We stare at each other, stunned, for an eternity.
We’re caught. We’re both going home—I didn’t even get the chance to be noble and save Carolyn. I wonder if they’ll let us see Matthew before we leave.
I open my mouth to say something, though I have no idea what, when Brianna snaps into action. “Follow me,” she whispers and unlocks the door to the carpet cabin.
Carolyn and I exchange a glance and follow her inside. My stomach turns over when I see the large brownish stain on the carpet.
Brianna keeps the light off and leads us over to the far corner, as far away from the infirmary cabin as possible.
“What are you two doing?” she demands.
“We, uh—” I begin. I look to Carolyn for help.
“We wanted to see Matthew,” she says unapologetically.
“You realize you’re breaking about fifteen camp rules by being here right now?” Brianna says.
We nod. “We were worried about him,” I say.
Brianna slides down to the floor, suddenly tired and sad. “I know,” she says. “You’re good friends.”
My jaw drops. Did Brianna just compliment us? Even though she just caught us breaking fifteen of her precious camp rules? Did we stumble into some sort of alternate universe?
I look at Carolyn. She just shrugs.
I sit beside Brianna on the floor. “Is he okay?” I ask gently.
“He’s doing as well as can be expected. He’s in a lot of pain, but he’ll make a full recovery.”
The knot in my chest loosens a little.
“Are we in trouble?” Carolyn asks, sitting now too.
“Did anyone see you leave the dorm?” Brianna asks.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then no. If someone had seen you, I would have had to report this to Mr. Martin. But I’m fine with keeping it between us if you are.”
Okay, we’ve definitely entered Bizarro World. Brianna’s actually being decent. But I’m not going to question it.
“Thank you,” I say. Brianna looks at me, and I see a hint of the smile I saw that day so many weeks ago in the rec cabin—proof that there’s a real person in there somewhere. Looking at her here, sitting on the floor, her pigtails coming loose, her face exhausted, it dawns on me how young she really is.
“Why did Mr. Martin do this to Matthew?” Carolyn asks. I guess she figures that we’ve already been caught breaking the rules and we’ve been given a rare moment with an open, honest Brianna, so she might as well take advantage.
“Because Matthew attacked him yesterday. Mr. Martin told you all that.”
“But it doesn’t make sense!” Carolyn says, frustrated.
“Matthew is troubled,” Brianna says. “But now that his demon has been released, hopefully he’ll be able to turn his life around.” But the words lack her usual passion.
I run my fingers over the carpet, thinking. The fact that Brianna isn’t dragging us to Mr. Martin’s office right now means she’s kind of on our side in this. She cares about Matthew too. And she believes, on some level, that what Mr. Martin did was wrong.
I decide to take a chance.
“Mr. Martin made a pass at Matthew,” I say.
Brianna and Carolyn gape at me.
“Actually, it was more than a pass,” I continue. “He tried to blackmail Matthew into having sex with him. He said that if Matthew didn’t do what he said, he would kick him out of New Horizons.”
Brianna shakes her head. “No.”
“Yes. I was there.”
“When?” Carolyn whispers, her eyes filled with rage.
“Yesterday. When I went to bring Mr. Martin the note. I heard everything through the door. Matthew hit Mr. Martin with the stapler because it was the only way to get away. I think the exorcism was payback—and a way to scare Matthew into keeping quiet about what happened.”
Brianna’s covered her ears, but I know she can still hear me. “It’s not true,” she says. “You’re lying.”
“Why would I lie about something like this, Brianna?”
She keeps shaking her head in denial.
“I know there’s a part of you that knows what I’m saying is true,” I say softly. “If you had as much faith in Mr. Martin as you say you do, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”
It takes a long time, but Brianna’s headshaking gradually slows. She lowers her hands from her ears. She looks ragged and pale, like her whole world is shattering around her.
“How long have you worked here?” I ask her.
“Ten years,” she mumbles.
“Since the camp first opened?”
“Yes.”
“So you’ve known all the campers who’ve come through the camp?”
She nods.
I twirl a piece of the carpet material between my fingers and glance at the dark stain across the room, remembering Matthew’s certainty that he wasn’t the first camper Mr. Martin has hit on. “Has anything like this happened before?”
Brianna hesitates, but I can sense it—I’m this close to finally uncovering the truth about this place.
I glance at Carolyn, half expecting her to be lost in her little world again, remembering Natalie and reminding herself of all the reasons why New Horizons is good. But she’s right here, watching Brianna closely, waiting for her answer.
“It’s okay, Brianna,” I say. “You can tell us.”
“I can’t though,” she says, her voice full of anguish.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know anything for sure. It’s just suspicions I have. And what if I’m wrong? I can’t go around slandering my brother like this!”
“Brother?” Carolyn and I exclaim at the same time.
“Yes, Jeremiah is my brother. My last name is Martin too.”
Okay, things are starting to make sense.
“But…you’re so much younger than he is!” Carolyn says.
Brianna nods. “There are nineteen years between us. There are a lot of kids in our family. He’s the oldest. I’m the youngest. He left home before I was even born.”
“So how did you end up working together?” I ask.
“Oh. Well, he needed to come home—he’d had an accident and had almost died. My parents took him in, but only on the condition that he attend church and Bible study with them and give up his homosexual lifestyle. At the time, I wondered if he only agreed because he had nowhere else to go to recuperate. He and my father…I don’t know. They never got along. And I grew up hearing such terrible things about my brother from my parents and my older siblings.” She pushes back the frizzy tendrils of hair that have escaped from her pigtails. “Anyway, the change in him was almost immediate. He was so grateful to God for saving his life, for giving him a second chance. He was saved. So when he asked me if I wanted to start New Horizons with him, of course I said yes. I was almost done with high school, and I thought it was a wonderful idea—my own calling from God.”
“But then you started having suspicions?”
She lowers her eyes and shakes her head to herself. “I really shouldn’t be talking about this with you,” she whispers.
“And your brother shouldn’t be sexually and physically abusing teenagers!” I snap back.
“Lexi…” Carolyn says, wordlessly warning me that if I lose my cool, we’ll lose any chance of getting Brianna to tell us what she knows.
But I’ve gotten through to Brianna. I see it. The way she’s looking right at me now, I actually think she’s relieved to finally have the chance to get it all out. She just needs a little push.
“I really can’t…” she says, shaking her head weakly. “I shouldn’t…”
I steel myself to do probably the worst thing I’ve ever done. I hate myself for manipulating her this way, but getting this information out of her is important. “Brianna,” I say. “Even if you don’t tell us another word, I already have a lot of information I’m sure the police will be interested in. The other campers might have kept your secrets in the past, maybe because they were scared of what would happen or intimidated into believing giving this place up would ruin their chances of becoming straight, I don’t know—but believe me, I’ll tell them everything.”
She gasps and stares at me, openmouthed and wild-eyed. “No, you can’t—”
“But I’m wondering if maybe it’s not as bad as I think it is. Because if the information you have is really that terrible, you would have told someone a long time ago. So, maybe if you tell us what you know, it will help us understand, and we won’t have to go to the police.”
Carolyn looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, but Brianna gets it. She understands my threat perfectly. Don’t tell us anything, and New Horizons is done for. Tell us what she knows, and she’s got at least a chance.
“Promise me,” she says.
“Promise you what?”
“Promise me that if I tell you, you won’t call the police.”
I chew on the inside of my cheek, thinking. Mr. Martin deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life. But I need to know what Brianna knows.
“I promise,” I say, and then silently add the qualifier, Until after the summer is over. I’m pretty sure he won’t try anything with any other campers this summer, so there’s some time to work with.
Brianna asks Carolyn the same thing.
“Um…I don’t know…” she says, glancing at me worriedly. Of course. She’s a victim of abuse herself—of course she’ll want to call the police immediately. But in order to have a real case against Mr. Martin, we need to know what Brianna’s seen. I nod, letting Carolyn know it’s okay—I won’t let Mr. Martin get away with this.
She takes a deep breath and then says, “All right. Yes, I promise.”
Brianna’s shoulders sag with surrender. “At first, he was as earnest as could be. His motivations were pure; I know they were. He was so eager to prove himself to God—and to our parents. He was doing everything right. But then…”
“But then?” I nudge.
She sighs. “I first noticed it after the first year or two. He would always choose one boy to pay special attention to. It’s always one who’s resistant to the reparative therapy, like Matthew. At first I thought what he was doing was wonderful—spending extra time with the kids who needed the most help—but after a while, I noticed some strange trends.”
“Trends? What kind of trends?” I ask.
“Well, even during the years where we have quite a few resistant campers, Mr. Martin would only choose one to give special lessons to. And it would always be the most handsome one. And the boys would usually act strangely after a private session in Mr. Martin’s office. They would be quieter, more withdrawn.”
“You never actually caught him with a boy?” Carolyn asks.
“No. Like I said, it’s just suspicions.”
“If this has been going on for so many years, why haven’t you ever done anything about it? Why haven’t you confronted your brother?” I say.
“And how was I supposed to do that, Alexis? I didn’t want to get him in trouble. I didn’t want to believe he hasn’t actually been cured of his sickness. I didn’t want to destroy things with my family after they’re all so glad to have him back. And honestly, I didn’t want the camp to get shut down. I love this place.” She holds her arms out, gesturing to the interior of the cabin. “I’ve dedicated my life to this. And I truly believe the work we do here at New Horizons is right. It’s God’s work. And if Jeremiah were exposed, New Horizons would be gone.”
“So what you’re saying,” Carolyn says, angrier than I’ve ever seen her, “is that our friend is lying in that infirmary in agonizing pain because you don’t want to lose your job? Because somehow his life and his dignity, and the dignity of all the other boys who Mr. Martin has hurt, are a small price to pay for your precious camp?”
Brianna looks shell-shocked. Carolyn is right; that’s exactly what she’s saying. But I bet Brianna’s never thought about it in those terms before. She’s been living in a happy little bubble of blind denial. “No, I—”
“I want to see Matthew,” Carolyn demands. “That’s why Lexi and I came here, and I want to see him. Now.” She’s on her feet. I join her.
Brianna sighs. “All right. Let’s go.”