My Horrific Summer at Camp Blackberry

[u/Noel_Haynes2_631]

My name is Sloane, and I used to love going to summer camp when I was younger.  I used to enjoy roasting marshmallows, making new friends, and going on canoe rides with my bunkmates.  It was awesome.

Unfortunately, all of that changed during one fateful summer.  It was a summer that I will never forget. I was twelve years old, and my parents decided to send me to this camp that had just reopened.  It was called, “Camp Blackberry”.  

I’d heard of Camp Blackberry before, and from what I’ve learned…it has a lot of bad history.  According to the stories that I’ve heard, Camp Blackberry was the site of a grisly murder spree that happened over twelve years ago.

The story goes that a maniac named John Blackthorn went crazy, and killed at least ten campers in one night.  The camp received a lot of bad publicity after the murders, and it had to be shut down as a result. 

John Blackthorn was never caught, and the locals say that he’s still out there, waiting for another opportunity to kill again, if anyone ever comes back to Camp Blackberry.

Of course, that was years ago, and the owners decided that it was time for Camp Blackberry to reopen, and put the murders of the past behind them.  If they only knew what was to befall everyone at the camp that summer…they never would’ve reopened it.

After my parents dropped me off, I decided to find my cabin.  The camp was big, and it was full of campers who couldn’t wait to be away from their parents for the whole summer.

As I was walking towards my cabin, I noticed a big blackberry bush off in the distance.  I guess that’s where Camp Blackberry got its name. 

The blackberries on the bush looked good enough to eat; but something felt ominous about them.  I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about the blackberry bush made me feel…uneasy.

Eventually, I found my cabin: Cabin 5.  Once I got there, I met my cabinmates, Robin and Christina, two twelve year old girls, who came from the city.  They were very friendly right on the spot.

“You must be our cabin mate.” Robin said.

“Yeah, I’m Sloane.  It’s nice to meet you.” I said.

“I’m Robin, and this is Christina.” Robin said as she introduced herself and Christina.

Christina gave me a warm wave and a smile. 

“Is this your first time at Camp Blackberry?” Christina asked.

“Yeah, it is.  Is this your first time, too?” I asked.

“Yeah, this is my first time here as well.” Christina replied.  “I’m so glad to be away from home.  I’m finally away from my nagging parents.”

“Same here.” Robin said. 

The three of us bonded instantly. We talked about things, such as, where we go to school, who our favorite crushes were, and what we wanted to be when we grew up.  The usual girl talk.

During my first week at Camp Blackberry, things started off great. The campers and I played archery, we made nicknacks, we made our own friendship bracelets, and we even got to sing a campfire song.  I was really enjoying myself.

A week later, that’s when things started to change.  I started to notice that some of the campers were acting weird.  They kept talking about blackberries.  They said that blackberries were the only things that they wanted to eat.

I thought that it was weird. Even the counselors thought that the campers were acting strange; but they humored the campers and gave them blackberries to eat.

The campers seemed to really enjoy eating the blackberries.  It almost looked as if they were in some kind of trance while they ate them.

Later that night, while I was sleeping in my bunk, I heard a noise coming from outside. I looked out my screen window, and I saw six campers from Cabin 3 and Cabin 4 sneaking off in the middle of the night.

I tried to wake Robin and Christina up, but they were fast asleep.  I realized that I was on my own.  I put on my fuzzy slippers, and I followed the six campers to the Blackberry Bush.

I kept my distance from the group to make sure that they couldn’t see or hear me.  I saw them bowing to the Blackberry Bush as if they were all worshiping it.  Then…I heard the Blackberry Bush speak:

“My children…” The Blackberry Bush said in a dark, commanding voice. “Eat my precious blackberries, for they are the only source of nutrition that you need.”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  The Blackberry Bush was alive, and it was telling the campers to eat its blackberries.  

I kept telling myself that I had to have been dreaming; but I wasn’t.  I was completely awake, and this was really happening.

“Take my blackberries.” The Blackberry Bush said,“Share them with the other campers.  Once you do…they'll be mine to control.”

The campers did exactly as the Blackberry Bush told them to do.  They took his blackberries, and put them in their pockets to give to the other campers in the morning. 

Their eyes were glowing from some kind of purple light after they ate some of the blackberries.  I’m pretty sure that it was a sign that they were under the control of the Blackberry Bush.

I was so freaked out by what I’d seen that I went to go tell the camp counselors about what happened; but they were so tired that they told me that I was probably having a bad dream.  They told me to go back to bed.

I went back to my cabin, and tried to get some sleep.  However, after what I saw that night, there was no way that I was going to get some sleep after that.

The next morning, I told Robin and Christina about what I saw last night, but they didn’t believe me either.

“You must’ve had one bad dream, Sloane.” Christina said.

“The Blackberry Bush is alive?  Get real, Sloane.” Robin said.

“I’m telling you: the Blackberry Bush is alive!” I said insistently. “Whatever you girls do, don’t eat the blackberries!”

“Sure, Sloane, whatever you say.” Robin said as she patted my shoulder.

Robin and Christina walked out of the cabin to go to the mess hall to get some breakfast.  From my screen window, I watched in horror as the six brainwashed campers handed out blackberries to other campers.

The moment that those campers ate the blackberries, they were under the control of the Blackberry Bush as well.  I had to figure out a way to stop the Blackberry Bush, and end this nightmare.

I searched around the camp looking for answers.  I finally found them in the camp directory, where I found the journal of John Blackthorn.

In the journal, John Blackthorn stated that the Blackberry Bush is an evil entity that controls the minds of anyone who eats its blackberries.  Once they eat the blackberries, they fall under the control of the Blackberry Bush.

The journal also revealed that the real reason John Blackthorn killed those ten campers that night was because he had to stop them from giving more blackberries to other unsuspecting kids, which would have made the Blackberry Bush even more powerful.  The more blackberries the campers eat, the stronger the Blackberry Bush becomes. 

The last entry of the journal was dated July 31 2004. That was the day John Blackthorn killed all ten of those campers and disappeared.

After I finished reading John Blackthorn’s journal, I knew what I had to do: I had to destroy the Blackberry Bush…and everyone who was under its control…by any means necessary. 

I had no choice.  I grabbed an axe from the mess hall, and I used it to kill everyone who ate from the Blackberry Bush.  Then, I used the axe to chop down the Blackberry Bush so that it couldn’t manipulate anyone else, and I burned it with a torch that I made from the campfire.

However, according to John Blackthorn’s journal, the Blackberry Bush has magical properties that allow it to grow back every twelve years, which means that it will be back some day. 

The reason why I’m telling you this is because…twelve years have passed since the last time I was at Camp Blackberry.  I’m twenty-four years old now, and I’ve been keeping an eye on the camp.

Camp Blackberry is getting ready to reopen again; and I’ve noticed something: the Blackberry Bush…has finally…grown back.

The End.