“What secret?” asked a bright, interested voice.
With a sinking sense of inevitability, Shan turned. A girl stood nearby, well within earshot. She had bouncy blondehair, a pink backpack over one shoulder, and an expression of intense curiosity.
Finley covered the awkward moment, stepping forward with a welcoming smile. “Hello. You must be one of our new pack members. I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. Is this your first time at camp?”
“Yep!” The girl waved at the other kids. “Hi, I’m Tiffany, but my friends call me Tiff. So, what’s this about a secret?”
“There’s no secret,” said Estelle, far too quickly. “We were just talking.”
Tiff cocked her head to one side. “About the evil ghost that haunts the woods near the camp?”
Shan’s heart sank.
“That was a private conversation,” Beth said to Tiff, somewhat primly. “It’s not nice to eavesdrop.”
“I wasn’t,” Tiff said, with the strawberry sweetness of genuine innocence. “But it was a pretty safe bet. My next guess would have been a psychotic serial killer in a hockey mask. So, thereisan evil ghost?”
“No,” Estelle and Archie said in unison, unconvincingly.
Beth shot them both a threatening glare before turning to Tiff. “The ghost isn’t real. It’s just a silly camp story that some of the counselors made up to scare us kids. It doesn’t actually exist.”
“That’s right,” Finley added. “Don’t worry, Tiff. There’s nothing scary in the woods.”
Interesting.None of the children were lying. From the pure, sweet flavors, even Estelle and Archie didn’t truly believe in the camp ghost. Whatever Rufus knew, he hadn’t told his friends.
“Oh, I’m not worried,” Tiff reassured them all. “Really, an evil ghost is great. One of my favorites. I mean, it could have turned out that this place is actually run by a giant gelatinous blob that makes everyone compete in weird sports trials in order to pickout the strongest kids to become its mind-controlled slaves forever and ever. Nowthatwould have been gross.”
They all blinked at her.
“Uh,” Finley said after a moment of nonplussed silence. “That was strangely specific.”
“It’s fromThe Horror at Camp Jellyjam.” Tiff dug in her backpack, pulling out a well-worn paperback. “Total classic. Have any of you read it?”
Archie examined the lurid purple monster on the front cover. “No, but now I kind of want to.”
“Oh, it’s great!” Pushing the book into his hands, Tiff dove into her bag again. “And if you like that one, you’ll loveGhost Camp. AndCamp Nightmare, though if you ask me, the twist at the end is weird. Oh, and here’sCamp Fear, which is pretty good too. Or if you want something more recent, I’ve gotCamp Scare,but major trigger warning for bullying. Oooh, and you have to readWelcome to Camp Killer!”
“Hang on,” said Estelle, as Archie struggled to hold on to the growing pile of paperbacks. “You brought a ton of scary books set at summer camp… to summer camp?”
“Yep!” Tiff said happily. “I love horror. My mom and dad won’t let me watch scary movies yet, but I’ve read about a bajillion spooky books! And summer camps are like,theclassic setting. That’s why I wanted to come to camp myself!”
This, Shan realized, was going to be a problem.
“I would have been happy enough if we just told spooky stories and pranked the other kids,” Tiff continued. She bounced on her toes. “But now you’re telling me there’s a real, live ghost?”
Finley had the expression of a boy who’d innocently tossed a snowball and was now watching the resulting avalanche rumble toward an alpine village. “No. Definitely not.”
“Yeah, that would be stupid,” Archie agreed, arms full of books. “Ghosts are dead. That’s kind of their whole thing.”
“There’s no ghost,” Beth said firmly. “There’s nothing lurking in the woods. Isn’t that right, counselor Shan?”
“Ah.” He cleared his throat, uncomfortably aware of Rufus’s presence. “An evil ghost certainly seems unlikely.”
“Then you’ll be the first victim,” Tiff informed him. “Skeptics always get slaughtered straight away.”
“If there is a ghost—which there isn’t—shouldn’tyoube worried about getting slaughtered?” Estelle said to the other girl. “I mean, you’re here too.”
Tiff shrugged. “You know the phrase, weasel out of something?”
