by B. A. Frade
“Careful,” Noah warned me. He pointed at the creeping vine near the book, but now I knew better.
I realized that the book seemed to somehow recognize poison ivy too.
I opened the cover.
“Noah! Look!” I pointed, and the two of us watched as the Scaremaster had something to say:
You shouldn’t have thrown me away like garbage. Wait till you see what I have planned next! This will be the best summer ever… for me.
Chapter Seven
“It’s not really a story, is it?” Noah said as we sat on that rock. “I mean it started out with ‘Once upon a time,’ but then it turned into threats.”
I had an answer for that. “He’s writing it as he goes along,” I said. “There’s a basic plan, but the Scaremaster responds to what you and I do.” I started to explain what I saw as clues. “At first he challenged you that he could do a better prank, right?”
“So he coordinated the food fight.” Noah considered it. “I still don’t get how he arranged everyone to be involved.” He had to admit, “I don’t think I could have caused that much chaos. It was masterful.”
“You sound like you admire his skill.” Sometimes Noah annoyed me.
He bit a fingernail. “Well, first, he had to get the counselors on board. That couldn’t have been easy. I wonder who he talked to first: Samantha or Sydney?”
“He didn’t talk to anyone because the Scaremaster is not a person!” I was talking really loud, as if that would convince him. “A real person could never have gotten the counselors to make such a mess.” I added to my clues: “And don’t forget that later that night, he had the counselors organizing raids!”
“Strange but true,” Noah said. “Maybe this book has some kind of mind-control powers?”
“I think it’s bigger than just mind control. I don’t know what the limits are to the Scaremaster’s power.” After a full body shiver, I went to my next clue: “We told the Scaremaster what he was doing wasn’t fun.”
“Or funny,” Noah added. “I wrote that in really big letters.”
“And he replied that it wasn’t going to be any fun anymore.” I looked at Noah.
“I see your point. He warned us.” Noah continued to review everything that had happened since we’d found the book. “Making everyone do work at camp isn’t funny—it’s terrible.” He sat for a long moment, then said, “You’re convincing me.”
“The campers are frightened.” I turned on the rock to face him. “The Scaremaster is on track for whatever big plans he told us about the first time we read a story.” I reminded him what the original Scaremaster’s tale said. “And it’s done tonight—Sunday.”
“At sunset,” Noah remembered. “By Monday morning, he said that everyone will know what he’s done.”
“Now you see why I think the Scaremaster is not like you or me. We can’t just try to find him and make him stop.” I liked it better when we were arguing if the Scaremaster was a he or a she. Again, I had to say, “It’s not a person.”
It didn’t look like Noah was totally sold on my theory, but he said, “So let’s stop… it.”
“I wish I knew how,” I said.
Noah held the book behind his back, as if it might be able to hear as well as write, and whispered to me, “You think that whatever appears in that book comes true.”
“Yes,” I said.
“You also think that the Scaremaster responds to what we do,” Noah said.
“Yes.”
“Then we need to change the story.” Noah stood up from the rock. “And make a different ending.”
“How? It’s one thing to figure out that the Scaremaster is running camp, but another to actually stop him. We’d need to find out what he’s doing.”
“And why…” Noah finished my thought and added, “I mean, why wouldn’t he just write a story called ‘The Scaremaster Gets Everything He Wants’ and be done with all this?”
“I think it’s because this way is more fun for him,” I suggested, but I wasn’t sure.
There was a lot we needed to discover.
I looked up toward the morning sun and frowned. “We only have until sunset.”
I wasn’t certain we could solve this mystery in time. Maybe the Scaremaster was right. Maybe it was simply too late.
Chapter Eight
We went back to camp with a plan. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was something.
I was going to the SRC to see what the movie was all about, while Noah went to the infirmary. Maybe whatever we saw would give us some kind of indication what to do next. And how to end it.
I had to find a way to watch the movie without anyone watching me. Sneak in. Sneak out. If a counselor saw me, I might never be able to get back to Noah.
Noah had a similar issue. Kids in the infirmary didn’t seem to come back again. He needed to find out why and not let it happen to him.
After we investigated, we’d meet up at the flagpole to report our findings and plan the next step. It wasn’t a hidden spot, but since the day began, we hadn’t seen anyone else wandering around outside, so it seemed safe enough.
“Twenty minutes,” Noah told me, though neither of us had a watch.
“Okay,” I agreed. I’d figure out when the time was up.
“Starting now,” Noah said, and we both hurried away.
The next thing I knew, Noah was in the SRC, sitting next to me on the floor at the far back, shaking my shoulders and forcing me to look into his eyes.
“We have to get you out of here,” Noah said, tipping his head back over his shoulder to three kids. There was Becky, the one from my cabin who’d been forcibly removed from the food fight. That nerdy third grader also from the dining hall rebellion. And an older boy I’d never seen before. Maybe he was a CIT. They were all moving very slowly, hidden in shadows.
“Huh?” My head was thick. I couldn’t think clearly, and my tongue was sort of numb. “I’ll thay here. I wike the movie,” I managed to say. My eyes wanted to watch the film. They were being pulled back to the screen like it was a magnet.
Noah grabbed the sides of my face and wouldn’t let me look. He whispered, “Kaitlin, do you remember that you were supposed to meet me at the flagpole?”
I nodded. “Twenty minutes.” I mumbled. Oh, the movie… I couldn’t even remember what it was about, but I wanted to see it. So badly. I tried to pull my head back, but Noah wouldn’t let go. He was holding on to my ears.
I realized we were in the storage closet. With that came a flash of memory. I had snuck in through the storage closet window (I was getting good at slipping through windows) and sat on the floor in a place where I could see the screen, but no one could see me because I was partially blocked by the door. I’d immediately noticed that no one was looking at me anyway. They were all fixated on the movie.
I did notice that there were no counselors or staff in the SRC. It was all campers, and no one was moving. They were watching the movie.
Oh… the movie… I wanted to see more.
“Let me watch,” I told Noah, struggling to turn away from him. “Just a wittle more.” My tongue was so, so tired.
“You’ve been here two hours!” Noah said.
That got my attention. “Huh?”
“Two hours.” He looked at his “team,” and they all nodded.
“There’s no way…” I said, “way” sounding like “sway.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Noah told me. “We have to find a place to talk.”
They made me go first out the window because Noah was afraid if I didn’t go first, I wouldn’t go at all.
Noah followed me, and Becky followed him. Ethan, the third grader, was next. When we turned back for the kid I didn’t know, he wasn’t there.
“Man down!” Becky exclaimed but not very loud. She quickly consulted the others. “No man left behind,” Becky insisted. They decided to take a vote on what to do.
It was two to one, Ethan and Noah against Becky.
T
hat settled it. They wouldn’t go back for him.
I was so out of it and loopy, I didn’t get a vote.
Becky protested. “But—”
Noah said, “It’s too dangerous.”
I was born in China, and I’d heard that Becky’s family was from China too. But other than that, we didn’t seem to have very much in common. We’d barely spoken to each other since the first day of camp. Now we were thrust together in a nightmare. “Pl-ea-se, Becky.” I tipped my head back toward the SRC.
“We’ll save him later,” Becky assured me. “We will save them all.”
We hurried to my cabin. Everyone agreed that, from what they’d seen, the cabins were the safest place to be at camp. The whole area was vacant and quiet.
Once inside, Noah asked if I had black clothing. I didn’t, but since no one was around to ask, we “borrowed” items from my cabin mates and counselors.
Becky had long hair, longer than mine, that she wore in a braid down her back. She tucked it up under a black cap. She put on black pants and a black shirt. Ethan, who was a skinny redhead with freckles, found a shirt that matched hers. Noah was a little reluctant to wear Josie’s black pajama pants with Samantha’s shirt, but Becky convinced him we all had to match.
In pitch dark, it would be hard to tell us apart. Funny thing was, it wasn’t even noon yet.
Becky told me, “Our small but mighty squad is prepared to fight all night long. We are Camp Redwood Vines’ only hope.” She put her hands on her hips and thrust out her chest. It was clear that Becky was the toughest one of our group.
I looked hard at us all. We were dressed for a bank robbery. As Becky helped tuck my hair under a cap, my head still felt like I’d ridden one too many roller coasters. “Thanks,” I said, with the words coming out and sounding like “Flanktzzz.” I hoped my tongue would go back to normal soon.
Becky smeared Samantha’s black eye liner under my eyes, like charcoal, then did the others.
“We are commandos,” Becky announced. “And now we roll.”
Before we left the cabin, I needed to ask a burning question. “What. Happened. To. Me?” I pronounced each word slowly. I was pretty convinced I’d been hypnotized by the movie. My tongue was gradually working better, and I managed to ask, “What’s going on in the SRC?”
“Our theory is reprogramming,” Noah told me. “It’s a long movie that has some kind of power to erase the brain and reset it. Kids are absorbing what they need to know for the work they are going to do.”
“As far as we can tell, the camp is turning into a factory,” Becky said, tugging her cap more firmly onto her head and scowling into a mirror hanging by Sydney’s bed.
“What kind of factory?” I asked, leaning forward expectantly.
Becky and Ethan exchanged glances. Ethan didn’t say anything.
“We don’t know,” Becky admitted.
“We hoped you found out while you were in there,” Noah told me.
“I don’t remember anything after sneaking in the window, until you rescued me,” I said, then realized, “You’ve rescued me a lot, Noah. First the plants, now the hypnotic movie.” From the bottom of my heart I said, “Thanks.”
“It’s cool.” Noah slapped me on the back, then said, “We need to get back to the infirmary.”
I didn’t understand. “What’s there?”
“The book,” Noah told me with a long sigh. “I got caught and hid it.”
It was clear that a lot had happened while I was in the movie. “Catch me up, please,” I begged.
“I’m going to say this one time, and only one time, so listen good: You were right, Kaitlin,” Noah said. “The Scaremaster isn’t a person, and he has this place under his not-human thumb.”
I had a little surge of pride. Noah came around. I knew he would. Then again, it might have been the head fuzz, but I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant. I needed more info before I celebrated this small victory.
Noah explained, “The counselors are in a trance. The campers are getting put in trances too.”
I had a thought. “Noah, remember in the food fight, when you saw the counselors in the staff lounge watching a movie? What if it was the same movie the campers are seeing now? Maybe the Scaremaster was taking over their brains too.” That would explain how so much time had passed while I was in the SRC, and why I’d never felt hungry. No one in the SRC had eaten in a long time. Their brains were under the Scaremaster’s control, and if he didn’t let them feel hungry, they didn’t. That meant the counselors weren’t eating either. But then I had another thought.
“That can’t be right,” I backtracked. “The counselors were in the dining hall at the food fight.” The excitement I’d felt a second earlier disappeared. “They couldn’t be in the staff lounge and the dining hall at the same time.”
Noah stepped back and sat down on a lower bunk. “I’ll tell you what happened in the infirmary. Maybe that will link the clues.” He took a breath and began, “Jayesh and Samantha were the ones that caught me outside. They were guarding the building.”
“They’re so mean,” Becky said. “When me and Ethan were sent there, they would come in and yell that if we were too sick to play along with the mischievous pranks, then we had to lie in bed.” She added, “They were nothing like they were at the beginning of camp.” Becky imitated Samantha. She wagged a finger and paced the floor. “‘You will not leave the bed. Do not get up. There will be no activities. When you feel better, the only thing you’ll be allowed to do is see a movie.’”
Noah went on. “Just after I got there, Jayesh and Samantha started bragging about the factory and how great it was going to be. I think they wanted to scare us. Kids in the movie would go to work. Kids in the infirmary—well, they were vague about what would happen to us. They let our imaginations think the worst.”
“A few kids immediately claimed to feel better. I’m sure they thought their chances of survival were better in the movie than in the infirmary,” Becky told me.
“The counselors went to take them to the SRC, and that was when the four of us made our escape.” Hearing Noah talk about the four of them reminded us of the poor guy we’d left in the SRC.
Ethan was quiet, and Becky frowned.
“So, you’re telling me that everyone at camp will be working for the Scaremaster’s factory?” I asked, giving Noah a small shove to move over so I could sit next to him on the bed. “That means we know what he’s planning,” I said.
“And that now leaves why is he doing this?” Noah sat up.
“Let’s go get the journal,” I said. “We have to figure out a way to trick the Scaremaster into revealing the next chapter in his story.”
Chapter Nine
I was getting hungry. It was past noon. The campers were still in the SRC. The big bell that called the camp for meals hadn’t rung.
“No food?” I asked Ethan and Becky. The four of us were a team now.
Ethan’s stomach rumbled.
“We never had breakfast,” Becky reminded us.
Noah led us on a quick stop at his cabin on the way to the infirmary. At the bottom of his trunk, way below where he’d found the Scaremaster’s journal, he had a tin box filled with snacks.
“You aren’t supposed to have that,” I said, eyeing the candy, nuts, granola bars, and beef jerky. “No outside food in the cabins.”
“Feel free to tell Director Dave,” he said to me with a challenging smirk.
We’d been through a lot together since the boating prank and had so much more to do before the day was over. “I’ll tell him”—I tore the wrapper off a chocolate bar and downed it in a few bites—“tomorrow.” I added, “Unless we eat all the evidence.”
Noah laughed.
The four of us had a fast picnic, stuffing our pockets with some reserve snacks in case dinner was also not happening at camp.
We snuck by the SRC, and it was still quiet inside, except for the faint music coming from the film.
“We should
stop and see how the film’s going,” I suggested, feeling the pull of the movie. “If we watch, we might understand what he’s making.”
“Close ranks,” Becky said. Ethan grabbed one of my arms and Becky the other. They dragged me away.
“I don’t understand why I want to see that movie so much,” I told them as we hid behind some large trees in back of the infirmary. “I don’t even know what it’s about.”
I shook off the feeling that I wanted to go back to the SRC and stepped out from behind the tree.
I immediately fell to my hands and knees in the dirt. Noah and the others dropped down next to me.
“Just like real commandos,” Becky whispered.
I whispered back, “That was close.”
Jayesh and Samantha were walking past the infirmary. I overheard Jayesh tell Samantha, “We need to get back to the meeting.” They turned down a small path toward the boat dock.
We saw them disappear into the distance, which is why it was really confusing an instant later when voices came from inside the infirmary. The voices were loud, but that wasn’t the confusing part.
“Someone just discovered we’re AWOL,” Becky told us.
Just then, the front door crashed open, and Sydney came out first, followed by…
“Is that Jayesh?” I squinted.
“No way…” Noah said, his voice trailing off.
“Yes, it is. That’s him,” Ethan said, speaking for the first time since my rescue. “I’d know him anywhere. He’s the nature specialist.” He pushed up his glasses. “I like nature. Especially rocks.” He reached into his pants’ pocket and pulled out a handful of different colored rocks. “I collect them.”
“I’ll introduce you to my parents,” Noah said under his breath, more a mutter than an invitation.
Ethan’s eyes lit up. “Really? Thanks. I follow their blog.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “I didn’t know you liked their work. Most people get all weird around me when they find out about my parents, as if they are big celebrities.”