OC_BigBang Fanfic- Blackwood Creek 3/12
Title- Blackwood Creek 3/12
Fandom- Supernatural, focusing on OCs
Ship- Logan(OMC)/Jake(OMC)
Rating- PG-13
Genre- slash, action, drama, romance, plotty
Warnings- violence, m/m kissing
Wordcount- 4,600
Summary- Jake continues to resent Logan, but slowly realizes that something's up with the other boy.
A/N- written for 2011 oc_bigbang
Disclaimer- I did not come up with this world, but the idea of a hunters’ summer camp is mine. I did not create the Winchesters or Elkins, but all the rest of the characters mentioned in here are mine.
Beta- skylar_matthews
*** Previous Chapter *** Master Post *** Next Chapter ***
As the days went by, Jake continued to observe Logan as he went about his camp activities, though he no longer attempted to approach or converse with the other teen. He watched Logan’s every move -the way his hands held a rifle, each swipe of the cloth as he cleaned his guns- in order to learn from him. Logan seemed to know that he was being watched, but he never said anything about it. Occasionally Logan would look up in Jake’s direction and their eyes would meet. Each time it happened Jake got the feeling he was being mocked by the more experienced hunter. That angered him, and made him even more determined to better his skills.
It wasn’t only Jake that Logan seemed to avoid. He never, that Jake could see, interacted with the other campers or even the counselors when he could avoid it. He rose early, made his own meals and ate them alone, and came to bed after everyone else had gone to sleep. He didn’t even seem to keep to a set schedule of activities. More than once Jake considered complaining about it to Barrett or Kaylo, only to wonder if they didn’t already know and approve because there was simply nothing for Logan to learn here.
One thing Jake had noticed, and he was fairly certain Logan knew he’d noticed, was that while everyone else was preoccupied with eating dinner Logan would make a call on the phone mounted on one wall of the barn. The calls were usually very short; Jake could imagine that only a few words might be exchanged during that time. The fourth night of camp, Logan looked up as he took the phone from his ear, and his eyes caught on Jake’s. Jake’s first instinct was to look away, but he didn’t; he was too proud to let Logan intimidate him like that. Instead he gazed back into the hazel eyes, trying to read something in them. Logan’s expression, he thought, dared him to ask about the calls.
Suddenly Rae snapped her fingers in front of Jake’s face, bringing his attention back to the conversation going around the table. “Probably,” he said when she repeated her question as to whether or not they might be able to drive to the nearby lake the next day and go swimming. While Rae went back to making plans with Jeremy to get a couple floats in town to bring to the lake, Jake turned back to look at Logan but found that the other teen was nowhere in sight. He slowly turned back to the table and resumed eating, wondering who it was that Logan had called.
Later that night after dinner and another bonfire, when Jake was writing in his journal as the other campers prepared for bed, the ladder creaked as someone stepped onto it and Jake looked over to see Logan climbing through the hole in the floor. Jake was surprised to see him there; over the past few days of camp Logan had always risen before everyone else and come up after they were asleep. This was the first time Jake had ever actually seen the other boy in the loft.
Logan stood for a moment next to the top of the ladder, then started towards his bed. His eyes caught Jake’s as he walked slowly, deliberately past Jake’s bed to his own. Jake knew that this was his chance to confront Logan, to ask him about the calls. But he couldn’t. As the other boy crossed before his bed Jake wanted to call out to him, but his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and he couldn’t form the words. He watched the other teen silently as he went to his bed and pulled the privacy curtain around it with one sharp movement.
While lights winked out around the room, Jake sat on his bed, considering whether or not he should, or even could, go over and talk to Logan, and what he might say. Finally while Jake was still deliberating, Logan’s bedside lamp clicked off, leaving Jake’s own lamp as the only light in the loft. Jake sighed and lay down on his bed, setting his journal on the nightstand and clicking off the lamp so that the room was bathed in darkness. He wondered if Logan was lying in bed thinking that Jake had been too intimidated by him to ask. He couldn’t have blamed the other teen if he was; Jake had acted like a coward.
The next day, the fourth full day of camp, Jake asked Barrett over breakfast if he could take the other campers to the lake a few miles from Blackwood Grove and spend the day there. It was approved. After breakfast Jake and Megan packed a cooler with sodas, juice drinks, chips, and sandwiches, preparing for a day out on the lake. Jake was loading it and other items needed for a day spent in the water into the back of Barrett’s pickup truck, the younger campers all crowded around, when Rae asked him to wait for a moment.
To Jake’s utter shock, Rae walked over to Logan where he was sitting with an old book of Catholic exorcism rituals. Jake could see them through the open door of the barn but couldn’t hear their conversation, though he could only imagine that Rae must be inviting Logan to go along with them. Jake snorted and leaned against the side of the truck to watch the fallout, thinking to himself that Logan would only reject the offer and maybe even say something nasty to Rae for daring to speak to him.
Thus Jake was even more shocked when Logan stood, tucked the book under his arm, and went over to the ladder leading upstairs. He gaped at Rae as she sauntered back over, a satisfied smile on her face. “What did you say to him?”
“Oh, come on, Jake,” Rae laughed, giving him a playful shove. “He’s not a bad guy; just a bit shy of other people. And you would be too, if you’d spent your whole life traveling from town to town, never having one friend for more than a couple weeks. Just give him a chance; he’s really very sweet.”
“Sweet, huh?” Jake asked dryly as he watched Logan descend the ladder, now dressed in swim trunks and a T-shirt. “That’s not exactly the first word I’d have thought of.”
Rae didn’t answer but instead gave Jake another shove, less playful this time, and went over to walk beside Logan. Jake rolled his eyes and pushed off the side of the truck. He went around to the driver’s side and climbed in, then watched through the rearview mirror as Will, Megan, Jeremy, Rae, and Logan all climbed into the back of the truck and Rae pulled the lift gate shut. He couldn’t help but feel a little hurt: usually Rae would sit up in the front with him and they would talk and laugh together with the window of the cab open so they could keep an eye on the younger campers in the back. Jake shook his head, trying to ignore the nagging feeling of betrayal at Rae choosing Logan over him. He started up the truck and concentrated on driving.
They stopped at a store in Beaver Lake, a tiny town a few miles from Blackwood Grove and just next to the lake it was named after, and Jake kept track of Megan and Will while the campers ran through the store looking for water toys. Two blow-up rings, a beach ball, two noodle floats, three crayfish nets, and a blow-up raft later, Jake had paid for the water toys with money from Barrett and the younger campers were crowded in the back of the truck trying to blow up all their toys at once. By the time they reached the lake on the edge of the town, the beach ball had already blown away.
Jake parked the truck on the side of the road by an empty lot that had been converted into a small park and public lake access point. Although it was a nice day, warm but not too warm with only a few wisps of cloud scudding across the sky, there was no one else at the park and the six of them had it to themselves.
While Will and Megan striped off the clothes they wore over their suits and raced to the rocky shoreline, Jake set the cooler and some towels he’d brought on a picnic table. He collected Megan and Will’s discarded clothes and set them next to the towels. Then he looked out at the other campers. Will and Megan had gotten the crayfish nets and were standing stock still in the water, trying to spot one of the miniature lobsters. Jake smiled knowingly and retrieved a five-gallon bucket from the back of the truck to hold whatever the caught. Jeremy had taken a ring and was splashing around, obscuring the younger kids’ view and upsetting them. Rae and Logan were sitting on a bench at the edge of the water. He was blowing up the raft Rae had brought.
Jake watched the two of them as he removed his shirt and prepared to go in the water himself. Rae had taken off her shirt and shorts and was sitting in only a bikini. She leaned close to Logan and spoke to him, though Jake couldn’t hear what she said. Logan was still wearing his shirt. As Jake watched he finished blowing up the raft, plugged it, and handed it to Rae with a little smile. It was the first time Jake had ever seen Logan smile. Rae took the raft and stood, beckoning Logan to go with her, but he shook his head. Rae grabbed his wrist and tugged, pleading with a grin on her face, but Logan still refused. Finally Rae shrugged and turned towards the water. As she stepped in, she looked back at Jake and called out to him. He waved and started over. For some reason, he couldn’t help but feel glad that Logan wasn’t swimming with Rae.
The five of them splashed around for a long time, while Logan sat on the bench and watched. Megan, Will, and even Jeremy for a little while, chased and caught crayfish and dumped them in the bucket with a couple rocks for them to hide under. Rae, Jake, and Jeremy raced one another to the opposite end of the lake, but half way across a large fish brushed past Jeremy and he insisted on turning back. They took turns casting off the little dock with the one fishing pole Jake had brought. Will and Jake both caught small fish and let them go, but Megan caught a large one and insisted on putting it in the bucket with her crayfish to take home and clean for dinner.
When the sun was directly overhead, five sopping kids climbed from the lake and gathered around the table to eat the sandwiches Jake had made. While Will, Megan, Jeremy, and Jake all sat around the picnic table, Rae took another sandwich over to Logan and sat next to him. Jake watched as they ate together, Rae chattering and Logan simply nodding as she spoke. It annoyed him to see how close they acted, though he wasn’t sure if it was because Rae seemed to like Logan more than Jake, who had been her closest friend for five years now, or because Logan seemed so friendly with Rae when he’d alternately ignored and insulted Jake. He decided it was a combination of both, and that only made him dislike Logan more.
When they were done eating everyone at the picnic table rushed back into the water, the risk of stomachaches ignored. Jake watched from a ring in the lake as Rae once again tried to convince Logan to get in the water, and he once again refused. Rae left him on the bench and waded into the water to fight with Jeremy over the raft he had taken while she dawdled. Jake watched them fighting for a moment, then noticed movement on the bench from the corner of his eye.
Jake looked back at Logan as the other teen stood up and began tugging his shirt over his head. His eyes widened as Logan’s shirt rose to reveal scars spattered over the tan skin of his chest. Three over his ribs were flat and white, while one over his shoulder was raised and red. He seemed almost self-conscious of the scars, and held his shirt in front of his chest as though to hide them.
‘He must have gotten them hunting,’ Jake thought in awe. He wondered what sort of monsters Logan had hunted and killed to get those kinds of wounds. Although he knew it must have meant a great deal of pain, he couldn’t help but be jealous of the other boy for having such badges of honor.
As Jake watched, Logan set the shirt aside and waded into the lake. It wasn’t until Logan was up to his neck in the water, scars hidden from view, that Rae noticed him and paddled over. She smiled at him from her reclaimed raft, and Logan put his arms on the edge and rested his chin on them, treading water as he looked up at her. Jake observed the two of them and tried not to feel too jealous.
It was starting to get dark when the six of them, their stomachs growling, finally dragged themselves from the water. Their fingers and toes were pruned and their skin was half-burnt, even though Jake had reminded everyone to put sun lotion on again at lunch. Logan was the last to leave the water, after all the others had gotten out and were starting to load things back into the truck. Jake, however, noticed Logan’s hesitation, and suspected that it was intentional to keep anyone from seeing his scars.
Jake watched as Logan slipped out of the water and pulled his shirt onto his wet body. He hadn’t brought any clothes to change into and was stuck in his wet bathing suit. Jake nudged Rae and passed her a spare towel. She gave him a curious look, and he nodded to Logan. She raised an eyebrow at Jake, silently questioning why he was being kind to Logan and why he wouldn’t take the towel himself. Jake turned away without answering and climbed into the front seat of the truck. He watched through the mirror as Rae handed Logan the towel, and he thanked her and wrapped it around his waist before sitting down. Jake waited until everything and everyone was in the truck bed and the lift gate was closed before putting the key in the ignition.
Rae knocked on the window of the truck cab as they started down the road, and Jake stopped at a corner and opened it. “It’s late,” Rae said, for it was: the sun set around nine-thirty during Michigan summers. “Let’s stop in town and eat.”
Jake agreed and pulled into the first restaurant he saw. They ordered a large pizza and played pool, making a night of it. Pool, they had all been taught, was one of the best ways for traveling hunters to make money. Rae, who lived with her hunter parents and had no allowance save what she could hustle in pool, was the best at the game, though Megan, who spent a great deal of time in the bar her father owned, was almost as good, and Jake a close third after her. Logan didn’t play but sat at the table watching them and checking the clock on the wall.
It was nearly midnight when they finally returned to camp, exhausted from a full day of play. Barrett was there waiting up for them and counted them all twice to make sure everyone had come home. Jake gave him the money he hadn’t spent on toys or food and Barrett sent them off to bed. The younger children went straight up, but Rae and Jake stayed to use the showers, wanting to rinse off the sunscreen and lake water.
Jake stripped and stepped onto the cement floor of the stall. He turned the water on, tensing under the cold spray, and turned the knobs until the temperature became wonderfully warm. He wet his hair, turned the water off, soaped up, and then turned the water back on again. He let it keep running over his back even after the soap was long gone, enjoying the feel of the warm water pounding his scalp and shoulders even after a day of swimming. When he finally turned the water off he could hear Rae’s shower still running, and knew she must also be savoring the warmth of it. He wiped down his body and ruffled his hair, then wrapped the towel around his waist and stepped out.
Jake noticed that Logan was still awake, standing by the wall phone. He hung it up, then quickly pulled it back again and dialed. He held it to his ear, listening for a moment, then hung up again. Beside Jake, Rae’s shower stopped running. Logan redialed the phone, listened, and hung up again. Rae stepped out of the shower. She and Jake exchanged a glance as they watched Logan again redialed the phone, listened, and hung up. He glared at the phone with such intensity Jake worried it might melt, and then picked it up to redial again.
“It’s late,” Rae interrupted, making Logan tense and whirl about to face her. “They’re probably asleep, and maybe they’ve turned off their phone. Don’t worry about it. Just try them again in the morning.” Logan seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding slowly. Rae went to his side and patted his shoulder, then shoved him towards the ladder. “Come on,” she said, ignoring his glare at the shoving. “It’s late. Time for bed.”
Logan went to the ladder and climbed up almost hesitantly. Jake and Rae met at the bottom and argued over who would go up last, neither wanting to go ahead of the other in nothing but a towel. Finally Jake went, and Rae followed after he’d reached the top. Jake looked around and saw that all the lights were out and the curtains drawn, including Logan’s. He went to his own bed and pulled the privacy curtain, then threw the towel over it, and put on a pair of boxers. He scribbled a few sentences in his journal before crawling under the covers. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The next day when Jake went down for breakfast, Logan was once again dialing the phone. It seemed he still couldn’t get in contact with the person he was trying to reach, and it was obvious that he was starting to get worried. Jake watched from the corner of his eye as Logan dialed the number seven times before he seemed to give up.
Jake wasn’t the only one to notice Logan’s frantic redialing. Rae also saw it, and she went over to Logan and pulled him to the table. She sat down and told him about the exorcism she was going to try on a possessed person Kaylo had dragged back from a neighboring city. She asked him to watch with Barrett while she did it, just in case. Logan agreed.
Jake clenched his fist around his glass as he listened to them. He couldn’t tell if Rae was asking Logan in order to distract him from his worry, or because she genuinely wanted his assistance. He wasn’t sure which of those things bothered him more.
When it came time for the exorcism, both Jake and Logan, as well as Barrett, stood by and observed as Rae spoke the fifty words of Latin. The two boys pointedly did not look at each other for the duration of the ritual. In the end, the exorcism went off without any issues and none of their presences were required.
By evening, though, any effect Rae’s distraction had had on Logan had disappeared, when he attempted his phone call once more and failed yet again to reach the person he was trying to get ahold of. Rae tried again to distract him by pulling him into a game of pool, but Jake saw that he kept glancing back to the phone, obviously still worried.
The next day was the sixth full day of camp, and the third day Logan couldn’t contact the person he kept trying to call. While they ate, he anxiously dialed and redialed the phone. Jake could see Rae watching him, probably thinking of ways to distract him from it. He wondered if Rae knew who it was that Logan was trying to call.
Rae stood and announced that she needed to get something from her room, and they should head to the target range without her. Jake sent the younger campers on ahead and stayed behind himself to help Kaylo clean up the breakfast dishes. When he returned from the farmhouse, Logan was still trying to make his call and Rae was still upstairs.
Logan slammed the phone against the cradle and spun around, his hands clenched into fists. His eyes caught on Jake and he paused, then started to walk over. Jake tensed as he watched Logan approach, wondering if the angry teen might be looking for a fight. Logan stopped in front of him, his hands still fisted at his sides but eyes downcast. He spoke slowly, as though each word was a struggle to force past his lips. “Could I… Could I borrow your cell phone?”
Jake was surprised, and although part of him wanted to deny the request or even mock the other boy, a bigger part wouldn’t let him. He understood that Logan wouldn’t have asked him if he weren’t desperate, and he couldn’t tease him when he was in that state. Jake reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
Logan dialed a number and held the phone to his ear, biting his lip. He still didn’t look at Jake, but instead focused on some point off to the left of him. The number he called must have gone straight to voicemail, because within seconds he was hanging up and thrusting the phone back at Jake. Jake took it, fumbling a little in his surprise, and looked up to watch Logan stalk off. He glanced at the screen, checking the number Logan had called. He didn’t recognize it.
Rae climbed down the ladder and trotted over while Jake was still staring at the screen of his phone. She asked him where Logan had gone and Jake pointed wordlessly in the direction the other boy had run off. As Rae left in the way he had indicated, Jake pressed the redial button on his phone and held it to his ear.
“You’re reached Luke Taylor,” a voicemail message played into his ear. “I’m probably busy with another job right now, but leave a message and I’ll try to get back to you.” Jake hung up the phone as the start-of-message beep sounded.
That evening as Jake was going into the farmhouse to help bring dinner dishes to the barn, he heard voices from behind a door. Curiosity getting the better of him, he stopped to listen.
“But it’s been three days!” Logan’s voice cried, loud and strained. “He could be hurt! He could be lying in the woods, or an abandoned building, or a motel somewhere, dying!”
“That’s exactly my point!” Barrett’s voice responded, harsher than Jake had ever heard it. “You have no idea where your father might be. Even if he were injured, you wouldn’t know the first place to start looking for him. Listen. Luke Taylor is a great hunter; both Kaylo and I have heard of the things he’s killed. I’m sure there aren’t many creatures out there that he couldn’t handle. He’s probably just too busy to answer his phone.”
Logan’s voice was quiet when he answered, and Jake had to strain his ears to make it out. “He said this was the most dangerous thing he’d ever hunted. That’s why he didn’t bring me with him.”
Barrett sighed heavily. “If it really is so dangerous that your father can’t kill it,” he said slowly, “then you don’t stand much of a chance of helping him, son. Your father told me when he left you here to keep you safe at all costs, even -especially- by keeping you from going after him. You might have some experience as a hunter, but you’ve never hunted by yourself before, and you’re still just a child. I can’t allow you to leave this camp on your own.”
“I’m eighteen!” Logan objected.
“All the same, your father left you in my care. I cannot, will not, allow you to put yourself in danger by following your father and running straight into the hands of a monster that may have hurt or killed a much better hunter than you are. No matter what may or may not have happened to Luke, there is no point in you leaving this camp, son. Just… wait a few more days. I’m certain he’ll get back to you.”
“Fine,” Logan snarled, and Jake heard heavy footsteps coming in his direction He quickly ducked back behind a wall, out of view of the other teen as he stormed out of the farmhouse. Jake listened as Logan’s stomping footfalls faded away and the front door slammed behind him. Then he heard Kaylo’s more delicate footsteps moving from the kitchen, where she’d no doubt heard to whole conversation, into the room where Barrett was.
“What are you going to do,” Kaylo murmured, “if the end of the month comes and Luke is still missing?”
“Luke Taylor is a great hunter,” Barrett said slowly. “But he loves his boy. He wouldn’t have left Logan here if he weren’t going after something he knew could kill them both. And he wouldn’t stop answering Logan’s calls unless he physically couldn’t. If he’s not answering his phone… we have to assume the worst.”
A chill ran down Jake’s spine at the retired hunter’s words. He thought of his own father, off hunting unknown things in unknown places. He could have died any number of times, and Jake probably would never have known until the end of July, if his father didn’t show up at the end of camp to get him. He resolved to call his own father that night, just to make sure that… just to make sure.
“You think he’s dead already?” Kaylo asked. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“No sense in telling the boy that just yet,” Barrett replied. “Let him enjoy the summer while he can. And who knows? I may be wrong. I hope I am.”
“But what will happen to Logan, if his father is dead?”
Barrett sighed. “The boy is eighteen, Kaylo. Once the camp ends he’ll be on his own, I’m afraid.”
A cold feeling swept through Jake’s body as he processed the words. He swallowed, fighting down a swell of pity for the older teen. Although traveling the country and hunting alone was Jake’s dream, he had never thought of what it might be like without his mother’s home to return to, or without his father to call for advice. It seemed that Logan’s mother wasn’t around; if his father really was dead, then the young man would be all alone.
‘But maybe,’ Jake thought, recalling how Logan had begged to leave camp, ‘if Logan could get to him in time, he could save him.’ Jake resolved at that moment that he would try to help Logan find his dad, in whatever way he could.
*** Previous Chapter *** Master Post *** Next Chapter ***
Fandom- Supernatural, focusing on OCs
Ship- Logan(OMC)/Jake(OMC)
Rating- PG-13
Genre- slash, action, drama, romance, plotty
Warnings- violence, m/m kissing
Wordcount- 4,600
Summary- Jake continues to resent Logan, but slowly realizes that something's up with the other boy.
A/N- written for 2011 oc_bigbang
Disclaimer- I did not come up with this world, but the idea of a hunters’ summer camp is mine. I did not create the Winchesters or Elkins, but all the rest of the characters mentioned in here are mine.
Beta- skylar_matthews
*** Previous Chapter *** Master Post *** Next Chapter ***
As the days went by, Jake continued to observe Logan as he went about his camp activities, though he no longer attempted to approach or converse with the other teen. He watched Logan’s every move -the way his hands held a rifle, each swipe of the cloth as he cleaned his guns- in order to learn from him. Logan seemed to know that he was being watched, but he never said anything about it. Occasionally Logan would look up in Jake’s direction and their eyes would meet. Each time it happened Jake got the feeling he was being mocked by the more experienced hunter. That angered him, and made him even more determined to better his skills.
It wasn’t only Jake that Logan seemed to avoid. He never, that Jake could see, interacted with the other campers or even the counselors when he could avoid it. He rose early, made his own meals and ate them alone, and came to bed after everyone else had gone to sleep. He didn’t even seem to keep to a set schedule of activities. More than once Jake considered complaining about it to Barrett or Kaylo, only to wonder if they didn’t already know and approve because there was simply nothing for Logan to learn here.
One thing Jake had noticed, and he was fairly certain Logan knew he’d noticed, was that while everyone else was preoccupied with eating dinner Logan would make a call on the phone mounted on one wall of the barn. The calls were usually very short; Jake could imagine that only a few words might be exchanged during that time. The fourth night of camp, Logan looked up as he took the phone from his ear, and his eyes caught on Jake’s. Jake’s first instinct was to look away, but he didn’t; he was too proud to let Logan intimidate him like that. Instead he gazed back into the hazel eyes, trying to read something in them. Logan’s expression, he thought, dared him to ask about the calls.
Suddenly Rae snapped her fingers in front of Jake’s face, bringing his attention back to the conversation going around the table. “Probably,” he said when she repeated her question as to whether or not they might be able to drive to the nearby lake the next day and go swimming. While Rae went back to making plans with Jeremy to get a couple floats in town to bring to the lake, Jake turned back to look at Logan but found that the other teen was nowhere in sight. He slowly turned back to the table and resumed eating, wondering who it was that Logan had called.
Later that night after dinner and another bonfire, when Jake was writing in his journal as the other campers prepared for bed, the ladder creaked as someone stepped onto it and Jake looked over to see Logan climbing through the hole in the floor. Jake was surprised to see him there; over the past few days of camp Logan had always risen before everyone else and come up after they were asleep. This was the first time Jake had ever actually seen the other boy in the loft.
Logan stood for a moment next to the top of the ladder, then started towards his bed. His eyes caught Jake’s as he walked slowly, deliberately past Jake’s bed to his own. Jake knew that this was his chance to confront Logan, to ask him about the calls. But he couldn’t. As the other boy crossed before his bed Jake wanted to call out to him, but his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and he couldn’t form the words. He watched the other teen silently as he went to his bed and pulled the privacy curtain around it with one sharp movement.
While lights winked out around the room, Jake sat on his bed, considering whether or not he should, or even could, go over and talk to Logan, and what he might say. Finally while Jake was still deliberating, Logan’s bedside lamp clicked off, leaving Jake’s own lamp as the only light in the loft. Jake sighed and lay down on his bed, setting his journal on the nightstand and clicking off the lamp so that the room was bathed in darkness. He wondered if Logan was lying in bed thinking that Jake had been too intimidated by him to ask. He couldn’t have blamed the other teen if he was; Jake had acted like a coward.
The next day, the fourth full day of camp, Jake asked Barrett over breakfast if he could take the other campers to the lake a few miles from Blackwood Grove and spend the day there. It was approved. After breakfast Jake and Megan packed a cooler with sodas, juice drinks, chips, and sandwiches, preparing for a day out on the lake. Jake was loading it and other items needed for a day spent in the water into the back of Barrett’s pickup truck, the younger campers all crowded around, when Rae asked him to wait for a moment.
To Jake’s utter shock, Rae walked over to Logan where he was sitting with an old book of Catholic exorcism rituals. Jake could see them through the open door of the barn but couldn’t hear their conversation, though he could only imagine that Rae must be inviting Logan to go along with them. Jake snorted and leaned against the side of the truck to watch the fallout, thinking to himself that Logan would only reject the offer and maybe even say something nasty to Rae for daring to speak to him.
Thus Jake was even more shocked when Logan stood, tucked the book under his arm, and went over to the ladder leading upstairs. He gaped at Rae as she sauntered back over, a satisfied smile on her face. “What did you say to him?”
“Oh, come on, Jake,” Rae laughed, giving him a playful shove. “He’s not a bad guy; just a bit shy of other people. And you would be too, if you’d spent your whole life traveling from town to town, never having one friend for more than a couple weeks. Just give him a chance; he’s really very sweet.”
“Sweet, huh?” Jake asked dryly as he watched Logan descend the ladder, now dressed in swim trunks and a T-shirt. “That’s not exactly the first word I’d have thought of.”
Rae didn’t answer but instead gave Jake another shove, less playful this time, and went over to walk beside Logan. Jake rolled his eyes and pushed off the side of the truck. He went around to the driver’s side and climbed in, then watched through the rearview mirror as Will, Megan, Jeremy, Rae, and Logan all climbed into the back of the truck and Rae pulled the lift gate shut. He couldn’t help but feel a little hurt: usually Rae would sit up in the front with him and they would talk and laugh together with the window of the cab open so they could keep an eye on the younger campers in the back. Jake shook his head, trying to ignore the nagging feeling of betrayal at Rae choosing Logan over him. He started up the truck and concentrated on driving.
They stopped at a store in Beaver Lake, a tiny town a few miles from Blackwood Grove and just next to the lake it was named after, and Jake kept track of Megan and Will while the campers ran through the store looking for water toys. Two blow-up rings, a beach ball, two noodle floats, three crayfish nets, and a blow-up raft later, Jake had paid for the water toys with money from Barrett and the younger campers were crowded in the back of the truck trying to blow up all their toys at once. By the time they reached the lake on the edge of the town, the beach ball had already blown away.
Jake parked the truck on the side of the road by an empty lot that had been converted into a small park and public lake access point. Although it was a nice day, warm but not too warm with only a few wisps of cloud scudding across the sky, there was no one else at the park and the six of them had it to themselves.
While Will and Megan striped off the clothes they wore over their suits and raced to the rocky shoreline, Jake set the cooler and some towels he’d brought on a picnic table. He collected Megan and Will’s discarded clothes and set them next to the towels. Then he looked out at the other campers. Will and Megan had gotten the crayfish nets and were standing stock still in the water, trying to spot one of the miniature lobsters. Jake smiled knowingly and retrieved a five-gallon bucket from the back of the truck to hold whatever the caught. Jeremy had taken a ring and was splashing around, obscuring the younger kids’ view and upsetting them. Rae and Logan were sitting on a bench at the edge of the water. He was blowing up the raft Rae had brought.
Jake watched the two of them as he removed his shirt and prepared to go in the water himself. Rae had taken off her shirt and shorts and was sitting in only a bikini. She leaned close to Logan and spoke to him, though Jake couldn’t hear what she said. Logan was still wearing his shirt. As Jake watched he finished blowing up the raft, plugged it, and handed it to Rae with a little smile. It was the first time Jake had ever seen Logan smile. Rae took the raft and stood, beckoning Logan to go with her, but he shook his head. Rae grabbed his wrist and tugged, pleading with a grin on her face, but Logan still refused. Finally Rae shrugged and turned towards the water. As she stepped in, she looked back at Jake and called out to him. He waved and started over. For some reason, he couldn’t help but feel glad that Logan wasn’t swimming with Rae.
The five of them splashed around for a long time, while Logan sat on the bench and watched. Megan, Will, and even Jeremy for a little while, chased and caught crayfish and dumped them in the bucket with a couple rocks for them to hide under. Rae, Jake, and Jeremy raced one another to the opposite end of the lake, but half way across a large fish brushed past Jeremy and he insisted on turning back. They took turns casting off the little dock with the one fishing pole Jake had brought. Will and Jake both caught small fish and let them go, but Megan caught a large one and insisted on putting it in the bucket with her crayfish to take home and clean for dinner.
When the sun was directly overhead, five sopping kids climbed from the lake and gathered around the table to eat the sandwiches Jake had made. While Will, Megan, Jeremy, and Jake all sat around the picnic table, Rae took another sandwich over to Logan and sat next to him. Jake watched as they ate together, Rae chattering and Logan simply nodding as she spoke. It annoyed him to see how close they acted, though he wasn’t sure if it was because Rae seemed to like Logan more than Jake, who had been her closest friend for five years now, or because Logan seemed so friendly with Rae when he’d alternately ignored and insulted Jake. He decided it was a combination of both, and that only made him dislike Logan more.
When they were done eating everyone at the picnic table rushed back into the water, the risk of stomachaches ignored. Jake watched from a ring in the lake as Rae once again tried to convince Logan to get in the water, and he once again refused. Rae left him on the bench and waded into the water to fight with Jeremy over the raft he had taken while she dawdled. Jake watched them fighting for a moment, then noticed movement on the bench from the corner of his eye.
Jake looked back at Logan as the other teen stood up and began tugging his shirt over his head. His eyes widened as Logan’s shirt rose to reveal scars spattered over the tan skin of his chest. Three over his ribs were flat and white, while one over his shoulder was raised and red. He seemed almost self-conscious of the scars, and held his shirt in front of his chest as though to hide them.
‘He must have gotten them hunting,’ Jake thought in awe. He wondered what sort of monsters Logan had hunted and killed to get those kinds of wounds. Although he knew it must have meant a great deal of pain, he couldn’t help but be jealous of the other boy for having such badges of honor.
As Jake watched, Logan set the shirt aside and waded into the lake. It wasn’t until Logan was up to his neck in the water, scars hidden from view, that Rae noticed him and paddled over. She smiled at him from her reclaimed raft, and Logan put his arms on the edge and rested his chin on them, treading water as he looked up at her. Jake observed the two of them and tried not to feel too jealous.
It was starting to get dark when the six of them, their stomachs growling, finally dragged themselves from the water. Their fingers and toes were pruned and their skin was half-burnt, even though Jake had reminded everyone to put sun lotion on again at lunch. Logan was the last to leave the water, after all the others had gotten out and were starting to load things back into the truck. Jake, however, noticed Logan’s hesitation, and suspected that it was intentional to keep anyone from seeing his scars.
Jake watched as Logan slipped out of the water and pulled his shirt onto his wet body. He hadn’t brought any clothes to change into and was stuck in his wet bathing suit. Jake nudged Rae and passed her a spare towel. She gave him a curious look, and he nodded to Logan. She raised an eyebrow at Jake, silently questioning why he was being kind to Logan and why he wouldn’t take the towel himself. Jake turned away without answering and climbed into the front seat of the truck. He watched through the mirror as Rae handed Logan the towel, and he thanked her and wrapped it around his waist before sitting down. Jake waited until everything and everyone was in the truck bed and the lift gate was closed before putting the key in the ignition.
Rae knocked on the window of the truck cab as they started down the road, and Jake stopped at a corner and opened it. “It’s late,” Rae said, for it was: the sun set around nine-thirty during Michigan summers. “Let’s stop in town and eat.”
Jake agreed and pulled into the first restaurant he saw. They ordered a large pizza and played pool, making a night of it. Pool, they had all been taught, was one of the best ways for traveling hunters to make money. Rae, who lived with her hunter parents and had no allowance save what she could hustle in pool, was the best at the game, though Megan, who spent a great deal of time in the bar her father owned, was almost as good, and Jake a close third after her. Logan didn’t play but sat at the table watching them and checking the clock on the wall.
It was nearly midnight when they finally returned to camp, exhausted from a full day of play. Barrett was there waiting up for them and counted them all twice to make sure everyone had come home. Jake gave him the money he hadn’t spent on toys or food and Barrett sent them off to bed. The younger children went straight up, but Rae and Jake stayed to use the showers, wanting to rinse off the sunscreen and lake water.
Jake stripped and stepped onto the cement floor of the stall. He turned the water on, tensing under the cold spray, and turned the knobs until the temperature became wonderfully warm. He wet his hair, turned the water off, soaped up, and then turned the water back on again. He let it keep running over his back even after the soap was long gone, enjoying the feel of the warm water pounding his scalp and shoulders even after a day of swimming. When he finally turned the water off he could hear Rae’s shower still running, and knew she must also be savoring the warmth of it. He wiped down his body and ruffled his hair, then wrapped the towel around his waist and stepped out.
Jake noticed that Logan was still awake, standing by the wall phone. He hung it up, then quickly pulled it back again and dialed. He held it to his ear, listening for a moment, then hung up again. Beside Jake, Rae’s shower stopped running. Logan redialed the phone, listened, and hung up again. Rae stepped out of the shower. She and Jake exchanged a glance as they watched Logan again redialed the phone, listened, and hung up. He glared at the phone with such intensity Jake worried it might melt, and then picked it up to redial again.
“It’s late,” Rae interrupted, making Logan tense and whirl about to face her. “They’re probably asleep, and maybe they’ve turned off their phone. Don’t worry about it. Just try them again in the morning.” Logan seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding slowly. Rae went to his side and patted his shoulder, then shoved him towards the ladder. “Come on,” she said, ignoring his glare at the shoving. “It’s late. Time for bed.”
Logan went to the ladder and climbed up almost hesitantly. Jake and Rae met at the bottom and argued over who would go up last, neither wanting to go ahead of the other in nothing but a towel. Finally Jake went, and Rae followed after he’d reached the top. Jake looked around and saw that all the lights were out and the curtains drawn, including Logan’s. He went to his own bed and pulled the privacy curtain, then threw the towel over it, and put on a pair of boxers. He scribbled a few sentences in his journal before crawling under the covers. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The next day when Jake went down for breakfast, Logan was once again dialing the phone. It seemed he still couldn’t get in contact with the person he was trying to reach, and it was obvious that he was starting to get worried. Jake watched from the corner of his eye as Logan dialed the number seven times before he seemed to give up.
Jake wasn’t the only one to notice Logan’s frantic redialing. Rae also saw it, and she went over to Logan and pulled him to the table. She sat down and told him about the exorcism she was going to try on a possessed person Kaylo had dragged back from a neighboring city. She asked him to watch with Barrett while she did it, just in case. Logan agreed.
Jake clenched his fist around his glass as he listened to them. He couldn’t tell if Rae was asking Logan in order to distract him from his worry, or because she genuinely wanted his assistance. He wasn’t sure which of those things bothered him more.
When it came time for the exorcism, both Jake and Logan, as well as Barrett, stood by and observed as Rae spoke the fifty words of Latin. The two boys pointedly did not look at each other for the duration of the ritual. In the end, the exorcism went off without any issues and none of their presences were required.
By evening, though, any effect Rae’s distraction had had on Logan had disappeared, when he attempted his phone call once more and failed yet again to reach the person he was trying to get ahold of. Rae tried again to distract him by pulling him into a game of pool, but Jake saw that he kept glancing back to the phone, obviously still worried.
The next day was the sixth full day of camp, and the third day Logan couldn’t contact the person he kept trying to call. While they ate, he anxiously dialed and redialed the phone. Jake could see Rae watching him, probably thinking of ways to distract him from it. He wondered if Rae knew who it was that Logan was trying to call.
Rae stood and announced that she needed to get something from her room, and they should head to the target range without her. Jake sent the younger campers on ahead and stayed behind himself to help Kaylo clean up the breakfast dishes. When he returned from the farmhouse, Logan was still trying to make his call and Rae was still upstairs.
Logan slammed the phone against the cradle and spun around, his hands clenched into fists. His eyes caught on Jake and he paused, then started to walk over. Jake tensed as he watched Logan approach, wondering if the angry teen might be looking for a fight. Logan stopped in front of him, his hands still fisted at his sides but eyes downcast. He spoke slowly, as though each word was a struggle to force past his lips. “Could I… Could I borrow your cell phone?”
Jake was surprised, and although part of him wanted to deny the request or even mock the other boy, a bigger part wouldn’t let him. He understood that Logan wouldn’t have asked him if he weren’t desperate, and he couldn’t tease him when he was in that state. Jake reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
Logan dialed a number and held the phone to his ear, biting his lip. He still didn’t look at Jake, but instead focused on some point off to the left of him. The number he called must have gone straight to voicemail, because within seconds he was hanging up and thrusting the phone back at Jake. Jake took it, fumbling a little in his surprise, and looked up to watch Logan stalk off. He glanced at the screen, checking the number Logan had called. He didn’t recognize it.
Rae climbed down the ladder and trotted over while Jake was still staring at the screen of his phone. She asked him where Logan had gone and Jake pointed wordlessly in the direction the other boy had run off. As Rae left in the way he had indicated, Jake pressed the redial button on his phone and held it to his ear.
“You’re reached Luke Taylor,” a voicemail message played into his ear. “I’m probably busy with another job right now, but leave a message and I’ll try to get back to you.” Jake hung up the phone as the start-of-message beep sounded.
That evening as Jake was going into the farmhouse to help bring dinner dishes to the barn, he heard voices from behind a door. Curiosity getting the better of him, he stopped to listen.
“But it’s been three days!” Logan’s voice cried, loud and strained. “He could be hurt! He could be lying in the woods, or an abandoned building, or a motel somewhere, dying!”
“That’s exactly my point!” Barrett’s voice responded, harsher than Jake had ever heard it. “You have no idea where your father might be. Even if he were injured, you wouldn’t know the first place to start looking for him. Listen. Luke Taylor is a great hunter; both Kaylo and I have heard of the things he’s killed. I’m sure there aren’t many creatures out there that he couldn’t handle. He’s probably just too busy to answer his phone.”
Logan’s voice was quiet when he answered, and Jake had to strain his ears to make it out. “He said this was the most dangerous thing he’d ever hunted. That’s why he didn’t bring me with him.”
Barrett sighed heavily. “If it really is so dangerous that your father can’t kill it,” he said slowly, “then you don’t stand much of a chance of helping him, son. Your father told me when he left you here to keep you safe at all costs, even -especially- by keeping you from going after him. You might have some experience as a hunter, but you’ve never hunted by yourself before, and you’re still just a child. I can’t allow you to leave this camp on your own.”
“I’m eighteen!” Logan objected.
“All the same, your father left you in my care. I cannot, will not, allow you to put yourself in danger by following your father and running straight into the hands of a monster that may have hurt or killed a much better hunter than you are. No matter what may or may not have happened to Luke, there is no point in you leaving this camp, son. Just… wait a few more days. I’m certain he’ll get back to you.”
“Fine,” Logan snarled, and Jake heard heavy footsteps coming in his direction He quickly ducked back behind a wall, out of view of the other teen as he stormed out of the farmhouse. Jake listened as Logan’s stomping footfalls faded away and the front door slammed behind him. Then he heard Kaylo’s more delicate footsteps moving from the kitchen, where she’d no doubt heard to whole conversation, into the room where Barrett was.
“What are you going to do,” Kaylo murmured, “if the end of the month comes and Luke is still missing?”
“Luke Taylor is a great hunter,” Barrett said slowly. “But he loves his boy. He wouldn’t have left Logan here if he weren’t going after something he knew could kill them both. And he wouldn’t stop answering Logan’s calls unless he physically couldn’t. If he’s not answering his phone… we have to assume the worst.”
A chill ran down Jake’s spine at the retired hunter’s words. He thought of his own father, off hunting unknown things in unknown places. He could have died any number of times, and Jake probably would never have known until the end of July, if his father didn’t show up at the end of camp to get him. He resolved to call his own father that night, just to make sure that… just to make sure.
“You think he’s dead already?” Kaylo asked. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“No sense in telling the boy that just yet,” Barrett replied. “Let him enjoy the summer while he can. And who knows? I may be wrong. I hope I am.”
“But what will happen to Logan, if his father is dead?”
Barrett sighed. “The boy is eighteen, Kaylo. Once the camp ends he’ll be on his own, I’m afraid.”
A cold feeling swept through Jake’s body as he processed the words. He swallowed, fighting down a swell of pity for the older teen. Although traveling the country and hunting alone was Jake’s dream, he had never thought of what it might be like without his mother’s home to return to, or without his father to call for advice. It seemed that Logan’s mother wasn’t around; if his father really was dead, then the young man would be all alone.
‘But maybe,’ Jake thought, recalling how Logan had begged to leave camp, ‘if Logan could get to him in time, he could save him.’ Jake resolved at that moment that he would try to help Logan find his dad, in whatever way he could.
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