by Amy C. Blake
At that moment, a huge kid, one roughly the size of a professional wrestler, exited the bathroom and grinned at Levi. “Hey, man. I’m Trevor Patterson. Looks like I’m your bunkmate.” He pointed at the bunk above Levi’s.
Two thoughts struck Levi at once. First, Trevor was massive, which meant Dog Boy would keep his distance. Good news.
Second, the top bunk was rickety, and Levi would be sleeping directly beneath it. Not such good news.
“Great.” Levi forced a smile, wondering which horrible and humiliating death would claim him first: asphyxiation by toilet fumes or flattening by bunkmate.
Chapter 3
The Precipice
Levi gave one final wave at the departing ferry. With a quick swipe of his fist under his nose, he turned away. The cold wind must be making his nose run. He peered up at the clouds blotting out the sun. He hoped his family made it to the mainland before the storm hit. And he really hoped staying here was the right decision.
Too late to chicken out now.
With a sigh, he started up the hill, Trevor at his side.
“You play football?” Trevor thumped both fists against his chest like Tarzan, Jr. “I’m really good.”
Levi couldn’t help but smile at the grin covering most of Trevor’s face.
“’Course my brother Shawn’s better.” Trevor’s grin disappeared. “Dad says he’ll probably win a Heisman next year.”
Levi shrugged, one eyebrow raised. “That’s cool, right?”
“Yeah, cool.” But Trevor’s shoulders slumped like it wasn’t cool at all.
“You into fencing or archery?” Levi finally asked to get Trevor talking again.
“Never done it, but I can’t wait.” Trevor picked up a stick and pretended to sword fight the air, his grin back in place. “Bet Shawn’s never fenced anybody before.”
When they reached the cabin, Trevor threw down the stick and opened the door. The two entered as Levi’s favorite bully walked in the opposite door with a spiky-haired hulk of a kid.
“Just because cell phones don’t work here doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get to keep our PSPs. What else are we gonna do for fun? Go fishing?” The hulk cackled. His face looked like a jack-o’-lantern with a too-big mouth carved out.
“They couldn’t make me send my stuff back.” Doberman creep pulled an iPhone from his pocket. “Sometimes it’s cool to have parents who never show—” He caught sight of Levi and Trevor, stopped short, and bared his teeth.
Levi gulped. Was that supposed to be a smile? He glanced around the cabin. Empty . . . and dark with no sunlight coming in the windows. He and Trevor started toward their bunks, but the bully pocketed his phone and blocked their path. The other kid slunk along beside him with his knuckles practically scraping the ground. Yippee. Dog Boy had a pet thug.
“What’re you two losers up to?” The bully’s voice was a low growl.
“Excuse us, please.” Trevor’s ultra-polite tone might’ve been intimidating if his voice hadn’t cracked right in the middle.
The gorilla kid busted out laughing. Trevor’s eyes narrowed to slits.
Levi’s hands grew sweaty, but he figured he had better say something or Trevor might get kicked out for fighting the first day of camp. He swallowed a couple of times to make sure his voice would work. “Um . . . what’s your problem? You don’t even know us.”
Head cocked, the bully folded his arms over his chest. “I’m Hunter.”
Levi opened his mouth to tell his name, but Hunter cut him off with a sneering, “I know who you are.” He looked Trevor up and down. “Who’s this?”
“Trevor.”
Hunter jabbed a thumb toward his friend. “He’s Martin.”
“Little Curly Red and the Giant.” Martin let out a stupid-sounding giggle.
Levi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Thought you needed a higher IQ than a slug to get invited to this place.
Hunter moved in until his chin almost bumped Levi’s nose.
“Listen, runt.” Hunter’s steely eyes bored into Levi. “I don’t like—”
Hinges squeaked, drawing Levi’s attention to the door opening at the far end of the cabin. Not the bathroom door by his bunk, but the one on Hunter’s side.
A hunched figure emerged into the shadows and slammed the door. It crept along the dusky aisle toward the boys, both arms extended like a vertically challenged zombie. Spine tingling, Levi watched as the short, stout figure halted beside Trevor and reached out a stubby forefinger. Trevor flinched, but the man only flipped a switch on the wall.
A fluorescent glare flooded the room, illuminating the man’s wild, salt-and-pepper hair and craggy face. “Hello, boys.” The man’s voice was low and gravelly. “It’s getting dark. The storm must be moving in.” He peered from boy to boy over a pair of reading glasses. “I’m Asa Baldwin.” His gaze landed on Hunter and hardened. “Dr. Baldwin to you. Your cabin master.”
When no one spoke, he held out a hand, palm up, to Hunter. “Give it to me.”
In an instant, Hunter’s face switched from bully mode to teacher’s pet mode. “Sir?”
Levi rolled his eyes.
Dr. Baldwin’s mouth tightened. “No electronic devices at Camp Classic.”
Anger hardened Hunter’s jaw, but he pulled the cell phone from his jeans pocket without argument.
“We’re in the middle of the world’s largest freshwater lake. What made you think this thing would work here?” Dr. Baldwin pointed at Hunter’s backpack. “Hand over the rest.”
As Hunter yanked out a neon green iPad and a Gameboy, a book clattered to the floor. Without thinking, Levi bent to pick it up, trying to read the faded gold letters printed across the washed-out purple fabric. Scowling, Hunter snatched the book and stuffed it back into his pack.
Levi frowned. What did Hunter want with a prissy purple book anyway?
The cabin master harrumphed. Levi glanced at him as a look of intense interest flitted across his features. The look disappeared as the man took Hunter’s electronics. “You can have these back at the end of the summer.” He turned and strode back down the aisle to what Levi figured must be his room, muttering, “Why do they always try to sneak these in? Kids. They don’t use the brains God gave them.”
Levi bit back a laugh. Hunter leveled a vicious look at Levi, flung open the door, and stalked outside. Martin glared between Levi and Trevor. Levi managed to keep a straight face until Martin left, then both boys cracked up.
At one o’clock, Levi and Trevor walked to the dining hall. By the time they got inside, the light rain had dampened their clothes, and the wind had whipped Trevor’s dark hair into spikes. The scent of fish and hush puppies kicked Levi’s salivary glands into high gear. After they filled their plates with baked walleye, fried perch, and smoked carp, the boys found an empty table and dug in without talking.
“Hi.” The soft feminine voice came from directly behind Levi.
When he spun around, his fork clattered to the floor. “Oh, uh . . . hi.”
The blonde girl he’d noticed earlier, the pretty one with the super tall mom, stood behind him holding a tray. Her skin was so tanned it looked golden like her hair, and her eyes were the shade of a peacock’s tail. A blush pinked her skin from throat to temple. “Is this seat taken?”
“Um, no, go ahead.” Levi pulled out the chair on his left, wincing as it squealed against the concrete floor.
“Thanks.” She sat, placed her napkin on her lap, and bowed her head.
She was praying. And using her manners. He was such a heathen. He scrambled for his untouched napkin, scrubbed it across his mouth, and waved it at Trevor, who had a glob of butter smeared on the end of his nose. Trevor didn’t take the hint.
The girl opened her eyes and faced Levi. “I’m Sara.” She hesitated a second. “Sara Christopher.”
“Levi Prince.”
“I’m Trevor.” Trevor’s voice chose that moment to crack again. Levi suspected nerves brought on the squeak. He didn’t bl
ame him; the girl made him feel squeaky too. She was beautiful, polite, and so tanned she must be athletic. She would probably destroy him in all the training sessions they were supposed to do this summer.
Why would someone like her want to sit by Levi when there was a table full of girls right behind him? He’d seen at least one empty seat he hadn’t dared attempt to occupy.
Since his fork was on the floor, Levi used his spoon to shovel salad into his mouth. Trevor stuffed four hush puppies in his already-full mouth. Sara stirred her food around her plate. Levi searched his brain for something to say, anything to fill the silence. Before he could ask something dumb like what grade she was going into in the fall (duh, they were all going into eighth grade), Sara spoke up.
“Sorry if I’m bothering you.” Was that insecurity in her eyes? No way.
She glanced at the girls’ table, and he followed her glance. Two girls—one beefy with brown hair and mean piggish eyes, the other bony with pale blonde hair and a something-stinks wrinkle to her nose—cut their eyes at Sara.
“Look at that shirt,” the brown-haired one whispered behind her meaty hand.
“My grandmother has one just like it,” the blonde said, and they both giggled.
Levi looked at Sara’s pale pink ruffled blouse with its white lacy collar. He didn’t know much about girls’ clothes, but he didn’t think his little sister had worn anything like it since kindergarten.
Cheeks red, Sara tugged at the collar.
Levi smiled big, not caring if he had lettuce stuck in his braces. “Of course you’re not bothering us.” He jutted his chin toward the girls. “You homeschooled?” He might have been wrong, but he figured she would be more thick-skinned if she was in school with girls like these day after day. The kids at his co-op and church were mostly okay, at least when it came to bullying and stuff. Not that they didn’t pick on people, but they were nothing like Hunter and Martin. Those two were going to take some getting used to.
Sara nodded. “You?”
Levi started to answer when the door crashed open. He whirled around in his seat. Lighting zigzagged, backlighting a tall, broad-shouldered man in the doorway. Wind-whipped grey hair flailed his weathered face. Rainwater sheeted from the yellow rain slicker that didn’t fully cover his red-flowered Hawaiian shirt. He looked like a cross between an old sea captain and a retired surfer.
He strode to the center of the now-silent room. “I apologize for interrupting your meal.” Though a smile creased his tanned cheeks, worry lined his forehead. “For those of you I haven’t yet had the pleasure of addressing, I am Tobias Dominic, director of Camp Classic. I’m sorry I won’t be able to deliver the welcome speech I’d prepared, as I’m sure it would have delighted you.” A twinkle brightened his green eyes and was quickly snuffed. “However, my staff and I thought it best to skip the nonessentials.”
When he gestured toward the people who’d filed in behind him, Levi recognized the cabin master, Dr. Baldwin. Beside him stood a man equally as short and stout, who shook water from his red-brown hair and scowled. A couple with long, straight, white-blonde hair, both slender and well over seven feet tall, exchanged uneasy glances. Another tall, slim woman with the black hair, reddish skin, and high cheekbones of a Native American kept her dark eyes latched on the window.
Levi knitted his brows. Didn’t this camp believe in hiring ordinary-looking people?
The director went on. “With this violent storm fast approaching, we’ve decided it’s best to move camp to our sturdier facilities north of here.”
Thunder boomed, vibrating the tables and chairs, and the lights flickered. Levi half-stood to look out a window. The trees doubled over in the wind as though they’d been sucker punched, and black clouds bunched like a street gang around a victim. Anxious voices buzzed. Someone mentioned their families, and a clump filled Levi’s throat. What if the ferry hadn’t made it to land before the storm hit?
“Now, don’t be alarmed.” Mr. Dominic lifted his hands in a calming gesture. “Mr. Drake called to say the ferry has docked on the mainland. Your families are safe, and we have things under control here. I simply need you to pack your things and meet us out front in half an hour.” He raised his voice over the clamor of kids and storm. “Wear your hiking boots and rain gear.”
A freckle-faced girl bumped Levi in her rush for the door. “This storm has got to be a bad omen. I knew my mom shouldn’t have made me come here.”
Levi’s lips twisted in disgust. He didn’t believe in omens.
A huge gust pounded the windows. Levi shot Mr. Dominic an anxious look at the precise moment the old man’s gaze darted to his. When their eyes connected, Levi’s hair bristled like it had when he was little and stuck a pair of scissors into an electric outlet.
Tiny alarms prickled up and down Levi’s spine, but he shook them away. Nope. No such thing as a bad omen.
Levi forced his legs to keep trudging up the mucky path after Sara. Hunter and Martin hiked in front of them, directly behind Mr. Dominic. Trevor and the other campers trailed behind. The clouds made it as dark as dusk. The growl of thunder was almost constant. During the thirty-minute trek, Levi’s hands had frozen to his gear. His backpack bit deeper and deeper into his shoulders. The path grew steeper by the second. People no longer walked side-by-side, talking. Instead, they slogged along the narrow trail, heads down against the drops bulleting their hoods.
Why were they going uphill? Wasn’t that dangerous? The lightning was so close the air smelled like burnt aluminum foil. Levi craned to see the path ahead without getting a face full of rain. He halted, blinking rainwater from his lashes.
What in the world?
Trevor ran into him, grumbling about the mud splashed into his face. Levi ignored him because just ahead, through a few scrubby trees, the earth ended. Mr. Dominic stood at the edge.
Levi inched nearer. A lightning flash revealed the lake far below. Steely gray and whipped white on top, gigantic waves crashed high into the purple-black sky. Thunder blasted his eardrums. Levi cowered. What he’d taken for thunder before must have been the lake, a writhing, rumbling monster. Adrenaline spurted through his veins. He grabbed Sara’s shoulder.
When she turned, he shouted over the noise. “What’re we doing here? We’ll get killed!”
The next burst of lightning showed her calm expression. “It’ll be fine.” Leaning around Martin, Sara waved a hand toward the director, who now faced them. “I’m sure Mr. Dominic knows what he’s doing.”
“All right, everyone.” The director’s serene voice somehow carried above the crash of storm and water. “We’re here.”
Levi stifled a squawk. Here? The only thing here was a cliff.
“My wife came early to make everything ready for us.” A tranquil smile graced Mr. Dominic’s lips even as spray from a particularly ferocious wave splattered his boots. “I trust cozy fires and tea or cocoa await us inside.” He laced his fingers and rocked back on his heels like it was the most natural thing in the world to stand on a precipice in the middle of a violent storm.
Acid burned Levi’s stomach. His duffel bag slipped from his numb fingers. There was no inside, just a hundred-foot drop into the crashing waves.
His nutcase camp director was about to lead them to their deaths.
Chapter 4
The Castle
Lightning shattered the sky. Thunder vibrated the ground. What should Levi do? They had to get away from this drop-off, and there were a lot more kids than crazy Mr. Dominic and his kooky-looking staff. Levi glanced back at Trevor, still scrubbing mud off his nose, eyes hidden by his lowered hood. Did he even see the danger?
Levi turned forward and grabbed Sara’s raincoat sleeve. “Sara, we’ve got to get out of here.”
She twisted around as lights burst behind her like Fourth of July fireworks. Eyebrows scrunched, she flashed him a half-amused, half-puzzled smile, as if she thought he was teasing. “Why? Don’t you like it?” She turned and pointed north. He followed her pointin
g finger to where empty air had dropped away to a storm-tossed lake mere seconds before.
Now he saw a castle.
It was a huge gray stone fortress that looked like it had stood there for centuries, not mere seconds. Orange lights glowed from the windows and red pennants waved on its four towers. The waters of a moat lapped at Mr. Dominic’s boots. A lowered drawbridge stretched across the moat to where Mrs. Dominic waited, sheltered in the doorway from the now-gentle rain.
Levi’s sleeping bag splashed into the mud beside his duffel. Had he lost his mind? Surely he hadn’t mistaken this calm moat for a violent lake. He looked around at the other kids. They didn’t seem scared at all, only dazzled by the castle. Levi couldn’t even see those furthest down the line, so he figured they may not have seen anything—cliff or castle.
Trevor, the mud now cleared from his eyes, squeaked, “Hey, Levi, would you look at that? Cool.”
Ignoring him, Levi turned forward. Hunter’s and Martin’s faces were angled so he could just make out their expressions. Martin’s skin was mottled white, his mouth hanging so wide rainwater splashed off his teeth. Hunter’s face was a mask of boredom, except for his eyes, which glittered strangely. Had they seen anything?
Had Levi actually seen anything?
Sara squeezed between Hunter and Martin, passed Mr. Dominic, and crossed the drawbridge to the door, where Mrs. Dominic stepped back to let her in and then beckoned the rest of them. “Come inside where it’s warm and dry. Dinner is almost ready.”
Her comforting voice made Levi want to obey, but did he dare trust her? What if she was crazy like her husband? Or maybe Levi was the crazy one?
Trevor, who’d bounded forward at the word dinner, shoved Levi a few paces, not giving him time to think things through. Levi shot Trevor a dirty look and moved toward the castle on his own steam. They might be headed off a cliff, but if Sara could cross the bridge like it was no big deal, so could he.
Still, he took careful steps as he crossed, staring into the moat, expecting the rain-slick bridge to disappear and plunge him into the lake at any moment. He let out his breath when he made it to the door that rose taller than two of Mr. Dominic. As he passed Mrs. Dominic, she pushed back his hood and ruffled his curls. No static shock this time. No blast of wind. Just kind blue eyes, a gentle smile, and the faint scent of wildflowers. She reminded him of his grandmother. He offered her a wobbly smile and walked inside.