Camping Gone Wrong

VOLUME [1]: Delusional Fools

[Jean's POV]

It was the day after our grandma's funeral when our shut in of a sister told us we should go camping.

"For a change of pace," she said.

To say that I was surprised would be an understatement. After all, it had been over three years since she took the initiative to venture outside the house other than when she went to the store once or twice a month to buy her necessities.

'Is she trying to change herself?' I thought to myself, and decided it wasn't such a bad idea. The youngest also agreed, so there wasn't any reason to decline.

Of course, had I known what would happen next, I would have done everything in my power to stop her, even if she ended up hating me in the process. Just that, well, the youngest might have a different opinion, though.

Two weeks later, we were ready to go camping. School had drained me so much that I was eagerly looking forward to it, and it turned out I wasn't the only one feeling this way. Kyle, the youngest, woke up at four just to start preparing. On normal days, he wouldn't be awake until noon when there was no class.

Our sister was a different story, though. Since she temporarily quit school so I could finish first and to help me pay for the tuition fee, her sleeping schedule had been completely out of whack. She would either stay up all night and day doing something on her computer or she would sleep all day, refusing to even wake up to eat. There was no in between. But even she went to bed early. She was looking forward to this even more than the two of us.

And then, suddenly, I had a premonition.

'She can't possibly be planning anything bad, right?'

Looking back, I should have listened to my guts. Should have put more weight on how reckless she was becoming as the days passed. A recklessness to the point that she almost died twice within a week.

I mean, sure she was a bit clumsy. She would cut herself while cooking, get into multiple motorbike incidents that even the neighbors wondered how she was still alive or not crippled at the very least.

She did all sorts of dangerous things just for the thrill of it and to test her limits. She also had this weird obsession with macabre arts that she filled her bedroom walls with. I thought she needed help.

Well, sis could be a bit weird sometimes and that weirdness once caused father's blood pressure to rise. He just came home to a phone call one day informing him sister was in the ER, needing blood transfusion.

Starting that day, he had forbidden her from doing her usual stuff. Made it so she wouldn't touch the knives in the kitchen ever again, sold her motorbike, and removed the door to her bedroom.

He was convinced she was trying to kill herself, which she strongly denied.

"Tent, sleeping bags, food, water, you got them, right?"

Father asked us all sorts of things before we left the house.

"Yeah," I answered him.

"GPS? Flares? Self-defense? Insect repellent?"

"We got 'em all, Dad. You don't have to worry. Really."

He still didn't seem convinced, though, and asked another question.

"Still, why all of a sudden? And why Mt. Hiraya of all places?"

Sadly, I couldn't answer this question. "Sister chose it," I simply told him as I shrugged.

However, I did have an idea of what was going on in her head and why she was going camping out of the blue. It was just a guess, but I was almost certain of it. It was because grandma was already dead, and this was her way of celebrating. Sounded sick, right? Well, I couldn't say I didn't understand her, though. Grandma was kinda harsh to her growing up, after all. The type to sl*t shame sister if she wore anything above the knees.

After a couple more back and forths, father finally let us go, albeit hesitantly. He still didn't agree to us camping. Especially with sis leading us. She was the only one with experience in this kind of stuff.

Anyway, moving forward. It was almost night when we reached our destination.

"There's nothing but trees in here," Kyle commented. The two of us were a bit out of breath, while sis was doing just fine. Anyone who knew she was a shut in might find this surprising, due to the stereotype that shut ins were these overweight, lazy, and socially awkward creeps. But she wasn't like that. Well, aside from being socially awkward. That, I couldn't defend her.

In the past, especially in high school, she was the "it" girl. Athletic, charismatic, and had a good fashion sense, she was the "baddie". She also did Arnis for years. Despite becoming a shut in, she continued to work out, mainly focusing on calisthenics and weight lifting. There were a bunch of dumbbells in her bedroom.

She may not show it to us, but everyone in the house knew.

"I'll prepare the grill, you set up the tents," she instructed our youngest. She then looked at me and opened her mouth only to close it back again.

"You… have something to say?" I hesitantly asked.

She just shook her head before turning her back and started collecting some twigs to start a fire.

Seeing that the two were doing something, I decided to relax a bit. I was tense since morning but everything was going so fine that I let my guards down.

We had barbecue by the campfire. Kyle sang a song and played the guitar, sister read a book with a flashlight as she complained about how much her eyes hurt, and I watched all of this while sipping coffee by the side. For some reason, there was this tiny voice in my head screaming something at me, although I couldn't point out what that something was.

It wasn't until the morning that I realized what my guts had been trying to warn me about. A sword was pointed at my sister's neck by a man who seemed to be cosplaying as some medieval fantasy adventurer. He was dressed in all black light armor and a tattered black cloak. By the way he was acting, I suspected he had some serious chuunibyou disease, but I soon realized it was much worse than that.

I never expected things to escalate like this. Blood slowly dripped as the blade made contact with her skin.

And then…