“Oh my gosh, this camp is super boring, I can’t wait till I get home,” Lainey, a camp counselor overhears from a group of kids. She denies how anyone can find her camp boring, as there are bonfires, a lake, arts and crafts, and outdoor activities. As she looks around, she spots another clique of kids, grouping tightly in a bunch, whispering and snickering by the cabin parallel to the glassy, green lake.

Camp Mendacium was Lainey’s grandfather's property before she decided to renovate it and give it a fresh start. After college, with the money she borrowed from her parents, she was able to demolish the rotting sideboards and replace them with newer, sturdier wood that she covered with sealant so that leaks and rotting were out of the picture. She even had enough money left over to clear out some of the trees in order to add in room for bonfire pits.

Lainey discreetly strolls past the clique to overhear their conversation, “Have you been to the camp down the street, it's like totally rad! It has a waterslide and everything,” one girl with two auburn ponytails on either side of her head exclaims.

“Yeah! It's literally the funnest camp ever. I have no clue why my  mom signed me up for this stupid summer camp this year. She said something about it being cheaper, and I can see why,” a boy adds. This is all Lainey could catch walking by If she were to walk any slower, some of the kids might suspect something and move on to another subject. The comments about the neighboring camp Lainey is hearing about unnerves her. She absolutely cannot lose this camp. Just the thought of this shakes her soul, especially because her parents loaned her so much money to refurbish it. The sharp echo of shoes tapping against the gravel path immediately interrupts her thoughts. Lainey snaps her mind back out of the clouds to get a glance at the culprit making all this ruckus. Of course it was Gina, Lainey’s childhood friend and the co-founder of the camp. Her innocent, dark eyes staring straight at her. After a quick smile, Lainey quickly scatters away from behind the cabin towards the other side of the camp before Gina could fit in any unneeded conversation. Lainey’s feet carry her near the end of the lot, but she makes a sharp turn towards the cafeteria. Quickly, Lainey goes up to the counter to ask Kai, one of the chefs, for a bologna sandwich.. She had been craving one of those for a while.

“I’m sorry, but I need to ask,” Kai chuckles, “How do you love these so much?”

“Oh, I don’t know...” Lainey manages to say while scarfing down the sandwich; though, she is still caught up with the reviews that she's been hearing about lately. Kai picks up on Lainey’s mood, because she is always cheerful waiting forward for her favorite time of the day: lunch.

“Oh, well, you know what’s for tomorrow?” Kai asks. “Bonfire night! And guess what? It's gonna be a full moon too!” Seeing Lainey’s eyes immediately brighten, Kai felt a sense of gratification.

“Yeah, I can’t wait for that, it's going to be really fun for the kids. I'm going to roast those marshmallows you got, and maybe even tell some spooky stories around the campfire.” Lainey says.

“Spooky stories huh? I got some for you.” Gina grins while slamming the wooden door. Lainey smiles at her and pats her seat next to her, suggesting Gina to sit down next to her. Kai comes out from behind the counter of steaming, aluminium food trays and joins them. The children already had lunch and are out for freetime.
Gina leans in close, like a little school girl ready to spill a secret, “You guys, I heard some things that you might wanna hear --” she inclines her head even closer to Kai and Lainey sitting next to her on the worn, plastic table, “-- I heard a lotta kids complainin’ about the camp, you know...”. She adds, waiting for a response: Kai’s visage went from intrigued, to scrunched up, and she glances over to Lainey for confirmation.
With their inquisitive and sorrowful eyes, Lainey has no choice but to be truthful, “Yeah, I’m sorry guys I was going to tell you its just....” Lainey looks down.

“Oh my gosh, you know what? I have the greatest plan to help you!” Gina blurts out.

“What is it, Gina?” Lainey asks with exasperation.

“You know how tomorrow is the bonfire night, you could make up like a lie or something to make
the kids really excited to come back cause they'll have this lie to look after!” Gina exclaims.

“I-- We can lie about the ghost of a dead camper or something,” Gina continues.

Kai chuckles, then replies, “I mean, that is a pretty good idea, you have to admit.”

“Okay, but I’m not lying to the children of this camp unless this situation gets any worse, alright?

And I do not want to hear any of you doing it either. This is a last resort.” Lainey finally says. Everyone nods and packs up their things for the next shift. Lainey is on the lookout for anymore complaints while the camp is setting up for a team building activity. Most of the kids seem to love it, they are all giggling and having a good time. It just seems to be the ‘cool kids’ that most of the other children look up to spreading the quibble. After the camp’s dinner, the sun began to sink beneath the forest, creating a golden aura on the horizon of the elderly conifers.

“Alrighty, start getting ready for bed,” Lainey and the other counselors would say to the campers.

“This definitely is a stupid camp for sure, I’m actually really happy that tomorrow is the last day”. Lainey hears from her group of campers, just before tucking herself into the cozy sheets that she long awaited. She promises to herself that if she hears anymore of these protests, she will not hesitate to go through with Gina’s scheme. She will do  whatever  it takes to keep her camp in business and thriving.

As the sun rises the next morning, she drags herself to the bathroom, which is a whole other block away. She carries her uniform with her in a neat little pile clutched closely to her chest, and once arriving at the just big enough bathroom, she shrugs on her loose, khaki pants and bright white polo shirt. Lastly, she tops it off with a little orange baseball hat which is mandatory for all counselors it has the camp’s logo placed right in the center of the cap: a little pine tree and bonfire.

Most of the day went by as usual. Kai and three other chefs whipped up fluffy eggs and golden, buttered toast for breakfast, with fresh veggie subs, and crisp hotdogs for lunch. For the activity before the campfires, Lainey planned ahead that the camp would do arts and crafts. The outcome of this was was creations with vivid string, such as bracelets or dreamcatchers. The campers ranged from around 6 to 15 years of age so the results were varied, yet all were brilliant and vibrant.

Because the the group of campers that she was assigned to were the oldest of the camp, they were much less innocent, and quite obnoxious.

“I’m super psyched that this camp is almost over,” exclaims an older boy.

A girl around the same age agreed, “Yeah, same.” She continued to nudge her friend and whisper something to her. Soon, the whole group of older kids were adding onto this statement.

A flush of panic washes over Lainey like a tsunami. On a whim, she swiftly walks over to the nearest counselor without a group and asks them to cover for her. In overload, Lainey scans the outdoor picnic tables near the fire pits for Gina.

Lainey takes a quick glance around the camp and lake. When she looks up, the first thing she sees is Gina.

“Gina!” Lainey blurts out.

“What?” Gina inquires.

“We need to go through with your plan! I heard more complaints, and it’s really getting out of
hand, and-” Lainey loses her breath. She spots the corners of Gina’s mouth perk up, resembling a tiny smirk.
“Ok, it’s gonna be okay. Calm down. It’s like 7:30 right now, so that means it’s time for the campfire. We can tell the lies then,” Gina says.

They hastily gather all of the counsellors and their campers for the fires. Kai gets the marshmallows and long twigs for roasting.

“So, I would like to propose spooky stories...” Lainey says. All of the children look around to each other and nod.

“Ok, can I go first?” Lainey doesn't wait for an answer, “This camp has a few spooky tales of it own”.

“There was once a rumor that a camper, like one of you-” She points at the first kid she sees, “-died... The ghost of the child still haunts the camp on full moons.” Lainey goes on. Everyone looks up, their miens twisting into petrified expressions. Whispers hush over the groups.
“-no one knows if this is true or not...” At the end, Lainey is grinning from ear to ear. So are most of the kids, unless they are horror-stricken, which some of the younger ones were. The murmurs around the camp seemed to lull Lainey like a lullaby.

Gina adds, “Do y'all wanna know why it was a full moon? It was ‘cause the child was stabbed under the light of the full moon, three years ago today.” Lainey gives her a low key thumbs up. Everybody, including the counselors looked as if they were going to jump out of their skin. They were petrified! That’s just what Lainey was hoping for.

While all the sleepy children go heading back to their cabins with their counselors, and Lainey is packing up, she manages to hear remarks from different campers like,

“Do you think it’s true?”

“I don’t care I’m coming back next year,”.

Or, “Man, that was cool- who knew that spooky stories could actually scare you!”.

When all of the kids are sound asleep, and the moon is shining brighter than the sun, Lainey
continues to pack and tidy up for tomorrow, which is pick up day for all of the kids and the end of the camp. Lainey is hoping that they just cannot keep quiet about the fib she started. She can imagine all of the children at the camp next summer, talking about the ghost child.  Gina overdid it a little bit with the stabbing and everything, but I’m pretty sure she had good intentions and the lie did work, so...  Lainey thought to herself.
A rustling on the gravel on the ground startled her out of her thoughts and back to reality and cleaning. A closer inspection leads Lainey to become curious. She sees dark, sticky liquid spilling over and coating all of the gravel. It takes her a minute to realize that this liquid isn't just juice that a little child must have spilled. A few steps closer reveals a petite child with bright orange hair gleaming in the moonlight, lying limp and lifeless on the ground with many bloody gashes soaking through her white t-shirt.

Her heart drops, and she feels like she is about to throw up. In the heat of the moment, Lainey sprint over, in the dark, to the bathroom, where they keep the big, black trash bags. She stumbles and trips onto the hard gravel, but without thinking, her feet pick her up and carry her further.

After returning to the body, she bags it up, while crying, and gagging every ten seconds.

As if on autopilot, Lainey grabs a shovel and hacks away at the coarse, dry dirt further into the woods, and away from her camp. She lugs the heavy bag towards the hole and drops it in without thinking twice.  THUD , Lainey winces.

This cannot ruin my camp, I need the money . These words repeatedly echo in her head.

After hours of digging, scrubbing, and cleaning, Lainey finally removes any trace of the ‘incident’ from her campsite. Lainey gets up, fixes her golden hair into a messy bun, and dabs on a little concealer to cover the bags that formed after working all night. She goes to breakfast with the rest of the camp as usual and then waves goodbye to all of the children and counselors.

“Bye, Lainey, last night was real fun! I hope to do it again!” Gina calls out just as she is leaving. “Oh yeah, super fun! See you soon, Gina,” Lainey replies with a smile.

With a wave, mostly everyone is gone from the camp. Lainey looks at the crowd heading out of the campsite one last time before heading back, she spots Gina. Something about her makes Lainey gaze harder: from Gina’s tattered backpack, a silver kitchen knife coated in dry, dark blood peeks out from a tear in the seams.