My heart misses a beat. “No, they won’t.”
I don’t believe my own words, but I want to calm her down.
“Of course they will! How can they not?”
“If Lillian wanted everyone to know, she would have said something by now. She isn’t trying to out us; she’s trying to scare us. She wants payback. If they find out and Andy kicks us out, her game is over.”
“You think so?”
Maybe.
“I do.”
“She was the crazy one that night, Esme.”
I take a deep breath as I change into my pajamas. “I remember. That doesn’t mean we’re innocent. We did something wrong as well.”
“We didn’t mean to…,” she whispers as she slips under the covers.
“I know that, too,” I reply. “We need to get some sleep. We’re not going to figure anything out tonight.”
Kayla rolls over and faces the wall, away from me. “Night, Esme.”
“Night,” I reply, climbing up the ladder.
The last thing I see before I close my eyes is Lillian’s carved initials.
* * *
I jump, awake and gasping and clutching my blanket as a loud thud seems to echo outside.
“What the hell was that?” Kayla asks.
I chuck the blanket off and scramble down the ladder.
She’s already out of her bunk, waiting for me, and we run into the main room.
“What’s happening?” Alana asks.
All of the girls are awake and sitting up in bed.
Cora comes out of her room sliding shoes onto her feet.
“Stay in bed,” I tell the campers. “We’ll go and see.”
Kayla, Cora and I go outside. It’s beginning to get light out. The sun is peeking through the trees.
What was it? I look around, scanning the area. The lake is fine, the beach, the outdoor equipment. What…
“Oh my God,” I breathe, finally locating the cause of the noise.
Wedged into the door of the shed by the road is an ax.
Cora turns around and says into the cabin, “It’s all right, girls. It was just some equipment that has fallen over.” She glances back at Kayla and me with a look that means “sort this out now.”
By the time we reach the bottom step, counselors from every cabin are outside. So is Andy.
The air is warming.
“What on earth…?” Andy says.
The staff cabin is next to the shed, so he gets there first.
Written on the door just above the ax in red paint:
I SAID NO COPS
“I don’t like this at all,” Mary says, pressing one hand to her mouth. She turns in a circle, looking into the forest. “Last night I said I wanted to go to the cops. He was out there. He’s out there now. Watching.”
Paranoia will drown you, and Mary is starting to sink.
“Hey,” I say, laying my hand on her tense back.
She flinches away from me, spinning around as if she’s afraid I’m the one stalking the camp.
Jake steps forward, places one foot on the door and pulls the ax from the wood.
Andy nods at him. “Marcus, Lorenzo, can you deal with the door quickly? The campers will be up soon.”
Olly isn’t here. I guess he’s the one staying with the boys in the cabin.
Mary shakes her head, cowering.
“It’s going to be fine,” Catalina says, but her quavering voice suggests otherwise. “I’m going to check on Tia and the girls.”
“Are you okay, Mary?” I ask.
“An ax.”
The other counselors disperse, either going to tell the campers nothing has happened or to conceal the evidence.
Andy takes the ax from Jake and heads into the staff cabin.
Jake shakes his head and touches my shoulder as he walks past.
It’s just me and Mary now. Kayla walks off with Jake.
Mary hugs her arms around her stomach. “This isn’t right. What if the man in the woods comes with a gun next time?”
“Mary, he won’t. Okay? We’ll figure this out, find whoever it is and stop them without putting the kids in danger. We have to stay strong for them.”
Lorenzo and Marcus come running back with a bucket of soapy water and two sponges. They dunk the sponges and start scrubbing immediately.
Mary takes two deep breaths and closes her eyes. “Okay,” she says, opening them again. “I’m giving this a couple of days and then I’m taking things into my own hands.”
“Let’s talk about it again later. Right now we need to make sure the campers are getting dressed and then feed them. It’ll be breakfast time soon.”
Mary’s worried eyes look straight through me. She glances toward the forest once again and then walks away.
If she’s not careful, she’s going to push Lillian even further.
26
Tonight is…what’s the best way to describe something that’s on a downward spiral? We’re in a tornado about to touch down.
The day was fine, after the door was scrubbed. We hiked close to the forest’s edge, made campfires, built dens and ate bowls of chili with nachos.
The campers are happy.
The counselors, behind fake smiles, are not.
We seem to be divided, too, figuratively and literally. On one side of the campfire are the counselors and CITs who are pro-cops, and the other side—hello, my side—are those of us who think cops are a bad idea. You could also divide the no-cop camp into two groups. There are the no-cops basing their opinion on this being some dumb, harmless joke, and the no-cops who think it’s more than that.
How can anyone think this is nothing more than a silly prank?
I don’t know how to handle this. Maybe if Kayla and I tell everyone what happened with Lillian this will be over. Or maybe it will anger her and she’ll hurt someone.
It’s a huge gamble.
Lillian is messing with us, and I don’t know how far she will take it. I still haven’t told Kayla, or anyone, about the LC carved in the wall. She was in our room. Kayla wouldn’t be able to relax if she knew that; she would be petrified that Lillian would smother her in her sleep.