Chapter 7: Yoru

Dread filled Yoru as the voice called out to him. He turned around to see Lincoln McDonald behind him, holding a clipboard in one hand.

“Hey… can you call me Faun? Not Hibbaku. It’s a personal thing.”

“Um, okay,” replied Lincoln. “Follow me.”

Yoru followed Lincoln down the hill and into the staff office eyes were glued to him, like moths to a lamb. Sitting down behind a desk Lincoln said, “Please, take a seat.” Yoru sat down on the chair that seemed to be straight from school.

“So, what do you need?” asked Yoru, leaning back in his chair.

“Look, Yoru, we have a strict zero violence policy here at Camp Kunutachawa. I’m afraid attacking Mr.Dagrinski,” Is that Randy’s last name? “was a major infraction of our rules,” said Lincoln, reading off a sheet.

Yoru sat up in his seat, “Hey!” he shouted, “Randy was attacking this Lucas kid. I told him to stop and he got violent, it’s not my fault!”

Lincoln cracked a questioning eye, “Even if that’s true,” Lincoln said ‘if’ as if he thought with all his heart that Yoru was guilty, “we cannot let this slide. I’m setting you up for a meeting with a guidance counselor, he’ll be here in a day or two.”

Yoru was outraged, he hadn’t done anything wrong. So why was he being punished? Why wasn’t Randy in trouble?

“That’s it. You may go,” dismissed Lincoln, grabbing a flip phone from a drawer in his desk. Yoru stormed out of the room, overturning dust as he walked. Goddamn that idiot!

Out of the corner of his eye Yoru noticed that Lucas was approaching him.

“What happened?” he asked.

Yoru clicked his tongue, “That dumbass Lincoln thinks I attack Randy first. So now I have to go to therapy,” Yoru made eye contact with Lucas, “at summer camp!” Yoru held his head in his hands. “It is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Oh,” said Lucas, quieting down. Before Yoru told him what happened Lucas was in high spirits, those had just been destroyed. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault you got into trouble.”

Yoru wanted to say ‘Of course it’s you!’ but he didn’t. “It’s fine Lucas. It’s not your fault,” is what he said instead.

Lucas seemed to be on the verge of tears, “I’m really sorry Yoru. I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

Yoru bent down to the kid’s height. “It’s fine bro, really.”

“I- I can show you around camp if you want. To repay you,” Lucas offered, wiping a tear from his eyes.

Yoru didn’t want to break the kid’s spirit, so he accepted.

Lucas showed him the basketball courts, the volleyball nets, and where to get the best snacks. Apparently Kunutachawa had a reputation for its resort-esque structure. You could do any activity whenever you wanted, and there were places for food almost everywhere.

At the end of his tour Lucas showed Yoru where Randy and his goons held most of his fights.

“If they really hate your guts they’ll drag you over here and all fight you,” Lucas said, looking at the mock arena.

It was sort of like a hollowed out dome on the beach. It was surrounded by a dense forest that hid it from counselors, and it even had some defenses around it to keep people from escaping. The strangest part of it all was that there was a low growling-scraping noise coming from a gate.

“Is something in there?” asked Yoru, pointing to the gate he heard the noises from.

“I don’t think so,” replied Lucas, glancing behind himself, “I think we should leave now. It’s getting dark.”

“Yeah sure,” replied Yoru, still looking at the cage.

The two boys walked back to their cabins, Lucas broke off earlier as he was in the younger section.

A girl was sitting on a bench by another cabin. Yoru recognized her, but he didn’t know where he knew her. She was tossing seeds to some birds that had gathered around her feet. She had long black hair and a caring face.

“Summer? Summer Perez?” said Yoru, slowly remembering stuff about the women.

“Hm?” she said, looking up. “Is that you, Yoru?” she asked.

“Yeah!” he said, walking towards her. “Weren’t we in the same class, back in elementary school?”

“Oh yeah, you were the kid who always got bullied,” she said.

“Grade five was hard,” said Yoru, “it’s nice to see you anyway, Summer.”

“You too,” she said. Summer threw another handful of seeds at the birds. “How’s the fam?”

Yoru winced, should he tell her about what happened? “My mom and dad died. And Harry’s in the hospital.”

“Oh,” said Summer, quieting down. “I’m- I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay, really. There was this whole situation, and it’s all figured out now,” – Even though I wish it wasn’t – “I’m fine.”

“Okay,” said Summer, standing up to walk away. “But if you ever need anything you can find me in the Swan Cabin.”

“That’s cool. See you later Summer,” said Yoru, waving goodbye, as he went into his own cabin.

Yoru plopped himself down on his bed, the other camper’s already snoring away. He started to doze off but couldn’t get that scratching noise out of his head. What could possibly be in there? I’ll deal with that in the morning, for now I’m sleeping.

***

Yoru felt hard sand hit the side of his body as he tumbled down the beach. A wave hit him in the face, as he shook himself awake. His sleeping bag was nowhere to be seen, and so was his cabin. He was alone, or at least he thought he was.

Yoru started walking around the slice of beach he had been dropped in, but there didn’t seem to be much there. That was until he walked face first into a wall of stone. Yoru slowly looked up, he was in a coliseum-like dome with seats carved from sand all around him.

The sound of a large stick hitting sand rang through the dome as torches started lighting up. That’s when it hit him, Yoru was in Randy’s fight pit. People were lined up around him, wearing black bathrobes that had a red cross with an extra purple line through it painted on the robe. He couldn’t see their faces but he recognized the one in the throne.

“Well, well, well, look who it is. It’s little ol’ Yoru,” taunted Randy. “How’s it going little man? Like my arena?”

“Randy let me out!” demanded Yoru, shouting at the boy sitting on the throne.

Randy stood up and paced around, “Oh I will. As soon as you have a little meeting with my champion,” said Randy gesturing towards the cage in the sand.

“Randy-” Yoru was cut off with a loud roar that rang through his ears.

“Toodles,” said Randy, waving his hand.

Two younger kids, about Lucas’s age, started pulling up some chains, raising the bars.

A massive black paw burst through the bars, sharper than steel. One wolf head forced its way out. Then another. Then a third. Molten drool hissed where it hit the ground. All three heads roared in unison. The chains snapped. And the beast lunged.