by SM Reine
Another group filed into the bathroom. Rylie caught sight of someone she recognized.
“Cassidy!”
“Hey,” Cassidy said. She looked almost as beat as Rylie. Her head tilted to the side, and she gave Rylie a funny look. “You look different today.”
Her heart sped up. “Really? What do you mean?”
“I dunno,” she said. “But you’re looking good. I need a shower wicked bad, but there’s a big campfire thing this weekend. Songs or stories or something. I’ll see you there, right?”
She nodded mutely, and Rylie fled to the mirror as soon as Cassidy turned her back. She studied herself closely, half-expecting to see fangs or fur or something equally horrifying.
Rylie didn’t see anything other than the same silvery scar she’d had for two weeks. Then again, there was something a little off about her face. It wasn’t quite the same reflection she had seen for the last fifteen years.
Leaning closer to the mirror, she thumbed her eyelid so she could get a better look at the iris. Her eyes had always been pale blue to match her pale blonde hair. It made her look washed out and ghostlike.
But her eyes were no longer blue.
They weren’t quite brown, either. Instead, ribbons of deep gold veined the blue, like cracks in a sheet of ice. Rylie recognized that shade of gold. She had seen that color staring at her in the darkness of the forest two weeks ago when she was attacked.
A chill shook her, and Rylie stepped away from the mirror.
Be careful. You’re in danger now.
Rylie wasn’t sure why, but she needed to talk to Seth.
Six
Solutions
Rylie didn’t get the chance to catch up on her sleep that morning, nor did she get to search for Seth. She stumbled through breakfast and the morning hike. She barely kept her eyes open through the buffet line at lunch. She didn’t even notice when Louise came to stand beside her.
“Do you see that?”
“See what?” Rylie asked.
“Tofu. I put in a special request for you,” Louise said. There was indeed a small container of tofu next to the salad. It looked like nobody else had touched it. “And one other thing—I sent a letter to your parents explaining you lost your belongings. Your mother sent a care package. I put it on your bed back at the cabin.”
Louise left, and Rylie took several pieces of tofu for her plate. She was kind of excited. Having vegetarian food meant she might be able to finally satiate this gnawing hunger that had been growing within her for days. Nothing else seemed to make it better.
She went searching for a quiet table and passed by the entrees in the buffet. Folds of roast beef for sandwiches caught her eye, and Rylie hesitated. It looked good. Really good.
Revolted, Rylie sat down without taking any. What was she thinking? She hadn’t liked meat in years.
She changed into her own clothes before heading to the recreation hall for arts and crafts, which was supervised by a counselor who wasn’t familiar with Rylie’s antics. She complained of sickness and was allowed to sit in the corner. It wasn’t even a lie this time. She laid her head down on the table and shut her eyes.
The back door of the recreation hall creaked open and a head with shaggy black hair poked in to look around. When his eyes fell on Rylie, he gestured for her to come outside. It was Seth again.
Rylie hurried over and slipped out the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to you,” he said. “Are you okay? You look terrible.”
She tried not to feel stung by his insult. Even if she was exhausted, she wasn’t in hand-me-downs anymore, and Rylie thought she looked pretty good. “I didn’t sleep last night. Where have you been?”
“I’ve been around.”
“Were you the one who wrote in my journal?” Rylie asked. Seth responded with a small smile, so she pushed on. “What did you mean? Why am I in danger?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet? Do you know what happened last night?”
She faltered. “I told you I didn’t sleep.”
“Yeah? And how did you feel yesterday?”
Rylie started to lie. She wanted to tell him everything was fine and that it had been a normal day. But Seth’s eyes were knowing. He would have seen right through her. “I was angry,” she said.
“That’s what I was afraid of.” He took his bag off his shoulder to shift through it.
“What do you mean? What’s happening to me?”
“Look at this,” Seth said, handing her a book from his backpack. “I found this in the counselor library on my side of camp.”
Rylie opened it to the bookmarked page. A large illustration of a half-man, half-wolf beast covered the left page. Its arms and legs were like a human’s, but it had long claws, a shaggy mane, and a snout with sharp teeth. The full moon hung over its head. All the phases were drawn around the edges of page until it became a black new moon at the base.
When colonists first attempted to settle Gray Mountain, they found no natives to disturb. Instead, they were met with resistance from the forest itself as the animals fought to repel them. After many years of battling, the forest spirits imbued a curse as revenge upon the mortals that cruelly slaughtered them: the uncontrollable ability to transform into a monstrous wolf at the apex and nadir of the moon.
Rylie shivered even though the day was warm. “Is this serious?”
“It’s a book of legends,” Seth said.
“So it’s not true.” She turned it over to look at the cover, which was plain green with gold trim. It looked serious enough.
“Who said legends aren’t true? This mountain is holy for animal spirits, like Mount Olympus for the Greek gods. You’ve got the curse. You must have gone into the wild on the full moon.”
“That’s crazy,” Rylie said. “I’m not a werewolf.”
“Not yet,” he corrected. “Haven’t you been feeling strange? Like your senses are more keen? Are prey animals more afraid of you?”
“No,” she said stubbornly, but she couldn’t help considering what Seth suggested. It would explain the horses. It would also explain why she craved red meat. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because I’m the only one who knows what’s going on,” Seth said. “There have been attacks before, so I knew you were in danger.”
“Oh yeah? And how do you know that?”
“Like I said, I was doing some reading. I think these camps were originally built to guard Gray Mountain. There were never meant to be kids here.”
“Then we should tell someone,” Rylie said. “We should clear out the camps.”
“Who would believe us?” Seth laughed. “Even you don’t.”
She bit her lower lip. “No, I believe it. Look at this.” Glancing around to make sure nobody could see them behind the building, Rylie pulled aside the neck of her shirt to show him the scars. “They appeared after the full moon.”
His laughter faded. “That looks bad.”
“Yeah, I know. But why do you care?”
“Let’s go for a walk,” Seth said.
Rylie nodded. Louise wouldn’t be as forgiving as before if she discovered Rylie sneaking off again, but the counselor wouldn’t come back for at least an hour. Rylie wasn’t going to risk losing Seth. Who knew when she would see him again?
Somehow, the horror of what Seth was trying to tell her seemed to recede a million miles away when they snuck down to the lake, dodging hikers and staff on the way. They slid down the boulders to reach the narrow shore where nobody could see them and walked along the sand.
Seth spoke before Rylie could start asking questions again. “So where are you from?”
“The city. I’ve lived there my whole life.”
“I can tell. You’re not much for the outdoors.” He scooped a round, flat rock off the sand and bounced it in his hand, seeming to judge the weight.
“Not really,” Rylie admitted. “But I’m starting to like it more. It kind of feels like I’m home here.�
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“Are you sure that’s you talking?”
She ducked her head. “I’m not sure of very much anymore.”
He whipped the rock out across the water. It skipped on the surface of the lake four times before sinking. They stopped to watch the spreading ripples.
“There are more books at the camp library,” Seth said. “It sounds like it takes the curse a few moons to really settle in, so you’ll have a couple weeks or months before you become a wolf. Until then, you should have partial transformations.”
“You actually believe this stuff? Legends and werewolves? That’s crazy,” Rylie said.
“I guess I’m a crazy guy.”
She took the diary out of her pocket, running her hand over the scratched cover. “How did you know this was mine?”
“I didn’t. I was guessing. You look like the type.”
“And what type is that?” Rylie asked.
Seth flashed a grin at her. “Beautiful.”
Her cheeks got hot all over again. Rylie stared down at her hiking boots and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, trying to suppress a smile. “It sounds like you’re dodging the question to me.”
“Maybe. They’re going to notice you’re gone soon, so you should go back. What are you doing after lights out on Thursday?”
“Sleeping,” Rylie said.
“Meet me down here,” Seth said. “I’ll see if I can get my hands on more books for you. There must be something we can do about this werewolf stuff. Sound good?”
“Sure.” She felt light-headed. It wasn’t a date, but she couldn’t seem to convince her nerves of that. “I want to see the books myself. Will you bring them?”
“I don’t think I can get them out.”
“Then I’ll go to the library there,” Rylie said.
His grin widened. “You’re more trouble than you look. Okay. We’ll go over together Thursday night.”
Seth started to walk across the beach, but she called out to stop him. “You never told me why you’re helping me!”
“I said I’m a crazy guy, didn’t I?” He laughed and broke into a jog.
Rylie watched him disappear before returning the recreation hall, a persistent smile stuck to her face. Nobody noticed she didn’t have the same lanyards and milk carton candles as everyone else when they left.
Amber and her vicious clique kept talking about her at dinner, but Rylie barely registered it. She didn’t care anymore. Her head was swimming with visions of Seth—their walk around the lake, his slanted smile, the way his muscles flexed when he skipped the rock across the water.
He was cute. Very cute.
But she was scared, too. She touched the faint ridges of scarring on her shoulders. Was she really going to become a monster?
She was grateful to find the cabin empty when she got back that evening. Rylie wanted nothing more than to spill her thoughts onto the pages of her journal. Scaling the ladder to her loft, Rylie froze at the top.
Someone had been through her stuff.
Her bed was torn apart. The drawers were pulled open and spilled across the floor. Her clothes were everywhere, and the package her mother sent was laid out as though someone had examined each individual item.
She hurried to pick it all up. Everything looked like it was intact, so the intruder hadn’t found whatever they wanted. Rylie stroked Byron the Destructor’s red nose with a frown. What did she have that someone would try to steal?
Only one way to find out.
Rylie stalked out of the cabin. She found Amber chatting with another girl by the campfire, who fled as soon as she saw Rylie coming.
Amber covered her bandaged nose as if to protect it. “What do you want?”
“Why did you go through my stuff this time? Looking for something new to torture me with?” Rylie demanded.
“What?”
“I saw what you did! Why can’t you leave me alone?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Amber said. She looked genuinely confused. “God, you’re such a freak.” There wasn’t much venom in her tone this time. She looked afraid Rylie would attack her again.
“Then who was it? Patricia? Kim?”
“We didn’t do it, okay? Leave me alone!” Amber hurried to follow the other girl out of camp. She shot Rylie a frightened look over her shoulder.
Rylie believed her. The intruder wasn’t Amber. She was too scared to talk to her, much less invade her privacy again.
But if it wasn’t them, then who?
Seven
Golden Lake
Waiting to see Seth again made the days drag. Rylie tried not to stare at the clock, but she still found herself wasting too many minutes watching the second hand creep around the face of the wall clock in her cabin.
Evenings were the worst. She lay awake in bed most of the time, unable to sleep. Her mind spun with images of wolves and claw marks and full moons.
She wished she had some way of talking to Seth when he wasn’t around. Rylie felt completely alone at camp. Nobody else knew what she was going through, or why she twitched every time something rustled in the bushes. She could hear and smell everything in the forest now. Her senses were getting sharper all the time.
Thursday came after eons of waiting. Rylie was so preoccupied with the idea of sneaking into the boys’ camp that she couldn’t make herself eat that night, and she ended up tossing her entire plate of vegetables into the trash.
After Louise turned out the cabin lights, Rylie snuck from her window and made her way down to the lake. She didn’t need a flashlight. The night was bright and clear.
Picking her way down the rocks, she walked along the beach in search of Seth. The water lapped gently by her feet, which sank into the ground with every step.
“Seth?” Rylie called. The night was quiet enough that her voice carried farther than she expected, and she clapped a hand over her mouth as if she could take it back. Nobody responded.
She hugged her arms around herself as she waited. It smelled like fish this close to the water, but it wasn’t an unpleasant odor.
Rylie took a deep breath. It painted a clear picture in her mind of deep, cold places and silvery fish flitting between swaying plants. It was hard to distinguish between the different kinds of fish. She only knew the kinds that came in a can.
Something paler than the water splashed in the lake. Rylie stared as it approached and clearly became someone swimming.
Seth emerged from the water bare-chested and glistening. Rylie realized her jaw was hanging open, and she snapped it shut. He walked over and shook the water out of his hair.
“Aren’t you cold?” Rylie asked in a tiny voice.
“Not really. It clears my head. Throw me the towel?”
She managed to look away from him long enough to find his towel folded neatly behind the rocks. Rylie was thankful the dark night hid her red cheeks, and she tried not to stare as he dried off and got dressed. “You didn’t swim over, did you?”
He laughed and sat down to pull on his shoes. “No.”
“How are we getting over there? It’s kind of a long walk.”
“I borrowed a canoe from the recreation shed,” he said. “It’s moored over there. Come on.”
They rounded an outcropping of boulders. A small metal canoe was tied to one of the rocks, and Seth waded into the water to pull it halfway onshore. He held it while Rylie climbed in. The seat was damp, and the metal was cold, but she settled in without complaining.
He pushed it out into the water and jumped in. Seth propelled them silently across the lake, the muscles in his arms working with every pull of the paddles.
“How do you feel now?” he asked.
“Stronger,” she admitted. “More sensitive. I think I can smell better.”
“You probably can. Your senses will never get to be as keen in human form as they would as an animal, but there’s some bleed over. Are you getting more aggressive?”
Rylie frowned. “Aggressive? Why?”
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�Another symptom.”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I’m not like that.” Not usually, she added silently, but Rylie couldn’t help but think back on her fight with Amber.
“Yeah? What are you like?” Seth asked. “What do you do when you’re not rebelling at summer camp?”
Rylie trailed her fingers in the water. It was very cold, like any mountain lake at a high elevation. She couldn’t imagine swimming in it during the day, much less at night. Seth wasn’t even shivering. “Not a lot, I guess. I like art and movies. I go to a lot of museums. I write in my journal. What about you? What do you do when you’re not hanging out with scary monsters?”