45 - Ghost Camp (8 page)

“Don’t be scared,” Lucy said. “As soon as we are far away from here, I’ll get
out. I’ll leave your mind. I’ll leave your body. I promise, Harry. As soon as we
escape this camp, I’ll go away. You will be yourself again. You will be
perfectly okay.”

I stopped backing up. My whole body trembled. The fog washed its cold mist
over me.

“Please, Harry,” Lucy begged. “Please. I promise you’ll be okay. I promise.”

I squinted at her through the rising mists.

Should I do it?

Should I let Lucy take over my mind?

Will she give it back?

Can I believe her?

Lucy floated in front of me. Her dark eyes pleaded with me. “Please,” she
whispered.

“No. I’m sorry. I can’t.” The words escaped my lips almost before I thought
them. “I can’t, Lucy.”

She shut her eyes. I could see the muscles in her jaw tighten as she gritted
her teeth.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated, backing up.

“I’m sorry too,” she said coldly. Her eyes narrowed. Her lips formed a sneer.
“I’m really sorry, Harry. But you don’t have a choice. You
have
to help
me!”

“No! No way!”

I turned and tried to run.

But something held me back. The fog. It tightened around me.

The thick, wet mist. A choking mist. It drew around me, pushing me, holding
me in place.

I tried to scream for help. But the fog muffled my cry.

Lucy vanished behind the black fog.

And then I felt something cold on the top of my head.

My hair tingled.

I reached up with both hands. And felt ice. As if a frost had settled over my
hair.

“No!” I screamed. “Lucy—no!”

The cold sank down. My scalp itched. My face froze.

I rubbed my cheeks.

Numb.

Cold and numb.

“Lucy—please!” I begged.

I could feel her—so light, so cold—settling into my body. Sinking into my
brain.

I could feel her. And I could feel myself slipping away.

Slipping… slipping…

As if drifting into a deep sleep.

The cold spreading over me. Sweeping down my neck. Down my chest.

“Nooooo!” I uttered a long howl of protest.

I shut my eyes tight. I knew I had to concentrate. I had to think hard. I had
to keep awake. I couldn’t let myself fade away.

I couldn’t let her take over.

I couldn’t let her shove my mind aside. And take control. Take control of my
body.

I set my jaw hard. And kept my eyes shut. And tightened every muscle.

No!
I thought.
No—you can’t do this to me, Lucy!

You can’t take my mind!

You can’t take over. You can’t—because I won’t let you!

The cold settled over me. My skin tingled. I felt numb all over.

And so sleepy… so sleepy…

“Nooooo!” I tossed back my head in another long howl.

If I can keep screaming, I can keep awake, I told myself.

And I can fight Lucy off. I can force her away.

“Noooooooo!” I wailed into the spinning, whirling fog.

“Noooooooo!”

And I felt the cold start to lift.

“Noooooo!”

I squeezed my arms. Rubbed my cheeks. And knew the feeling was returning.

“Noooooo!”

I suddenly felt lighter. And totally alert.

I did it! I realized. I fought her off!

But how long did I have before she tried to take over again?

I took a deep breath. Then another.

I’m breathing, I told myself. I’m me—and I’m breathing.

I felt stronger now. I lowered my head and darted into the fog.

My sneakers pounded the ground. I made my way to the cabin.

The lights were out. The other guys were in their bunks.

I burst inside and let the screen door slam behind me.

“What’s up?” Sam demanded.

I didn’t answer him. I ran across the room. Grabbed my brother. Shook him
hard. “Come on. Hurry,” I ordered.

“Huh?” Alex squinted up at me sleepily.

I didn’t say another word. I tossed him his shorts and his sneakers.

I heard the other guys stirring. Joey sat up in his bed. “Harry—where
were
you?” he asked.

“Lights Out was ten minutes ago,” Sam said. “You’re going to get us all in
trouble.”

I ignored them. “Alex—hurry!” I whispered.

As soon as he had his sneakers tied, I grabbed his arm and tugged him to the
door. “Harry—what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Where are you two going?” I heard Joey call.

I pulled Alex outside. The screen door slammed behind us.

“Run!” I cried. “I’ll explain later. We have to get out of here—now!”

“But, Harry—”

I pulled Alex over the grass. The fog had parted enough to let a trail of moonlight slip through. We followed the trail to the
woods.

Our sneakers slipped and slid over the wet grass. The only other sound was
the chirp of crickets and the rush of wind rattling the pine trees.

After a minute or two, Alex wanted to stop to catch his breath.

“No,” I insisted. “Keep moving. They’ll follow us. They’ll find us.”

“Where are we going?” Alex demanded.

“Deep into the woods,” I told him. “As far away from that camp as we can.”

“But I can’t keep running, Harry,” Alex cried. “My side hurts and—”

“They’re all ghosts!” I blurted out. “Alex—I know you won’t believe me—but you’ve got to try. The kids. The counselors. Uncle Marv. They’re all
ghosts!”

Alex’s expression grew solemn. “I know,” he replied in a tiny voice.

“Huh? How do you know?” I demanded.

We squeezed between two tangled tree trunks. Over the chirp of crickets, I
could hear the lake washing over the shore just beyond some tall shrubs.

We’re still too close to the camp, I told myself.

I pulled my brother in the other direction. Away from the lake. Pushing aside
tall weeds and shrubs, we made our own path, deeper into the woods.

“Alex—how do you know?” I repeated.

“Elvis told me,” he replied, wiping sweat off his forehead with his arm.

We ducked under a tall thorn bush. Thorns scraped the top of my head. I
ignored the pain and kept moving.

“Elvis said the ghost story about the fog was true,” Alex continued. “I
thought he was just trying to scare me. But then he—he—” Alex’s voice
trailed off.

We ran into a small clearing. Moonlight made the grass glow like silver. My
eyes flashed in one direction, then the other. I couldn’t decide which way to
run.

I swatted a mosquito off my arm. “What did Elvis do?” I asked Alex.

Alex raked back his dark hair. “He tried to take over my mind,” he told me in
a trembling voice. “He floated into the fog. And then I started to feel really
cold.”

Twigs snapped. Dry leaves crackled.

Footsteps?

I shoved Alex back into the trees. Out of the clearing.

We pressed against a wide tree trunk and listened.

Silence now.

“Maybe it was a squirrel, or a chipmunk, or something,” Alex whispered.

“Maybe,” I replied, listening hard.

Moonlight trickled through the treetops. It made shadows dance over the
smooth clearing.

“We have to keep going,” I said. “We’re still too close to the camp. If the
ghosts follow us…”

I didn’t finish my thought. I didn’t want to
think
about what would
happen if the ghosts followed us. If they caught us…

“Which way is the highway?” Alex asked, his eyes searching the trees. “It
isn’t too far from the camp—right? If we can get to the highway, someone will
give us a ride.”

“Good idea,” I said. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

Now here we were, in the middle of the woods. Far from the highway.

I didn’t even know which direction to go to find it.

“It must be back that way,” Alex suggested, pointing.

“No. That’s the way back to the camp,” I argued.

Alex started to reply—but a loud thumping sound made him stop. “Did you
hear that?” he whispered.

I did.

And then I heard it again.

A loud thump. Very close by.

“Is it an animal?” I cried softly.

“I—I don’t think so,” Alex stammered.

KA-THUMP.

Louder.

Is it a ghost? I wondered.

Has one of them found us?

“Quick—this way!” I urged. I grabbed Alex by the wrist and tugged him hard.

We had to get away from whatever was making that frightening noise.

KA-THUMP.

Louder.

“We’re going the wrong way!” I cried.

We spun around and darted back into the clearing.

KA-THUMP.

“Which way?” Alex screeched. “Which way? It—it’s
everywhere
!”

KA-THUMP.

And then—from somewhere just ahead of us—a deep, booming voice growled,
“WHY ARE YOU STANDING ON MY HEART?”

The ground tumbled and shook.

Alex and I both let out terrified cries.

But our cries were drowned out by a rumbling sound that quickly rose to a
roar.

The ground gave way beneath us.

We both raised our arms high as we toppled over.

I landed on my hands and knees. Alex fell onto his back. The ground trembled
and tossed, tumbling us around.

“It—it’s the
monster
!” Alex shrieked.

But that’s impossible! I thought, struggling to my feet.

That monster is from a story. A dumb camp ghost story.

It can’t be here in the woods.

I helped pull Alex up. But the ground shook again, and we both fell to our
knees.

KA-THUMP. KA-THUMP.

“It can’t be real!” I cried. “It can’t—”

My mouth dropped open in horror as a huge, hairy head raised itself in front
of us. Its eyes glowed as red as flames—round, terrifying, glowing eyes set
deep in an ugly, growling face. The creature glared furiously at us.

“Th-the monster!” Alex stuttered.

We were both on our knees, bouncing helplessly on the rolling, tossing
ground.

Was it the ground? Or the monster’s chest?

The creature opened an enormous cavern of a mouth. It flashed rows and rows
of jagged yellow teeth.

Slowly it raised its head, moving closer. Closer.

Opening its hairy jaws wide. Preparing to swallow us as we frantically
struggled to scramble away.

“Harry—! Harry—!” Alex shrieked my name. “It’s going to eat us! It’s
going to swallow us whole!”

And then—in a flash—I had an idea.

The huge monster uttered a low growl.

Its hairy mouth opened wider. An enormous purple tongue rolled out. I gasped
when I saw that the tongue was covered in prickly burrs.

“Look out, Alex!” I cried.

Too late.

The ground tossed, bouncing us both into the air. We landed with a hard
plop
on the tongue.

“Owwww!” we both howled. It felt like a cactus!

Slowly, the prickly purple tongue began to slide, carrying us into the
creature’s open mouth.

“We don’t believe in monsters,” I told Alex.

I had to shout over the bellowing of the hungry monster. The tongue carried
us closer. Closer to the rows of jagged yellow teeth.

“We don’t believe in this monster!” I shouted. “It is just made up. Part of a
story. If we don’t believe in it, it can’t exist!”

Alex’s whole body shook. He hunched over, making himself into a tight ball. “It looks pretty real!” he choked out.

The tongue dragged us closer. I could smell the monster’s foul breath. I
could see black stains on its jagged teeth.

“Concentrate,” I instructed my brother. “We don’t believe in you. We don’t
believe in you.”

Alex and I began chanting those words, over and over.

“We don’t believe in you. We don’t believe in you.”

The purple tongue carried us into the huge mouth. I tried to grab onto the
teeth. But they were too slippery.

My hands slid off. I felt myself being swallowed.

Down, down. Into sour darkness.

“We don’t believe in you. We don’t believe in you.” Alex and I continued to
chant.

But our voices were muffled as we slid down the creature’s throbbing throat.

“Harry—it
swallowed
us!” Alex wailed.

“Keep chanting,” I ordered him. “If we don’t believe in it, it
can’t
exist!”

“We don’t believe in you. We don’t believe in you.”

A glob of thick saliva rolled over me. I gagged as it clung to my clothes, my
skin—hot and sticky.

The walls of the throat throbbed harder.

Pulling us down. Down.

Down into the vast, churning gurgling pit of a stomach below.

“Ohhhh.” Alex let out a long, defeated sigh. He sank to his knees. He was
covered in thick saliva too.

“Keep chanting! It’s got to work! It’s got to!” I screamed.

“We don’t believe in you. We don’t believe in you.”

“We don’t believe in you!”

Alex and I both opened our mouths in screams of horror as we began to fall.

Falling, falling, into the churning stomach below.

I shut my eyes.

And waited for the splash. Waited for the crash.

Waited to hit the stomach floor.

Waited.

When I opened my eyes, I was standing on the ground. Standing next to Alex in
a grassy clearing.

The pine trees shivered in the breeze. A full moon poked out from behind
wispy clouds.

“Hey—!” I cried. I was so happy to hear my own voice!

So happy to see the sky. The ground. So happy to breathe the cool air.

Alex started spinning. Spinning like a top. Laughing at the top of his lungs.
“We didn’t believe in you!” he cried gleefully. “We didn’t believe in you—and
it
worked
!”

We were both so thrilled. So excited that the monster had vanished.