Later that day over in his office, Alex was humming to himself and going over a little paperwork when he felt a warm breeze blow in through his window, getting his attention. Alex had been in charge at the camp long enough to know what the camp (or whatever spirit it was that inhabited the land) was telling him, and smiled to know that they’d have another pair of happy, responsible counselors joining them at the end of the weekend.
Technically, Todd and George would need to wait until the weekend completely ended to make their final decision during a short ritual, but nobody Alex had ever known had gone back once they had made up their minds. Over the course of the next few days, Todd and George’s old lives would be rearranged subtly to make up for their sudden absence; Todd’s wife would probably remarry relatively quickly, their old jobs would be filled, and George’s parents would probably stop thinking about their old son and focus on their other children. Alex always hated thinking too hard about that part, but at this point he just had to trust that the magic of Camp CritterCreek knew best and wouldn’t act maliciously.
Sighing, he turned back to his paperwork, then caught sight of his ever-present clipboard, which was gently vibrating on his desk as a pair of names were being written on it. Alex raised an eyebrow and wiggled his whiskers as he read the names.
“Ooh, boy. This… this could be an issue,” he murmured to himself, hopping to his feet and running outside to the front gates of the camp.
***************
Todd’s wife Marie sped down the road, looking for any sign that her husband (well, ex-husband at this point) was nearby. Since Todd had rented the car that had broken down using his own insurance, the insurance company had gotten in touch with Marie when they couldn’t get ahold of Todd for the past day. Marie had considered waiting a bit longer, just in case Todd had just decided to relax and drop off the grid for a while, but that just didn’t seem like that man she knew, so she got in the car to see what was going on and had been driving all day to get there.
In the back seat, Todd’s 15 year old son Liam was idly checking his phone, irritated that he had been forced to come along with his mom on such a pointless trip but humoring her since he didn’t have anything else going on that weekend. Liam didn’t have too many friends (offline ones, at least), and he wasn’t too close with the friends he did have at school, which was a real worry for his mother and father, who worried he wasn’t making the most of his youth and was wasting it online and indoors.
Marie, on the other hand, was extremely stressed out by this situation; she’d be lying if she said that the passion hadn’t left her and Todd's marriage ages ago, but she still cared a lot for the man and hoped to god he was okay. Perhaps the only reason she’d come out here on such short notice was simply because she was looking for a little excitement and passion in her life, which Todd (sadly) couldn’t provide for her. She knew that once Liam was off to college like their older daughter was, discussions about separating were probably on the way for her and Todd.
Marie sighed and tried not to think about that at a time like this and paid attention to the road, which was getting harder and harder to see as the sun started to set on the dark, unlit country road. Off in the distance, Marie spotted a sign and a side road that headed off into the woods, and was able to read ‘CAMP CRI-‘ as the car’s headlights quickly passed over the sign.
“A camp…? I’m sure he’s not there, but it might not hurt to stop and ask for directions,” Marie mumbled to herself as she pulled into the side road and toward the camp’s parking lot. However, just as she got near, she ran over a sharp rock in the road and her front tire popped, making Marie and Liam jump in surprise. “Damn it…!” Marie said as she drove the car into the lot and jumped out to check the damage.
Alex rushed out to see what was going on, just barely managing to get his human glamour up before going to talk to the camp’s newest visitors. He double checked to make he hadn’t forgotten his tail or his ears, then he put on his trademark smile as he walked up, trying not to show on his face how worried he was about this new development…