Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The bus rocked across the gravel road, the monsters were far from the city now. Monstropolis was a fading memory, as they were on their way to camp spooky. The only thing around the road was walls of trees and the occasional gas station. The road was barren, with other cars being few and far between.

Oz and his friends, as the designated losers, sat at the front of the bus. The incarnation of fear sat next to Amira, who tapped furiously on her phone, most likely just playing a random mobile game. Oz looked over her shoulder to watch her play. If the sound of her angered taps wasn’t enough to tell it was not going in her favour then the bright red pop ups would. Oz scooted a bit to avoid her flaming hair. God he hoped the seats were flame retardant.

Oz heard the heavy rock, and could even make out the gravelled voice a middle aged singer. It was coming out of Amira’s earbuds. And boy was it loud. Like, so loud why bother having earbuds in loud. If Oz was to guess, he would say the music was distracting and causing her to mess up the game. But hey, who is going to tell a djinn with minor anger issues off? Not Oz, that’s for sure.

However, some of the other monsters on the bus would from the looks of it. A lot of monsters in the surrounding area did not look too happy as the annoyingly loud music [particularly the sentient skeleton who was sitting behind them, who somehow scowled despite not having skin] they could hear the music and were not happy about it.

A crumpled up piece of paper got thrown at Oz’s head, he wasn’t sure if it had been an accident and they were trying to hit Amira, or they had thought he was the one playing the music. Either way he just threw the piece of paper back. Now thinking about it, doing that could have very well provoked a fight which Oz was not looking for.

Luckily it didn’t. Although if it had that would have at least made the trip a bit more interesting.

Oz folded up, curled into his bag bored out of his mind. He looked dejectedly at Amira.

Oz had wanted the window seat.

Thinking that made him sound a bit childish but who cares.

Oz enjoyed looking out at the natural world. Maybe stare at some trees, if he’s lucky see a bird. It was reminiscent of a time, not too long ago. He sighed thinking about it. But that’s for a different time. Instead Oz was left just barely able to see the surrounding forests past Amira’s head. Every time Oz got in a position where he could see the woods better, Amira moved in his way. She was far too into her game to notice Oz’s plight.

Right now Oz was mildly peeved. Amira had rushed on the bus, and promptly sat there. Cheering about getting a window seat she wasn’t even gonna use! Oz thought about going to the other side of the bus but Brian was already fast asleep. Brian held his Switch loosely, like he had intended to play it but couldn’t hold his eyes open for even a minute.

Oz knew that if he woke Brian up and asked for the window seat the zombie would have complied [maybe begrudgingly]. And if he was being honest with himself Amira would too if Oz asked. They’re good friends that way. But in Oz’s mind that sounded so rude. Besides, Amira was happy and Brian looked so peaceful.

He didn’t even know what time it was. Oz, thinking he was cool or something, took his watch off in favour of some yellow wristbands he found on clearance. Looking at the yellow bands on his wrist he decided they still looked nice, even if they were practically useless.

He really didn’t pack anything. Well that’s a lie. He brought quite a few things to pass time, but they were all things for when everyone else was asleep. He definitely wouldn’t bring his sketchbook out for the public to see.

Oz didn’t have anything to do on his phone either, unlike Amira who had the latest model Oz was stuck with an old fashioned Nokia. The type of phone one uses to call and text and nothing else. It was not really a choice thing, and more of a “what can Oz afford” thing.

He didn’t want to disturb his friends either. They all were doing their own things, afterall. He didn’t wanna be that annoying person on the bus who can’t just sit still and be quiet.

The phobias on his arms desperately tried to fight for his attention. Thalassophobia was screeching, open-mouthed but silent. Oz could only guess this outburst was due to phasmophobia hitting them earlier. They sometimes acted really immature. Oz tried to hide his laughter, but it didn’t work too well. Thalassophobia poked its tongue out and disappeared into Oz’s body.

They were all probably just as bored as him anyway. He thought about bringing out one of the books he packed, but those were to pass time while the others slept. He didn’t bring that many and had to make them last the entire summer.

Oz looked out the window once more. The trees rushed past in the window. He thought back to camp and started getting excited again. It was a rare moment where the thoughts in his head weren’t him thinking up worse case scenarios.

Oz was used to nature, he had spent eons in it. But after he left to join monster society he never really looked back. And boy was Oz excited.

This was Oz’s first time in nature since joining monster society, and he was gonna make it count. He was going to do arts and crafts, tell spooky stories around a campfire, and even hike with an actual map! Oz had ‘hiked’ before but never with a direction in mind.

But best of all? Oz would be doing it all with his best friends.

As cheesy as that sounded, Oz was honestly just looking forward to spending time with them. They had spent the past school year together, afterall.

They didn’t need anyone else.

That went for prom as well. Actually, at first his friends had been a bit bummed out without dates, but Oz let them know they could have just as much fun hanging out together, and they sure did. Vicky tore up the dance floor, Amira spiked the punch, and Brian, well Brian fell asleep.

But that didn’t matter cause once he woke up they all spent the rest of the night together, raiding a convenience store and watching various movies until the sun came up.

Oz smiled thinking about it. Then he thought for a moment remembering it was his house they crashed at and they left a huge mess, Oz still has what he thinks is a queso stain on his couch. Though, it was still an amazing night.

And summer could be just like it. Oz smiled thinking about the same zany scenarios and wacky situations the four could get in. They only had so much summer before school started again.

It was the four of them against the world. And there was a lot of world to worry about.

Now thinking about it there was a real reason to worry about his friends. Their wacky scenarios more often than not landed the four of them in serious trouble. They had what you call a knack for it.

Oz tried not to think about what could go wrong, but of course his brain was literally made of fear so what can you do?

About a thousand different scenarios went through Oz’s head.

Oh Gods, actually what if Amira got too headstrong at the colosseum, messing with the wrong people? Oz had seen that place on the news a couple times, never for anything good. What if Vicky wasn’t careful while doing wood sculptures, got a cut and there weren’t any bandaids left so her cut got infected and she died very slow and painfully? How many bandaids did Oz pack? Did he pack enough sunscreen? Brian never brings any and he doesn’t want the UV rays of the sun to hurt the zombie.

Whilst Oz silently broke down Vicky managed to get his attention. Either she was blissfully unaware of Oz’s near panic attack or she deliberately tried to distract him. Either way Oz was thankful.

Vicky showed him a map.

It was a cartoonish rendition of what the campgrounds looked like. Very simple, but easy to understand. Oz didn’t know if Vicky had made it herself, or if she got it from the camp manual.

“So, Oz,” Vicky started up “I was thinking we should totally go to as many places as soon as possible so we can get a feel for them.” Oz nodded along. “I was thinking we could head to the lake first, but Amira probably wouldn’t like that” Vicky was rambling “Then i thought the colosseum would be fun but that wouldn’t be a good idea to do first in case one of us, you know,” she dramatically acted out her neck being sliced. Oz let out a small huff of laughter. Yes, that was definitely not his idea of a good time.

Vicky’s talking lasted the rest of the bus ride, she only paused to take breaths, and even then she avoided breathing like the plague so she wouldn’t have to stop.

When the bus finally came to a halt. Finally, they had gotten on the bus in the morning and it was well into the afternoon when they arrived. Vicky looked disappointed.

“I didn’t even get to the part about Juan,” She said, looking down “That was really important.”
Oz just chuckled.
“I’m sure if something important comes up with Juan I’ll find out.” Oz stood up, placed his bag on his back and started to head off the bus. Only to get flanked from behind by every other monster on the bus, who were all sick of sitting and playing ice breaker games. He fought for his life as he got pushed to the entrance and was promptly knocked to the floor.

It was a painful five minutes or being trampled by dozens of monsters who either didn’t notice him or didn’t care.

Off the bus Oz laid, trampled. Face first in the dirt. God, yep, it definitely hurt a lot but at least Oz had regenerative powers, and no bones. So nothing broken, or permanently damaged. It would stop being painful after a few minutes. But for now he was content to stay on the floor and let his body sort it out.

Amira and Vicky were part of the group who rushed out [but tried their best to avoid their friend]. Oz was sure they had been racing, or they would have helped him up. Those two get blinded by competition.

Brian was the last off the bus, sensibly waiting until the mob of restless students were gone. He noticed Oz, who was face down on the road and helped Oz back onto his feet.

Standing up, Oz brushed the dirt off of his clothes. There were a few marks, and a rather large dirt stain the shape of a footprint was on the back of his shirt. Man that sucked, he liked the shirt. It was his favourite colour, and was brand new too. So brand new that his pants and yellow sneakers hadn’t been coated in a black tar like every other one of his outfits. It was something his lower half just did, and it was annoying that the one time he splurged on a new outfit it gets ruined.

He brushed himself off before turning to where brian had been, only to notice the zombie had abandoned him in favour of following the crowd. Not one to enjoy being left behind, Oz hurried after everyone.

His friends were all at the back of the gathered crowd. Everyone on the bus was standing around waiting for something. Oz’s friends looked around as if they were searching for something. Amira noticed him first.
“Oz!” She yelled “Get over here there’s some sort of introduction about to start.” Even with her rather loud shouting, she was almost drowned out by the noise of all the surrounding commotion. If Oz’s hearing wasn’t naturally enhanced he probably wouldn’t have heard her.

Oz, not one to waste time rushed over. And not a moment later an unusual wave of silence took over the students. Oz could barely see over the head of the tall gargoyle in front of him. But Oz could just make out the figure of the camp director. She was on the taller side, the white bun on her head was reminiscent of a white spider. On theme as she was a spider monster. To her right was a familiar tiger, Coach, to her left were a group of other faculty Oz did not know. One was a sentient, man-sized chameleon.

“Good afternoon campers,” The camp director started, “My name is Miss Weaving, if you behave we can all get along,” A couple monsters to Oz’s left snickered, probably already planning something Miss Weaving scowled at them “If not, I will not hesitate to take direct action.” She whipped her bottom left hand with her cane. Her cold tone showed she was serious.

Silence came from the group next to Oz.

“Good,” Miss Weaving smiled, “Now, as for today you will leave your items here, you will do your first activity in this camp and then you will meet back here to discuss sleeping arrangements, any questions?”

No one spoke a word, although some lich coughed.

Miss Weaving just smiled. Only 5 minutes in and the camp was scared of her, this had to be a new record.

“Return here in 3 hours, I expect none should be late.” When a few campers nodded in her direction she waved everyone off to dismiss them.

Oz wasn’t sure exactly what time it was, but it was the afternoon definitely. He just had to make sure they all got back quick.

Oz looked over and saw the beginnings of another crowd rushing his way. Oz had learned his lesson and decided to retreat into his shadow before being annihilated by the oncoming onslaught of feet. He probably should have grabbed Brian, Amira and Vicky and pulled them down there too, but he understood that death was inevitable. Oz would live so he could tell their story.

Oz poked his head out of the ground, only to not see anyone. And not just the lack of a crowd, that’s a welcomed sight in Oz’s books, he couldn’t see his friends either. Serves him right for having abandoned them. As he reformed from the shadow, he tried to look around the general area. Surely at least Brian wouldn’t have run off.

Whilst looking behind a bush large enough to hide a narcoleptic zombie Oz was interrupted.

“Young man,” Oz turned and saw Miss Weaving, with Coach behind her. Whilst Weaving had an indignant scowl, Coach had an inviting smile on his face.

“Yes ma'am?” Oz let out, he only became more nervous as he saw Weaving flinch from his telepathic voice.

“Did you not hear me? You should be heading off to an activity.” She emphasised her sentence as she hit the palm of her bottom left hand with her cane.

“I’m sorry ma’am,” Oz sputtered out “I just got separated from my friends.”

“No excuses.” Weaving looked like she was going to continue, but Coach spoke over her.

“That’s no matter, Oz,” It’s just like Coach to remember the names of every single student, even one as naturally quiet as Oz, “You can just join in on my nature hike, I’m sure you can make plenty of friends; after all a good walk is the glue that bonds monsters together.”

Oz visibly flinched. NOPE. Not only was that statement untrue and frankly embarrassing, Oz did not want to go on a walk in the woods with a bunch of strangers. Especially highschoolers who would sense Oz’s weakness from a mile away. Oz may have wanted to broaden his horizons and what not, but the anxiety from being in a new scenario with a group of new people threatened to throw Oz into a full blown attack.

Of course, Miss Weaving noticed Oz’s emotional state, and as she was an authority figure over high schoolers she obviously required a power trip.

“Why of course Coach, that’s a wonderful idea.” And before Oz could try to argue Miss Weaving had walked off and Coach dragged him by the arm towards the entrance to the woods.

Oz knew he had one chance left to shadow jump away, and just come out of Vicky’s shadow or something. But, he also didn’t want to disappoint Coach. Oz just sighed and accepted his fate.

Once they had reached it Oz’s fears were finally confirmed, his friends weren't there. It was a group of people Oz recognised from Spooky High. Oz wasn’t that good with names, but he bet if he tried he could guess them. However, there was also a reaper that Oz did not recognise. Whoever they were, they weren’t paying attention to Oz’s less than good entrance, too busy staring at their phone. In fact, none of them really were looking in his direction.

After a moment Oz realised the reaper was filming. Two demons were fighting, or well having a competition of sorts. As far as Oz could tell they were taking turns punching a tree. The blue one had just punched a tree so hard it almost tipped over. One of the demons was buff, blue and wearing a crop top, and the other was a red demon with a broken horn.

The red demon seemed to be losing, and was whining about it.

The whining made Oz realise who the two were. Damien and Dahlia.

Damien was part of the popular kids, which was made of 6-8 people depending on who you asked. Everyone at school knew the group. But in Oz’s books they were intimidating and should not be interacted with unless you want to be murdered.

Dahlia was his rival or something. Oz didn’t pay that much mind to them. He didn’t even know why they fought so much.

They brawled all the time in school, especially when Oz was trying to focus. One time, during a math test Dahlia started a fight or something. In the end the classroom burned down and the test was rescheduled.

Oz found their fights more of an annoyance than anything, mostly just trying to avoid them in school. Hopefully he’d just be able to do that on the hike as well.

Coach cleared his throat, getting the attention of the campers. And Oz’s arm was still in his iron grip. Okay everyone was staring at them and Oz felt his face flush. Oz finally pulled himself out of Coach’s grip, trying his hardest to just blend into the crowd.
A few monsters stared at Oz. His face flushed at the attention.

Oz decided his best bet from that point was to just remain silent, and at the back of the group.

Coach went through a small safety seminar. Oz looked around the group. This was a [mostly] voluntary hike but everyone in the group looked like they didn’t want to be there. Well, except for Dahlia, she looked pretty pumped.

Oz only realised Coach had finished talking when he heard a gate creek open. It was an awful noise, really. The hinges were definitely rusted over. This camp should really invest in oil.

It seemed that Oz’s peers had a serious nack for rushing into things, as they all ran into the woods, Oz had to pick his pace up just to keep up with everyone. Maybe they thought this was a race.

The hike went fine. After a while everyone slowed down to a walking pace.

Coach was at the front of the group, explaining to the best of his abilities the flora and fauna of the area [always circling it back to bears somehow] whilst no one paid attention. Maybe they did honestly think this was a run, only to be disappointed by the peaceful hike. Oz himself would have humoured the man, but honestly it was really boring.

It didn’t help that the hike was hours long, with hours worth of walking.
Oz was, to his word, at the back of the group, just barely following along. He could shadow jump away, but he found himself not wanting to. The view was beautiful. He should do this hike again, but with his friends.

There were natural flowers that surrounded the group. The forest litter crunched beneath Oz’s feet. The trees overhead blocked out most of the sky, only a sprinkling of light peered through.

Nature really could be pretty when you admired it and weren’t just hunting for lost campers to feed on their worst nightmares.

In front of Oz seemed to be the only other person enjoying the hike. It was the reaper from earlier, they were taking selfies with any mildly interesting plant they came across. The lighting seemed to be good, or it could just be they were a professional at this. They seemed to actually be enjoying the scenery.

“Ugh,” Nevermind the reaper suddenly frowned, “There’s no animals. My followers definitely want to see animals on a nature hike.”

Oz definitely felt bad about that as it was certainly his fault. Animals naturally tried to avoid Oz, as the embodiment of fear he had a certain aura around him that smart animals tended to avoid.

“There’s nothing of anything!” He heard a certain red demon say. Okay the reaper knew Damien. Oz didn’t know what to make of that, but it seemed like nothing back was going to happen at that moment, and Oz really didn’t care about whatever conversation the two were going to have.

Oz started tuning the world out, particularly the voices of annoying campers.

Oz sighed, and closed his eyes for a moment to bask in a ray of sunlight that made its way through gaps between the leaves. It was nice.

A welcome bout of warmth became overbearing. Oz also realised he could hear screaming.

Nothing ever could just remain peaceful and nice around Oz, could it?

Oz reluctantly opened his eyes, the entire forest in front of him was on fire. There was a wall, and through the flickering flames Oz could see the rest of the campers. They were, to Oz’s dismay, running away.

Now, Oz has regenerative powers and could’ve walked through. But he really didn’t want to ruin his clothes. He doesn’t have that many others packed.

Also, fire still hurts and Oz didn’t feel like having his skin melt.

He heard laughter, and could see what caused the fire. Fucking Damien Lavey. Of course it was Damien. The demon was annoying enough in school and now he was burning the entire forest down. Oz really wanted to ask why, and what was so wrong with this walk that he had to go and light a row of bushes on fire?

The demon, still laughing obnoxiously, didn’t even see Oz glaring at him.

Looking at it again the fire wasn’t that big, only over a couple bushes that were on the larger size. It was just the flames that climbed high. It created a wall of fire. It was almost beautiful in a way. Bright colours against the sunset.

But, Oz didn’t want it to spread out any further. Who knows what it could do. Or hurt. He tried to snuff it out by using his hands to blow it down. His arms got a bit burnt, but it barely hurt and would heal itself in half an hour.

A couple loose embers landed on Oz, much to his dismay. His shirt got a bit singed. Oz sighed heavily. He knew he was doing the right thing but at what cost?

The fire wasn’t even going out. He hated doing it but with no other option Oz dropped it into a shadow. The shadow dimension wasa cold place, and the walls were weirdly wet, so the fire would last minutes at most. Although it was always a pain to clean up objects in it, especially biological ones. It also didn’t help that there were multiple bushes. God Damien was annoying.

With the fire gone Oz refocused on joining the group. It seemed that was going to pose another difficulty.

Oz could hear Coach’s voice. It was distant, and Oz could barely hear as Coach directed all the monsters back to the camp as a safety precaution. The worst part was Oz couldn’t see him. That was definitely not a good thing.
“Aw but we just got here.” He heard Dahlia whine. He couldn’t even get the general direction because the group was moving and the maniacal laughter coming from behind him. It seemed no one noticed Damien and Oz were missing.

Now it seemed they were in the woods alone.

Well. Actually Oz could just shadow jump. He could’ve done that hours ago and avoided this stupid hike which burnt his stupid shirt.

Before he headed off he turned back to Damien, who was just finishing off this weird fit of laughter. Oz hoped Damien got the need to burn shit out of his system. He wasn’t going to deal with even more shit in the shadow realm that he’d need to clean later.

“Did you see that?” The demon asked, wiping tears away “Fucking hell that was funny, Milo.” Damien then turned to look at Oz, who was not in fact Milo. “You aren’t Milo.”

That was true, Oz was not Milo [who Oz presumed was the reaper Damien talked to earlier]. He continued to glare at Damien.
“They went back to camp, along with everyone else, after you started the fire.” Oz raised his telepathic voice a bit, hoping to scare the demon a bit for revenge. Instead, Damien didn’t even flinch. Weird, usually monsters do that when Oz talks to them for the first time.

“Oh,” Damien looked disappointed. “Well then I’m going back to camp noob, which way is it?”

That was a good question that Oz did not have the answer to. Also what kind of insult was noob? Was that just what Damien called people he didn’t know the name of?

Okay that’s not important right now.

“Do you have a map?” Oz asked and to his surprise Damien nodded and through a piece of crumpled paper at Oz. It was obvious the map had been given to him, but he didn’t want it.

Opening it Oz had to realise a fact about himself. He did not know how to read a map. That was Vicky’s thing. Oz would just nod along to whatever she said. All he knew was that there were the woods and that they were in it.

Oz looked up at Damien “Do you know how to read a map?” His voice quivered when saying it. Honestly he didn’t have high hopes.

“What, No!?” Damien looked like he was ready to light Oz on fire “What kind of nerd do you take me for, just get us out of here!”

Oz thought about it for a second. He could easily get them both out through shadow hopping, but he didn’t want to be treated like the demon’s personal chauffeur for the rest of camp. But then again, the sunset was basically over at this point and it was almost night. He really didn’t want to be in the wilderness until the morning.

Plus he was hungry, and Oz didn’t really want the demon to see him feed.

Oz sat on the ground, trying to figure out how to read the map and avoid becoming nothing more than a glorified taxi service. Damien sat down near him, but a fair distance away.

Oz spent thirty minutes scribbling on the map, trying to figure out where they were and what they could do to leave. He already learned that Damien didn’t also have a compass. Oz sighed, dejected, angry, tired and hungry. Looking over at Damien it seemed the demon felt the same.

The demon was furiously typing on his phone, mumbling that the service wasn’t working. Although from what Oz could gather, negative emotions in Damien lead to various objects being on fire. From what Oz knows from school people were included on that list and Oz really didn’t feel like being lit on fire.

The map turned blurry and Oz looked out into the bushes for a moment. Oz saw a curious squirrel, that tilted its head at him. At that point he didn’t even care if Damien saw him feed. It had been over a week since his last meal, and his negligence was catching up.

Oz grabbed the random squirrel that wasn’t smart enough to run from literal fear itself. He cracked it in a way similar to how someone else might open a soda. It was a dumb way to eat fear. Usually it was more a metaphysical devouring. Oz would just feed off the essence. And Oz would never eat the primal fear of an animal usually [it’s not nearly as filling as other fears, more like a snack], but gosh darn it he was hungry and sick of these stupid woods.

Damien just kind of stared Oz down. His expression was that of someone who was impressed, but never would admit it. When Oz looked at Damien the demon quickly turned away, pretending he never saw.

Oz turned back to the map and realised it would take a lot more than a single squirrel to power him through the night.

Oz sunk down a bit, into his shadow.

Wait.

Somehow, Oz got so caught up in learning to read a map like his summer fantasies he forgot he could go through shadows. Like, that’s the power he uses the most and he forgot about it. Again, he does not enjoy taking basically strangers through it but he was willing to make an exception if it meant he gets out of these woods quicker.

Looking up at Damien he said “Look I don’t enjoy taking random people through shadows, but I can make an exception since that’s our only choice.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Damien stared at Oz. Oz realised he shouldn’t just say things and expect people to understand. Especially with no context, so he decided to elaborate.

“Its simple,” Oz stood and motioned for Damien to follow which the demon actually did, “I push you back into your shadow and you appear at the campsite.” Oz made a pushing motion. He waited for the demon’s okay.
“No.” Okay. Not necessarily what Oz was expecting.
“But we’ll get back to camp?”
“You aren’t fucking knocking me over, noob” Damien pushed Oz backwards, who then landed on his ass, “I’ll push you back into your goddam shadow.” the demon grumbled.

Oz kind of looked up at Damien, then back at the map and thought to himself, does he really want to deal with this today? Does he really want to spend who knows how long in here with this asshole. In fact, why is he even bothering to help Damien when the demon seems less than grateful about it.

Oz stood back up.

“You know what?” Oz said “Find your own way back to camp.” He walked towards the nearest tree. The good part about it being night is there were shadows basically everywhere.

“What the fuck?” Damien yelled at Oz, who was in the middle of hopping through a tree “You can’t just abandon me, Asswipe!”

Like hell Oz can’t.

Travelling through the shadow realm Oz found the campsite. The fire was still going strong, and pretty much the entire camp seemed to be gathered around it. Except Oz couldn’t see Vicky, Amira or Brian. It was at that moment Oz felt incredibly guilty. They were probably worried sick. He decided to pull himself out of his shadow fully, until he really stared into the campfire.

He thought about Damien for a second. Who was still in the woods. Alone, and had absolutely no way to get back to the campgrounds on his own.

It may have been the demon’s own fault, but if he was lost in the woods that very much could be a death sentence. Especially as Oz still had the map. Oz felt kind of bad for a moment, but decided to push onwards. He didn’t need to do anything.

That was until Autophobia started squealing at Oz, and pointing into the direction of the woods. Either it sensed fear, or was worried, or Oz left something in the woods.

Oz decided just to send the phobia out as a scout. Only to check on the demon.

Weirdly, the last time Oz sent his phobias out as scouts three of them went missing, so he’d tried to cut down on doing that. But he was the king of making exceptions today, and so of autophobia went.

Oz waited, and waited.

After a good 10 minutes Oz knew Autophobia wasn’t coming back. So Oz went back to Damien. Just to get the phobia, and make sure the demon wasn’t already dead. Nothing more.

Although, when Oz went to the spot he left Damien he was met with a pathetic site. And through his shadow he saw Damien, just slumped against a tree, trying to type something on his phone. Of course, it had already been established that there was no phone service. Damien just seemed to be either desparate, stupid, or both.

Oz locked eyes with autophobia, who was in the middle of jumping back onto Oz’s body. Then Oz looked up to Damien.

Oz sighed. Then sighed again. Oz, unfortunately, was not a cruel person. Well, not anymore at least. The demon was annoying but Oz couldn’t leave him.

So Oz appeared again, out of his shadow and in front of Damien, who jumped back before regaining his composure.
“What are you doing back here?” Damien asked, trying very hard to look nonchalaunt as he was curled against a tree. It was not convincing.

“Listen, do you want me to take you back to camp?” Oz said, point blank. It shouldn’t have to be that complicated really. In and out and the two could go their separate ways.

“I’m not letting you push me into your weird shadow dimension, creep.” Damien snarled, before lighting a couple sticks on fire for warmth or light, or just in anger. Oz really can’t read this guy.

Well you can’t say Oz didn’t try. He was about to go back into his shadow before Damien grabbed his arm.

“Wait!” The demon exclaimed, “Can’t you just like, show me which way camp is?” He looked embarrassed to be asking.

Oz thought about it for a second. He was honestly no good with directions. Shadow jumping did most of that, all Oz really had to do was know his desired destination. He was about to say that before he had an idea.

Oz always used the phobias to scout, why not just do that again? It didn’t seem like phobia-napping was going to be an issue tonight. Oz released hemophobia and ophidiophobia, and they ran to the left. Damien just looked on, dumbfounded, he hadn’t actually seen Oz’s phobias before.
“What are those, how did you do that, why?”
Ignoring the first two questions Oz answered “They have a better sense of direction than me,” Oz started following them, “Come one, I’m only doing this so you don’t die in the woods.”

Damien rushed after Oz cursing, “I wouldn’t have died, in the morning I would have gotten up and found my way to camp.” Oz just rolled his eyes, content to just let the demon be “I just wanted to make sure I conserved energy in the night.” Oz didn’t dignify him with an answer. Instead, rolling his eyes. The demon noticed this.

“Fucking noob, I’d last 10x as long as you in here.” Damien wished, he wished he could last as long as Oz.

As Damien continued to ramble on, Oz stayed silent.

God he hadn’t realised how far into the woods they were. Why were the phobias so fast too? Damien also seemed to be having a hard time keeping up.

They ran a small distance behind the phobias, a much different pace than the peaceful hike.

They reached what seemed like the edge of the woods, and crept through the foliage. They eventually made it to the gate at the entrance. Damien ran out first, determined to beat Oz to the campfire. Which the incarnation of fear realised was being put out.

They made it over. Damien doubled over, out of breath and covered in sweat. The demon had a single leaf on his head, which if Damien weren’t so annoying Oz might find endearing. Oz had the benefit of not having lungs or sweat glands. But he most certainly was covered in leaves and other forest crud. Whatever Oz said about liking hikes he takes back. They suck.

Their arrival caught the attention of a familiar figure.

“Oh,” Coach looked surprised, “You two finally came out of the woods.” The man had the audacity to laugh.
“We got lost.” Oz said, he was already peeved from dealing with Damien for the past few hours.
“Impossible,” Coach smiled, “If you followed my advice you would have found camp from nothing but the mould on the trees.”

Oz didn’t feel like arguing with Coach, and it’s hard to be mad at the man, so instead he sighed and decided to try and find his friends. As Oz started walking away a familiar and terrifying voice called out.

“Where do you think you’re going young man?” Miss Weaving called out. Oz’s eyes widened, no no no she was going to do something awful, “I thought I was clear to return to the campgrounds hours ago. This is the second time I’ve reprimanded you, what’s your name?”

Damien, who took this as his queue, unfurled himself, and stood up straight. He looked confused “I don’t remember being told off already, but-”
“Not you,” Miss Weaving cut him off and pointed to Oz, “You, what’s your name?”
“Oz,” he said, his telepathic voice wavered. Oz absolutely hated being berated by anyone. Especially authority figures. It was just unpleasant and made him feel like crap.

Oz looked over to Damien, the demon looked confused that someone other than him was getting in trouble for a situation he definitely caused.

“And, I assume you are this troublemaker’s friend?” Weaving got their attention, turning her attention to Damien.

“No.” The two said at the same time.

At first Miss Weaving looked taken aback. Then she smiled. Oz had already learned it was not good when she smiled.

“Perfect,” This was not going to be perfect, “Before you came back tent groups were sorted out, so that means you two will have to bunk.” Oz was just surprised Weaving didn’t start cackling, since she was choosing to be so vindictive.

Before Damien could start spewing expletives, or burning shit, she was already walking away.
“Fucking hell,” Damien shouted “God Dammit” he lit a fire in his hand. Damien looked ready to throw it. Oz decided not to make the demon any angrier and made a quick escape. The demon just needed a cool down period or whatever.

Whilst waiting, Oz decided he should go catch up with Amira, Brian and Vicky. He might not be able to bunk with them, but he definitely wanted to see his friends. Maybe ask how their day went. Hopefully a lot better than his.

Chapter Text

Damien did not think he had a good first day of camp. In fact, he would go as far to say it was bad.

Yesterday he had agreed to go on a hike with Milo, of course that was just so they could get photos and shit for their followers. The hike was boring, Coach was blabbering about bears, Damien lit some bushes on fire. You know, the usual hijinks.

Of course, it was usual until Damien got lost with the worst monster in the world. Some loser he’d never even seen before then that put his fire out and got them lost in the woods. Damien fucking hates nature too, there's not enough action. It's just quiet, and boring, and obnoxious, like the stupid noob.

And of course the noob, being the bane of Damien’s existence for the entire six hours they’d known each other, was already in hot water with the camp spider lady. So she punished them, and now Damien was stuck in the tent with a fuckass.

Stupid fucking…

Uh, Damien didn’t actually know the name of the monster [he thinks it was mentioned at some point]. Honestly though, just knowing he was annoying and a loser was enough in Damien's book.

Worse yet, right after getting the sentence, the noob ran off cause they’re a weak coward who can't handle shit.

Sure Damien watched them eat a squirrel, but to be honest big whoop! Scott does that all the time. And the werewolf at least has the dignity to share.

Damien was so pissed off at the situation he spent half an hour burning shit, which may or may not have included some random tent.

It took quite a bit to burn the energy out of his system, and it was well into the night by the time Damien started heading back to the tent. The demon mostly expected it to be taken over, probably already smelly too from noob stench, but it was empty. The noob was avoiding him, good. More tent for Damien.

At the tent Damien unpacked his shit, went through his usual skincare routine, and got into his sleeping bag ages before the noob even showed up.

He pulled out his phone, not quite tired yet. So he watched a couple shitty makeup tutorials on youtube. Damien didn’t need them but it was funny to see how trash everyone was compared to him. One of the so called ‘makeup artists’ called a regular winged eyeliner a cat eye look.

Damien chuckled, his mood slightly changed from how pissy he was before. He felt marginally better and turned his phone off, noticing the noob still wasn’t there.

Oh well, probably for the best anyway.

All he could hope was the next day would be better.

--
And, he jinxed himself.

Maybe this is what people meant when they said “knock on wood”.

Damien woke up. The night before he’d had the weirdest dream, it had something to do with crabs. It wasn’t anything important, but boy did it make Damien unreasonably angry.

Damien looked over, the noob’s stuff was there but it seemed he'd already woken up and left to get breakfast or something. Good riddance.

Speaking of breakfast, Damien’s stomach growled at the prospect of food. The last meal he ate was a snack on the bus yesterday.

Damien searched through his bag, his dads packed it because Damien didn’t want to. So he didn’t actually know what was in it. There were some items he wasn’t sure what were for, but it didn’t matter right then. He just grabbed a pair of shorts, and some shirts to layer.

Damien pulled out his phone to use as a mirror. God his eye bags were not good today. To cover that up he put on a simple makeup look and left, but no amount of makeup was going to fix the throbbing headache he had.

For the entire walk he was muttering to himself, he was so mad he didn’t even light a group of campers who were in his way on fire. Instead he yelled at them to scram. Which they did, and their faces were funny, but it was nowhere near as satisfying as lighting them on fire would have been.

He made it to the mess hall in one piece, at a table in the middle were some of his friends, Polly Milo and Vera. He went to the seat across from Vera. He didn’t mean to, but Damien found himself glaring at Milo, who was next to him. It took a moment but they looked up from their phone.

“What?”
“What do you mean what?” Damien almost yelled “You abandoned me in the woods!” Milo rolled their eyes.
“You started a fire and ruined the lighting,” They turned back to their phone, “There wasn’t a reason for me to stay.”

They ended their part in the conversation by taking a selfie. Totally ignoring Damien, who looked ready to start a fit. Before he could slam any heads into tables, or start any fires in the cafeteria, Vera noticed him and turned from her breakfast for a moment.

“How did that go for you anyway?” She looked at her nails, nonchalant, “You didn’t show up to the campfire.”

Damien thought carefully about what he was going to say next. Vera took a bite of her meal, and Damien looked off to the side.

“I got lost.” Polly burst out into laughter, the demon became annoyed and turned to her “But it was totally this asshole's fault, he couldn’t read a map and tried to walk off without me.”

As Damien thought about that asshole of a monster he balled his fist up and slammed it into the table. That fucking asshole, get's Damien lost and then tries to leave just to come back cause he thinks Damien's weak. Well Damien isn't fucking weak, he's way stronger than that asshole. So what is he could teleport? Damien can light fires, and stab. Two skills that are way more important than 'wilderness survival' or travelling through gross ass shadows.

“And who was this?” Vera almost looked interested, but was probably just trying to keep Damien from punching a hole in the table.
“Just this,” Damien didn’t actually know how to describe the noob, “Milo, you know the shadow-person Coach was dragging around? No mouth, terrified eyes?”
“No, I wasn’t really paying attention.” Milo answered, while typing a caption for the selfie they just took. Looking up they saw Damien becoming more and more agitated, they shrugged not sure what Damien wanted them to do.
“Gah!” Damien was getting frustrated, “He’s part of that loser group.” everyone at the table just stared at him.

He looked ready to punch the table again.

Damien looked around at the room for a moment, thinking that maybe he could spot the shitdick noob. There was a room full of losers, sure, but he couldn’t see THE noob anywhere.

“Ugh,” Damien groaned, almost shaking with rage “It doesn’t matter, I have to share my tent with him for the rest of camp so you’ll find out eventually.”

Damien just put his head on the table. He might have slept last night, but his awful fucking crab dream made sure it was no good.

Vera’s eyebrow raised, mostly since Damien appeared more dejected than violent now.

“What do you mean?”
“Fucking Weaving said since we showed up late we had to bunk.”
“Ah okay,” Polly said “Scott had been whining because you said you’d go with him and then didn’t show, we thought you were busy burning shit.”
“Well, that too.” Damien’s face got flustered “But it wasn’t my fucking choice, was it?”

Damien crossed his arms. The fact was he's stuck in a tent with some asswipe when he could've shared a tent with Scott and played pokemans. If he was being honest, he spent so much time being annoyed he forgot about his original plan. Now that it was back in his face he wanted nothing more than to burn his shared tent down. Maybe he'd file that idea down for later.

Polly started laughing harder, catching Damien's attention as she pointed at him.

“You should see the look on your face,” The said look was one of a poorly concealed scowl and a bright red blush “I can’t believe you got stuck with a complete stranger.” While laughing she started floating up. Damien knew for a fact it was not that funny.

She continued laughing for longer than necessary. As she wiped away tears Damien got angry once again. “I’ll show you stuck!” And he reached out across the table to grab her, forgetting Polly is in fact a ghost, so his hands phased through her form as she continued floating up. He face planted into Vera’s food.

Red sauce got on her and Damien’s clothes.

“Great.” Vera pushed Damien off her plate, the shirt she was wearing was absolutely ruined.
Polly rushed back to Vera.

“Oh no!” Polly gasped “I’m so sorry!”
Vera sighed “It’s not your fault Damien doesn’t have foresight.” The demon huffed at her insult.

He was about to say something, then Milo cried out, everyone looked at them.

“God if you guys are gonna do something like that you have to tell me so I can record it, now all I can do is post a funny story which is never as good and you all know it!”

Vera rolled her eyes.

“Yes, that’s the important thing, your followers.”
“See you get it,” Milo smiled and tapped their head, feigning that they were having an idea, “You all can make it to me by going to the lake.”

They winked, in a classic, charming way. Classic Milo, who can say no?

Everyone looked at each other, Vera shrugged.

“Sure,” Polly said ‘Sounds like fun.”
“I was done with breakfast, anyway.” Vera sighed, pushing her plate away.

Damien was fine with that too. Being at the lake means ample opportunity to drown his peers. Which is always a good time [for him not the people being drowned]. So he just nodded.

With the food being no good for Vera, Polly threw it at the next unfortunate monster to walk by as a prank. It was a rather rude looking harpy, who looked like they were going to complain, before seeing who launched it. They stood there for a moment, contemplating what to do, before Vera glared at them and off they went running off to avoid getting turned to stone.

The four of them laughed at the terrified look on the harpy’s face and walked away from the table to get ready for the beach.

Milo and Damien headed off together to the latter’s tent.

Milo had apparently already been wearing trunks under their robe [obviously their plan all along was to go to the lake]. So Milo waited outside of the demon’s tent for him to get ready. Once he had a pair of board shorts on, Milo walked in.

“God, is it me or does this place just not have a good vibe?” Milo uttered.

Damien hadn’t really thought about it before, but he had to agree. The air was cold and stale. Specifically from the lone yellow bag in the corner of the tent. Even though it was quite warm outside, the air of the tent made it feel like the start of winter.

“Yeah,” Milo continued “There is something off here, also didn’t you say you had to share the tent?”
“What about it?” Damien asked, not sure what Milo was getting at.
“There’s only your sleeping bag.” They pointed at Damien’s stuff, and true to what Milo said Damien’s red sleeping bag was the only one there. Then again what does it matter, a lot of monsters don’t need sleep, in fact some of Damien’s friends didn’t even need to.

“So? I mean he probably just didn’t unpack.” Damien rifled through his bag, “That’s his things, anyway.”
Damien pointed to the yellow bag. As he pointed at it a small black figure poked its head out and a pair of white eyes opened. Fuck, Damien jumped a bit. Then he realised it was just one of the weird pets of the noob, and got angry again.

“Huh?” Milo looked ready to question whatever that was, then they thought better of it. “Yeah let’s leave now.” Milo exited the tent quickly, Damien followed grabbing a towel. The black pet thing watched them leave, boring holes into the back of their head.

Milo and Damien made their way to the lake, where Vera and Polly had beaten them too, and it seemed Scott had joined them as Polly was currently attempting to bury him neck deep in sand.

Which is actually weird seeing as this is a lake and not a beach. Lakes are not necessarily known for their sand.

Oh wait, there’s the explanation Vera was being handed a wad of cash by a gargoyle who Damien was 60% sure was high. He did not care to ask why they needed sand, because Damien really didn’t care. He just wanted to find some randos to drown to blow off steam.

He looked around, Joy and calculester were on the dock. Joy was ready and Calculester looked like he was sunbathing [albeit unsuccessfully].

Damien shockingly didn’t feel like drowning them. He needed Joy for the band they had talked about starting, and Calculester was, well Calculester was cool. No need to murder them, there would be plenty of other monsters.

Or so Damien thought.

The lake was seriously empty. It was a nice day, hot and perfect for a swim. But only a dozen or so monsters were there at most. In the actual water he saw a pool floaty with a sleeping zombie inside. Jackpot. Damien didn’t even feel like questioning if zombies could drown.

“I’m heading off,” Damien rushed past Milo, handing them his towel “I got a zombie to drown.”

Milo sighed, and threw Damien’s towel onto the ground next to them before walking over to Polly and Scott.

Damien was excitedly running to the pool, his eyes set on the zombie, before a familiar inky black face emerged out of the lake. Damien stopped. Dead in his tracks and his newly found good mood destroyed. Just his luck.

He watched as the noob carefully avoided splashing water on the zombie, obviously avoiding waking him.

He stood and stared for a moment, then turned on his heels to Polly and Scott. Maybe helping Polly would make his inner rage calm down for a moment.

“Huh?” Milo looked confused, “Didn’t you say you were going to drown the zombie over there.” They pointed, and Polly looked over [Scott looked like he wanted to look too, but he was buried facing away from the water].
“Yeah,” Polly said, “That zombie looks undeniably not drowned.”
“What’s wrong?” Milo asked, tenderly but noticeably not that worried as they were taking pics of Scott for their instagram.
“Ugh,” Damien grunted, “My fucking mood got killed.”
“Oh no!” Scott yelped, “Who killed it?”

Damien pointed in the direction of the shadow monster, Polly and Milo looked over, Scott tried to look but wolves are not known for being able to turn their necks 180 degrees.

Damien could tell Milo finally recognised the noob from the glint in their eye.

“Oh tha-” Milo got cut off by Polly.
“Oh I saw a picture of him,” Damien looked at Polly confused, “Vicky showed me a picture on her phone when we were hanging out at the Scout HQ.”
“The hell is Vicky?” Damien asked.
“Meh,” Polly shrugged “Not important, what I wanna know is why you hold a grudge on ‘em.”
“You know how at breakfast I was detailing my awful first day?” Polly tilted her head, Damien felt exhausted “That’s the shitdick I have to share a tent with!”
“Ohhh,” Polly drawled.

Milo shrugged at Damien, they went to taking selfies and tweeting haikus. They were decidedly ignoring the rest of the conversation. Polly looked at Damien, who was scowling.

“C’mon,” Polly nudged his arm, “The Damien I know wouldn’t let some rando keep him from from doing his drowning.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

Damien sighed, longingly. He did want to drown someone.

“Let’s go into the pool,” She looked into the lake, “I see a mummy over there calling your name.”

She pointed at said mummy, who noticed they were being pointed at. They lowered the ball they were holding, and were rightfully worried. It only worsened when Damien smirked.

“Ok, ok let’s go.” Damien started standing up.
“WAIT!” Polly and Damien turned to Scott, “I wanna come too.”

Aw, who can say no to those puppy dog eyes.

They spent the next five minutes digging Scott out. Now, Scott was loveable but he made it very difficult as he could not sit still at all. It also didn’t help that polly buried him standing, so they had to dig down a good 6 feet, and when they got to the tail area Scott couldn't stop wagging it, just knocking more sand in. It was a real mess.

How much sand did Vera get put here anyway?

What a hassle. But that doesn’t matter, what matters is that they could finally start heading towards the lake for some good old fashioned deadly hijinks. Classic Damien style.

They left Milo to take hot “beach” pics, and Vera to continue with her business dealings, and ran towards the water.

The three of them had just gotten waist deep into the water when a short figure ran past in a blur, followed by some green smoke, then a large blue demon. It was obviously Aaravi, Hex and Dahlia. The three of them seemed to be running away from a large, angered lake monster who just emerged from the watery depths below.

Said lake monster roared. It had a hole in its chest, the size a stab from a large sword would make.

Damien could hear that Hex was screaming, but not about the monster, rather it seemed they had dropped a snack and were trying to convince Aaravi to go back for it.

The mummy Damien had his eyes on moments before was picked up by the legs and as they struggled the lake monster dropped them into its mouth and swallowed them whole. Fucking hell. That mummy was rightfully Damien’s kill!

Now, Damien could deduce that Aaravi had found some loot, as seen by the giant gold encrusted goblet she was holding, unleashed the lake monster and tried to stab it. And since the stab did not kill it, that means the lake monster was stab proof and Damien would be no help.

He toyed with the idea of lighting it on fire, but they were in water and Damien unfortunately had not cracked the code to light water on fire yet. It was almost as disappointing as when he learned you couldn’t light fire on fire. The laws of science are a harsh mistress.

Vera, who had just started pitching her business to a centaur, turned to Aaravi and started yelling angrily.

“Couldn’t you wait until after I finished my business to do this shit?!” The centaur, who noticed the lake monster as Vera said that, kicked back his hind legs [knocking over another poor fool’s sandcastle] and ran away.
“Great.” Vera said, and just started walking back to the campgrounds.

Other monsters followed suit, realising the lake was soon to be off limits for a while, unless of course you want to be one of the twenty people who die per day.

Damien groaned. Great, right when he got back into the mood something had to go and ruin it.

Scott and Polly started walking off, Scott looked dejected. Poor guy just loves water [although someone has to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t start drowning]. Damien followed them.

He went to grab his towel, it had a very tasteful flame pattern but it wasn’t where the group had been sitting.
“Milo, where’d you put my towel?” Milo didn’t even glance up from their phone, instead they took some photos of the lake monster.
“Somewhere over there.” They pointed in a general direction, before starting to head off.

Damien could see it, so he went to go get it. He looked back, Milo, Polly, Vera and Scott were already off. Whatever.

Damien took one last look at the lake monster. That’s when he realised the fucking noob and zombie were still in the water.

The noob was frantically trying to wake the other guy up, to no avail.

Then the zombie snored loudly.

Lord knows how they stayed unnoticed for so long, but the lake monster definitely heard that. It turned to them.

Damien chuckled, and decided to stay for this grand show. If this goes well, he’d have the tent all to himself. Good riddance.

The lake monster went straight for the zombie. But then the noob threw a rock at it. The lake monster turned to him and roared once again. Oh boy, now it was mad.

Damien was filled with anticipation as it ran towards the noob.

It struck a fist down in an attempt to flatten the smaller monster. As it hit the water a huge wave rushed up the bank.

Damien wondered what he’d do with the extra space.

That is, until he noticed the lack of black goo on the monster’s fist as it lurched its arm back up.

The monster searched the water, confused. Okay, so the noob teleported away and abandoned the zombie. Fair enough.

Then a thick, black smog covered the lake. It surrounded the lake monster, covering all but its head, and stopped just short of the pool floaty. The zombie groaned and turned around. Less explainable, sure, but nature can be confusing.

The monster coughed, the black smog seeming to enter its mouth. As it hacked and wheezed the smog only grew thicker. It tried to bat the smog away, but to no avail.

Then the monster started screaming. It was different from the roar it had been doing moments before. It sounded painful. Then the lake monster began to thrash, like it was being attacked by invisible enemies.

The lake monster got pushed to a particularly shaded part of the lake, where a group of fairly large trees grew along the shore.

Then the monster vanished.

It just disappeared into thin fucking air.

Damien’s mouth opened, agape. Out of the lake, near the sleeping zombie, the noob appeared again. He saw the noob wake the zombie up, finally, and then the two started laughing about something.

What the fuck.

It seemed the noob hadn’t seen him watching, so Damien grabbed his towel off the ground finally and snuck off trying to comprehend what he just saw.

Sure maybe the noob sicked his fucking pets on it, but then he made a two story tall lake monster vanish into thin air. That was a lot harder to explain.

Okay, okay. There was probably a better explanation for this. There had to be. Damien just didn’t know it yet.

As he was reeling from that experience, he met up again with Milo, Vera, Polly and Scott who were sitting around the unlit campfire. They were discussing what to do with the rest of the day, because as far as the four of them knew the lake monster was still there.

Scott, noticing Damien ushered him over, his tail wagging furiously. He sat next to the werewolf, not really saying a word as he was still trying to comprehend what he saw. Luckily no one sure the gears in Damien's heads turning.

Damien was going to get to the bottom of whatever the hell just happened.