1. Sylas/River

When fades the light and comes the dark,
The moon will rise to seal his mark,
With ten Kincaids born and died as men,
Their seed of evil will rise again.

So said the rhyme. Where it came from, Sylas did not know. None had started it, none had ever written it. Like a poison the annoying little ditty had simply leached out of the very soil of Moon Lake and infected the minds of the children. From nursery rhymes, to hop scotch, to little tunes they whistled, the words found their way into every child’s mouth, and onto the lips of every new generation after them. No one questioned it. The parent’s silence was born of fear, the fear of those who understood the meaning of the verse. The children’s silence was born of normalization.

Things happened in Moon Lake. Things that didn’t happen elsewhere. You learned to accept those things, and move on. To Sylas, the thing which had happened had been his brother’s death.

Rain drizzled over him now as he stared down into that hole, that filthy muddy shallow grave dug into the forest floor. Staring back up at him were the eyes of his wretched brother, still wide with shock.

Even now Silas half expected the dead man to move. To get up and scream at him, to accuse him, to laugh at him and banish him again. But he did none of those things. His brother was dead. Finally dead. In one night ten long years of exile had been brought to an end.

Silas laughed, running his blood stained hands over his face, letting the rain wash it all away. Ten years, and ten dead men. Sylas Kincaid was finally home.

Sun filtered through the pines as they passed by outside the car window. Although River had moved to Oregon all of two years ago, she still could never get over the incredible beauty of the place. The tall, majestic pine forests, the wonderful dreary rainy days, the gorgeous rocky coastline. It all seemed made for her. Every new day since the move had been an adventure, and to her there was no escape like a good adventure.

Her mother spoke up from the front seat. “You know, there’s always space camp! We could still turn around...”

River groaned. “Mom, no! Come on, we’ve been over this!”

“I’m just kidding! I still think it would have been better though. Taught you more useful skills, maybe have been something to put on your resume.”

“Mom, I’m not putting anything like that on my resume! No college would ever care! Besides, space camp is for dorks, I want to meet real people- I want to make friends!”

“Alright, alright! You can’t blame me for thinking about your future a little.”

River sighed, leg bouncing a little in anticipation. She wasn’t normally one to put on makeup but this morning she had put in the effort to look presentable. She’d brushed her short blonde hair, put on nice clothes that actually fit her, even considered wearing her contacts, but then decided they were too much of a bother. This summer she’d make some memories to last a lifetime, for sure.

The trip lasted another agonizing half hour before their car finally pulled into the long rocky drive into Camp Moon Lake. The road in had been long and winding, but the dirt road leading to the actual summer camp was even more difficult to traverse. Potholes and mud from last night’s rain still lingered, the car kicking up rocks and twigs as it trudged through the ill maintained path.

River grunted as the car bumped along. “Hm, you’d think they’d have fixed up the road a bit in preparation for their camper’s arrival!”

“It probably just got washed out, I’m sure maintaining a dirt road like this is hard...”

As the camp came into sight River’s heart started beating faster. This was it, this was really it, oh god!

“W-wait, mom! Wait, stop the car!”

“What’s wrong, Riv?” Her mother braked, halting the car a ways away from the parking lot, which was already full of people.

River quickly crawled up over the center console and checked herself in the mirror, adding a few quick final touches to her makeup.

Her mother stopped herself halfway through rolling her eyes and instead smiled at her. “You look beautiful sweety, don’t worry so much. How about you let me park and you can finish that?”

“No, no I’m done, I’ll just mess it up more if I keep at it.” River sat back down with a huff. Then, unable to wait any longer, she opened the door, forcing her mother to brake again with a shout, and jumped out of the car.

The air was so fresh, the wonderful smell of pine needles and freshly fallen rain flooded her senses, filling her up with energy. She could see other teenagers getting their bags out of their cars, parents and guardians chatting with each other near the entrance to a large lodge. Despite the crowd, the lot was actually a bit more empty than she expected. Perhaps most people hadn’t arrived yet.

“River! At least wait until I’m fully parked!”

She waved at her exasperated mother and walked excitedly towards the lodge. She spied another girl with long blonde hair struggling with a large suitcase. She looked like she dressed for the beach, wearing a bikini top and shorts, her perfect makeup highlighting a face screwed up in annoyance.

“Hey! You need help with that?” River approached her.

The girl tossed her hair behind her shoulder, which immediately was stirred up again by the wind. “Oh my god yes, can you take this? My useless dad just wandered off.”

River felt a little nervous at the comment about her father, letting out an awkward laugh. “He’s probably just signing you in, I can help you get your things inside the lodge though! My name’s River.”

The girl let River take her bag from her. “Aww Riverrr ... like a body of water, that’s soo cute. My name’s Natalie.”

River couldn’t tell if she was making fun of her or being sincere, the deadpan expression and monotone voice made it difficult to tell. She gave Natalie the benefit of the doubt. “Thanks, it’s nice to meet you.”

Natalie leaned back into her car and pulled out her purse. “Mhmm, it’s my first time at summer camp, you can probably tell, I’m such a mess right now.”

River dragged the rolling bag through the gravel parking lot as Natalie gathered her things. “No no, you look great!”

“Oh no, I know I look great, I was talking about all of my things! I didn’t know at all what to pack, I’m a city girl, and normally I know how to live just fine in a city, I guess this is as far from a city as it gets though! This is so embarrassing, I swear I’m not normally such a mess!”

“U-uhm, ok, well don’t be embarrassed, I guess. This is my first time going to camp in a while, but my family goes hiking a lot, so feel free to ask any questions!” River huffed as she dragged the suitcase up the stairs of the lodge. What the hell did she pack in there?

Natalie smiled for the first time. “Thank you so much!” She nonchalantly popped her purse on top of the suitcase River was dragging. “You’re so sweet, I really appreciate your help.”

River soon discovered that helping Natalie meant doing basically all the work herself. Between her heels and her frail frame Natalie was largely ill equipped to carry much of anything besides a few smaller items. By the time River finished hauling up the second bag she had worked up a sweat, and was pretty tired of interacting with the girl.

“I REALLY hope there aren’t any rats in the cabins, I’ve heard pests can be a real problem in these places, I made my dad pack like a thousand million mouse traps just in case, and some rat poison...”

“There won’t be any rats.” River rolling her eyes. “They clean out the cabins really thoroughly before every season.”

“I saw a youtube video about it! You can’t rely on any of these camp counselor types or whoever does the cleaning, they miss some crazy shit.” She leaned in and whispered. “They even ... fuck- in the beds, RIGHT before new campers move in.”

“Ew!” River screwed up her face. “Come on! They don’t do that!”

“It’s true! Jenna Hines ran a blacklight through her cabin, and her bed was lit up like- a- Christmas- tree-.”

The two girls climbed the stairs into the main lodge for the last time and River saw her mom speaking with one of the counselors. She was easy to pick out of the crowd as she was a pretty tall lady, and tended to fill a room with her energy. It was something River really admired in her mom, how she just made friends everywhere she went.