Back to the cabin 16
Danny stood there more or less towering over Camilla with his hands in his pockets. He stood quiet and watched her face as he waited for an answer.
The girl sat there on her knees with her head down towards the ground as she tried to avoid eye contact with Danny.
It finally hit me... Danny suspected her to be in on her dad's plans, whatever they were.
Even I hadn't thought of that, she was the daughter of the man in question after all.
With this new understanding another question began to bugle my mind,why hadn't she answered the question she was asked?
I looked over to see the reaction on the faces of the rest of girls and the result wasn't at all surprising. They looked lost, confused and had a questioning look pasted on their face.
"How did you hear that name?" She asked with trembling in her voice as she slowly looked up at us.
She had tears welling up in her eyes just waiting to pour out. I couldn't say for sure but I knew this wasn't the reaction that either of us expecting her to give when we confronted her with that question.
Danny unfolded his arms and had a pitiful look on his face. I think he actually felt sorry for her.
She sniffled a bit and cleaned her tears as she tried to put herself together.
"The Venators are a cartel that my dad had trouble with when I was younger." She started. The tone of her voice was the only thing that could be heard at that moment and each one resonated all the emotions that she was feeling within them.
"They knew that my dad was capable of helping them with something and so they approached him with an offer, I don't actually know what it was or what it entails but what I do know is that my dad rejected the offer and told them never to set foot in his office again but they weren't having any of it."
She paused for a moment to cough a bit. Eva instantly responded by running to the kitchen and coming back with a glass of water in her hand.
"Here, have this"
"Thanks" she replied as she took and drank the water.
"So what did they do in retaliation" I asked in curiosity.
"They.... killed my mum" she replied in a tone that was almost impossible to hear. The lowness of the voice did well to add to our understanding of how this had taken her aback.
"Oh..." That was all that Danny could say, the strength in his legs faded as he fell into the bean bag.
"I'm so sorry" I muttered, it was the best I could afford to say at that moment. I could only imagine what she had gone through without her mother in her life.
I felt nothing but sheer pity towards her and her predicament.
The room fell into an awkward silence as we sat there in the living room quietly trying to digest all that Camilla had said, the door slid open with force and speed causing us to get jolted out of our trance like state almost immediately.
It was Mr Monroe.
"It's show time guys" he said with a wide smile on his face.
"I convinced them to let us go, so let's not waste it at all."
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The speakers screeched a bit as they came on. Even without saying a thing yet, the sound had done a good job in drawing the attention of all the students that were scattered around the cabin town.
"Testing, testing....is this thing on?" Mr Monroe said through the speakers as he checked to be sure it was functional.
"Alright guys, I hope you can hear me loud and clear?"
"Of course we can, it's one hell of a speaker" Curry jested from where he stood with his gang always with him.
"Anyway, it's go time, I apologize for the delay in the movement earlier. I had to handle some stuff with the manager before we could be clear to go for real but that's all sorted out now."
"So without further Ado, let's gather and let's move out!!" He concluded before the sound system went silent.
We were still in the house gathering all our stuff and cross checking to be sure we were set. Things like our map, water, food and the likes were rechecked for the sake of safety.
I was in the kitchen checking all the perishables that I could take along with me.
"Apples.... definitely taking that one" I thought to myself as I grabbed a few from the fruit basket on the slab. I continued to peruse places like the freezer and containers we had in the kitchen just to make sure that all we could need was packed up.
"Hey" a voice came from my back. I could tell that it was Jay Jay.
"Hey what's up" I asked as I turned back to face her. I stopped my packing to give her my full attention because I could tell from the tone of her voice, something was bothering her.
"Do you have minute?" She asked with a nervous look on her face.
"Sure, what is it? I am all ears"
"It's about Camilla"
Almost instantly, I knew where she was tending towards and to be frank I was pretty sure that she was thinking in the same direction as I was about Camilla.
Based on my reasoning,I knew that if her dad was under the control of the Venators then that meant that she was too. Even if we couldn't save the father, then we should at least save the child.
"I know that we said that we weren't going to let any stranger in on our plans to escape and I know it is a very big risk" she started just looking down,her right hand gripping her left shoulder.
"But I think we should find a way to help her, she isn't safe here. God only knows what they will try to do to her. They could make her a slave or an errands person to do all of their dirty work or even worse...."
As she expressed her concern, at a point I couldn't actually hear her anymore, I only had one thing running through my mind. How do I make this stop?
How do I make her stop crying?
How can I assure her that it's all going to be just fine?
I didn't want to see her cry anymore. It was almost as though seeing her cry actually affected me more than it affected her or as though she was directly transferring the pain and emotions to me without holding back.
Instinctively, I held her shoulders with both my hands and squeezed them as softly as I could. It was the only way I knew to being her back to me mentally.
She stopped talking and just looked up at my face with her eyes shining from the tears she had shed.
"Hey... Nothing is going to happen to Camilla" I assured softly.
She sniffled a bit and looked down at the floor of the kitchen where we were. I felt she didn't believe or trust me that much for her to be avoiding eye contact.
"Do you know why?" I asked as I used a finger to put her face up so we were back in eye contact.
"Because she is a student of Riverdale too, which means she is a part of this excursion by default so by all means she has to make the journey with us as well and I will....no, we will do everything we can to make sure that she makes it out of this alive."
"Nothing is going to happen to you or to her ...I promise" I had my right hand to my chest, my way to promise solidarity I guess before I used my thumbs to wipe her tears away and to put her hair back to where it ought to be.
She stood there for a while before shifting and repositioning herself into my embrace looking me straight in the eye.
She gripped my shirt strongly but slowly as she pulled in and shortened the distance that existed between us. My heart beat became irregular as she came in close to kissing me
"Hey guys let's go" Mr Monroe called from the living room.
"Why does this always happen" she asked in a low tone.
"What can I say? Maybe they are jealous of us." I whispered into her ears.
"Should we ignore them then?" She whispered back. Her breath on my neck had a crazy effect on me.
"Id rather we didn't, let's get out of here first and then think about any other thing " I whispered back as we both giggled a bit.
It took sometime but we eventually let go of each other and walked out into the living room. Halfway there, Jay Jay slipped her hand into mine as we walked out.
We walked into the living room hand in hand and smiling ear to ear as we finished up with our packing.
As we walked out of the cabin 16, I took one last look inside it. I would really remember this place, the purple lighting and lavender scent remained forever etched in my senses. This was a holiday that I would never forget.
"Holidays are over now, the real trials begin now" I thought within myself as I turned back to join the living crowd of teens that was convening at the entrance of the town.
We have a long trek ahead of us and we knew it wasn't going to be easy but we knew that we had to do it
We had to survive, we had to get home and we had to make sure that we protect those we love.