Chapter 43
“Oh, my god.” The words leave me in a tumble and I lurch forward, only slightly feeling Kayde’s hand as he reaches out for me and only manages to brush my arm. “Kinsley!” Her name leaves me in a shriek, and as fast as I can, I close the distance between us until my hands are on her, my heart pounding as I look for the source of the bleeding.
“It’s not—It’s not—” She takes a deep breath and looks over my shoulder at Liza. “You gotta go. We called an ambulance but, you have to go to your cabin. Please.” She looks shaky and terrified, and turns her gaze back to me like I have the answers that’ll make this better. “I didn’t know what to do,” she murmurs. “I think—I don’t know if we should’ve left her?—”
“Hey, hey. It’s okay.” God, I need to know what’s happened. My heart hammers in my chest, and I glance around me to where Daniel and Kayde are standing, keeping the other kids back.
Kinsley can’t be out here covered in blood. Some of the campers are already starting to freak out, and too many of them have already seen her.
“Melody!” I call, looking over my shoulder toward my group of girls. She immediately steps forward, her eyes wary as they search my face. “Take the girls back to the cabin. Find Kinsley’s girls too. You know who they are, right?” When she nods, I’m grateful. “Actually, take them and yourselves to Otter Hall.” My mind scrambles to figure out what to do in the situation, and once Melody is moving, I look at Daniel and Kayde. “Take everyone to Otter Hall, okay? Keep them away from…” I trail off, not wanting to really give the kids any more nightmares or clue of what’s going on.
“I’m taking Kinsley back to Liza’s cabin.” Without thinking, I yank my tank top over my head, leaving me in my black swim top and shorts. My hands and arms are bloody, and I use my shirt to clean off what I can before handing the bundle of cloth to Kinsley and prompting her to do the same.
“We’ll take care of it,” Kayde promises, his voice steady.
“Send Darcy and Shawn our way if they’re, umm, unoccupied?” Daniel sounds unsure, but that doesn’t shock me. He’s always been the worst counselor in a crisis and never quite knows what to do. That’s fine; he’s a follower, not a leader, but as long as he’s delegate to, he’s reliable as hell.
“Darcy is in Liza’s cabin,” Kinsley interrupts, looking up with wide eyes. “I’m not sure about Shawn. At the lake, I think, with his cabin and mine?” She stares at me like I have all the answers, but all I can think of is how reliably unreliable Shawn is as a counselor.
God forbid he helps out when we need him. A shitty attitude and questionable crush really aren’t excuses to be such an asshole, but he’s proving that he doesn’t give a damn about that. One more look at Kayde shows me he’s shepherding the kids to follow my cabin, and Daniel is bringing up the rear with a pale, bewildered look on his face.
“Come on,” I murmur, wrapping an arm around Kinsley’s shoulder. “Wipe the blood off on my shirt, okay? As much as you can. Then, umm…” I look at her shirt, biting my lip. “You’re going to have to change. The kids can’t see that, Kins.”
“I know.” She blinks and swipes a blood-smeared arm across her face in a move I’m pretty sure is to prevent tears from falling. “I know; I just needed help.”
“What happened?” Her quick strides match mine, and while we aren’t running, we’re certainly not taking our time on the way back to Liza’s cabin. Whatever it is, I hope it isn’t as bad as it looks from Kinsley’s shirt and arms because it’ll take an ambulance thirty-five minutes to get here.
“I don’t know,” Kinsley all but wails. “Summer, I don’t know. I don’t even know the girl. She’s one of Darcy’s, and she got lost, or ran away, or something, but Darcy came to me saying she couldn’t find her, and none of the kids knew where she went either. Then one of my girls said she’d seen her heading off into the woods toward the south hiking trail.”
Fuck. Fuck, I think, my eyes closing hard for half a second. With the south trail being off limits for campers and mostly grown up after a big storm four years ago made it unsafe, we don’t even mention it to campers anymore. Most of them don’t even know how to get to it, let alone its existence in the first place.
Not to mention, the trail had never been a very safe one. It was for more advanced hikers, with cliffs and drop offs on either side of it that had always made me nervous back when we did take a few groups on it every year. I’d been thankful when the storm had hit and knocked a few huge trees down into the path, rendering it impassable.
“She fell.” The words chill me to the bone, and sound loudly in my head even though Kinsley has barely whispered them. “It can’t have happened that long ago. All the blood…it’s still wet.” She spits the word like it offends her, and shudders. “It was when I found her, I mean. I was too afraid to leave her out there, even though I know we’re supposed to because of a possible neck injury.” Her words pick up pace and volume until she’s nearly hysterical and I can see the tears burning in her eyes.
“But I didn’t know what to do. There was so much blood, and her head—” Kinsley chokes off as we finally get to Liza’s cabin, and I stop her, my hands gripping her arms.
“Go to your cabin and change,” I tell her firmly, eyes never leaving hers. “Grab me a shirt too, please. Calm down, Kins. I get this is so hard, but I need you to calm down. You, me, Kayde, and Liza are all we’ve got. The others are shit in a crisis, and you know it.” I try to joke with her, and I try to smile to get her to do something other than shake.
But the fact I can’t distract her whatsoever, and that Kins is too busy staring at the door of Liza’s cabin like it’s going to bite her, tell me that this is going to be worse than I thought. She nods once, then again, and nearly stumbles down the stairs while I watch, teeth clenched as I steel myself and force my body to not run away.
With Kinsley down, it’s just me and Liza. I have no doubt Kayde will be here when he can, but I can’t fall apart and leave Liza to deal with the situation on her own. Taking a deep breath, I pull open the door to Liza’s cabin, only to jump to the side as Darcy rushes past me, her face pale and bleak.
“Is that you, Summer?” Liza, thank God, sounds as calm as always. There’s no trace of terror in her voice, or anything other than determination and focus.
“Yeah,” I tell her, hesitating as I close the door. “It’s me.”
“If you can, I need you not to freak out. Or I need you to get Kayde, if you think you are going to panic.” I’ve never heard her sound so careful. So…deliberate. It puts me on edge, but I walk through the infirmary cabin, to the bed in the back that she’s leaning over.
Whatever I’d been preparing myself for, this is worse. I don’t know the girl by name, but as I look at her bloody, bruised face and the deep scratches that litter her arms and legs, I wonder if it’s a blessing or a curse that she’s currently unconscious. One of her arms is definitely broken, and I have no doubt that if she were awake, she’d be screaming.
I can also see the long, deep gash that starts at her temple and moves back into her hairline, peeking out from the bandage Liza has pushed against it. Two black eyes have already risen to her skin, and if her nose isn’t broken, I’ll eat my shoes; dirt and all.
“Okay,” I breathe, forcing myself to stay calm. If I let my heart pound, if I start breathing fast and start wondering about the what ifs, then I won’t be any help at all. “What do you need from me, Liza?”
“I need you to put pressure on her head. I want to look her over again and check her breathing. Darcy called an ambulance twenty minutes ago now. We’ve still got time before they show up.” Liza moves away as I come close, and I replace her hands on the wads of bandage against the girl’s head that are slowly being dyed red with blood.
I press down, harder than I want to, and set my teeth against the mental discomfort. I don’t want to hurt this girl. That’s the last thing I want, truth be told. But I have to keep the bleeding under control, if I can. “Did anyone call Fink?” I ask, realizing belatedly that would’ve been a smart move.
Liza hesitates, looking up at me as she puts her stethoscope to her ears. “I don’t know,” she says at last, and I nod, grabbing my phone out of my pocket and texting Kayde. Initially, I’d balked at him putting his number into my phone two nights ago. But he’d only kissed me, pinned me down, and told me oh so sweetly that this way, I wouldn’t get the wrong idea and could always ask where he was or why he’d done something.
When I’d responded that seemed a little obsessive of me, he’d seemed even more thrilled at the idea.
Now I’m glad for it, and I shoot off a quick message that reads, Find out if anyone contacted Fink. Its one of Darcys girls.
Belatedly, as I watch the message send, I add, Its bad. Dont bring anyone else here.
His response is a quick confirmation, telling me he’ll find out if Fink got called.
I’ll take care of it and be right there. Darcy, Shawn, and Daniel can keep the kids in Otter. He’s right about that, and they’re the ones I want help from the least.
Hell, I don’t even think Daniel and Darcy are capable of giving us real help. Especially if it involves being in here.
Suddenly, the girl on the bed shifts, and a long, low sound comes from her parted lips as her eyes flicker behind her lids. I trade a glance with Liza and sit down on the bed, leaning my weight across the girl as gently as I can. “Hey, hi,” I murmur, keeping my voice calm. It’s taking everything in me not to freak out right now, and if this girl loses it, I’m going to as well.
“I need you to stay calm and still for me, okay?” I hear another soft sound of pain from her, and the fingers of her unbroken arm flex. “I don’t know if we’ve officially met, but I’m Summer. We’re in Liza’s cabin.” She seems to relax, even if only a little, when I speak, and it gives Liza a chance to finish checking her over for anything that we can’t see.
This time, though, the girl whimpers, and tears gather under her lashes as she opens her eyes to stare into mine.
Fuck.
She’s going to freak out.
“No, no, no—” she screams, cutting me off, and tries to sit up, though jerks at the pain in the action as I push her gently back down. “I need you to calm down, okay?” I try to say, though her cries drown me out quickly and effectively. My hand on the bandage slips, and warm wetness drips down my hand as her head starts bleeding again.
“Emily!” Liza is back in an instant, standing on her other side and trying to press her down without hurting her. “Emily, I need you to calm down. I know it hurts. There’s an ambulance on the way, but you’re going to be fine, all right?”
The girl stares up at her, then looks back at me with wide eyes. I nod my agreement, my free hand finding her fingers and squeezing gently. God, I hope none of them are broken.
“It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” I glance at Liza, who nods and heads to the front of the cabin. The door opens, and I hear Kayde’s voice as he talks to Fink.
Seconds later, the camp owner is on speaker, and both Liza and Kayde are filling him in.
“You’re okay,” I tell her once more, trying to pull her attention away from Liza’s and Kayde’s voices. She doesn’t need to hear the extent of what happened. She needs to stay calm and not hurt herself more.
“I-I’m—” she whimpers, tears falling down either side of her face. “I’m sorry.”
“No, Emily, what? You didn’t do anything. You don’t need to be sorry,” I soothe, forcing myself to sound calm and casual. “Accidents happen?—”
“But I knew the trail was off limits,” she continues, a tremor building in her small body. “He even told me it was.”
Distantly, I can hear the sirens of an ambulance and I let out a mental sigh of relief. The door opens and closes, and I realize that it must be Kayde going to meet them so they aren’t stuck wandering around looking for her.
“Sorry, what?” I blink back down at Emily, feeling suddenly guilty for not paying attention. “No, look, it doesn’t matter how it happened, okay? It was an accident.”
“He told me about it in the first place,” Emily murmurs, her injuries leeching the strength from her as she fades back toward unconsciousness. “I just asked about the trees…he told me about it and showed me where it was. I’m a hiker. Mom takes me on trails. He said I could’ve hiked it back before the storm.”
For the life of me, I can’t figure out what camper could’ve told her about the southern trail, no matter how I rake my brain for an answer. “Who told you about it?” I finally ask, wishing I didn’t have to. “How did you find out where it was?”
“Counselor Shawn told me. And said I couldn’t go there.” She closes her eyes hard with a soft sound, the tears leaving tracks through the dirt on her face. “But it’s not his fault, Summer. I waited until he walked away a minute later. Until he couldn’t see me. I’m sorry.”
Heat thrums through my veins at her words, and I curse Shawn with every foul thing I can imagine. Sure, okay, he’d told her not to go on the trail. But had he really been stupid enough to tell her where to go and then walk away?
The door bangs open and I move away from the bed just as two paramedics rush toward it. I must be in shock, though, because it seems like one moment, it’s just them, and they’re taking vitals and checking her over. But then I blink, and there are three paramedics there, working together in a flurry of movement to get Emily up and onto the stretcher before levering her through the door.
Kayde pulls me out of the way, and I realize I have no idea when he’d gotten back, though it must’ve been with the paramedics. If he’s been talking to me, I certainly haven’t heard it. And I definitely don’t know when his hands found my waist.
I’m glad for them now, however, though I break away from him to follow the paramedics out the door, the sunlight outside revealing a pale Mr. Fink talking rapidly to Liza.
When the door shuts, he looks up at us, eyes riveting from the paramedics to me. “I’ve called her parents,” he tells them, as Liza jogs alongside the stretcher. “Liza will go with you. She has access to her records. She’s the camp nurse.”
The paramedics don’t argue. They disappear from view seconds later, however, as I stand there wavering on what to do.
Fink solves the problem for me. Slowly, shakily, he climbs up the stairs to lean against the railing of the small deck, one hand rubbing down his face. “What happened?” he asks, sounding both tired and terrified. “God, what in the world happened?”
“She told me she asked Shawn about the south trail.” I barely realize what I’m saying, and I see Kayde frown from my peripheral vision. “He told her about it and stressed she couldn’t go there. She said she waited for him to leave and went anyway.”
I can’t keep my eyes in one place. I look everywhere and nowhere, not really seeing anything as my gaze roves over the grass and the other buildings. Despite answering Fink, I feel shaky and barely present; I feel as if a strong breeze could knock me on my ass right now. “He shouldn’t have told her anything,” I hiss, as if my opinion matters.
“He didn’t know she’d do that, I’m sure.” Fink leans harder against the rail, hands trailing down his face. “God, Summer. We didn’t need this. How…” He swallows and looks at Kayde. “How is she? I didn’t get to talk to Liza much before the ambulance got here.”
“Bad.” I don’t care that he’s asked Kayde. I’m the one who sat with her and tried to keep her calm. “She’s…It’s bad.” I close my eyes hard, then open them and continue to look around the area in front of me blankly, as if I’m searching for something.
But I stop the moment my gaze falls on Darcy, who’s standing behind Otter Hall and hugging herself as tears run down her face. But it isn’t the crying, or her being here, that causes me to be unable to tear my gaze away.
It’s the clear, expressive guilt on her face I can see all the way from here.