“She got upset because she’s our counselor,” Tori said. “She’s supposed to know where we are at all times.”
“And because maybe Clarissa snuck off then and started making the trails for the hunt while we were in the lake,” Valerie said, clearly following Gaby’s lead. “Maybe that’s why Belle wanted us to go swimming in the first place.”
“Oh. That works.” Tori felt twenty times better. Make that a hundred. She hadn’t even realized how nervous she’d been until now, when her knees went a little wobbly with relief.
“Okay, if we’re right, there should be more of these little markers,” Valerie said. “So hopefully, they’re not too far apart and we can find the next one.”
The three moved forward, each girl stepping cautiously through the fog. Now that it didn’t seem as threatening, the thick blanket of white reminded Tori of the powdery snow in Tahoe. She imagined trying to snowboard on top of the fog and smiled to herself.
“Yesss!” Gaby shone her flashlight on another broken branch. “We’re hot on the trail.” She cleared her throat and called out, “Chelsea! We know you’re out here!”
“Chelsea!” Tori squeaked. “Belle!”
They stood still, listening.
“No one can hear us. We’re too hoarse,” Gaby said.
Including everybody back at the campsite, Tori thought. In the woods, no one can hear you scream. If you can scream.
They walked on, shining their flashlights over tree limbs and branches. There were no more bent-back stubs.
They came to a low-hanging pine bough that stopped Gaby in her tracks.
“Hmm,” Gaby said, shining her flashlight on the map. “Maybe we should turn.”
“Left or right?” Valerie moved the beam of her flashlight over the dense stands of trees. “It said they would tie pieces of cloth around tree trunks. Do you see any cloth?”
They turned around in a little circle as the fog billowed and churned around their hips. There were no pieces of cloth. There were no broken branches.
We were wrong, Tori thought. Her mouth went dry. Fear danced up her spine.
“I kind of think we should go back,” she said. “Maybe a wild animal broke those other branches.”
“It looked like someone did it on purpose,” Gaby argued.
“It did,” Valerie agreed.
“Maybe only because that was what we were hoping to see,” Tori insisted. “We’re going to get lost. We should go back.”
“Two more minutes,” Gaby said, tapping the map. “And if we don’t find another set of broken branches, we’ll turn around.”
Tori wanted to say no. She wanted to go back now. They didn’t even have a watch to figure out when two had minutes passed. She thought about all the lectures she’d had in school and at home about giving in to peer pressure. She didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, and had kissed her boyfriend exactly twice. Tromping through the woods like this was a bad idea and she knew it. But it was hard to say no to Gaby and Valerie.
“Two minutes,” Gaby said again.
“Come on, Tori,” Valerie urged. “Maybe Chelsea got hurt and they can’t leave her, and they need our help.”
Then they would be calling out for help. She thought about that. Why hadn’t they heard Belle or Clarissa yelling? Maybe they were hiding. Maybe this really was the scavenger hunt.
Tori sighed. “I’ll give you a minute and a half.”
“You’re on.” Gaby grinned at her. “We’ll turn back in ninety seconds.”
“One Mississippi,” Tori intoned.
“Let’s go to the right,” Gaby said.
They walked a few feet to the right, Gaby first. Valerie was just a little ways behind her, and Tori fell back a little when she skirted around a fallen tree trunk.
Without warning, the ground angled sharply downward, and it was covered with a blanket of dried pine needles and crinkly leaves that made it as slippery as a Slip ’n Slide. As Gaby’s sneakers began to scoot out from underneath her, Valerie caught her forearm. Then she, too, lost her balance—and the two fell onto their butts. They started zooming down the incline.
“Help!” Gaby whisper-cried.
They disappeared inside a thick bank of fog. Tori could still hear them sliding, but she couldn’t see them at all. She took a step forward, peering hard . . .
“Whoa!” Tori croaked, as she started to fall, too. She reached overhead for a pine branch, but she wasn’t fast enough. She landed hard on her bottom and sailed into the roiling mist after her two friends.
“Guys! Guys!” she whispered. “Look out below!”
Instinctively she rolled to the side to slow her descent, but then the ground dropped away beneath her shoulder and she sailed into thin air—or rather, thick fog. She reached out her hands, trying to grab at a branch, anything to catch herself—and thumped even harder on a patch of ground.
Her way made slick by pine needles, she kept sliding through the fog, then finally skidded to a stop.
“Tori! Are you okay?” Gaby whispered from somewhere above her.
Tori rolled over on her back. Fog surrounded her, and when she raised her hand in front of herself, she could barely see it. Looking past her hand, she could just make out Gaby’s silhouette in the fog. Gaby was standing about ten or fifteen feet above Tori on an outcropping of rock.
“Ow,” Tori replied. She sat up and tested herself for broken bones. Everything appeared to be working. “I guess I’m okay.”
Then she heard someone moving directly behind her. It had to be Valerie. It was lucky they hadn’t collided.
She turned around. The fog was too thick for her to see Valerie, but she heard her shuffling through the pine needles. She was panting heavily.
“Tori? I can’t see you anymore,” Gaby said. “Valerie, can you see her?”
Valerie?
“No,” Valerie replied . . . from the same place as Gaby.
Tori gazed up to see the dim outline of Valerie beside Gaby on the outcropping.
But if Valerie’s up there, that means . . .
“Chelsea? Jenna? Are you pranking us?” Tori asked fearfully as she scooted backward on her butt. She cleared her throat. “Gaby? Can you see me now?”
“No,” Gaby said.
“I think . . . we’re not alone,” Tori said.
“What?” Gaby said.
“Guys? Listen,” Tori urged them.
But there was nothing but silence. The shuffling and panting had stopped.
Tori swallowed hard. “Chelsea?” she said. “Is that you? Everything’s okay. Everyone is worried about you. No one is going to yell at you or send you home. Let’s go back to camp now.”
The panting started again.
Then something poked her shoulder.
She screamed, but it came out as a strangled squeak. She turned around, grabbing bushes, roots, dragging herself up the slope, crying and grunting.
“Help! Help!” she whispered.
“Tori? What’s wrong? What’s happening?” Gaby honked.
Tori fought her way up the incline, through thick, rolling fog, to feel her hand batting someone else’s hand. Strong fingers closed around her.
“It’s me, Valerie. I’ve got you. Gaby, help me pull her up!”
Hand over hand, they half-pulled, half-dragged her up. Tori couldn’t see either of them. She fought to catch her breath.
“Someone’s down there!”
“It’s a prank,” Valerie said. “Belle! Clarissa!”
“I don’t think it’s them!” Tori grabbed Valerie’s hands. “Let’s get out of here!”
She started to run, and Valerie ran with her. Gaby was beside them in an instant, and they raced blindly in the fog.
A tree branch smacked Tori in the face, but she kept going, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was terrified. She kept feeling those sharp pokes against her shoulder.
Valerie stumbled. “Don’t stop!” she begged.
Heavy footfalls galloped behind them. It had climbe
d up the slope! It was coming after them!
“Oh my God, it’s chasing us!” Gaby said. She started to slow, as if she were going to turn around to see what it was. “Guys, is that you? Jenna? This is not funny!”
“Keep going!” Tori begged.
Then someone—something—started howling. It was high-pitched and angry and it followed them as they ran. It was a crazy shriek, a wild scream . . .
. . . and Tori could almost hear the words:
“Where is my arm?”
“It’s Cropsy!” Tori screamed.
Squealing in terror, the three friends raced on.
chapter NINE
Seated on their logs around the blazing campfire, Brynn and Priya had just scored another point off Alex, Alyssa, and Candace in “Broadway Musical SingdIt was a version of the Color War singdown, but tonight, nearly all the contestants were hoarse at the beginning of the competition, not the e
The fog hung arothem like heavy, wet curtains. They could barealy see one another as they sat in a semicircle—Bryann at one end, Alex at the other—and they couldn’t see their tents at all.
Or the lake.
Or the moon.
They had their tiny flashlights on and they were holding the singdown to keep their spirits up. It seemed too awful to admit that Tori, Valerie, and Gaby had gone missing, too. The firstreaction of those left behind—Alex, Alyssa, Canda Priya, and Brynn—was to huddle together in frightened confusion. Then Alex had suggested they make the fire bigger and cheerier and start singing songs. The distraction had worked . . . at first. But now Alex, for one, was starting to feel a little jittery.
“We should do a different category, like eighties’ pop hits,” she said. “Brynn knows every musical ever composed!” The truth was, she didn’t really care if Brynn kept winning. It was kind of funny, actually, especially because Brynn sounded like a foghorn. But Alex wanted everyone to stay interested. She knew from playing soccer that if one team started to lose all the time, it was harder for them to stay in the game. And she wanted them to stay in the game so they wouldn’t get so scared they might pee their pants.
Like she was just about to do.
“It’s kind of my area of expertise,” Brynn semi-whispered. “Since I want to specialize in musical theater. But if the Flame Dancers will agree that the Fireflies have won this round, I’m willing to move onto eighties’ pop.”
The Flame Dancers—Alex, Alyssa, and Candace—looked at one another and nodded. Alyssa was nibbling on a Twizzler and Alex wished she could have one, too. Candace was biting her fingernails.
“Okay,” Alex agreed. “Fireflies, you won the first round, so you go first. Sing the first line of something eighties and we’ll sing the next line.”
“Let me think,” Brynn said. She leaned in toward Priya. “Do you have any ideas?”
Priya and Brynn whispered together. Then Brynn made a funny, low moan deep in her chest.
“Brynn, you’ve got to do something that’s longer than that,” Alex grumped. “That’s not enough of a hint.”
There was a pause. “That wasn’t me,” Brynn said.
“Me neither,” Priya said. She held up her hand. “Honest.”
“Okay, then who did it?” Alex asked the group. “Is someone making some kind of a singdown dare?”
No one answered as the girls looked at one another in confusion. The seconds passed and no one confessed.
“Chelsea?” Priya ventured.
Alex waved her flashlight slowly at the perimeter of fog hanging around the campfire. She saw nothing in the dense whiteness. “Chelsea? Belle?” she called out.
There was no answer.
“Maybe it was a bullfrog,” Candace suggested, hugging herself. Then she ducked her head as if she expected them to laugh at her.
“It could be a bullfrog,” Alyssa said. Then a grin spread across her face. “But I’ll bet it was Jenna Bloom.”
Smiles grew all around. They waited a few seconds. “Okay, jig’s up! The experiment was a success!” Priya said cheerily. “We’ve bonded! We love one another. Come on back!”
There was no answer.
“Are there bears in these woods?” Brynn asked.
“Bears?” Candace echoed.
“I don’t think so,” Alex said, but she didn’t know for sure. “I don’t think Dr. Steve would let us camp here if—”
She was interrupted by another low moan drifting through the fog.
Brynn jumped to her feet. “Guys? This isn’t amusing!”
There was no answer. Candace whimpered. Alex put her arm around her.
“Yoo-hoo, we’re done,” Brynn brayed.
“My arm,” a voice whispered.
“Okay, now I know this is a joke!” Brynn twirled in a little circle as she shone her flashlight over the fog. “Come on out, Cropsy!”
“No,” Candace pleaded. “Don’t say his name!”
“Who’s doing this?” Brynn said. “Chelsea?”
“We are not scared!” Priya squeaked.
More silence.
Nerve-racking silence.
Alex’s heart hammered against her chest. Her throat was dry as a bone. She tried to tell herself that there would be a good explanation for this. Any. Second. Now.
Then suddenly, without warning, something moved in the fog. A shape jittered and shook, and Alex realized it was the branches of the broken tree beside the granite boulder. Then the bush next to it shook, hard.
“My arm!” the voice hissed.
“Eeek!” Candace cried. She bolted, grabbing her flashlight and heading in the opposite direction, toward the tents.
“Candace, no! It’s a joke!” Alex managed to blurt as she raced after her. She was afraid Candace would hurt herself.
And I’m afraid, period! Alex thought. Because what if it wasn’t a joke?
The fog was thin enough that she could see Candace flying a few feet ahead of her. Candace bypassed the tents and kept running, past the other granite boulder that sectioned off their camping space. Alex heard footfalls and shrill, hoarse cries as her other bunkmates rocketed after them.
They raced into unexplored territory. Fog and darkness gave way to flashes of white as the beam of Alex’s flashlight danced around.
Brynn and Priya caught up with Alex and ran with her to the crest of the embankment, just as Candace and Alyssa disappeared over it.
Then a horrible wailing echoed off the sky. It sounded inhuman. Crazy. Evil.
“This is no prank!” Brynn rasped.
“Something’s really after us!” Priya squealed.
The three tore down the bank. Alex half-slid, half-ran. She lost her footing, and Priya and Brynn grabbed her up, propelling her along. But she felt a sharp pain in her knee where she had landed.
“Look!” Priya cried, pointing with her flashlight.
Beneath the moonlight, close to the water’s edge, two small wooden boats sat tilted on the ground. Scavenger hunt props? Or the boats of a stranger? The stranger who was chasing them?
Candace and Alyssa reached one of the boats. They gestured wildly to Alex and the others.
“Let’s get in!” Candace begged. “Come on, come on!”
Brynn and Priya bolted ahead of Alex, joining Candace and Alyssa as they grouped around the back of the boat and began to push it toward the lake.
“Alex, come on!” Candace rasped, waving at her over her shoulder. “Let’s get out of here!”
They reached the water’s edge. Candace, Priya, and Alyssa scrabbled into the boat while Brynn held onto the stern. She looked back at Alex, who was at least ten feet away. Alex’s knee was aching like crazy.
“It’s pulling me!” Brynn shouted. “Hurry! I can’t hold it!”
Then the boat jerked out of her grasp and started moving away at a rapid clip.
“Hey! Wait!” Brynn yelled, sloshing after it.
As the girls screamed and yelled, Priya leaned over the stern, grabbed Brynn’s hands, and hauled her in. Brynn tumbled in
to the boat.
“Hurry!” she shouted to Alex. “It’s moving really fast! We don’t have any oars!”
Sucking in air with each step, Alex stumbled toward them. She reached out her arms as she wobbled into the icy lake water.
“Swim, Alex!” Priya called out.
“Swim to us! Come on!” the others yelled.
Alex hesitated, staring at the cold, dark water.
Then all four of them started screaming and pointing.
“Alex! He’s behind you!” Alyssa yelled.
Alex whirled around.
At the crest of the embankment, a tall, bulky figure stood with its legs spread wide apart, gazing down on her. The fog gathered around it was like smoke pouring off its body.
It was wearing a hockey mask and carrying a chain saw.
And it only had one arm!
chapter TEN
The powerful cascade of the waterfall sucked up the sound as Nat, Clarissa, and Jenna counted to three, nodded at one and shouted, “Chelsea! Belle!”
Nat’s voice was gone. Jenna’s, too. Nat was scared and she was d and she wanted to go back to the campsite. issa had confessed that she’d made a wrong turn long time ago—actually, several—and she’d trying ever since to get them back to the campsite.
Although Nat was trying not to show it, she was beginning to panic. The fog kept circling around the three of them, making it more and more difficult to see. The story of Cropsy had freaked her out in a fun way at the campfire, but now, lost deep in the woods with the thickening fog, it seemed less like a campfire story and more like something that could happen in real life.
As she scanned the dense forest for signs of movement, something bumped into her from behind. She almost screamed at the top of her lungs as she whirled around.
It was Jenna.
“Whoops, sorry,” she said, as Nat tried to cram her heart back into her chest.
Clarissa pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her cargo shorts. “Let me try to call Belle again.” She pressed a couple of buttons.
“Or the police,” Nat said.
“Them too,” Clarissa agreed.
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