by Amy C. Blake
Levi blinked. He peeked at Monica from the corner of his eye. She picked up her butter knife, breathed on it, and rubbed it with her napkin. Well, okay, if Sara liked her . . .
Sara’s smile didn’t waver. “Ashley and Lizzie are our other roommates. They’re nice too, aren’t they, Monica?”
Monica deigned to nod.
“Oh, here they are,” Sara said as two girls took seats near her. “This is Ashley.” She indicated a short girl with brown braids and a liberal sprinkling of freckles. Levi recognized her as the weeping girl from the registration line earlier.
Ashley fixed her brown eyes on the tablecloth and mumbled, “Hi.” At least she wasn’t crying now.
“This is Lizzie.” Sara pointed to the other girl, who had shiny pink lips and a big smile that showed perfect white teeth. Her dark blonde hair fell straight to the middle of her back. Teal eye shadow, the exact shade of her shorts outfit, covered the lids of her green eyes. Her perfume was so strong it coated Levi’s tongue.
“Hey,” Lizzie said in a Southern twang. “Nice to meet y’all.”
Levi sneezed.
Sara babbled on. “Do you guys like your room? Are you on the east or west side? Are your roommates nice?”
Trevor shot Levi a look asking if Sara had gone insane. Levi could only shrug and introduce Tommy and Steve, who sat on the far side of Trevor looking shell-shocked.
A group of campers moved past the table. One bumped hard into Levi’s chair. He twisted around to see Hunter strut past, a mocking smile on his face. The jerk.
Mr. Dominic stood up at the staff table and cleared his throat for silence. “Oremus.”
The director waited a moment. Several kids glanced around in confusion, but Levi understood. Latin for let us pray. He bowed his head.
“Holy Creator and Sustainer of all, I praise you for these children. I pray you would use this food to nourish their bodies and this camp to nourish their minds and spirits. Thank you for being the Ruler of the Universe. In the name of your precious Son, King Jesus, I pray. Amen.”
Levi looked up at Mr. Dominic. He’d never heard a prayer quite like that one. The director smiled. “Eat up.”
The food was delicious: roast beef, mashed potatoes, fresh bread, several kinds of vegetables and desserts, and a tall glass of milk. Levi ate until he could hold no more, thinking nothing of questions or conversation. Finally full, he leaned back in his seat. He watched Trevor pile his plate with thirds while the girls ate more slowly, chatting between bites. Now that his belly was full, the short night’s sleep and the strange day caught up with him. Half-listening to the others’ conversations, Levi grew sleepier by the second.
“What is the extent of this property, I wonder?” Monica said.
“Pretty big, I guess.” Sara shrugged. “So, what’s your family like?”
Monica told of her three sisters and her parents, who were missionaries. “That’s why we attend boarding school and stay at Grandmother’s estate on vacations. Her home is in eastern Pennsylvania. My parents come there on furlough.” She paused and looked at the others. “Does anyone else attend boarding school?”
Sara shook her head. “Levi and I are both homeschooled. I don’t know about anybody else.” She glanced between the others.
Trevor said, “Private school.”
“I’m homeschooled.” Steve turned brick red.
Ashley mumbled something about going to a Christian school. Tommy nodded.
“Well, I go to boarding school ’cause Momma’s a U.S. Senator.” Lizzie lifted a pink-nailed hand and tossed back her hair. “She’s in DC a lot of the time.”
“Oh?” Monica tilted her head. “Is your school in Washington?”
“Sure is.”
Levi’s sleep-deprived mind tuned out the conversation as Sara prattled on about their hall chaperone, someone named Miss Nydia, who’d promised to teach the girls all about sewing. Who cared about sewing? All he wanted was to climb into his comfy-looking bed upstairs.
“What do you think?” A low voice from the table behind him sharpened his fading brain. “Could it have been some sort of giant projection that looked like a cliff? Like, some big screen that gets moved . . . somehow . . . so you see the castle when they want you to?”
Levi’s pulse quickened. If someone else had seen the precipice, then Levi wasn’t crazy. He glanced over his shoulder. Martin, his face pale, leaned near Hunter. Disappointment stole over Levi when he saw who had spoken, but he shook it away. Even creepy Hunter and his thug buddy Martin were better than nobody.
“It wasn’t a screen,” Hunter said in a loud voice. “These people are aliens.” When several people stared at him, he grinned and spoke even louder. “It’s true. I mean, haven’t you looked at these people? They’re not normal.”
“The Dominics look normal,” said a dark-haired girl. “Just, you know, really old.”
“Of course they’re old. That’s because they’re from another planet. And haven’t you noticed the weather?” Hunter moved in close to the wide-eyed girl. Levi half-expected him to yell Boo!
The girl beside her shook her head, her face pinched. “It must be an atmospheric difference between the northern and southern portions of the island. Or some other rational explanation.” Her voice grew shrill. “Because my parents looked into this place very carefully—did background checks and all that. A camp full of aliens wouldn’t have passed inspection.”
“Of course they would.” Hunter was clearly enjoying himself. “They can do anything they want.”
Levi shook his head. Some people watched too many Star Trek reruns.
A crash from the other side of his table brought Levi’s head around. Sara stood beside her toppled chair, tears glistening on her cheeks.
“Sara?” Levi half-stood.
She ran from the room.
Hunter laughed. Levi fixed a glare on the bully.
Hunter leaned closer to the two girls, his gaze flicking to Levi. “Haven’t you ever heard of the Great Lakes Triangle?” He raised both eyebrows and nodded in a way Levi figured was supposed to be significant.
The girls looked at each other then shook their heads.
Hunter stroked his chin with long, pale fingers. “Well, this is it. Aliens abduct ships and airplanes, then they take people off to other planets to perform experiments on them.”
Levi grimaced. How stupid. Everybody knew there was no such thing as aliens. And everybody with any knowledge of geography at all knew the Bermuda Triangle was in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, not in the Great Lakes.
After a couple games of ping pong with Steve, Levi sat near the unlit fireplace of the great hall and watched Trevor and Tommy shoot pool. Kids played foosball and board games in the huge room, while others kicked around a soccer ball in the grassy courtyard.
Sighing, Levi leaned his head back against the headrest of the overstuffed chair. He wanted to go upstairs to bed but didn’t want to have to find his way alone. As the pool match dragged on, he let his eyes drift shut.
Levi jolted awake and leapt from the chair. Shadows filled the silent, empty room. His heart pounded. He was alone. At least he thought so.
“What’s wrong, little boy?” A jeering voice came from the gloom beside the fireplace.
Levi squinted into the darkness. “Who’s that?”
Hunter stepped forward, the shadows turning his face into a demon’s. “Scared?” He strode closer until his nose was inches from Levi’s face. “You should be.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “You know what these people are, don’t you?”
A bizarre image of ET phoning home flashed through Levi’s mind.
“Witches,” Hunter said softly. “Wizards. Demons. Monsters.” His eyes narrowed to slits. “They’re going to turn you into their slave.”
Mind disoriented from sleep, Levi couldn’t fight off panic. He fled the room, his only plan to escape the castle. He raced along the corridor, skidded through the empty dining room, and rounded the corn
er to the foyer. With Hunter’s laughter echoing behind him, Levi scrambled past the spiral staircase that led to his room and sped to the front door. He gripped the heavy brass doorknob in both hands, twisted hard, and wrenched the door open wide.
Before him, a deluge smashed the trees. He could barely make out streams of muddy water coursing down the path they’d climbed only a few hours before. Directly in front of him, the lowered drawbridge took a beating from the violent wind. Rainwater hit the wood with such force it ricocheted into his face.
Should he try to make it through that horrendous storm to the camp and call his dad? Or should he go back into the castle—with Hunter, clear skies, and who knew what else?
He hovered in the doorway, undecided. The wind tore at him as if to pull him from the stone shelter. His ragged breathing was so loud he didn’t hear the footfalls until they were right behind him.
“Leviticus Prince?”
He froze. Now he’d never escape.
Chapter 6
Castle Island?
The sound of his name startled Levi so his already racing heart doubled its beat. The blood drained from his face, and he swayed.
“It’s all right, son.” The voice was barely loud enough for Levi to hear over the storm. He turned to find Mr. Dominic a foot behind him, hands raised in a gesture of peace. “You’re free to leave at any time. I won’t keep anyone in my home against his will.”
Okay then, I’m out of here. Levi took a step toward the door.
“It’s only fair to warn you, however,” the director said in a slightly louder voice, “the path to the cabins is treacherous in this rain. No one is at camp, and there’s no way back to the mainland.”
Levi whipped around and glared at him. “What about the ferry?”
“It won’t return until the storm clears.” Mr. Dominic gestured outdoors. “No one in his right mind would go out on the lake in this weather. It would be suicide.”
Levi glanced behind him as a tree was ripped from its roots mere feet from the castle door. It was a small tree, but still . . . Levi took a step back into the castle. “What is this, some kind of hurricane?”
“Not a hurricane, no. Just a big storm. What the old lake captains call a nor’easter’.” He indicated the door handle. “May I?”
Levi forced himself to take deep breaths, trying to get enough oxygen to his brain so he could think clearly, logically. Should he try to make it to the cabins? Would the phone work if he got there? How long until the ferry returned? What could his parents do if he got in touch with them?
His shoulders slumped. Mr. Dominic was right. Only an idiot would go out in this weather.
But he had to keep his guard up because something was definitely strange here.
Yet even as he studied the old man’s eyes, he felt some of his fears melt away. He shook himself. Was Mr. Dominic bewitching him? What if Hunter was right about these people?
But what choice did Levi have? He had nowhere else to go. At least for now. Was there really anything to be scared about anyway? Maybe his imagination was going haywire.
“Fine.” Levi moved so the director could pull the heavy door closed.
As soon as the door shut, the sounds of the ferocious storm completely disappeared. He frowned at the director. “I don’t understand.”
“I know.” Mr. Dominic’s smile was kind, not like an evil wizard’s. Then again, what did an evil wizard look like?
Sighing deeply, Levi headed for the stairs.
Fifteen minutes later, he climbed the step stool and flopped down on his fluffy bed. His legs felt like half-melted Twizzlers. Hiking up those stairs several times a day would either whip him into shape or kill him. If aliens didn’t get him first.
Trevor, Steve, and Tommy were conked out in their beds, Steve’s snores alternating with Trevor’s in a horrible duet that echoed off the high ceiling. Ugh. Tomorrow he’d write home for a care package—one that included earplugs.
Levi woke early the next morning. Pinks and oranges painted the sky outside the window at the foot of his bed. Yawning, he scooted nearer for a better look at the castle grounds, anticipation once again replacing his apprehension from the previous night. That and a vague sense of having been an idiot to let Hunter scare him. Hunter would probably make fun of him in front of everybody at breakfast. For some reason, Sara’s face flitted through his mind at that moment, sending a rush of heat through his cheeks.
When the view out his window registered, it cleared away all thoughts of Hunter and even Sara, and he let out a bellow so loud it woke the other three boys. Tommy banged his head on the wardrobe beside his bed. Trevor jumped up, missed the stepstool, and landed in a heap on the floor. Steve’s muffled “Huh?” came from the bed nearest the bathroom.
Levi could only stare out the window at the glittering sunshine, though it wasn’t the sunshine that bothered him this morning. On this side of the building, the one facing out from the castle rather than into the courtyard, he could see for miles. Only he didn’t see what he should see on Castle Island.
There was no lake. However hard he strained his eyes, he saw no water at all. Flat meadow extended for what looked like a mile before ending in a forest that stretched long and far until it ended in mountains. From what he could see, it didn’t look like they were on the sunny side of the island. From here, it didn’t look like they were on an island at all.
Proof positive Camp Classic wasn’t what—or at least, where—it was supposed to be.
The four boys piled onto Levi’s bed, their faces plastered to the window, until the sun rose fully.
“The lake’s gotta be just past the mountains.” Tommy pointed at the distant peaks.
“That makes sense,” Trevor said, picking at the single long hair on his chin. “We just thought this hill was the north end of the island when it’s actually in the middle.”
Levi squeezed his lips shut. He didn’t think he should say too much about how he’d seen Castle Island end at a cliff and the castle magically appear in thin air. If Trevor hadn’t seen anything, Steve and Tommy sure wouldn’t have. Levi spouting off probably wouldn’t give them a high opinion of his sanity.
“What about the weather yesterday?” Steve asked quietly.
Left eyebrow raised, Levi peered at Tommy and Trevor. How would they explain that one away?
“Well,” Tommy said slowly, “if this is the middle of the island, it wouldn’t get hit as hard with storms.”
Trevor nodded. “Or maybe the storm turned before it got this far north.”
Levi frowned. Right. It made perfect sense for a violent storm to stop at the castle door.
Then again, his roommates hadn’t looked out the south door the night before like he had. And he wasn’t about to tell them he’d been at the door because he was running away from Hunter like a scared two-year-old.
At the ringing of the breakfast bell, his roommates clambered off of his bed and threw on their clothes, apparently content with their explanations.
Yet as Levi dressed and hurried down the steps behind them, a question kept poking at his brain. If they weren’t on Castle Island, surrounded on all sides by Lake Superior—and despite his roommates’ explanations, he couldn’t bring himself to believe they were—then where in the world were they?
Chapter 7
Ears
The delicious meal of pancakes and maple syrup did a lot to make Levi forget his worries, especially since Hunter didn’t so much as make a face at him the whole time. Apparently whatever had bothered Sara the night before was forgotten too. She sat talking to Monica with sparkling eyes and hand motions punctuating her words.
He shook his head. Girls. They made no sense with their moods bouncing around like rubber balls. Just like his sister. She’d be laughing one minute then weeping hysterically the next. He couldn’t keep up. He smirked.
“What’re you thinking about?” Sara paused with her juice glass halfway to her lips, her blue-green eyes on him.
He
glanced at the others. Monica was giving Trevor and Tommy a detailed account of a rugby match she’d attended in England with her grandfather, and Ashley and Lizzie were talking too quietly for him to hear.
“Nothing.” Levi shrugged. “Just my little sister.”
“You were smiling. You must miss her.”
Levi studied his empty bowl, the tips of his ears hot. “A little, I guess. We’re less than two years apart, so we’ve always been sort of paired up. Mom would say, ‘Levi, Abby, help your little brothers get ready to go.’ That kind of thing.” He swallowed the lump from his throat and glanced at Sara, expecting her to laugh at him.
Instead, she worried her lower lip. “Wish I had that. I don’t have any brothers or sisters.”
“I actually couldn’t wait to get out from under it,” he said louder than he intended. “Being the oldest of a bunch of kids is pretty annoying most of the time.”
Sara folded her arms across her chest. “Well, it’s lonely being an only.” A grin quickly replaced her scowl. “I guess I get to have lots of siblings this summer, though.”
Levi smiled. “Guess you do.”
Levi’s brain ached. Wasn’t this supposed to be summer camp?
Lessons had begun after breakfast. Levi and his roommates shared classes with Sara and hers. After a tortuous hour of Algebra review with Dr. Baldwin in one of the third floor classrooms, they’d gone next door for Latin, where Mrs. Sylvester drilled them on vocabulary and case endings for another hour. It was finally lunch time, and even the prospect of fencing seemed better than more study. At least he’d be out in the courtyard. Who knew camp would be so much like school. And he didn’t even get to wear pajamas to class here.
After lunch, Levi followed Trevor and the others from his corridor through the French doors leading to the inner courtyard. The whole pack of them paused under the covered stone walkway and looked around for their fencing instructor.
“Anybody ever done this before?” Steve’s eyes were so wide his eyelids disappeared into his chubby face.