Kingdom of Darkness (Kingdom Journals Book 2)

by Tricia Copeland

  “I’m sad.” Frida locked her arm in mine as we walked back to our tent.

  “Why?”

  “They’re going to separate us.”

  “You don’t know that, and besides, we’ll hang out no matter what.”

  “Pinky swear.”

  “Yes, pinky swear.”

  We made our way to the latrine and readied for bed. That night I slept deeper than I’d ever remembered sleeping. Perhaps all the stresses of the week had compounded, but if felt like I could have slept for days.

  Beth Ann, Ruth, John, Jude, and I prepped Saturday breakfast that amounted to pastries, fruit, cheeses, and sausages. Even with the fog and rain, we engaged in an all-camp contest wherein our group battled the others for the right to an evening off chores. There was a tug of war that ended with us covered in mud but victorious, a boot camp challenge course, and a scavenger hunt. The final test consisted of a trivia game before the last meal of the day.

  “That’s not fair.” George spoke up as soon as the event was announced. “Jude has a photographic memory. How are any of us supposed to beat them?”

  “Just because he has a photographic memory doesn’t mean he knows everything,” Dr. Antos said, and the game commenced.

  In the end our team won the most challenges and came out the victors. Huddled around the heater waiting for dinner, we watched the water pouring from the sky.

  “Maybe we should have asked for an extra hot shower instead of a chore-free night.” Beth Ann held her hands in front of the heating element. “Even with my dry clothes, I can’t get warm.”

  “Is your hair wet?” Jude asked.

  She felt her braid and unwound it, shaking out her hair in front of the heat. Doing the same, I sat with my back to the warm air cascading from the device.

  “I wonder how they’ll pair us up,” I commented.

  “It sucks that we’re changing tents too,” Ruth put in.

  I’d had a pit in my stomach all day. “Maybe they’ll wait till the rain stops at least.”

  “They’re going to be waiting till next week. Did you see the forecast?” John asked.

  “No. Is it more rain?” I asked.

  “For next seven days,” John lamented.

  “That’s a bummer.” Jude stood, stretching his arms to the roof of the tent. “Hey, this is supposed to be our victory night. We should be having fun. Let’s get some music going.”

  I walked to the table holding the amplifier and studied the buttons. Finding the power button, I switched it on. “Now we need a device.”

  Opening a black case, Jude pulled a laptop out. “We should be able to stream something from this.”

  Starting the computer, I realized it was password protected.

  “I’ll go get a counselor.” John walked to the food prep area.

  Within a minute, he returned with Allen trailing him. Once Allen keyed in the appropriate code, I navigated to a music application and started the music. Beth Ann grabbed John’s hand and pulled him into the space between the tables. I helped Allen and Jude make a bigger area by moving the tables to the edges of the tent.

  “Just don’t make a mud mosh pit in here, okay?” Allen instructed. “I don’t want to move the whole eating tent in this weather.

  Always too self-conscious, I’d never been a big dancer. I huddled over the laptop as the others moved around the heater in the center, shedding clothes as they got hot.

  “What are you doing?” Jude’s hot breath on my cheek startled me.

  “Making sure we have good tunes.” I pointed to the computer screen.

  “You don’t like to dance?”

  “Not really. I’m more of a wallflower type.”

  He wrapped his hand around mine. “Your hands are still freezing. It’s great for warming up. Come on.” Cocking his head towards the others, he pulled me to the group.

  I copied Beth Ann’s moves, swaying to the beat. As the other campers trickled in, the group grew bigger and bigger. Within half an hour, all the coats and sweaters were stacked on the tables, and we’d shed down to our tanks.

  A hand wrapped around my waist, and I turned to see George beside me. He smiled a toothy smile and pulled me to him. “I heard the music was your idea.” The sweat from his chest penetrated my tank. I placed my hand on his stomach and pushed, but his arm had me pinned.

  “Let me go.”

  “We’re just dancing.” His hips swayed against mine, and I thought I might be sick. Scanning the crowd, I realized we were smack in the middle, and no one was paying attention.

  “Let me go.” I slammed my foot into his.

  His other arm wrapped around my back. “Like to play rough? I like it too,” he spat into my ear.

  “Let go!” I screamed, but the music was so loud the words seemed lost in the beat. My mind reeled, searching for an out. When I looked up, Jude was behind George.

  “She said let go.” Jude’s words were almost a growl. He gripped George’s biceps and spun him around. Towering over George, Jude’s eyes seemed to glow. “This is not how you treat a girl.”

  “You’re just riled up because you want her to be your lady.” George spun his forearms, forcing Jude’s hands away.

  “It doesn’t matter who I like. You can’t treat people that way.”

  “Bugger off, Yank. This is between me and Camille.” George shoved Jude.

  In a swift move, Jude captured George around the neck and started pushing him through the crowd. I chased after them as Jude forced George out of the tent and to the edge of the mesa. Hunter’s words echoed in my head. Theron killed Ganby.

  “Jude, stop,” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

  A few feet from the side, Jude stopped. “Never force yourself on her again. Do you hear me?”

  George’s arms turned red from the strain of pushing against Jude’s grip. He looked like an ant against a hundred-pound boulder.

  “Jude, he gets it. Don’t kill him.” I tried to pry Jude’s arms from George.

  Jude blinked, and his gaze landed on me. “What? I would never hurt anyone. I’m in total control. He just needs a little warning. Don’t you, George?” Jude pushed George to within a foot of the edge.

  “I got it,” George squeaked out.

  As Jude released George, I realized a crowd had gathered round.

  “Nothing to see here, people.” Jude slipped through the crowd and into the darkness.

  My hands trembled with fear as Allen appeared in front of me. “What happened?”

  “That behemoth needs to be locked up. That’s what happened.” George straightened his shirt.

  As the others dispersed, I told Allen what happened, and he escorted George to Dr. Antos’s office. A chill ran down my spine as the wind picked up, and I made my way back to the mess tent to retrieve my outer layers. As I slid on my jacket, I realized my hands were trembling. Jude’s intensity, the look in his eyes, reminded me of Theron and I blinked to clear his image from my thoughts.

  A set of arms caught me from behind. “I heard you were the mastermind behind all this.” Frida smiled. “It was fabulous before, you know, the whole George, Jude thing.”

  “It was Jude’s idea, more of a group effort.” I forced a smile.

  The dinner bell sounded, and we realigned the tables. Searching the group, I saw no sign of Jude. In that moment, I was grateful. After his attack on George, I wasn’t sure I would be comfortable around Jude. His intensity scared me. Who knew what he was capable of?

  “They’re going to separate all of us, you know that, right?” Frida said as we sat down with our plates of food.

  “Why do you think that?” I asked.

  “Can’t have anyone too comfortable. Gotta mix things up, push you to the edge of your comfort level so you give up all your ghosts.”

  “Ghosts?”

  Frida stuffed a bite into her mouth. “I would’ve said all the skeletons in your closet, but ghost fit better.”

  “For everyone but me and Camille, that prob
ably applies.” Jude set his plate beside me and lowered himself to the bench. “People need to be tested in a safe environment to get over their hang-ups.” He shrugged and put another bite in his mouth.

  “I’m going to miss you guys.” Frida swung an arm around each of us.

  “It’s not like we won’t see each other at meals,” I told her.

  “Yeah, if it keeps raining like this, we won’t be leaving the camp for anything.” Jude pointed to the drizzle beyond the tent entrance.

  “It’s not getting to you, is it, California boy?” Frida joked. “We can hike in the rain.”

  “I don’t think Dr. Antos is going to risk someone slipping on a rock and busting their head open after your near-drowning incident.”

  “Maybe so. Us Icelanders are hearty folk though.” Frida rambled on about Iceland and her family history as we finished the meal.

  Once all the plates were cleared and the cleanup crew finished the dishes, we sat around the heater for the evening announcements. I listened to Frida and Jude banter over me, feeling more anxious by the second. Something was off about Jude, and I wondered why I hadn’t sensed it before.

  As predicted the groups were completely mixed up. I ended up on a team with George and three people—Mikel, Bryn, and Liz—who I’d barely spoken to. Bryn and Liz were my tent mates as were Asa and Ruth. Asa and I had been paired up on a team the first week. Even though she was in my tent, we rarely saw each other. I hoped some of her obsessive-compulsive behavior had been diluted out.

  As I brought my things to the new tent, Ruth caught up with me. “Hey, I don’t really know the other girls, want to bunk beside each other?”

  “Sure, that’d be good.” I set my sleeping bag on a cot at the far end of the tent, thinking any known was a good thing. Ruth was quiet and didn’t talk to many people from what I observed. I’d been surprised she joined in our mini-dance party earlier as she tended to opt out of optional activities.

  As I unpacked, Ruth leaned over and whispered to me. “Beth Ann said Bryn and Liz are kind of scary. Do you know Asa?”

  “She’s nice.”

  “What are you doing?” Asa appeared in the tent doorway. “Aren’t we meeting to decide who sleeps where?”

  Ruth stood, shoulders squared. “The beds are all the same.”

  “Still, someone might have special needs.”

  “Do you have special needs?” Ruth’s hand went to her hip, and I wondered where she’d been hiding her moxie.

  “No, but someone may.” Asa rolled her eyes.

  I abandoned my bags and stood. “We didn’t decide that way last time.”

  Asa twisted her neck to face the door and then back to look at us. “Everyone says Bryn and Liz are crazy. You know they were in the tent that everyone’s stuff went missing.”

  “Well, sleep by us then.” I motioned to the cot beside me.

  “Can’t I sleep between you two?”

  “That’s crazy. I’m already halfway unpacked.” I told her she was crazy, but really I was thinking I had the best cot sandwiched between her and Ruth. Perhaps I’d store my camera with the locked items until I needed it.

  “Fine.” She flung her bag on the bed to my right.

  “Hi, guys.” Ema, our tent counselor, entered the room followed by Bryn and Liz. “Get settled and we’ll have a pow-wow.”

  The room was quiet as we worked, but it wasn’t fifteen minutes before everyone had their gear organized and bags stowed. We sat together on two of the cots.

  “Okay, so I’ll go first.” Asa started right in, outlining rules she thought appropriate.

  “I think the camp rules are enough,” Ema said. “We don’t have much time in the tents, but we do want to respect and trust our tent mates. Let’s get a status check from everyone.”

  We took turns summarizing where we were with our recovery process and how we felt about the camp so far. When it was my turn, I realized I wasn’t any closer to deciphering my hallucinations. Perhaps they had no deep-seated meaning outside of the normal things teenagers worried about. The main gain for me centered on the absence of the visions and humming in my head.

  As it was late, we readied for bed and turned in. I’d tucked my camera in the bottom of my sleeping bag and prayed it would be safe as we made our way to the latrines.

  The next morning, I tried to focus on the positives as I made my way to the mess tent for breakfast cooking duty. George had proved to be a negative element, and Bryn and Liz seemed to be cut from the same batch. Mikel seemed to be the one unknown as all I knew about him amounted to his name and addict diagnosis.

  “Where are Bryn and Liz?” George demanded as I reached the makeshift kitchen.

  Realizing we were alone, I kept my distance. “I don’t know. They weren’t in the tent.”

  “Great. We’ve got one of the hardest breakfasts, and most of our team is MIA.”

  “Let’s just do what we can until they get here.”

  “No, I’m going to find them.” He stomped out.

  I preferred the solo act to being stuck with George, so I checked the menu, which consisted of crepes, fruits, and cheese. Thinking George had exaggerated the complexity of the meal, I found the crepe ingredients and started mixing them in a large bowl. Next, I started the stove and waited for the pan to heat, wondering if anyone else would show. I was halfway through the batter by the time George returned with Bryn, Liz, Mikel, and our team counselor, Hetrag.

  Hetrag and Mikel looked as if they’d just rolled out of bed. Bryn and Liz were expertly made up as they were every day.

  “Wow, Camille, look at you.” George clapped. “There’s nothing left for the rest of us to do.”

  “There’s fruit to chop and cheese to grate.” I finished the crepes and made my way outside. Even though a fine mist hung in the air, I stripped my cap off and aimed my face at the sky, clearing my senses of the heat and smells of the kitchen.

  “Rough morning already?” Jude approach.

  “My teammates aren’t exactly stellar camper examples today.”

  “If George gives you anymore trouble…”

  I took a step back from Jude.

  “Are you scared of me?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. You were pretty intense last night.”

  “He should not have treated you that way.”

  “I know, but—”

  “But what? You could handle him? It didn’t look like it.”

  “I guess not. Thank you.” Keeping my distance, I walked with him into the mess tent.

  Frida joined us minutes later. “Did you survive your night and breakfast duty?” she asked as she sat down.

  “You mean George?”

  “Yes, and the rest of your crazy tent and team. You definitely drew the short straw.”

  “I guess I haven’t been paying attention.”

  “You are way too naïve. If this week doesn’t toughen you up, I’ll teach you some street smarts when we get back home.”

  “I intend to keep my head down and nose to the grind stone.”

  “Allen told me we were going to have some yoga and aerobics classes, as well as a weights tent this week because of the weather,” Jude told us.

  “Sweet, sign me up for that. I’m always up for watching glistening muscles.” Friday pretended to draw a check mark in the air.

  I rolled my eyes as we made our way to the food line, thinking I’d steer clear of all the testosterone.

  After breakfast, we had time for corresponding with our families. Mother was still worked up about our near drowning incident, but I assured her I’d recovered completely.

  “I miss you so much,” she told me.

  “I miss you too.”

  “Are you ready to come home?”

  “Kind of. I’m not sure how much more treatment there is for me.”

  “Well, it seems like you enjoy being away from school. Your grades are better than ever. I guess I should have listened when you said online school would be best for you.�
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  “Of course, then I would never come out of my room.”

  “Precisely why I never said yes.”

  “Does this mean I get to finish the year online? It would be great to have a stellar GPA for college admissions.”

  “We can talk about it when you get home.”

  The answer was the closest I’d gotten to a yes, and I ended the conversation thinking I’d finally convinced her. We spent the day on team-building exercises with our chore group and tent mates. By dinner my head was spinning from trying to steer clear of everyone’s issues. Deciding I might have a peacemaker personality, I practiced deep breathing exercises to decompress before dinner.

  With the rain and limited activities, the days began to meld into each other. We rotated between the study tent and workout areas in two hour blocks. As my schedule was opposite that of Frida and Jude, I resigned myself to a week of isolation and self-reflection. Learning that if I didn’t engage with George or the other personalities, I avoided their wrath, I steered clear and made it through the week unscathed.

  “You seem different,” Dr. Antos noted on Friday.

  “I’m kind of ready to go home.”

  “You’re not enjoying your time here?”

  “I like the yoga and workouts, but the rain is weighing on me.” I shrugged my shoulders.

  “What do you do at home when you have bad weather?”

  “Our cross-country team keeps running year-round, and I swim.”

  “And what of your time with me?”

  “I’ve realized that many of my fears are the same as every other teen.”

  “So, you feel free of the hallucinations?” He scooted forward in his seat.

  “It’s like they were a bad dream.”

  “I also believe we’ve gleamed all the information we can from them.” He set his glasses on the stool beside him. “We can meet every other day to give you more free time next week if you like. I believe the weather is supposed to be a bit dryer.”

  “That sounds good.” I stood up and slipped on my jacket.

  “Have a nice weekend. I’ll see you Monday.”

  “Thanks.” I left with an extra spring in my step and a confidence I hadn’t felt in several months.