First part may be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/ujksfs/camp_pinewood_where_innocence_goes_to_die/
Hello everyone. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to this, but we’ve had some strange developments over the past few days. I had intended to bring you up to speed on everything that had happened in the past, and a long discussion with the Judge about things… but honestly it’s just hard to talk about everything. The news made some discoveries at Camp Pinewood a couple days ago, and though everything has been quiet for years now; I’m starting to feel like I’m being watched again. that was something I always remembered about the camp, leading up to… well the end of things. When I’d wander through the old burned out camp, as I ended up doing on a regular basis while things developed, I’d get this strange heavy feeling. It felt like a mix of sadness, anger, and hate. Pure unadulterated hate. Though, honestly, it didn’t feel like it targeted me, specifically. Just a general hate at the world.
“She’s mad at the world, and rightly so.” Sam told me that day after the girl had been found wandering the camp, speaking in reference to Billi. “And honestly, who can blame her? I mean she was forgotten. Chalked up to being some simple runaway, when well… something far worse happened to her.” I remember that day like it were yesterday, though it was years ago.
We drove in silence up to the ranger’s residence, and then started to go our separate ways, when Sam called for me to follow her into her cabin. We needed to talk, and there was some things that I, as the new head ranger, needed to know. I ended up sitting on her couch, while Sam started drawing out all manner of newspaper clippings, photos, and a couple old faded books. That’s when she started talking, and continued well into the night. I ended up sleeping on her couch that night, and then spent the next day trying to digest just what she’d told me.
Billi Macintyre had been your typical 16 year old girl in the summer of 1975. She had a small clique of friends, a boyfriend, and by all accounts was your typical ‘good girl’. Good grades, volunteered at the Library, and worked part time at the bowling alley. She was looking forward to spending the summer at Pinewood, because it was going to be the first time that she was in the “big kid’s” cabin. Pinewood was laid out in a weird east west style, with younger kids staying in cabins on the east side that were close to where the counsellors and director’s cabins were, while the older kids 16-18 were in cabins located on the far west side of the camp, with the communal area, pool, and dining room separating them. Everyone who knew Billi then, said that she was so excited to go, it was the only thing she spoke about in the weeks leading up to summer break… and then, two days before school let out, that changed. Billi no longer wanted to go to camp, she quit her job at the bowling alley, and told the Library that she no longer wanted to volunteer there. Her mother told investigators that “Something happened then, which changed her.” However Billi never told anyone. She didn’t even record it in her diary. It was as though something just… changed.
Now, we don’t have records of her time at the camp, as those were lost in the fire; but in the years that followed, though the general public ‘accepted’ the police department’s story; there were some incidents that started rumors and questioning of the narrative. Such as the lead detective (now the Judge) being ordered to stop investigating the case, or face losing his job. Billi’s mother ending up in a mental hospital for some time, against her own will, and most curious of all, the death of three of the four witnesses the night the fire started.
“The first death was one Trevor Cummins.” Sam said, holding out a newspaper clipping talking about his death. Cummins had lived next door to Billi for most of their lives, and had been dating Billi in the year leading up to the summer camp incident. Cummins and several other students had gone up to the camp some time in October of 75, reportedly to have a party. The party broke up around midnight, and everyone went home. Trevor never returned. He was found, a couple days later, dead. He’d hanged himself from one of the swings in the youth play area. Strangely, the autopsy found that the hanging hadn’t killed him, but rather that he’d died from smoke inhallation. The Coroner had even comment that it looked like he was already dead when he was hanged. Yet even with this strange aspect to his death, it was still chalked up to a suicide from the guilt of his girlfriend running away, and swept under the rug.
The next death was one Rebeccah Collins. Collins had been known as more of a ‘bully’ when it came to interactions with Billi, and had been one of the last ones to see Billi before the fire started. In fact, she was the one who placed Billi going into the common area before the fire started. Collins was killed when her space heater malfunctioned in her home in 78, starting a fire. She was the only person killed in the fire, and curiously it never moved beyond her room. Even though her door was wide open, the fire just stopped there and didn’t go to any other part of the house.
The third one was James Watson. Watson’s death is hard to explain, as it’s not even known exactly what happened, or where his body is, well, sorta. Watson, like Cummins, “took his own life”, though unlike the other, he’s the only one who left a note. The note didn’t make much sense, saying that “She haunts my dreams” and “It’s my fault for not saying anything.” The note, along with his wallet, shoes, and clothing, was found neatly folded on the dock at Pinewood, and it’s generally believed that he drowned in the lake. However, to this day, no remains have been found.
I spent a good part of the night listening to this, and trying to process it all. Three out of four witness, all dead under very mysterious, if not full on paranormal means. So, what about the fourth one. Sam just shrugged. “Alive, and well, by all accounts. Keeps to herself, though from everything I’ve heard, she’s seen her own heartache through the years. Gave birth to a daughter in 76, and it’s believed that Cummins was the father. She never married, raised the daughter on her own. Daughter died about four years ago from an overdose, and she’s been having to raise her grand-daughter.” I asked her how she knew this, and Sam just explained that the Judge was her own grandfather, and she’s heard him talk about everything so much, that it’s hard not to keep track of things.
The next morning, I rolled off the couch, and headed outside, to find Sam sitting on her porch steps. She was staring out over the lake at Pinewood. I sat beside her in silence, also watching the fog as it burned off, and found myself seriously wondering what I’d gotten into. What kind of hell was this… and what’s more what would happen next? There was some seriously scary shit going on here, and it just felt like there was no good end in sight. The more I sat there, the more the whole story turned around in my head. One girl missing, three out of four witnesses dead, with two of them having something to do with fire? It just felt… wrong.
“Something been bugging me.” I said finally, and looked to her. “Okay, so, let’s say that Billi died that night; which your grandfather seems to think.” Sam nodded, but didn’t look at me “And the witnesses who died did so because they were responsible in some manner. That, revenge I suppose, revenge aspect of it makes sense. A ghost seeking justice from beyond the grave. What I don’t get though, is why now, and why target that girl. What’s her name?” Sam pursed her lips and looked at me, hair dancing over her face as she thought. I could see her mind tossing over ideas, and she was about to say something when a loud air raid type siren sounded over the camp. Our heads both snapped up, and then in short order our radios crackled.
The head count had failed. Someone was gone. Billi wasn’t done with us just yet. I watched Sam slowly close her eyes and then stand. “And so…” she said finally “It begins.”
Oh how right she was.
Three campers, two girls and a boy, hadn’t turned up for the morning head count. The camp was on lockdown while the Sheriff’s department came in with specialized search dogs to track the escapees. Sam and I were on duty now to help them wherever possible, though in reality most of our time would be spent just acting as ‘guides’. Leading them down various trails, and seeing where the scent would lead. For the first hour of tracking them, it was pretty normal. They kept together for the most part, before each one split off in a different direction. One went deeper into the woods, while another doubled back. The last one was heading down in the direction of the lake.
Sam and I decided that given that two were heading roughly in the direction of Camp Hope, and back in the direction of authorities, we’d stay with the tracker that was heading off deeper into the forest. That track… well it was strange. There’s something you learn as a ranger, that you always keep in mind when looking for a person lost. People will take long and winding routes through a forest. They will walk around difficult ground, or bushes, and never walk in a perfectly straight line. That’s just not something you do. At least, not a normal person. Yet the deeper we went, the more we started seeing the same thing. Over, and over, and over, and over again, the dog kept pulling the deputy in a straight as an arrow line, ever deeper into the forest. I’d almost been ready to just call off the search, figuring the dog had stumbled across something else, when we found the clearing.
Animals know things. They seem to have this uncanny ability to know when they really shouldn’t go somewhere, or when something just isn’t right. So imagine our surprise when this tracking dog simply locked its legs and refused to go any further. Tail between its legs, it whimpered and whined, and wouldn’t cross the verge of the forest into that clearing. Sam and I looked at each other, while the Deputy fought with his dog. We stepped in, and that heaviness, that anger, that hate that I felt at the camp, it flooded over me. We were NOT welcome here. I even said as much to Sam, who nodded slowly. I could see that she’d bit her lip, to the point of drawing blood. Yet, we had a job to do, and moved ever further into that clearing. I could see, from the way the clearing was laid out, it was a kind of camping area. Stone benches, made from local field stone, circled a center depression. The closer we got to that depression and the benches, the heavier the sensation became. At one point, I thought I caught a glimpse of a girl stepping behind a tree, and looked quickly back to Sam, who just nodded. She’d seen it too.
It felt like it took hours, and every muscle in my body to reach the center, where I found that depression to be a fire pit. Sam looked in it, and went white as a sheet, gasping and covering her mouth. I tore my eyes away from her, following her gaze. Inside the pit lay human remains. Long since burned, charred beyond recognition, and cold. We’d found our missing camper… or so we thought. It took several hours for state investigators and the Coroner to arrive to collect the remains. Meanwhile, the girl we had been tracking, turned up back at Camp Hope. In fact… she’d never left it. The Coroner wasn’t certain, but as we stood back and watched him gingerly placing the remains, piece by piece into a simple black bag, I knew the truth. We’d found Billi. I almost had to wonder if she’d led us there. Then again, the anger, and hatred feeling never seemed to really leave. As he left, the Coroner noted that he hadn’t found the entire skeleton. In fact, he’d only found part of it. He couldn’t say for certain, but it looked to him like someone had tried to bury them in the fire pit. What’s more, he hadn’t found the skull. “Some animal probably carried it off.” He said with a shrug, and packed everything into his van.
I knew without having to even look at Sam, or talking with the Judge, that whatever happened back in 75; it hadn’t been an accident. It had been a murder, and the spirit was reaching out trying to get the justice she deserved. The question was… how many people was she going to kill, and was Sam and I now on that list for disturbing her final resting place?