“I heard about that,” said Wendy, poking her head out from behind Brooke like a frightened bird. “She was left on the ledge with her arms crossed over her chest and covered with ashes.”
“A sacrifice,” said Owen.
“That’s a myth,” Rona said with a snort.
“No, it’s not.” This from a boy named Ryan. Emma hadn’t paid much attention to him to date. She thought about that other guy, the one who interested her, but it was probably best to forget him, too.
“The fog is nothing to fuck with.” Donovan’s tone was sharp, bringing the attention back to himself. “But it only comes early in June, so we’ve ducked it this year.”
“Lucky us,” said Emma.
Emma knew she was pushing him but didn’t much care. Donovan was the kind of guy who didn’t like being questioned, but Emma was the kind of girl who couldn’t stand letting guys like Donovan get away with their bullshit, so she just met his gaze blandly.
Rona said, “Well, I’m glad we missed it.”
“June gloom,” said Brooke.
Emma rotated her shoulders as they were growing stiff. “Good story, Donovan, but I think I’m heading to bed.” She stood up and swiped small twigs and branches from the back of her jeans.
“Not just a story. Truth,” insisted Donovan. For all his looks to the contrary, he was no laid-back surfer boy–type.
“They’ve found a body in the lake once, maybe twice,” granted Emma. “But those were probably swimming deaths.”
“And the one on the ledge,” reminded Wendy.
“Don’t leave,” Donovan said to Emma. “Sit down, sit down.” He motioned with his hand patting the air for her to reseat herself on the ground.
“My butt is numb.”
“That’s part of the fun of Camp Love Shack,” insisted Lanny.
They all chorused for her to stay, the girls a little less enthusiastically than the guys. Emma thought about it. Truthfully, if the camp director planned to be away for a while, it was nice to at least be unchaperoned. Sure, she would’ve rather had more sophisticated company, but what the hell.
“You sure you don’t want some?” Donovan squeaked out, holding smoke in his lungs from a big hit, extending the roach toward Emma.
“No, thanks.”
“A beer?” Lanny held one up from the cooler he’d sneaked into camp, waggling the bottle back and forth, trying to entice her.
Emma knew they all looked at her as if she were a pariah. She hadn’t come to make friends, and she’d been standoffish from the start. She had other things coming up in her life. She’d just been putting in her time as a camp counselor this summer before her senior year in high school.
But...
“Okay,” she said, slowly sinking back down, and she could almost hear the unspoken “Finally!” from the group.
“June’s over and I, for one, am enjoying this ‘fogless’ night,” stated Brooke firmly.
“The fog comes when the fog comes—June, July, August, whenever,” said Lanny. His tone was surprisingly serious for him. “None of us are really safe, but that’s what makes Camp Love Shack so cool.”
“Let’s not talk about it anymore,” murmured Wendy.
“Why not? Bring it on,” declared Rona. “Any fog in the forecast?”
Rona was one of those girls who talked big and kind of acted like she was one of the guys. You could never trust which way she would land on any issue. Sometimes she sided with her friends, sometimes she didn’t. Emma had determined right away that she was untrustworthy and always looking for attention.
Emma took a long swallow of the beer. It was nicely cold and fizzed its way down her throat. She’d steered clear of beer since the time she’d drunk a warm one that a friend had pilfered from one of her parents’ parties and hidden under her jacket. That same weekend Emma had gotten sick on orange juice and vodka, which pretty much put paid to her interest in alcohol altogether. That friend had since moved away and now Emma was kind of a lone ranger where girlfriends were concerned.
“The dead girl on the ledge wasn’t a fable,” Donovan assured them.
Rona moved over and wriggled herself between Donovan and Lanny. “Yeah, but the girl on the ledge took her own life. She took some drug and overdosed. Probably didn’t even intend to kill herself. Was trying to make a statement to some guy at that cult place over there.” She waved a hand in the direction of Suicide Ledge and the trail that led all the way from the camp to the commune about a mile further on.
“Haven Commune,” said Ryan.
They all looked at him.
“It’s not a cult,” he tried to assure them.
“How do you all know so much?” Lanny queried. He’d sat back down cross-legged and was poking at the fire with a stick. A cascade of sparks flew upward, scarlet and orange fireflies moving frantically against the dark sky.
“I can read,” said Rona. “Something I could teach you how to do, if I had the inclination to do so, which I don’t.”
The boys all protested loudly at the dig, but grinned like the dorks they were.
Emma pressed Rona, “She died of an overdose?”
“She was from that cult.” She threw a look at Ryan, daring him to argue with her. “They all use drugs and have sex with everybody and chant and pray to the devil.”
Emma laughed out loud. She couldn’t help herself. Ryan immediately protested that he knew people from the commune and they were totally normal. He sounded a little too anxious to convince them to Emma’s ears. Donovan gave Rona a friendly shove and she shoved him back and pretty soon they were tickling and almost wrestling, and Emma decided Rona was going to get what she wanted from him after all. Well, fine. She finished her beer and screwed the bottle base into the dirt and pine needles to keep it from falling over, then lay back and looked up at the stars. The night was deep and clear.
As if reading her mind, Lanny intoned, “The fog rolls in, covers everything in a cold, gray blanket, then recedes, leaving a trail of death in its wake.”
“You asshole,” said Rona on a laugh.
“Shut up,” said Wendy at the same time, sounding like she meant it. Emma turned her head to look at her, but she was still obscured by Brooke.
“Look who’s scared,” sniggered Owen.
Brooke ordered, “Stop it, you guys.”
Which made them double down on their teasing.
Suddenly Donovan was above Emma, his hair falling down on either side of his head, holding himself above her by stiff arms, staring down at her.
“Get off me,” she said conversationally. She really wasn’t in the mood. And where was Rona?
As if answering the question, Rona suddenly leapt to her feet into Emma’s field of vision. She stood in the center of the group, almost in the campfire. “Okay, shut up, shut up. All of you. Time to play Truth or Dare, only it’s just truth, so you morons don’t do something stupid and kill yourselves and leave us to explain why you’re all dead.”
“No dares? Bullshit, I’m not playing,” declared Donovan, but even so he jumped to his feet in one lithe move as well. Owen and Lanny and Ryan were still seated but they all heartily agreed with him.