“You, Chrys, was it?” he says, talking quickly. “Please wake up Elise and tell her to come to the infirmary. Try not to wake up the young ones in the cabin though.”
“Uh, okay…” I say.
He jogs past me and heads across the field.
“Go get Elise,” Hunter says. “I’ll take care of things here.”
I nod and head to Cabin 1. I raise my hand to knock on the door but then remember that I shouldn’t wake up the kids in there. I try the door knob. It’s unlocked.
I enter as quietly as possible. This cabin is a lot like ours—four bunk beds—but there’s one single bed near the door. I peer at the person in that bed.
Elise.
I look at my hands. I didn’t think to bring the gloves with me.
But, Elise is under a thin blanket, so as long as I touch her through the blanket, it should be fine.
I shake her shoulders a little.
Her eyes open slowly. She props herself up on her elbow and looks at me, confused.
*Chrys?
There’s a problem in Cabin 2. The guy there said to tell you to go to the infirmary.
She throws off the covers and gets out of bed.
*What happened?
I don’t really know. It’s just… Hunter sensed some distress or something and so we came over and this girl said something about Adrien and—
I feel Elise disconnect from my mind. She puts on a pair of sandals and leaves.
I leave too. As I close the door, I see Elise running across the field to the Main House.
I go back to Cabin 2 and go inside. Hunter is sitting on the rug, hugging three crying kids. He looks up at me as I enter.
“Did you get Elise?” he says.
“Yeah,” I say, sitting down.
The girl from earlier screams and moves away from me. She points at me. “It was her! It was her! Get out of here, Grim Reaper!”
Hunter pulls the girl closer to him. “Relax, Yumi. Chrys didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Then why won’t Adrien wake up?” she yells. “It’s just like she said—his heart stopped or something. He wasn’t breathing! She did it!”
The other kids shuffle away from me while sniffling, agitated and suspicious.
I put up my hands defensively. “I would never—”
The girl screams again. “Don’t touch us!”
“I’m not—”
“Get away from us!”
“Yumi!” Hunter says. “Please stop shouting.” Then he turns to me. “Chrys, maybe it’s best if you, uh, go back to our cabin, okay? I can handle things here.”
“Sure…” I say. “Yeah.”
I stand up and leave, the kids’ glares hot on my back.
I start to walk back to our cabin, but end up turning on my heels and heading toward the Main House instead. I just have to check. Surely that kid isn’t actually… I mean, there’s no way that’s possible.
Was I sleepwalking or something? Is that something I do now? Just murder people in my sleep like I have no control? Like how it used to be?
I stop in the middle of the field and take a deep breath. Feel the summer night air on my skin. It’s humid, but a little cool.
I love myself.
Look up at the sky. It’s cloudy. It might rain tomorrow.
I love myself. I didn’t do this. I couldn’t have.
Hear the crickets around me and some kind of animal scuttling through the forest nearby.
I love myself. I’m not a murderer. Not anymore.
Feel the presence in my head.
Wait.
Presence? Since when?
*Chrys, don’t come here.
Elise?
*Don’t come here, okay?
Why?
*He’s dead.
I didn’t do it! I was asleep.
Empty. Disconnected.
I ball my hands into fists, blinking back tears. The summer air feels almost cold now, somehow.
I walk back to the cabin, and climb back into bed quietly. I turn on my side so that I’m facing the wall instead of Remington, who’s still asleep.
I let the tears fall onto my pillow, until the sun rises a couple hours later.
Chapter 13
It’s still early, and quiet. The camp doesn’t start waking up until nine at the earliest. But I just can’t fall back asleep, and I can’t stay here laying on this wet pillow any longer.
I wipe the tears off with my arm. I climb down the ladder and stand in front of my desk. I open the drawer. Gloves. Phone.
I take the gloves and stuff them in the back pocket of my jeans.
It seems like the teens here keep the camp running—cooking, cleaning, laundry, all the chores—based on some sort of schedule in the lounge of the Main House. Since I’m up early, I might as well get started on my chore for the day. Maybe I can finish it before whoever is supposed to work with me even gets up and give them a pleasant surprise and avoid having to be in close quarters with someone else for hours.
I leave the cabin and walk across the field. My heart is pounding, worried someone might come out suddenly, worried Elise might tell me not to come again. But I’m not going to the infirmary. Just to the lounge.
I reach the Main House and go up the creaky wooden steps. I push the door open.
I sigh in relief. I half expected the lounge to be full of kids and adults, all staring at me accusingly. But no.
There’s just a little Latina girl sitting on one of the couches. Her straight, dark hair pools in her lap—must be down to her knees or perhaps her ankles if she stands—and she’s hugging a weird-looking bunny plushie to her chest. It’s a dirty white with small black spots, black ears and black little poofy tail. It has a rip on the side that reveals the white stuffing. A small pink backpack sits next to her on the couch.
The girl looks at me as I enter, a curious expression. But it’s not accusing or suspicious, so I ignore her.
I look at the walls until I spot the bulletin board. I go closer to it. The bulletin board is mostly empty, except for an announcement about the kickball match yesterday and a daily schedule for the week written in a neat bubbly hand-writing.
What is today even?
I scan it for my name instead. On Wednesday, a little box says, “Laundry: Darius, Chrys.” But that’s the only time my name is mentioned. Nothing for me on Thursday, but there is a box that says “Cleaning the Cabins” with only one name in it, whereas the others have two or more. I lean closer. Someone used white correction tape after the other name. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday too, there’s a white strip of tape in a box each.
I peel off the corner of one of the tapes. Capital C. It must be my name.
They erased me from the schedule.
I step back, my breathing ragged.
Am I getting kicked out of the camp?
“Hey miss?” a girl’s voice says.
I look back. The girl is still on the couch, still clutching that plushie.
“Li told me to wait here for a bit,” the girl says. “Do you know when she’ll come back?”
“Li?” I say. “Li is back?”
The girl looks around. “No, she isn’t here.”
“I mean, she’s back at the camp?”
“Oh, I guess so… She brought me here and told me to wait.”
“What cabin are you from?”
“Cabin? I just got here. That’s what I just said.”
“Sorry, kid. I misunderstood.”
The girl blinks at me like I’m a fool.
I go over to her and sit on the couch across from her.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Ana Maria,” she says. “And yes, you have to say the whole thing. Not Ana. Not Maria. Ana Maria. That’s my name.”
&
nbsp; I chuckle. “Okay, no worries. I’m pretty good at calling people by their full names, Ana Maria.”
She nods approvingly.
“I’m Chrys. It’s spelled with a ‘y’ instead of an ‘i.’”
“Ana is spelled with one ‘n’ instead of two. Is that important? No. Neither is the spelling of your name.”
“Okay, jeesh.”
She just stares at me.
I point at her plushie. “Cute bunny.”
Her face screws up. “It’s not a bunny. Jesus Christ. It’s a kind of sea slug. Jorunna Parva, you know, a kind of dorid nudibranch. Some people call them sea bunnies I guess, but that’s kind of dumb.”
“Dorid… nudi-what?”
She sighs. “It just means it’s a mollusk that lives in the sea without a shell. You do know what a mollusk is, right?”
“Mollusk. Sure. Snails and things.”
The girl rolls her eyes. “Yes. Snails and things.”
The girl looks down at her sea slug thing and hugs it tighter.
I can hear faint, muffled voices coming from somewhere down the hall, but otherwise, it’s quiet. Ana Maria doesn’t say anything else.
After a bit, just when I was considering to go look for Li, Ana Maria says, “I hear everyone here is gifted too.”
“Yep,” I say.
“I’ve never been around someone else… uh, like me.”
“Yeah, same. I just got here a couple days ago.”
She touches the back of her neck. “It’s weird. My neck feels weird. It’s like, all tingly.”
“After a while, you kind of forget it’s even there. It just means someone else who’s gifted is nearby.”
She nods, putting her hand back on her sea slug.
“What’s your gift?” she asks, still not looking at me.
Well, she’s going to find out one way or the other, so I might as well tell her now. It’s still difficult to get the words to come out of my mouth, especially due to recent circumstances, but I get them out all the same.
“I can make someone, uh, die… in an instant, with a touch.”
“Oh. Can you kill me then?”
“What? I mean, it’s possible, but I would never—”
“I’m not asking if it’s possible. I’m asking you to try it now.”
“No way! Ana Maria, you…” I rub my temples. “Certainly you don’t want to die. You’re still young. You have a lot to live for.”
She looks up at me, a blank look in her eyes. “It’s not like I want to die. I’m just curious about something.”
“What?”
“I’m just wondering if my gift can work faster than yours. I can heal anything, really quickly too.”
“And you’re willing to risk dying just to find that out?”
She shrugs. “Why not? It’s just an experiment. It’s scientific.”
“Yeah well, science isn’t worth harming someone. Have you heard of ethics?”
“Of course I have. I’m the test subject, and I give my consent. Therefore, it’s ethical.”
“You’re also a kid. Legally, you can’t give consent. Your guardian has to.”
“Well that’s just dumb,” she says. “I can think for myself.”
I sigh. “Regardless, you don’t have my consent, okay? I won’t do it. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
She huffs. “Okay. Fine. Jeez.”
I let out an agitated breath. I should go find Li.
But, I can’t help but stay here, looking at this little girl. She looks to be ten, maybe eleven, but she seems really smart and mature for her age. And her gift—healing. That’s the best possible gift I could think of. Certainly, she grew up happy and well. Never hurt anyone, right? And yet, here she is in this camp, away from her family. Alone.
“So what’s the catch?” I ask. “With your gift, I mean.”
The girl hugs her stuffed sea slug tighter. “Does there have to be a catch?”
“From what I’ve seen, yeah. Even the good gifts have some sort of twist. Something that harms people somehow.”
“I’ve never harmed anyone else,” she says. Then quieter, she adds, “Only myself.”
“Why—” I start to say.
“Ah, Chrys, you’re here,” Li says from the hallway connected to the lounge.
I look over. Li is smiling, like normal. Elise is with her, standing with folded arms. She has a concentrated expression, like she’s lost in her thoughts instead of here.
“Ana Maria,” Li says, “This is Elise. She’ll take you to your cabin.”
Li turns to Elise but she doesn’t respond. Li touches Elise’s shoulder.
Elise blinks and jerks her head toward Li. They look at each other like that for a bit. Then, Elise goes over to Ana Maria and ushers her out of the lounge.
“Chrys, come with me,” Li says, turning and walking down the hall before I can even say anything.
I hurry to follow her. She takes me to the small hexagon room and sits down on the armchair. I sit on the couch, on the seat furthest away from Li like last time.
“I see you’ve met Ana Maria,” Li says.
“Why did you bring her here?” I ask.
“Her family… well, simply put they were taking advantage of her gift. We went to her and asked her if she wanted to come with us, and she said yes.” Li shrugs. “We don’t think it’s right to use a little girl like that.”
“How did you hear about her?”
“She’s been all over the news lately.”
I scan my brain for any news about a girl who can heal. Ah, right. A couple weeks ago, when Ron and I had gone to a public library, I read an article online about a girl in Utah in some sort of religious cult that heals the sick for free, as long as they join the cult. Well, the article didn’t say they were a cult, but it sounded like that to me.
Li shifts in her seat to face me better. “Anyway, let’s talk about your second task.”
“My second task? So you’re not… kicking me out?”
“Why on earth would we do that?”
“Well, that kid from Cabin 2, and I saw my name was erased from the chore schedule…”
“Are you saying that you did it? That you killed Adrien?”
“No, of course not! I would never do that. Wasn’t it… natural?”
“You think he died of natural causes?”
“It’s possible, isn’t it?”
“For a healthy seven-year-old boy to have a heart attack?”
My limbs feel heavy. “He had a heart attack?”
“His heart stopped. That was the cause of death.”
“Li, I swear, I didn’t—”
Li puts up a hand. “No one is accusing you, Chrys. Well, at least I’m not. But, I don’t think this was natural. Not at all.” She puts her hand on the armrest. “That brings me to your second task. Find out how he died, what triggered the heart attack.”
“What? How do you expect me to do that? I’m not a detective. I’m just a girl. Shouldn’t you adults be figuring that out?”
Li sighs. “Chrys. From what I know, no one here has the power to stop someone’s heart. No one except you.”
I grip my thighs tightly. “But it’s not like you know what everyone’s gifts are.”
“I know everyone’s except Valeria’s. And I have a pretty good idea of what hers is. She’s capable of killing, but not like this. Hers are… messier.”
That cuts threw my panic and anger like a knife, sobering me up. Messier? I want to keep talking about Valeria but that’s not important right now.
“So?” I say. “I still don’t get why I have to be the one.”
She shrugs. “Redemption.”
“Redemption? But I didn’t do anything. Why do I need to be redeemed?”
“Do you r
eally think the others in the camp trust you like I do? Do you think they’ll assume you’re innocent?”
“But I didn’t do anything…”
“Chrys, my reasoning is simple. We will look for the trigger too, of course. We’ll work together on this. But you will be the face of the investigation. It should help the others’ perception of you and you’ll be doing your task. It’s a win-win situation. That’s why I had your name removed from the schedule. You should only focus on this from now on.”
Li stands up. “That’s your second task. No compromises. If you don’t want to get involved, then fine. You don’t have to, but I won’t give you any other task.”
“I still want to do the tasks, Li,” I say.
“Good. Then if anyone won’t cooperate with your investigation, let me know and I’ll handle it. Good day.”
She goes into her office from the side door, without giving me a chance to say anything more.
I stay in the room staring out the window at that peaceful little garden.
I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to face the camp.
Chapter 14
“So what do you want to do next?” Ron asks as she cuts her chicken up into pieces.
By the time she and Giselle got home, Iris had already finished preparing baked barbecue chicken and mac and cheese. She kept them warm in the oven until they came back.
“I don’t know,” Giselle says and then eats a huge spoonful of mac and cheese with a piece of chicken on top. Giselle has a way of eating that makes it seem like she hasn’t eaten in a long time. “Do you think it’s worth it to keep checking out where you saw them? Took us hours just to walk there, and it didn’t seem like many people have been around there in a while.”
“You’re right,” Ron says, seeing Giselle nod slightly at that. Ron noticed Giselle likes hearing those kinds of words and being asked her opinion on things. “It’d take a long time to investigate with just the two of us, even if we split up. Plus, as you said, the forest there seemed pretty wild. Do you think one of them has a gift that helps them cover their tracks or something? Like, maybe they can make the plants grow back and not seem stepped on.”
Giselle nods again, more pronounced this time. “You know what? That’s probably what it is.”
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