Nightmares Vs Magic

(Attention: whatever you are about to read is purely fictional, anything in this chapter that may resemble true events is purely coincidence.)

Leon was the only one who didn't have to do much, aside from checking if any of the campers were okay and keeping a watchful eye on the revenants and kratts. Can't let these spirits kill the people in charge of the camp just yet, Bence and the others need to know where they hid all the bodies. It's important if they want to put the revenants back into the ground.

The way you can tell whether a camp is actually a farm exploiting labor, and using the image of a camp as a front, is through several factors:

1. The experience and stories of the kids at the camp. 

2. How the kids were taken there, as some farms will be paid by the parents to kidnap the children without any warning. 

3. The injuries and trauma that the campers sustained. 

It's oddly difficult to tell whether a camp is exploitative, or abusive, as some places are framed as behavioral correction camps, or boot camps. They'll take in teenagers that are claimed to have behavioral issues or are on the brink of unfixable. Sometimes the parents are aware of how harsh the camp will be, sometimes they assume it's a place that will finally help fix their teenagers, whether the teenager actually has issues warranting the need to be shipped off to a place out in the woods. 

"You know," Leon began out of the blue, garnering the attention of Lucia, who was nearby, about to fight a mindless kratt. 

This kratt appeared to have a metal pipe for a spine, some very thick, broken tree branches for legs, and more branches that were broken and bent to be arms. One sickle on each arm, with the head being that of what could only be assumed was the skull of a deer. The creator was unknown, and there were a couple others roaming about, so they would also have to ask the campers about that later. 

"On the rare occasion, there are some teenagers who may need some help, maybe some form of discipline. But this?" He paused as he gently held the arm of a wincing teenager, which had sitting on one of the crates by the sheds as he checked on him. 

The kid's arm had literal shades of black and blue, some purple bruises had yellow centers. 

"Discipline like this, wouldn't fix much. I could say that it would actually make the youth even worse." 

"Well, yeah. I doubt almost killing someone would help make them change anything, aside from being more skittish, or crazy." Lucia agreed, tying up one of the kratts she found, using whatever metal was one her to nail them down to the ground.

The small group of kids that they managed to round up within the chaos, were gathered and told to stay inside the mess hall to stay safe. Vernon was using random parts of the land, so he couldn't spare any focus to making sure he didn't accidentally piston someone into the air with a new plant or trip them.

Leon frowned, gently letting the arm rest back at the boy's side, still kneeling in front of him. The boy was looking away at first, the freckles on his face didn't do much to hide the old tear streaks on his cheeks, nor could his brown eyes hide how glossy they had gotten. He looked to be about sixteen, fifteen? His clothes didn't look like that of a camper, who would usually be seen wearing a camp-themed t-shirt and shorts or jeans. This boy was wearing a long sleeve shirt and pants, along with gloves and boots, all of it muddled with dirt stains.

"Are all of you kids in attendance? Or are there more? Your friend who managed to escape told us there were a lot of you." 

The boy looked at him, for just a moment, and looked away again, not smiling or making any facial expressions. Instead, he looked up to see the necromancer in the near distance, creating another circle lighting up beneath his feet as soon as a revenant flew close to him. 

He smoothly stepped back, hands folded behind his back as he leaned away when the revenant's claw-like hand reached for his throat. 

Chains, erupting from the lit-up ground simultaneously, entangling the bones and clothes until it was anchored to the ground. Bence knelt in front of it, observing its behaviors like a therapist analyzing a difficult patient.

From the way Bence described, it rattled and snarled with sounds that he could only describe as wind but coming from the body. Like there was a tornado inside the revenant's ribcage, and it couldn't stop moving because of that tornado inside it. So loud and unrelenting. Add to this sound all the other whirring noises made by the other revenants flying around, and it's like hearing the center of a storm but feeling no wind. I didn't try to ask him to elaborate further.

Revenants are usually imagined with cloaks, but these kids weren't buried in cloaks or capes. They were buried in the clothing given to them by the farm, or whatever other clothes they had on when they died. 

Bence gently grabbed hold of its skull to keep it still, making a soft hushing sound as his free hand began glowing.

"DON'T HURT HIM!" The boy said as he stood up. 

Bence stopped upon hearing him, his hand stopped glowing, but he kept holding the revenant down. He slowly turned his head over to the sound. 

The boy Leon was trying to speak, he was the one who belted out the words, having even stood up and began running to the revenant Bence had trapped with his magic circle. Leon didn't stop him as he had other kids whose wounds he needed to examine. He also stopped Lucia from going after him.

"We might learn something from this reaction." He told her.

The boy ran over, narrowly avoiding the glowing mushrooms and other stray roots rapidly growing out of the ground. 

Bence gave him a careful look, and then looking down at the revenant under his hand. He turned to Vernon, who was sitting at the edge of a roof, and told him with a voice just above a firm baritone,

"Stop growing plants. I'll handle everything else, you go rest."

And suddenly, it was like there was less chaotic movement in the area. Vernon lowered the hand he was using to command certain areas of soil to grow plants. His golden eyes were seen glowing as he worked, but they stopped glowing as soon as he heard Bence give the new instructions. He turned his head to look over to the spot Bence was at, kneeling beside the revenant, and seeing one of the campers running over. 

"Ok." Vernon said, like a shrug. 

He stood up from his spot on the roof of the shed, the closest to the center field where he could have the best range in controlling all the soil in the area. He then casually hopped off, some bushes suddenly appearing at the ground to catch him, and he went off elsewhere. 

Vernon is like a cat during his free time, he's very dependable, but when he has no current obligations, he'll wander off to sate his current curiosity or indulgences, like a free cat. 

At the moment, it was the large barn far off on the other side of the camp that had yet to be explored. 

Back to the revenant chained to the ground through Bence's magic, the boy ran over and slid to kneel beside it. He would've attempted to push Bence away from the revenant, had Bence not read the room to let go and not stood up and backed away in time. 

The revenant had caught the boy's attention after it was caught, the glow coming out of the ground at Bence's will had caused some light to be shed on them. The light helped to reveal some of the revenant's characteristics within the dark. 

There were still some bits of pale skin on him, some blonde hair, the only one wearing a red pair of sneakers, though they were dirty, the color was only slightly faded. The jeans were folded just above the ankles, their shirt had a dark splotch on the center of its shirt, likely blood, but peeking out from beneath the dark red stain was a single letter. 

'M'

Even when they were almost unidentifiable with their rotting face, the boy visibly recognized them, taking a gentle hold of their skull with both hands. The same way you would cradle a face. He completely ignored the texture, nor did he have any feeling of disgust in the moment upon touching a dead face. 

"Martin?" He said in a questioning tone, his voice already breaking.

Bence stood up and backed away more to give them space, even undoing the chains but keeping the glowing circle there so that the boy could still see. The revenant had become completely still after the boy called out 'Martin'. The only movement was its skeletal hand reaching up, sliding over one of the boy's hands that cradled its face, and holding onto it. 

"Martin?" He asked again. "It's me, Cody." He said in a questioning tone, but he already seemed sure of it, like he didn't even need to see the revenant to nod their head. but his eyes became glassy anyway upon seeing the confirmation. 

As his jaw trembled, trying not to cry, the boy, Cody, his shoulders shook, and one of his hands that the revenant wasn't holding, moved to examine other parts of him. 

Martin still had some of his blonde hair on him, Cody sniffled and hiccupped as he tried to rub the dark red stain off his shirt to reveal his name. It was meaningless and he soon gave up, but then Martin reached into the pocket of his dirty jeans. Out came some dirt, but also another, smaller piece of cloth, clearly cut as evidenced by the loose threads on the edges. 

Martin clutched it tightly in his hand, still having enough skin on it to say it was in his palm. He held it up to Cody, still clutching it tightly, as if afraid even a small breeze would blow it away. Cody in turn, put his shaky hand over Martin's rotting one, and as Martin uncurled his bony fingers, Cody took hold of the small, cut cloth from his palm and unwrinkled it. 

It was a heart, cut from the fabric of some old, thick jeans, with the letter 'C+M' written in whatever black marker Cody must've had at the time.

He broke and let out a guttural sob as he wrapped his arms around the still existing muscle and flesh of Martin's neck and shoulders, not caring about the bugs and dirt, or the texture. He kept clutching the blue heart as his other hand reached up, trying to entangle his fingers into whatever blonde hair was left on Martin's skull. 

Bence looked down at the pair, silent and still keeping his distance, he threw a knowing glance over to Leon, who looked at the two at a distance from his spot. Leon's eyes were filled with sympathy, frowning and also silent. 

"Did I hear that right?" One kid was heard whispering. 

He didn't bother looking over his shoulder at the now whispering crowd behind him, his ears were very good at picking up the mixed and jumbled words murmuring over each other. 

"Is that really Martin?"

"Didn't he die in the first week here after that battery acid shit?"

"Yeah, Savannah died with him."

"I thought he didn't have a body left. They didn't feed him to the pigs?"

"Wait, if Martin managed to come back somehow, then who else is out there?" 

That one question said by one of the kids, garnered the attention of all of them, and some became curious, making guesses, trying to recall the character details of the revenants they saw in the dark. 

One curious kid desperately tried to leave the mess hall to look for her friend. Leon turned around to face them now, outstretching his hand to block her path.

"Let me go!" She yelled, now antsy and not even looking at him, just trying to maneuver past him to get out and find her friend among the other revenants. 

"I need to find Savannah!"

"I have to know if Heath is out there!" Another kid said, wanting to go outside along with the first girl. 

"I wanna see Martin too!"

Others tried to go out into the chaos and find their friends, but with how dark it was and the current chaos outside, it just wasn't the time yet. 

Leon changed his facial expressions from his usual soft and calm, to one of a frown and a leer. It startled some of the kids into backing away from the open door, but the ones who were about to wrestle him to get out, weren't intimidated. 

"Enough!" 

The kids at the door suddenly flinched and then froze. 

From deep within his throat, a disapproving growl could be heard. Leon need not lift a finger or move his hand that was still blocking the door, as he watched the kids now back away from him.

I asked the other kids about this after this incident, during the process when we were just trying to talk with them, get some verbal ID, calm some nerves. One of them told me that in that moment, Leon, who seemed like this paternal figure they weren't used to, suddenly looked different in a way. The girl who tried to fight him to be let out, Hailey, said that he looked the same, but something about him changed as soon as he raised his voice. 

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, goosebumps everywhere, it was even scarier than the time one of the supposed counselors left her somewhere in the woods and made her find her way back in the dark. She felt like she was feeling a presence more dangerous then that of a mountain lion, or a bear. Like she could tell he was capable of mauling her.

The girl trembled as she stepped away from him, as did the others. 

Leon didn't like yelling, but it was essential at times. When all of the kids calmed down and backed far enough away from the door again, he softened his face and looked over at the girl who wanted to find her friend 'Savannah', among the other revenants. 

She flinched again when he started walking closer, but he stopped when there was still a bit of distance between them and knelt down to get closer to her eye level, but also to stop intimidating all of them with his height. 

I feel I have to re-emphasize; Leon is tall.

"Forgive me for raising my voice." He calmly started as he looked at the girl. 

"But you can't get anything done when talking all over each other. Now then, if I heard correctly, there is Martin, Savannah, Heath, and, who else that all of you know of who died here?" He counted on his fingers before pausing, patiently waiting for an answer. 

One of the kids gulped, staring at him warily. 

"It's only three from our group. We don't know who the other revenants could be." Said one of the kids in the back. 

Leon raised an eyebrow, turning his head to the voice's direction. 

"More kids from other groups you say." Leon responded with a lighter, curious tone. 

"And, is this the first summer that all of you have spent here?"

Some looked down, nodding a little, others shook their heads. Leon hummed before standing back up again and heading to the door. 

"Please stay inside, at least until the outside has calmed down a bit. The others and I are going to be busy for a while." Was all he said as he closed the door behind him, not even bothering to lock it, trusting the kids. 

Some of them let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. Something about Leon's presence can have ones fearing for their lives and make them suddenly stiffen with fear. Only when he wills his presence to do so. 

Back outside, it seemed two more revenants came down from the air, standing near Martin and Cody. Bence still stayed nearby to make sure nothing happened, wary and cautious of the two new ones. 

Out the corner of his eye, Leon was spotted suddenly right by his side. The necromancer wasn't shocked by this, it's possible this has happened more than once. 

Leon whispered to Bence's ear the new information he heard from the other kids. 

"The other two revenants by their side are possibly the Savannah and Heath that the kids wanted to search for earlier. How many revenants have you counted in total?"

"Ten, just as the kid told me. As for the kratts, I'm guessing they didn't summon those, but normal kids can't summon any solid creatures either, just ghosts."

"And none of the children we currently gathered have passed the photo test." 

"Really, none of the ones inside? There's like five of these things and we've already got twenty kids."

Leon shook his head, but, then his ear twitched, and he turned his head. Ursa had come back, holding a struggling and screaming teenager over her shoulder, meanwhile, in the distance, they could hear the running footsteps of two other people.  

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Screeched a very scared girl in the dark.

"YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE!" Annabelle cheered with joy, treating her chase like a game of tag. 

Ursa came to Leon and Bence, tossing her catch onto the ground, pulling their attention away from the two in the distance, despite clearly being able to hear the poor soul screaming as Annabelle chases her. 

The kid tried to get up quickly and run. Ursa tripped him and he fell again, then she picked him up by the scruff of his shirt. 

"Found one of the kratt's owners." 

The kid tried to wrestle himself out of her grip to no avail. He could feel Bence and Leon's stares, looking down at him. The two men then gave each other a look when they heard another screech, and then a sound like someone dragging a body. The didn't need to turn their heads to know Annabelle had captured the girl and was dragging her back, practically able to see her usual grin in the dark. 

Bence first knelt down in front of the boy and pulled out a photo.

"Are you able to see anything in this photo?"

He looked at him as if he asked if the grass was green, or if the sky was blue. 

"Duh!" He said with a frustrated tone, giving up on struggling so that Ursa could let go of the collar of his short.

"Terrible photoshop by the way, that head looks so fake!"

He said that, but they could see the shiver that crawled up his spine at the sight of it, and now he's trying to look away, acting like he didn't care for it. 

"Oh, some prideful little souls we have here." Leon commented as he crossed his arms. He didn't mean it in annoyed sense. With his age, every teenager was like a different type of helpless kitten to him that he would sometimes humor.

Bence looked up as he could see Annabelle finally made it to their spot with her catch, and unlike Ursa's, the girl didn't struggle. It didn't really seem like she could anyway, Annabelle had used her long hair to bound her wrists. The girl had been getting pulled by her wrists above her head. She untied her and sat her next to the boy, the girl could only look up in disbelief at what was likely the most terrifying way she could've gotten kidnapped, again. 

Bence did the same procedure and showed the picture to the girl next. She also saw the head in the photo, with its spine still connected, staring at the camera with wide eyes and blood still pouring out of its mouth. A corpse could be seen in the far background of the photo, bloody. 

Just like the boy, she too could see the creature in the photo. 

"Have you both had experiences where you've been able to see what others couldn't? Moving shadows? Things in the trees that you knew were staring but no one believed you? Pointing at a creature that you knew you could see but everyone thought you were pointing at nothing?"

They both nodded. 

"Do you both know of anyone else who are like you? Anyone here at this camp?"

They looked at each other, thinking. 

"I think River could see them too." 

"I thought we were calling them Cypress?"

"Cypress is too girly." He whisper-yelled in retort. 

"Do you know how many non-binaries will pick a name like River? Even binary people use the name River!" She whisper-yelled back. 

Annabelle's pointy ear twitched next, and her grin extended into a smile as her eyes pointed up and towards a certain direction. Like a cat seeing something interesting, her pupils grew but not in an adorable way.

Leon let out a soft huff of air like a sigh for when something he expected to happen, happened, even though he was also hoping it wouldn't. He didn't even bother to turn around. 

"I believe when Bence told you both to stay with the visitor, he didn't mean bring the visitor with you as you broke his other rule of not following us here." 

Bence, surprised by what Leon said, turned in the direction Annabelle was smiling at, and immediately facepalmed with an audible groan. One hand covering his face in the hopes he was just imagining it, the other hand on his hip, knowing full-well he didn't, and he was mentally preparing to scold them. Wouldn't be the first time he had to scold two troublemakers. 

But before doing that, he began making his way over to deal with the revenant floating behind them.

"Ok. But before you say anything!" Joon blurted out. 

He then raised his palm up to gesture to their green friend standing between him and Dove. Pointing is rude sometimes. 

"Wouldn't this be a good opportunity to teach Green how to use their magic?"

Dove cleared her throat, sheepishly silent but also keeping her mind on the real reason. 

"They also wanted to try and warn their friends about the devil contracts...." She trialed off, looking around to see about, five kratts roaming about. They seem to pause whenever caught in Leon's gaze and keep trying to go near the adults of the camp, but nothing else. 

"Which, seems pretty useless now since they already made deals with the devil."

"I expected this of Joon, or even Malicka and Jalal, but I had some hope that you would still think rationally, Dove." Bence said as he stepped in front of them, making eye contact with the floating revenant behind them, then looked down at Green. 

"... You're going by 'Green' for now?"

They nodded. 

"Right well." He then gestured to the spirit behind them. 

"Do you know who this person behind you is?"

Green shook their head. 

Bence sighed, and gave in to Joon's suggestion, already seeing the boy's smug expression without looking. 

"Alright, take the guidebook out from your bag. Don't bother being surprised, I can see the thick of the spine peeking out. I'll show you the basics, and then we'll be able to identify all the people who died here."

Joon let out a breath of relief as Bence put a guiding hand on Green's back, ushering them to follow him so they could begin learning. The revenant trailed after the two, and it was safe to assume all the revenants were safe. They stopped swirling and flying around as if trying to make a hurricane with just their presence, and it was finally calm enough to think. No weapons needed. 

Dove internally groaned, she had not caused trouble like this in a while, but she also didn't have much time to internalize it as Annabelle zoomed over to hug them both, looping an arm around each of their necks in the friendliest strangle ever.

"All of my friends are here now!" She squealed before then reaching for both of their hands to pull them along. 

"Let's go! Vernon is currently inspecting a creepy looking barn house, and I think you'll both be very interested in it!" 

"Annabelle, please try not to forget that your friends are not supposed to be here-" Leon tried to tell her, but she brushed past him quickly, knowingly trying to avoid the lecture. 

"Once this is over! You'll be glad they came!" She interjected, continuing to pull Joon and Dove with her to where Vernon was. 

Leon wasn't really concerned. He was a predator of humans himself, and it didn't take him long to realize that the real monsters weren't the undead ones. He let them scamper- or- be dragged away, as he joined Ursa in turning their attention over to the adults caged in the overgrown roots that Vernon grew for them. 

The counselors and other adults looked very disturbed, in different states of confusion, and annoyance. 

"What kind of police are you guys?" One of them stammered out, their tone a mix of annoyance and panic. 

"You're inside a cage grown from roots in the ground, and that's your first question?"

"I've seen a lot of weird things today! What I wanna know is why you guys aren't trying to get more backup for the ghost things? Or-" 

The shaken-up counselor, trying his best to call attention to what he was most concerned with, was interrupted by the sound of chuckling, coming from two souls more sadistic when given enough freedom. 

"Hmm, one of them might make a good chew toy for Annabelle. I can already tell."

Leon chuckled along with Ursa as she observed the adults in the root cages, a new kind of glint in her eyes. A low growl escaped his throat, almost like an agreeing purr. 

"Ah, some fun little drama, Annabelle must've known this would happen. She and her friends might have some friends diffusing this situation. Let's go deal with the undead when the kids come back, and they can have some fun diffusing this."