by R A Baxter
“I do?” Clara gazed at Katie with a look of shock.
Marina squeezed onto the seat next to Clara. Travis gave her a dark look and shook his head, then walked away to sit with his cabin mates.
Katie then noticed Jack, Taylor, and Ming working their way around Travis.
“I wish Damien would hurry.” She searched the fire pit below and saw him squatting down next to Derek, helping him start the flames.
“I love this,” Clara said. “I’ve always wanted to go to a bonfire! I hope it’s fifteen feet tall.”
The blood rushed to Katie’s face when Jack arrived with his friends. She couldn’t understand her own feelings. She felt drawn to him, but it only angered her. It didn’t feel natural. Only her father’s company could’ve caused her to dream about him so often, and she couldn’t bear the thought of them having manipulated her. She gave Jack an angry stare, hoping he’d get the hint and stay away.
Ming nodded at Katie as he passed her, then Taylor halted next to Clara, forcing Jack to stop. Taylor observed the empty seat next to Katie and turned to Clara. “Hi Clara.” He waved at her.
Clara waved back. “Hi. It’s Taylor, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I’ve heard about the stories you’ve been writing about your dreams. I think it’s awesome. I want to hear more about it tomorrow.”
Clara’s eyes lit up. “Okay. Most people just say I’m lying, but I’m not.”
Taylor navigated past Katie, all the time keeping an eye on the empty seat next to her. With both Jack and Katie watching Clara, he kicked behind Jack’s knees and shoved him onto the concrete step next to Katie. Jack tried to stand up, but Taylor held him down.
“Didn’t you say you needed to talk to Katie?” Taylor said. “That’s alright, I can wait.” He stood and blocked Jack’s attempt to escape.
“I was saving that spot for—”
“Damien, I know,” Jack said. “I’ll move. I don’t want to get between you two. I was just hoping you’d let me ask you something.”
Katie nodded, her heart racing.
“Look,” Jack said. “I know it sounds weird, but when I first saw you this morning, I totally recognized you. I just wanted to ask, have you ever been to Los Angeles, or maybe, South Korea?”
“Korea?” Unprepared for his sincerity, she let out a nervous laugh. Either he was ignorant of their having shared dreams or he was a convincing liar. Her fear persuaded her of the latter and she frowned and looked away. She couldn’t hide the hint of anger in her voice. “I’ve never been to Korea. I’ve been to Disneyland in L.A. before, but that was ages ago.”
“Okay then.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “I can tell I stirred up some bad memories. I’m sorry.”
Jack glanced up at Taylor and stood up. Katie grabbed his arm and stared at her hand, wondering what had driven her to do it. Jack turned to her and gazed at her fingers wrapped tight around his wrist. The euphoric look on his face made her uncomfortable and she yanked her hand away, then turned her gaze downward.
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” she said. “My whole life is bad memories. I didn’t mean to sound so angry.”
“That’s okay.” Jack took a step back and tripped over his own foot. He blushed and then nodded and gave her a weak smile. He turned and took one step before colliding with Damien.
Damien pushed him away and gave him a wide grin. “Geez, Katie. Replaced me already? I’m hurt.” Damien staggered back, overplaying a dramatic bullet wound to the chest.
“I was just asking a question,” Jack said.
Damien laughed. “Just razzin’ you. Actually, I’m glad to see you showing a little backbone, going after a CEO’s daughter and all.”
Jack shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to go after her. I just—”
“Calm down. I wasn’t serious. You’d be wasting your time anyway. She’s heading back home tomorrow, after the sleep lab.”
“That soon?” Jack turned to Taylor, his eyes wide with concern.
“Looks like Derek’s ready,” Damien said.
Jack nodded and stepped down one level and walked with Taylor to sit next to Ming.
Damien’s conversation with Jack confused Katie. She’d assumed Damien had lied about not knowing Jack was spying on her; but their performances were too convincing. They didn’t seem to know each other at all. Maybe she’d had it all wrong and Jack really didn’t know anything about her dad’s work. But if that was true, why had he shared so many dreams with her? Perhaps her father was using him, fooling him into spying on her without him even knowing he was doing it.
Damien sat next to Katie and the two of them watched ashes float up to a backdrop of starry sky. “Much better with those stupid lights off,” Damien said.
“Won’t Farley blow a gasket?” Katie pulled her sweater tighter around her shoulders.
“He’s already tucked away in bed at the research facility. He’ll never know, as long as Sherry remembers to turn the lights back on, like I asked her to.”
Derek stood near the six-foot flames of a roaring fire, holding a microphone to his lips. “Tonight’s your night, folks.” He scanned the crowd. “If any of you wish to share a favorite joke, a skit, or a fun story, this is your chance. Please keep it clean. Otherwise, relax and enjoy the fire.” He set the microphone on the stage platform and walked to the front row of seating and sat down.
Katie stared at Jack, wondering what to think of him. He wasn’t the kind of person that usually worked for her father. She thought it odd how he stared at the bonfire, like he wanted to swallow it.
Everyone watched the crackling flames for several minutes in silence, then Barbara stood up. Marina and Clara clapped as she skipped down the steps, until she reached the timber stage. She grabbed the microphone and walked in front of the bright blaze.
“Just thought someone had to tell the famous Camp Farley ghost story.”
Derek stood, rushed over to Barbara, and whispered something in her ear, all the time looking up at Katie.
Katie leaned toward Damien. “What’s that all about?”
Damien shook his head and shrugged.
“Okay, my sister told me ’bout this story when she came here a few years ago,” Barbara said. “She don’t lie, so I can swear this is totally true.
“It all started a long time ago, like maybe like ten years ago. There was this girl who lived in an old house in one of the old mining towns near these woods. This girl had everything she could ever want. Rich parents. Hot boyfriend. Let me tell you, her life was good. Her boyfriend liked to take her to their favorite spot up in these mountains.”
She pointed at the mountain behind the amphitheater. Katie joined many other campers and turned around to look.
“It was an old abandoned silver mine everyone called ‘the Museum,’ ’cause there was a ton of old, rusted mining tools and crap lying around.
“Then, one dark, windy night, the girl was sauntering home from her job at the drug store when she stumbled across a crumpled note that was tumbling along the ground. She stared at it for a sec and she recognized the handwriting. It was her boyfriend’s handwriting. She figured the note must’ve blown off her own porch.
“The note said, ‘Meet me at the Museum, eight o’clock sharp. I have a surprise for you, my love.’ Well, that girl got so excited she could hardly move. She had a good idea what the surprise was going to be, so she ran on home and begged her dad to drive her up to the mine—which wasn’t easy. Nobody’s dad wants to take his daughter to some old mine after dark. But she kept begging and he finally gave in.
“She was late, of course. The sun had already gone down before her dad drove away. She could see the glowing of a campfire in the mine. She was all smiles when she strolled inside. But her joy didn’t last. They say her heart melted from her soul that night. There they were—her next-door neighbor and very best friend—snuggling in the arms of the boy she thought was going to be her fiancé.”
The hum of dozens of disapproving voices
moved through the crowd. Barbara smiled, glad that she had won their attention.
“The girl charged out of the mine, her tears flowing like a river. She wished she could just die. Her so-called boyfriend and her so-called best friend ran out after her. Her boyfriend saw his note in her hand and searched for an explanation. He said he only brought her best friend along to witness his surprise. He swore he’d never hurt her. He begged her to go back into the mine to wait for his surprise.
“The girl’s eyes dried up a bit. She hoped so much that it was all just a misunderstanding. The trusting girl reentered the mine and stood there waiting. She grabbed a burning stick from the campfire and poked at the embers.
“She thought, ‘Maybe I’ve been too quick to judge him. He wouldn’t never be so cruel.’ But then she heard it—the revving of a car’s engine. She dropped the stick and ran out of the mine just in time to see her boyfriend’s car speeding away down the hill. She was all alone now. In the dark. In the middle of the forest. She didn’t have no phone. She didn’t have nothing.
“Pain and anguish consumed her. She could barely walk. She staggered into the mine, swearing that her boyfriend would pay for what he’d done to her. As if that wasn’t enough, she stumbled over a wooden box lying on the ground and scraped her leg. She didn’t notice the words ‘dynamite’ printed on its side. She just lifted her leg up and kicked that stupid box into the fire. Then there was a loud BOOM!”
The audience jumped when Barbara shouted that last word. Everyone laughed. Barbara waited for the audience to quiet down before solemnly continuing with her story.
“No one knew what happened to that poor girl. She never returned home. But dozens of people have reported seeing a young woman wandering through these mountains at night. Within a week of the explosion, a miner found the girl’s boyfriend, pierced through the heart with a flaming firebrand. A week after that, a fisherman found the girl’s best friend drowned in this very lake. They say that the same end comes to all who cheat on a girl in these woods.’
“So,” Barbara said, “if you ever, ever consider being unfaithful to someone, you had better think twice about it. You had better be prepared to face the wrath of the ghost of Abigail Frost.”
A moment passed before Katie internalized that Barbara had used her sister’s name. Abby had died in an explosion, but she didn’t have a boyfriend, or live in the nearby town. Her eyes welled up. It seemed impossible that anyone could’ve tarnished Abby’s memory by twisting her tragic death into some ridiculous ghost story. Yet, they had.
Derek stood up and ran to Barbara. “I told you not to use the name!”
Barbara’s hands flew to her mouth. “I forgot. I’m sorry.” She looked up at Katie, her eyes wide with regret.
“It’s just a story.” Damien started to slide his arm around Katie. She shoved it away and stood up, her mind muddled. She barreled past Clara and charged past the legs and feet of everyone sitting along her row, her fists clenched tight and her lungs compressed and fighting for air.
Damien stood and tried to follow her, but campers now standing in the aisle hampered his progress.
Katie felt wounded to the core. How could anyone defile her sister’s name? Free from the throngs at the amphitheater, she headed straight for her cabin, shoving aside pine boughs and stumbling on small rocks and clumps of grass concealed in the darkness.
Then someone to her right, half hidden behind a pine tree, caught her attention. A short person stepped into the open, dressed in robes so black they melded with the night. The stranger pulled back her hood and revealed a subtle smile and glistening brown eyes. She turned and faded from Katie’s view.
Katie thought she’d finally gone mad. Her own scream didn’t register to her. Everything went black.
When Katie regained consciousness, she opened her eyes to find Damien looking down at her. He kneeled over her and placed a hand on her back, then lifted her to a sitting position. Other campers surrounded her, including Jack and the rest of the research team. She heard Barbara’s voice repeat sincere apologies over and over.
“What happened?” Damien wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to her feet. “Why’d you scream?”
Katie trembled and pointed at a nearby pine tree. “Abby. She’s here. I saw Abby.”
Gray sky deadened the colors of cabins, trees, and hillsides around Camp Farley, and the air hung eerily still. Jack stood on a wooden dock near a line of canoes tipped on their sides, scanning the abandoned lake. A flash of bright blue drew his eyes to the distant rocky shore and he turned and spied Katie, tossing pebbles into the water. He next found himself standing twenty feet from her, unaware he’d just traveled at the speed of thought.
He hopped from rock to rock, his eyes glued to her smiling face.
“Jack!” Her voice was music. She navigated a stony path to him, then stumbled and let herself fall into his embrace.
Jack could’ve held her forever.
“I’m so glad I found you.” She released him, took a step back, and stared into his eyes. Moist tears glistened off her soft cheeks. “I thought you were dead. You were so brave. I don’t know how you survived.”
“Why? What did I do?”
“Don’t be modest. We both know how hard you fought that flying lion with the sharp teeth. It terrified me. I never could’ve faced it. I owe you so much.”
The image of a massive manticore blasted into Jack’s memories, followed by thoughts of an old Asian woman and her sadistic minions pressing in around him. He remembered a huge snake, a dragon, and a pack of wolves. Jack stumbled backward, then caught himself on a tall, jagged stone. He whipped around in several directions and searched the trees and rocks behind him, then the surface of the lake. He saw no gang of cultists, only clusters of pines and the motionless water.
He turned back to Katie, then looked away from her wry smile and look of deep concern. A nervous laugh escaped him. “That was embarrassing. I can’t even think about that old woman and her monsters without freaking out.”
“Don’t feel bad. I’d have been afraid to leave my house after what you went through. You should be proud of yourself.”
“To be honest, I thought I’d dreamed it all until you brought it up. Now I’m half expecting them to come flying at me out of the trees.” He sat on a nearby boulder and again scanned the trees.
“I can’t imagine what you must be going through. I wouldn’t worry about them, though. That old woman only ever found me walking in the gardens at my house. I doubt she’d know I’m here.”
“I want to know why she came at all!” Jack leaned down and snatched two small rocks and tossed them into the lake. “I know they’re obsessed about making me fight something, but why were they bringing you into it? You must have been terrified.”
“I was afraid, which bothered me afterward, because I always knew somehow the monsters never actually intended to attack me. It made me crazy not being able to do anything to help you.”
“You always did what you could,” Jack said. “You should’ve stayed out of your garden, so they couldn’t find you.”
Katie’s cheeks reddened, and she shook her head. “I always tell myself that, too, but I never seem to remember. The only thing on my mind is collecting roses for my mother. I don’t know what’s wrong with my memory.”
“It’s the same with me. I’ve never gone to meet that old woman. I never even remember she exists. I blink my eyes and suddenly I’m with her and she’s forcing me to fight things.”
Katie took hold of Jack’s hands and her gentle touch melted away his fears. He looked at her face and found a loving gaze that warmed him in spite of the sunless sky. He glanced over her shoulder and gasped. Damien stood behind her, leering at him.
“It’s true then,” Damien said. “You do know each other.”
“Damien!” Katie turned around and smiled. She walked to him and gave him a brisk hug. “What’s going on?”
“Everyone’s wondering where you’ve been. My
dad and Mr. Lynch are here to check out the camp while Derek interviews everyone on the research team. They’ve already talked to most of you.” He took Katie’s hand and led her along the rocky shore in the direction of the lodge.
A half minute passed, then Katie stopped and turned around. She dropped Damien’s hand and motioned for Jack to follow her. “Come on, Jack. They want to talk to you, too.” She again took Damien’s hand and turned away.
Jack clenched his chest against the pain of seeing someone else hold her hand. He couldn’t understand her sudden change of demeanor, her sudden lack of interest in him. He worked his way along the shore, past rows of canoes and the dock. He passed the staff cabins and observed how similar they were to his cabin, except they had two-stories and demanded twice the footprint.
“Tell me, Jack,” Damien said. “What do you think is happening right now?”
Jack frowned and assumed he was taunting him about Katie’s having chosen him over Jack. He wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. “We’re walking to the lodge. Why?”
“Yes, but doesn’t something seem different to you?”
Jack looked around and realized the campground did seem unusually desolate. He counted five boys climbing on the amphitheater steps. Three girls sat on the ground by a gray canopy, talking. The girl with the chipped tooth chased a butterfly in the clearing by the main office.
“Seems like a normal day to me,” Jack said. “But where is everybody?”
“Is that normal?” Damien pointed up at the balcony of the lodge. Tony stood there, leaning on the wooden railing, the butt of an M16 rifle set against his right shoulder and his eye focusing on the scope of his gun. Jack followed the line of the gun barrel and his eyebrows creased. He was aiming at one of the boys at the amphitheater.
“What’s he doing?” Jack ran forward, then stopped when the gunshot rang. He turned and saw that one of the boys had disappeared. The other four didn’t notice, however, and continued to chase each other around the amphitheater steps.
Tony laughed.