Page 131 of One Killer Night
He shakes his head. “No, that’s an old cabin for more staff ... I’m pretty sure it was for the groundskeeper, or a janitor of sorts. It was usually a person from town.”
“Creepy,” I say, and we both smile.
“Speaking of ... I actually looked into that urban legend Russ was telling you the other day. I asked around, and apparently there’s some truth to it.”
“No way.” I slurp my ice cream because I’m talking with my mouth full.
“Yeah, I guess some years ago, a kid here was hired on as a groundskeeper, and he was tortured by some of the counselors ... It’s real scary-movie stuff. Rumor has it that it was over a girl.”
“That’s a twist I wasn’t expecting ...”
He lifts an eyebrow. “In my experience, love tends to bring the worst out of people.”
I lift my spoon, then set it down as my stomach turns over. I’m feeling the same kind of déjà vu I felt when I found out about Noah.
Remus looks back out at the lake, seemingly deep in thought, before he speaks.
“The story goes that he was sneaking around with some slut—”
I blink, staring at his profile. The way he punctuates “slut” unnerves me. It’s so crude in a way he’s never been before, but he doesn’t seem to notice my reaction as he casually eats his ice cream.
“—and when the boyfriend found out, he and his friends tortured the kid. Really messed him up and left him for dead. Guys like that always think they own everything, ya know? They tried to put him down like a fucking animal, all because they thought he was beneath them ... just a townie, garbage to them.”
I blink, feeling colder than before. I’m shivering on the inside as I keep staring at Remus. He takes another bite, the faintest hint of a smirk playing cruelly on his face.
“But the kid didn’t die.” His face finally turns to mine. “Instead, he came back to the camp and gutted them. Five in total.”
Five ...I draw my bottom lip between my teeth, biting at a piece of dry skin before I swallow.
“That’s awful.”
He’s still staring at me. “For who?”
What the hell?His jaw clenches, and I don’t know why I’m feeling so uncomfortable, but I am. It could be how casually he’s speaking about a massacre. Or maybe how he seems to sympathize with the violence. Either way, I’m suddenly hyperaware of how close we’re sitting and how he told me no one would hear me scream earlier.
And we’re still far away from the other campers. I don’t like this.
“You’re not condoning five murders, are you?”
The expression on his face is unreadable. And it lasts for too long before he eases back into a smile, except it doesn’t reach his eyes.
“No,” he says nonchalantly. “I’m just relaying what I heard.” He turns away, taking another bite of his ice cream. “It’s a tragedy all around is all I’m saying.”
I nod before clearing my throat and trying for an easier mood. “I think this ice cream would’ve been a better idea on a warmer day.” I force a chuckle as I set my bowl down on the table. “I’m gonna head back and find my sister—she’s probably wondering where I am by now.”
He smiles and shrugs. “Suit yourself ...”
Oh, I will, you freaking weirdo.I slide off the table and give him a small wave before I head back around the building. I only look back once, to see him emptying my bowl onto the grass.
Evie’s putting the final touches on her fangs for tonight’s costume party as I sit on my bunk and watch her. The new friend she met making bracelets apparently had an extra pair, so Evie is all set to be a creepy vampire.
“Are you sure you won’t come?” she whines, holding up the fake butcher knife she brought me to makeshift a costume. “I promise you I’ll run block from Remus the weirdo.”
The minute I left him by the lake, I ran straight back to Evie and told her everything. She laughed and told me I was overreacting and living in paranoia because of the camp, but it’s still bothering me.
He was weird, and that story was way too unsettling. I haven’t stopped thinking about the damn article I read and still remember the part about the five people being massacred. There can’t be a correlation, though.
I didn’t share that part with Evie, but I wish I could look up how close we are to Darkwater Bay.
