A Silver Summer

Chapter 37

Chapter thirty seven

Ryleigh shrugged off Anika's decline to help get the food. She probably wants some time to collect her thoughts, he told himself. Which was a good idea because he wanted to make sure he explained everything to her. Yes he was drug dealer but there was so much more to it than what Anika thought. He knew that Anika could see past his previous life style but there was still the part of her that was still slightly disgusted. Hell, even he was disgusted with himself but he had his reasons, and by tonight Anika would know them as well. 

The thought of them actually talking about their pasts made him want to smile yet frown at the same time. A part of him wanted to never keep a secret from Anika and he couldn't help but feel anxious about telling her his whole story. 

Then there was the part of him that wanted to disregard Gelsey's words when she said they were alike in more than one way. He hoped not. He had noticed Anika making more frequent trips to the office and then there was the day that the police cruiser had pulled into the parking lot. At the time he had thought that it was just a regular check up on Gelsey with the station. But then the fact that Anika had gone to see Gelsey about an hour prior to the officer's arrival and she still hadn't come out slightly worried him. 

"You okay Ryleigh?" 

Ryleigh looked up from his feet to meet the curious faces of Anika's friends. And now his friends as well. 

"Yeah. Just lost in thought." he gave a casual shrug and looked around. They were back at Anika, Mel, and Keira's cabin. Seeing how close the girls all were made a small smile creep onto his lips. Sure he had a cabin mate, but they hardly ever talked and the kid almost always slept elsewhere so he was pretty much left alone. 

"Alright, while we wait for Anika to get back with food what should we do?" Ivy asked but any replies that she was going to get was cut off by a blood curdling scream. 

By the way it echoed through the tree tops, Ryleigh guessed that it had come from the center of camp where the office, cafeteria and other buildings were. 

"Help!" 

Without a second thought, Ryleigh sprinted down the path they had just come from with Skinner hot on his heels while the girls followed behind him. 

"Who do you think screamed?" Ryleigh heard Keira ask but there wasn't a reply. 

Pushing their legs faster, Ryleigh was running around the last bend on the path when he could hear more shouting. 

"Get off of her!"

"Stop it!"

"Someone get Gelsey!"

"Call nine-one-one!"

The trees cleared and Ryleigh wiped the back of his hands across his eyes to clear his vision from the rain that stung in his eyes. As they ran, the sky had opened up again and dumped buckets of water on the already slippery mud paths. 

A group of kids blocked Ryleigh's gaze from whatever they were surrounding. Some girls were crying and screaming while there was an evil cackle from the center of it all. 

"Stop it Victoria!" Ryleigh momentarily froze as a random voice screamed. 

Ryleigh broke through the layer of kids and ran a hand through his soaked hair to get it out of his eyes so he could see. What he did come to face with made his stomach churn uneasily. 

Two guys were struggling to keep Victoria on the ground. She thrashed and bucked around in the mud as she tried to slide away from their hold. One of her hands still clutched at metal baseball bat.