8. The Cabinmates

Inside, the cabin lights were dim.

There was enough light to see, thankfully, and Berry saw four bunk-beds. A lot of beds for three people. There were also little dressers and mirrors placed sporadically around the room, as well as a couple of wooden chairs that looked like they could be from the eighteen-hundreds.

The walls were covered with a faded orange-striped wallpaper, and there was a large circular rug on the ground, possibly hand-woven. The only other door than the one Berry came in was in the back corner, seemingly a bathroom.

Honestly, it was about what Berry expected.

What she hadn’t expected was her cabinmates, who she had hoped were at least kind of normal.

“Shut, up, Mindy!” came a hushed whisper. Berry looked over at the nearest bunkbed, where a freckled girl sat. Berry had seen her in passing before, at the lunch cabin. Had Berry seen her anywhere but Highwater, she’d have assumed she was just a normal girl. She looked about ten years old and had a mess of long, red hair.

“Sorry about that,” the girl said. She looked at Berry, her head tilted to the side, her eyes sizing her up.

“Um, I’m Berry,” said Berry with an uncomfortable smile. She still didn’t know who the girl had been talking to; there were no signs of the third cabinmate.

“Quit your whining!” the girl whisper-yelled to the wall on her left, then drew her eyes back up to Berry’s. “I’m Gwen. Mindy says you’re reeeeally pretty.” Gwen giggled.

Berry’s eyes darted around the room, questioning her own sanity. Mindy…who?

“Thanks,” Berry said to no one in particular.

Gwen hugged herself and muttered a couple of words Berry couldn’t make out. Then, dramatically, Gwen said, “Goodnight!” and threw herself flat on her bed.

Berry tiptoed around Gwen as if afraid to wake her.

The next bunkbed over had Berry’s familiar suitcase on it. Thank goodness.

Still not spotting anyone other than Gwen, Berry got out her pajamas and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Once there, she pulled off her jacket, then stopped.

She had nearly forgotten about the wristband, which blended in very well against her skin. She held her left arm up to the light to inspect. It was an odd thing.

It was plastic-y and hard, much like a hospital wristband, but the color nearly perfectly matched the pink skin of her wrist. Berry swore it had been more…generically tan before.

Luckily, her wrist didn't sting like it had initially. Nonetheless, Berry tried halfheartedly to pull the wristband off. She knew instinctually that her attempt wouldn’t work (and it didn’t), but she tried anyway.

Berry emerged from the bathroom clad in her plaid pajama bottoms and pale-yellow tank top. Feeling more and more worn out by the minute, she collapsed into bed, and waited for sleep to take her.

* * *

The next morning brought more surprises.

“Stop, you’ll wake her up!”

Berry had slept fitfully all night, and groaned when she heard voices. She had no idea what time it was, but she didn’t trust her surroundings enough not to check what was going on.

It turned out it was, indeed, morning, which Berry deduced based on the slanted sunlight spilling through the cabin windows. The daylight made everything in the cabin look even more worn and dusty.

The cause of the noise was what Berry deduced next. It was very clearly Gwen.

“Do the dance again!”

Childish squeals of laughter rang through the cabin, and Berry wondered if the other cabins could hear it too.

Berry rolled out of bed (quite literally) and stretched, aching from the hard mattress.

“Look, Mindy, you woke her up!” Gwen scolded.

Berry looked over at Gwen, who was sitting absolutely alone on her bottom bunk, an untamed mass of red hair tumbling down her shoulders.

The young girl smiled up at Berry. “Morning! Sorry Mindy’s being so loud.” Gwen gave a hard stare to the cabin wall beside her. “They told me to tell you to go to the lunch cabin for breakfast.”

Berry bobbed her head in acknowledgement. “Who told you?” she asked politely. She wasn’t sure if Gwen was a great source of information.

Gwen made a face and tapped her nose with an index finger. Berry’s eyes trailed down to the girl’s wrist. Her eyes barely made out the wristband, the color was yet again so close to her skin tone.

“I don’t remember who, but they told me,” Gwen said, looking sheepish.

“Oh. That’s ok,” Berry said. The words had just left her mouth when a shadow moved in the corner of the room.

She was so surprised to find someone else in the room, Berry’s whole body froze for a second.

The top bunk of the bed furthest away was, apparently, inhabited. There was no way for Berry to know for how long this someone had been there, but a lanky girl jumped nimbly down then slunk her way straight past both Berry and Gwen, straight out of the cabin.

The girl somehow managed to avoid stepping anywhere where there was sunlight, so Berry didn’t get a good look at her. It had been a blur of black hair and black clothes.

“Is that Mindy?” Berry asked Gwen, eyes lingering on the cabin door, as if the mysterious girl would pop back in.

“Mindy?!” Gwen let out a shriek of laughter. “No way! Kala doesn’t ever speak, and Mindy talks all the time! Besides, Mindy’s right here.” Gwen gestured to the empty air to her right. “Mindy sleeps in the bunk above me.”

“Oh,” was all Berry could think to say.