt he was a disappointment to his father, who was the Chief of Police in their town, but this was a new level of shame.

8:50 am

A woman was walking up the road, smiling and waving at the group of parents and children enthusiastically. She was dressed in khaki shorts and a matching short sleeve khaki shirt, with a big CAMP SUNSHINE logo sewn onto the front. She had a long, blonde ponytail, and a large, gleaming smile. Tyler thought he recognized her, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen her before.

He asked Dylan: “Do you recognize her?”

Dylan replied: “Hmm...no, I don't think so. She must be new.”

Helena smiled at the two boys before making her way to the center of the group.

“Hi y’all! My name is Helena, and I have the pleasure of being your camp leader for the duration of your stay! It’s my first ever time at the camp as well, so we will both have a great time at Camp Sunshine! It seems y’all are a small group this year! I’ll just call out your names quickly to make sure we’ve got everyone here? That sound good?” Helena kept smiling at the group.

The four teenage boys mumbled as the parents all solemnly nodded.

Helena started the roll call.

“Tyler Reed?” Tyler lifted his hand halfway.

“Mitch Harrington?”

“Here.” Mitch mumbled, rolling his eyes and staring at Tyler, pretending to yawn. Tyler gave a small smile and immediately dropped it when he made eye contact with his father.

“Daniel Fields?”

A small, shy boy with glasses raised his hand up weakly. Tyler recognized him from school. They were in the same grade, and Daniel had been there the day Tyler set fire to the chemistry lab, as he was studying for a big chemistry test coming up. Tyler wasn’t sure why Daniel was here. He was the last person Tyler expected at a troubled teen camp.

“John Michaels?”

Three seconds of stillness. A large, loud burp broke the silence. John Michaels was exactly the type of person Tyler expected to see at the camp. Although John was three years older than them, they were all in the same grade, as John had to repeat 11th grade three times (and counting). He had been suspended several times, always fought with other students, and he even almost got expelled for selling the cigarettes to Tyler and Mitch.

Helena took the burp as a confirmation of attendance and scribbled in her CAMP SUNSHINE notebook before putting it in her CAMP SUNSHINE backpack. She continued smiling at the group: “Well! That’s everyone accounted for! We can now all make our way to the campsite. Say goodbye to your parents, grab your bags, and let’s go! John, you seem like a muscular guy! You'll be in charge of carrying the group bag!”

“Where’s the bus?” Mitch asked as he looked around.

Helena replied: “Oh no darling, there’s no bus this year! We decided we could start of the camp experience with a lovely team bonding hike to the campsite!”

Helena was interrupted by groans.

She continued: “Nothing too extreme at all guys, and it will be a great way to reconnect with nature and get to know each other!” Her wide, unshakeable smile stayed fixed to her face.

Tyler, Mitch, and Daniel all said goodbye to their families, while John threw rocks at nearby birds. The boys reluctantly made their way into the dense forest as Tyler turned around and said goodbye to his family one last time.

9:00 am

“I can’t believe we have to walk to this stupid place.” Mitch grumbled.

The boys had already been walking for a couple minutes in the dark heavy forest, and the boys saw nothing but more forest up ahead. The path was a narrow and muddy, and light barely made it through the thick tree leaves. While the boys were complaining, except for Daniel who stayed silent, Helena was whistling a joyful tune.

John had overheard Mitch complain and decided to join the conversation by pushing in between both boys with the big group hiking bag John was carrying.

John grabbed another protein bar from the bag and started chewing. He had already eaten half of the food provided for the hike. He spoke in between mouthfuls: “This is the first time I’ve had to walk, and I’ve been to Camp Sunshine for the past six years.” He burped loudly as he wiped the crumbs off his musty half-grown beard.

Mitch, who noticed that Daniel and Helena were in the very front, held the rest of the group back.

Mitch pulled John in close, who was already on the last protein bar in the bag: “So… if you’ve been here for the last six years, then you must know that the place is haunted.”

John grinned widely, with brown protein chunks in between his teeth: “Oh, you bet. Some people say you can faintly hear the same cries at night through the wind, no matter where the camp location is.”

Tyler scanned the forest before asking: “What are you guys talking about?” Helena was still whistling up ahead with Daniel.

Mitch looked at Tyler incredulously: “Your brother didn’t tell you about how this camp is haunted? Surely you know about Chris Smith”. John was picking protein pieces from his teeth.

Tyler scoffed in annoyance: “No obviously not.” He was keeping an eye on Helena and Daniel, who were becoming smaller up ahead.

Mitch grabbed Tyler by the shoulders. He looked around before responding in a hushed whisper: “Well, this is what I’ve heard from others. 50 years ago, a kid died at Camp Sunshine named Chris Smith. He was there for some stupid reason, like skipping school a couple of times. He mostly kept to himself, and he used to stay in his cabin all the time, except to go outside to eat or go to the bathroom. He was a bit of an isolated kid.

Anyways, one night, some teenagers came to “rescue” one of their friends. This group of teenagers were known for being thugs, and this time they had stolen a couple of things from their local grocery store. They were going to go to jail, until one of their friends, who was innocent, took the blame for everything. His dad was part of the police squad, so instead of going to jail himself he got community service hours and was sent to Camp Sunshine." Tyler looked down at the floor and shuffled his feet.

Mitch continued: "Anyways, to repay him, his friends decided to get him out of the camp. When they saw all the kids were doing an outside for a group activity, they set fire to one of the empty cabins and grabbed their friend and his bags and began their escape. As they were running off, they heard excruciating screams coming from the campsite. When they turned around, they realised the screams were coming from the cabin they had set fire to. Chris was in there. Two counselors ran in to try and save him, but they were too late. All they could hear was the crackling of the cabin wood breaking down. Since then, people have sworn that they feel these dark, deep eyes staring at them, even feeling a burning sensation on their body. Sometimes, they even hear the wood cracking faintly in their cabin. One kid even swore he'd seen Chris’s eyes staring at him when he woke up one night.

This was after he’d come back home from camp.”

Tyler felt a knot in his stomach and a shiver down his spine. A twig snapped behind them. The boys looked up. Helena and Daniel were gone.

Suddenly, Tyler heard Helena yell from afar: “Come on boys! We haven’t got all day!”

9:10 am

The track quickly became less prominent as the boys wandered deeper into the dense forest. Helena was now in the very back, ensuring they didn’t trail off once more.

“Come on boys, you know you’ve got to stay with the group! I'm keeping my eye on y'all! What if y’all got lost? It’s a big forest with no one for miles to help you in case something happens! And do y’all really trust each other enough to save each other if something serious happened?” Still her smile never faded, even when angry.

They boys all stared at each other. Tyler was best friends with Mitch, but would he trust him with his life? Probably not. Mitch had accidentally killed off 7 of his home pets. And one of them was a worm. And John? John had eaten all their food, and it hadn't even been half an hour since the start of their hike.

“What were you guys even gossipin’ about? I could hear y’all whispering and lookin’ around. Team bonding is with everyone in the team. The last thing I’ll have y’all doin’ is excluding another team member.” Helena nudged Daniel closer to the group.

Tyler replied meekly: “Nothing… just a rumor we’ve heard about Camp Sunshine.”

Helena looked at Tyler: “What rumor?”

Tyler looked at Mitch, then replied hesitantly: “Well, since you’re new maybe you don’t know, but a long time ago someone died at Camp Sunshine. In an accidental fire. The rumor is that every year, he follows the camp and haunts the location as revenge for what happened to him.”

The group stayed silent.

Helena’s smile wavered for a second before she replied: “It must have been an awful shame for his parents, losing a child like that.”

No one spoke. They waited for Helena to continue speaking but she just stayed still. Tyler looked around and came to the realization that during their walk in the dark, dense forest, and he hadn’t been paying attention to which way they were coming from. He also realized he didn’t know exactly where he was going either. Thick forest surrounded him, and everything around him looked the same shade of obscure green. He suddenly felt small and scared, with no sense of control. Helena was still behind them, and although Tyler had his back to her, he felt a rising wave of unease.

Helena finally spoke: “I’ve lost a child too…”

9:20am

No one dared to move.

It no longer sounded like the bubbly, positive Helena they met.

Her voice deepened: “Yes… I lost my little girl recently. She was your age. Her name was Sarah Wilson.”

A surge of electricity went through Tyler’s body as he froze. With Helena still behind them, she continued.

“You see… my poor girl was always misunderstood. She was quiet, and we always used to hike in these woods together, enjoying the stillness of peace and nature. But people mistook her silence for strangeness, and they bullied her. Lunchtime was the worst, with the adults unaware of all the horrors they did to my little girl.”

When Helena paused, silence filled the air. Tyler heard his heart pounding through his eardrums.

“My poor angel had to hide you see, and the only teacher kind enough to let her use their classroom as refuge was Mr. Wood, the chemistry teacher.”

Mitch and Tyler stared at each other in fear.

Helena's words turned into a snarl: “But one day, two idiotic boys tried to smoke a cigarette in there and almost immediately got caught, so they stupidly threw the cigarette in the room still lit and ran. The smoke filled the room and the flames grew, but my poor Sarah was in the back room, headphones on, unaware of what was happening. If only there was a brave man, not some child studying for a chemistry exam, who could have warned her, yelled and screamed at her to get out, shake her, pick her up, throw a pencil at her, anything to get her attention, rather than run away like a coward.”

Tears were streaming from below Daniel’s glasses.

“And all of this because of some dumb jock can’t graduate high school, so he sells drugs and alcohol for underage kids….”

John dropped the supply bag and took two steps backward.

Tyler slowly turned around to face Helena, with his entire body trembling. Helena’s large grin had transformed into a grotesque frown. In her right hand she held a lighter.

9:50 am

At the same time, about 50 miles south, a Camp Sunshine counselor was waiting impatiently at the summer camp entrance, wondering why the four 16-year-old boys registered with his group had not yet showed up to the campsite. As he looked up from his phone, he saw a big black cloud of smoke coming from deep inside of the forest.