What Waits in the Woods

by Kieran Scott

  Shaking his head, Jeremy went into his tent. While he was gone, Ted smirked at the three girls in the pond.

  “Did you guys really freak out over a couple of spiders?” he asked.

  “A couple? That was an infestation,” Callie replied, shuddering again. “They were everywhere inside the tent. Everywhere.”

  Ted nodded as if this made perfect sense to him. But then, maybe it did. Maybe this kind of thing happened every day in his outdoorsy world. He seemed even more at home in the woods than Lissa, Pen, and Jeremy did.

  Jeremy emerged from his tent with a small yellow bottle and a blue soap box, which he passed to Lissa. Callie was still avoiding his gaze. She turned to join Lissa and Penelope as they all washed and rinsed their hair, dunking one another under. Sudsing up her arms and legs had never felt better, even though she was half clothed. The shampoo smelled like pineapples and Callie smiled. Her hair was going to be crazy curly after this, but she didn’t even care. Spider-free was all that mattered.

  “That was awesome,” Callie said when they had all rinsed off.

  “And as an added bonus, we won’t be hiking in a cloud of B.O. all day,” Lissa joked.

  Callie and Penelope rolled their eyes as the three of them struggled their way across the rocky, slick bottom of the lake back to Jeremy and Ted, who were waiting on the shoreline.

  “Where did those spiders even come from?” Penelope was asking as the girls reached dry land.

  “I bet there was an old nest in the corner of your tent or something,” Jeremy theorized. “If some spider left an egg sac there it could have hatched overnight.”

  “Okay, Science Boy,” Lissa groaned.

  “Little Man’s right,” Ted put in with a yawn. “That’s probably exactly what happened.”

  “If you say so,” Lissa replied lightly, smiling at Ted, which earned her a sour glance from Jeremy.

  Callie could feel Jeremy’s eyes on her as she returned to the girls’ tent. Lissa and Penelope started pulling out the sleeping bags and their backpacks, shaking them out onto the ground. Callie steeled herself as she grabbed her own backpack. There were still dozens of spiders inside the tent, crawling on the walls.

  Callie felt ill.

  Two nights down, she told herself. Two to go.

  That was if Ted was telling them the truth. If he was really leading them back to his supposed cabin. If he really knew how long it would take to get there.

  And if the laugher even intended to let them live that long.

  Clenching her teeth, she pressed one knee into the floor of the tent, strained her arm to reach across, and grabbed her journal, glad that she had a chance to stash it away before anyone noticed it. As she emerged from the tent, Jeremy was right beside her.

  “Are we ever going to talk?” he asked.

  Callie’s heart thumped extra hard. But she knew she had to do this. She couldn’t spend the next two days avoiding him. Not out here. She opened her mouth to respond.

  “Um, you guys?”

  Penelope was standing next to the fire pit, looking down at the charred wood from last night’s fire like it was oozing blood.

  “What is it?” Callie barely choked out. “What’s wrong?”

  Penelope pointed down. Propped up around the pit in a circle, leaning against the rocks, were a bunch of tiny, rudimentary dolls made out of twigs and tied together with grass. Their arms stuck out at unnatural angles and a couple of the heads were bent to one side, but one doll—the one closest to where Ted was now standing—looked as if it had been crushed under a heavy boot. One arm was severed and the head lolled forward toward the ground.

  Callie swallowed hard, fear mounting inside of her. “How … how did these get here?”

  Lissa and Penelope both fixed her with meaningful stares. They were all thinking the same thing. The laugher had come even closer to their camp than they’d thought.

  “I don’t know,” Ted said.

  “You guys, there are five of them,” Jeremy said, his voice tight. He pointed at each of the people standing around the circle as he counted off. “One.” Lissa. “Two.” Penelope. “Three.” Callie. “Four.” Jeremy. “Five.” Ted.

  They all stared at the crushed and mangled doll and Callie suddenly couldn’t breathe. She knew they were all thinking the same thing—which one of them was that one supposed to be?

  “You guys,” Lissa said, her voice strained as she took a step back. “I think we should pack up and get out of here now.”

  For once, nobody argued.

  “Still no signal,” Penelope said, shoving her phone into her pocket as they emerged onto a rocky hillside.

  Callie paused, hands on her knees, and gasped for air. The pace had been a lot quicker so far this morning. Probably because everyone was freaked about the dolls.

  “What’s this?” Lissa asked, nodding at the terrain ahead. She pulled out a water bottle and took a swig, then offered it to Callie, who gratefully sipped at it.

  “We’ve gotta climb down,” Ted told them, rubbing his hands together.

  “Climb down?” Callie stood on her toes. It wasn’t the steepest drop-off, but it wasn’t an easy hill, either. To test it, she booted a small rock over the edge. It bounced and rolled, then bounced some more, but she couldn’t see where it eventually landed.

  “Don’t worry,” Ted said. “We don’t even need ropes. I swear.”

  He jumped down the first drop and landed on his feet right below them. Then he reached up a hand to Lissa. “Need some help?”

  “Uh, no,” Lissa said, as if the mere suggestion insulted her, then hopped down right next to him. Ted flashed a grin at Lissa, clearly impressed.

  Lissa grinned back at him, then looked up at Callie, Penelope, and Jeremy. “Come on. We’ll be fine if we stick together.”

  Penelope lifted a shoulder, then carefully climbed down to join Lissa and Ted.

  “You guys go ahead,” Jeremy called to the three of them. “I want to talk to Callie for a minute.”

  Callie’s chest constricted and she shot a pleading look at Lissa, but she was too busy smiling coyly at Ted.

  “Okay,” Ted said. “Just don’t hang back too much.”

  He turned and moved on with Pen and Lissa beside him, their boots crunching on gravel and dirt.

  “Why’d you do that?” Callie asked, the sun hot and fierce on her face. “Lissa just said we should stick together.”

  “Callie, come on. You can’t keep ignoring me,” Jeremy said.

  Callie clenched her jaw. Her friends were already halfway down the hill. She wanted to talk to Jeremy. Very much. But was now really the time—standing at the top of a treacherous slope that she had no clue how to navigate?

  “All right, fine. But let’s keep moving.” After a moment’s hesitation, she jumped down onto the first outcropping of rock and looked up at him. “Why didn’t you tell me about Pen?” The minute the words were out of her mouth, she was worried she was going to cry.

  “I thought she would tell you. I thought she had,” Jeremy replied, jumping down next to her. “And then a month had gone by and you said something that made me realize she hadn’t and then I just felt dumb and weird about it. And then the longer I waited the worse it seemed that I hadn’t told you so I just kept not telling you and now I feel like the biggest jerk on the planet.”

  He sucked in a breath. Up ahead, Lissa and Ted’s laughter carried back to them, echoing off the rocks.

  “It wasn’t intentional. I swear.”

  Callie rolled her eyes and tromped across the flat black rock to the next drop, this one shallower than the last.

  “I thought you guys were like BFFs and I thought girls told each other everything,” Jeremy rambled, following her. Callie hopped down and Jeremy did the same. He reached out and touched her forearm, an awkward spot. Callie kept walking. Lissa, Pen, and Ted had disappeared, obscured by a sharply jutting rock. Callie swallowed the lump in her throat as Jeremy kept talking. “Also, it was stupid. Me and Pen
… we’ve known each other our whole lives and since we were, like, five, our parents had been joking about how we’d make a great couple. So last year, she kissed me at this party and I thought Why not?”

  A picture of Jeremy and Penelope kissing in some random basement flashed through Callie’s mind and suddenly she had to start moving again. This was why she’d been avoiding this conversation for so long. The details. She didn’t want to be able to imagine the details. And Penelope was so pretty … of course Jeremy had liked her.

  The next drop-off was the longest yet. Callie lowered herself down, carefully placing her foot inside a crevice. She scraped her knee on the way, but her feet landed firmly on the next flat plateau. Jeremy hovered above her.

  “But it was all wrong and awkward,” Jeremy went on. “Like dating my sister or something. It was nothing like it is with you.”

  Callie’s heart skipped a hopeful beat. She waited for him to climb down next to her, then lifted her chin defiantly, not ready to give in. “What’s it like with me?”

  He laughed, but his cheeks colored. “You know what it’s like.”

  Callie crossed her arms over her stomach. “No. I want you to tell me. What’s it like with me?”

  Jeremy shrugged like the answer was obvious. “It’s perfect.”

  There was a long moment of silence. Jeremy’s words ping-ponged throughout Callie’s head, warming her heart, relaxing her shoulders.

  “Come on, you two!” Ted shouted, making Callie jump. She looked down and saw that his hands were cupped around his mouth. Penelope and Lissa stood beside him. “Let’s keep it moving!”

  “Are we okay?” Jeremy asked hopefully, his brown eyes wide.

  Callie blew out a sigh. There was still a part of her that wasn’t ready to forgive Jeremy. She wished he’d told her about Penelope sooner. The fact that he’d chosen not to—this lie by omission—ate away at her. But she also didn’t want to spend the whole rest of this trip angry. She had more pressing matters to deal with. Like the laugher in the woods, the creepy dolls. What she needed to concentrate on was getting out of here alive. So she could get back to civilization, burn these hiking boots, and make a solemn vow to avoid nature for the rest of her life.

  Two nights down, two to go. Please, please let it be true.

  “Yeah,” she said finally. “I guess.”

  Jeremy’s face fell. Clearly, this wasn’t the enthusiastic response he was looking for, but it was the only response she had in her.

  As they walked on through a landscape of evergreen trees, Jeremy reached for Callie’s hand and she let him take it, but she was still worked up inside.

  Every few minutes she’d think of another opportunity he’d had to tell her the truth—like when they’d all hired a limo together for the spring dance in April, or when she’d helped him pack for that trip to the Cape with Pen’s family in July, or even when he’d asked to come along on this trip.

  Why had he been so gung ho to join them on what was supposed to be a girls-only weekend anyway? Had he been afraid that Penelope was going to spill their secret? Was his whole explanation for wanting to be here a lie?

  Callie glanced up at his profile. He looked different to her somehow. Harder. She wondered if she was ever going to trust him again.

  Ted, Lissa, and Penelope walked in a clump ahead of them, gabbing and laughing like old friends. Ted had found a large fallen tree limb somewhere along the trail and was now using it as a walking stick. Whenever he looked at Penelope, she’d fiddle with her bracelets or brush back her hair. Whenever he looked at Lissa, she stood a little straighter.

  “They’re both flirting with him,” Jeremy said tersely.

  “Does that bother you?” Callie asked.

  Jeremy tensed. “What? No. But Lissa does have a boyfriend, doesn’t she? And I know Zach comes off as this chill jokester dude, but he’d freak if he found out Lissa was into another guy. Besides, what do we even know about Ted anyway? Zip. Zero. Zilch. He just appeared and now we’re following him like he’s … I don’t know … the pied piper.”

  Callie heard Penelope laugh, a light trilling sound that was echoed by the songbirds in the trees.

  “You know what?” Callie said, releasing herself from Jeremy’s grip. “You’re right.” She swiped her fingers beneath her eyes to clear the sweat.

  “And?” Jeremy said, looking confused.

  “I may not be great at making campfires or pitching tents or whatever, but you know what I am good at?” she said with a bright smile.

  Jeremy smiled back. “I could name about a hundred things.”

  Callie smirked. Okay. He scored a couple points with that one. “I’m good at being a people person.” She slapped his shoulder resolutely. “I’ll be right back.”

  Callie jogged down the trail past Lissa and Penelope, who had fallen momentarily behind, and fell into step beside Ted. He glanced over at her, then did a surprised double take. Clearly he was expecting one of his two admirers.

  “What’s up, Caliente? Everything okay with you and the Little Man?” he asked.

  Caliente. Hot. Interesting nickname. She tried to hold back the blush creeping its way onto her cheeks.

  “Why do you keep calling him that?” Callie asked, cocking her head. “He’s only like an inch shorter than you.”

  Ted grinned and, much to Callie’s surprise, her heart did a flip-flop. His smile was undeniably charming—crooked, teasing, cute. “Therefore, little.”

  She rolled her eyes but couldn’t seem to control the upward twitch at the corners of her lips. He was one of those guys. He was handsome and he knew it, and knew how to take advantage of it. Like making every girl fall for him so that they might follow him anywhere.

  Except this girl, of course, Callie thought resolutely.

  She trained her gaze on the trees up ahead. The ones on this stretch of trail were skinnier and spindlier, with matchlike branches sticking out of mostly bare trunks. They made the landscape around her seem half dead.

  “So, it looks like we’re going to be stuck out here for a while. Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” she suggested.

  “Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” he asked, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

  “I’m serious!” Callie clucked her tongue. “We know almost nothing about you and here we are, following you through the woods.”

  He smirked, his blue eyes merry and teasing. “I’m not the Skinner, if that’s what you want to know.”

  Callie’s heart jumped. As far as she knew, nobody had mentioned the Skinner to Ted. How did he know about him? Was the legend that popular? Why would Ted’s mind have gone there right away?

  “Well, that’s, um, that’s good news,” Callie said lightly, pretending his comment hadn’t completely thrown her. “So … are you in school?”

  He pushed a bare branch out of the way and it snapped off the tree. “Yep. Just finished freshman year at Syracuse.”

  Syracuse. A good college. Not easy to get into. So he had some brains to back up the brawn.

  “How was it?” Callie asked.

  “Fine.”

  Callie waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t.

  “That’s it? Fine?”

  “What else do you want me to say?” he huffed, almost as if he was sick of the question even though she’d only asked it once.

  “I don’t know … did you like your classes? Did you make a lot of friends?” Callie, for one, couldn’t wait to get to college. She’d been dreaming of Northwestern—where her mom used to teach, back in Chicago—forever, and was still hoping to go there. The campus felt like home to her, and she also loved the fact that in college, it was considered cool to be geeky about certain things. At least, she hoped that was the case. Maybe she’d be able to write even more, to finally finish a story. Or even a book.

  “Do I have a girlfriend?” he shot back, grinning that Cheshire grin again.

  Callie shook her head, pushing a wayward curl behind her ear. “You really ha
ve a one-track mind, huh?”

  “Can’t help it,” he replied, and used his stick like a golf club to knock a rock off the trail. “When I headed off for my camping trip, I didn’t expect to end up hanging out with the three prettiest girls in upstate New York.”

  Callie blushed again, against her will. Even though she knew it was a line, even though she had a boyfriend, even though Ted was totally smarmy … he was still kind of winning her over. What was wrong with her?

  “Somehow I can’t imagine you being a one-girl type of guy,” she countered.

  “Well, I have been known to juggle a few different—”

  Ted grabbed her arm so hard she let out a yelp of pain.

  “Hey!”

  “Nobody move,” Ted said through his teeth.

  Something stirred in the corner of Callie’s vision and her heart caught in her throat. Not four feet from where they were standing, a long snake slithered onto the trail.

  “Oh my God. What is that?” Callie whispered.

  “It’s a timber rattler,” Ted replied under his breath. “And it’ll kill you where you stand.”

  Callie could actually hear the wet trail the striped snake made as it shushed over dry leaves. Her throat constricted and she clung to Ted’s arm.

  “Shouldn’t we, like, back out of the way?” Penelope hissed, appearing behind them with Jeremy and Lissa.

  “It hasn’t seen us yet,” Lissa whispered. “Keep still.”

  Jeremy’s breath tickled the back of Callie’s neck. The five of them were standing so close together she could feel the body heat coming off the others, could smell their sweat. Suddenly the snake paused and picked up its head. The threat was clear in the tension of its pose. Callie’s knees began to quiver.

  But the snake wasn’t looking at them. It was all Callie could do not to glance over her shoulder to see what might appear more interesting to a deadly rattler than five humans. The snake held its stance for a minute. Callie couldn’t breathe.