Chapter Text
Sasha was asleep when the road switched to gravel, when the trees began to crowd around the car, and finally woke up when the path became unclear, leaving Max to wrestle with the map to find their destination.
Sasha blinked her eyes open slowly, her brow creasing, “Where are we?” Max grunted as he glared at the map, “Hopefully towards Lake Lilac.” Sasha yawned and pushed her seat back into a sitting position, “So how far we have to go?” Max squinted at the map, holding it close to his face, “About eight miles.” Sasha nodded, “Let’s switch. You’ve been driving since the last town.” Max nodded, “I stopped and got us a pack of water and some groceries. So we don’t, you know, die.” Sasha smiled and waited for Max to pull over before getting out of the car.
The sun had just begun to rise, and it was nearly seven. The sky was bleak and grey, promising another day full of snow. Sasha shivered as she walked around to the driver’s side of the car, constantly checking over her shoulder. Max snorted as he got out of the car, “What are you checking for?” Sasha shook her head, “The woods are fucking creepy!” Max rolled his eyes, “Whatever.” Sasha slid into the car, slamming the door shut next to her, cranking up the heat. Max dropped into the seat, pulling the door shut. Sasha grabbed the map, scanning over it, “Let’s do this.”
Sasha navigated through the bumpy forest road, Max trying and failing to stay awake. Sasha drove for nearly another hour before she saw an abandoned looking building. There were a few cabins around the largest building, and a lake dock just beyond the cabins.
Sasha gently shook Max’s shoulder, looking over at the cabin, “Max! Max, we’re here!” Max grumbled and rolled over to face the window. Sasha rolled her eyes and shook Max more violently, “Get up idiot! We’re here!” Max yawned and sat up, “God it feels like it’s been forever, how long has it been?” Sasha shrugged, “I mean, it wasn’t that long… It was only like an hour.” Max sighed, “You’re never driving again.”
Saha forced a smile, forcing back her thoughts telling her this might be where she would be for the rest of her life. “Ok, haha. You have anything we could use to like, fight off a murderer?” Max laughed and opened the glove box, rooting around until he hit the back, pulling out a small handgun and a dagger. Sasha’s mouth hung open, “How long have you had the gun? And where’d you get that fancy ass dagger?” The dagger was indeed fancy, it had a marble hilt with an intricate floral pattern carved into it tracing up the cover. Sasha pulled it off to see the razor sharp blade had a streak of marble running through it.
Max shrugged, “It was supposed to be a wedding gift.” Sasha nodded and grabbed at the blade, “Gimme!” Max rolled his eye and placed the hilt into Sasha’s palm, “Be careful with it. It can cut your fucking hand off.” Sasha nodded and reached around to the back seat, grabbing the two jackets, each with a flashlight in the pocket.
Sasha pulled her peacoat on and stuffed her dagger into her pocket, glancing back at Max as he replaced his hoodie with one that had a faux fur lining. Sasha smirked a little as she saw Max fumble with the gun, “You know how to handle that right?” Max shrugged, “Sort of?” Sasha rolled her eyes, “Never point it if you don’t intend to shoot, treat every gun as if it’s loaded, keep your hand off the trigger unless you are about to shoot, and always be mindful of what’s around you.”
(These are actual rules of gun safety, be careful kiddos)
Max rolled his eyes, “Yeah but how do you actually work it?” Sasha laughed a little, “Just pull the trigger.” Max nodded and stuffed it into his own pocket, “You ready to go?” Sasha nodded and sat still for a moment before forcing herself out of the car.
The air was cold and bitter, snow barely falling from the sky. Sasha walked over to Max and gripped his hand tightly before quickly moving towards the main cabin. Sasha stopped in front of the door, knocking softly before opening the door.
The lights were on, and different people sat scattered across the room, most sitting at tables. All but two of the people in the room looked about her age, and all sat completely frozen, their eyes trained on Max and Sasha. Before Sasha could say anything, a woman who looked about 30 spoke, “You kids have any weapons?” Sasha nodded numbly, pulling her blade out of her pocket and dropping it down to the ground. She saw Max standing still and nudged him a little causing him to pull the gun from his pocket and drop it beside Sasha’s blade.
The woman sighed and called across the room, “David we have some new kids to take care of!” The man, whose name was apparently David looked up from the clipboard in his hands and smiled at Sasha and Max, “Hello there! I need to have a small chat with you two for a moment if you don’t mind?” Sasha nodded and took Max’s hand, following the lanky man out of the cabin and into the snow.
Max leaned over to Sasha, still glaring at David, “I don’t like this.” Sasha shrugged helplessly, “It’s all we got.” Max sighed and continued trudging along the path. The snow had begun to come down harder, promising piles of snow by the next day. The walk to the next cabin was quick and when the trio entered it was surprisingly cold.
David spoke, “Sorry about the cold, we don’t have heat.” Max gave Sasha an angry look, which she brushed off. David kneeled beside the fireplace, setting some logs down and grabbing a lighter from the mantle. When the fire began to get going he moved to sit down on an old scraggly chair that had probably been plush and velvety at one point in time. He motioned for Sasha and Max to sit down on the equally weathered couch and they complied.
His voice was cheerful as he spoke, “Welcome to Lake Lilac! Specifically, Camp Campbell.” Max rolled his eyes, “Get to the point, what the hell is this place?” David’s eyebrows furrowed, “Language! This used to be a summer camp, but then an unfortunate um, incident happened and we lost some campers.. The owner, Cameron Campbell decided to convert this place into a hideout for runaway youths!” Max rose his eyebrows in suspicion, “That seems… odd.” David shrugged, “Well it’s the truth! Do you two have any bags?”
Sasha nodded and grabbed Max’s hand standing up, “We’ll go get them!” David raised a hand in protest, “Um, we can do that-” Sasha shook her head, maintaining her smile, “We’ll be ok.” David sighed and slumped into his seat, “Go see Gwen for your cabins. Sasha nodded and pulled Max out of the cabin and towards the car.
Sasha looked over at Max. His face was stuck in a pout, and snow stuck to his curly hair, framing his face like a halo. Sasha smiled absently and looked forward. The snow was hammering the small camp, it was definitely more snow than Sasha had ever experienced.
Sasha gripped Max’s hand tightly and started jogging towards the car. When Max caught up with her, he spoke, “Was that really necessary?” Sasha laughed and looked up at the sky, “Duh! Do you see all of this snow?” Max rolled his eyes, “I grew up in Cordonia.” Sasha crossed her arms, “Well I grew up in Rosescout.” Max shrugged and opened the trunk of the car. He pulled out two suitcases, and handed the larger of the two and handed it to Sasha, “There you go.” Sasha smiled, “Thanks.”
Soon the two were getting familiar with the cabin. It had two twin bunk beds, proving useless as the camp only had about 12 other people in it. Sasha placed her suitcase up against a wall and stared at the room. The whole thing was about half the size of her old room. It had a small desk with a chair pushed into it and a sitting chair. Max spoke first, “Those beds are fucking tiny.” Sasha snorted. Max whipped around and glared at her, “What?” Sasha laughed, “That’s the first thing out of your mouth? We’ll probably be here awhile, and that’s the first thing you think of?” Max shrugged, “I’m just saying.”
Sasha rolled her eyes and pushed past Max, easily pushing the two beds together into the middle of the room, creating two large mattresses. Sasha backed up and stood beside Max, “You want bottom or top?” Max shrugged, “Can we just share the top?” Sasha rolled her eyes, “Fine you whiny baby. The bottom is going to be my closet now.” Max shrugged, “Fine by me.”
Sasha smiled at Max and gave him a quick peck on the lips, “Thank you for being so calm through all of this.” Max grabbed her hands, which were cupping his face, “Your welcome.” Sasha gently slapped his arm, “Asshole!” Max gave her a small smile, “You love it.” Sasha smiled back, “Sure.” With that, she slipped away from his loose grasp and towards her suitcase. She started pulling items out of her suitcase before turning around to see Max standing with his arms crossed, “That’s all I get?” Sasha laughed and tossed a hoodie in his direction, “Have fun on the bottom bunk tonight!” Max sighed and slipped the hoodie over his head, “Where do you even get all of these hoodies?” Sasha rolled her eyes and continued to unpack.