I snag the rest of the six-pack that Tom left for me from its hiding place under my bed. Then we head down to the Point. When the staff wanted to party and get away from it all, this was the place. Back up the main road, then down a deer trail to the clearing. We use our headlamps to light our way, our breath making little clouds in the cooling air. By the time we get to the clearing, the moon has risen. It throws a white glow on the trees around us. Josh and I work together to build a fire in the pit. Pretty soon we’re slumped in a couple of broken-down chairs that Tom rescued from the maintenance shed. Beer in hand.
We don’t say much at first. Just watch the fire and check out the stars. Then there’s a flicker across the sky, and a wave of light. Then another. The aurora borealis, the northern lights, are coming out. I never saw them before I came up here—huge curtains of blue and white light that ripple across the sky.
“Better than TV,” I say.
Josh laughs. “I dunno. I’d be up for some channel surfing right now. I miss my cable.”
“So why did you stay up here?” I ask. “Edward clearly has a hate-on for you.”
“Yeah,” Josh says. He takes a big slug from his can. “I guess I thought he wouldn’t be so bad. I mean, I stayed under the radar during the season, watched him tear up other people. He fired, like, ten guys in the kitchen. I just kept my head down. Now he’s getting worse though.”
“So leave. Just walk away.”
“Naw. Then I’d have to go home. That’s worse.” Josh drains his beer, then crumples the can and drops it to the ground. Maybe Josh and I have more in common than I thought.
“What do you mean?” I stare at him, watching the firelight reflect in his round glasses.
“I don’t want to talk about it. Trust me—whatever Edward throws at me, it’s not worse than what I’ve put up with already.”
“I’m not sure about that. Out on the dock, I think he was enjoying watching you go under.”
Josh looks at me a little uncertainly. “I saw him do this sort of stuff with other guys,” he says. “Like he said, he likes to test people.”
“I’m just saying, maybe you need to stand up to him a little more. You need—”
“Dylan, you think you got this all figured out?” Josh snaps, cutting me off. “You don’t get it. I’m used to it, all right? My dad pulled shit like this on me all the time.” He yanks up one sleeve of his jacket, showing me his arm. There are little white dots—scars. “Cigarette burns. I get Edward, okay? You fight back, it gets worse. So you just…deal with it and move on.”
I just stare at his arm.
“You get it now? It’s nothing new. Nothing I can’t handle. So just shut up and toss me another beer,” says Josh. I reach down beside me, and my fingers close on the cool metal skin of the can. Then I freeze.
Someone is watching us.
At first, I think it’s a weird shadow being thrown from the northern lights, or the fire. But it’s not. I slowly stand up, my eyes fixed on the figure standing in the shadows just on the edge of the clearing.
“Who’s that?” I ask quietly.
“What? Who?” Josh stands up too and tries to follow my gaze. “I don’t see anything.”
But I can see him clearly. My height. Red jacket like mine.
“Is it Edward or Harvey?” says Josh. “It’s got to be one of them. We’re the only ones up here.”
That’s it. Edward. Of course. He probably followed us to the Point, looking to bust us. Creepy psycho. I stand up.
“Hey!” I shout. Maybe it’s the solid buzz I have from the beer, or maybe I’m still reacting to what Josh just told me, but suddenly I’m mad as hell. “Yo, Edward. Get over here!” I start walking away from the circle of firelight and toward the woods. The dark shadow stands there. Staring. Probably laughing at me. “Yeah, you! I’m talking to you!” My voice sounds crazy loud against the stillness of the forest night. I whip my half-empty beer can at him. The guy doesn’t move a muscle. I start running toward him.
And then I’m standing right where he was. And he’s gone.
Josh catches up to me. His breath makes clouds in the cold night air.
“How’d he do that?” I say. I fumble my headlamp from my pocket and click it on. The leaves and dirt are covered in a thin layer of frost. No tracks. No sign that anyone was there.
“You sure you saw someone?” asks Josh.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I don’t know what I saw.”