The Lake

by Natasha Preston

  Please let this take me back to camp and not to wherever Lillian is hiding.

  I place one palm down and then the other and shuffle forward.

  My breath swirls in front of me.

  The ground is cool and damp, and my knees are probably covered in mud by now. I sink softly into the ground every time I move. I wish I would sink completely.

  A rustling in a tree above me makes me freeze. Shit. My stomach rolls.

  Long pine tree branches reach out, some touching the branches of other trees like the whole forest is connected.

  It was just a bird.

  Move.

  I crawl again, following the indentations in the moss.

  A cackling that sounds like it’s coming from every direction rings through the woods, bouncing off the trees.

  I sit up and look around, but I can barely see anything through the mist.

  Nope. Screw crawling, I need to go now.

  Forcing myself to my feet, I take off. My head is clearer, and I don’t feel dizzy anymore. I have a better chance of finding camp now. I can do this.

  Lillian can go to hell.

  I fly between trees, following the footprints.

  The cackling sings out again. I whimper, pushing myself even faster.

  She’s not going to get me.

  Rounding a tree, I stop dead in my tracks and I dry heave.

  I clench my fists. Lillian has killed another deer. I blink hard, hoping the image will disappear. It doesn’t. She tied the deer to a tree upside down.

  Gagging, I press one wrist to my mouth. The deer has been cut open. A large gash stretches the length of its body and everything that should be inside is outside. The gory red mess of organs lies on the ground beneath it.

  Lillian is a psychopath.

  And I have to get out of here.

  I pant, sprinting through the forest as if I know where I’m going. Mist parts as I run through it. My arms swing with every step, sending me flying a little faster. My gym teacher swore by pumping your arms to increase your speed, and I’ll try anything.

  Images of the deer and the blood on my hands flash through my mind, spurring me on. I might be scared to the core, but I won’t give in to her.

  Whatever she throws at me, I will fight.

  Yes!

  I whimper as I come to the edge of the forest. I’ve made it.

  “Esme.” Lillian laughs from behind me.

  Go.

  I race along the lake, never slowing.

  Kayla and I need to do something drastic and soon because Lillian is getting way worse.

  I sob as I run up the stairs to my cabin, and then stop. I just want to get to my friend.

  Placing my hand on the doorknob, I take a breath and quietly open the door. I lock the damn thing behind me and tiptoe into my room.

  She could have killed me tonight.

  Jesus. Lillian kidnapped me.

  We were wrong. She does want to hurt us.

  49

  In my room, I lean against the door and then sink to the floor. My breath comes out heavy and desperate. She had me and she could have easily killed me.

  She’s in control and there is nothing we can do.

  That can’t be true.

  “Kayla,” I rasp as quietly as I can manage, clawing the floor.

  I need help.

  I blink and burning tears streak down my face. “Kayla, please.”

  She jumps awake, flicks on the lamp and props herself up on her elbows. “What? Esme?”

  The room floods with light and I slump against the door.

  I’m back and safe.

  You are not safe here!

  When Kayla’s eyes land on me, her mouth pops open.

  Slipping out of bed, she pads toward me.

  “Oh my God, what happened to you?” she asks. “You’re covered in dirt and…blood!”

  “I woke up in the forest.”

  “You did what?”

  I shake my head, trying to make sense of it. “I went to sleep here and woke up in the middle of the forest with blood on me.”

  “Jesus.”

  Kayla rushes to close the distance between us and wraps her arms around me.

  I fall into her embrace. “I didn’t know what was going on. I was so scared,” I sob. My chest caves and I almost drop to the floor again.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay,” she hushes me, her hands shaking. “Come on.”

  She helps me walk to the bed and sits me on her bunk. I stare at the window, half expecting Lillian’s face to be on the other side.

  “How did you get there?”

  “I—I don’t know,” I tell her. “I don’t remember anything other than what I told you. I think Lillian drugged me. She must have!”

  Kayla stands and grabs a bottle of water off the chair. She opens the lid and takes a towel from a pile in the closet.

  I watch as she kneels in front of me and wets the towel.

  “You’re going to be okay, Esme.”

  Am I?

  It doesn’t feel like it. I’m cold and tired and I just want to go home.

  What we did that night was bad, but we don’t deserve this.

  “She must have drugged you as well,” I say.

  Kayla nods. “Yes, I figured.”

  Her voice is small and squeaky.

  She’s scared.

  She wipes my hands with the towel and smears some of the blood.

  Clenching my teeth, I turn away.

  “She did this to me,” I say, my vision blurring with tears.

  “And you survived.” Kayla scrubs a little harder. “Whatever the little psycho is doing, we can beat her.”

  Can we? She drugged us and hauled me into the woods.

  “Esme, where did the blood come from?”

  The deer flashes in my mind.

  “When I was running, I found it.”

  “Found what?”

  “A deer, a small one. It was tied to a tree.”

  Kayla scrubs even harder, like she’s trying to take off a layer of skin. “Tied?”

  I close my eyes. “Upside down, cut all the way down the middle and—”

  “Stop! Please don’t finish telling me, Esme.”

  “I’m sorry.” I snap my teeth together.

  She doesn’t want to hear it. I had to see it.

  “There, all clean.”

  I look at my hands. “Thank you.”

  “Take your clothes off. I’ll bag them. You can wash in here with the towel and water, and then we’ll get you changed.”

  “Keep the clothes. In case.”

  “In case of what?”

  “In case they’re needed for evidence.”

  “We’re not telling anyone what we did, Esme!”

  “We might not have a choice. We’ll hide them for now.”

  “Fine. You get yourself washed.”

  What I really want is a shower, but it’s four in the morning.

  I stand and strip off my clothes. Kayla stuffs them in a plastic bag, which she hides at the bottom of the cupboard.

  She hands me the bottle of water and towel. I manage what’s probably the least effective wash of my life, but it’s the best I have right now.

  “Here, put these on,” she says softly, handing me fresh pajamas.

  I curl my hands tightly around my heart pajamas and hold them to my chest. “Kayla, what are we going to do?”

  We’re too calm. I want to freak out properly.

  Yeah, because that’s going to get us far.

  “We figure this out in the morning,” she says.

  “Are you suggesting we go back to sleep?” I look at the bottle in my hand and my face falls. “Where did you get this w
ater?”

  Kayla drops the plastic bag in the trash can. “From the kitchen.”

  I whip a pile of clothes off our chair. There are two more bottles of water beneath them.

  “Oh shit,” Kayla says, turning the open bottle around.

  “Lillian drugged these and left them in our room.”

  “How did she know we’d drink them tonight?”

  “Because it’s summer in Texas…and because she’s watching us.”

  “I can’t deal with that.” Kayla shakes her head and clutches her hair in her fist. “I hate her. We have to do something. We can’t live like this, and we can’t let her get away with what she’s doing to us.”

  “Can we just get through the night and then we’ll come up with a plan.”

  “When do we call it quits and dial nine-one-one?”

  “I don’t know,” I reply.

  “I’m scared of people finding out. Things are going great with Jake. I finally feel more myself after being in therapy for years.”

  “This won’t change that, Kayla.”

  “It will. Of course it will change that. It changes everything.”

  “You care too much about what people think.”

  She snorts. “And you don’t?”

  “I did. But I’m caring less and less these days.”

  Kayla turns. “Sleep with me?”

  “Oh, I was planning to.”

  I stuff the spiked bottles of water in the bag with my bloody clothes. Kayla gets into bed and scoots to the wall. I turn off the light and slide in beside her.

  “She’s worse than I could ever imagine,” she whispers.

  “I knew there was something wrong with her that night, but I never imagined she would be this sick.”

  “I need this to be over. I can’t take it.”

  I nod. “Me too. She’s crazy and dangerous and threatened the campers if we go to the cops. They’re just kids. We need to do this ourselves.”

  “Do what ourselves? What does that mean?” Kayla asks, the fear in her voice ringing through the air.

  “It means we take control.”

  “Like how? That doesn’t sound like a very good idea. What do we do precisely?”

  “We’re going to her.”

  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.