Faceless Game

Chapter Six

September 2014

Mont-Tremblant, Quebec

Mont-Tremblant National Park was amongst the many national parks in Quebec, it had stunning green valleys and vast bodies of water. With mountains covered in trees, it was an oasis of peace and quiet. It was a place where time slowed down, hours, minutes and seconds, all melted away, where trees grew slowly, a deer grazed calmly and rabbits and squirrels scampered about, but at their natural pace. Every insect and animal was moving according to their natural rhythm, and everyone began to do the same.

Especially, Wade, who for the past two years that he'd been a student  at Hollis, always looked forward to Orientation Camp every year. He loved the opportunity to be out in the open-air and enjoy the beautiful sights of the earth, rivers, mountains and trees. There was just something about the silent canyons, babbling creeks and growing green gardens that filled him with a gracious amount of joy and peace.

The last day of Orientation Camp had arrived and quite frankly, Wade was disappointed, in a few hours they would be heading back to the campus. The boarders had spent the past few days working on their cadet skills, while getting lost in the woods in the process. During mealtimes , they had helped prepare the meals, there were groups that cut firewood, another group that would go off to fetch water from the stream and another that helped with making the fire.

Although the food wasn't well-prepared, everyone finished their food as each one of them were as hungry as wolves. In the evenings after supper they had free time to mingle with one another. Everyone had good times, chatting and playing games. At night, they all slept soundly as they were exhausted from all the activities during the day.

Wade shook off his sadness, and unwrapped his burger, he could feel Arthur's eyes on him as he removed the caramelized onions from between the sesame buns and also as he took a hearty bite of the apple cheddar burger. The ground beef wasn't well cooked, but that didn't stop Wade from taking another bite of his lunch. He finished his burger in three more bites and washed it down with the diluted orange juice, and only then did he meet the curious eyes of Art.

"I'm not a fan of onions." Wade explained, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I'm not judging." 

"I'm not judging you either."

"What's there to judge?"

"Your tattoos." Wade glanced at the words, "Have Some Sympathy" inked inside Art's right bicep. "I've seen them and no, I wasn't checking you out. . . Why do you have them?"

He shrugged. "Self expression."

"That's dark as shite mate."  He got up. "I'm going to spend a penny, I'll be back in a minute."

"You're going to what?"

"Oh sorry, I'm going to take a piss." 

He shook his head with a laugh, as though it was ridiculous speaking the words, and  trudged down the trail park leading to the row of vault toilets. As he was about to step inside one of the toilets, a retching sound greeted his ears. His curiosity got the best of him and instead of getting into the toilet like he had intended to, Wade followed the sound. It came from the last toilet, he walked with stealthiness, so that he didn't step on a twig and give himself away.

When he finally reached the toilet, he peeked through the tiny hole and what he saw, or rather who he saw, took him by surprise. Daniella was on the floor with her fingers stuck in her throat. At first Wade wondered what she was doing, but seconds after her face found itself in the toilet seat, and he heard the retching sound again, it dawned on him that she was forcing herself to vomit.

What the bloody hell?  

Wade's mind was still mulling over why she was doing that to herself, when the door suddenly swung open and Daniella stood before him. He startled and moved back so fast that he stepped on a twig and fell flat on his ass. Seconds later, he saw Daniella's black flats as she stepped in front of him and glared down at him.

"What were you doing?" There was an edge to her raspy voice.

He blinked up at her.

For the first time, in a long time, he was left speechless and had no clue what to say. She had caught him red-handed, peeking at her while she was using the toilet.

She must think I'm a pervert, Wade groaned internally.

"Look, it's not what you think." He said, pushing himself off from the ground.

Daniella stepped forward and sized him up. "Tell me what it was then."

He gawked at her.

He couldn't help it.

Daniella White aka Goldilocks - that was what students and even teachers called her - was the epitome of beautiful. A siren was the best word to describe her, she possessed a majestic head of hair - she was a hot mess. In a very good way. Wade thought that her svelte figure was sensational and her skin was the color of gold. The one feature that always had him holding his breath was her eyes, which could change color. Most times they appeared to be gray, other times they were blue and then green, depending on the clothes she wore, lighting, or her mood. At that moment her eyes were a gray shade and Wade thought that must mean there was a storm coming - she was angry.

"I just needed to use the loo okay?" He scrambled to explain.

"No it's not okay," she said through gritted teeth. "You can't just spy on me and expect it to be okay."

"That's not what it was."

Suddenly she jabbed her fingers at his chest. "Why. Were. You. Spying. On. Me?"

"Sweet Jesus! Would you stop that." he grabbed both of her hands and locked them with one hand, behind her back.

The contact immediately sent electricity charging through his veins. He didn't know what the feeling was, but he knew that Daniella felt it too. His eyes trailed down and stopped at her chest, and he was mesmerized at how her breasts rose and fell with each breath she took.

Daniella tried to get out of the hold. "Let go of me!"

"Calm down."

"Let me go or I'll scream."

Wade removed his hand and stepped back.

Daniella rubbed her hands together as though he had hurt her, but Wade knew he hadn't held her that tight, and he also knew that she was rubbing away that feeling - the electricity.

"You didn't see anything."

He squinted at her. "What?"

"Say it-" she narrowed her gaze at him "-say you didn't see anything."

It registered to Wade that she was talking about what she had been doing inside the toilet. She wanted him to keep it a secret.

"Putain de merde, say it!"

"I didn't see anything."

Their eyes stayed locked for a long moment before she turned on her heels and stormed off. Wade stood there and watched after her retreating back. He couldn't help but wonder why she had forced herself to throw up and why she wanted it to be kept a secret so badly.

Who exactly are you Daniella White, and what other secrets are you hiding? 

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A/N: Thank you for reading. If you have any thoughts, feel free to leave a comment and don't forget to tap on that little star :)