Camp YouTent

Brain Games

As he stood at the foot of the path, Drew noticed three things.

One: Kurtis, who had caught up with Danny, was frantically glancing back and forth between Danny and Shane.

Two: Danny was standing completely still, his wide eyes looking just past Shane's shoulders.

And three: Shane, who had just been looking down at Danny, was now looking at him.

Drew quickly closed the remaining distance between him and his friends. As he got closer, he heard Kurtis stuttering an excuse. "Oh, well, you see, sir, at the, uh, cafeteria. Well okay, so, you know how Link likes pudding-"

"Hey, guys. What's going on?" Drew cut in. He stopped a little in front of Kurtis and Danny. He didn't want Shane getting any closer to his friends than he already was. "Your friend here was just telling me about your afternoon plans," Shane said. "Oh yeah. Those pudding cups aren't going to eat themselves. Right guys?" Drew said. He clapped Danny on the back. Danny didn't react, he just stayed standing there, wide eyed, mouth slightly open, shell shocked.

Drew wasn't quite sure what was going on. How was he being this calm? Where had his confidence come from? He didn't quite know. But he did know he needed to get Shane away from his friends as soon as possible.

"Okay, cool," Shane said slowly. "Well before you guys go and do that, I need to talk to you about something real quick." "Sure. What is it?" Drew asked. "How about we step into the counselors' cabin before I tell you," Shane said. Danny's mouth clenched shut and Kurtis grabbed at the back of Drew's shirt. Drew glanced at the dark, empty cabin. "Well no one's around right now. I'm sure it'll be fine out here," he said.

A frown pulled at the corners of Shane's mouth before he quickly corrected it into a smile. He didn't speak for a moment, then two, before continuing. "Well, alright." He paused again. "I saw you three talking a lot during the safety meeting and I'd just like to remind you that that information is very important. So, going forward, let's all keep quiet when important things are being said. I don't want to see anyone get hurt because you were talking when you should have stayed quiet." Shane placed his hand on Danny's shoulder as he smiled down at him. Drew's stomach churned and his mind raced. Had Shane overheard one of our conversations? Was he spying on us? Drew tried to keep the panic from showing on his face but he could feel blood rush to his head, likely turning him bright red.

"Rhett, Link, and all of the other Camp YouTent counselors are working so hard to make sure everyone is safe and comfortable so you wouldn't want to bother them or put more on their already full plate, would you?" He paused once more. Drew then realized he was waiting for a response. "Oh, no." Drew quickly said.

Shane nodded at him before turning his head to Danny and Kurtis. "Uh, no. No, we wouldn't want that," Kurtis rambled nervously but Danny, stiff as a board, didn't say anything. Looking at Danny, Shane raised an eyebrow before repeating more firmly, "Would you, Mr. Gonzalez?" He stood there in silence and for a moment Drew thought Danny wouldn't say anything, but he finally managed to force a barely audible "no" past his lips when Shane squeezed his shoulder. Shane immediately brightened up. "Right! So, if you really have something important to say, especially about other campers, you can always talk to me." Shane patted Danny's shoulder before finally releasing him and Danny's stone stiff body minutely relaxed.

"Will do, Counselor Dawson," Drew said. "Oh for sure, Mr. Dawson, sir," Kurtis added. Shane nodded before walking around them and then down the path. But just as Drew released a breath he didn't know he was holding, he heard, "Oh! And boys." His shoulders tensed as he turned and looked past Danny and Kurtis' head at Shane. "Enjoy those pudding cups," he said with a knowing smile as he turned back around to walk towards the cafeteria. Shit, Drew thought.

They stood for a moment trying to recover from the encounter. Drews legs started to shake as the reality of the situation they were in hit him. He steadied himself on Kurtis's shoulder as he tried to take in a breath, but his chest was so tight it crushed the air out of his lungs. He stood there, gasping, as Kurtis rubbed his back. It took him what felt like an eternity until he was able to breathe deep enough to mitigate the pain that had built up in his ribs and even longer to be able to stand on his own. "Are you okay?" Kurtis asked. Drew took one last deep breath before saying "Yea, yea I'm okay now. Holy shit that was so scary."

Without saying anything, Danny started heading for the cabin, startling Drew and Kurtis. Kurtis gave one last pat to Drew's back before they both followed him. They walked down the path to the edge of the woods and walked behind the cabins, out of sight from the main walkway, before reaching their cabin and entering in silence.

As the door clicked shut behind them, Danny burst into tears. Drew froze, taken aback by the sudden intensity of his reaction. "I'm so sorry, guys," Danny said. He bent over, barely held up by his hands on his legs. "It's just- It's really different when he's looking right at you. I'm sorry."

Kurtis rushed to Danny and gathered him in a hug. "I understand," he said.

Danny wrapped his arms around Kurtis. "I'm also terrified," Kurtis said. "This whole thing is so fucked up." Kurtis pulled away and wiped a few of his own tears from his face. "I'm just sorry I got so mad at you guys," Danny said. "No, Danny, it's - Look. As scared as I am, I'm also fucking pissed," Kurtis said with a scowl. "What?" Danny quietly asked. "This shouldn't be happening. Scott shouldn't be dead. We shouldn't feel so unsafe. We shouldn't have found him in the lake. You shouldn't have seen him like that. So I get it. I get why you wanted to say something. You weren't wrong to want to. I just-." He paused for a moment to collect himself, tears glistening in his eyes. "That night, I had a dream that... that I was the one who went into the lake to rescue Scott. But when I got to his body, it was you, Danny." Kurtis choked back tears as he remembered. "I couldn't save you and he was gonna kill Drew and me next and-" Kurtis hugged Danny as he sobbed into his shoulder.

Drew felt tears pooling in his eyes. He hated seeing them this way. It wasn't fair. He hugged his friends tighter, glad they were there together. "Look, no one is killing anyone because we're going to look out for each other," he said. Scott had been alone that night. The thought of him being scared, wishing someone would appear and save him even when it would have been too late, shook Drew to his core. He wasn't going to let that happen to anyone else.

Danny smiled and wiped his eyes. "Totally," he said. But his smile fell and he said, "Even though I'm scared, I still don't feel right staying silent about it. I just don't know how to do it now that... Well you know."

Drew let go of his friends and gathered himself. He cleared his throat before saying, "Okay. Let's think about this. It's obvious that Shane is already ahead of us, and he's already gotten to sell his story about that night to the other counselors. Plus, he's automatically afforded a level of trust by his authority as a counselor. If we're going to go to Rhett and Link with this, we have to give them a concrete reason to believe us."

"Like what?" Kurtis asked. "I don't know exactly. Something more substantial than just saying we saw Shane in the woods," Drew said. Danny held up his hands and said, "Wait wait wait. Are you saying we need to gather evidence in some sort of... investigation? We aren't exactly the FBI, dude."

Drew knew he sounded ridiculous, crazy even, but what other option did they have? He wasn't going to sit around waiting for Shane to decide it wasn't worth it having three liabilities around.

Drew hesitated. "I think that's the only way we can find enough evidence to convince the counselors of what we saw," he said.

Kurtis and Danny looked at each other and Drew immediately became nervous. They think I'm an idiot, Drew thought. But then Kurtis shrugged as he looked back at him. "It could work," he said slowly. "Really?" Drew was shocked that Kurtis, the scaredy cat of the century, was the first to even consider it, let alone agree. "I mean, we need to figure out where to start, but, yeah," Kurtis said. "We should at least try. For Scott," Danny said.

Then Drew said, "I agree, but first. We need a plan."