| “ | Most legends have some element of truth buried in them. | ” |
— Bonnie to Jeremy in Part One
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The Beast of Blue Mountain is the tenth volume of The Vampire Diaries Digital Comic and the seventeenth and eighteenth issues in the series.[1]
Summary[]
Part 1: The legendary Beast is a surefire way to scare the new kids at summer camp. But when the line between prank and myth blurs, camp counselors Jeremy and April investigate exactly who is responsible for terrorizing kids in the dead of night—if it's a WHO at all.
Part 2: One of the Blue Mountain campers is discovered convulsing and clawing her bunk to pieces, pushing Jeremy and April to question whether the Beast of Blue Mountain's pranks are really pranks at all. But with Bonnie Bennett's help, the truth is revealed!
Plot[]
Part One[]
Jeremy checks out at a convenience store. He rhetorically asks himself if he attracts weird old ladies or something, but April calls his attention. He calls back to her, though she's a bit rattled. He mocks if she's seen a ghost but she cuts his question off before he's able to finish. In fact, she wants to ask him something about last summer. In the bottom of her luggage, she's found a mini SD card with the pictures from camp. She flicks through them and stops on one to show him. She sees her. She wants to know what it means and what Bonnie could have been doing there. Jeremy asks her to jump in his car and he'll drive her home. On the way, he'll try to explain.
Camp Blue Mountain. Jeremy's just arrived and he already knows something is wrong. His Hunter's sense made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up before they even got through the gate. He opened to ignore it, wanting to leave it all behind in Mystic Falls. Just for the summer, at least.
As they unload the campers, they instruct the kids that there will be ten campers to a dorm and the groups will remain throughout the session. April reminds them to place their names down for specialist skills, if they can do jazz, tap, or modern. They shouldn't be afraid to show their light. Jeremy asks if he should go for "rising from the dead" or just "destroying vampires". April mocks him, telling him that he's on the list for "moping" and "sarcasm". But he doesn't need to worry
As another staff member takes them around to the various buildings, Brokefang, Fenrir, Timmain, and Maugrim, they notice one of the doors covered in scratches. Specifically, claw marks. The staff member tells them, that according to camp legend, they're the marks of the "Beast of Blue Mountain". But in reality it was a prank from way back that now acts kind of a rite of passage. Every year, a fresh back of kids turn up goggle eyed and scared to death of the beast. Then, they'll go home all grown up and ready to tell their siblings and scare them. She assures them that they'll hear the story around the campfire later that night.
Sure enough, the story is told. Rather variations of the story is told and some of the campers argue over various bits. But it ends with the Beast searching for the boy that stabbed him. A search it conducted every full moon, just as what hung in the sky that night. One of the campers question how the beast could search if it was dead. One of the campers, scared, forgets her marshmallow and it burns away in the fire. Another boy teases her, calling her a total pyro. Another campers defends her while another asks about what had happened to the beast's body. They muse that it perhaps burned up, or dissolved into a puddle of slime. However, unbeknownst to the campers, strange magic is brewing in the wilderness of Blue Mountain. The previous boy continues to scare a little girl. Turning to her, he yells out "Zombie beast!!" The little girl is terrified but another attempts to comfort her. It's just a fun story. They're supposed to be scary and that none of it is real. There's no such thing as "monsters" or their ghosts. Meanwhile in the wilderness, the ground is torn asunder by strange green magic. Something was released.
That night, Brittney wakes up and goes to the bathroom. Its 2:17 in the morning and a bloodcurdling scream wakes the campers. She's unconscious and held by another girl. She explains that she saw something outside the window, said it was "the Beast" and then just went nuts. She also explains that Amy said Britney and Reece were arguing at the fireside that night.
The other staff members join Jeremy. They want to ask Reece what he knows before everyone gets too excited. He's in Maugrim cabin with another staffer, but he just came past and his bed was empty. Jeremy doesn't believe he could have gotten far. They search one of the cabins and quickly find Reece hiding under a bed. He heard a noise outside and thought it was Britney, but it wasn't. He saw it. He saw the Beast! Jeremy asks the other staffer to take Reece and get him calmed down. Looking around the cabin, he finds spots of blood and looks up to find a portion of a deer hanging from the ceiling. The rest of it laid outside the window. If this was a prank, it's now went too far.
The staffer in charge brings Jeremy, April and another staffer into her office. She's mad and on a rampage. This prank has went too far. The legend is told every year, but this year they've joined in and let the kids get hysterical and spent half the night out in the cold. Parents do not spend two thousand dollars a session to have their kids traumatized. If campers have played a prank, it is their job to deal with it. Discreetly, she adds. April tries to explain to her boss that Britney saw something and she believed her. She wants her to handle one scared kid. She won't accept hundreds of them. Jeremy steps in. He wants to know how she explains Reece. Or the dead deer on the roof that was ripped in two. However, a familiar voice calls out to Jeremy and she knows he's on to something. Jeremy steps out on to the porch and finds Bonnie Bennett. He asks her what she's doing here. She explains that she's never far and he knows that. She also confirms that the kids did see something. It was the beast. He wonders if the camp legend has something to it. Bonnie tells him that legends have some element of truth buried in them and she's going to do her best to find out.
April leaves the office, upset that Jeremy left her to deal on her own. Jeremy just had to check on something but another camper runs to them. Britney's having a seizure she tells them. When they reach the cabin, Britney's gone but another camper explains that Faye took her to the infirmary. The bed sheets, however, appear to have been revenged by someone who went crazy with a knife. But it was Britney. She was howling and thrashing about. They had tried to hold her down but she was so strong. They were trying to get to the door when she just stopped and flopped back on the bed. It doesn't sound like any seizure she's heard of before. But the story is true, she could even ask Amy. She totally freaked out. Amy's huddled in a corner. She explains that it tried to take her over, but she fought it. It's coming back. She can feel it. The Beast wants blood.
Part Two[]
Amy witnessed the beast. The girls were all screaming and she tried to tell them not to. That they could help Britney, but nobody would. She could see it in the air and what it was doing, but nobody listened to her. It was like Britney was boiling under her own skin. It was too weak this time, but it will get stronger and it will be back. April comforts Amy. She won't let anything help to her or the other campers and that the beast won't get past her.
At the infirmary, Jeremy joins another staffer. Britney's been asleep since she's gotten there and there's no record of her ever having seizures. Other than these strange events, she's otherwise healthy. The staffer has been at Blue Mountain Camp for ten years and she's never seen anything like it.
Jeremy leaves the infirmary. He doesn't have to be a Hunter to figure out something is going on. In the shadows of the forest, Bonnie appears to Jeremy. The staffer is right, she tells him. It's not a seizure. To her, it looked more like a possession. Or at least an attempt at one. There was a disturbance on her side to - a struggle on the Other Side - as if something was trying to get through. Before Jeremy could ask more questions, Bonnie disappears. Bonnie reappears deep within the Forest of Blue Mountain. There's nothing here and she was hoping for a spooky old cabin or something. However, she comes across what appears to be a burial ground. It's better than nothing. On the ground, she notices a containment working. It's crude but had worked. This confirmed her suspicions. The Beast of Blue Mountain is more than a legend. In the night air, a howl resonates in the forest. The full moon is upon them.
In the cabin, a beast hold down a camper, ready to attack. Jeremy intervenes and strikes the beast with an ore. As an official Camp Blue Mountain counselor, he can't allow it to do that. Megan is freed from the monster's grasp and makes a run for it. Jeremy's come to the camp for the summer to get away from the supernatural and struggles with the beast. He's had a lot to deal with the last few months and he takes him frustrations out on the beast. Jeremy hides behind an overturned bunk and wonders where April was. This is, after all, her cabin but she's nowhere to be found. He does spot her necklace lying on the floor and wonders if the beast had done something to her. The beast lunges at him and they grapple to the floor and then through the window. The beast manages to latch onto his forearm with its jaws, but Jeremy manages to get free. Picking up a glass shard he prepares to plunge it deep into the beast. Removing the heart is, after all, the most reliable way of killing a werewolf. Bonnie appears and yells for Jeremy to stop. That beast is April.
As Jeremy keeps the beast pinned on the ground, Bonnie explains that she's found a grave in the woods and it's open. Something powerful drew the beast back into their world. She believes that the spirit was looking for somewhere to live but when it found Britney, she wasn't strong enough. April has the beast's spirit in her so when the moon rises, she changes. Unless they get the spirit out of her, it will be in her for good. Amy approaches them, she can help. Bonnie's shocked and questions if she can see her. Can hear her. Amy explains it's her fault. Her grams is a witch and she said that she'd start to feel new stuff This summer. Amy misunderstood her grandmother's words, but she too is a witch. Bonnie believes that a young witch her powers rising might be enough and asks how she might reverse the spell. Amy knows that Bonnie knows how and asks for her help. To guide her. Bonnie agree and tells her that they have to be quick and she takes control of the young witch's body. The beast, however, has gained the upper hand over Jeremy and now has him pinned to the ground. He's barely able to keep the beast from ripping out his throat. He yells for Bonnie, that if she has a plan to do it now before he dies too.
Bonnie is now in possession of Amy's body. It's a lot of untapped power and it's hard for her to control. She knows that Amy is going to be an incredible witch. Bonnie begins to draw the beast out of April, out of the physical realm and through her. The spell is quick and complete. The spirit is gone and April has been returned to her unconscious but normal, and naked, self.
Jeremy finishes explaining what had happened to April. She remembers nothing of the sort. How could that have happened and she not remember any of it. Jeremy informs her that Bonnie and Amy helped everyone at the camp to forget. Everyone except him. He thought that was the last of it. At April's house, Jeremy drops her off. For all intents and purpose, it went well. Bonnie appears in the back seat of his car. She's laughing. She's just remembering the look on his face the night April was returned to normal and pokes fun at him - "naked girl! Eeep!"
Characters[]
Main Characters[] |
Supporting Characters[]
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Trivia[]
- This issue is April's first appearance.
Credits[]
- Art by: Beni Lobel
- Colored by: John Broome (part 1) and Wendy Broome (part 2)
- Cover by: Dennis Calero
- Page Count: 23
- Age Rating: 15+ Only
Gallery[]
References[]
See also[]
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