“Call them yourself,” I muttered angrily.
He grabbed me by the shoulders. “Hey, I didn't show you the official camp greeting,” he said. He made a fist, dug his knuckles into the top of my head, and dragged them back and forth as hard as he could.
“Ow! Stop!” I screamed, trying to escape.
But he scraped his knuckles deeper over my scalp until he had dug a two-inch rut in my head.
When he finally let go, I was howling in pain and holding my throbbing skull with both hands.
“Did that hurt?” Colin asked innocently. “Oops. Sorry.” He laughed.
I pressed my head against the cabin wall, waiting for the pain to fade. I heard Colin calling my bunkmates to come out for his camp tour.
We stopped at Arapaho, Iroquois, and Comanche and picked up a bunch of other guys. Traci Wayne and four or five other girls came down from the girls' camp and hung together at the back of the group.
Colin led the way down the path between the rows of cabins. He showed us the main lodge, the theater, the arts and crafts center, and the infirmary. “Sometimes kids who go into the infirmary don't come out,” he said, shaking his head.
I heard Jakey gasp.
Colin led us away from the path, into the woods. Butterflies fluttered over a fallen tree trunk. Bright red berries clung to low, prickly shrubs.
We stopped in a small circle of dirt in front of an empty cabin. The shingles on the cabin were rotted and stained. The glass in the windows had been broken out. I saw a wide, jagged hole in the roof tiles.
“This is the abandoned cabin,” Colin announced. “Stand back.” He pushed a few kids to the edge of the dirt. “The cabin had to be abandoned because it's haunted.”
“Yeah, sure,” one of Traci's friends muttered.
“Don't ever come here at night,” Colin said. “I'm not kidding. It's totally dangerous. A long time ago, some campers died in this cabin. No one knows how. Now they haunt the place. And they hate all campers who are still alive. They want to make you dead like they are. So stay as far away as you can.”
I stared at the cabin and suddenly felt a chill. Colin could be telling the truth. The cabin could be haunted.
I gazed through the broken window. Were Nicky and Tara here? Held prisoner by those two ugly insect creatures? This would be the perfect place for them to hide.
Another chill ran down my back.
We turned and started to leave, heading back into the trees—when Colin stopped suddenly. “Hey—” He turned back to the abandoned cabin. “Did you hear anything in there?”
We all froze and listened. I heard Jakey let out a short whimper.
Colin took a few steps back toward the cabin. “I thought I heard something. Like someone moving around inside.”
He stepped up to the door. Then he turned back to us. He waved us back. “Don't move. Stay right there. I'm just going to check it out.”
He pushed open the front door and disappeared inside. The door slammed behind him.
We all stood in place watching the cabin. The Wilburs giggled about something and shoved each other. “Let's go,” Billy said. “He's never coming back.”
Some guys laughed. Jakey moved closer to me. He was biting his bottom lip as he stared at the cabin.
The cabin windows had no glass. But I didn't hear anything from inside. Trees rustled in a warm breeze. The sharp smell of the lake floated over us.
Silence in the cabin.
What was Colin doing? How long would we have to wait?
I stared at the door, waiting for it to open.
We waited some more.
Silence.
“Hey, Colin—what's up?” I shouted. My voice broke. I realized I was totally scared.
No answer to my call.
The Wilburs stopped shoving each other. No one was laughing now. We all stood silently at the edge of the dirt waiting for Colin to come back out.
“Colin—?” I called again.
Finally, the cabin door swung open slowly. I gasped as a figure came running out—running at us full speed.
Colin?
Oh, no!
The front of his T-shirt … it was stained with bright red blood. His arms waved frantically in front of him as he bolted toward us. His flipflops kicked up dirt as he ran.
And above his shirt … above his shirt …
No head!
No head! above the bloodstained T-shirt.
His arms waved wildly. He bolted toward us, staggering as he ran.
And then—from inside the cabin … a voice … a screaming voice from the open cabin windows.
Colin's voice!
“Help me! My body! Where is my body?”
10
I LET OUT A CRY. Beside me, Jakey opened his mouth in a scream.
Traci pressed her hands to her cheeks. The Wilbur brothers staggered back, mouths open.
“Where is my body?”
The voice inside the cabin was my brother's. And here was his headless body, lurching toward us.
“Noooo!” I wailed as he crashed into me. The sticky, bloodstained T-shirt swiped my face. The two of us tumbled to the ground.
I thrashed and kicked and shoved his body off me. Then I leaped to my feet.
A head poked out from inside the T-shirt. Not my brother's head! Another boy, dark-haired, brown-eyed, laughing hard.
His T-shirt had been pulled up high to hide his head.
My heart pounding, I turned and saw my brother step out of the cabin. “My body!” he shouted. “Where's my body?”
And then, laughing and hooting, he and the other boy slapped each other high and low fives and shoved each other and acted like total goofs. They were so happy with the joke they had pulled on us.
“Very funny,” I told my brother. “Remind me to laugh later.”
Billy Wilbur had a big grin on his face. “They played that same joke last year. But Willy and I kept quiet about it.”
“We didn't want to spoil the fun,” Willy said.
“Just a way of warning you guys to stay away from the haunted cabin,” Colin said.
“Catch you later, dude,” the other boy said. He trotted off.
“Good work, Chris!” Colin called after him.
“Let's go. One more stop, guys,” Colin said. He led the way down a path through the woods. “Next is the scariest place of all.”
I held back. I turned and gazed at the abandoned cabin one more time. A light breeze rattled the loose shutters. And over the clattering, I heard a whisper ….
“Max … Max … ”
My breath caught in my throat. Someone whispering my name? Calling to me?
“Max … ”
Nicky and Tara held prisoner inside there, calling for help?
A cold sweat broke out on my face. I took a step toward the cabin. Then another. The sun faded behind a cloud, and a dark shadow washed over the cabin.
“Max … ” The whisper in the wind. I wasn't imagining it.
Were my two ghost friends in there? If they were, I had to rescue them.
My legs trembled as I made my way into the deep shadow around the cabin. I was only a few feet from the door when a shout broke the silence:
“Max! Get over here!”
11
I SPUN AND SAW COLIN. He stood with his hands cupped around his mouth. He shouted again. “Jerk Face, get over here! Keep up with the tour!”
“But—” I hesitated. The sun beamed down again, sweeping the shadow away. The cabin stood in silence now.
“Hurry up!” Colin shouted.
With a sigh, I jogged across the grass. As I passed him, Colin gave me a hard slap on the back. “Owww!” I knew my back would stop stinging in a day or two.
We followed Colin through the trees to the lake. I saw Traci catch a butterfly in her hands. The other girls oohed and aahed.
Jakey walked close beside me. He had beads of sweat on his forehead. The Headless Camper routine had really frightened us both.
“Why are they always trying to scare us here?” he asked. “We came to camp to have fun.”
“Beats me,” I muttered.
I was still thinking about the abandoned cabin. I kept turning back, expecting the two evil creatures to come scrambling after us and grab Colin.
They think he has the pendant. What will they do to him when he tells them he tossed it into the woods?
Colin could end up as the Headless Camper after all!
I wanted to save my brother—but how? If I explained the whole thing to him, he'd laugh at me. He'd tell me to quit making up dumb ghost stories.
Then he'd probably hit me so hard I'd stop breathing for an hour or two. And he'd tell me it was for my own good.
So—no way to talk to Colin.
Maybe the only way to save his life was to find the pendant. But how could I do that?
We waded through tall grass and came to the lakeshore. My sneakers sank into the soft mud. The water rippled gently, flat and blue under the clear blue sky.
Far to our left, two silvery canoes bobbed in the water, tied to a short wooden pier.
Shielding my eyes from the bright sun, I gazed out over the lake. I heard frogs croaking and birds chirping in the trees behind the lake.
“Welcome to Snake Lake, guys,” Colin said. “Awesome-looking, huh?”
We mumbled a reply.
A kid picked up a small stone and made it skip over the water.
“Hey! Don't disturb the snakes,” Colin warned. “This lake is filled with poisonous snakes. Big ones. They've killed most of the fish. And now they're always hungry.”
My heart started to thud in my chest.
Behind me, a couple of kids snickered.
“This is no joke,” Colin said. “We don't swim in this lake. And I'm not making this up. You put one foot in Snake Lake and the snakes come swimming for you instantly.”
He pulled off his flip-flops and took a few steps into the water. “Here. Let me show you,” he said.
We watched as he stood perfectly still, water up over his ankles. A few seconds went by. Then I thought I saw ripples in the water.
“Owwww!” Colin let out a scream. He jerked his bare foot out of the water. Staggering on one leg, he frantically rubbed the foot. “Owwww. They got me! It hurts!”
A few kids gasped. Others grew silent. The Wilburs laughed.
Colin stepped out of the water and bent to put on his flip-flops. “Okay, that was a joke,” he said. “But everything I said about Snake Lake is true. You cannot swim here because the snakes own the place. No lie.”
“Then where do we swim?” a boy asked.
Colin pointed behind us. “In the smaller lake by the girls' cabins. Be very careful around here, guys. I'm totally serious. Most of these snakes are deadly. If you get bitten, you die in thirty seconds.”
Colin brushed his blond hair off his forehead. “That's the tour, dudes,” he said. “Now here's a little test for you guys. Let's see if you can get back to your cabins without me.”
He turned and took off, running through the tall grass toward the trees. We stood and watched him.
When he reached the trees, he turned back. “Hey, Maxie!” he shouted. “Maxie, check this out!”
He reached under his T-shirt, struggled with something—pulled it out and held it up.
The pendant!
“See ya, dude!” he called, laughing. Then he disappeared into the trees.
12
COLIN HAD LIED. He still had the pendant. Was that good news or bad?
I didn't have time to think about it. I heard shouts behind me.
I turned and saw the Wilbur brothers grab Jakey. He squirmed and struggled. But they lifted him off the ground and raised him to their shoulders.
“Let me go! Let me go!” Jakey was squawking like a chicken.
Everyone else just stood and stared as the Wilburs carried Jakey like a canoe to the water. “Let's test the water!” Billy exclaimed.
“Let me go! Please! Stop it! Stop!
” “Nice day for a swim, hey, Jakey?” Willy said.
“No! I don't want to! I don't want to!”
The Wilburs were too strong for Jakey. No way could he squirm free. They lifted him high over their heads and stepped up to the edge of the water.
“No! Don't!” I heard Traci scream.
Willy Wilbur tossed back his head and laughed.
“Hey, snakes! Here comes lunch!” Billy shouted. He and his brother raised Jakey higher and prepared to heave him into the water.
Jakey was pleading and wailing.
“Calling all snakes! Wake up!” Billy shouted. “Here comes some fresh meat!”
“Let Jakey go!” I shouted. I took a deep breath and ran to rescue the poor kid.
My sneakers sank into the soft mud on the shore. And then I took a wild leap at Jakey.
The Wilburs jerked him to one side—and I flew past them. And sailed headfirst into the water.
I sank to the bottom, my clothes and sneakers helping to pull me down. I must have been in two or three feet of water. But the shock of the cold paralyzed me for a moment.
I stretched out my hands and kicked my feet and started to float.
Then I felt the first tickle on my face.
And then another.
Something brushed my cheek and slid past my ear.
Something tickled the back of my neck.
Something wrapped itself around my arm.
The snakes.
The snakes were real—and they were about to start eating their lunch.
13
PANIC FROZE MY MUSCLES. I couldn't move.
A snake slithered across my neck. Another one curled over my ear.
I jerked alert. Kicked my legs hard—and felt the soft, muddy bottom.
Tearing at the snakes, slapping them off my face, I scrambled to my feet. I sucked in breath after breath of air.
Trembling, I pulled a snake off my chest. And another one from my hair. “S-snakes!” I choked out. “They're … all over me.”
I saw the kids laughing at me. It took me a few seconds to understand why.
The snakes on my body—they weren't snakes. They were lake grass. Long, wet blades of grass.
I shuddered, struggling to catch my breath.
The Wilbur brothers let Jakey go. He ran behind the group of kids, way behind them. He was hugging himself, a frightened expression on his face.
The others laughed at me.
“Okay, okay,” I muttered. “It was only weeds or something.”
I stomped away from the shore. My T-shirt and shorts were soaked, and I couldn't stop shivering.
“Hey, Max?” Someone was calling me. I turned to see Traci running across the grass toward me.
I pulled another long blade of grass off the back of my neck. At the edge of the water, the other kids were still laughing. One of them started to imitate me, slapping at his face and body, pretending to pull snakes off.
“Big joke,” I muttered, avoiding Traci's eyes.
“Well, I thought you were totally brave,” Traci said.
“Huh?” I turned to her. “Really?”
“Trying to save that little guy was awesome,” Traci said. Her smile made me feel warm all over. The sunlight reflected off her beautiful blond hair.
“Of course, falling headfirst in the lake made you look like a total klutz,” she added. Then she went running back to her friends.
I just stood there with my mouth open. Traci Wayne had paid me a compliment!
Traci Wayne had said something nice to me!
I couldn't get to sleep that night. I kept thinking about Nicky and Tara and remembering those two evil creatures who had dragged them away.
And I kept thinking about the life pod. How could we find out whether Nicky and Tara's parents were inside the pod if we couldn't get it away from my stupid brother?
It was a hot, damp night. I kicked off my blanket and tossed and turned on my bunk. Sweat prickled the back of
my neck.
Finally, I dropped to the floor, pulled on shorts and a T-shirt, and crept outside for some fresh air. A tiny sliver of a moon greeted me overhead. It looked like a cat's grin. The sky was filled with stars.
I took a deep breath and started walking along the path to the woods. Crickets chirped all around me, and the trees made a whispering sound.
I stopped walking when I heard voices. Shouts and laughter. They seemed to be coming from the lake.
I turned into the woods and followed the path to the lakeshore. The voices grew louder. I recognized Colin's voice. He was shouting about how cold the water was.
Through the trees, I could see a bunch of kids swimming and splashing in the lake. Counselors and junior counselors were having a late-night swim.
Swimming in Snake Lake.
So the stories about the lake weren't true. The lake wasn't filled with poisonous snakes. It was just one more story to frighten the new campers.
Okay. No big surprise there.
I didn't really care about that. All I cared about was finding the pendant.
I squinted hard and spotted Colin. He was having a splashing war with two of the girl counselors.
I can search his cabin, I thought. Colin bunked with four other junior counselors in a cabin near the lodge. They were all in the lake. The cabin would be empty …
… and maybe Colin had left the pendant there before he went for his swim.
I didn't walk to Colin's cabin. I ran.
My flip-flops slapped along the dirt path. I was breathing hard by the time I reached the cabin. It was dark inside. I knocked on the door, softly at first, then a little more loudly.
The crickets stopped chirping. Silence now.
Something low and small scampered away from the cabin wall. A fox. The camp was overrun by foxes, which came out of the woods at night searching for food.
I watched it slink away. Then I knocked one more time on the cabin door. No answer. The cabin was empty.
Was the pendant there?
I pulled open the door and slipped inside.
14
BLINKING IN THE DARKNESS, I bumped my knee on the first bunk. Pain shot up my leg. I rubbed my knee, waiting for it to stop throbbing. Then I found a flashlight hanging by the cabin door.