A Killer Retreat

by Raven Snow

  “Yes!” Rowen had to temper her own relief before anyone got their hopes up. “Sort of. I can reach out and see if his energy is anywhere nearby. With everyone’s help, I may be able to reach out far enough to find him. We may be able to reach out far enough to find him.”

  “Why didn’t you do this from the beginning?” asked Paris, which was a good question.

  “Because I’m not in charge of all of you,” Rowen said with a weak shrug. “And… honestly? It might not work. A lot of magic doesn’t work. I’ll tell you that for free. A lot of it comes down to throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.”

  Paris’ head cocked again. She squirmed. There was something she wanted to say, and she wasn’t the sort of person to hold their tongue. “That’s just patently untrue. It’s important to believe in yourself and your spells.”

  Rowen nodded. “Sure, believe in every spell you want. Law of attraction and all that. It’s just that… if magic were that easy, everyone would do it.” She held up a hand before Paris could reply. “How about we give this a shot. Is everyone onboard with that?”

  There were a lot of murmurs in the affirmative. Not even Paris had any more choice words to say. “Everyone form a circle,” Rowen went on. “Sit down once you do. Make sure you’re comfortable but not so comfortable you fall asleep. Sit like you’re about to meditate.”

  Gradually, a circle formed. Rowen stepped into the middle of it. “Good,” she said, taking a seat herself. “Now everyone take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Settle into the moment. Crystal has been teaching you about meditation, right? Use that. Stay in the moment. Bring your mind back to the present if it starts to wander… That’s it… Deep inhales, long exhales.”

  Rowen let everyone get comfortable. She gave them a few seconds of silence wherein she closed her own eyes and tried to clear her mind. “All right. I want everyone to picture Phoenix. It’s all right if you can’t nail down a solid image of him. Think of whatever you remember best: his name, his face, the impression you got of him. Focus on that.”

  Rowen herself couldn’t really remember the details of his face. She had barely known the guy before he went missing. No, the clearest image she had of Phoenix, aside from his dead body, was the silhouette of him in the woods. She allowed herself to picture both.

  “Focus,” Rowen continued. “Think those thoughts loud.” She wasn’t sure how else to say it. She was using the camp like they were a human antenna… or maybe they were more like a radio tower. They were putting out a kind of psychic signal and, with any luck, bringing in answers. Rowen hoped they didn’t complain that this was too much like meditation, that they had something to show for it when it was all said and done.

  Rowen felt something. It was a gentle feeling at first. Gradually, it grew stronger. Rowen felt that tug from before. It was pulling her toward the woods. She had no clear picture of where it was leading her. She only knew that she needed to follow the sensation. Except… she couldn’t. She couldn’t just stand up and walk into the woods right then and there. It was dark and she would be alone. She needed everyone to come with her. She needed her radio tower.

  Rowen stood, a move that got everyone’s attention. Eyes opened and heads turned toward her. The tugging feeling that had returned began to fade once more. “I, ah… I think I may have gotten something.” She looked in the direction of Crystal’s tent. Should she get her? Ask her permission to take everyone into the woods? She wouldn’t agree to that. Veronica certainly wouldn’t allow it, not if she could help it. What Rowen really needed was Ben handy. She needed to tell him what she was feeling, get his permission to take a group into the woods.

  “You felt something?” repeated Erin, drawing Rowen’s focus back to everyone assembled around her.

  “What does that even mean?” asked Paris. “You felt something. Like what?”

  “I think I felt something too,” said one of the housewives. She was quickly silenced with a glare from Paris.

  “I think I might know where the—” Again, Rowen caught herself about to call Phoenix ‘the body.’ “I think I might know where Phoenix is.”

  “We should go get him then.” Gary stood and turned to the woods like he was ready to march in there alone if he had to.

  “Gary,” hissed Gossamer, reaching for his hand. “Be careful. It’s dark. We can’t just march into the woods.” She looked to Rowen. “You should tell Crystal about this, right? She needs to know.”

  Rowen desperately wanted to tell them to concentrate again, to get that pull back and to follow it. Never mind that she had gotten lost in the woods only a few days ago. Going into them now felt right. “Okay,” she said anyway, agreeing with Gossamer. Realistically, she couldn’t just disappear with the whole camp. “I’ll be right back. Everyone wait here. Willow, you lead everyone in some meditative breathing exercises until I get back.”

  Willow was still seated in the circle of camp-goers. She tucked a strand of bleached hair lazily behind one ear. “Why? They all know how to breathe.”

  “Peony, will you lead everyone in some breathing exercises until I get back?”

  “Sure,” said Peony, a little more brightly and helpfully.

  ***

  Rowen hurried off in the direction of the tent. It was getting darker by the moment. She wished she had brought a flashlight along to light the way. That was yet another reason why it would be irresponsible of her to just march out into the forest. It was too dark to really see. Even with flashlights, hiking off the trail in the dark would be dangerous. Still, Rowen felt the pressing urge to try.

  Rowen was still a ways off from the large white tent when she heard a sound that made her pause. She couldn’t place it at first. For a few seconds she strained her ears and looked in the direction of the forest, thinking it was some kind of keening wildlife. But no. The longer she listened, the more she realized the sound was distinctly human. Someone somewhere was crying. Rowen turned on the spot trying to locate the source of the sound.

  It wasn’t coming from the tent itself. It was definitely coming from somewhere nearer the forest, somewhere to the right. Rowen walked closer to the sound. She didn’t have to go far at all to discover the source of it. Crystal Spruce was sobbing into her hands beneath a tree.

  Rowen stopped a few steps away, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She wanted to say something, but the words froze on her tongue. It was an awkward situation, to be sure. Rowen had never been particularly good at dealing with someone who was crying. Better to just give them their space and let them get it all out as far as she was concerned. Unfortunately, she didn’t have that kind of time at the moment. She cleared her throat. It felt like the most innocuous way to call Crystal’s attention to her presence.

  Crystal jumped. She rubbed at her eyes with the heels of her hands, smearing her eye makeup. “Who…” she began. She squinted in Rowen’s direction. “Rowen… is that you? What’s wrong?” She threw another look around at her surroundings. Most likely she was looking for the rest of the campers, making sure everyone hadn’t heard her sobbing just then. “Who’s leading meditation?”

  “Peony is handling things while I’ve stepped away. Don’t worry. She knows every bit as much as I do.” Rowen paused. Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips as she considered what to say next. “I had a question.”

  “A question?”

  “Yeah, but… it doesn’t really matter. What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

  “I’m not—” Crystal started to lie but seemed to think better of it. It was obvious she had been crying, after all. “Oh, what isn’t wrong?” she said, miserably, wiping at her eyes some more before pushing herself to her feet. “This is a mess. The whole retreat is practically ruined. Phoenix is… God, Phoenix. He was such a sweet kid and now he’s dead. I just… I can’t believe it.”

  Rowen was surprised to hear Crystal say the D word. “You think he’s dead now?”

  Crystal went very still and very quiet, her gaze on the ground. “
You said it yourself, didn’t you? You and your cousins found a body out there. Obviously, that Ben fellow believes you. I don’t like thinking about it, but… The truth is the truth, right? He’s out there dead somewhere. It’s a body we’re looking for.”

  Again, Rowen wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Slowly, she nodded. “Yeah. I, ah, I think that’s the case.”

  “Well, there you go then… I hate this. I hate all of this so much.”

  Did Crystal hate what had happened to Phoenix because she cared about him or because it had sabotaged her retreat? Rowen really couldn’t tell. Crystal was a hard woman to get a read on. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Talk about what?”

  “You know.” Rowen made a vague motion toward Crystal. “You’re obviously upset. If there’s something you want to get off your chest, I’m a good listener.”

  “I wouldn’t know where to start.” Crystal had more or less collected herself. It hadn’t taken long. “I just want to pack up and go home, but obviously that isn’t an option. I talked everyone into staying. It would look bad if I up and decided to go home out of the blue. Right?”

  Rowen knew the question was meant to be rhetorical, but it almost sounded like Crystal was asking for her permission. “Why did you keep things going if you wanted to go home?”

  “How could I not?” Crystal asked, like Rowen should automatically know. “Do you know how much money went into all this?”

  “As in what you paid or what people paid to come here?”

  That gave Crystal pause. Rowen had a feeling it had more to do with the latter. “Both,” said Crystal, firmly. “Both are important to consider. Plus, my reputation is at stake. It took a long time to cultivate that. The future of my brand is in trouble if this goes poorly.”

  “No offense, but hasn’t this whole thing already gone kind of… sideways?”

  “I meant what I said this morning when I was up on that stage.” Crystal fixed Rowen with an earnest stare. “I feel like we can all… use this somehow. I don’t mean to take advantage of a tragedy, but… All publicity is good publicity, right? This will get a lot of publicity.” So she was taking advantage of the tragedy. She just didn’t want to see it that way. “Especially if we manage to… Can we help you?”

  Rowen hadn’t heard anyone approaching, but she turned when she saw Crystal’s eyes settle on something just behind her. It was Paris. She stopped a few feet away and put her hands on her hips. “We were all just wondering if you were coming back?” she asked, her tone none too generous. She sounded annoyed.

  Crystal’s brow creased. She looked to Rowen. “I thought you said that cousin of yours had a handle on things.”

  “She did. I mean, I’m sure she does.”

  “No one wants to do breathing exercises. Not when you said you know where Phoenix is. I, for one, don’t necessarily think—”

  “What?” Crystal interrupted her full attention on Rowen now. “You know where Phoenix is?” The way she asked sounded accusing.

  Rowen held her hands up and took a step back. “I don’t know where he is,” she said quickly. “Not exactly.”

  “You said you did,” said Paris.

  “What I said was that I feel a pull. I felt the same thing the first time I found the… the body.” She might as well just come right out and say it. “I don’t feel the pull anymore. It was just when everyone was really focusing.”

  “Okay, slow down,” instructed Crystal, even though no one had been talking particularly fast. “You think you can find Phoenix with everyone’s help?”

  “Maybe?” Rowen said slowly. Suddenly going into the woods didn’t feel like such a good idea. Logically, it hadn’t seemed like a good idea to wander into the woods at night at all. Now though? Something felt… wrong. Rowen couldn’t put her finger on it, but she felt a sudden and desperate need to put the brakes on. “It can wait until morning, of course. I wasn’t thinking about how dark it was. It’s even darker in those woods. Trust me, I know from experience. Let’s just wait until tomorrow. We can get in touch with Ben on the satellite phone, tell him to come down first thing.”

  “First thing?” Paris snorted. “You’ve convinced everyone that Phoenix is out there waiting to be rescued. They’re all chomping at the bit to get out there and rescue him.”

  “Whoa.” Rowen turned on Paris. “I never said Phoenix was out there waiting to be rescued. He can wait. Trust me. It isn’t going to make any difference.”

  “What if it does, though?” asked Paris. Rowen could have sworn she was making a concentrated effort to be as difficult and contrary as possible. “I mean, if he was dead we would have found the body by now. I mean, the police aren’t treating this like a murder. I know what you think you saw, but he’s just a missing person.”

  “What?” Rowen didn’t even know where to start with that. “What are you even… You don’t think they would have found him alive by now? What makes them more likely to have found him dead?”

  “He could be lying low,” Paris suggested. “I’ve heard some people talking about it, like maybe he doesn’t want to be found after the huge fuss everyone’s made. He might be scared to come forward. He could be in over his head. He could need our help.”

  “You’re telling me you suddenly want to go into the woods? In the middle of the night?” asked Rowen. Paris certainly didn’t strike her as someone all that adventurous. “It’s dangerous.”

  “Is it really, though? You said it yourself. Crystal can call that cop friend of yours and tell him what we’re doing. I think we’re all smart enough not to get lost out there. Worst case scenario, if we do run into trouble, the authorities will know where we are.”

  “That’s not… It’s not a matter of being smart. You don’t realize how dark it gets out there. I wasn’t thinking when I suggested—”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” Crystal said suddenly. She was looking at neither of them, her gaze instead focused on the middle-distance. She seemed to be deep in thought. “You haven’t felt this tug in a while, right Rowen?”

  “Not since I first found the body, no.”

  “Not since you first found Phoenix,” Paris corrected. “Saying you found the body makes it sound like you’re sure he’s dead, and you’re not.”

  “We shouldn’t let this opportunity pass us by then,” said Crystal, ignoring Paris entirely. “Who knows when we’ll get this sort of chance again?”

  “Seriously?” Rowen hadn’t expected Crystal to be so gung-ho. Only a few minutes prior, that had been the sort of reaction she was hoping for. Now, she wasn’t so sure. “Are you sure?”

  Crystal ignored that question. “Let’s go run this by the others. Paris, you go back to the meditation group. Tell them we’re moving ahead with searching for Phoenix, but it’s optional. They don’t have to go into the woods right now if they don’t want to.”

  “Can do,” Paris said with a smile and she turned on her heel.

  “Come on.” Crystal motioned to Rowen to follow her as she walked toward her tent. Lights were on inside. That probably meant Veronica and Wynter were within. Crystal no longer looked like she had been crying. Her eyes were neither red nor puffy. It was impressive how fast she was able to shake off the physical signs of her distress. She shoved the silks covering the entrance aside and marched into the tent. Rowen went after her.

  Wynter looked up from where he sat in a beanbag chair. He had a steaming mug in his hands. Some of the contents sloshed over the side when he turned. “Oh, hey. What’s up?”

  Veronica had been stretched out on her cot near the kitchen area. She sat up when she heard Wynter speak, her gaze settling on Crystal and Rowen. She didn’t say anything. She just waited, fingers steepled beneath her chin and her mouth a thin, apprehensive line.

  Crystal put on her usual smile. “Rowen here thinks she may have a lead on Phoenix.” She raised her hand and placed it on Rowen’s shoulder. “She says she’s feeling a pull toward him, and… I think I’m with her on tha
t. I think I’m feeling a pull too.”

  That Crystal was feeling “a pull too” was news to Rowen. Veronica immediately looked about as skeptical as she felt. Rowen didn’t miss it when she rolled her eyes. “So, what are you suggesting?” asked Veronica.

  “I’m suggesting we follow this pull, and see if we can’t get this over with.”

  Veronica wasn’t just annoyed anymore. She stood, the cot creaking as she vacated it. “You’re kidding. You’re not…. You’re not suggesting you march everyone out into the woods right this second? It’s already dark out.”

  “I’m sure we’ll be fine,” said Crystal, not that there was any way she could have known that. ”Besides, it’s entirely optional. Anyone who chooses to follow us into the woods does so at their own risk.”

  “No,” Veronica said quickly, hurrying over to her stackable plastic filing cabinet. She opened it up and tore out some files, like there was specific paperwork she was looking for. “That’s not how it works. You can’t just… No. Absolutely not. This is outrageous.”

  Crystal’s expression darkened as she regarded her assistant. “I don’t believe you’re in charge of this event. Are you, Veronica?”

  Veronica froze, a folder open in her hands as she looked back to Crystal. “No, but you hired me to—”

  Crystal held up a hand, silencing her. “I’m going to have to pull rank here, I’m sorry. This just… It has to be done. That’s all there is to it.”

  Veronica was silent for a few seconds. Rowen could practically hear the wheels turning in her head as she tried to come up with an argument to keep her boss out of the woods. Finally, she put down her folder and walked toward the table on which the satellite phone sat. “At least let me call local law enforcement then. I’ll let them know what’s going on.”

  “You can do that in just a minute.” Crystal probably didn’t want Veronica getting on the phone with her standing there. That Ben would tell them to wait was almost guaranteed. Crystal had to make less excuses if she went now, before she heard anything from him. “He’ll need to be here anyway. I have a good feeling about this. We’re going to find Phoenix.”