We’re outside in the middle of the night with the campers fast asleep in their cabins because Andy has called another emergency meeting. I think he actually likes calling them.
He’s holding the note in one tightly clenched fist like it’s a prize he never wants to let go of.
I’m still sitting on the tampered-with-inflatable information.
I’ve left it too long and now I don’t know how to speak up or what I would say.
What a nightmare.
“All right,” Andy says, clearing his throat noisily. “We received this note this evening, and I find it completely unacceptable. Pranks are fine. I started them and encourage everyone to have silly fun.” He holds the note up. “This is going too far, though. We need to find out who’s responsible for it.”
Why does he think it’s a camper or a counselor?
“What will happen to the person responsible?” Jake asks. “Do they get booted?”
Andy shakes his head. “No, we will speak to them. I will speak to them. We’re not about punishment, but the young person responsible has to understand that a prank like this won’t be tolerated.”
The prank angle seems to be the only one he’s willing to accept.
Kayla hasn’t said a word since she walked out of the cabin and into the middle of this mess.
I can see in the tightness of her eyes and her hard jaw that she’s thinking. Maybe she’s finally accepting that this is about Lillian. That this, quite possibly, is Lillian.
So many scenarios run through my mind about what happened after we left, what Lillian wants to happen now and what could happen if I react in different ways. Does she want to talk?
“Esme?” Olly says.
“Huh?” I look around. Everyone is gone. Well, they’re standing up and chatting in smaller groups.
Tia, Rebekah, Jake, Olly and Kayla are still sitting with me.
“You haven’t blinked in five minutes,” Rebekah says.
“Sorry, this is all a bit crazy.”
Kayla shakes her head. “This isn’t happening.”
“What isn’t happening?” Jake asks.
I widen my eyes at Kayla, telling her to shut up.
Of the two of us, the most likely to crack is me. What is she doing?
“Can’t you see? All of this is connected. Someone is trying to hurt us,” Kayla says.
Tia laughs. “Don’t you think that’s a bit dramatic?”
“How? The missing tags, the photographer in the woods and now this note.”
And the inflatable. And the initials on our cabin wall. And the note in Kayla’s pocket. I swallow all the secrets I’m keeping.
Rolling her eyes, Tia tilts her head like she thinks Kayla has lost it. “I’m not denying that someone is messing with us, but that doesn’t mean they’re an ax-wielding murderer.”
I hold my hands up. “Calm down. No one said anything about a murderer or axes!”
“All right, let’s stop with the wild theories,” Olly says. “No one is talking about anything as crazy as that. Let’s think rationally.”
“I am!” Kayla snaps.
Her hands curl into fists and she takes deep breaths, like she’s trying to calm herself down. She is getting more and more agitated.
“What do you think Andy is going to do?” I ask. “Do we believe the threat?”
Jake snorts. “Why would we believe this? It’s clearly someone screwing around, just like the graffiti.”
“Well, I think the fact that Andy called another meeting shows that he believes there is some threat,” I tell the group. “I don’t know that this creep will do anything to us, games or whatever, but I do think they want something.”
“We should find out what and give it to them,” Rebekah says, looking between Tia and me. “Right?”
I shrug and look away.
“What do we do?” Jake asks. “Leave a reply stabbed to a tree?”
“You’re not helping,” I tell him.
“No one is helping because there is nothing to help. We ignore the note and burn it, like we hid the writing on the staff cabin.”
Rebekah shakes her head. “You want to pretend nothing is wrong?”
“I don’t want some idiot who thinks they’re freaking Jason Voorhees getting in the way of our summer.”
“Jason Voorhees, really?” Tia scoffs.
Jake’s eyes turn black and he grits his teeth.
“All right, everyone get some rest!” Andy shouts. “We’ll do the same as when we saw someone in the forest. Always double up with teams, CITs with counselors.”
“We’re not going to the police?” Mary asks, her piercing eyes wide below her bangs.
Catalina puts an arm around her and stares at Andy.
“Not tonight. I’ll go tomorrow if anything else happens,” Andy replies.
He walks off and half the counselors follow.
Mary doesn’t move.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“We should go to the police now! They can protect us better than Andy. Why would he want us to keep this quiet?” she says.
“He’s scared for the camp and its reputation. His reputation,” I say.
She grinds her teeth so hard I hear them creak together. My stomach lurches.
“Mary,” I say, shuddering. “Stop. You can talk to me, but I really need you to stop doing that.”
Snapping her lips together, she looks away, her cheeks turning pink. “Sorry. I do it when I’m stressed.”
“What are you going to do?” I ask.
“I think we should all agree to go to the cops,” she says.
“That might not be a good idea.”
“Or it might be the only thing we can do to stop this weirdo from hurting us.”
Rebekah and Jake stop dead in front of us. Jake tilts his head. “Are you seriously thinking this crap is real? This dude wants us to panic. He wants to watch us run around, paranoid and worried about what he’ll do next. Mary, he’s just going to play games. We can beat him at that.”
In my mind, I substitute he for she.
“Beat him at his games?” Mary says. “What does that even mean? Do we play along? Pretend that we don’t see whatever he does? That doesn’t work for me. I won’t stay here in fear and allow someone to threaten us.”
“You’re right,” I tell her. “We shouldn’t allow anyone to make us live in fear. But we have to be sure of what’s going on. If we go to the cops, tell them there’s a new crazy development, cause panic and this turns out to be a hoax, someone with a sick idea of fun, then who will trust us with their kids again? This is bigger than us, Mary.”
I’m so scared that Lillian will follow through with her threat. Before we do anything, I have to know how far she will go for revenge. I’m also totally not on board with the cops finding Lillian. Once they do, she’ll talk, and then it’s all over for me and Kayla.
We could end up with a criminal record.
My parents preach honesty and truth about every five minutes. If I lie, like ever, they are right there to set things straight. Which usually means I’m guilted into telling the truth and then chastised for not doing it earlier. They make their disappointment clear.
It’s no fun.
I can only imagine what they’d do if they found out I’ve been lying for ten years.
“Not yet. Andy wants to wait,” Mary sneers. “All the while this freak is watching us.” She looks at the forest again. “He’s probably watching right now.”
“Okay, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves,” I say. Her words send a shiver right down the center of my spine.
“Someone has left a goddamn threat at a kid’s camp!” Kayla snaps. She throws her hands into the air. “We are in danger and we’re sitting here having a chat about it?”
“Okay, Kayla,” I say, grabbing her hand. I tug her closer and she doesn’t resist. Suddenly, I feel like our roles have switched. “I’ll take her to bed,” I tell the others. “She’s tired.”
Cora nods. “That’s a good idea. Get some rest.”
Kayla doesn’t need a good night’s sleep, she needs to see clearly. We can’t go telling people about any of this stuff.
No one can ever know what we did.