The Curse of Camp Cold Lake

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The Curse of Camp Cold Lake

Author	R. L. Stine
Cover artist	Tim Jacobus
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Goosebumps
Genre(s)	Horror fiction, Children's literature
Publisher	Scholastic
Publication date	June 1997
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	114
ISBN	0-590-56893-0
Preceded by	The Blob That Ate Everyone
Followed by	My Best Friend Is Invisible

The Curse of Camp Cold Lake is a novella by R.L. Stine. It is in the Goosebumps horror novella series.

[edit] Plot summary

The main character, Sarah Maas, feels depressed while vacationing at Camp Cold Lake because of the coldness of fellow campers and the many water safety rules. She decides to pretend to drown during a swimming lesson and, in a dream, discovers a ghostly girl named Della who died drowning in the lake. When Sarah wakes up, she finds out that the ghost from her dreams is real and wants to force Sarah to be her friend forever.

Eventually, Sarah discovers that Della didn't die from drowning in the lake, but rather, from being bitten by a snake. Della tells that she ran away from camp because she disliked the many water safety rules, but the woods she fled to were teeming with poisonous snakes. She wanted to make Sarah afraid of the lake and run away to the woods and get bit by a snake and die.

Sarah's friend and bunk mate Briana comes and saves Sarah by grabbing the snake and tossing it away. She explains that Della tormented her last summer and she returned to camp to protect Della's next victim. Sarah tells Della that she also will return the next summer and protect the next girl. Della screams and then vanishes, possibly forever.

It is then revealed that Della killed Briana last summer and is a ghost who intends to force Sarah to be her eternal friend just as Della had. The book ends with Briana holding a snake and Sarah frozen in fear.