Chapter 5 #3
Leonie had been starting to get a little worried—so far, the kids had seemed completely earnest, and there was no denying that evil had visited Thunder Mountain in the past. Now, however, her intuition prickled.
You didn’t spend years working at a summer camp without developing a finely honed instinct for when you were about to hear a detailed, plausible, and completely fictitious story.
“I didn’t see it clearly,” Finley hedged. “It was late, and getting dark. But a couple of weeks ago, Beth and I were hanging around the cabins, waiting for her mom to come pick us up.”
“We’ve all been helping get the camp ready for summer,” explained Estelle, who’d always been constitutionally incapable of letting someone else tell a story that she also knew.
“But that day, me and Archie and Rufus had all gone home already, because we live closer to the camp than Finley and Beth. That’s why we weren’t there. ”
Leonie strongly suspected that the real reason was that, out of the group, Beth and Finley made the most reliable witnesses—except for Rufus, of course.
But while her nephew would rather set himself on fire than betray a secret, he didn’t have a dishonest bone in his body.
Asking him to spin a wild goose tale would be like trying to teach a fish to hula hoop.
She glanced sidelong at her nephew. Rufus had frozen in place, task forgotten. It was rare for him to look directly at anyone, but now he was staring at his friends, mouth set in a tense line. Whatever was going on here, he didn’t like it.
“We were sitting on the steps of one of the cabins.” Finley didn’t sound much happier about this story than Rufus. “Not doing much, just talking. I happened to look toward the woods, and I saw…”
“A light,” Estelle supplied when Finley didn’t continue. “At the edge of the trees.”
“A spooky light,” Archie added, in a low, ominous voice. “Hovering in mid-air. All by itself.”
Shan turned back to Finley. “This is what you saw?”
Finley took a deep breath, as though bracing himself. He looked Shan squarely in the eye, or at least in the sunglasses. “Yes. That’s exactly what I saw.”
You didn’t need special powers to know that was a flat-out lie. Shan hid his reaction well, but the slightest wince flickered across his face. She could only imagine what foul taste must have just flooded his mouth.
Shan cleared his throat. “You saw this as well, Beth?”
“Yes,” Beth said loyally, and Shan’s lips pressed together in a faint grimace. “And I know it can’t have been one of the staff members with a flashlight, or anything like that. I’m a pegasus shifter, and I can sense people and animals. Whatever was out there, it wasn’t natural.”
“And it wasn’t friendly, either,” Estelle said in encouraging tones, as though trying to prompt her friends’ memories. “You felt a strange sense of foreboding and dread, right? And so did Finley.”
Finley looked like he was deeply regretting all his life choices, but he nodded. “It felt like we were being watched. By something ancient, and malevolent. And then it was gone.”
Shan covered his mouth. Sounding slightly strangled, he asked, “Did you tell anyone about this at the time?”
“No, sir,” Beth replied. “We didn’t think any of the adults would believe us. We weren’t even sure ourselves that we’d really seen anything.”
Estelle took up the tale again. “But Beth and Finley told the rest of us the next day. They took us to where they’d seen the thing. There weren’t any tracks or footprints, but there was a weird cold spot, right where it had been lurking. All of us felt it.”
“And I smelled something!” Archie butted in eagerly. “It was super faint, so only a bear would’ve been able to detect it, but it was definitely there. Like rotten eggs and smoke.”
Leonie suspected barbecued rotten eggs would have been an improvement over whatever Shan was tasting right now. She really should have set him up with a glass of juice for this interview. Maybe she could offer him some cookies from the camp kitchen before he headed off.
“That proved Finley and Beth hadn’t been imagining things,” Estelle said, blithely oblivious to the sensory assault they were all inflicting on the poor agent. “So we went to Zephyr straight away.”
“He was skeptical at first.” A flush crept up Beth’s neck. “But after we told him exactly what we’d seen, he took us seriously. He knows some monsters are very real, and it’s his responsibility to protect everyone here.”
“True,” Shan said, with a distinct note of relief. He rubbed his mouth. “Well. That is certainly…interesting.”
Estelle narrowed her eyes at him. “You believe us, right?”
Shan surveyed the children through his sunglasses. “I am certain you would not tell such a story without good reason.”
The kids collectively relaxed, as though they’d all been holding their breaths. Finley and Beth looked relieved, while Archie and Estelle exchanged swift, triumphant glances.
Leonie knew that look. She’d seen it on far too many young faces, usually right after she pretended to buy into claims that no one had any idea how the contraband candy she’d just confiscated could possibly have found its way into a cabin. It was the we got away with it look.
Only Rufus didn’t seem delighted by Shan’s apparent gullibility. Catching her watching him, he fumbled for a book, dropping his head to hide his face.
Shan sat back on his heels, nodding at the banner. “I believe we are done here. Unless you think there is more to add, head counselor?”
“No, that looks great,” Leonie said. It was obvious the kids were lying through their teeth, but confronting them about it would only make them defensive.
Perhaps there was another way to discover what was going on.
“Let’s get it hung up on the wall. Finley, Beth, could you go grab some thumbtacks from the storeroom?
Archie and Estelle, perhaps you two could head over to the kitchen and get us some snacks?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I could do with a drink and a popsicle. ”
The four kids happily headed off on their various errands, leaving only Rufus behind. Her nephew had clearly worked out there was a reason she hadn’t assigned him a task. He bent over the box he was unpacking, sorting books into neat stacks.
Shan must have figured out her intent as well. Picking up the banner, he quietly faded to the far end of the room, apparently paying no attention to either her or her nephew.
“Rufus?” Leonie said gently. “Is there something going on I should know about?”
Rufus’s fingers twitched guiltily. He turned his face away, saying nothing.
Leonie kept her eyes on her own work, taking care not to look at him directly. “I know you’d never betray a friend. But I also know you wouldn’t want anyone to worry without reason. And right now, a lot of people are worried about this ghost story. Including me.”
*You don’t need to worry.* Rufus’s mouth didn’t move, but she heard his voice in her mind as clearly as if he were speaking into her ear. *Not about the ghost.*
She glanced at Shan. He looked a little puzzled for a moment, then shook his head. He hadn’t heard Rufus’s reply.
There was no point asking Rufus why on earth his friends were lying. He never spilled other people's secrets.
She didn’t want to reveal Shan’s ability, but she also didn’t want the kids to think she’d just dismissed their story out of hand. Maybe there was a way she could get Rufus to admit just enough of the truth to excuse the adults not investigating any further.
“Do you think there’s really a ghost in the woods?” she asked her nephew. In a flash of inspiration, she added, “You don’t have to tell me in words, if that feels too much like betraying your friends. Just nod or shake your head.”
Rufus hesitated. After a long, drawn-out moment, he shook his head.
“Thank you for being honest, Rufus.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, the other kids won’t get in trouble. We just needed to make sure there wasn’t any real danger. You can go now, if you want.”
Rufus was all too eager to escape. With a final enigmatic glance at Shan, he slipped away.
Leonie waited until she was sure he’d left before turning to the agent. “Well, it looks like you can head off as well. No reason for you to stick around any longer, clearly.”
Shan didn’t respond, staring after Rufus. In the brief time she’d known the agent, he’d hardly been expressive. Now, however, he’d gone utterly still.
“Agent Zhao?” At the back of her head, her lioness stirred, tail flicking uneasily. “What is it?”
He didn’t look at her. “The children are lying.”
“Of course they are. I didn’t need special powers to tell that.”
“You misunderstand.” A muscle clenched in his jaw. “All the children are lying. Including Rufus.”