Because the memory of my first love was of you

July 11th, 2008

A Certain Summer Camp

“I know you did it! I saw you!” Dakota Johnson stomped her foot. The black-haired tomboy was standing on the rock bridge overlooking the large river next to the summer camp. “You were kissing her!”

“I-I did,” 12-year-old Nick admitted. “But it was just a tiny kiss!” He had hurt her, bad, and he felt awful for it. Dakota was his best friend. They shared a birthday, and had even been delivered at the same hospital. “Together since birth!” That’s what she’d always told him.

Gina, also 12, hung back behind him, squeezing his hand. It was all her fault. She knew Dakota liked Nick too, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to kiss him so bad! How was she supposed to know their friend would walk in on them at the worst possible time?

Right now, the weather was like Dakota’s heart in that moment, wild and tumultuous. The rain was coming down in buckets and the wind was blowing so hard that three 12-year-olds should NOT be out there unsupervised.

But Dakota had walked in on her precious first love kissing her best girl friend during free time, and had run out into the storm without thinking clearly. And the two of them were so **** to explain they’d run out after her.

It was by fate’s cruel hand that no adult had seen them leave. Their parents were all busy socializing, and the camp counselors had been dealing with the youngers. Everyone was a bit on edge trapped in the lodge like this, and sixth graders (on the way to becoming seventh graders) could usually be counted on to be responsible.

But heartbreak can put a stop to all that.

“You said you LIKED me!” Dakota wailed. “Like, like liked me! You can’t TAKE him Gina, it’s not FAIR! I liked him first!”

“I-I do,” Nick said, trying not to burst into tears. “Together since birth, right?”

She wiped her eyes. “Then… do you love me?”

“Wh-What?” He could barely hear her over the storm.

“Do you love me?” She shouted, stomping her foot. “Do you want to marry me, yes or no?!”

“I-I…” He was 12! He wasn’t supposed to be thinking about marriage and stuff like that!

“If you won’t marry me then I don't ever want to see you again!” Dakota wailed. The wind was wailing too. “I’m just going to run away and live with the faeries in the woods!”

She turned and continued her trek across the bridge, towards the forest on the other side. Nick began to shake. She was going to fall at this rate!

“W-Wait!” He cried. “I’ll do it, I’ll marry you! So don’t go!” In the heat of the moment, he didn’t know if he meant it or if he was just saying what she wanted to hear. In the future, the few times he looked back on what happened that day, he decided that he HAD meant it. It was the only way he could keep living with himself.

Dakota turned around, wearing a smile filled with joy. She took her first step back towards the shore, when the wind got incredibly strong for a moment and threw her off her balance. She slipped on the slick stones and lost her grip, tumbling into the churning river with a scream.

She never came back up.

It can't be. She’s dead. She died 15 years ago.

That had been the day Nick’s life had fallen apart.

It’s my fault. She’s dead because of me. Because I couldn’t tell her I loved her in time.

If he had just said those words, Dakota never would have gone out on that bridge. His best friend. They’d known each other since the day they were born. And she’d died, just like that. He could have saved her, but… he didn’t.

“I think all the hardship you’ve gone through, all the wrecked relationships in your life, you romantic troubles, I think it all stems back to her. Your guilt over Dakota.”

Back when Sylvia had been playing the part of a therapist she’d attributed his suffering to his remorse. He thought she really cared about his issues, and sympathized with him. Now he realized she’d been planning this from the start.

“No way,” Gina mumbled, shaking her head. She’d realized it too. The other girls all looked at each other, confused, wondering what was going on. She stumbled onto her feet. "You can't! You promised you wouldn't tell anyone!"

"And I won't!" Sylvia shouted over the magic building up in her cane. "I won't tell a soul! But that doesn't mean the truth won't be uncovered regardless!"

She cackled like a lunatic. Her "deal" had meant nothing.

“Phew, that’s quite a load,” Sylvia winced, wiping her forehead. The sun dimmed for a second as the atmosphere around the blonde changed. This was nothing like teleporting a few girls here and there. She was dealing with primal magic now, sorcery that straddled the barrier of life and ****.

Sylvia clenched her teeth and put everything she had into this spell. The things I do for love and ratings…

It started as a flash. That was all it was. A pulse of light in the center of the circle. But then that pulse got stronger, and light continued to flicker. The other girls had been teleported here, but Sylvia was conjuring something into existence, creating a body from nothing.

The light pulsed and grew and began to take shape. And then, in a flash, it was complete, and kneeling in the sand before the stage, staring up at her master with supernaturally golden eyes, was a face Nick never thought he’d see again.

She was older now. As old as him. And her new body was shaped to match it. Frankly, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Her curly black hair fell down her back and pooled behind her in the sand, covering her figure like a blanket. And what a body it was. A large chest that rivaled Sylvia’s wide hips and a tight ass, it was like Nick was staring at body sculpted to match his perfect fantasy.

It was enough to get him to forget she wasn’t dead.

Her skin was as pale as the sand beneath her, and soaking wet. She had drowned in a river but what dripped from her had a consistency more akin to amniotic fluid. She rose to her feet and gasped, recognizing Nick. She took a shaky step forward.

Showed Naked Body to Master! +5 VP

First! x2 Multiplier

“AND THE DEAD SHALL RISE!” Sylvia crowed in triumph. Let’s see the other hosts top THAT! Bringing the master’s long lost love back from the grave? Talk about a fricking genius plan!

“Ni… ck?” Dakota was trying out her new mouth for the first time. She looked around, dazed and confused, and finally Nick had to put a stop to it.

“What the hell is this?” He growled, storming over to Sylvia. He had to resist the urge to **** her out. “What sort of perverse performance are you doing here? There’s no way in HELL that’s Dakota!”

“Well, no way in HELL, maybe, but here? On Harem Hotel? Anything is possible,” she smirked. “I promised you, didn’t I? ‘The Place Where Your Fantasies Come True.’ And here she is, your greatest fantasy. Dakota Johnson, alive and well. You have nothing more to feel guilty about my boy.”

“You’re sick!” He spat. “Dakota died when she was 12 years old! She might look like that now, but if that’s really her then mentally she’s still a-”

“Do you think people stop aging when they die?” Sylvia cut him off. “She may have died, yes, but since then she’s lived- well, no, not ‘lived’ I suppose. But she’s existed. Just not in a form you could comprehend without my magic. But I promise by the integrity of this show that she's an adult, physically, mentally, emotionally, every way that matters. She’s 27, same as you. Right down to sharing your birthday. Together since birth, isn't that right?”

Sylvia slithered around Nick like a snake and turned him to gaze upon the resurrected Dakota in all her glory. She still said nothing and just stared into his soul with those golden eyes.

“That’s her. Dakota Johnson. That’s how she would have looked, if not for that fateful day all those years ago. That’s what you took away from her my boy. But now… now you have a chance to give it all back. She’s alive again. And she’ll stay that way… so long as she’s a member of your harem.”

Nick felt his throat dry up.

“Wh-What?” He stuttered.

“The producers moved heaven and earth and several other dimensions to resurrect her for you,” Sylvia explained. “But if you won’t become her master, well… she’ll go back to what she was before.”

Sylvia’s expression was more serious than he’d ever seen her. “And believe me, NO ONE wants that,” she warned. Nick couldn't begin to comprehend the amount of fucked-up shit was going to be if she just yo-yo'd Dakota's immortal soul between life and **** like this.

Gina didn’t know what to say. She didn't even know if she was mad that Sylvia had tricked her with that fake promise. Dakota was alive. She’d been brought back to life. All that self-loathing and guilt she’d drowned herself in was confused now that Dakota had come back from beyond the grave. Fucking hell…

“Impossible…” Mary shook her head, eyes bulging with disbelief. “Only the lord is capable of resurrecting the dead…” She began trembling as everything she thought to be true was coming crumbling down around her. Holly just looked stunned. She never imagined that Nick had an issue like that in his past.

“No way…” Dani had thought her friendship with Nick had been a close one before it had imploded, but had never heard him mention a Dakota. It sure explained a lot about why he had been such a trainwreck through high school though.

The smartest mind in the game was putting those pieces together right now.

Nick had asked Dawn out in sixth grade and she’d turned him down. He’d taken it about as well as could be expected from a sixth grader. But when middle school came around, it was like he’d become a completely different person. He was irritable and rude, he gave off a cold, hostile aura, and in general acted like he might hurt somebody if he didn’t get his way.

A guy like that having a crush on you would give anyone pause. I had no idea… that he was going through that all this time…

“Excuse me…” Dakota finally spoke, her voice a creaking whisper. She looked around, like she was seeing everything for the first time. There were tears in her eyes. “Am I… still in this world?”

Sylvia reached down touched the girl with the hook of her cane, lifting her up into the air until she sat on the stage. It was surprisingly tender.

“My dear, I’ve brought you back from the grave,” she said. “In a new body.”

“I-I don’t… remember, I just… the river, and then…”

“Yes, things may be a little jumbled,” Sylvia said. “We can’t have you informing the other contestants too much about your experience with the afterlife. But believe me. You’re alive.”

Dakota placed her hand over her chest and gasped. Her face lit up with joy and she cried even harder.

“My heart… it… it’s beating…”

Sylvia’s smile could almost be considered gentle.

“Well, isn’t that special? Now that we’re all together at last… shall I explain the rules to you?”