In a matter of seconds, her group was gone, swallowed by the trees. I pulled out my cell phone to text her, but I had no service.
“I’m going to fucking lose it,” I whispered.
“Max… you’re only going to be separated from her for maybe an hour. You need to calm down. There are kids here.”
I looked back at the excited group of kids and parents and let out a frustrated breath.
“Okay, okay, I’ll try,” I whispered.
Heather pulled her backpack around to the front and unzipped the front pocket.
“Here,” she told me, handing me a small blue and white capsule.
I opened my palm, and she dropped the pill into my hand.
“What is this?”
“It’s an anxiety medication. I take it all the time. It will help calm your nerves so you can get through this game.”
It looked too bright in my hand, wrong against my skin. But my heart was racing, my thoughts clawing, and she was smiling like she had the answer to all of it.
I took the pill dry, knocking my head back and swallowing it. The chalky taste clung to my tongue. By the time we moveddeeper into the trees, the world felt a beat too slow, like someone had pressed a thumb against time and smeared it. My limbs were heavy, my thoughts slipping through my fingers.
Heather smiled, a slow, flirtatious smile, and then said, “You’re going to feel a lot better here soon.”
For about twenty minutes, we kept walking, following clue after clue, the kids’ voices bouncing ahead of us through the trees. But slowly, the sound thinned until I realized it was just Heather and me.
“We’ve been following these stupid clues for what feels like forever,” I shouted. My voice sounded so fucking weird. “Where is everyone?”
I peered into the dark line of the woods. The trees blurred at the edges, smearing into each other. From somewhere deeper in, I heard the faint scrape of something hard against bark. Like hooves.
“Did you hear that?” I called out to Heather. When I turned toward her, my body didn’t turn with me. The ground tilted, and I had to throw my hand out to catch myself before I went down on my ass.
“Are you okay?” Heather asked, her voice suddenly sing-songy and sweet. She looked too bright in my vision, her long blonde hair haloed in the flashlight beam. My eyes kept losing focus, pulling her in, and then pushing her away.
I pressed a hand to my stomach. “Fuck, I feel like I’m about to puke.”
Heat rushed up my throat. I lurched toward the nearest tree, shoulder slamming into the bark, and then bent over and spewed my guts.
MACKENZIE
The groupof children was excited, chatting loudly as we moved further into the woods.
A few steps in, and we found our first clue pinned to a tree. I pulled it off and read it out loud to the group.
“Okay! We have our first clue. I wave when I’m happy, I wave when I’m proud, find me by the water, where the loons call loud. I’m rolled up tight, but I love to fly, look near the dock, and I reach for the sky!”
“It’s a flag!” one of the kids called out.
We descended back to the dock, where, sure enough, the camp flag was rolled up with a second note attached.
Rhett grabbed the note from the flag and read out loud:
“Some friends are furry, with tails that swish, they hide in the forest and leap for a fish. Follow the trail where the trees grow tall, look for the sign of paw prints small!”
The kids rushed forward, heading back deep into the woods. Flashlights reflected off the ground, forming distorted orbs of light in front of us.
I followed, feeling Rhett slow down to walk next to me.
