"So... tell me again why you volunteered to participate in this year's 24-Hour Ghost of Ontario Challenge?" Twenty-four-year-old Ranger Amelia pulled her leather bag off her back and dropped it at her feet. She and her partner, Ranger Kate, just made it to their campsite for the next twenty-four hours.
"Oh, Amelia. What are you so worried about?" Kate wanted to know.
"Don't you know the legends?" Amelia asked. "The Ghost of Ontario drowns anyone who disturbs his home! He's going to turn us into the blue-plate special, Kate! What body part do you think he likes more: the arms, legs, or head?"
"You need to stop dilly-daggling and help me with the tent."
"Fine. Fine. The Pupil must listen to the Master. Can I start calling you 'Sensei Kate' from now on?"
Amelia didn't notice Kate trying to hold back a laugh. She, instead, headed over to the small motorboat they took to get to the site. Inside were a few dry bags that held their food, water, tent, and sleeping bags.
Amelia opted for her and Ranger Kate to take a few canoes, but Kate declined. She had not been on one for the past ten years.
They were on Red Squirrel Lake, which was said to be the birthplace of the Ghost of Ontario. The campsite they were at could hold five tents. It had a sandy beach, including an enormous forest behind the tent sites. If one decided to head so far back, they would eventually find a path that led to a cliff.
Ranger Kate was thirty-seven. Like Ihaan, she had deep brown eyes, tan skin, and brown hair.
Ranger Amelia just started her job with Lady Evelyn Smoothwater Provincial Park. It was random how she did.
She appeared at the ranger station the afternoon before and announced, "Here I am! Let's do this thing!"
Kate's boss asked Kate if she could train the newcomer since he had some family business to deal with. Ranger Amelia also just struck him as a little bit weird.
Whether it was a coincidence or not, Ranger Amelia started right during the 24-Hour Ghost of Ontario Challenge, an annual festival held every Halloween season. During it, two lucky campers or rangers spent twenty-four hours on Red Squirrel Lake, the most haunted lake in the Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park. If they survived, then Camp Wanapitei, a camp just off Lady Evelyn Lake, would honor them with a great feast and fireworks.
Ranger Kate waited until Amelia was distracted before heading toward the path at the back of the site. She searched the area like a vulture and told herself, "I know he's out there somewhere."
Kate referred to her son. She lost him ten years ago on that very lake and had dedicated her life to finding him. That was why Kate became a ranger. Her motherly instincts said her son waited for her that weekend, so she was the first to volunteer for the 24-Hour Challenge. She forced poor Amelia to come along because of her boss's orders to train her, and she wasn't happy to be there.
She even stopped Kate before she wandered too far. "Where are you going? Don't leave me alone out here with the ghost!"
"Ugh." How did Kate wind up in such a situation again? She had a goal and intended to follow through with it, but it would be challenging because Amelia was on the scene.
Kate was in for a unique ride for the next twenty-four hours.
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