Teen Killers Club

by Lily Sparks

  Erik throws the lantern at his head, hard, but Dog Mask blocks it with the axe, sending it crashing to the floor to light him from below in blinking, sputtering bursts as he swings the axe down at Troy.

  With a grunt Troy throws up his hatchet, one end in each hand, and Dog Mask’s axe head catches awkwardly on the thin wood handle. Troy’s arms tremble frantically as he fights to keep the axe from bearing down and splitting through his chest.

  Kurt darts forward and jabs Dog Mask’s ribs, but Dog Mask doesn’t flinch, he just sends Kurt flying into the wall with a half-hearted backhand. But the momentary distraction allows Troy to slip away, and then Javier shoots forward before I can stop him.

  He stoops to picks up another lantern, and Dog Mask whips around, axe flying up, and a high, wild shriek escapes me for an endless instant until Dog Mask’s throaty voice eclipses mine. Dog Mask spins away from Javier, one arm curling to his side, and we all stare as Nobody pulls her knife from under his arm and it drips a dark, black red onto the white sheets below.

  Tall Nobody looks like a child across from Dog Mask, but she steps forward and they circle each other in the center of the cabin, stepping through the blankets and paper towels where a moment ago we were giggling and safe. Erik moves forward but Nobody puts out an arm without even looking at him.

  “Me first,” Nobody whispers.

  Dog Mask’s axe sighs through the air, held one-handed now, and Nobody dodges it. Dog Mask lunges, but she feints left and his axe head bites into the side of Erik’s bunk.

  Nobody, taking advantage, swipes at his other shoulder, but he pulls the blade from the wood with a rain of splinters and cuffs her hard with his forearm before the knife connects. Her foot catches on something and she tips to one side, falling.

  “NO!” I shriek, straining forward, but Javier’s hands clamp me in place.

  In the nanosecond Dog Mask’s axe swings high enough to expose his neck, Nobody impossibly recovers, surging up in a perfectly planned swoop that ends with her knife buried in Dog Mask’s throat.

  She buries the blade deeper, leaning in toward him until their faces almost touch.

  His axe clatters to the ground. Guttural whimpers and thick, broken groans spill from him as his broad, bloody hand claps onto her black ski mask.

  Nobody stands completely still, grasping the knife with both hands like a fishing line that might at any moment jerk her into the tide, her scarred arms twitching with effort. His knees sag and she sinks with him, onto first one knee and then the other, so they’re kneeling across from each other in the middle of our blankets, dark blood soaking the sheets around them.

  Whether she’s making sure he dies or making sure he doesn’t die alone, I don’t know.

  Dog Mask’s fluttering hand clasps her hood. And then, with an almost delicate gesture, he pulls it away.

  Nobody’s face is not burnt. Unlike her scarred and melted arms, it’s untouched and perfect. She is ludicrously beautiful. She stares back at Dog Mask with the kind of face perfume companies use to remind you how it feels to fall in love: heart-shaped, high cheekbones, with a clear-cut flower of a mouth and large, striking eyes that burn into his.

  Nobody reaches over to Dog Mask and pulls off his mask.

  The man underneath is maybe thirty-five. His head is large and heavy, his eyes sunk deep in his face, and a mass of scar tissue from his nose to his chin is made more grotesque by the blood bubbling out of his lips. The others all draw forward in a circle around them, except me. I’m frozen where I stand, in the deepest shadows, trying to reconcile the angel and demon kneeling in front of me.

  “Tell … Kate …” Dog Mask’s head lolls, sweat standing out on his cheeks.

  “What?!” Nobody asks in her familiar coarse voice, her long, delicate eyebrows drawing together. “Tell Kate what?”

  “We won’t go quiet,” he sputters, choking on his own blood. “Deal with … the devil. S’all it’s ever been … tell Kate …” His eyes shut against the pain. “Won’t go quiet.”

  And then his breathing stops, and all I can hear is the drumming of the rain.

  Nobody gently lets go of the knife, and he slumps onto his side. She reaches forward, feels his neck, withdraws her hand, and nods.

  The guys rush Nobody in an ecstasy of whoops and high-fives.

  “Hey, great work there, Nobody. Wow.” Kurt sounds more than a little smitten.

  “You kind of hogged the kill, but I’m prepared to let it slide,” Erik says.

  Nobody looks through them to me. It’s so weird to think this gore-spattered angel is the same person as my fake girlfriend Nobody, but as she gawkily walks over she becomes more familiar. And when she drags the back of her hand under her nose and then roughly puts an arm around my shoulder and says in that same raspy voice, “What’s wrong?!” I get it. It’s still her.

  “What’s wrong?” I wipe the tears from my cheeks and look around our circle for some understanding. But no one else is crying. Not even Javier.

  I stare at the disfigured man below us, with his sunken, staring eyes. How did he look as a baby, when his mother first held him? How does a person become a monster like this?

  And I know he would have killed us, that Nobody is a hero, that I owe her my life for what she did. But it’s beyond awful. Seeing the light go out of his eyes will haunt me as long as I live. But I can’t say that. Not to them.

  “He was supposed to kill us all!” I manage instead.

  “Well, he didn’t.”

  “Yeah, he got his own butt killed! BA-BWAAAMP!” Troy does an elaborate air guitar lick right over the slumped body that makes Javier crack up.

  “Stupid.” He shakes his head as Troy continues rocking out.

  “But why did he say that?” I plead. “How does he know Kate? What the hell is going on?!”

  “Um, can we talk about the real issue here?” Jada puts her hands on her hips. “Nobody, why have you been wearing a mask all this time, girl? You’re like … a supermodel.”

  “Seriously,” Kurt says a little too warmly.

  Nobody looks down at her ski mask as though debating whether to put it back on. It’s saturated with thick, warm blood.

  “I mean damn, girl,” Troy says, trying to keep from cracking up at what he’s about to say. “I never knew I wanted a knife to the throat so bad.”

  Nobody tosses the bloody ski mask at him like a water balloon, he sidesteps it, and it lands with a big red splatter that trails all the way to the front door just as Dave and Kate rush in.

  “What’s all the ruckus in here?!”

  Kate’s eyes land on Dog Mask, and she freezes.

  Dave steps in front of her, chuckling.

  “Well, looks like you found the hiker! Thought he was going to have some fun stabbing some poor defenseless teenagers, huh? Instead you guys got a bit of a pop quiz!” He pulls back his rain hood and steps pluckily over to the body on the floor, nudging it with the toe of his boot. “Aaaaand you passed! Now you can work together to dispose of this body by morning. Kate, you and I should report an intruder to HQ.”

  “Right.” Kate’s voice is thick. She reaches blindly behind her for the door.

  “Wait.” I stare past Dave at Kate. “He had a message. He said to tell Kate that ‘they’ wouldn’t go quietly. How did he know your name?”

  Dave lets an uneasy silence fill the cabin. Then he says, “He’s been skulking around for a while. Guess he picked up that Kate was in charge!”

  “Why was he skulking around? Why did he target us? Why hike out to this camp?” I press.

  Dave shrugs, his smile disappearing. “Why do any of you kill? I don’t know. I don’t want to know. I just need you to be good at it. You have obstacle course in three hours, so I suggest you all clean up this mess.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  On the Water

  The blood seeps through our blankets and streams between the gaps in the plank floor, dripping into the crawlspace under the cabin. We stand around the body after
Kate and Dave leave, staring.

  “‘Clean up this mess!’” Troy mocks, punching Dave’s slight Midwestern accent. “I guess that’s his new catchphrase now, since he can never use that stupid call and response again after Signal DESTROYED IT!”

  Everyone laughs and I look around, confused. “What?”

  “Earlier, when you told Dave you were learning not to end up like him. It was great.”

  “Great?! It was freaking legendary.” Kurt holds up a hand until I high-five him.

  “Jada did say he looked like his brain was constipated,” I say, and Jada smiles as everyone bursts out laughing again.

  “Okay. Let’s start carving this big boy up!” Troy crouches down beside the body, and I have to grab onto a bunk to steady myself.

  “No.” Kurt shakes his head, passing a hand over his face. “We can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “We don’t have a tarp or anything sharp enough to cut bone.”

  “Yeah, he’s too big to chop. I say we wrap him up.” Erik nods at the corner of one of the sleeping bags. “Roll him, tape him, weigh him down, throw him in the water.”

  “After what happened to my mannequin?” I point out. “You really think that’s wise?”

  “You threw a plastic mannequin into ten feet of water, Signal. I’m talking about rowing this meaty beast half a mile out and dropping him in the middle of the lake and letting the Circle of Life handle the rest.”

  “Yeah.” Nobody nods slowly. “That’s our best bet. With the storm passing through it’s too wet for anything else.”

  My stomach flips over at the thought of what “anything else” could mean.

  “I can’t handle this,” I mutter.

  “Surprise, surprise,” Erik says under his breath, but waves me toward the bathroom. “Could you go find some mops and a bucket for the blood? I think there should be some in the main cabin kitchen.”

  I almost run out of the room while the rest close in. I hear a giggling Jada say something about how his hands are so floppy before I have to stop, throw on the faucet in the bathroom sink, and retch over the last toilet stall. The handfuls of trail mix I had for dinner come back up, and once I stop gagging I quickly brush my teeth, then run out into the rain, toward the main cabin.

  I land on the front porch, teeth chattering, and as I open the door, muffled voices echo down the hall, from the nurse’s office where Dennis and I were the other day.

  “We can’t tell HQ who it was,” Kate insists.

  “They’ll figure it out. If we don’t volunteer the information, we look complicit.”

  “If we tell HQ they’ll send the campers out early. You want to risk that?”

  “If we hide this, we are complicit.”

  “We both know if the Director sends the kids out now, we could lose them all.”

  A tense throb of silence, as though Dave knows she’s right. Then a chair creaks as though he’s dropped into it:

  “That’s the whole point of the attack, isn’t it?” Dave says. “To force our hand.”

  There’s a long moment, then steps cross the room. I race back down the hall and duck into the kitchen, my heart in my throat, trying to piece together what I’ve heard as I dig around for cleaning supplies.

  The door creaks and I brace myself for Dave’s voice, but instead hear the squeak of wet sneakers and then Javier is standing beside me.

  “They need some trash bags.”

  I hand him a giant box and keep rattling through bottles looking for the Lysol. But Javier still stands there, and after a moment I sit back on my heels and look up at him, self-consciously pulling my hair back from my face.

  “Was there anything else?”

  “Nah, I just …” There’s a small crease between his eyebrows. “Your girl is really pretty.”

  “Oh, Nobody, yeah.” And I mean it when I say, “She’s actually perfect.”

  “Yeah. Well, I think I owe you an apology because … before … I thought maybe you and her … like, it was a relationship of convenience or something?” He laughs nervously. “I made a lot of arrogant assumptions, and I’m sorry for that. So seeing her just now …”

  He fumbles for words and I brace for where this is going, neck growing hot.

  “It’s just that, like, when Dog Mask came in … and you were holding my hand … I promised myself I’d ask you something.” His eyes meet mine and he steps closer.

  “Ask me what?” Why am I getting excited?! He’s probably about to ask me if we’d consider a threesome. Get a hold of yourself.

  “Wow, I feel so stupid right now.” He sweeps his hands along the back of his neck with an embarrassed smile that is utterly charming. “You have a gorgeous girlfriend, I know the answer is going to be no, but I still have to ask—”

  “Ask me what?” My cheeks go hot as my fingertips turn cold.

  “Do you like me?” Javier gives me the sweetest, shiest half-smile I’ve ever seen.

  “HELLOOO!”

  We both spin around as Jada throws the kitchen door open with a bang, her wet hair clinging to her face.

  “Javi! You find the trash bags? We’re all waiting on you!”

  “Right.” Javier steps back from me, his face falling back into its familiar guarded expression.

  “Uh, Lysol?” She takes the Lysol out of the bucket and throws it back into the cabinet. “Lysol’s no good disinfecting blood. I know you missed the first week, but that was literally our first lesson. We need bleach. Focus, Skipper!” Jada claps for emphasis. “And both of you hurry up! Come on, Javier, let’s go!”

  I crouch in front of the cabinet again while she leads Javier out of the kitchen, barely seeing what’s in front of me.

  He wouldn’t ask me that unless he liked me too, right? No way. So he must like me, right? Javier … likes me.

  So what am I doing in the kitchen?

  I dash through the cabin, throw open the door and leap down the porch to the gravel path, where I can just make out Javier and Jada disappearing through the dark.

  “Javier! Wait!”

  The motion light above me snaps on and captures him in a halo, and he’s too handsome. I just stare at him for a moment as the conviction he must like me fights with the certainty I’m wrong. His hair glitters with raindrops in the motion light, little drops dot his broad shoulders, but he doesn’t go, he stares up at me. I feel like I’m in a dream as I walk toward him, the last of the rain falling softly around us.

  “What you just asked me?” I tell him. “Yeah. I do.”

  He’s in front of me in two steps, but he hangs back as though he’s afraid he’s misheard.

  “Does Nobody know?” he asks.

  “I’ll talk to her. But it’ll be fine—”

  “JAVIER! COME ON!” Jada screams from the porch of the boys’ cabin.

  “It’ll be fine.” I smile. “It’s just …” There’s no way to say this without sounding like a desperate idiot. “You do like me, right?”

  And then his lips are pressed against mine, his stubble rough against my chin.

  The fog of unreality that’s been surrounding me since he asked if I liked him evaporates against the warmth of his pressing mouth. My spine melts, I sag against him as one of his arms winds around me, his other hand reaching up and slipping into my hair.

  “JAVIER!” Jada calls. “EARTH TO JAVIER!”

  “You better go,” I whisper, pulling away once it’s clear he can’t hear her. “But we’ll do this again soon?”

  He shakes his head as though coming out of a trance. “Very soon,” he says, jaw clenched, eyes pleading.

  Pleading to kiss me again.

  An unreal joy bubbles up inside me as I turn and practically fly to the kitchen. I put bleach in the bucket and set it under the running faucet, then dance around in a circle. My first kiss. I can’t believe I just had my first kiss! And it was a perfect kiss. With Javier.

  Because Javier likes me.

  Is he my boyfriend now?

&nbs
p; I don’t know, the kiss alone is enough, is everything. I flit around the kitchen on my tiptoes as all my favorite love songs fight for space in my head. I’m weightless, if I jump I’ll float up to the ceiling, bounce out the window, fly into the night.

  I wish so badly I could tell Rose.

  I haul the bucket and some mops over to the cabin, feeling like I’m glowing in the dark with Javier’s secret revelation. Everyone’s talking too intently to notice when I come in, except Javier, who looks up with shining eyes. I smile so hard I have to duck my head, as Troy’s voice booms out:

  “We’re going to need everybody helping if we’re going to carry him down to the dock.”

  “Okay, well, let’s just get it onto the porch first so they can mop up,” Erik says.

  “Who wants a mop?” I flourish three handles and Jada grabs one.

  “C’mon, Dennis.” She foists one on him, and I grab the last, stepping out of the way so Javier, Erik, Troy, Kurt, and Nobody can haul the body to the porch.

  “Somebody can’t stop smiling,” Jada remarks to Dennis as she wrings her mop out over the bucket, grimacing at the burning bleach smell. It’s true, I’m smiling down at a pool of blood. But I can’t help it. The best thing just happened to me and nothing else is real. This blood certainly isn’t. I’m not really here cleaning it. I’m going through all the moments I’ve had with Javier in the last few days, trying to figure out when he started liking me.

  Because Javier likes me.

  “Must be the adrenaline,” Dennis comments, pushing his glasses up his short nose. “We all probably gained a big rush of endorphins after our flight-or-fight responses were triggered.”

  “Totally,” I nod.

  Once we’ve finished swabbing up, we join the others on the porch around the body, and my warm glow fades pretty quick. They’ve built up several layers of trash bags, each sealed with duct tape, one over the other until Dog Mask, zipped into a sleeping bag with a footlocker of stones on his chest, is cocooned like a plastic mummy. If I pretend it’s just a mannequin inside those trash bags, maybe I can get through this without vomiting again.