Six Moon Summer (5 page)

“Of
course
,” Amber said, visibly preening over the new responsibility.

Louise and Patricia limped toward camp, and Rylie saw her chance to get away. She tucked her journal in her pocket, counted to ten, and then set off after them.

“Where are you going?” Amber demanded.

“Away,” Rylie said.

“Louise left me in charge, and I say you have to stay.”

She snorted. “Yeah. Right. I’ll do that.”

Amber yelled after her while she trotted down the trail, but her voice faded quickly. “I’ll tell Louise! You’ll be in big trouble!”

“Such big trouble they might send me home,” Rylie said, knowing Amber couldn’t hear her anymore.

There was no way to tell where she had gone on the night of the full moon, so Rylie retraced her tracks to the lake. It was the last place she could clearly remember. She kept an eye out for Louise and stuck to the sides of the trail so she wouldn’t accidentally cross paths with anyone.

Once she reached the lake, she picked a direction and kept going. Rylie knew she wanted to escape Camp Silver Brook, so she selected the trail leading higher on Gray Mountain. It was as far from camp as possible.

She walked for a long time. The shadows of the trees lengthened, and the trail started to disappear. Rylie grew thirsty and wished she had brought water. But even though it had only been a week since her flight into the forest, she wasn’t nearly as worn out by the hike as before. Maybe camp was good for her fitness after all.

After what felt like ages, she began to feel déjà vu. Something was familiar, even though she couldn’t remember ever having been there before.

Rylie searched the ground between the thick trees, spreading bushes and peeking between rocks. It had been moist the other night, and she saw a couple dents in the dried mud that might have been her footprints. She stepped next to one of them to compare her boot to the size of the indentation.

Something shiny glinted near her foot. Her phone!

She scooped it up and was pleased to find it was only a little dirty, even though it wouldn’t turn on. The battery was missing. She pocketed it, dropped to her knees, and kept searching.

The battery and the back of the case were only a couple feet away. Rylie reassembled her phone, but it still wouldn’t turn on. The battery was probably dead. Since the cord was in her backpack, she wouldn’t be able to charge it until she went home and used the spare.

Although her backpack was nowhere to be seen, she did locate Byron the Destructor behind a rock. “There you are,” she said fondly, brushing off a couple of ants crawling on his forehead.

Her phone and stuffed cat hadn’t made it so far on their own. How had she gotten back to camp by morning?

She gazed around at the surrounding forest. One of the trees looked strange. There were gashes in the bark like deep, parallel knife cuts. Or claw marks.

Rylie touched the silvery scars on her chest. Claws.

“What are you doing here?”

A man approached from amongst the trees. He was overwhelmingly tall and broad, like a brick wall come to life. He had angry, slanted eyes and a Camp Golden Lake t-shirt. His yellow hair was shorn close to the scalp.

“I dropped my phone on a hike the other day,” she said, holding up the pieces to illustrate.

“Hiking? Out here?” he demanded, eyes flashing.

Rylie started to shrink back, but something growling deep within her consciousness told her to stand her ground. “Is that a problem?”

“Girls aren’t allowed on the Golden Lake side of the mountain.”

“Oh yeah? And who are you?”

He ignored her question. “What group are you in?”

“Group B.”

He yanked her back onto the trail by the elbow. Rylie tried to shake him off, but his grip was like an iron shackle. “Don’t you know better than to wander off alone?”

“I guess not,” she said. “Let go of me!”

His hand tightened in response. He marched her back to Camp Silver Brook. His stride was much longer than hers, so it was hard to keep up. She kept stumbling.

“Slow down!” Rylie demanded, squirming.

“No.”

He took her straight to the Group B campsite as if he had been there before. Louise nearly collapsed with relief when she saw Rylie. “Thank God!” she said. “Are you okay? Where did you go?”

“I found her on the other side of the lake.” He finally released Rylie’s arm, and she rubbed her elbow. She could still feel his fingers digging into her skin.

“You found her on—oh Rylie, what were you doing over there?”

“I was looking for my backpack.”

“I’m sorry, Jericho,” Louise said. “I’ll take care of her.”

“I’ll see you around, Rylie.” Something about the way Jericho said her name sent chills down her spine.

Rylie followed Louise into the cabin, and sat on the edge of her bed when the counselor pointed. “The usual punishment for crossing over to Camp Golden Lake is confinement to your cabin and restriction from activities for a few days, but that wouldn’t work on you, would it?”

“You can confine me if you want,” Rylie said, grinning.

“That’s what I thought.” Louise shut her eyes and massaged her temples. Rylie got the impression she was silently counting to ten. “Tell me the truth. Are you planning on running off again?”

“No,” she said honestly. What good would it do? She wouldn’t find her clothing or the rest of her belongings if she went back to search a dozen times. The forest was too thick.

“I’ll explain your situation to Jericho. What am I going to do with you?” Louise asked. Rylie shrugged. “Fine. Stay here for the rest of the day. Did you at least find what you hoped you would find?”

“I guess.”

She left, and Rylie curled up on her bed to gaze out the loft window. Everyone else was in the middle of the afternoon activity, and Rylie was grateful to be alone with her thoughts.

Someone stood out amongst the trees. She sat up to get a better look. It was a boy with dark hair, wide shoulders, and a black tank top—Seth. Rylie leaped off her cot and hurried down the ladder, racing around the side of the cabin.

“Seth! I need to talk to you!”

But he was nowhere to be seen.

A few days later, Group B was assigned another round of archery. The afternoon was perfect for it. A cool breeze carried cool air down the mountain and the sky was slightly overcast so they could easily see the targets. Louise gave Rylie an encouraging smile when she lined up to take wrist and finger guards like everyone else.

Picking out her equipment, Rylie moved aside to watch everyone else string their bows. Louise wedged one end of the staff between her feet and forced the other into a curve, hooking the string over the end. The bows resisted being bent. It looked difficult.

Rylie hooked the end of the string over one side, braced the bow between her hiking boots, and used all her strength to push down.

It shattered.

The loud crack made everyone look over at her. Rylie stared at the fragments of wood in her hand.

“What happened?” Louise asked, hurrying over.

“I don’t know. It broke.”

“The wood must have been rotten,” she said. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

Rylie shook her head and the counselor left to dispose of the fragments. She selected a different bow. This time, she bent it gently, and it gave easily under her weight. She slipped the string into place.

She gave a few test draws without putting an arrow on the string. It pulled smoothly. Rylie felt like she could have drawn the string back far enough to snap this bow, too, if only her arms had been long enough.

She got at the back of the line and waited her turn to shoot at the hay targets. Since she strung her bow so much faster than everyone else, she was one of the first to shoot. Rylie mimicked Kim at the next target down, pointing her left arm straight out to the side of her body and aiming down her fist.

“Good, Rylie,” Louise said encouragingly as she passed.

Patricia and Amber were whispering two lines away. By all means, Rylie shouldn’t have been able to make out what they were saying, but their voices rang out crystal-clear in her ears.

“Have you seen what Rylie is wearing?” Amber whispered to Patricia. “With those skinny legs and that face, she looks like a horse in drag.”

Rylie glanced down at her clothing. She had tried to make the best of a bad situation and picked a bright red shirt out of the lost and found, coordinating it with a loose skirt. It didn’t match her hiking boots, but she had no alternatives.

Her hand clenched on the bow. They shouldn’t have talked badly about someone holding a weapon.

“Did you hear she tried to sneak off to the boy’s camp the other day?”

“Yeah. She’s so desperate for action. It’s sick.”

Anger made her vision blur. Rylie felt hot all over. She reached for her inhaler, recognizing the signs of an impending attack, but it wasn’t in her pocket. It took her a minute to remember she had dropped it in the forest.

“Your turn,” said the archery instructor, and she stepped up to accept her arrows.

Rylie’s throat didn’t close up. She didn’t need her inhaler.

But she needed to do
something
with her anger.

Patricia went to the front of her own line. Rylie felt the weight of eyes on her back, and she turned to see Amber watching her. She was wearing sandals and toying with the gold anklet with her toes. When she noticed Rylie looking, she pretended to be paying attention to Patricia instead.

“Loser,” Amber muttered in a sing-song voice.

“Do you need help?” asked the instructor.

Rylie shook her head and got into position. She aimed carefully. She had never shot a bow before, but she felt confident and powerful. Rylie could do anything.

Focusing closely, she pulled back on the string and released it.

Amber yelled, “Miss!”

Rylie’s arrow whistled through the air and hit the tree behind the target.

“Miss Louise!” Amber finished. Patricia snorted. She had done it on purpose to make Rylie blow the shot.

“Yes?” the counselor asked.

Patricia engaged her in a conversation, gesturing toward the targets. Rylie heard Amber repeat, “Loser.”

Rylie turned until Amber was in the line of her bow sight. It would be easy to release the string and watch the arrow bury in her neck. She was confident she could make the shot from this distance.

“Hey! Bow toward target!” snapped the archery instructor.

She hesitated. It would be so easy...

But now Rylie was being watched, so there was no way to do it without being seen. She eased up on the string and aimed at the hay. Loser? Yeah, right.

Her second arrow flew true. It sunk deep into the yellow ring around the bull’s eye.

After finishing, Rylie returned to the back of the line. Patricia still had Louise’s attention, so Rylie approached Amber. “What do
you
want?” Amber asked.

Rylie folded her arms. “If you have a problem with me, you need to say it.”

“What? You’re crazy.”

“You made me miss the target on purpose!”

Amber gave a barking laugh. “It’s not my fault you suck!”

“Why do you hate me so much?” she demanded.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re a freak who hides out in my cabin and wears old, nasty clothes?”

Louise heard them. She started to walk over.

“At least I’m not an idiot who thinks my daddy’s money makes me better than everyone else!”

“Shut up, bitch!” Amber pushed her, and sudden fury choked Rylie.