In The Woods

Chapter 24

I wake up the next morning to my mom standing over me. "What are you doing out here?" She asks suspiciously. "Sleeping," I reply. "Don't be smart with me, young lady," she snaps. "Why were you sleeping out here?"
"Just because I wanted to," I answer. She rolls her eyes and goes downstairs. I am about to follow her, but I hear a noise. I turn around, expecting to see Avery standing there. But she's not. I go into my room to put my blankets and pillows down and hear the noise again. But it's louder. And closer.
I spin around. I look everywhere to see if a paper was blowing or something. I check my closet, my bathroom, and behind my bed. When I check behind my bed, I hear it again. This time, super loud. And I know where it's coming from. I jerk my head up to the ceiling. Although I don't see it, I know what it is.
It's a camera.
I listen to the noise. The camera is zooming out, in, and moving around.
I am about to get Julia and Ashley and tell them, but I see something out of the corner of my eye. I look back to where I think the camera is, and see a little flashing light. It flashes for a split second and then turns off. But I saw it.
I look around to make sure no one is watching. Then I run to my dresser.
My idea is going to sound crazy. I empty one of the drawers and pick it up. Then I jump on top of my bed, directly under the camera. I ram the drawer into the wall.
Debris and little pieces of....wall....fall off. I do this over and over again. I finally see a little camera. It's about the size of a pearl. The camera starts blinking like crazy. I wonder how long it's been in here?
I take it out and drop it into a small bag. "JOSIE! WHAT THE HECK DID YOU JUST DO?" My mom screams from downstairs. I don't answer. I leave the dresser drawer lying on my bed, and run downstairs. Even though I'm still in pajamas, I slip on my flip flops and run to Julia's house.
Ash is there too. She spent the night. Julia answers the door immediately. "Look what I found," we say at the same time. Ash steps up behind Julia. "You go first," I say. "It's a camera," Julia says as she holds up the same sphere that I found. "Same!" When I say this, I stick out my hand to reveal the camera in my palm. She looks shocked. "So Cripson really has been putting cameras up. Which means there's probably one in my house! But how did he get inside?" Ashley says. Yeah. If he put the cameras up, how did he get inside our houses?
This time, we sit in Julia's basement. "Okay. So far we have clues, but they're all, like, jumbled together. So let's put everything together on a piece of paper as if it were an essay," I say.
Ashley takes out a pen and some lined paper. "Go," she says.
"So. Gary Cripson stole the document. His son is Gingee. He has a brother named Brian Cripson. But he's changed his name to Igor Simon because he is on the run. Igor found out that Gary wants our land, but is pretty much doing this for the money.
"We also know that he's been spying on us. He's put cameras everywhere, including our houses.
"And we know what he looks like because of his Instagram selfies," I shudder as I think of how ugly he is. Then I continue,"We also know every three weeks he goes to Walmart for fertilizer because he already owns a lot of land. Otherwise, he wouldn't need all that fertilizer. You never know. He could be a farmer." I stop talking. It seems like the same thought hits all of us at the same time. Ashley stops writing and looks up at us with wide eyes. "Josie, you don't think-"she starts to say, but I cut her off. "Yes, I do think," I say. "Guys, we have to back to the land. Remember? With the stream you pushed me in?" I say, remembering the day we found the beautiful place. "And the sign that said we would be shot on sight?" Julia says.
"Gary Cripson lives there," Ashley says slowly.

Done! Hope you liked it! I'm not done with the whole book of course! Just the chapter! Follow me, comment, and vote. When I finish this book, I have two more book ideas! Bye for now!