Chapter Sixteen - Good Boys Don't Bite

Nobody comes to wake and force them into the sun as another day passes at Camp Harcourt. When the sun sets and the camp begins to wake, Rowdy Dawes, Benny Baker, Jackie Luck, Hannah Rose, Jen Rose, and Muse and Justice Temperance walk out of Locke House unburdened by any legal charges.

Two of the Guard are stationed outside the main entrance of the mess hall, their hoods drawn and heads bent low. The group passes them silently, and though no words are exchanged, Rowdy feels the unmistakable pressure of some request for mental entrance into her mind. She shakes her head and slides between the twins to get inside faster.

There’s only an eerie silence waiting in the main hall. Eyes find and then leave them, perfectly polite enough to not count as staring, but not quite so polite to count as not checking for danger. The noise slowly starts up again, the din of conversation slower and deeper than it usually is.

“Get in line,” Frank calls from the kitchen doors. “No table call tonight.”

They move as one, drifting to take up space at the end of the line. The woman ahead of them is older than them in body, but only a second-year attendee.

“Madeline,” Hannah greets her.

“Hi, Hannah. Jen.” Without looking back, Madeline hands Hannah her mug, which gets passed down the line until it’s in Rowdy’s hands.

Scowling, Rowdy starts to question it, but Madeline whips around and meets her eyes with an intensity that makes her throat close.

“My clan says it’s polite to offer to serve elders first.”

“Well, yeah, but we’re not—”

Her dark eyes flash, and Rowdy snaps her mouth shut.

“Protectors should always be served first,” Madeline says. Her tone is so low it melts into the buzzing from the fridge.

Rowdy looks up at Benny, and Benny shrugs. “We’ve been locked in Locke, I don’t know what the fuck she’s talking about.” “Did you three . . .?” Rowdy leans toward Hannah, Jen, and Jackie.

“Silent as church mice,” Jen says.

Rowdy glances out around the room but nobody’s looking at them anymore. Every table is almost normal, though there’s more bowed heads and Tami is flitting around to different tables, disappearing and reappearing at random as she leans down to squeeze shoulders and pat hands.

Their group is shuffled ahead in the line by Madeline first, and then by her sibling, Kane. The others grab mugs on their way into the kitchen, and Rowdy awkwardly waits behind them as they fill up before she goes last.

Their usual table waits, empty, until they take up their places. Hannah and Jen share a seat, each one half-way off, but they don’t complain a single time.

Rowdy finishes her first mug and is quickly nodded at by Tami as she flies past.

“Have another, Rowdy,” Tami calls. “No reason not to.”

Unsure but unwilling to draw additional attention to herself, Rowdy carefully gets to her feet, a confused frown on her face. As she makes her way back toward the kitchen, the conversations continue on. Somebody even chuckles out a laugh.

As she passes her again in the other direction, Tami pauses just long enough to brush her fingers against Rowdy’s.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

Rowdy looks over her shoulder as she nears the double doors, but Tami’s already moving to a different table to talk to a crying Allison Murray.

Upon returning to her table, Rowdy finds everyone else at her table silently staring up at Guard Matthias, empty mugs forgotten.

You are being invited to do the honor of reviewing some evidence.

It feels like her stomach drops onto the floor, and she has to remind herself to keep steady hold of her very full mug lest it find its way to the floor too. Rowdy looks around at the table, and the girls look back, though Jackie still looks puffed up and put out.

“What do you all think?”

Hannah drops her gaze first. “I guess there’s not really anybody better to do it, right?”

“What’s the evidence?” Benny asks.

I suppose it does more harm to not warn you beforehand. Guard Matthias visibly shudders before he continues, The evidence we have discovered is clippings of hair. We believe from the victims.

There’s quiet just before a cacophony of slightly exaggerated gagging and retching from around the table. Rowdy squeezes her eyes closed and wills herself not to lose her breakfast. Her hands feel the weight of the bag. The way it gave to the pressure of her fingers at the slightest squeeze.

Jackie’s words come out weak. “We could wait for the sires and dams. Maybe Madame Broussard would want—”

“Fuck ’em,” Benny says. “She was our girl. We should have more say in this than anyone else.”

Rowdy bites down hard on her tongue to keep herself from crying in the middle of the mess hall.

She nods at Matthias. “We can handle it, I guess.”

We will try to make it as painless as possible. It is only to identify some of them if possible. I do sincerely appreciate you being willing to help.

Benny smiles up at him and Rowdy holds in her disapproving snort.

“Thank you, Matthias. That is seriously so considerate,” Benny chirps. Her fingers find the end of her ponytail and she twirls it around idly.

Rowdy doesn’t hold back from rolling her eyes.

Of course, it is my pleasure. I used to be rather handsome, you know . . .

His voice abruptly is no longer audible in Rowdy’s mind, and the relief she is enormous. With his attention focused solely on Benny, Rowdy refocuses too.

“Can I talk to you?” She turns to Jackie and waits until she looks up.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you talking to me?”

“I never stopped.” Jackie only looks away again, her cheeks tinged pink. Mouth watering, Rowdy leans down into her space and clears her throat.

“Will you please come speak to me privately, Miss Luck?”

Dark hair whips Rowdy across the face as Jackie faces her again. Seeming too shocked to speak, she gets to her feet and follows as Rowdy leads the way to the far side of the room, where the tables have far more unfilled seats.

“Hi,” Rowdy starts.

Jackie waits.

“So, being an asshole is an unfortunate part of who I am.”

“Right.”

“But you also asked me if I was gonna stay dead or not, and I talked to a friend and I think I want to live.”

Jackie’s eyes brighten, and then dull again. She narrows her glare and snaps her teeth together in a way that Rowdy knows she shouldn’t find as adorable as she does.

“Here’s the thing, though,” Rowdy goes on. “You’re not even a month into your turn.”

“So? I’m twenty-two, what does that have to do with—”

Rowdy holds up her hand. “Please let me finish.”

“Fine.”

When she lowers it, Rowdy catches Jackie’s in hers and twines their fingers together. It’s a delightful little surprise when Jackie clings to her too.

“I’m about to age out of camp, and you just started coming here. There is a big difference between us even though our bodies are about the same age. You get that, right?”

Jackie starts to argue but then quiets. Dejected, she slowly nods. “Yeah, I guess.”

“This is the hard part of being what we are. At some point, you’ll catch up to me and if, at that point, you’re single and I’m single and we’re both still interested, I’d love to see where this goes.”

Warmth blooms across Jackie’s face, and Rowdy wishes more than anything she could lean down and kiss that color. When it’s a better time, the color will be long gone from her cheeks, and Rowdy doesn’t stop herself from feeling the twinge of eventual loss.

“How long will it take before we meet in the middle?”

Rowdy shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s different for everybody. Sometimes, thirteen years is enough. Sometimes, it’s a hundred. I need space from everything that’s happened, you know?”

Then, if Rowdy’s heart could have stopped for a second time, she’s certain it would have. Jackie holds up her other hand and offers her pinky.

“Pinky promise me?”

Rowdy locks their pinkies together without hesitating. She feels the warmth of Leena’s memory brighten and then fade, a momentary blast of painless sunlight.

“This is a very serious promise,” Rowdy warns.

Jackie’s eyes gleam. “You think, after everything we just went through, I’m afraid of a serious promise?”

“I don’t think you’re afraid of anything.”

They walk back together, hands brushing as they rejoin the table. Rowdy tries in earnest not to let their skin touch, but it’s harder not to have a point of contact.

Nobody bats an eye when they sit beside each other.

“We heard all of that, by the way,” Benny says as she takes a sip from her mug.

“Eavesdropping bitches,” Rowdy accuses.

The twins twist their heads as their eyes go milky white. “Broke your bad luck, Rowdy?” they ask.

“Don’t do that,” she barks at them. “There’s no such thing as luck anymore. We’re done with spooky shit.”

“The curse has been lifted,” the twins say. They don’t move though, and their eyes stay cloudy.

“We should just ignore them,” Benny says as she reaches up and tightens her ponytail. “What do you all say? Swim out to the middle of the lake after we check out the hair?”

“Don’t say it like that,” Hannah shudders. “We should just get it over with.”

There’s a chorus of agreement when Justice suddenly stands. “The future . . .thinning veil . . .I see two figures kissing in the boat house—” She waves her hands in front of her face, a smile spiraling at the corner of her mouth before she and her sister twiddle bird noises again.

“We’re moving on,” Benny grits out.

The twins start to speak but everything turns to noise as the rest of them rush to leave the table before the twins can try to focus on anyone else’s past, present, or future.

Rowdy takes in the sharp night air like a drag off a cigarette the second it hits her face. It eases her nerves for a moment, numbs her enough to keep herself moving. The closer they get to the office, the more of Etienne’s scent lingers all over the air.

The smell sends jagged panic shooting up her spine even though she knows the threat isn’t there anymore. She makes it three feet from the door when her body simply freezes.

“You comin’?” Benny asks, her foot stuck between the door and the jam.

The smell from inside wafts out stronger, honey-sweet recycled paper and alcoholic printer ink. The front counter’s pine is resinous and dusty. Rowdy’s stomach seizes.

“I don’t think— I can’t—”

Benny holds her hand out. “We’ll do it together, okay?”

Rowdy shakes her head. Her shoulders lift, and her hands start to grip the bottom hem of her shirt. The broken part of her brain starts to fire rapidly. Images of what happened the last time she was in the office flash bright enough to drown out what she can actually see. Her knees shake. The balls of her feet tingle as her weight shifts in preparation to run.

The gap between them disappears as Benny flits to her and grabs onto both her hands.

“Come on, Rowdy.”

They take a step toward the door, Benny backward, eyes locked on Rowdy’s. There’s safety there, Rowdy knows, but her heels dig in and she stumbles.

“You can do it scared,” Benny whispers.

Another step.

Pine needles make her slip but Rowdy doesn’t resist quite so hard.

The others start to come back out and her legs lock, but Benny’s there. She squeezes Rowdy’s hands and pulls her in closer.

“Nothing in there can hurt us anymore.”

Automatically, her head bobs. Air slips into her lungs and it’s fresh. Clear.

“I bet they’ll let us touch her hair,” Benny adds in a warm whisper. “Maybe we can give her a kiss goodbye, right?”

“H-her hair—” The words tear at her throat, but Rowdy grinds them out despite how much it hurts. She wants to tell Benny that she already knows, that she could probably reach in blind and come back with it in her fist.

“We’ll find her and say our goodbyes properly this time, won’t we?” Benny’s eyes are filling with sunset-colored tears but her voice is strong and steady.

Another step, and Rowdy lets herself be guided.

“He smashed my head into the corner of his desk.”

“It won’t ever happen again.”

Rowdy dips her chin again and sinks forward. Benny’s shoulder is already there to catch her cheek. Her arms wrap around her back. Rowdy doesn’t cry, but Benny holds her together for a full minute before she pats her and brings her along for another step.

“Sorry—”

“Don’t you dare apologize to me,” Benny says, her tone suddenly sharp. “After everything we’ve been through, I don’t ever want to hear that from you.”

“But I’m being a fucking pain.”

Benny’s hands slide up to the sides of her neck. Their foreheads knock together, and it hurts but Rowdy doesn’t pull away from the ache.

“Nothing about how you are hurts me.”

Rowdy’s foot hits the lip of the stoop, and she doesn’t feel her muscles freeze. They untangle themselves enough for the two of them to go in side by side, and seeing everyone else waiting for them makes Rowdy duck her head.

“Sor—” Benny squeezes her hand, and she stops short. “Uh, I just needed a second,” she tries again quietly.

Nobody calls her a pussy or tells her she should get over it. All the girls in the office offer her understanding nods and grim smiles. Even the twins don’t make any snide remarks.

They wait for Matthias to come out to them, the bag in his hands. He holds it face up in his palm.

Rowdy tries to hold herself together but seeing all the little bundles just beneath the plastic with everyone else fuels the burning in her eyes and the shuddering in her chest.

Jackie gags hard and has to turn away, her fist pressed against her lips and her shoulders hunched.

Matthias gives them a moment before he sets the bag on the front desk.

I am sure this is difficult. We will go slowly.

The second Matthias opens the bag, Rowdy can smell exactly where Leena’s hair is. She waits, though, because it feels wrong to have him pass over everyone else that comes out before her.

Together, they make a couple of guesses at who might have pieces of themselves in the bag, but Rowdy can’t smell anyone but Leena even over the ones that are fresher. She chimes in along with the twins and Benny, Jackie hanging back from the counter with Jen while Hannah stays at Rowdy’s shoulder.

And then, as if picking a flower, Matthias reaches into the bag and pulls out Leena’s hair. While the others had been secured with small strips of tape, Leena’s was tied together with a yellow ribbon the width of Rowdy’s knuckle.

With Benny’s arm tight around her, Rowdy glances up at Matthias’s hood and nods once.

“That’s her,” Benny says as she takes over as mouth piece.

Can you state which ways you are identifying this, please?

“The color and texture are all her,” Benny explains.

Rowdy can’t bring herself to mention how the entire office is starting to fill with Leena’s scent, but she nods her agreement with Benny when Matthias’s hood shifts more in her direction.

Anything else?

The breath Benny takes in is arrested. Two perfect droplets drip down onto the desktop.

“It still smells like her. So . . . I guess that means it’s probably the most recent one, right?”

Matthias doesn’t answer her, but he does carefully set the collection of hair he took out back into the bag one at a time until Leena’s is the only one left out for them.

Benny reaches for it, and he doesn’t stop her. She holds it in her hand as her shoulders begin to shake.

“You really have to take her?” Benny asks. The wetness on her cheeks catches the light from the desk as she looks up at Matthias.

Yes.

For several seconds, Benny stares down at the lock of hair, her thumb brushing over the ends.

“Bye, Lee-Lee,” she whispers.

Rowdy can’t look at her as she holds her hand out.

The lock weighs nothing. Even the ribbon is just air across her skin as she cradles what’s left of Leena. She doesn’t make the conscious decision to, but her thumb bends and strokes across the lock. The heady scent of freshly cut flowers wafts up with every touch.

It’s not like before in the boathouse. This smell is real, and it sinks itself like hooks into the thin membranes in the back of her throat.

Her mind twists with images of Leena, alive and dead, dancing her way along the path to the lake and slowly turning to ash right before her eyes. Benny’s arm around her gets heavier, and it’s an anchor as her mind takes her through every good and bad thing it can possibly conjure.

The scent doesn’t stay just Leena for very long, though. A little at a time, more join in. Jackie’s sweet leather, Hannah and Jen’s shared fruity darkness, and the twins, who Rowdy decides smell a little more like mothballs tonight than usual.

And then Benny, fresh as rain and just as cleansing. The missing note that usually lingers between the two of them shrinks.

“We all smell like a thrift shop,” Rowdy whispers.

Teary giggles popcorn the air as she brings Leena in close and breathes her in one last time.

“Don’t do anything stupid. I love you.”

Matthias takes extra care once Leena is back in his hand. He sets her inside the bag and then tucks it into his robes.

Thank you.

Rowdy finds her voice and asks, “Do you have any updates on him?”

Mathias inclines his head. I understand you must be curious. We are aware that he attacked the human woman, beyond that, we are still searching for him and the real truth of why he did so and why he has run.

They don’t stay long inside the office. Rowdy doesn’t know who went to the door first, but then they’re a single mass moving toward the lake. Instead of the secret path carved out of the woods, they take the main driveway all the way to the picnic tables and the main shore. The floating dock is barely a shadow far to the south.

Clothes get left behind on the tables and in the grass. The swim is beyond chilly and the air once they’re sitting up on the dock together stings, but still they sit. They cry. Nobody says anything until Benny asks if they want to have a little bonfire on the beach before dinner.

Still dripping, the girls stand around a stack of wood on the sandy shore. Above them, the fat slice of the moon that’s visible tonight is bright as it reflects off the choppy surface of the lake.

“Somebody with dry hands should light this thing up,” Benny says as she straightens and brushes the larger pebbles from her knees.

Jen reaches for the matchbox, and within a few seconds, the kindling catches and then the fire roars awake in front of them. The light from it is nearly blinding after being in the dark for so long.