Hide and Shriek #14

by Melissa J Morgan

  Great, Chelsea thought again. She slapped a mosquito as it landed on her arm. Then a second one pricked her cheek.

  She looked longingly over at the quartet of tents where her repellent was. Belle and Clarissa were standing in front of their tent, counting off paces and writing down notes. Then Alex emerged from her tent and approached the fire ring. She made a point of looking away from Chelsea and Chelsea felt even worse.

  “Aren’t you going to change into your pj’s?” Candace asked Chelsea as she sat on the log section beside her.

  Chelsea shrugged. “Not right now,” she said. Which was stupid, because it wasn’t as if she was going to be able to change later.

  “Okay, now we’re going to sing some songs and have s’mores,” Belle announced.

  She and Clarissa passed out marshmallows, skewers, pieces of Hershey’s chocolate bars, and graham crackers. She divided the girls into two groups to toast their marshmallows. Gaby was in the first group and Chelsea was in the second, and Chelsea was relieved that they’d been split up. Candace kind of hung out with her and Chelsea was really grateful.

  They sang some camp songs, including “Bug Juice” and “Bubblegum,” and a few more current songs by Aly and AJ, Ciara, and Cheyenne. Once everyone grew hoarse from singing at the top of their lungs, they played “Operator,” cracking up at how mangled the words and phrases got as they moved through the raspy telephone line.

  Then Tori whispered with Belle, who nodded and handed over her extra-long, superbright black flashlight. Tori walked behind the flickering fire ring and clicked the flashlight on, holding it beneath her chin. The brilliant upswept light cast dark shadows over her features, and she looked way creepy.

  “Now I will tell you the story of Cropsy,” Tori announced. Her voice was hoarse and raspy.

  “Finally,” Jenna called out. Only it came out in a squeak. She was hoarse, too, from all the extra-loud singing.

  “Don’t make it too scary!” Brynn graveled out.

  “Okay, wait a minute,” Belle said, as she pushed a roasted marshmallow onto a graham cracker covered with a layer of chocolate squares. Ghostly white, her eyes like two empty sockets, she looked hard at Tori. “I thought you said everyone wanted to hear this.”

  “We do,” Brynn whispered loudly. “Just if it’s not too scary!”

  “You totally love all the drama, don’t you,” Gaby said in a similarly breathy voice. “C’mon, just let her tell it. It’s getting late and it’s probably a dumb story anyway.”

  “Gaby, please be nice,” Belle reminded her. “Brynn, if you’re sure . . .”

  “It’s okay.” Brynn raised her chin as if she were mustering all her courage. “Go for it, Tori.”

  Tori cleared her throat. “This is the true story of Cropsy, the crazed killer of Shadow Lake.”

  “Many years ago, a boys’ bunk was camping in the forest by Shadow Lake, which is the lake Camp Lakeview is named for. They were all settled in, listening to the radio, when a news bulletin came on. An inmate had just escaped from the nearby Asylum for the Criminally Insane. His name was Cropsy.

  “Cropsy had been locked up six years before, and he was so violent and crazy that he had to be kept in a straitjacket in a padded room, all by himself. They slid his meals through a little slot in the door while a guard trained a gun on him.

  “‘Everyone must clear the area at once!’ the radio announcer continued. ‘Until Cropsy is apprehended, anyone in the forest is in terrible danger!’

  “So the boys broke camp as fast as they could. They rolled up their sleeping bags and loaded up their backpacks. After their counselor put out their fire and passed out flashlights, he told them that they would head out of the woods and make for the highway, where they would flag someone down. If they couldn’t get enough rides for everyone, they’d at least get the driver to notify the Pennsylvania State Troopers that they were there.

  “But as they left their campsite, a strange fog rolled in off the lake. It was so thick that the boys couldn’t see one another. They couldn’t see the beams of their flashlights, even. They could only hear one another’s voices.

  “So this one guy named Randy kept hearing someone calling his name, and he kept following the voice. He thought he recognized it. He thought it was his counselor’s voice. He trained his flashlight on the fog and he thought he saw a figure walking in front of it—like a shadow on the billowing white mist.

  “After a while, he couldn’t see the figure. He stopped walking and angled his flashlight up, down, to the left, and to the right. He couldn’t see anything but the fog.

  “He listened for the voice. Any voice. Anything. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know where his bunk was. He didn’t know where he was.

  “Then he heard the voice again: ‘Raaaann- dyyyy, come to me.’

  “He was sure it was his counselor, but he couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from. He walked straight ahead and crashed into something hard!

  “It was only a tree trunk.

  “He backed away, tripping over something on the ground. He dropped to his knees and felt it. It was rough and spindly, and he thought it must be a tree root.

  “‘Hello?’ he called out.

  “‘Raaaannndyyyy, come to meeeee.’

  “He got to his feet.

  “‘Where are you?’ he said.

  “‘Close. Very close.’

  “A twig snapped right behind him! Then strange, high-pitched giggling started right in his ear, and Randy suddenly knew that the man behind him was not his counselor. It was Cropsy!”

  “No, no more!” Brynn blurted. “I’m too freaked out!”

  “Time-out. Enough.” Belle gestured to Tori. “If Brynn’s too scared, we should stop.”

  Tori flicked off the flashlight and lowered it to her side.

  Oh, for heaven’s sake, Chelsea thought, but she kept her mouth shut. She wanted to hear the end. From the looks on everyone else’s faces, they did, too.

  “Crop-sy, Crop-sy, Crop-sy,” Natalie and Jenna chanted, clapping their hands and laughing at each other’s scratchy voices.

  “Tell it, sister,” Valerie squawked. A couple of the other girls cackled like witches.

  Brynn theatrically fanned her face. “Belle, it’s all right. I just felt the need for a dramatic pause. For the good of the bunk, I’ll endure this terrifying tale.”

  Chelsea rolled her eyes. Gaby saw her do it, and shook her head tiredly as if to say, Can you believe this drama queen?

  “Hmmm,” Belle considered.

  “Look, if I get too scared, I’ll go hide in my tent,” Brynn promised. “Please let Tori finish.”

  Just then, Clarissa came over to Belle and they talked for a few seconds. Belle stood up.

  “I’m going to be over by the tents with Clarissa,” she told the girls. “We need to check some things for tomorrow’s scavenger hunt. If any of you want Tori to stop, all you have to do is speak up. And if you need us, we’ll be right over there.” She pointed to the cluster of tents. “Okay?”

  The girls nodded.

  “I’m good. Honest,” Brynn rasped.

  Tori waited while Belle left the campfire. Then she flicked the flashlight back on and positioned it beneath her chin.

  Crouched on the road behind some bushes, Dan elbowed Jeremiah as they spied on the summer camp girls below them. Of course, Jeremiah only had eyes for Clarissa. She was so pretty.

  Dan was disgusted. “Dude,” he whispered, “that is totally the wrong story! Where did she hear that? Cropsy didn’t escape from an insane asylum.”

  “Shut up,” Jeremiah whispered back. “If they hear us, they’ll freak out.”

  Dan’s eyes glinted in the moonlight. “Well, you said Clarissa likes to be scared. So let’s scare her.”

  Jeremiah hesitated. Dan elbowed him again. “Come on, Jer, just for fun. Just a little bit. Then we’ll let ’em know it’s just us.”

  “I don’t know,” Jeremiah said.

  “Th
at way you can see her,” Dan went on. “And then you can invite them to have ice cream tomorrow on their way back to camp, to make up for pranking them. So you’ll get to see her twice in two days.”

  Jeremiah quirked a grin at Dan. “You’re devious, dude. Okay. Let’s scare them. I’ll pretend I’m Cropsy.” He opened his mouth to call out in a spooky voice.

  “Wait. Let’s go get the chain saw out of the truck,” Dan suggested. “We can use it as a prop. We’ll put on the Camp Lakeview Chainsaw Massacre!”

  “The chain saw? I don’t know,” Jeremiah said. “That’s pretty extreme.”

  “She’ll love it,” Dan promised. “Trust me.”

  The two crept away, down the road, toward Dan’s truck.

  “Okay, we left off with Randy hearing the giggling behind him,” Tori reminded her rapt audience.

  “Randy jumped backward . . . but he fell over the hard, gnarled thing again. He slammed onto his back and the breath was knocked out of him.

  “The giggling grew louder and louder. Then bony fingers wrapped around his neck and started to squeeze. He smelled something awful, like rotten meat. It was the breath of his attacker.

  “Randy kicked and flailed his arms, but it was no use. The hands around his neck grew tighter and tighter, until he passed out.

  “When he woke up, he discovered that he was handcuffed to a brick wall. He was in a basement, and a rat was sitting on top of his foot, squeaking at him. Then there was a jingling noise, followed by heavy footsteps on wood. Through a small window above his head, the moonlight shone on a flight of wooden stairs ten feet away.

  “Heavy leather boots stomped down the stairs.

  “Then legs.

  “Then long, bony white fingers, carrying a large ring of keys. That was what was making the jingling sound.

  “Randy tried to speak. It was only then that he realized he had been gagged. His eyes bulged above the cloth stretched across the lower half of his face.

  “Then . . .

  “. . . he beheld the face of Cropsy.

  “His skin was pulled so tightly across the bones, and it was so thin, that his face looked like a skull. A long, jagged, purple scar ran from his left temple across his nose to the corner of his mouth. He had only one eye. The other eye was covered by a black leather patch.

  “‘They said I would never leave that asylum alive. But I planned my escape for six long years. And now I’m free!’

  “Then he reached into the shadows and pulled out a razor-sharp ax. Randy began to struggle and whimper. Cropsy laughed his crazy laugh and leaned toward him. Closer, closer.

  “The moonlight glistened on the ax blade as Cropsy pressed it against Randy’s throat.

  “Randy struggled harder. He was fighting for his life! And suddenly, his right hand slipped right out of the handcuff! He made a fist and slammed it into Cropsy’s face. Cropsy howled with fury and started to hack across Randy’s throat. But Randy grabbed his wrist and deflected the blade. And before he realized what was happening, he cut off Cropsy’s arm!

  “Cropsy collapsed in a pool of blood. His eyes went wide and unfocused and he gazed up at the ceiling. He made no sound, and he lay still as death.

  “Shaking, knowing that he had just escaped the clutches of a madman, yet horrified that he had taken a human life, Randy grabbed the keys. He was trembling so badly that it was difficult for him to unlock the other handcuff around his left wrist. Twice he had to stop to wipe the sweat out of his eyes. He was crying with fear. “Cropsy lunged again, his fingertips grazing Randy’s shin.

  “Randy kicked at him as he bent down, grabbed the ax, and raced for the stairs. He heard Cropsy grunting as if he were trying to stand up.

  “Randy took the stairs two by two until he got to the main floor of a filthy, deserted shack. Rats squeaked as they scurried out of his way.

  “Then he saw the dead body of his camp counselor, laid out on the floor! His head had been cut off and it was sitting on the dead counselor’s chest, grinning at Randy like a Halloween pumpkin! And so were the heads of all his bunkmates! Their bodies were laid out in a row, each with his head on his chest!

  “Randy screamed for all he was worth. He flew out of there as fast as he could go, dashing right into the screen door and ripping it off the hinges.

  “Beneath the light of the full moon, he raced down to the edge of Shadow Lake. It was covered with fog, rising off of it like thick, choking smoke.

  “There was a boat at the water’s edge. Without a moment’s hesitation, Rand“But it wasn’t the ax! To his horror, he discovered that he had grabbed up Cropsy’s dismembered arm instead! It was dripping with blood and the fingers clawed at him, trying to dig into his wrist.

  “Randy yelled and dropped the arm back into the boat. But it started crawling toward his ankle, inching along. Blood was spurting everywhere, filling up the bottom of the boat. There was so much blood that the boat began to sink.

  “Then he heard a horrible wailing behind him. It was so terrible that Randy was paralyzed with fright. He fought to breathe or move his foot as the arm crept toward it.

  “The wailing came closer.

  -“Randy still couldn’t move.

  “CLOSER!

  “Finally he managed to force himself to look, and what he saw froze his blood.

  “It was Cropsy!

  “The criminally insane, one-armed monster was staggering out of the shack. He was bleeding like crazy from the stump of his right arm. In the moonlight, the blood looked like a geyser of black ooze. And the gory, bleeding arm dragged Randy out of the boat, through the water, and onto the shore, where Cropsy was waiting for him. His silhouette was carved into the moon as he raised up that ax and WHAM! He cut off Randy’s arm!

  “Randy was never heard from or seen again.

  “And every six years, it happens again. Cropsy hunts down an unsuspecting camper and cuts off his arm. Or her arm. And I know this is true because he almost did it to my cousin Nicole’s bunkmate’s cousin, Samantha, six years ago. Sam went into the woods to pee and she heard Cropsy crashing through the trees, yelling, ‘I WANT MY ARM!’

  “She flew out of there back to camp, barely escaping with her life. She was so scared that part of her hair turned white. And it’s still white!

  “But the next morning, one of the other girls in the bunk was missing. Sam asked the counselor where the girl was, and the counselor acted very strangely.

  “‘Oh, Theresa got sick in the night and we had to take her to the hospital,’ the counselor told the bunk. ‘Her parents met us there and took her home.’

  “No one believed that, of course. No one saw the girl leave. No one ever heard from or saw that girl again. Because Cropsy got her.

  “And now . . . it’s been six years since then. And Cropsy is in the woods, searching for a new victim. And when he finds her, he’ll cut off her arm and she’ll die a terrible, hideous death!

  “And then the circus lions will eat her!” Jenna squeaked as loudly as she could, and the girls screamed.

  Priya burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. She was honking like a goose. Brynn joined in, shaking her fist at Jenna.

  “Fight it! Fight the urge to prank!”

  “What are you talking about?” Chelsea demanded.

  Then Jenna saw Candace’s eyes widen and glint with tears, and she realized Candace thought she was making fun of her. This is why you don’t prank anymore, Bloom.

  She darted over to Candace and in her haste, accidentally stepped hard on Chelsea’s foot.

  “Sorry,” she said, her attention on Candace.

  “Ow,” Chelsea grunted.

  “Sorry,” Jenna said again. She squatted beside Candace, who wouldn’t look at her. “Candace, I’m sorry.”

  “What’s all that about lions?” Chelsea was making a huge deal out of rubbing her foot. Demanding all the attention, when it was really Candace whom Jenna had wounded.

  “Didn’t you hear Jordan at the cookout?” Jenna croaked i
mpatiently. Chelsea shook her head. “Long story. And it wasn’t part of this story.”

  “Well, it’s a stupid story anyway.” Chelsea rubbed her foot harder. “And it’s bogus. If that’s the dark secret of Camp Lakeview, it would still be a secret.”

  “What do you mean?” Tori asked from across the fire ring.

  “Think about it.” Chelsea tapped her temple with her pointer finger. “How can anyone know that any of this happened? The guy it originally happened to was never heard from or seen again.”

  “Oh. Hmm. Girl’s got a point,” Gaby said. “Can’t deny that logic.”

  “They held a séance at Camp Lakeview,” Tori said mysteriously. “Randy communicated to them from beyond the grave.”

  “Extremely bogus,” Chelsea insisted.

  “Oh, you are such a downer!” Jenna said, turning around to face her. “Chelsea, can’t you just play along? You always have to argue, and you don’t ever help the bunk do stuff like make dinner. You can’t even just wear pajamas like the rest of us and have a good time.”

  As Jenna watched, something shifted in Chelsea’s expression. First her eyes widened, then they narrowed; and she clenched her teeth together.

  “I was going to put on my pajamas, when I intruded upon Miss Thing shooting up like a drug addict.”

  Everyone gasped. Alex’s mouth dropped open.

  Chelsea blinked hard, and then her mouth set into a sharp line.

  “Oh, you are unbelievable!” Jenna said.

  “Girls? What’s going on?” Belle called from her place over the by tents. She and Clarissa quickly headed for the fire ring.

  Chelsea got to her feet and pushed Jenna out of her way.

  “Hey!” Jenna protested.

  Chelsea kept going. She was limping, as if Jenna had really hurt her. But she was totally exaggerating. Jenna hadn’t stepped on her that hard.

  “Chelsea?” Belle demanded. “Where are you going?”

  “To the bathroom!”

  “Take a flashlight and a buddy!” Belle called after her.

  But Chelsea put on a burst of speed and disappeared into the pine trees.