Chapter 1

Elle and her classmates lined up in the school's parking lot, the long awaited Friday; which is the camp day for the seniors of Starlight Academy has finally arrived, and they are all excitedly waiting for the teachers and buses that'll take them to the camp site to arrive.

One thing Elle loves about camping is that it lets you relate to nature in an intimate way, there's less use of technology which helps you notice and interact with your environment in camps, and that's why she made sure she packed properly and efficiently so that nothing will distract her from camping.

She was lost in her wonderful thoughts about the camp when the buses with the teachers responsible for taking care of them in the camp pulled over, and the teachers stepped down.

"Listen up children" Mrs Maris; a tall slender black woman in her early 30's, said as she stepped down from the bus dressed in faded blue jeans and a t-shirt with camping boots "I know you all are excited for this camp trip as you should be, but I expect you all to be on your best behavior okay?"

"yes ma'am" the students chorused together and she nodded in satisfaction.

"Good! I'm sure you've been told the bus you'll be traveling on and also given a seat number, right?" The students nodded their head and she turned towards the buses "I expect y'all to move quietly to your respective buses and sit down, Mr Williams will be in charge of the second bus" she said pointing to the second bus where, Mr Williams who is dressed in the same attire as she is, is standing.

The students hurriedly and orderly moved into their respective buses , luckily for Elle she's in the second bus and in addition to that she got the window seat. She's beyond grateful for that because  Mr Williams is a disciplinarian and he barely talks, so the students tend to behave properly around him and she wants nothing other than a quiet trip and really good photography shots on their way there to the camp site.

But if wishes were horses beggars would ride them. The trip was a disaster for Elle but fun for her classmates; they sang, discussed random topics, some even went as far as dancing during the trip which made it impossible for Elle to have her quiet time and get good photography shots. She cringed when she remembered how it started.

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She sat down peacefully in her seat, setting up her camera and all. Few minutes into the journey, everyone and everywhere was quiet until a girl shouted from the back "why are you all so quiet?, We are going to a camp not to our grave! Come on cheer up" and just like that, the once peaceful zone turned into a semi-war zone and Mr Williams did absolutely nothing about it.

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She sighed and went back to building a tent, they arrived at the camp 20 minutes ago, went over the camp rules and they were divided into two groups, one group is in charge of building the tents and the other in charge of gathering firewoods.

The students carried out the activities they were assigned to diligently and now, they are currently sitting round the campfire, each eating a marshmallow and waiting to get assigned a tent and a camp partner.

"Listen up everyone.." Mr Williams said with a book in his hand "You all did well today, both those that built the tents and those that gathered the firewood, therefore, without wasting much of your time I'll call out your partner so listen attentively" he brought the book to his face and started calling out the names

"Robin and Chase, Maya and Lara, Benita and Zoya....... Elle and Alicia...." Mr Williams kept calling out the students and their partners, some of the students were happy when they heard their partners name while the others started sulking.

Elle in particular is happy about Alicia, she has known her for quite some time now and Alicia is quiet and hard-working, so she's sure she got the perfect partner.

Alicia too is happy she's partners with Elle, she has always admired Elle, she admired Elle and how she seemed to have everything together and tried becoming like her, and being partners with her means being close to her and probably getting the chance to become friends with her.

"And that's all, so move into your tent with your partner and get enough rest for tomorrow's activities, because tomorrow is going to be a very long day" the students clapped and hooted in happiness except Elle, she felt unsafe and scared for herself and her classmates when he said that but she just couldn't figure out why.

She shrugged it off and took her luggage into one of the tents with Alicia "Hey I'm Alicia, I hope we can work together" Alicia said, while stretching out her hand, putting on a courageous look and a smile on her face.

Elle shook her hand returning the smile "I'm Elle and I'm pretty sure we'll work very well together" 

"That's nice, I'll be going to sleep now to regain my energy"

"Okay, same here" and they both then turned away from each other and changed into their pyjamas and got into their sleeping bags and Alicia fell asleep immediately.

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"Is everything ready?" A voice whispered as two shadows walked out in the darkness

"Yes it's all ready, I kind of feel guilty about this I mean..." The other voice whispered back, shaky from both guilt and fear

"There's nothing to be guilty about, you better not back out, remember you've gotten the payment and you know what happens to those that back out, so just keep shut and you'll enjoy the benefits" the other voice threatened and walked away. The other person sighed and walked into one of the tents.

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Elle kept tossing over and over again in her sleeping bag, no matter how hard she tried she just can't seem to fall asleep, her mind kept telling her something bad is going to happen, she tried to brushed it off but she just couldn't. She tossed around for a while longer before exhaustion took over her and she went to sleep.

     The camp bell rang loudly and everyone within the camp area snapped their eyes open, some filled with excitement for the day's activities, some annoyed that they were woken up so early. Elle woke up still feeling paranoid.

The students woke and according to the camp rules; they folded their sleeping bags, did their morning routine and in no time they were all dressed up in the outfit mapped out for the day's activity; khaki shorts, t-shirts and camp boots.

They all moved out and stood in line with their partners, patiently waiting for the teachers" Good morning all!! Hope y'all slept well??" Mrs Maris shouted as she came out from her tent, overly happy and excited for the activity, while Mr Williams stood beside her silently "for today's programme, we'll be going treasure hunting in the forest." Most of the students jumped up in excitement while some groaned.

"Mr Dan here will be handing out maps that'll help you navigate the forest" a short attractive man walked out and started handing out maps to them "and that'll be all, good luck with your hunting and be careful. Follow the map properly" Mrs Maris wished them luck and walked out with Mr Williams and Mr Dan

The students moved out into the forest with their partners, Will and Sarah being the most determined to win dashed into the forest and started looking around for the first clue,following the map carefully they both landed in front of a very beautiful and tall tree but that's not what caught their eyes. A paper was tied to the tree and that is the thing that's what caught their eyes, they both rushed to grab the piece of paper but instead they found themselves slipping and falling into a ditch.

Next is Maya and Lora, they both were determined to win but they didn't want to tire themselves out halfway or make mistakes so they took their time studying the map and walking round the forest. But then within 5 minutes of walking into the forest, they saw a paper lying among some of the flowers there and they quickly looked at their map to make sure it's a safe spot and the map marked it as safe, so they  both bent down to pick it up and they ended up falling into a ditch.

Elle and Alicia came up next, walking round the forest looking for their first clue. Elle tried feeling happier about the activity, occasionally stopping sometimes to take pictures to motivate herself but she just couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad will happen.

"Hey Elle look over there, it's a paper and probably our first clue I'll go grab it" Alicia said as she handed the map to Elle and ran to grab the piece of paper but instead she fell down and the earth gave way beneath her and she fell in. Elle's eyes widened and she ran to save her thinking it was just the clue trap but when she looked in, the ditch was way deeper than a clue trap.

She stood staring at the ditch with wide eyes and shaky legs, she immediately started pieceing everything together. It isn't an accident, the map would have marked the place as dangerous, considering the person that put the clue would have checked the surrounding, in other words it's a setup. 

She broke out of her trance and quickly picked up her camera and the map, she ran out to go check on her other classmates and warn them about the traps, but she met a lot of ditches and there was barely any sign of her classmates.

She finally understood why she was feeling so scared, she fell to the floor tears blurring her vision. A few tear drops dropped from her eyes and when the fifth tear drop touched the ground, a ray of light immediately surrounded her, it felt as if it was absorbing her and in a little while... She was gone