“There was no one there when Cora and I looked. Cora said it was just the trees.”
“But you don’t think it was a tree?”
I dunk the sponge again, getting frustrated. “I mean, it could have been, but then the trail was tampered with, and now this.”
“Who else have you told?” Rebekah asks.
“No one,” I say, not wanting to drag Kayla into it. “They will probably think I’m crazy. I have the tendency to overthink. My mom is the same; anytime I’m late she calls, worried something has happened to me.”
“At least she cares.”
“I’m lucky. So…do you think I’m crazy?” I bite my lip in anticipation of her reply. Sometimes I think I’m crazy.
“I don’t think you’re crazy at all. I can see how you got there.”
“Do you think I could be right?”
“It’s not impossible.”
“But?” I prompt, wanting the rest.
“But why would someone do all of that?”
I shrug. “Good question.”
That I can answer.
“I don’t think this is going to come off,” I say, exasperated. We decide to cover it with three thick coats of paint and that does the trick. It’s not perfect, but at least the words aren’t visible. I wish they would just disappear.
As we walk away, Rebekah turns to me. “Hey, maybe Andy has annoyed someone. He comes to camp early from what I overheard. He spends a lot of time in town.”
“Really?”
Her eyes glow. “Uh-huh. Maybe he slept with someone’s wife.”
“Nasty.”
She guesses again. “Maybe he offended the whole town, called them hicks or somethin’.”
Or maybe this has nothing to do with Andy and everything to do with Kayla and me.
15
“I can’t believe anyone would do that,” Mary says. Her dark eyes narrow under her fringe.
I look away from her, but I feel her gaze long after she’s turned away.
Jake shrugs. “It’s extreme but a good prank, to be fair.”
I’ve heard enough.
It took a lot of scrubbing to make the words fade even a little. Then we had to paint over them.
I get up, walk away from the table and dump my plate and cup on the trolley. The counselor tables have one topic tonight: our not-so-friendly graffiti artist. Some think it’s a bad joke; others are horrified. One thing we all agree on is that they went too far.
With a prank you should be able to laugh. No one is laughing at a creepy message smeared on a wall in blood-red paint.
“Esme, wait up,” Kayla says. She runs after me as I head to our cabin. I wanted a few minutes to myself before the guitar lessons by the campfire tonight.
“Yeah?” I say, folding my arms.
Sighing, she tilts her head. “Are you okay?”
Oh, now she’s concerned for me.
“Yep. You?”
“I know what you’re thinking. That the message was for us.”
I look over her shoulder to check that no one else is coming outside and duck into our cabin. Kayla is hot on my heels.
“How can you not?” I ask.
“It’s a weird message to leave.”
“That’s not what I asked, Kayla.”
“Okay.” She throws her hands up. “Okay, I’ll admit it. Maybe you were right and it was for us. Bad girls and the lake never forgets.” She shudders. “Who could it be? Lillian? No one else knows.”
I arch one eyebrow. “We can’t be sure. Lillian could have told someone what happened that night. Or maybe someone saw.”
“What about the man Ava thought she saw in the forest? Maybe it was him.”
I bite my lip and sit on the bottom bunk. “The man in the forest could have easily been a woman. Ava only assumed it was a man. Lillian could be out there watching the same way she was ten years ago.” A shiver rips through my body. “She likes to keep to the shadows, remember?”
“I can’t forget,” Kayla replies. “But why would she say the lake never forgets instead of ‘I will never forget’?”
“I don’t understand her shady mind! She’s obviously trying to freak us out without advertising what happened.”
“Why?”
I shake my head, then stop dead as a realization slams into my mind.
Oh no.
My hands shake. “Because she isn’t finished. This is just the start. Think about it, if she wants revenge it would be dissatisfying to come out and tell everyone what happened straightaway. Proper revenge is messing with someone’s head, ruining their life before the big reveal.”
“I think you need to get some sleep.”
I grit my teeth. “Kayla, don’t play dumb. You want to pretend, but we both know you can’t, so let’s move past that. Okay? This is happening and we need to figure out what Lillian wants.”
Kayla sighs and slumps onto the bed. Her glossy blond hair falls in her face. “Esme, I don’t want this to take over our experience here if it doesn’t have to. You can’t be sure, and you’re going to let it become an obsession.”
My obsessions used to be fun. There were my One Direction, piano, Riverdale and, most recently, adult coloring book phases. I should have brought some coloring books with me. I’m not even sure my mom’s Valium would help at this point.
“If someone is out there and they’re trying to mess with us, we need to deal with that. Lillian has every right to be angry with us,” I say.
“Unless she did run and you’re freaking out over nothing!”
I want to curl up inside myself. “After…what happened, I tried to look back once the fire spread, but I couldn’t see through the flames. I wanted to be sure, but we ran back to camp. I don’t know what happened to Lillian next.”
“Do you even understand what you’re implying?”
“Yes. Maybe…she was really hurt.”
Kayla’s eyes are big and full of concern. “I think you should have an early night, Esme. You’re pale and you have dark circles under your eyes. I’ll tell everyone that you have a headache.”
I tap my fingers under my eyes. “No, I’m fine.”