Chapter 31
MAX
The campfire flames burned bright, casting a flickering light across our faces like the glow of a lightbulb just about to go out. The red and orange flames danced and sputtered, revealing secrets I was trying to keep locked away.
Mackenzie and I had just shared our experiences with kids, parents, and other counselors about why Camp Blackshear was one of the most amazing places we had ever been. How it had changed our lives.
But inside, I was screaming. Because every time I turned, I heard whispers coming from the woods..
My grip on Mackenzie’s hand tightened as I struggled to shake off the fear and paranoia, but it was no use. Something was off; everything felt off. I was paralyzed with terror, convinced this might be the last time I ever saw her.
Losing her was my greatest fear. She was the love of my life, my addiction, my obsession. She was the part of me I didn’t realize I needed, and the thought of losing her made me feel like all my limbs were being severed.
I wasn’t interested in staying here and entertaining families when I just wanted to grab Mackenzie and run. I could tell she felt the same because her eyes kept drifting toward the edge of the woods.
“Let’s go,” I whispered to her, placing my hand behind my back and extending it toward her. I flexed my fingers to signal I wanted her to take my hand, and she responded by slipping her hand into mine. Just as we were about to leave, Graham boasted to the group.
“Tonight, we are excited to introduce our first-ever camp-wide scavenger hunt! This is a fun chance for team building, as we will divide you into groups. Each group will have a team captain to lead them through their course. Throughout the camp, clues will guide you to the final prize! Only one group will win!”
What the fuck?
In all the years we had been coming to this camp, we had never done something like this, not even on the last night.
The crowd erupted in cheers, with kids clapping and parents laughing as if it were all some big joke. But my stomach tightened.
We were being pushed straight into the woods. An eerie feeling of walking into the unknown cycled through me. We should’ve left earlier. We shouldn’t be here.
Mackenzie’s nails dug into my hand, sharp enough to draw blood. I glanced at her. Her face was pale, her eyes locked on the tree line like she already knew what waited out there.
I wanted to drag her away, but Graham was already herding groups, handing out little lanterns and cheap flashlights. His smile was too broad, too eager, like he couldn’t wait to throw us into the dark.
“Max…” Mackenzie whispered, barely audible over the crowd’s voices.
I leaned close, breathing her in like it might be the last time. “Don’t let go of my hand.”
She nodded, but then Graham came over and said, “I’m going to split you up for a bit.”
“No,” I ordered.
Graham didn’t even flinch at my tone of voice. He just gave me the creepiest smile I had ever seen from him. For a second, I thought his gaze flicked past me, toward the black mouth of the woods, like someone was waiting there.
“Come on, Max, it’s for maybe an hour at most. We need the groups to be with veteran counselors, and Mackenzie knows the woods like the back of her hand. Rhett will keep an eye on her.”
I looked over at the douchebag. He was checking her out and wasn’t being subtle about it. His eyes dragged up her legs, stopping at her hips, and then back up to her chest. When they landed on her face, he smiled.
Rhett pushed off the tree and sauntered over like he’d been waiting for this moment for weeks.
He pulled something from his back pocket—a cheap, plastic tiara, silver with rhinestones that caught the firelight.
He didn’t even hesitate. He reached forward, brushing Mackenzie’s hair back, and set the tiara on her head.
“There,” he said, grinning. “Every queen needs her crown. Fit for our leader.”
Mackenzie laughed; it was an awkward little giggle, but it still made me fucking jealous as hell.
My chest went hot with rage. She looked so fucking beautiful, and Rhett was eating it up.
He was trying to stake some claim on her right in front of me.
I listened to the compliments she received about her crown and nearly gagged when I heard her say, “It does look good, doesn’t it? ”
I needed to calm down. But when I watched her laugh with him, touch his arm as he leaned forward, all I could see was red.
No. Fuck this. She wasn’t going with him.
“I don’t feel comfortable separating from my wife. I’m not going to allow this.”
Graham looked over at me with a vicious stare.
“It’s going to be okay, Max. You need to chill out.”
I felt Heather next to me then, and I tensed.
“Ready… partner?” she said with a flirtatious grin, but when I looked at her, her eyes were cold. Over her shoulder, at the edge of the firelight, something pale and tall shifted between the trees. Antlers, or branches. I blinked, and it was gone.
I watched Mackenzie snap her head over, and a look of pure anger flashed in her eyes.
I sighed in frustration. “Fine, let’s go.”
I kept my eyes glued on Mackenzie as we descended into the woods. Her group was a few steps ahead of mine as we made our way into the clearing, but as the trees narrowed, I heard Rhett call out, “Sharp left, everyone!”
In a matter of seconds, her group was gone, swallowed by the trees. I pulled out my cell phone to text her, but I had no service.
“I’m going to fucking lose it,” I whispered.
“Max… you’re only going to be separated from her for maybe an hour. You need to calm down. There are kids here.”
I looked back at the excited group of kids and parents and let out a frustrated breath.
“Okay, okay, I’ll try,” I whispered.
Heather pulled her backpack around to the front and unzipped the front pocket.
“Here,” she told me, handing me a small blue and white capsule.
I opened my palm, and she dropped the pill into my hand.
“What is this?”
“It’s an anxiety medication. I take it all the time. It will help calm your nerves so you can get through this game.”
It looked too bright in my hand, wrong against my skin. But my heart was racing, my thoughts clawing, and she was smiling like she had the answer to all of it.
I took the pill dry, knocking my head back and swallowing it. The chalky taste clung to my tongue. By the time we moved deeper into the trees, the world felt a beat too slow, like someone had pressed a thumb against time and smeared it. My limbs were heavy, my thoughts slipping through my fingers.
Heather smiled, a slow, flirtatious smile, and then said, “You’re going to feel a lot better here soon.”
For about twenty minutes, we kept walking, following clue after clue, the kids’ voices bouncing ahead of us through the trees. But slowly, the sound thinned until I realized it was just Heather and me.
“We’ve been following these stupid clues for what feels like forever,” I shouted. My voice sounded so fucking weird. “Where is everyone?”
I peered into the dark line of the woods. The trees blurred at the edges, smearing into each other. From somewhere deeper in, I heard the faint scrape of something hard against bark. Like hooves.
“Did you hear that?” I called out to Heather. When I turned toward her, my body didn’t turn with me. The ground tilted, and I had to throw my hand out to catch myself before I went down on my ass.
“Are you okay?” Heather asked, her voice suddenly sing-songy and sweet. She looked too bright in my vision, her long blonde hair haloed in the flashlight beam. My eyes kept losing focus, pulling her in, and then pushing her away.
I pressed a hand to my stomach. “Fuck, I feel like I’m about to puke.”
Heat rushed up my throat. I lurched toward the nearest tree, shoulder slamming into the bark, and then bent over and spewed my guts.
MACKENZIE
The group of children was excited, chatting loudly as we moved further into the woods.
A few steps in, and we found our first clue pinned to a tree. I pulled it off and read it out loud to the group.
“Okay! We have our first clue. I wave when I’m happy, I wave when I’m proud, find me by the water, where the loons call loud. I’m rolled up tight, but I love to fly, look near the dock, and I reach for the sky!”
“It’s a flag!” one of the kids called out.
We descended back to the dock, where, sure enough, the camp flag was rolled up with a second note attached.
Rhett grabbed the note from the flag and read out loud:
“Some friends are furry, with tails that swish, they hide in the forest and leap for a fish. Follow the trail where the trees grow tall, look for the sign of paw prints small!”
The kids rushed forward, heading back deep into the woods. Flashlights reflected off the ground, forming distorted orbs of light in front of us.
I followed, feeling Rhett slow down to walk next to me.
“You look good in a crown,” he murmured, so quietly the kids couldn’t hear.
I rolled my eyes, clutching the folded clue card. “Thanks.”
“Max doesn’t realize how good he has it,” he continued. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
I sucked in a breath, becoming uncomfortable.
“Sorry if that was too forward,” he said, stopping right in front of me.
“It’s okay, Rhett, but I’m married, and this conversation is inappropriate.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll stop. But know”—he stepped forward, closing the gap between us—“when he fucks up, there are others out here waiting for their shot. You have a full lineup.”
He smiled, angled his flashlight low, and jogged to catch up with the group. I furrowed my brow at his comment. Full lineup? What did he mean?
My heart was racing as I followed the trail, which split in two. I turned right, hearing their voices echo through the trees, but as I moved forward, their voices grew fainter and fainter. I realized I’d taken a wrong turn.
“Wait… guys?” I called, picking up my pace. The rasp of leaves catching in the wind was the only sound that kept me company, along with the quickening of my heart rate.
My flashlight flickered, the light barely cutting through the trees. Every trunk looked the same. Every shadow bent toward me like dark arms outstretched.
I heard giggling, but it was faint, too far away. I followed the sound anyway.
The sounds intensified as I rounded the corner. And then I stopped.
My entire body felt as if it were being swallowed by quicksand. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t function. My brain went blank as I watched what was happening in front of me. I blinked hard, rubbing my eyes, desperate to erase the image.
Heather was shoving a tall, dark-haired boy against a tree.
Max.
She was plastered against him, fingers knotted in his hair as she yanked his face toward hers.
His head wrenched away at the last second, her mouth crashing against his cheek instead of his lips.
His hands weren’t pulling her closer. They were on her shoulders, shoving, trying to force space between them.
He looked… drunk. Sluggish. Like his body wasn’t listening to what his hands were trying to do.
“Stop,” he murmured. His voice was slurred, dazed. “I l…lov…love my wife.”
“What the fuck?! What the fuck!! Oh my God, Max. What is going on?” The scream ripped out of me. It almost didn’t sound like me at all.
He pulled back from Heather and met my gaze, but his eyes were unfocused. His pupils were blown wide. He looked intoxicated, unnatural, like a ghost inhabiting his body.
He remained silent. There was no remorse, no tears, no flinching.
He wasn’t exhibiting any of his natural cues when he was in trouble.
He just stared at me like he had no idea who I was while my screams shook the air.
Then, he covered his ears with both hands and squeezed his eyes shut, like the sound of my pain was too much for him to bear.
“Mackenzie?” he whispered, his voice slurred and empty, like he didn’t even know what he’d done or how he’d gotten there. “Run.”
I stood there, shaking, my sobs punched back into my chest, about ready to run, until a new sound sliced through the clearing. Hooves scraping against wood.
Trembling, I turned toward the noise, my heart pounding against my ribs.
A man wearing a deer head stood in the gap between two trees. Antlers shimmered silver in the moonlight, grotesque and surreal. Broad shoulders. That lazy, confident stance. Even under the mask, I knew. He shuffled his feet from left to right, and he flicked his fingers at his side.
A habit I knew so well.
Jackson.
My lungs locked. I opened my mouth to scream, but Heather turned and smirked.
“Hey, baby.”
The deer-headed man slowly tilted his head as he acknowledged her, then pulled out a long hatchet. The sharp blade caught the moonlight.
His gaze slid from Heather to me and stayed there, possessive and calm, as he lifted the weapon. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and warped under the mask.
“I told you you were always going to be mine.”
I screamed, the sound shredding my throat, as he flipped the hatchet so the blunt side faced out and swung it sideways.
The wooden handle slammed into the side of Max’s head with a sickening crack.
His knees buckled, and he crumpled face-first into the dirt.
Was he dead? Was he fucking dead?!
“MAX!”
He wasn’t dead. His chest still rose and fell—barely—but he wasn’t moving.
Please, God, let him be okay.
Something heavy shifted in the dirt behind me.
I didn’t have time to turn before fingers closed around my arm.