SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Thirty Three
At the camp that evening, the groups were getting ready for their evening cookouts. Emily’s group was doing a cookout with Audrey’s group. Emily was happy about that. She didn’t know why but she felt a connection to Audrey. It was like she had found someone who was like an older sister to her. Emily looked at Audrey. The older girl was talking with her group. It sounded like the kids in the older Experimental Explosion group were curious about her trip to the medical building. Emily wondered how much Audrey was telling them. She had been unconscious for the most part.
Savannah joined Emily. “How did it feel getting to be a hero?” She asked Emily.
Emily looked at her. “All I did was help get Audrey to the medical building.” She told Savannah.
Savannah looked at her. “That was still a big thing though.” She said. “You got to help out Audrey and James.” The way Savannah said James made Emily wonder if the girl liked James. She had noticed that after she, Audrey and James had rejoined their groups, Savannah had checked herself over to make sure she didn’t have mud still on her.
Emily saw James walking towards their groups. “Here he comes.” She told Savannah before she smiled. Savannah looked at James and Emily noticed that Savannah began blushing. “I knew it!” She cried. “You do like him.” That got the other girls in their group to come over.
“Savannah and James, sitting in a tree.” Rachel began singing.
Savannah rolled her eyes. “So what?” She asked. “He is pretty cute.” She clearly wasn’t embarrassed to admit it. Emily didn’t blame her though. She had noticed that a few girls in the different groups there acted the same way around James and a few of the male staff members. She wondered if it was normal for girls to act like that. She would have to wait until after a few summers before deciding on if it was just other girls or all girls.
She looked at James. The boy was cute. She couldn’t deny that. But there was the whole part about him keeping secrets from her that made her not entirely sure how she felt about him. She felt like he was trustworthy and did care about her but she wasn’t sure if that was because he cared about her because she was Emily Tual or because she was some Chosen One according to her book. She had it in her backpack right there. She didn’t want to let it out of her sight. She had a feeling that she would be needing it soon.
James went up to her. “How are you feeling?” He asked her.
Emily really hoped she wasn’t blushing. “I’m feeling better.” She answered. She knew why he was asking. No one else there remembered the bloody mess from Audrey getting shot. Not that that would have made her queasy. After nearly getting killed twice by kidnappers, the sight of blood didn’t bother her as much as it used to. She looked towards Audrey. The older girl was still talking to her other friends. “I don’t think she’ll think twice about what had happened to her.” She added.
Savannah took a small step forward. “Hey James.” She said shyly.
James looked at her and smiled. “Hello Savannah.” He replied.
“Are you going to join us for supper?” Savannah asked.
James nodded. “That is the plan.” He told her. Emily couldn’t help but notice that Savannah smiled a little when she heard that. Savannah was really crushing on James.
Kat joined the group of kids. She smiled stiffly when she saw James. “Here to join us for supper?” She asked him. She already knew the answer though.
James nodded. “I was assigned to your group.” He answered.
Kat looked at Emily and Savannah. “You two can go get the igloo of water.” She told them. She then waited until after they were gone before she returned her gaze to James. “I know who you are though.” She told him. “And why you’re really here.”
James narrowed his eyes. “And who do you think I am?” He asked. He was wondering if Kat really was who he thought she was after all.
Kat glared at him. “Stop pretending to not know anything about what’s really happening.” She told him.
Kat took out a Black Hand patch from within her pocket and showed it to James. “I know you’re really here to keep an eye on the Chosen One.” She told James. “And you’ve suspected me of being a Black Hand for a while before Matthew showed up.” She told him.
James glared back at her. “Then why are you still here?” He asked her. “Why not try to escape before I tell Gabriel?”
Kat smiled. So James hadn’t told Gabriel that she was a Black Hand. She could use that to her advantage. “Because you’re too curious as to why the Magician still has me here after Matthew was here.” She told him.
James kept glaring at her before Kat walked off. He hated to admit it but she was right. He was curious as to why the Magician still had her there. He had thought for sure that after the shooting, that Kat would have disappeared back to the Man with the German Accent or would have ended up dead like Matthew. It didn’t make any sense to him. Why would the Man with the German Accent kill off one of his Black Hands but leave the other one still alive and at the camp? He went over to Emily and Savannah.
Emily noticed that James had a troubled look on his face. “Is something wrong?” She asked him.
James looked at her and smiled. It was a forced smile but Emily guessed that he didn’t want to worry her about whatever it was. “Everything will be okay.” He told her.
Emily wanted to believe him but she wasn’t sure if she could. She had to know what it was that he wasn’t telling her. She hugged him quickly, surprising James. “I’m choosing to trust you right now.” She told him quietly.
James looked down at her. “I promise everything will be explained to you.” He told her. “Just wait until tonight.” He whispered very quietly. He then stepped away from Emily as Tony told the group to get ready to move to their forest home.
Savannah looked at Emily. “You like him too.” She said.
Emily looked at Savannah. Savannah was clearly not going to let this go until Emily confessed. Emily shook her head. “Truth be told, I’m not sure.” She answered. “I mean he is cute sort of but there’s something about him that I’m not sure about.”
Savannah looked ahead as they started walking. “You mean because of how he lives at a camp and seems to be odd at times?” She asked.
Emily nodded. “I want to trust him but I don’t know.”
Savannah smiled and looked down. “You can trust him.” She told Emily.
Emily looked at Savannah curiously. “How do you know I can trust him?” She asked. “Do you know him?”
Savannah nodded. “Sort of. I was here last summer and he was here as well.” She told Emily. “He spent time with my group that week as well. It was his first summer working with campers as a staff member.”
Emily thought about what Savannah was saying. She wondered if the summer before had been practice for him for this week of camp. “Did you two ever dated after that week?” She asked.
Savannah shook her head. “No. I only saw him during that week but never really got to talk to him.” She explained. “I think I’ve talked to him more these last two days than all of the week last summer when I was here.”
Emily could tell that Savannah was holding back that she had feelings for James. A crush maybe to most people’s eyes but it was more than that. There was something about James that drew Savannah to him. Just like how she was attracted to James because of her feelings and because of how she was supposed to be some sort of Chosen One. There was something that drew Savannah to James. Emily couldn’t help but wonder though if James was attracted to anyone. He didn’t seem to show that side of him. It was like he was too guarded with his feelings. The hug he had given her the night before was a comforting friendship hug. Was James even capable of love?
She shook her head. She wasn’t there to get a boyfriend. She was there to enjoy a week of camp and to possibly learn more about her destiny. Besides, she could tell that Savannah was really into James. She shouldn’t get in the way of Savannah and James. If anyone should end that, it should be either James or Savannah.
Emily then looked ahead at Katie. Katie was with Ethan and Drew carrying the food cooler. She wondered if the two boys were embarrassed because the two of them had to carry one side and Katie didn’t need help carrying her end of the cooler. Rachel and Delaney were carrying the bread. Elizabeth, Jackson and Carl were carrying the fruit and vegetable bags. Her cousins and sister seemed to be getting along with the other kids in their group. She looked behind her past Kat at the other Experimental Explosion group. They were also carrying the same bags.
Audrey looked up at Emily, smiled and waved at her before focusing again on carrying the igloo. She was strong enough to carry it on her own. As she was going with her group after the Experiment Explosion A group, she thought back to what had happened to her earlier that day. His side was feeling better but it was still throbbing a bit. It wasn’t bad enough for her to have to go back to the medical building but it was still there. She looked down at her side. She didn’t know why but she kept imagining that it was a bullet that had hit her in the side.
Andrew and James had told her that she had hit her side on some sharp sticks in the ground after tripping on wood. She couldn’t help but feel like something was off with that. She knew that something else had happened but she didn’t know what though. She had even looked at the spot that was throbbing the most. There wasn’t anything wrong there. Just a little bruising from falling. She shook her head. She was just overthinking everything. There was no way anyone would try three times to try to kill her. Sure someone had tried to kill her the night before but they had done that in the middle of the night, not during the middle of the day. To try to do that in the middle of the day was just stupid.
Audrey thought about her home. She wondered how her parents were doing. She was hoping that they were okay and that things were getting better back in New Philadelphia. She did miss her parents. Even though she was glad that she had some sort of sisterly relationship with Emily, she did long to go home to her parents and her bedroom.
That was when Audrey got the feeling that she was being watched by someone not in her group. She looked around. She didn’t see anyone suspicious or hiding. The trees weren’t big thick enough to hide anyone behind them and the branches didn’t look strong enough to hold people up. She shook her head. She was just imagining things after what had happened to her the night before. There was no one there except for the two groups. The other groups had gone down different paths to their forest homes.
Hiding within the shadow of a tree, a black clothed figure watched the two groups going down the trail. There was nothing visually human about this creature. Sure it looked human in form but there was no way to tell if it was human or not. It had been spying on the two groups but its eyes hadn’t been on Audrey. They had been on Savannah. The creature made a strange clicking sound before it melted back into the shadows. A strange roundish shadow came out of the tree’s shadow and went after the two groups.