45 - Ghost Camp (6 page)

The game started up again.

The light from the floodlights appeared to dim. I raised my eyes to the sky—and saw fog rolling in.

Another swirling fog.

Mark jogged past us, looking like a big stork. “Going to be another foggy
night,” he said to Alex and me. “Night games are more fun in the fog.” He
shouted instructions to the boys’ team.

The thick fog swept over us quickly, driven by a gusting wind.

Alex huddled close to me. I turned and caught his worried expression.

“Did you see what Joey did at dinner?” he asked softly.

I nodded. “He said it was a trick.”

Alex thought about that for a moment. “Harry,” he said, keeping his eyes on
the game. “Don’t you think some of these kids are a little weird?”

“Yeah. A little,” I replied. I thought about the tent pole going through
Sam’s foot.

“Something happened at the waterfront,” Alex continued. “I can’t stop
thinking about it.”

I watched the game, squinting into the drifting fog. It was getting hard to
see the players.

Cheers rang out from the girls’ side. I guessed they had scored another goal.
Layers of heavy fog blocked my view.

I shivered. “What happened?” I asked my brother.

“I had free swim. After tryouts for the show,” he said. “There was my group
and a couple of girls’ groups. Younger girls, mostly.”

“The lake is nice,” I commented. “It’s so clear and clean. And not too cold.”

“Yeah. It’s good,” Alex agreed. He frowned. “But something strange happened.
I mean—I
think
it was strange.”

He took a deep breath. I could see he was really upset.

“Let’s go, guys! Go, go, go!” Mark shouted to the team.

The glow from the floodlights twisted and bent in the fog, sending strange
shadows over the playing field. The fog was so thick now, I had trouble telling
the players from the shadows.

“I was floating on top of the water,” Alex continued, wrapping his arms
around his chest. “Sort of taking it easy. Moving slowly. Stroke… stroke… very slow.

“It was free swim. So we could do what we wanted. Some of the guys were
having a back-floating race near the shore. But I floated out by myself.

“The water was so clear. I put my face in the water, and I stared down to the
bottom. And—and I saw something down there.”

He swallowed hard.

“What was it? What did you see?” I asked.

“A girl,” Alex replied with a shudder. “One of the girls from the younger
group. I don’t know her name. She has short, curly black hair.”

“She was under the water?” I demanded. “You mean, swimming underwater?”

“No.” Alex shook his head. “She wasn’t swimming. She wasn’t moving. She was
way
underwater. I mean, near the bottom of the lake.”

“She dove down?” I asked.

Alex shrugged. “I got so scared!” he cried over the shouts of the two teams.
“She wasn’t moving. I didn’t think she was breathing. Her arms floated up and down. And her eyes—her eyes stared out blankly into the water.”

“She
drowned
?” I cried.

“That’s what I thought,” Alex said. “I panicked. I mean, I didn’t know what
to do. I couldn’t think. I
didn’t
think. I just dove down.”

“You dove down to the bottom to get her?” I asked.

“Yeah. I didn’t really know if I was too late. Or if I should get a
counselor. Or what,” Alex said, shuddering again.

“I swam down. I grabbed her arms. Then I gripped her under the shoulders. I
pulled her up. She floated up easily. Like she was weightless or something.

“I pulled her up to the surface. Then I started to drag her to the shore. I
was gasping for breath. Mostly from panic, I think. My chest felt about to
burst. I was so scared.

“And then I heard laughing. She laughed at me. I was still holding her under
the shoulders. She turned—and spit water in my face!”

“Oh, wow!” I gasped. “Wow, Alex. You mean she was okay?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied, shaking his head. “She was perfectly okay. She was
laughing at me. She thought it was really funny.

“I just stared at her. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, she had been way down
at the bottom. For a long, long time.

“I let go of her. She floated away from me, still laughing.

“I said, ‘How did you do that?’ That’s what I asked her. I asked, ‘How long
can you hold your breath?’

“And that made her laugh even harder. ‘How long?’ I asked.

“And she said, ‘A long, long time.’

“And then she swam back to the other girls.”

“And what did
you
do?” I asked Alex.

“I had to get out of the water,” he replied. “I was shaking all over. I
couldn’t stop shaking. I—I thought…” His voice trailed off.

“At least she was okay,” he murmured after a while. “But don’t you think that
was weird, Harry? And then at dinner, when Joey stuck that fork in his neck—”

“It’s weird, Alex,” I said softly. “But it may just be jokes.”

“Jokes?” he asked. His dark eyes stared hard into mine.

“Kids always play jokes on new campers,” I told him. “It’s a camp tradition.
You know. Terrify the new kids. It’s probably just jokes. That’s all.”

He chewed his bottom lip, thinking about it. Even though he was standing so
close to me, the swirling black fog made him appear far away.

I turned back to the game. The boys were moving across the grass toward the
goal. Passing the ball, kicking it from player to player. They looked unreal, moving in and out of the swirling shadows.

Jokes, I thought.

All jokes.

I squinted into the fog. And saw something that
couldn’t
be a joke.

A boy kicked the ball to the net. The girls’ goalie moved to block the shot.

She wasn’t fast enough. Or she stumbled.

The ball hit her smack in the forehead.

It made a sickening
thud.

The ball bounced onto the ground.

And her head bounced beside it.

I gasped. And started to run.

Through the thick wisps of black fog.

The swirling, dark mist seemed to float up from the ground and sweep down
from the trees. It felt cold and wet on my face as I hurtled toward the girl.

Squinting into the heavy darkness, I could see her sprawled on her stomach on
the ground.

And her head…

Her head…

I bent down and grabbed it. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Did I plan to plop it back on her shoulders?

In a total panic, trembling with horror, I bent into the swirling mist—and
picked up the head with both hands.

It felt surprisingly hard.
Inhumanly
hard.

I raised it. Raised it close to my face.

And saw that I held a soccer ball.

Not a head. Not a girl’s head.

I heard a groan. And gazed down to see the girl climb to her knees. She
muttered something under her breath and shook her head.

Her head. The head on her shoulders.

She stood and frowned at me.

I stared at her face, her head. My whole body was still shaking.

“Your head—” I choked out.

She tossed back her straight blond hair. Brushed dirt off her white shorts.
Then she reached for the ball.

“Harry—you’re not on the first team!” I heard a boy call.

“Get off the field!” another boy demanded.

I turned and saw that the players had all gathered around.

“But I saw her head fall off!” I blurted out.

I instantly regretted it. I
knew
I shouldn’t have said it.

Everyone laughed. They tossed back their heads and laughed at me. Someone
slapped me on the back.

Their grinning, laughing faces floated all around me. For a moment, it looked
to me as if
all
their heads had come off. I was surrounded by laughing
heads, bobbing in the eerie, shadowy light from the floodlights.

The girl raised her hands to the sides of her head and tugged up. “See,
Harry?” she cried. “See? It’s still glued on!”

“Someone better check Harry’s head!” a boy cried.

Everyone laughed some more.

A kid came up, grabbed my head, and tugged it.

“Ow!” I screamed.

More wild laughter.

I tossed the goalie the soccer ball. Then I slunk off the field.

What is
wrong
with me? I wondered. Why am I so messed up?

Why do I keep seeing things?

Am I just nervous because I’m in a new camp? Or am I totally losing it?

I trudged to the sidelines and kept walking. I didn’t know where I was going.
I just knew I wanted to get away from the laughing kids, away from the soccer
game.

The heavy fog had settled over the field. I glanced back. I could hear the
players’ shouts and cheers. But I could barely see them.

I turned and started toward the row of cabins. The dew on the tall grass
tickled my legs as I walked.

I was halfway to the cabins when I realized I was being followed.

I spun around.

A face floated out of the darkness.

“Alex!” I cried. In all the excitement over the soccer ball and the goalie’s
head, I had forgotten all about him.

He stepped close to me, so close I could see beads of sweat on his upper lip.
“I saw it, too,” Alex whispered.

“Huh?” I gasped. I didn’t understand. “You saw
what
?”

“The girl’s head,” Alex said sharply. He turned back to the soccer field. To
see if anyone had followed him, I guess.

Then he turned back to me and tugged my T-shirt sleeve. “I saw her head fall
off, too. I saw it bounce on the ground.”

I swallowed hard. “You did? Really?”

He nodded. “I thought I was going to puke. It—it was so gross.”

“But—it didn’t fall off!” I cried. “Didn’t you see? When I ran onto the field? I picked up the ball. Not her head.”

“But I saw it, Harry,” Alex insisted. “At first I thought it was just the
fog. You know. My eyes playing tricks on me because of the heavy fog. But—”

“It had to be the fog,” I replied quietly. “That girl—she was perfectly
okay.”

“But if we both saw it…” Alex started. He stopped and sighed. “This camp—it’s so weird.”

“That’s for sure,” I agreed.

Alex shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts. He shook his head
unhappily. “Elvis says the ghost stories are true,” he said.

I put my hands on Alex’s shoulders. I could feel him trembling. We don’t
believe in ghosts—remember?” I told him. “Remember?”

He nodded slowly.

The first howl made us both jump.

I turned to the woods. Another eerie howl rose up from the same spot.

Not an animal howl. Not an animal cry at all.

A long, mournful howl. A
human
howl.

“Owwoooooooooooooo.”

Another deeper cry made me gasp.

Alex grabbed my arm. His hand felt cold as ice.

“What
is
that?” he choked out.

I opened my mouth to reply—but another mournful howl interrupted.

“Owwoooooooooooo.”

I heard two creatures howling. Maybe three.

Maybe more.

The eerie wails floated up from behind the trees. Until it sounded as if the
whole woods were howling.

Inhuman
howls.
Ghostly
howls.

“We’re surrounded, Harry,” Alex whispered, still gripping my arm. “Whatever
it is, it’s got us surrounded.”

“Owwooooooo.”

The frightening wails rose up from the trees.

“Run!” I whispered to Alex. “To the main lodge. Maybe we can find Uncle Marv.
Maybe—”

Heading into the fog, we started running toward the lodge.

But the howls followed us. And grew louder.

I heard the heavy thud of footsteps behind us, tromping over the grass.

We can’t escape, I realized.

Alex and I both turned at the same time.

And saw Elvis, Sam, and Joey—grinning as they ran after us.

Sam cupped his hands around his mouth and let out a long, ghostly howl.
Laughing, Elvis and Joey tossed back their heads and howled too.

“You jerks!” I screamed, swinging a fist at them.

I could feel the blood rushing to my face.

I felt ready to explode. I wanted to punch those three clowns. And kick them.
And pound their grinning faces.

“Gotcha!” Elvis cried. “Gotcha!” He turned to Sam and Joey. “Look at them!
They’re shaking! Oh, wow! They’re shaking!”

Sam and Joey laughed gleefully. “Did you think there were wolves in the
woods?” Sam asked.

“Or ghosts? Did you think we were ghosts?” Joey demanded.

“Shut up,” I replied.

Alex didn’t say a word. He lowered his eyes to the ground. I could see that
he was as embarrassed as I was.

“Owwoooooo!” Elvis uttered another high-pitched howl. He threw his arms
around my brother’s waist and wrestled him to the ground.

“Get off. Get off!” Alex cried angrily.

The two of them wrestled around in the wet grass.

“Did I scare you?” Elvis demanded breathlessly. “Admit it, Alex. You thought
it was a ghost, right? Right?”

Alex refused to reply. He let out a groan and heaved Elvis off him. They
wrestled some more.

Sam and Joey stepped up beside me, grinning. Very pleased with themselves.

“You guys aren’t funny,” I grumbled. “That was so babyish. Really.”

Joey slapped Sam a high five. “Babyish?” he cried. “If it was so babyish, why
did you fall for it?”

I opened my mouth to reply—but only a choking sound came out.

Why
did
I fall for it? I asked myself.

Why did I let myself get scared by three guys standing behind trees and
making howling sounds?

Normally, I would have laughed at such a dumb joke.

As the five of us walked to the cabin, I thought hard about it. The campers
and counselors had all been trying to scare Alex and me since we arrived, I
realized. Even Uncle Marv had tried to scare us with his creepy stories.