Ten. Recording my brain

Julia was cutting the vegetables "your mom and I did not love each other" her father words echoed in head as julia cuted the vegetables fast "you are nothing but disgrace" her father words echo in head again

The scene was flashing before her eyes about seeing her dad cheat, divorce, and all bad words said to her "Julia" a male voice echo her head but it was not her father, a soft tone that can never been her father, the voice that makes her heart beat fast her stomach feel butterflies.

"Julia" he said again as she felt a touch on her arm as she snap out of her thoughts and saw ethan "hey" she managed to speak out to him "hey" he smiled "you zooned out here, what's going on?" He asked her 

 "Just....bad dream about Phantom chasing me in woods and my dad taunting words" 

"Yeah, nightmares can really stick with you. Especially ones that mix personal stuff with fears and dangers. Your brain has a funny way of combining things that bother you," he said. "And, about your dad's words... You don't need to listen to them, you know."

"yeah that's I been saying myself" she said cutting the vegetable as ethan watched quitely at her "you know julia" he said "Sometimes saying things to yourself doesn't make them true. You need to believe them. Your self-worth shouldn't be based on what others, especially people like your dad, say about you."

Julia paused from her cutting vegetable looking at them "I know... intellectually, I know that," she said softly. "But it's hard to shake off years of conditioning, you know? His voice, his words... they're like a recording in my brain that I can't seem to turn off. "nd he is inside my head making me think I am not good I am not good in anything I am worst person he galaxy and and because of me he left my mum and me" julia said as she got accidentally got cut on hand 

"Fuck"

As  he quickly grabbed some nearby gauze and came closer to her, gently taking her injured hand in his. "Let me take care of that," he said, his voice gentle but firm. "And julia, stop what you're saying. You're not the worst person in the world. You're far from it. Your dad leaving was not because of you. It was his selfish choice and his cowardice and absolutely nothing to do with you."

As ethan cleaned her wounds as he clean the wounds julia look at him as he heard talk on why she should take care in cutting fruit "so don't go fast during this okay" he said as julia nod at his words as she smile "You really ought to be more careful when cutting things," he said, his voice light and teasing. "We can't have you making a habit of injuring yourself, can we?"

"Sorry my mind is not working" 

"No need to apologize," he reassured her holding her hand sequeezing in reassuring. "Just... try to pay a bit more attention next time, okay? I'd rather avoid having to play doctor every day." as she nod at him smiling as they both got message from alex

"Signal working again" ethan mutter as they saw the message "he was after me, Phantom was after me" alex message read 

As ethan and julia came to lunch table and saw alex drinking water marcus maya alice and caleb sitting on table as the two joined "Are you alright, Alex?" Alice asked, her voice filled with concern alex nodded slightly, taking a deep breath. "I think so. I just had a weird run-in with the phantom," he explained

"I got a message when I was finding one of the security guards It was really vague but just said he was coming for me. I tried to ignore it, but when I was walking back to cabin I saw him in the shadows. He was just standing there, watching me. And when I started running, he started chasing me..." alex explained 

"Why you ingore it when you get a  mail that danger is coming turn to other side and run to safety" Caleb explained to alex who nod 

"he is doing as revenge for Gwen" alice mutter "fucking hell" maya asked as scene changed to them making suspect board of who is phantom as they look at the board "This is going nowhere," Ethan said, frustration evident in his voice. "We keep coming up with suspects, but none of them feel right."

"first is Gwen dad second is our camp head master thrid is her Gwen ex boyfriend" julia explained to all as ethan nod crossing his arms as maya munch her chips 

"Yeah, those are all plausible," he agreed. "But do we have any actual evidence pointing towards any of them? Right now, we're just throwing out names."

"Gwen family photo and note that she had toxic parents head master of camp because he wants to maybe hide a dirty secret and toxic boyfriend because he is a fucker" 

"Well, you certainly summed them up nicely," he said with a small smirk. "I'll give you points for creativity, I suppose. But are we sure there aren't any other possibilities? We need concrete evidence if we're going to figure this out."

"So much tension in room" 

And Alice got smack with pillow by julia after the words came out of her mouth "shut up not helping" she told alice "very bad ally cat" Caleb said with mock pout as Alice smack him with pillow who shot him a glare.

"Oh, you're one to talk, Mr. Smartass," she retorted, her voice filled with mock irritation. "You're not exactly helping either, you know."

"well who ever is behind the fucking joker mask is going to hell" maya said "joker mask? But for what I saw it was doll" alice told looking at her "well mine was wearing some cloth and big red smile like one of Gwen old drawings" alex the group "what the fuck" marcus mutter munching pop corns