Page 57 of Freak Camp
“We helped each other,” he said at last.“I protected myself by giving you a blanket so you’d stop crying.You jumped Celler because of the blanket.I told you to hide because you jumped Celler.”
Kayla looked like she knew he was giving her an easy deal.“I still owe you.”
If not for you, I’d be a vamp right now.“We’re not friends,” Tobias told himself as much as her.“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.”The big words helped him distance himself.
“What’s that mean?”
“I help you, you help me.We keep owing each other favors.”
“So ...we keep helping, and it’ll even out in the end?”Kayla asked, and he nodded.“I’ll save you some day.”
Tobias flinched.No one was saving anyone in Freak Camp.The only person who would ever save him—maybe, possibly, please—was Jake.“Whatever.”
Tobias stared at his empty plate—the guards were taking their time kicking the monsters out of the mess hall today—until he came to a decision.If they were (not friends)combining resources to survive, he might as well tell her now.At least he might not have to hear her scream.
“When Crusher comes for you,” he said, “don’t fight, don’t struggle, don’t cry, don’t make a sound.Sometimes if you’re silent,”blank, absent, “they get tired and they finish faster, they come back less often.”
She stared.“Silent.”
“It’s best if you can blank out ...separate ...like you’re not even there.So you don’t have to think about it.”
He couldn’t read the expression in her shapeshifter eyes.She looked away, down, and nodded.
He hoped the things that kept him alive would help her as well.Only because she still owed him and it would be nice, however briefly, to have a monster willing to take his advice.
And maybe—don’t get your hopes up, Tobias, the fight was a one-time thing, she owed you—to watch his back.
Chapter Eight
January–April 1998
Jake woke up the morningof his eighteenth birthday buzzing from the twin highs of monster asses kicked and pain medication.Yesterday had been his first truly independent hunt.Dad had been away on a job—one of the jobs that he wouldn’t tell Jake about, muttering that it was something he had to do himself—so Jake handled it.Using public transport to get to the big, downtown library for research had been embarrassing, but it was all worth it for the adrenaline of the successful hunt.
Jake had called Dad before he went after the ogres, leaving a voicemail.If he didn’t survive, Dad would know where he had gone and be able to take care of the problem after him.
He hadn’t expected Dad to show up at the last minute to drag him away from the wreckage of the quaint little waterwheel—Jake was still appalled that of all the dark places the ogres could have settled, they chose a minigolf course—but it was okay that Dad had been there in the end, because Jake hadn’t really needed him.Though he had to admit, it had been nice to ride away covered in a blanket in the front seat of the Eldorado rather than trying to wheedle his way onto a bus without getting an ambulance called on him.
