Chapter Twenty-Eight Goldie
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Goldie
“See?” Evie smiles at me from across the long picnic table. “This isn’t so bad, admit it.”
I roll my eyes with a grin as I gather some more beads for the friendship bracelet I’ve been working on for the last ten minutes.
She’s right, in that this camp is not at all what I expected.
Who would’ve ever dreamed up that I’d be stringing little beads that look like teeth onto red elastic so I could commemorate my time with jewelry that’ll look like it’s eating my wrist.
“I’m not sure what your definition of ‘so bad’ is,” I say, holding up my chomplette, as I’ve decided to call it. “But yeah, this isn’t great.” She laughs, and I chuckle too. “But let me guess, this has something to do with a scary movie about a dentist?”
She taps her nose as she says, “Ding, ding, ding.”
The girl next to her, wearing makeup like a porcelain doll, gets excited and joins our conversation, rambling off a list of her favorites.
“So obviously we start with Little Shop of Horrors . . .”
I zone out immediately, or the hopes of my teeth ever being cleaned again would be useless. But my sister falls into the conversation effortlessly, which makes me smile. I place my chomplette on the table and push it her way because I don’t really want it.
A guy walks by as I’m looking around, wondering if it’s too soon to diss my sister and go back to the cabin, which makes me do a double take.
My eyes pop open because he’s wearing a Thrills-n-Kills T-shirt. I reach out and touch his forearm.
“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know a guy who works for them”—I point to his shirt—“who took all the cell phones when we came here, would you?”
He shakes his head. “We never confiscated phones.”
My eyes narrow before I realize he’s talking about for the guests. “No, I mean for the special effects team that was here earlier during the week. We missed the bus back, and I was hoping he sent our phones up? Or you can get them.”
“Ohhh, you’re talking about Jerry.”
I smile, my hope blooming, only for it to be snuffed out.
“No, he stays back. This stuff spooks him too much. Sorry, but you can use mine if you need to make a call. Or there’s a landline in the office.”
I smile, shaking my head. “No, thank you. I appreciate it.”
Fuck. Even if I wanted to call someone, I haven’t memorized a phone number since I was in first grade and had to remember my parents’ number.
“Hey,” I breathe out, interrupting my sister’s conversation. “I’m gonna grab something to eat.”
She nods as I throw a leg over the bench and walk toward the cafeteria, but when I get there, the doors are closed. I pull on the handle, but it doesn’t budge.
“What the heck?” I whisper as I step in closer to the window adjacent to the door and shield my eyes so I can see better through the glass.
It looks empty, but as I strain to see, I suddenly hear, “Whatcha doing?”
My whole body jerks as I half turn around and throw my hands out like I’m an old-timey boxer. Jesus.
“Whoa there, I come in peace,” he teases.
I laugh, lowering my arms as Remus smiles back at me.
I dust off my pants as a method of calming down before I hitch a finger over my shoulder.
“I was just looking for a snack.”
He nods, shoving his hands into his pockets at the same time as I do.
“Yeah, it’s closed between lunch and dinner, unfortunately.”
I shrug. “Oh well, I guess I’ll have to find something to do other than eat my feelings.”
“Well, I don’t know. Ice cream always seems like a good idea. I could go for some cherry vanilla.”
“Same . . .” I’m basically salivating.
He smirks. “Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m management.”
We both chuckle as he motions with his head for me to follow him. My eyes grow wide with excitement as he walks backward, then turns around and sneaks around the side of the building.
I glance over my shoulder before I follow, only briefly thinking that I should tell my sister what I’m doing, but my stomach’s growling too loud, so I split.
When I round the corner, he’s disappeared into the shadows. Where did he go so fast?
“Remus,” I whisper, feeling cautious but still walking away from the crowds of people, before I hear my name, which makes me jump again.
“You have got to stop doing that.”
He chuckles and waves me into a side door before I slip inside the darkened room, which I now realize is the side entrance to the kitchen.
The door closes behind me, taking with it the sound from outside, as I follow him deeper into the kitchen, all the way to the back, where the freezers are.
I shrug against the chill as he walks inside the large silver doors, where rows of large tubs sit on metal racks. He’s eyeing the labels, going from one to the other, before he stops and looks up at me with a smirk.
“You know for someone so scared of everything, you’re awfully trusting.”
My brows draw together and my head turns over my shoulder as the door shuts on its own behind me.
“Don’t worry,” he adds. “I’m harmless.”
“Does that open from the inside?” I rush out, hearing him chuckle again.
“Yeah . . . getting locked in is a myth. Which is great because if you did get locked in and screamed, nobody would hear you.”
I smile, but I can’t lie: I’m suddenly not so sure this was a good idea.
“Here we go,” he says with gusto, then pulls out a tub and takes the lid off. “Grab that scoop.”
My eyes follow to where he’s pointing. I walk over, grab the ice cream scooper, and bring it back to him. He scoops two bowlfuls into ones he brought in with him, before he hands me mine with a smile.
“How about we enjoy these with a better view?”
I nod, my hand already on the spoon, ready to stuff my face. “I’m in.”
Remus leads me back through the dark cafeteria and out the other side to the rear of the camp, where a lake sits. There’s another picnic table, so we set up shop and dive into our unsanctioned treats.
“Mmm,” I hum after the first bite. “This is exactly what I needed.”
He has the same response as we sit and stare at the water, just eating. Strangely enough, it’s comfortable.
The view is incredible, much like the one I saw earlier when I went for my hike.
“It’s pretty out here,” he remarks.
I’m staring out when I notice a small cabin in the distance. “Hey, what’s that? Do people live out here?”
He shakes his head. “No, that’s an old cabin for more staff . . . I’m pretty sure it was for the groundskeeper, or a janitor of sorts. It was usually a person from town.”
“Creepy,” I say, and we both smile.
“Speaking of . . . I actually looked into that urban legend Russ was telling you the other day. I asked around, and apparently there’s some truth to it.”
“No way.” I slurp my ice cream because I’m talking with my mouth full.
“Yeah, I guess some years ago, a kid here was hired on as a groundskeeper, and he was tortured by some of the counselors . . . It’s real scary-movie stuff. Rumor has it that it was over a girl.”
“That’s a twist I wasn’t expecting . . .”
He lifts an eyebrow. “In my experience, love tends to bring the worst out of people.”
I lift my spoon, then set it down as my stomach turns over. I’m feeling the same kind of déjà vu I felt when I found out about Noah.
Remus looks back out at the lake, seemingly deep in thought, before he speaks.
“The story goes that he was sneaking around with some slut—”
I blink, staring at his profile. The way he punctuates “slut” unnerves me. It’s so crude in a way he’s never been before, but he doesn’t seem to notice my reaction as he casually eats his ice cream.
“—and when the boyfriend found out, he and his friends tortured the kid. Really messed him up and left him for dead. Guys like that always think they own everything, ya know? They tried to put him down like a fucking animal, all because they thought he was beneath them . . . just a townie, garbage to them.”
I blink, feeling colder than before. I’m shivering on the inside as I keep staring at Remus. He takes another bite, the faintest hint of a smirk playing cruelly on his face.
“But the kid didn’t die.” His face finally turns to mine. “Instead, he came back to the camp and gutted them. Five in total.”
Five . . . I draw my bottom lip between my teeth, biting at a piece of dry skin before I swallow.
“That’s awful.”
He’s still staring at me. “For who?”
What the hell? His jaw clenches, and I don’t know why I’m feeling so uncomfortable, but I am.
It could be how casually he’s speaking about a massacre.
Or maybe how he seems to sympathize with the violence.
Either way, I’m suddenly hyperaware of how close we’re sitting and how he told me no one would hear me scream earlier.
And we’re still far away from the other campers. I don’t like this.
“You’re not condoning five murders, are you?”
The expression on his face is unreadable. And it lasts for too long before he eases back into a smile, except it doesn’t reach his eyes.
“No,” he says nonchalantly. “I’m just relaying what I heard.” He turns away, taking another bite of his ice cream. “It’s a tragedy all around is all I’m saying.”
I nod before clearing my throat and trying for an easier mood. “I think this ice cream would’ve been a better idea on a warmer day.” I force a chuckle as I set my bowl down on the table. “I’m gonna head back and find my sister—she’s probably wondering where I am by now.”
He smiles and shrugs. “Suit yourself . . .”
Oh, I will, you freaking weirdo. I slide off the table and give him a small wave before I head back around the building. I only look back once, to see him emptying my bowl onto the grass.
Evie’s putting the final touches on her fangs for tonight’s costume party as I sit on my bunk and watch her. The new friend she met making bracelets apparently had an extra pair, so Evie is all set to be a creepy vampire.
“Are you sure you won’t come?” she whines, holding up the fake butcher knife she brought me to makeshift a costume. “I promise you I’ll run block from Remus the weirdo.”
The minute I left him by the lake, I ran straight back to Evie and told her everything. She laughed and told me I was overreacting and living in paranoia because of the camp, but it’s still bothering me.
He was weird, and that story was way too unsettling. I haven’t stopped thinking about the damn article I read and still remember the part about the five people being massacred. There can’t be a correlation, though.
I didn’t share that part with Evie, but I wish I could look up how close we are to Darkwater Bay.
I grin as I pull myself from my thoughts. “No, I’m good. I’m better off here with locks on the door.”
She points to the nonhaunted television that was delivered along with my new bunk. “And with all the reality TV I know you’re going to watch.”
I shrug because she’s correct. I may even try and find some cheesy Christmas movies to counteract all the terror I’ve been inundated with.
She laughs, then trades out her red lipstick for black eyeliner. “I’m telling you, he’s harmless. I think he likes you is all.”
Harmless. He said the same, but I’ve learned that my gut is smarter than me, and this time I’m listening with both ears. Not that I could ever be some kind of monster who would ever “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” someone I was in love with a week after breaking up.
I may technically be back on the market, but I’m also not, because there isn’t a guy on this planet, in any respite of time, who could make me want to give up even my grief to live without Noah.
I’d literally rather be miserable with his memory than be happy in his absence. That’s how incurable the disease of heartache is.
But I’m not admitting that to anyone, including my sister.
I fluff my pillow. “Well, if he does like me, let me make it clear: (a) It’s a hard pass from me. The hardest. And (b): Creeping women out is a weird way to flirt, so again, pass, forever.”
“Agreed,” she chuckles as she turns around for my approval, so I clap.
“Thank you . . .” She grins. “It was difficult to make my skin look translucent with only cheap drugstore powder, but in the end, I’m not like other artists; I’m a cool artist.”
I giggle and snuggle under my blanket, hating the mention of a drugstore, because yet again my mind is wandering to where it shouldn’t.
“Hey, not to beat a dead horse, but look on the bright side.” She grabs a name badge off the console table and scribbles something on it. “Even if you’re not shopping, you can say you still got it.”
I scowl, then use the remote to turn on the TV. “Gross. Take it back—I don’t want it.”
Evie walks across the room and sits on my bed. “Hey, I know we didn’t talk about it all day, and we’re joking about guys who like you, but I know today is hard. I love you, so if you want me to stay and watch shitty shows and eat junk food, I will.”
I smile genuinely but shake my head. “No. Go be with your people. This is the best day of your life . . . We both know that.”
She laughs and shoves my body before she stands and talks like a vampire from old movies. “Thank you, I promise to have a fangtastic time.”
“Booo,” I yell as she walks toward the door. “Terrible pun. Awful.”
I pretend not to notice the way she second-guesses herself, giving me one last look before leaving, and then I’m alone. But truthfully, I’m not fit for consumption, so this is exactly where I should be for the night.
A heavy breath leaves my chest as I adjust my pillow again before I remember that I didn’t lock the damn door.
And I learned my lesson with that, so I throw off my blanket and start toward it, catching my sister’s forgotten name badge out of the corner of my eye.
The one she scribbled something on. It makes me grin because they must’ve told everyone to write down their favorite scary movie.
She’s written two: The Birds + my sister’s life.
I laugh, swiping it up as I make my way to the front door and swing it open. I’m going to try and catch her. She couldn’t have gotten too far.
But the moment it opens, a hand covers my mouth, and I’m pushed back inside.