by Wendi Wilson
The wound didn’t look like an infection. It looked like a bite.
I started to walk closer, but True tugged my arm. “Come on, Piper. Harris can handle it. He’s the farm hand. And you don’t want to be late. The dean gives out demerits, and then you can’t shop at the Snack Shack. Twinkies,” she sing-songed.
Snack shack? What did I care about a snack shack when an animal was in trouble? But then again, Sarah seemed to think the issue would be handled. Plus, what did I know about cow bandaging? I allowed True to pull me away, but I vowed I’d make sure that poor cow got treatment before the situation got any worse.
Could that really be a bite? I shivered and steered closer to True.
No one else seemed concerned, so the gravity of the situation had to be all in my head. Paranoid. I was definitely paranoid.
We made it to a small, white building with a large ramp out front. The sign boasted, “Spukani Lodge.”
“What’s with the building names?” I asked True.
“The names are native. Didn’t you hear this place was built on an ancient burial ground?” She wiggled her fingers and mouthed, “Wooooh.”
I gave her shoulder a gentle push, unnerved enough already without her trying to scare me.
The door creaked open, and the group filtered in. A blast of cool air felt spectacular on my hot skin. Metal folding chairs had been laid out in a circle around a plastic folding table that held a stack of color-coded documents. That did not look promising.
“Air conditioning,” True said, pointing to the unit in the window. “The only building that has it except for the nurses’ station. A good thing to remember.”
“That’s a good tip, Miss King,” Charles Purty said, seeming to appear out of nowhere. “Hello, Piper. How is True treating you?”
“Great,” I replied. “She’s pretty amazing.”
Behind Charles’s shoulder, True gave me a huge grin and two thumbs up.
“Wonderful,” Charles said, fixing me with those dark brown eyes. “I had a feeling you two would get along. We try to pair our counselors up with partners they’ll not only enjoy, but also learn from.”
I nodded, wondering who Levi was paired with. Who did he enjoy and learn from?
When I saw Lars sit next to him, I was surprised. Those two? It didn’t seem like they got along, let alone “enjoyed each other.” Levi didn’t even look at Lars as he filled up the chair beside him.
The rest of the counselors paired off, sitting by the person that had to be their dorm partner. Sarah was with Miranda, Ian with Naveen, and Analise with Micah. I wondered if this was the whole staff or if more were coming in.
“Thank you for joining me. Glad to see you all finally in one place. Did everyone meet Piper?”
Heads bobbed. True grabbed my knee and wiggled it excitedly.
“Right. As you know, the first session starts in a few days, and we need to be ready. We have sixty excited campers that need to have the best two weeks of their lives.”
“Woo!” True said, holding up her fist. When no one joined, she let it slowly slide down, shrugging.
“Yes, woo,” Charles said dryly. “But more than fun, we need to make sure our campers are safe. Safety is our number one priority.”
The dean’s eyes darted, surprisingly, to Levi of all people. It was subtle and fleeting, but I caught it nonetheless. Probably because, despite my best efforts, I was fixated on the mysterious boy.
Why did the dean look at him? Was he the first aid guru?
Or was the dean worried Levi might pose a threat?
As the dean droned on and on about rules and regulations, schedules and safety, my mind kept spinning over the same thought, around and around like a broken record.
If Levi was dangerous, then why was he here, working with sixty vulnerable kids? Right then, I made up my mind. I was going to be keeping a close eye on Levi Kass.
Chapter Seven
“Ugh. I don’t understand why I have to read this again when I already suffered through it last summer.”
I looked up from my own document packet to meet True’s eyes and shrugged. The reading was a bit dry with lists of rules and regulations that anyone using basic common sense would already know. Sprinkled throughout were strange edicts that made zero sense to me, however.
“No camper, counselor, or Camp Shadow Lake employee is to cross the property line into the woods on the north, south, or west sides of the campground,” I quoted, arching a brow at True, who sat next to me on the front porch of our cabin. “I wonder why.”
“I don’t know. Bears, maybe?”
Her tone was light and unconcerned, but her choice of words made my entire body freeze up. My muscles petrified as my heartbeat pounded in my ears. I was breathing too hard, too fast, but there was nothing I could do to slow it down.
I was right back there, under those floorboards, feeling my father’s blood drip onto my face as I lay frozen, doing nothing to save him.
“Piper!”
The urgency in True’s tone snapped me out of the pit of pain I was drowning in, and I focused my gaze on her. I caught myself unintentionally scrubbing a hand down my cheek and jerked it away. It was always the same every time I had a flashback—my hand immediately moved to wipe the imaginary blood I could still feel snaking across my skin in warm, sticky rivulets.
“Are you okay? What is it?”
I shook my head at True’s anxious questions before waving them off. “It’s nothing. I just… zoned out for a minute.”
“Bullshit,” she said, calling me out. “You’re still shaking, and your face is white as a gho—oh, my God. Piper, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sure there aren’t any bears out there. I’m so sorry.”
I held up a palm to halt her string of apologies. When her mouth snapped shut, I reached over and wrapped my hand around hers.
“It’s okay, True. Really. I get these flashbacks, sometimes, and the weirdest things will trigger them. It’s not your fault.”
“What can I do?” she asked, her voice laced with helplessness.
“Just… be normal. I don’t want you to feel like you have to walk on eggshells around me. Okay?”
Her brown eyes speared mine for a moment as if she were searching for something. Any sign of lingering anxiety. Or anger. Or deception. Maybe all three. Then the tension drained from her face, and she smirked.
“Well, I can’t promise I’ll be normal. What’s the fun in that?”
I let out an unexpected bark of laughter, and just like that, the last dregs of fear and torment drained from my body. True’s smirk morphed into a wide, toothy smile as she tapped her rule packet on my knee.
“Let’s get back to this. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can decide which of these ridiculous rules we’re going to break first.”
It took me until dinnertime to finish because True kept making outlandish suggestions on how we could break as many rules as possible.
Rule number three: All campers and counselors must be inside their cabins by ten p.m. and shall not exit before six a.m.
Rule number fourteen: All counselors must abide by the standard dress code. Shorts and skirts must be no more than four inches above the knee. No strapless tops and no two-piece bathing suits for females. Males must wear shirts at all times, unless swimming. Swim trunks must be well-fitting. No speedos.
Rule number twenty seven: All campers and counselors shall be fully dressed in proper attire before exiting cabins, restrooms, or sports grounds.
True: “We should streak naked through the camp at midnight under the light of a full moon.”
I ignored her ridiculous idea. “Are you trying to get me fired before I’ve even started?”
“You’re not going to get fired. Now, come on, rule nerd. I’m starving. Let’s go eat.”
I nodded in agreement, and we hurried outside, running into another counselor on the path.
“Hello, ladies,” the guy said, and I waggled my f
ingers as I frantically searched my mind for his name.
N-something. I’d remembered it during the meeting with Dean Purty, but his sudden appearance outside our cabin had shocked it from my memory.
“Hey, Naveen,” True answered, saving me from embarrassment. “Headed to the mess?”
“Yep,” he said, his onyx eyes sparkling with mischief. “I’m so hungry, I could eat a cow.”
His white teeth sparkled in the late afternoon sun as he gave us a wide smile. True laughed, and I forced a grin to my face, but something felt… off.
I looked over my shoulder at the path behind us. Where had Naveen been coming from? The boys’ cabins were just ahead of us, on our way to the mess hall. Nothing lay behind us but Shadow Lake and those big teepees.
And Rule Number Eight strictly forbade us from entering those.
And the fact that he was joking about eating a cow a few hours after I saw one with what looked like a bite taken from its neck?
I shook my head to clear it. I was being ridiculous, letting my paranoia run away with me again.
“You guys should sit with us today,” Naveen said, pulling me from my thoughts.
“I don’t know, Naveen,” True hedged. “Sarah—”
“Won’t be at dinner,” he cut in. “Come on, it’ll be fine. We can all get to know our new friend, Piper.”
He headed up the steps into the mess hall, but True stopped me with a hand on my elbow. Once Naveen disappeared through the doorway, she leaned in close.
“What do you think?” she asked. “Should we sit with them?”
“Why wouldn’t we?” I asked, pushing away the vision of Levi and his creepy, woods-stalking behavior. “And what’s the deal with Sarah?”
“I told you she’s the queen, right?” At my nod, she continued. “Well, last summer, I tried to sit with them without being invited. Bitch straight up told me to leave.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “She said I had terrible manners, and I would henceforth—I kid you not, that’s the word she used—sit elsewhere until she personally invited me.”
“What did you do?”
“Well, my first instinct was to call her on her crap and tell her this is a free country. I can sit wherever I want. But something in her eyes… I don’t know, Piper. It scared me. She’s a freaking force of nature. Like a tornado. Or a tsunami. I moved to another table and sat with the campers the rest of the summer. I still haven’t been invited.”
“Well, Naveen just invited us, so let’s go,” I said, linking my arm through hers and dragging her up the steps.
I had no clue where this burst of confidence came from. Maybe it was loyalty to my new friend. Maybe it was my repugnance for bullies.
And it seemed Queen Sarah was a top-notch tyrant, spending her days trying to terrorize those she deemed below her.
Oh, I’d no doubt feel the fear if she were in my face, ordering me to sit somewhere else like one of those nineties’ teen movies filled with mean girls who tormented geeks and ended up on top. But Sarah wasn’t going to be here, and the thrill of sitting at her table in defiance was too good to pass up.
Plus, I wanted to feel out the others. To see if I’d react to them like I did to first Levi, then Naveen, with a touch of fear and suspicion churning in my gut.
True and I grabbed our trays—pepperoni pizza, today—and headed for the table where a few of the counselors sat. Thankfully, Naveen reintroduced me to Ian, Micah, Miranda, and Lars, then explained that Sarah and Analise weren’t hungry and had decided to skip dinner.
“What about Levi?” I asked before taking a bite of gooey, hot pizza.
“What about him?” Micah asked, her naturally impish face twisted with aggression.
Before I could reply, Lars jumped in, answering my question. “He doesn’t eat with us.”
“Why not?” I asked, obviously unable to stop poking an anthill with a short stick. “Do you guys not get along with him?”
“We get along with him just fine, New Girl,” Micah said, brushing a hand over her dark, pixie-cut hair.
“What Micah means,” Ian cut in, “is that Levi is a friend, yes, but he marches to the beat of his own drum. And he likes to eat alone.”
He reached over to place a palm on Micah’s arm, but she snatched it away. Glaring at her slice of pizza, she seemed to be contemplating his death. Or mine.
I let the topic of Levi drop, and discreetly watched the teenagers around me. Lars was just as watchful as he’d been the first time I met him. His eyes scanned the mess hall repeatedly, even though our group was the only one there.
Ian and Naveen chatted in low tones, and though I couldn’t make out what they were saying, the conversation appeared to be light and pleasant. Miranda sat beside True, and they seemed to hit it off, talking about celebrity crushes and reality T.V. shows. Micah continued to glare at everything her eyes touched. Including me.
True tried to pull me into her conversation with Miranda several times, but anything I said fell flat. My mind was elsewhere, wondering where Levi was and why he liked to eat alone. And why did Micah get so defensive when I asked about him?
I covertly studied each person, noting how each of them possessed the same pallid skin and ethereal beauty. My eyes dropped to my arm, noting my own skin, not really tan even though spring had turned into summer. But these people looked like they never saw the sun. And yet, I’d seen them hanging out around camp in broad daylight.
Even Naveen, with his brown complexion, somehow looked… pale.
They must use some industrial strength sunblock.
As the dinner hour wore on, another thing occurred to me. They weren’t actually eating. Well, they were, but it seemed like the only time any of them took a bite of pizza is when either True or I looked at them. Like our gazes somehow reminded them to eat.
I shook my head to clear it. Paranoid Piper was really jumping to the front of the pack today. Of course, our gazes had nothing to do with their eating.
As we walked back to our cabin, I leaned close to True so she would hear my quiet voice when I asked, “Do they all seem normal to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” I said, looking over my shoulder to make sure we were alone on the path. “I just get a weird vibe from them. Like…” I trailed off, unable to find the right words.
“Like there’s something almost otherworldly about them?” True supplied.
“Yes,” I replied. “Exactly.”
She shook her head and grinned. “It’s because they’re all rich. They live and play in high society, running in much different circles than you and me, Piper. That’s why they seem so different.”
“I thought you said everyone here came from messed up situations. Teenage mental cases, wasn’t that what you said?” I asked.
“Yeah, I know what I said,” she quipped. “And it’s still the truth. Those over-privileged, spoiled rotten brats of the world’s richest assholes are the craziest of us all.”
“I don’t know, True. I feel like there’s something else. Something I’m missing.”
“Maybe you should stop speculating about other people’s lives and worry about yourself,” a deep male voice said close to my ear.
I yelped in response, spinning toward that voice as True did the same.
We both froze, coming face-to-face with a scowling, yet insanely gorgeous, Levi Kass.
Chapter Eight
I nearly stumbled off the path as I stared at Levi standing only a few feet away. Where the hell did he come from, and why did he freaking sneak up on us like that?
With my heart still pounding in my chest, I took him in—short cropped brown hair, tight black T-shirt, expensive athletic wristwatch, shorts that showed off his muscular thighs…
I stopped there, feeling heat rush into my cheeks.
Embarrassed, I snapped my gaze back to his face. His scowl hadn’t changed, and his intense gray-green eyes were scrutinizing me as
if he could decipher my every thought. Being this close, I could detect a hint of cologne, both masculine and musky.
Damn, he even smelled sexy. Yet, he was still scowling and acting like he wanted a reaction from me.
But what?
“Levi,” True said, cutting the tension. “Didn’t see you at dinner. It was pizza. You didn’t miss much. Woof.” Her tone was an attempt to be light and airy, but I could tell she was nearly as thrown as I was.
“I eat with Dean Purty,” he replied.
“Cooool,” True answered. “Special treatment. That’s great. So…did you want something or just checking to see if our hearts are in good working order?” She put her hand to her chest and gave it a pat. “Mine works great, thanks.”
“I wanted to show you both something. It’s important. You should follow me.” His tone was standoffish, not like he wanted to interact with us but as if he had a duty to fulfill. Either way, the vibe was very strange and once again sent all my internal alarms pinging.
“What do you want to show us?” I asked, finally able to get my voice to work.
He nodded over one shoulder as if we had no choice but to follow, turned, and took off down the path.
I grabbed True’s hand. “Do we do this?” I hissed. “What could be so important?”
She squeezed me back. “I don’t know, but he’s never really talked to me before, so I kind of want to see where this goes. Plus, you’re obsessed with him. This might be your in.”
“I am not obsessed with him,” I shot back. “But yeah, maybe we should see what he wants to show us.”
True arched an eyebrow, smirking. “You want to see whatever he’s got to show for sure.”
I elbowed her in the ribs. “If it seems dangerous, like, at all, we run. Got it?”
True nodded, and together, we followed Levi down the path.
He walked without comment and did not check to see if we were behind him. Either he was confident we would obey, or he could hear us coming. I got the feeling he could sense more than he let on. It was weird.
I expected him to turn toward staff housing or back toward the barn, but when he kept going, down the path to an area of the camp I’d never seen, I began to grow nervous.
