Page 28 of Freak Camp
“Night night, darlings,” he said, before the security cameras turned to their active, watching position.He and Victor stepped outside, locking the door behind them.
***
Tobias didn’t see Marcoagain until next week, when the werewolf was assigned to help him with research.Not many young monsters got to work with the old books or were trusted not to sabotage the information, but since Tobias had been there longer than most, never made any trouble, and always presented his work clearly and error-free, he got the fairly light—and air-conditioned—library duty most of the time.Still, he never took it for granted.Especially when stupid new monsters were assigned to help him.
Marco was more subdued than he had been in the mess hall, and his eyes darted around the room.Tobias explained what they were doing—it wasn’t hard, just making a comprehensive list of all the different ways certain monsters and weapons were used in different lore—but the boy was fidgeting, and Tobias didn’t know if he had fully understood.That irritated him, because if Marco missed something, Tobias would get in trouble too and might lose his place in the library.He made sure to check all of Marco’s work.
A guard had been stationed by the door, but he disappeared around noon.Tobias kept working.Monsters never knew when the guards would come back, and Tobias knew it was worth a beating if the guard didn’t find them still working.
Then Marco blurted out, “Aren’t you starving?”
Tobias looked up slowly.“I got breakfast this morning.Didn’t you?”
Marco snorted.“If you can call that breakfast.No, I mean—lunch!Don’t youeverget lunch?”He sounded desperate.
Tobias sighed and reminded himself that new monsters couldn’t help being so stupid.“Lunch is for reals.Not monsters.We’re lucky we get meals twice a day.”
Marco studied him closely in a way Tobias didn’t like, but all he said was, “How long have you been here?”
Tobias tugged down his shirt to reveal his ID number.“Since ’89.”
“How’d you get caught?”
Tobias shrugged, turning back to his book.“Don’t remember.”
“Nothing?Nothing at all?But whatareyou?”
“Not a werewolf,” Tobias said shortly.“Nothing you’ve seen before, so don’t mess with me.”That was his newest line to keep monsters off his back.Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it just made them want to test him more.
Marco made a derisive noise.“But you’re just a kid.How’d you last here this long?”
Tobias had had enough.“By not asking stupid questions,” he snapped, and he picked up his pen.
Marco didn’t try to talk to him again for a few days.Friday, Tobias was sent back to the Workhouse to help pack salt rounds for a special hunter shipment.Marco was only a couple of spots down the table from him, but apart from a flicker of his eyes every time Marco wiped sweat off his forehead, Tobias didn’t look at him.
They’d only been at it for an hour or so—silence in the workroom, apart from the guards’ boots pacing down the wooden floors, the sifting salt and the click of metal casings—when Victor appeared in the doorway.“Hey, Baby Freak!You got a visitor in the yard.”
Tobias stopped, catching all of his thoughts and instincts that screamedJake, refusing to let them take off.He focused instead on the one task of not letting the casing slip from between his fingers.Deliberately he set it on the table, and just as deliberately he stood up, keeping his chin tucked to his chest so no one could see his face.This was the most dangerous part.
He walked stiffly around the table, until Victor yelled, “Pick up your feet, freak, you don’t want to keep Hawthorne waiting,” and then Tobias broke into a run.It was an order, wasn’t it?Everyone had heard it, of course you had better do what the guards said.
Slowing down just enough at the door so he wouldn’t bump into Victor, he skidded to the stairs, jumping down two or three at a time to the next landing, then bursting out the door into the staggering July heat.
The brightness overwhelmed him, and he had to stop, squinting hard.
“Hey, Toby!”
There he was.Tobias turned toward Jake, grinning even though he couldn’t see yet, because this was thebest day, best day, and nothing else that happened before or after could possibly matter.He was safe, safer than he ever was in Freak Camp, and light as a feather.Even the heat didn’t matter.
Jake came toward him, taller than Tobias had remembered, strong and confident, and Tobias looked down at the ground because right then he couldn’t handle it; it was as overpowering as the sun.The simple knowledge of Jake beinghere, here to see him, was enough.
“Dude, it’s freakin’hot,” Jake said, as though he’d personally discovered this fact.“Don’t any of these buildings have AC?C’mon, let’s find some shade or something.”
His hand landed on Tobias’s shoulder, and Tobias couldn’t keep from jumping—not from fear, but surprise and delight that Jake had touched him again, and Jake never touched him to hurt him.
But if Jake noticed, he didn’t take his hand away.Instead he bent close until Tobias could feel Jake’s breath against his ear.“I got a couple popsicles snuck through, and if we’re quick there’ll still be some left.I can feel it dripping down myleg.”
Tobias snorted out a laugh—a strange sound, weird to him, but he didn’t mind around Jake—and followed Jake to the far side of Reception.He caught sight of the new guard watching them, but it only made his heart jump for a moment.Then he skipped closer to Jake, close as he could get without actually touching, and reminded himself he was with Jake, with a hunter.They couldn’t touch him now.
