50
Kayla and I are about to do something mighty stupid.
We talked last night—or early this morning, rather—and we know that if we take Lillian on ourselves, she won’t have any reason to harm the others.
It was a pretty crappy realization as we’re both petrified.
We just barely made it through another day. I didn’t get any time alone with Olly to warn him about Lillian, but it doesn’t matter now. Kayla and I have a plan to end all of this tonight.
“Night,” I say to Cora as we cross paths. She is heading toward the other counselors, who are sitting by the campfire, and I’m going into our cabin.
“Sleep well, Esme.”
Not likely.
Kayla jumps as I walk into our room.
“Whoa.”
Her eyes are round.
“This isn’t a good idea,” she says.
“You want this to be over too,” I remind her. “We have to make contact. No one else can stop this.”
“But now? Like, you want to go outside now?”
“All the girls are in bed, but I think I heard some whispering. We’ll leave it a little while longer.”
Kayla’s fingertips dig into the wood. “Esme, we should wait. Come up with a real plan, one we’ve thought about for longer than three minutes, and then we’ll go have a chat with Lillian.”
“We’ll talk ourselves out of it.”
“Maybe we should.”
I stare at her. “Really? You’re the one who wanted to send her a note.”
“A note. Not go out there and find her. I’m not sure if you’ve realized yet, but she’s not exactly a reasonable person. Don’t you think she’ll have something planned for when we do come face to face?”
“Yeah,” I say. “That’s why we need to do it on our terms. We can’t give her time to plan anymore. We’ll be right there, and she’ll be the audience in our show.”
“You need to sleep, Esme, you’re delirious.”
I wish I could, but I’m too wired.
“Keep a lookout for the others. When they go to bed, we’re out of here.”
Kayla sighs, defeated.
Walking to our window, she peeks around the blind. “The light is still on in the multiuse cabin. Everyone around the campfire has either gone to join them or gone to sleep.”
“Ugh, they need to go to bed. Are you coming with me?”
Kayla looks over her shoulder. “Yes, you’re not doing this alone.”
I smile at her even though my stomach does a flip.
What if our going together isn’t a good idea? Should we let Lillian have the two people she wants to hurt alone?
We could be feeding her sick fantasy.
We’re definitely doing that.
Two hours later, Kayla and I both watch from the main room windows as the rest of the counselors and CITs filter into their cabins to sleep.
“Go,” I whisper as Cora comes toward ours.
We dash into our room and hide behind the door.
I listen, biting my lip as Cora tiptoes into her room and closes the door.
“Now?” Kayla whispers.
“A few more minutes. Wait until she’s in bed.”
Kayla leans back against the wall and looks up at the ceiling. In the silence, I hear her breathing grow faster.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I say when the rustling in Cora’s room stops.
Kayla follows me as we tiptoe out of the cabin.
The room is louder tonight, a few of the girls snoring.
The very second we step onto the porch, my plan feels weak and really stupid. Really, really stupid.
I close the door behind us, wincing as it clicks shut.
Am I going to let that stop me? Nope.
“All right,” I say, zipping up my hoodie. “Let’s go do this thing.”
“Wait,” Kayla says, gripping my wrist. “What if she turns violent?”
“We are so past that. From what we’ve seen, Rebekah hasn’t left her cabin, so Lillian is alone. Two against one. This time we know what we’re walking into and we won’t underestimate her.”
“What if what she wants is to harm us?”
“How much worse can it get?”
I don’t know if I’m getting a fresh dose of adrenaline or of stupidity, but I know we have to do this. Lillian is becoming bolder and it’s only a matter of time before one of the campers sees something or gets caught in her crazy games.
This started with Kayla and me, and it has to end with us.
We step onto the grass and quickly duck around the back of the cabin.
“Where now?” Kayla whispers. “The forest is huge.”
“We start looking at the site of the fire damage.”
Kayla shivers despite it being hot out. “I hate it there.”
“Not my favorite place either.”
“Can we not go through the woods to get there? Let’s walk around the lake.”
I narrow my eyes. “That’s a great idea, if we want to get busted. Andy probably looks out his window periodically.”
We walk along the edge of the forest, just deep enough that we should be hard to spot, especially in the dark with black clothing on.
“I should have texted my parents,” Kayla mutters.
Don’t bite. Don’t respond.
“Really?” I say three seconds later. “We’re not going to die. You don’t have to say goodbye to anyone.”
“Y-you don’t know that.”
“And if you really thought we were going to die tonight you wouldn’t have left the cabin.”
“Can we not argue, Esme?” she snaps.
“Can you be a little less pessimistic, Kayla?”
“You’re arguing with me.”
Yep, and while we’re arguing, you’re not stressing out about Lillian.
I bet she’s somewhere watching us. I want to look for her, but, one, I don’t want to freak Kayla out, and, two, I think Lillian will want to see where we’re going before she reacts.
The feeling of being safe at this particular moment clashes with everything I’ve felt over the past week.
“How do you think Rebekah has been able to keep up this lie the whole time?” Kayla asks.
I shrug, even though she can’t see the movement. “Some people lie as naturally as they breathe. Rebekah thinks she’s on some revenge mission with Lillian. They both hate us for what we did.”
Kayla looks at me. “But this isn’t really Rebekah’s fight, right? How far would she go for someone else’s revenge?”
“We’ll be fine.”
I don’t want to answer her question, or I’ll turn around and hide under my bed.
Kayla whips one arm out. “What was that?”
I look around and bite my lip. “What? I didn’t hear anything. What did you hear?”
“Someone walking.”
My pulse thuds. “Lillian. That’s not surprising. Come on, we’re almost there.”
“You’re not scared?” Kayla asks, her eyes wide.
“Did you really think she wouldn’t show? She’s probably been behind us the whole time.”
Wrong thing to say, Esme.
Kayla gasps.
“Don’t freak out yet,” I tell her. “We’re going to be fine. I promise.”
She stumbles beside me. “You can’t promise that. I don’t want to die.” Her voice trembles.
“You won’t die.”
I can’t promise her anything, but I would do anything to protect her.
Kayla grabs my arm, her fingertips digging into my flesh.
We pass a wooden Private Property sign. We’re at the camp’s edge.
“I hate walking past these,” Kayla says, running one hand over the sign.
Another three minutes and we’re there. We walk into the circle.
“What now?” Kayla mutters, her eyes large and alert.
“Now we wait. She’ll show.”
To be honest, I’m sure she’s already here, watching.
My stomach lurches.
Where was Olly watching from that night? What tree did he hide behind? Why didn’t he help Lillian? She knew he wasn’t with us and that he wasn’t responsible.
Did Jake really see nothing?
“Olly had nothing to lose by helping Lillian that night,” I say.
Kayla turns to me. “Huh?”
“He said Jake called him and he ran, but why? I don’t understand why he wouldn’t help.”
“We didn’t help either, Esme.”
“We were responsible for the fire and needed to run. But if we stumbled across a fire and saw a person hurt, we would help.”
That, at least, I can say with absolute certainty. We didn’t know how bad she was hurt.
“Esme,” a low musical voice sings.
I whip my head around to where I think it came from.
“What the hell?” Kayla mutters.
“Looks like Lillian is here.”
“Rebekah too?” she asks, gasping.
“I don’t think so,” I whisper. “Remember, she didn’t leave her cabin. At least not before us. Maybe she has the night off from villain duty.”
“Esme.”
Kayla squeezes my hand so hard my fingers grind together.
Okay. Be brave.
“Lillian, we’re bored with this,” I say.
“What are you doing?” Kayla’s voice is low.
“No one is impressed with your stupid juvenile games,” I continue. “You’re stalking a camp for children. Grow up and show yourself so we can deal with this rationally.”
Words are coming out of me as if I’ve summoned every ounce of courage I own.
I wish Kayla would slap her hand over my mouth.
But this has gone on long enough, and I’m so done. I can’t spend another day half watching four girls and half watching the woods.
“You’re going to get us killed!” Kayla snaps.
“No, I’m going to finish this.”
“Perfect Kayla and Esme, loved by everyone at camp.”
Kayla and I look up at the same time and see a girl, a couple years older than us, appear from the trees.
She’s here.
She’s angry.
And she’s armed.