The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 210: Lunch, afternoon and evening. (Patreon)

When Olivia, Lilian and Jessica sit with the rest of you at the table, you get flashbacks to when this happened back at the school. Back then, you, Sophia and Katherine weren’t dating, and you had just admitted to be dating Emily and Megan at the same time.

Things are different now, but in a good way. Not only are you closer to your girlfriends than ever, but a quick peek at the AMA gives you an idea of where these three girls stand when it comes to you-

-Hughes, Olivia-
Affection Score: 75
Love Score: 45
Lust Score: 46

-Reed, Lilian-
Affection Score: 70
Love Score: 21
Lust Score: 40

-Ramirez, Jessica-
Affection Score: 83
Love score: 48
Lust score: 42

Honestly, you’re taken aback by these scores. You haven’t done much to actively improve them. At most, you've had short hallway conversations with them and helped them study for exams. Olivia came to you with questions about an assignment a few weeks ago, something Mia had tasked her with if she wanted to improve her grades, so you gave her some advice, but that’s about it.

You ran into Lilian at a cosmetic store, too, but you only exchanged short pleasantries. It’s not difficult to notice she’s been glaring at you much less than before. You can actually talk to her now without her calling you monkey like she used to.

And you’ve kept contact with Jessica as well, of course. Nothing major. Just short talks every once in a while. She did tell you that she’d failed some auditions, but that she wasn’t going to give up.

What’s more, you don’t know how to feel about these love scores. They’re… tempting you. And of course they are! How can they not when three extremely beautiful girls have such strong feelings for you? It’s tempting to go and make a move, but… memories are still a bit too clear.

You weren’t lying when you’d said you’d forgiven them, but… entering a serious relationship with people who can so easily do stuff like that is another matter. It’s true that you’ve seen the change in their behavior, and you can only hope they keep changing for the better, even if bit by bit.

“D-Did you guys make this?” Olivia asks, her eyes widening after having a taste of the stew.

“Yeah. David and Mi…” Sophia nods and stops herself mid-sentence. Her body tenses. “…Me usually do the cooking.”

You keep a straight face, but you see the other girls let out a sigh of relief.

“This is really good!” Jessica praises with a big smile, keeping the tip of her spoon in her mouth.

“Urgh! We’re such failures!” Lilian groans. “We can’t even make rice!”

“Rice is a little hard to get right in these conditions, though.” You point out. “You need the right amount of water to the rice you’re cooking plus a steady and low heat. Doing it on a grill with a pot you’ve never used to cook rice in is difficult to get right.”

“…What are you going to do for dinner?” Katherine asks in a low voice. “And the following days, for that matter.”

“…” The three girls share a grimace as they look at each other.

The redhead looks at you, asking the silent question. You can’t help the smile that forms in your lips.

“Why don’t you join our group, then?” You offer. “Unofficially, I mean. We’ll handle the cooking.”

While Olivia and Lilian don’t seem to like the idea of depending on your group, Jessica raises a curious eyebrow at her friends. 

“You two don’t want to starve, right? This is only the first day.” She says.

The brunette and the blonde flinch and grit their teeth for a moment before their shoulders relax.

“Fine. We’ll be… relying on you for the cooking.” Olivia says, hesitantly.

“Alright then.” You give them a casual nod.

You all finish your meal and 10 minutes later, Julia calls for all the students to resume activities.

________________________________________________________________

Something very odd happened during afternoon activities. Something that had never happened before in your life.

Julia chose some girls as team captains to play beach handball. Emily and Megan where chosen, so they couldn’t be on the same team, but that only made them more fired up. The strange thing that happened was that it was another girl, one of your classmates that got to pick first…

…and she picked you.

Seriously. What the fuck!? On all your years of P.E. you’ve NEVER been picked first. Nearly always last, actually. Now you’re first pick, and the other captains actually look frustrated at that, not to mention your girlfriends.

“Dammit.” Emily says, clicking her tongue.

And so, after the teams are made, you play several matches of handball with a mix of classmates and girls you don’t know. The weirdest thing is that you actually did really well! You were able to contribute the most out of your team and put up a fight against Emily’s and Megan’s teams, which were made up mostly of their soccer club teammates.

Evening is closing in now and everyone is exhausted.

“Alright kids!” Julia says. “You have an hour of free time now. Don’t go too far away from camp. I mean it! After that, we’ll make dinner and go to bed.”

An hour of free time, huh? Your eyes go from Emma, to Mia, to Anzu and then Julia before you let out a heavy, tired sigh. You haven’t been able to talk to them at all, which sucks. They’re busy keeping an eye on everyone, and just going up to them for a casual talk feels like it would be too suspicious.

Still, you’re too tired now, so you throw yourself back on the sand to relax for a bit and look up to the sky. It’s soon that you hear some steps coming your way before you see your cute redheaded girlfriend looking down at you.

“Tired?” She asks, smiling.

“Yeah. I had to run a lot.” You chuckle.

“Lift your head.”

You comply, and Katherine sits down with her legs behind your head, letting you use her lap as a pillow.

“Thanks.” You tell her.

“I’ve always wanted to do this.” She giggles.

“Me too.” You admit sheepishly.

You take a deep breath and enjoy the comfortable silence that settles between you and Katherine. The breeze is starting to get chilly, the sound of the ocean and the small waves crashing on the rocks is relaxing. Katherine starts running her fingers through your hair, making you feel like you could fall asleep right here and now. But her sweet voice wakes you up.

“Thank you, David.” She says with a smile.

“Hmm? What for?” You ask, curious.

“For helping me be more comfortable with myself.” She admits. “I never thought I’d be able to change so much. I was even able to share a table with… those three without feeling scared.” She giggles. “I think that was only because you and the others were there, though.”

“I don’t think so.” You tell her reassuringly, looking up directly into her green eyes. “I think you’ll be able to stand strong on your own, no matter who you’re up against. You just have to remember that you’re a lot more than you think you are.”

“There you go again, cheering me up.” Katherine laughs. “I just wanted to say thank you and you make it about me again.”

“Can you blame me? Every time I look into those green eyes of yours I remember how lucky I am.” You say, taking one of her hands on yours and kissing her fingers.

“Seriously, how can you blurt out lines like those so easily?” She asks, her cheeks blushing deeply.

“Do you hate it?”

“…Not really.” She giggles, now taking your hand on hers and giving your fingers a kiss. “Makes me remember that I’m lucky, too.”

She looks around, and after confirming that there’s no one within earshot, she speaks in a very low voice, almost whispers.

“…We picked the order.” She says, making you raise a curious eyebrow.

“For?”

“Nightly visits.”

“Oh.”

“We have three nights, and it’s not like we won’t get caught if all of us go together. We wouldn’t even fit in your tent.”

“Yeah.”

“Emily and Julia are going tonight.” She tells you. “Emma, Anzu and I tomorrow. Mia, Megan and Sophia last.”

“Okay.” You nod.

It makes sense to leave as many teachers free as possible. Anzu may not be a teacher, but she’s still an authority. This way, they can cover for each other. You still feel like this is a bit too risky, but the girls really want to do it and… well… when’s the next chance you’ll have to do something like this?

You spend some more quiet time with Katherine before it’s time to get things ready for dinner.

________________________________________________________________

The sun is gone by now, yet no one is going to sleep yet. Why? Because the teachers have a little something planned. Emma, Mia, Julia and Anzu are each in a group of 20 or so students sitting around the joint tables. And with only the lights of some flashlights…

“I’m sorry girls.” Emma says to you and the students around you, biting her lip and looking over her shoulder. “Ms. Miller didn’t want me to tell you this, but it wouldn’t be fair to you. You need to know.”

“What is it?” Someone asks.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t been wondering why we’re camping here of all places?” Emma raises an eyebrow. “It’s in the middle of nowhere, it barely has running water and nothing else. It was very, very cheap to rent the whole place for us. Why do you think?”

“Because no one comes here?” Another girl asks.

“Exactly. But why?”

“…” Everyone starts looking at each other, looking for someone who knows.

“Because of the story about this place.” Emma grimaces.

“Story?” 

The teacher nods. “The story about the murder.”

Girls gasp and yelp while others laugh.

“Oh, I see what you’re doing, Ms. Campbell!” One of them laughs. “Spooky stories before bedtime. That’s so clichéd!”

Emma doesn’t say anything, but keeping a neutral expression, she points with her finger. “There.” The toilets. “There.” The showers. “There and there.” The beach and the depths of the forest. “A family of five died here only five years ago. Those are the places they found the bodies.”

Laughter slowly dies down.

Beside you, Katherine grabs onto your arm and Megan holds your hand tightly, but neither of them says anything.

“A married couple and three children. Two girls and a small boy.” Emma swallows. “Friends of the family said they came here on a trip for the couple to try and fix their relationship. Apparently the husband was a drunkard who kept swearing for years he’d change.”

A cold wind blows, making everyone shudder. Yet you suddenly feel the warmth of Sophia’s chest pressing against your back as she hugs you from behind. You also hear her swallowing nervously.

“But the man had brought booze even to this family trip, and after a big fight with his wife, he took his drinks to the beach.” Emma continues. “The sun was setting down, and the man kept drinking. When it was dark and everyone started to worry the man had drowned in the beach, they went looking for him.

“The one who found him was the eldest daughter. She was only 14.” Emma grimaces and bites her lip. “She was mad at her father for fighting with her mother, so she started yelling at him for smelling like booze.

“But that made the father snap. In a fit of madness, he grabbed a rock and hit his own daughter in the head with it. The doctors said that death was instant.”

“!!!” More gasps from everyone, but other than that, no one says a word.

“The two other kids, a 12-year-old girl and the 9-year-old boy saw what happened. Terror filled their eyes as they saw their own father kill their sister. They screamed, and when the father saw them, he realized what he’d done. But it was too late. So with his mind clouded by fear, anger and alcohol, the man chased the kids. Of course, they ran away as fast as their short legs could carry them.”

Emma’s voice starts to tremble and is close to breaking.

“Scared and disoriented, the kids ran in different directions. The girl was caught by the showers. She screamed as her father grabbed her by the wrist and hit her with the same rock. The boy tried to hide by the toilets, but his loud sobs let his father find him.”

Emma purses her lips and closes her eyes. She then takes a deep breath and continues.

“His wife saw him coming out of the toilets. Her flashlight highlighting the blood in his clothes. She saw the mad look in his eyes and understood immediately. He chased her, and scared for her life she ran deep into the woods. But as she did, she started to think of her children. White hot rage built up in her chest. She hid behind a tree and waited for her husband to pass by before she jumped him from behind and throwing him to the ground. They fought desperately, each trying to take the rock. Finally, the woman got it, and with pain and fury guiding her hands she beat her husband over and over with it, her tears rolling down her face and loud cries echoing in the forest.”

A pause and a deep breath.

“When she found the bodies of her children, she couldn’t bear it. She took a knife and slit her neck, trying to follow them. But…” Emma swallows again, her lip quivering. “They say she couldn’t let go of the pain and anger. They say her spirit still lingers around, searching for her kids, crying softly as she walks around this camp. They say her suffering turned to jealousy. She hates seeing happy couples because they remind her of what she could never have. They say she will murder every person in a happy relationship if they see her.”

Emma lifts a finger. “However, it seems there’s a way to apace her. If you happen to see her spirit, she will asks you with a ghastly voice, ‘Where are my children?’ If you answer ‘They were beautiful children’ she’s supposed to let you go as she cries.”

Emma lets out a short sigh. She looks around at some of the pale faces. She then lets out a deep, loud and relieved breath. “Aaaah! Good to know that’s out of my chest! Now you can’t say I didn’t warn you. Alright then. To bed everyone! Don’t get out of your tents unless is extremely necessary!”

“…”

Everyone starts to scatter, going back to their tents. Some laugh at Emma’s story, some comment on it and some ignore it.

You let out a soft, breathy chuckle. It’s easy to see what that was. The spots where the ‘murders’ happened were the toilets and the shower, places where people can hide, plus the beach and the forest, places the teachers don’t want the students to go to, lest something happens. That was very obviously a story made up to prevent them from going out of their tents.

But even if everyone knows that, even if very few actually believe the story, there’s still that question lingering in the back of everyone’s minds. ‘What if it’s real?’ That alone is enough to keep most students from getting daring and going out at night.

Case in point, the three girls latched onto you.

“T-That was made up, wasn’t it?” Katherine asks, sounding a little uneasy through her smile.

“Obviously.” Megan laughs nervously.

“Holy hell. Emma’s a good storyteller.” Sophia swallows.

“How’re you holding up, Emily?” You ask her. She was sitting next to Katherine, so she’s a little too far for her to cling onto you as well. That’s a shame.

“…” Emily glares daggers at you all of a sudden. “It’s all your fault.” She says, then stands up from her seat and drags Megan and Sophia along with her. And not wanting to return alone, Katherine gives you a kiss on the cheek and goes after her friends.

…

Did that last thing about happy couples really scare her?