Chapter 18
Drew
The whole business with the lights left Drew feeling uneasy, especially after they got back upstairs and found that all campers, counselors, and other staff members had been accounted for when the lights had gone out.
Hank still said that he thought it was just a freak malfunction of the electrical system, or that a kid had managed to sneak out, but everyone else was whispering about the ghost.
Drew could tell that the Ackermanns were uneasy. This was the third incident this summer that they couldn’t explain. Campers were scared, and some of the counselors didn’t look too happy, either.
But Don Ackermann put on a brave face and said that they’d continue with their schedule for the evening. They would finish dinner and then have the bonfires they’d been planning to have.
One of the youngest campers in the boys’ camp was crying. His counselor was trying hard to comfort him, but the boy couldn’t be consoled.
Gabriel sat heavily next to Drew. “This isn’t good,” he said. “Look at this. The campers are going to tell their parents, and even if the parents don’t believe in ghosts, do you think they’ll think this is safe?”
Drew rested a hand on Gabriel’s arm. “I’m sure it’ll all be okay,” he said, though he was having some doubts.
He hadn’t thought it was a ghost before, but now he wasn’t sure.
He had changed his mind about many things this summer, including the nature of the supernatural, and he wasn’t willing to rule out the possibility of ghostly interference at the camp.
If it really was haunted, what did the ghost want?
The rest of dinner was quiet and subdued. Everyone was on edge, though the counselors and the rest of the staff were trying their best to seem jovial and normal. Drew volunteered to stay the rest of the night until Gabriel was off. He didn’t want to leave Gabriel right now.
After dinner, the campers dispersed to their cabins, where they could change if they wanted to, and then everyone would meet later at their designated bonfires for camp songs and s’mores.
Drew and Gabriel went to sit in Adirondack chairs behind the main building, and they were just settling in to take a few minutes to breathe when they heard the screams coming from both sides of the camp.
—
There were red pentagrams drawn on every cabin door. A counselor for one of the girls’ cabins had touched the pentagram on her door and found that it had been drawn in blood.
Many of the campers, even some of the older ones, were crying, and a few were begging to call their parents.
Don and Laurel both looked nearly defeated.
They relented and got Danielle, the office manager of the camp, and she started making phone calls to parents.
Hank said he would get stuff to clean the doors and enlisted the help of several of the junior counselors.
Drew and Gabriel volunteered to help, too.
Laurel told them to wait. She wanted things cleaned, too, she said, but it was time they called the police. She was determined to believe this wasn’t a haunting, but vandalism, and they needed the police to come and investigate.
—
Things happened quickly after that. The police came to the camp.
Claire, the officer who’d been there before, and whose husband Drew had met at poker night, was leading the investigation.
She agreed that it was vandalism, not a ghost, and said they would do what they could to investigate.
The first thing they did was look at the handful of security cameras that were set up around camp, but they had no luck.
Whatever had messed with the lights had also messed with the cameras, and all of the recent footage was fried.
Parents started to show up that night, and many more came the next morning.
They picked their kids up from the camp and demanded refunds for the rest of the session.
The Ackermanns had no choice but to agree.
Ghost or vandal, both were bad, and they didn’t want the campers to feel unsafe.
For decades, the local families had trusted them to take care of the children, and they felt like they couldn’t do that anymore.
Don and Laurel both looked exhausted and defeated.
Drew felt very sorry for them, and even more so for Gabriel, who barely slept at all the night after it happened.
“Is there anything I can do?” Drew asked the next day. It was lunchtime, but neither of them had eaten since the night before. Gabriel had been helping Danielle call families, and Drew had been assisting with directing the cars that pulled into the camp, parents jumping out to find their kids.
He and Gabriel were sitting on a bench outside the main building of the camp, looking out at the cabins. Two police cars were on camp property, and officers were waiting around, in case anything else happened.
“No,” Gabriel said tiredly, and leaned his head against Drew’s shoulder.
He sighed. “I think we’re going to have to cancel the rest of this session, and probably next.
With all the money we’re refunding from this session, I don’t think we can afford to continue this one, and we’ve already had a third of the campers for next session cancel. ”
“Fuck,” Drew whispered. “I’m sorry, Gabriel.”
Gabriel yawned, and Drew kissed him quickly on the temple. He didn’t care who saw. No one was watching them, anyway.
“How does this sound?” he said. “I go into town and get us some lunch and some coffee. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”
“That would be great,” Gabriel said. “I’m exhausted and so hungry. I haven’t had time to eat.”
“Let me take care of that,” Drew said.
Gabriel smiled weakly at him. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.” Drew kissed him again, this time on the lips, and promised he’d be back soon.
He navigated his rental car out of the crowded parking lot.
There were many parents checking their kids out early.
The counselors and other staff members looked exhausted.
Drew was thinking about what he could do to help, if there was anything.
The obvious thing would be to donate more money, but Gabriel had said that his parents wouldn’t accept money.
But circumstances had changed, and he wondered if maybe now they would.
It could be a final gift he could give them before he left, before he went back to Boston.
As the summer had progressed, he wanted to go back to Boston less and less.
Leaving Orion would mean leaving Gabriel, and he didn’t want to do that.
No, he didn’t want to do that at all.