Common Ground (The Common Ground Trilogy Book 1) (36 page)

“Well, I’m exhausted,” Annie said, standing up after Sean and Emily headed off towards their tent.

At that moment, I looked over at Steph who was staring right at me. Her eyes opened a little wider and she jerked her head towards our tent, which was her best, non-obvious way, of telling me to get going.

“Yeah, me too,” I faked a yawn a stood up. “Hope? How about you?”

Hope looked across the fire at Damien and Steph. I followed her glance and noticed that Damien was staring a dark hole through Hope. As soon as Hope’s eyes met his, she immediately looked down at the ground.

“Yeah, I’m pretty tired,” she mumbled. She then stood up and slouched off towards our tent, followed closely by Annie.

The moment Hope and Annie turned their backs on the rest of us, Damien practically threw himself on Steph. Their over the top kissing did no help to my already anxious frame of mind. They were oblivious to everything around them that I stood up and left, feeling angry about Damien’s unnecessary use of fear to get rid of Hope.

Annie was already tucked into her sleeping bag and was staring at the ceiling when I entered. Hope had just finished changing and was getting into her bag.

“Can you believe those two?” Annie said disgustingly. “So gross! Especially Steph. She just has to flaunt her boyfriend in front of everyone!”

“Actually Ann,” I started. “I know this is really hurting her and she isn’t taking it well. Damien didn’t tell her what happened between you and Liam, so it was completely innocent.”

She sat up and rested on her elbows and stared right at me. “Is that what you two were talking about before dinner?” she asked, with more of a curious tone in her voice than anger.

“Yeah, she came to me and was talking about how upset she’s been since yesterday. I think it’d go a long way if you rose above this and talked to her. She really wants you back, and I know how much it’d mean to her if you two worked through everything,” I finished.

Annie sat there for a moment and stared at door of the tent. She took a deep breath, exhaled and looked back at me. The look in her face was not what I expected.

“I didn’t know that,” she sighed. “I just assumed Liam told Damien and he told Steph. Maybe you’re right Zoe. I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”

“She’ll be happy,” Hope chimed in suddenly. We both looked at her.

“What?” she added. “She’s been miserable since yesterday. I think you’re her best friend here.”

Annie smiled at Hope. “Really? I didn’t know that.”

Hope nodded. “She’s been crying since yesterday. It’ll be good for you guys to get past this.”

Annie seemed satisfied with her plan and lied back down in her sleeping bag. I was surprised how quickly Annie caved in. I fully expected her to get defensive and call me stupid for taking Steph’s side. But maybe the overwhelming emotions she’d experienced since Thanksgiving had finally caught up to her. Thinking about it all made me feel very tired.

Now that Annie’s issues with Steph were going to be resolved, my attention focused back to more pressing matters. It was hard to believe that my talk with Professor Woodward and Simi had occurred on that same day. Their fearful warning made me feel uneasy again. I started to wonder if we were being watched by one of Ignacious’ spies. The two of them seemed to think it was a strong possibility. But, there was nobody within miles of us that could be considered a threat. The only person that made me nervous was Damien, but even he was harmless. While my mind began to let go, the last thought that came through was Liam. I couldn’t help but think that it all added up to it being him. The same questions ran through my mind while my consciousness quickly faded out.

Was he the spy? Was he hiding in the darkness of the trees, ready to strike when my guard was down?

Chapter 17: Out of the Darkness

The howling wind outside of our tent woke me from a dreamless sleep. A faint light emanated our tent, slightly illuminating Hope and Annie’s sleeping figures. Feeling surprisingly refreshed, I sat up in my sleeping bag and grabbed my phone, which was right next to my pillow. It was already 9:00 and I felt wide awake, with the only drawback being the warning growls that came from my stomach. My eyes scanned the tent hopefully but found no food. I sighed lightly, knowing that the only other option was to go out into the fierce wind and find something in the campsite. I stood up carefully until I was fully hunched over and walked towards the door of the tent. When my hand finally pulled the zipper down, a sharp wind and wet white flakes quickly pelted my face. Dusting them off, I looked out and was stunned at the complete makeover that had occurred overnight.

Snow must have fallen throughout the night because our entire campsite was completely covered in powder. I glanced up towards the sky and found the sun to be hidden behind dark and threatening storm clouds. My mood slowly started to match the grayness in the sky while I reached back into the tent, grabbed my snow jacket and gloves, and threw them both on. The bitter cold engulfed me when I zipped up the door and stood out in the blizzard. I glanced around and predictably found nobody else to be awake. Outside of the crunching sound my feet made while I trudged through the shin deep snow, an eerie quiet encompassed the campsite.

When I reached the middle of the campsite, I found the fire pit, grill and cooler all half hidden under a blanket of snow. I bent down, opened the cooler and found, to my delight a few leftover steaks hidden behind some beer bottles. I turned around and dusted some snow off of one of the logs before sitting down and opening the tin foil that covered the meat. The shrill wind continued to blow the trees and tents wildly around while I sat there and ate.

The loneliness that surrounded me got my mind whirling again. My thoughts of Liam from the night before stayed with me. Seeing his truck parked in the parking lot had stirred up all of the bitter memories I had about him from the past few weeks. The mood swings and sudden departures were personality traits I had gotten used to. But Professor Woodward and Simi’s stern warning got me wondering where his loyalties truly lied. Keeping his distance while he knew that Annie’s and my life were both in danger didn’t help his cause.

Without warning, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps trampling through the snow. I gazed all around nervously, but saw nothing or no one. Slowly, I dropped my food and rose to my feet while my eyes continued to glare through the trees. Each second, the sound of crunching snow came closer and closer and yet nobody appeared. Something didn’t feel right about the situation.  Whoever, or whatever was coming towards me was running fast, and that couldn’t mean good news. I frantically started looking around the fire pit, looking for anything that could used as a weapon. Then, I saw the butcher knife the guys had used the night before sitting next to the grill. I quickly reached down, picked it up and turned in the direction of my tent, where the sound of the footsteps got louder. Tentatively, I walked towards the trees behind our tent, holding the knife out in front of me. While I approached, the footsteps slowed and the trees behind our tent started to rustle with more force than the others around them. In almost an instant, I was standing between the tent and the trees with the butcher knife pointed directly into the brush.

“Put that away before you hurt yourself,” a familiar, but raspy voice panted.

“What the hell are you doing out there?” I demanded, as Damien’s lanky frame slowly emerged from the trees.

“Dude, put, the, knife, DOWN!” he demanded between breaths. Without even realizing it, the knife was pointing towards him, about six inches from his heart. His tired eyes were wide in fear.

“Oh, sorry,” I said, lowering the knife immediately.

I stood there and studied his appearance, wondering what he could have been doing out in the middle of the forest that early. He was bundled up in his snow gear, and had a long scarf wrapped around his neck. Outside of the rosy touch to his cheeks, his face was a complete disaster. Deep dark bags had formed under his eyes, and his normally spiked red hair looked more like a mop had been placed on his head. He was panting rather quickly while he bent over and pressed his hands against his knees.

“Again, what were you doing out there?” I asked, more accusatory than before.

“Oh,” he started to say, his breathing slowly returning to normal. “Steph and I wanted to go for a hike this morning. We started out a few hours ago and were on our way back to camp when she just challenged me to race her back.”

“Uh huh,” I replied skeptically. “Then where is she?”

I stood on my toes and looked over his shoulders, trying to find any sign of Steph. But, she was nowhere to be found and his story started to sound more and more suspicious. Who went for a hike in such nasty weather?

He looked around the campsite for a moment before his expression changed completely. A confused look spread across his face while the smoke from his breaths filled the air between us.

“She’s not back yet?” he asked puzzled.

“Not since I’ve been up,” I said.

In a heartbeat, he turned and hastily plowed through the snow towards their tent. I followed quickly behind, cautiously watching him. He seemed genuinely disturbed that Steph had not yet come back from their hike, but it was impossible to believe anything he said. An uneasy feeling started to build inside with the possibility of Steph being lost.

Damien zipped open the door of their tent in one fell swoop and poked his head inside. He let out an extremely loud expletive and came back out. He shook his head and slouched off towards the logs, where he plopped down and threw his head into his hands.

“When was the last time you saw her?” I asked, sitting down opposite from him and placing the knife back down next to the cooler.

“Not even five minutes ago. She just yelled go and then bolted into the trees,” he said between his fingers. “I took off after her, but she just disappeared. Not knowing what else to do, I kept on the trail and that’s when I found you.”

Professor Woodward and Simi’s warning quickly came back into my head. They’d warned me to be on the lookout for anything suspicious, and Damien’s story was just that. I’d never trusted him before and the whole situation was becoming weirder by the minute.

“Why didn’t you guys ask any of us to come? “ I asked out of the blue. “Maybe if more of us were around, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Damien slowly raised his face from his hands, and his expression had gone from nerves to anger.

“Are you blaming me for this?” he spat back.

There wasn’t a better explanation.

“I don’t know, the whole story doesn’t make sense,” I said. “You want to go for a hike at 6:00 in a blizzard, don’t tell anyone and now Steph is just gone? What else am I supposed to think?”

“Look, Steph is missing. I don’t care if you blame me or not, but right now, we need to find her!”

At that moment, there was a commotion and voices coming from all of the tents. Then, one by one, people started to emerge from them.

“Everything alright out here?” Sean asked, while he and Emily stomped wearily through the snow towards the fire pit. “We heard some yelling and wanted to see if everyone is alright.”

“Actually-” I started to say, but Damien cut me off.

“Steph is gone.”

“Gone, where?” Emily said in a worried voice.

I kept my eyes glued squarely on Damien while he started to retell his tale to them and the others who slowly emerged from their tents and found seats on the logs. The last to come out were Annie and Hope. Right when Damien told them that Steph had disappeared in the woods, both of them looked scared.

“Wait, she just disappeared?” Annie shouted over the wind.

“I tried to follow her, but she got a good head start on me. I kept following the direction she ran off in but she was gone.”

Everyone sat around the fire pit for a minute, either looking at one another with nervous glances, or staring into the trees expecting Steph to come galloping out at any moment. Finally, Sean broke the silence.

“We need to go out and look for her.”

Everyone, except me, nodded in agreement. Steph’s disappearance had them all on edge, but I still wouldn’t take my eyes off of Damien. I didn’t have proof he was a demon, but the whole situation was adding to that conclusion.

“How do you want to do this?” Chase asked, breaking the silence. He stood up and started to rub his hands together.

“Well, I think we should break off into separate groups and head into the woods. The more groups, the more ground we’ll be able to cover,” Sean said.

I didn’t like that idea at all. The possibility of even more of us becoming separated from the pack was inviting more danger. I knew Annie was at risk, but that didn’t mean everyone else was safe. Almost instinctively, I rushed over to Annie’s side.

“Good idea,” Damien chimed in, standing too and watching me closely. “But, I think we should leave some people behind at camp, just in case she comes back while we’re gone.”

“Good thinking,” Sean responded. “Anyone want to volunteer?”

“I think Annie and Hope should stay behind,” Damien said suddenly. “Out of everyone here, they know her the best and I think it’s a good idea to have them around when she gets back.”

“I don’t think so!” I bellowed immediately. The thought of leaving Annie behind without me was out of the question. “Who knows what happened to Steph? I’m not going to head out into the woods while Annie and Hope sit here and wait, alone.”

“Zoe, it’s fine,” Annie said somewhat uneasily, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Hope and I will just hang out here. I’m sure you guys won’t be gone that long anyways. Steph will show up any minute now.”

Damien was watching us intently, trying to listen in even though the wind was still howling and Annie was speaking somewhat softly.

“Annie, no,” I whispered. “Something’s not right here. I don’t feel safe leaving you behind. Trust me on this, either I stay or you come with me.”

She studied my worried face for a moment. “Don’t worry Zoe. Look around, what’s the worst that could happen here? We’ll die of boredom? Just go, we’ll be fine.”

“But-,”

“Zoe, relax!” she said sternly. “After the way I treated her, I want to be here when she gets back. I have to apologize for everything and if I go out and look for her, it could take all day and we have to go home tonight.”

At that point, everyone was looking at the two of us. If I stayed, she would have been mad but if I went, I was leaving her in danger. The thought of telling her what dangers surrounded us filtered in my mind for a moment, but again, I passed. There were too many people around and everyone seemed ready to go immediately.

“Okay,” Sean finally said. “Here’s how the groups are going to work. Emily and I will go south, Tyler and Jaime will head East, Chase and Aubrey go West, and Damien and Zoe will cover the North.”

During the course of the discussion, I realized that maybe it was a better idea to go with the person I trusted least. It would give me a chance to keep an eye on him and then Annie would be safer. On top of that, it gave me an out of telling Annie everything I knew.

“Fine, but everyone grab a map and let’s find her ASAP,” I snapped quickly. “She can’t be too far.”

“Agreed,” Sean added, to a resounding nod of approval from everyone else. “I’ve got a few extra maps in my tent so if anyone needs one, come get it. Everyone try to be back by three. It starts getting dark early here.”

Tyler and Chase followed Sean and Emily to their tent to grab some maps. Their dates, who looked extremely unhappy, slouched off towards their tent and started getting dressed. Damien, who was already in his hiking gear, walked a safe distance behind while Annie, Hope and I headed towards our tent.

“We won’t be gone long,” I whispered to them when we reached the door.

Hope nodded while Annie smiled wryly.

“If anything, I’m more worried about you than me. I’ll be able to go back into my warm sleeping bag. You’re going out into the woods in this crap,” Annie laughed nervously.

“Alright, you guys take care,” Damien said from behind me. “We’ll be back soon I’m sure.”

With that, he started to walk into the woods from where he came running earlier. I gave Hope and Annie one final hug each and plowed my way into the dark, stormy forest with the person I trusted least of all.

Damien got a second wind the further we plowed into the forest. Even though it didn’t take any effort to keep up with him, we were moving at a rather fast pace. His extremely long legs made for big strides, which helped us make good time to the northern boundary of the Black Lake area.

“What’s your plan?” I asked, quickly ducking under a huge snowy branch that Damien released behind him.

He stopped on a dime right after I asked, causing me to clumsily bump into his back. His head was down; staring at a narrow trail that ran between the trees. I pulled the map out of the back pocket of my jeans and saw that the trail made an enormous loop around our camp, a couple of miles easily.