Escape From Camp Clandestine

CW: The following story contains instances of Violence, Blood, Gore, Swearing, and Minor Mentions of Pornography which may be too much for some beings to endure. Listener Discretion is advised.

{Intro Music}

This is Queer Ghoul. An anthology of short queer horror stories written and produced by me, Adriana Oister, pronouns she/her and they/them. 

With various tales of horror, suspense, mystery, and science fiction, I in the role of “The Narrator”, will introduce you to a diverse set of characters each of whom trapped in their own hellish landscapes, and teeth-clenching nightmares.

{Intro Music slows down…then picks back up}

Monologue: Ask anyone what they think about the woods, and depending on who you ask you’ll get a range of answers from picturesque to absolute fearsome. There have always been theories about what lies within the branches and the foliage and the streams. The truth is, despite the beauty in nature, we’ll never know of all the creatures which lurk deep within. All you need to know for this story is that a few teenagers from Clandestine High School in the town of Clandestine, Pennsylvania, whether through their own accord or not, are participating as Camp Counselors at Camp Clandestine before it opens for the children in the summer. One of these teenagers happens to be Casey Carpenter, pronouns she and her and they and them, and although her rival is also attending this trip, Casey is going to discover that someone…or something much more threatening than teenage warfare is watching them from the woods…with murder on the mind and weapons in its paws. I now present to you….ESCAPE FROM CAMP CLANDESTINE.

{Lightning Strike}


The sun’s rays discharged down onto the young adults and two older men as they trekked through the greenery landscape of the Pennsylvanian wilderness. The air was crisp for a mid-May morning. The breeze cool against their skins.

 

“This sucks so hard.” Casey said, sticking close to Jenn, and swatting at a bug that landed on her arm. The daylight exposed the red path of acne that dotted down her nose and touched around her cheeks and chin. The two friends were both towards the back of the hiking group, shoulder to shoulder. Each of the hikers wore a green shirt with “Camp Clandestine” screen printed on the front in a white font, and for their bottoms either a pair of khaki shorts or denim jeans.

 

Casey and Jenn were both in denim. “We just have to stick through this bullshit, then tonight when the adults leave us alone, we can actually have fun.” Jenn said.

 

“You know we can’t have fun; fun is what got us here in the first place. And once they leave us alone tonight, we’ll be stuck having to babysit for the next few days. And you know that Diana is always up my ass, she’s going to be watching me the entire time, waiting for me to do something to rat me out.”

 

The group stopped. The two men in the front turned towards them all. The one who spoke, Mr. Hart, had wisps of long brown hair escape from his man bun and drift up from the wind. The other man, Mr. Tracey, eyed him with a blank expression through his blue sports sunglasses. A Phillies hat sitting over his bald head. 

 

Mr. Hart cleared his throat. “Here is where I’m thinking about having the children start another fun activity, where- “

 

Neither of the friends were paying attention. Mr. Hart was the owner of this new summer camp in their town, but he wasn’t opening it for the season just yet. He decided that he was going to give it a test run and allow the schools to let the children off for a few days before school let out, to have some educational fun out in the wilderness. All Mr. Hart needed was a few volunteers for counselors and Clandestine High School was more than willing to supply him with such. “Can you believe this is the prick that wants us to keep children entertained and alive but not let us have any electronics?” Jenn said.

 

Casey smirked. “We get our phones, and we shove an iPad in front of the kids. Isn’t that parenting at its finest?”

 

Both giggled in hushed tones.

 

“Ahem.” They both heard.

 

They looked to find that the group had started to move again. Except for one person, who was standing right in front of Casey. A clipboard, and a pack of coloring pencils in her outstretched hand with ring clad fingers while the other one rested on her hip. “Do you two ever take anything seriously?” Diana said, tossing her long red hair.

 

Casey narrowed her eyes at the other eighteen-year-old. Diana had chosen to wear the light khaki shorts that stopped at mid-thigh. The young woman’s face had sharp features; her hazel eyes darkened with winged eyeliner. Her lush lips were caught in a scowl. Scanning her arms, Casey looked over at the tattoos of Elvira’s knife on the left arm, and the other arm an arrow. “What about life is to be taken so seriously? We’re born, we slave away in debt, and we die. Jenn and me don’t give a shit about such superficial things like you do.”

 

“It’s actually ‘Jenn and I’.” Diana said.

 

“No way, Jenn would never associate with your ass.”

 

Jenn snickered while Diana scoffed. “You two are impossible!” She thrusted the clipboard and pack of pencils into Casey’s arms. “Didn’t you hear Mr. Hart calling your name?”

 

“No, probably because I don’t really give a shit what he has to say, and like most assholes he probably called me ‘Cassandra’.”

 

Diana rolled her eyes. “We’re testing out an activity for children where we leave them each on a certain part of the trail- “

 

“Leaving the kids? Fucking love the plan already.”

 

“-AND they draw what they see. You are to be stationed here, draw, and not move a muscle until we, unfortunately, come back around to get you.” She leaned closer, pointing one of her manicured nails into Casey’s chest. “Don’t fuck it up like you usually do.”

 

Casey swatted the finger away. “Whatever, I’ll take any time I can to be away from you.”

 

Diana turned, peeking at them from the corner of her eye. “You two are beneath me.” She said, walking away, catching up with the group not too far ahead.

 

Jenn glanced over at Casey. “I guess I better catch up with them too. Don’t do anything too exciting while I’m away.” She slapped Casey hard against her ass and jogged away. The group disappearing past a corner of trees.

 

Casey groaned, kicking a rock into a nearby bush. Her mind was a storm of fury whenever she thought of Diana. The young woman was their class’s Valedictorian, top athlete of The Clandestine Archery Team, and just as capable of causing chaos as Casey was. The exception being that her prestigious titles allowed her to get away with anything and to call out Casey for not being on the same level, and Casey hated her for that.  It launched them into a feud that started in their freshman year and had only kicked into overdrive over their remaining school years. Casey slid her back down the bark of the tree, going into a sitting position in the center of its roots. They looked down at the clipboard with a plain white piece of paper, placing the colored pencils right beside her on the grass. She was forced to volunteer at this camp, and as much as she thought a punishment involving interacting with children was cruel for the crime, they were not going to let it, or Diana ruin these moments free of school and the anxiety that came when thinking about her future. She leaned her head back against the tree, closed her eyes, and sighed. The wind softly whistled in their ears and twirled around strands of her blonde hair.

 

A twig snapped.

 

She sat up and leaned over the side of the tree, looking off into the distance through a hole in the thick foliage. The gust of air blew a rancid smell across her face. She shriveled her nose at the scent, which was a mix of hot garbage and feces. She tried not to gag as it squeezed around her body. The sticks breaking led to a sound of someone crying, shooing something away. She saw a man running in her direction from what looked to be a brown bear, up on its back legs. 

 

“Get away from me! Stop! Go away!” The man shook his hands out in front of him, using the trees as cover. But the creature didn’t cower, instead it let out a thunderous roar, and jumped on top of the man. Its jaws fastened around his throat. The bear twisted it, and with one sickening crack, the man went limp. The bear dug its claws into his chest, feeding on his innards, blood soaking its fur. 

 

Casey’s heart stopped.

 

Eventually, the bear got up and started moving, inch by inch, closer to where Casey sat. But as it got closer, Casey saw that it had a body of a human, naked, with thick brown fur covering its entirety. It had large dangling breasts and an untrimmed vagina between its long legs. The creature didn’t have hands or feet, instead it had sizable paws with sharp claws on each extended finger-like toe. On its head where human ears would be, clung rounded hairy ones. Its face was the most questionable of all to Casey. Its eyes were larger than a persons, they were more circular, beadier, and blacker. It’s nose and mouth extended out, revealing a bloody snout. Its body was hunched as it walked with a slow gait. 

 

When the figure slinked another few feet, turning slightly, Casey saw clutched in its paw the ankle belonging to the human corpse which it dragged across the woodland terrain. It left behind a thick trail of blood.

 

Casey turned away, facing forward again. In their haste, they moved their arm down, slamming it into the clipboard, causing a dull knock.

 

“Shit!” She said.

 

The figure froze, turning its head towards the tree.

 

She didn’t dare move. The footsteps of the figure grew closer, crunching in the dirt. It let out deep, awkward breaths.

 

The footsteps came closer, soon stopping all together.

 

It seemed like all the sounds in the woods collectively went silent. Casey counted the seconds in her head.

 

One second.

 

Two seconds.

 

Three.

 

The footsteps crunched again, only now they weren’t as loud.

 

Casey turned her head, peering out past the tree. The figure went past her, going off into the distance, farther and farther away. The body it dragged was discolored with red. It wasn’t anyone Casey knew. She didn’t think so at least, the face on the body was too disfigured to tell. They’re clothes ripped and shredded. Guts dangled out of their chest. And as the figure escaped from sight, all it left was its lingering putrid smell, and a track of deep blood staining the earth.

 

Casey took a deep breath; she felt her breakfast come back in her throat. She swallowed it. Her body shook. She patted her hand against her jean pocket, finding nothing there but lip balm.

 

She remembered the no electronics policy.

 

She briefly considered the possibility of the group of counselors and the owner of the camp running into the figure, and she couldn’t make up her mind if it would be a good thing or bad. Because she knew that if she were to tell them about what she really saw, nobody would believe her. Diana would ridicule her. Jenn would probably think she was high off some smuggled drug, and the others would think the same. 

 

Her hands trembled as she sat up, slipping her fingers into the pack and pulling out a red pencil, moving it across the white canvas on the clipboard.

 

 

 

That night, after a dinner in the mess hall, the adults had in fact left the teens on their own. Most of them sat on wooden logs, positioned on each side of a raging campfire. The orange bright against the pitch-black sky. The crackling soothing to the ears.

 

Casey sat in her red and black checkered flannel shirt, staring into the flames.

 

The sound of bustling came from the bushes behind her. She twisted around and stared at the still wilderness.

 

“Boo!”

 

She jumped.

 

Jenn backed away. “Woah, chill out.” She stuck out her hand. “I only came to offer a smore.” 

 

“Oh, thanks.” They said, taking it out of Jenn’s hand. She glanced and saw that Jenn was now sitting beside her in her own flannel, holding out a stick into the fire with a burnt marshmallow at its end. To their side on another log were two others from their class with names that Casey now couldn’t remember, and on the other side of the fire were Ricky Bailey and Tony Murdock, holding hands and focusing on each other’s eyes. Both of their shirts were rolled up and left this mid-sections exposed.

 

“I gotta say, the food at the mess hall was not five star, but it was a hell of a lot better than at school.”

 

Casey stared into the woods. “That doesn’t take much to be honest. A gas station dumpster tastes better than what shit they serve in the cafeteria.”

 

Jenn didn’t notice her friend’s anxiety. “I’m so jealous of you by the way. I got sat somewhere where I only got to see a squirrel. You fucking got to see a deer being dragged by a bear!”

 

“I’m sure a lot of rednecks in this area have seen that. It’s nothing special.”

 

The sound of a bear’s growl rattled the group’s ears. Each counselor looked around through the bushes and trees.

 

“No way! There it is now!” Jenn said, pointing up. “There’s your bear!”

 

Casey chose to ignore it. She straightened her back, addressing the crowd. “Hey, you guys! Did anyone on the way here stop at a gas station where only one cis, white dude was working and warned that you were going to die if you go to this camp?”

 

They all shook their heads.

 

“What about hearing of any stories involving teenage lifeguards having sex, a child dying in the water, and a pissed off mother seeking revenge?”

 

They shook their heads again.

 

“Cool. Cool. So, what about anything literally having to do with death, accidents, curses, demonic possession, any of that?”

 

“Uh oh,” Jenn shook Casey, and hooked a thumb to the side. “Your demon is coming over here now.”

 

They all saw Diana storming towards the campfire. She was wearing what most were accustomed to seeing her in, a pair of ripped black jeans and a leather jacket. There was a black shirt underneath featuring the band No Rest For The Americans. Before any of them could make a sound, they flinched. An object flew down onto the fire.

 

Casey saw that it was a book, the fire turning the pages black. There was only one word she could make sense of on the cover before it burned up.

 

“Did you just burn a bible?” Ricky said.

 

“I found the damn thing in my bunk. I can’t stand when people shove such shit down my throat.” She crossed her arms, staring down into the fire.

 

Casey looked into Diana’s concentrated face. She watched as the flames danced in her bright eyes, projecting an almost kaleidoscope like effect. To Casey it was pretty much, dare she say it, beautiful.

 

Diana seemed to notice, turning her head, and for a few seconds both stared at each other with a soft expression. They each even found their lips twitching into a small smile, and both of them blushed.

 

Until Diana scowled. “What the fuck are you looking at, Carpenter?”

 

Casey shook her head and stood up. “I don’t know, I’m trying to figure that out, Dickbag!”

 

“Dickson.” Diana stepped closer. “When are you ever going to make something of yourself and stop acting like an ass?”

 

“I’d rather be a nothing for the rest of my life if it meant that I wouldn’t be such a bitch like you!”

 

“You wouldn’t even be here right now if it weren’t for you being such an idiot!”

 

“I am not an idiot!”

 

“What do you call someone caught smoking pot on school property? You couldn’t even wait to just do it at home or at least behind the seven eleven like everyone else. That’s how much of an idiot you are!”

 

“You don’t know my life, you fucking cunt!”

 

“Well then, stop acting like you know mine! You poser!”

 

“Cum Dumpster”

 

“Ruffian!”

 

“Douche Canoe!”  

 

Enough!” Tony shouted, letting go of Ricky’s hand to raise his own pair up in the air. “Can you two just fuck already?”

 

“Stay out of this!” Diana pointed her finger at him. “Or else I’ll tell Mr. Hart that you two were having sex in your cabin while you should have been at my archery demonstration earlier!”

 

Tony and Ricky looked at each other, then down to the ground. “You really are a bitch.” 

 

“Leave the gay men out of this, Dickbag, and get the hell out of here. Nobody wants you here!”

 

“I don’t want to be near you either.” She said, spinning on her heels. She walked back towards the camp facilities.

 

The group sat in silence for what felt like hours, but only a few minutes. Casey pouted as she finally ate her smore. The melted chocolate dripped down her hand and onto the grass.

 

That’s when they heard the screaming. A high-pitched wail that crawled down their skin.

 

Each teen flinched, standing up. 

 

“That sounded like it was coming from the kitchen.” Jenn said.

 

“Didn’t sound like the cook, I don’t think she could get her voice that loud with how much she’s smoked in her life.” Tony said.

 

The teens ran over to the kitchen building, the door to the cabin like area open as they thrusted themselves inside. 

 

Diana stood with her back against a wall with hanging cast iron pots and pans and ladels. Her hazel eyes stared in horror, her skin pale, as she turned from the scene in front of her, to the crowd.

 

The wooden walls were soaked through with blood. The oven’s door was open wide, the body of what they remembered to be the cook was pushed inside, her stout legs dangling out. On the other side of the wall was Mr. Tracey, slumped over with his head disconnected from his neck, blood still gushing up from the stump where the tip of his spine poked out oozing spinal fluid. His head had rolled over onto its side and stared at Diana with glassed over eyes in a pool of gore.

 

Diana couldn’t speak.

 

“What the fuck?” Ricky said. The rest stayed silent. One of the teens whose name Casey couldn’t remember, ran back out, and vomited on the ground while the other nameless one assisted her.

 

Casey pushed herself further inside, trying not to gag. “What adults are left at this camp?”

 

Tony shrugged. “I have no idea where Mr. Hart went, but since Mrs. Mann and Mr. Tracey are…deceased, and the nurse hasn’t even arrived yet. We’re the only ones here.”

 

“That we know of.” Ricky moved away from the scene and stood against the doorway.

 

Casey dug the palms of her hands into her eyes, her fingers holding onto her head. Images of the bear human hybrid ripping apart a man and dragging him through the forest moved through her mind. Things were not fucking cool cool!

 

Jenn plunged her hand into her flannel’s pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. “At least I can finally have a smoke.” She said, popping one into her mouth, flicking the lighter at the tip for a spark.

 

“Give me that!” Casey ripped the lighter out of her friend’s hand, dropping it into her own pocket. “Two people just got massacred! We need to be serious about this! We need to get help!”

 

“Who died and left you in charge?” Ricky said.

 

Casey gestured towards the murder scene. “They fucking did! They fucking died! And I’m here trying to save our asses!”

 

“There has to be a phone here somewhere, one of those line wired ones at least.” Tony said.

 

Ricky leaned his body against him. “Mr. Hart should have one in his office. For whatever reason, they designed this camp to be so stretched out that walking there would be dangerous with a killer stalking us.”

 

Casey looked over towards Diana, who was ignoring each of them. Her arms wrapped around herself. Her eyes shut. Casey approached her. “Hey, you okay?” She hated it as soon as it left their mouth. The woman just stumbled on two murdered bodies, who is really okay in this situation?

 

She expected Diana to snap back at her, but all she did was shake her head. “I don’t know.” 

 

“I think Diana should go.” Jenn said.

 

Casey looked back at her, staying close to Diana. “What now?”

 

“We’re not walking our asses all the way over there in the dark to get murdered. Send the bitch out to get help, or killed, whatever happens first.”

 

“Now’s not the time to talk like that. We need to stay together.”

 

“We’re sticking together and sending her out. She’s on the archery team, she can bring her stuff to protect herself.”

 

“We can’t leave someone by themselves when there is a killer in the camp! Even I fucking know that!”

 

            “Then you go with her.” Ricky said.

 

            Casey shut her mouth and froze. She took a long breath, walking further into the murder scene, finding a long knife sitting on the countertop. “Fine, I will. But I’m bringing a weapon of my own, just in case.” She placed it blade down into her back pants pocket. Her hand reached for Diana’s arm. “Let’s go, we’ll stop at the rec shed to get your bow and arrows on the way.”

 

Diana nodded and followed her out. Casey turned back to the group. “We’re going to get her stuff out of the rec shed, go to Mr. Hart’s office, and we’ll come back to Cabin Seven to hide out with you all.”

 

            Growling intensified, coming from an unknown place.

 

            Casey jumped.

 

The group looked out into the darkness, Tony waving his hand. “Don’t worry about it, it’s just a bear.”

 

Casey didn’t answer him, and instead caught up with Diana. Their only light being the few bright lanterns which hung off wooden poles down the pathway. Soon, they flickered, and shut off completely.

 

Out of the recreational shed, they grabbed Diana’s bow and arrows along with a hip quiver strapped around her waist, and a working flashlight for each of them. The teenagers walked towards the other side of the camp. They kept their footsteps soft and slow against the dirt. Their path bounded in black, the only vision they had was a foot or two in front of them, illuminated from the glow of their flashlights.

 

“That story of the deer and the bear from earlier. You lied, didn’t you?” Diana said.

 

            “What makes you think that?”

 

            “Didn’t make sense, there was too much blood. Even though everyone else bought it, I felt like it was something more.” She waved the flashlight to her side, casting light on some of the trees and bushes, before moving it back in front of her. “Plus, I know by your shifty eyes when you’re lying.”

 

            “I didn’t think anyone would believe me if I said what it really was.”

 

            “Depends on what you say.”

 

             “There was a bear involved, and something was being dragged. But it was someone, and the bear was something that was naked, like its boobs and vagina were hanging out. But it was covered in fur and had paws, this weird half human half bear thing? And it killed someone off in the distance and dragged their body behind it as it left.”

 

            “Yeah, I would have totally said you were insane.” Diana said. “But after seeing a woman shoved in an oven and a man decapitated, I believe it now.” She casted her light to the side again.

 

            “Hey, about earlier. I’m sorry about Jenn, she’s not good at reading the room, or knowing how others are feeling. And I’m sorry for the fight earlier, maybe I did go too far on that one, Dickson.”

 

            Diana threw her arm up against Casey’s chest. Her beam stilled on a tree.

 

            “What?”

 

            “Something is watching us. I can feel it.” Diana said, lowering her arm.

 

            “Is it too much to wish that it’s just Kristen Stewart out in the woods?”

 

            Diana turned her head away, but Casey knew that she saw the woman smile. “That was such a fucking gay thing to say.”

 

            “I heard it from some lesbian Youtubers playing a horror game. I thought it would lighten the mood.”

 

            “Nothing really lightens the mood when there’s a half bear, half human serial killer out traumatizing you. I appreciate it though. I’m sorry too Carpenter, about the fight from earlier.”

 

            They continued their walk-in silence, stopping when Casey pointed her flashlight on Mr. Hart’s office door. “Well, we’re here. We’ll get in and get out.”

 

            She reached for the doorknob, turning it, and pushed the door open. It let out a long squeal.

 

            Ring. Ring.

 

            The phone rang.

 

            Casey bounced her flashlight around the room, honing in to the telephone which sat on the cluttered desk.

 

            Ring. Ring.

 

            “Don’t get that!” Diana said.

 

            “Why the fuck not? The phone works, we need help!” Casey walked over the creaking floorboards.

 

            Ring. Ring.

 

            “Don’t get it! I have a bad feeling about it! Haven’t you watched any horror movies ever!”

 

            Ring. Ring.

 

            “Of course, I have, but this isn’t a damn movie!” She hovered her hand over the phone.

 

            Ring. Ring

 

            She picked up the phone, raising it to her ear and lips. “Hello?”

 

            Heavy breathing blew out of the speaker, along with what sounded like powerful crunching and chewing and snorting. “Hello? Who is this?” Casey motioned with her hand for Diana to come in.

 

            Diana raised an eyebrow but moved inside. She slung her bow over her shoulder.

 

            The breathing, chewing, crunching, and snorting continued. 

 

            “Hello! We need help! Hello!” She thrusted the phone into Diana’s hand. “Listen!” She said through her teeth.

 

            Diana answered, her eyes sifting over at Casey. She slammed the phone down back onto the receiver, picking it back up after. “Now the line is dead.” She set the phone down and peered into one of the open drawers. She pulled it out further and both of them looked at the stack of porn magazines that were shoved inside. Naked women out in full display on the covers. “That sick son of a bitch.” She met Casey’s eyes. “I mean, nothing’s wrong with this kind of porn. But he shouldn’t have brought it with him to a children’s camp. You know what? I don’t even care if this man dies.”

 

            Bang!

 

            The door slammed behind them.

 

            “Fuck!” Diana said, trying to turn the doorknob, pushing against the door. “It won’t budge.”

 

            Casey took a step, her foot splashing in something. She looked down, moving her foot away. Where on the floor was a small puddle of red drops plopping down one by one.

           

 “Is that?” Diana pointed at it with her flashlight, raising the light up towards the ceiling.

 

            Casey rushed ahead and grabbed her, lowering Diana’s arm back down. She ignored the fact that Diana’s leather and vanilla scent smelled delightful. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You never raise the flashlight to where the blood is coming from, you’ll provoke whatever it is.”

 

            “I thought you just said that life wasn’t a movie?”

 

            “Since when have you ever listened to what I say?”

 

            “I’ve always listened, I just usually pretend that I don’t.”

 

            Above them, the ceiling cracked, pressure being exerted down onto the boards.

 

            Casey and Diana stood in the middle of the room, holding each other. Neither one dared to let out a breath.

 

            A splitting crash came from above them, a spray of sawdust and debris of wooden planks raining down. Most of it fell on top of Diana. She fell to the floor, crying out in pain. She found herself unable to move her left leg. And dangling down from the hole in the ceiling was now the torso, arms, and a head of the mutilated dead body of Mr. Hart.

 

“Shit!” Casey lowered herself down to lift Diana up. “Don’t worry, I got you.”

 

An ax pierced its way through the wall in the cabin, creating a large hole, which grew as the figure hacked away at the wood.

 

“Great, now it’s using a fucking axe!”

 

Diana winced. “Just leave me and get out of here!”

 

“Fuck that, I’m not leaving you!” Casey searched around, and noticed a gas tank on the other side of the room. “I got an idea.”

 

The figure sprinted into the room; a dark growl ripped out from its snout. The ax held high above the head, the glint of the metal reflected off its unblinking black eyes and gleaming square nose. The creature’s skin and fur were soaked in blood, the garbage and feces smell heightened. It charged towards Diana, who shielded herself with her arm.

 

Casey pulled the kitchen knife out of her back pocket and leapt at the killer, stabbing them repeatedly in the chest in uncalculated assaults. Blood squirted back onto her and in her mouth and eyes.

            

The creature brought down its ax, Casey’s upper arm only missing it by a fraction of an inch.

 

She fell. The creature stomped towards her.

 

            “Diana! Get through the hole it made!”

 

“I can’t! My leg!”

 

“Fucking get up and hop, crawl, anything just do it! I know you can, Diana! And throw over your bow and an arrow!”

 

            Diana cried out, pulling herself in a sitting position. She reached over her shoulder and slid the recurve bow across the floor, along with an arrow that had fallen out of her quiver. “One arrow isn’t going to be enough to take it down!”

 

Casey distracted the creature, mostly by running and swinging the knife towards it. She was shocked that the creature had lost lots of blood, but it still wasn’t deterred.

 

When she saw that Diana had managed to escape the cabin through the killer’s hole, she reached down and grabbed the bow and arrow, placing the nock of the arrow onto the bowstring. She pulled out Jenn’s light from her flannel pocket and flicked a flame onto the arrow’s tip. The orange glow spread from the tip to the plastic coating and onto the bowstring.

 

She fled through the cabin’s makeshift exit. When she got far enough of a distance, she remembered Diana’s archery presentation, and got into the stance, pulling the bowstring far back, pointing the arrow’s tip past the creature, and to the large gas tank. She prayed to a god she didn’t believe in that her plan would work.

 

The creature started out for her from inside the cabin and roared.

 

She let go and watched the arrow fly towards its target.

 

The creature stopped, as if expecting to have been hit. But after a few long painful seconds and Casey chanting under her breath for her desired outcome, nothing happened, and the bear snarled.

 

“God fucking dam-“

 

There was a loud explosion. The cabin blew up into an inferno.

 

The force was so great, it knocked Casey back a few more feet. Her face collided into the dirt.

 

She spit out the grass, stumbling back onto her feet. “Diana? Diana?”

 

“Over here.” She heard, making her way over behind a few of the trees, in perfect view of the entrance and only exit to the camp, where Diana laid across the ground, a pool of blood underneath her twisted leg and drenched through her pants.

 

Casey got down to the ground with her, clasping her hands over one of Diana’s. “It’s okay now, I killed it. It has to be dead. We need to get you out of here, you need medical help.”

 

In the distance, they heard a vehicle’s engine roar. They both looked up just in time to find the camp van racing away up the exit road.

 

“Hey! Hey!” Casey ran, but she stopped. There was no point, they couldn’t hear her, and they were going much too fast to reach them on foot.

 

“Fuck!” She kicked mud up into the air. “They fucking left us here! They took the only car here and fucking left us for dead! Taking the car, why the hell didn’t we think of that in the first place!”

 

“Just go,” Diana said. “Just leave me here to die. It’s not like you care, and that I have anything to live for anyway.”

 

            Casey stopped pacing, dropping back down to the ground on her knees to make proper eye contact with Diana, and for the first time, she noticed the trickle of tears down her cheeks. Some of which smeared her eyeliner. “What are you talking about? You have so much to live for! Your valedictorian, you gotta get to graduation to make your speech, get that diploma, make your way to that fancy school. Burn more bibles.”

 

            Diana closed her eyes. “I didn’t want any of those things, not really. Except to burn the bibles. Those were all things my parents forced me to do. To live up to what they expected out of me. And all I get left with is fake friends, and a heavy burden. Do you realize the trouble I got into just by getting my arm tattoos? The hate I get from them just by wearing what I want to wear? The only reason I even volunteered to come to this shit camp was to at least have a moment of escape before everything. My parents and everyone else just think I volunteered to get extra credit I don’t even need.” She looked over at Casey. “So yeah, just go, let me die and put me out of my misery.”

 

            “All this time, I thought, with your family, the way you acted, the awards, the good grades, the scholarships. I thought you had it made.”

 

            “Yeah, because my life is just a fucking paradise.” She broke eye contact. “I was always jealous of you actually. You didn’t have expectations on you. You were free to make your own choices. No matter how crazy they are. They’re yours. And for the longest time I hated you for that.”

 

            Casey sighed. “The only reason I was smoking on school property was because I was so stressed out from every last-minute project, essay, and every teacher telling me I had no future just before I was to be thrown out in the ‘real world.’” She finger quoted. “I needed an escape, and that was mine. My punishment was to either go to this camp to volunteer, or not graduate. I even tried to think of this hellhole as an escape too. A few extra moments out of school, before I have to really figure out what’s next.”

 

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I was so mean to you for no reason.”

 

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t know about your situation either.” They both squeezed each other’s hand. “You know, I’m just now seeing the cracks of your Little Miss Perfect persona. And I have to say, fake you was easy to hate, but the real you, when I saw glimpses of it tonight. That person was pretty cool. She’s really beautiful too.”

 

            Diana giggled. “You’re pretty handsome yourself.”

 

            Casey came closer to her. “And for the record, I don’t want to see you die, and I know you’ll make it out of here alive, at least with one real friend.”

 

            “Well,” Casey could see Diana staring down at their lips. “What if, I wanted this person you’re referring to to be more than just a friend?”

 

            Casey smirked. “I think they’re willing to give it a shot.”

 

            They both met each other in a kiss.

 

            When they pulled back, Casey left a lingering one on the top of Diana’s forehead. “I can’t have my new girlfriend bleed out. The medic cabin is a little ways away, but it should have some supplies. When we fix you up and get you out of here, we can figure out the future together. How does that sound?” Casey stood up, bending down to scoop up Diana. The heat of the nearby flames stung at her arms.

 

            Diana kissed her cheek. “It sounds perfect.”

 

            Flashes of white light blinked in Casey’s vision, she eyed the entrance and exit road, and noticed a car driving in.

 

            “Help!” She shouted.

 

            Diana gripped her arms around Casey’s neck tighter. “I bet it’s the nurse, Mr. Hart said he’d be coming in late.”

 

            Casey sprinted as fast as they could manage with Diana in her arms towards the car.

 

            Unaware of the figure escaping the cabin’s flames.

 

            The silver Honda Civic screeched to a halt. Casey ripped open the door to the backseat. “There’s no time to explain right now, we need to get her to the hospital quickly.” She said as she placed Diana across the seats, before she slid in the passenger seat, slamming the door shut.

 

            “Uh,” The nurse paused. “What about them?” He pointed through the windshield.

 

            Casey stared at the shadow figure approaching the car.

 

            She reached behind her and grabbed for Diana’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “You need to fucking go now, or else we’re all dead! Now! Now! Now!”

 

            The nurse raised his hands in a quick surrender. “Alright!” He put the car in reverse and backed up down the path. Orange hues danced around the windshield’s glass. “Where is Mr. Hart?”

 

            “Right now, he’s in hell for bringing porn around children but shoving bibles in everyone’s bunk!” Diana said.

 

            The flickering lights were so distracting, that Casey didn’t notice the figure’s actions, until an ax barreled through the glass, sending pieces through the air, and the nurse slumped over in the driver’s seat.

 

            The figure stomped towards the car.

 

            Casey let go of Diana’s hand, pulling the driver into her seat while she plopped down into his, smashing the gas pedal. The car flew backwards.

 

            The killer growled, its clawed paw hand fastened into the metal of the car, its hairy head banging into the window.

 

            “How the fuck does it not die?” She shook her head. She put the car in drive, and made a sharp right hand turn, looking towards the passenger side window and following the exit.

 

            The driver’s side window broke open, the creature’s paws wrapped around Casey’s throat, pulling her towards them. The claws poking into her neck. It opened its jaws and bit down on the side of her face. She screamed, blood seeping down.

 

            Diana took the remaining arrows out of her quiver, reached over, and rammed the sharp tips into the bear’s head repetitively. “Get the fuck off of them!”

 

It let go, surrendering its grip of the car, and disappeared.

 

Casey grew weak, her eyesight dizzy, as she raised a hand to her face, seeing the blood smeared on her hand and feeling the shreds of her own skin dangling. She felt a soft sensation wrap around her head as she tried focusing on the road.

 

Diana pressed the fabric of a Camp Clandestine shirt up against Casey’s head. “It’s gone. For good this time, I know it.”

 

Casey huffed, squinting her eyes. “I think the nearest hospital is like, like twenty minutes away.” Her words slurred.

 

Diana leaned closer, pressing kisses onto Casey’s skin. “Stay with me Casey,” Diana said into their ear. “Stay with me. We’re going to be okay. We’re gonna make it.”

 

Casey shut her eyes.



Outro: For the written version of the story you just heard and other Queer Ghoul originals, visit QueerGhoulPodcast.com.

The Queer Ghoul podcast anthology is an independent endeavor. If you enjoyed what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a review or rating and telling a fellow creature of the night about the show.

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Until next time, thank you for listening. Except for that thing over there that keeps staring at me and licking its fangs, you can go away.


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