The Curse of Camp Cold Lake

16

I followed the tiny voice to the lodge. I saw a girl perched on the wooden steps.

“Hey!” I called. “Hey! I was looking for someone! Can you help me?”

She kept singing, as if she didn’t see me. As I walked closer, I realized she was singing the Camp Cold Lake song in her tiny, light voice.

She had long curls of white-blond hair that flowed down the sides of her face. A pretty face, delicate and pale. So incredibly pale.

She wore a sleeveless white T-shirt and white short shorts. Snowflakes fell all around us. I shivered. But she didn’t seem to notice the cold.

She tilted her head from side to side as she sang. Her round blue eyes stared out at the sky. They reminded me of shiny blue marbles in her pale, pale face.

I stepped up in front of her. I brushed snowflakes from my forehead.

She didn’t turn to me until her song was finished. Then she smiled. “Hi, Sarah.” Her speaking voice was as soft as her singing.

“How-how do you know my name?” I stammered.

Her smile grew wider. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she replied. “My name is Della.”

“Della-I’m so cold,” I blurted out.

She rose to her feet. Turned. And pulled something out from behind the steps.

A white bathrobe.

She held it up and slipped it around my trembling shoulders.

Her hands were so light. I could barely feel them.

She helped me tie the belt. Then she stepped back and smiled at me again. “I’ve been waiting for you, Sarah,” she said. Her voice was a sigh, a whisper.

“Excuse me?” I cried. “Waiting-?”

She nodded. Her white-blond hair fluttered with every move of her head. “I can’t leave without you, Sarah. I need a buddy.”

I stared at her, trying to understand.

“Where is everyone?” I cried. “Where did everyone go? Why are you the only one here?” I brushed snowflakes from my eyebrows. “Della, how did it get to be winter?”

“You’ll be my buddy-won’t you, Sarah?” Her blue eyes burned into mine. Her hair glowed around her pale face.

I blinked. “I don’t understand-” I started. “Please answer my questions.”

“You’ll be my buddy, won’t you?” she repeated, pleading with those amazing eyes. “I’ve waited so long for a buddy, Sarah. So long.”

“But, Della-”

She started to sing again.

I shoved my hands into the pockets of the robe. I shivered. I couldn’t get warm. I couldn’t stop shaking.

Why was she singing the Camp Cold Lake song so sadly?

Why wouldn’t she answer my questions?

How did she know my name? And why did she say she’d been waiting for me?

“Della, please-” I begged.

Singing her strange, sad song, she floated up the wooden stairs to the lodge. Her hair shimmered, golden in the gray light. Swirls of fog curled around her as she moved.

“Oh!” I cried out when I realized I could see right through her.

“Della-?”

She floated over the stairs, tilting her head from side to side, singing in that breathy whisper of a voice.

“Della-?”

She stopped singing and smiled at me again. Snowflakes covered her blond hair. The fog still swirled around her.

I could see the dark shingles of the lodge through her body. I stared right through her.

“Sarah, you’re my buddy now,” she whispered. “I need a buddy. Everyone at Camp Cold Lake needs a buddy.”

“But-but you’re dead!” I blurted out.

Della is dead, I realized.

And I’m her buddy.

That means…

That means that I’m dead too!