As Dennis exited the bus at Camp Chippewa, he was not a happy camper, if you will pardon the pun. He would much rather had stayed at home all summer, playing videogames, going online, and just doing nothing. However, his parents had other ideas.
Dennis Nelson was a typical fifteen year old boy. He lived in New York City, with his parents, and his two younger brothers. His parents were tired of Dennis rebelling against them, and they also were fed up with the pranks that he played on his brothers. Dennis constantly teased his brothers, and bossed them around whenever his parents were not around.
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson decided that Dennis might benefit from spending three weeks at a summer camp. They chose Camp Chippewa, because it was in upstate New York, which was a few hours away. They thought that he might enjoy being away from his family for a while. They also thought that their two younger sons could use a break from Dennis.
The counselors at the Camp Chippewa sorted the campers, by age. It was camp for boys ages six to sixteen. Brad Griffin was the counselor for the teenage boys, who were between thirteen and sixteen years old. As the boys got off the bus, Brad told the teenagers to grab their gear and then directed them to their assigned bunkhouses.
Because Dennis took his time getting to the bunkhouse, he discovered that there were no lower bunks available. But that was not a problem for Dennis. He just walked over to a bunk belonging to a smaller boy, and threw the boy’s gear up onto the upper bunk, and then, put his own things on the bottom bunk. The younger boy was about to object, but then decided on another tactic.
“Hi” he said to Dennis. “My name is Lester Swanson.” He offered his hand to Dennis in friendship. Dennis pushed his hand away, and ignored his comments.
A moment later, he said; “I’m Dennis. As long as you stay out of my way, we’ll get along just fine.”
Lester had been looking forward to camp for over a month. He was the youngest of six children in his family. He was thirteen and he had five older sisters, who were always bossing him around. He was glad to be at an all boy camp, where girls were not allowed, even if his bunkmate did not like him.
It was not long, before Dennis found something at camp that he loved doing. It was scaring little kids. He would sneak up behind them and surprise them, or pop out from behind a tree or building and startle them. He only did it when nobody else was around. It did not bother Dennis, when the kids cried. He just laughed even harder. None of the kids told the counselors about it, because they were afraid of Dennis.
On the third day of camp, the older kids were scheduled for water activities at the lake. All of the kids got into the water, except for Lester, who sat on the dock watching the other boys swim. When Dennis swam over to the dock to ask Lester why he was not swimming, Lester mumbled something to Dennis. When Dennis asked him to repeat his answer, Lester said; “I cannot swim. I don’t know how.”
Dennis shouted real loud, for all to hear; “You can’t swim? You are thirteen and you can’t swim? What are you, a baby? Maybe you should go and play with the little kids.”
Dennis began laughing, and soon, other teens were teasing Lester as well. Lester could not take the teasing, so he ran back towards the cabins.
Brad saw what had happened, and told Dennis to be nicer to the other teens and to set a good example for them to follow. Dennis just ignored Brad’s advice. It was then, that strange things began to happen to Dennis.
Dennis was out walking by himself, and he would hear twigs snapping, as if someone was walking behind him, but when he turned around, he found no one there. “Very funny,” Dennis shouted. “You can’t scare me, so don’t even try.” But, before long, Dennis found himself looking over his shoulder wherever he went.
That night, Dennis woke up feeling cold, because his blanket was on the floor. He picked it up, and covered back up with it. As soon as he closed his eyes, he felt his blanket being pulled off of him. Dennis jumped out of bed, to see who was taking his blanket, but he saw that everybody else was asleep but him. Dennis picked up the blanket and got back in bed. For the rest of the night, he held tightly onto his blanket. His eyes remained open, as he was too scared to sleep.
The next morning, Dennis was extremely jumpy. He would turn at the slightest noise, thinking that someone was sneaking up on him. He did not say a word to anyone, because he was not about to let anybody know that he was scared.
After breakfast, the teenagers were scheduled to go to the archery range, for target practice. Brad asked Dennis to go to the supply cabin and get some more arrows. The supply cabin looked like the rest of the bunkhouses, but it was just used for storage.
As Dennis entered the cabin, he felt the temperature drop by at least thirty degrees, which was impossible, because none of the bunkhouses had air conditioning. It was so cold, that Dennis could see his breath. As he walked toward the shelf where the arrows were stores, the door behind him suddenly slammed shut. Dennis ran toward the door, and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.
At first, Dennis thought that someone was holding it shut from the outside, but then, he felt something rush past his head, and an arrow impaled itself in the door, next to him. As he turned around, he saw several more arrows coming towards him. He ducked, and they all pierced the door with a loud thud.
Dennis tried to scream for help, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came out. Then, from somewhere within the cabin, he heard an eerie voice speak to him; “It’s not fun to be scared, is it? These kids come here to have a good time, not to be scared or teased. If you don’t stop your abusive behavior immediately, you will have to deal with me. Is that understood?”