“Dogs for illegal dog fighting?”
“It’s a pretty large cage. Wolves? Bears? Maybe the owners of the Lake House caught and sold wild animals illegally.” Certainly nothing legal had been happening here. The only consolation was that there weren’t any wolves, bears, or trained-to-be-deadly dogs currently, which begged another question.... “Whatever kind of animal was in here, where is it now?”
“Wish you hadn’t asked that,” Reyva said.
So did Claire.
Both of them turned slowly, shining their lights around the bunker and halting when they reached a break in the wall. The edges of the opening were jagged. It looked as if it had been blasted through, torn through—or eaten through, she thought,though when she asked herselfwhatcould have eaten through a cement wall, she had no answer.
This is a bad place to be with an overactive imagination, she thought. She wished she hadn’t climbed down that ladder. Or boarded that boat. Or left her bedroom.
She liked how safe her room made her feel. She’d tried to explain that to a friend once—Priya had been pressuring her to come to a party. A senior’s parents were out of town. Everyone was going to be there. She’d have fun, Priya had promised. All the girls from their lunch table would be spending the night at her house afterward. She hadn’t understood when Claire tried to describe all the things she worried about. In fact, Priya had laughed. But every time Claire tried to spend the night at a friend’s house, she had to sneak out of her sleeping bag and check every door lock, every window lock, and every knob on the stove, and then she’d lie awake worrying she’d missed one. This was a thousand times worse. There were definitely no comforting locks to check here.
Through the hole, a tunnel led into darkness, and when Claire inched forward, she saw the walls within the tunnel were rough rock, not cement like the bunker. Roots dangled down from between the rocks.
“Natural cave?” Reyva asked.
“Looks like.”
“Wonder where it goes.”
“Maybe whatever was in the cage went that way,” Claire said. She didn’t like that idea. She was hoping the cage was a remnant from an earlier, less savory time in the history of the camp. It waspossible it hadn’t been used in decades.
Except for the fact that it still smelled. Something had been kept here and that something had escaped.
Possibly recently.
I really don’t want to meet that something, Claire thought. She thought back to the program director, dead in the woods, and wondered if she had known about this. Perhaps not, since the trapdoor had been hidden beneath floorboards. Or perhaps yes, and that’s why she’d been killed. Either way, they couldn’t ask.
“Want to explore?” Reyva asked.
Claire didn’t even have to consider it. “Not in the slightest.”
Reyva exhaled loudly. “Good.”
Both of them retreated to the ladder. Reyva climbed first, and Claire followed. By unspoken agreement, they each climbed as quickly as they could. When Claire popped out into the shed, they both grabbed the lid and yanked it shut.
Looking at it, Claire shuddered.
And then Reyva asked, “Where’s Mariana?”
They burst out of the shed.
Claire opened her mouth to shout for Mariana, but then clamped it shut, remembering that Mariana might not be the only one to hear her.
Outside looked exactly as they’d left it: a horrible kind of peaceful. Clouds had rolled in, blanketing the forest in a duller light. A breeze stirred the ashes of the burnt house.
She scanned the yard for Mariana. But she wasn’t by the house. Or on the airstrip. Or near the tennis court. Claire feltpanic start to rise into her throat as all the possibilities unspooled into her head at once: What if she’d wandered into the forest and become lost? What if she’d hurt herself? What if she’d drowned in the lake? Or the most likely: What if she’d been discovered by the killer and shot or stabbed or burned alive or buried alive or—
“Hey, guys,” Mariana said behind them, “what was down there?”
Claire jumped before her brain confirmed—it was Mariana. Just Mariana. Not a murderer. Or a wild animal. Or anything that wanted to hurt her. At the same time, Reyva spun around with fists raised. Seeing it was Mariana, she exhaled too and lowered her hands.
“You scared us,” Reyva said accusingly.
“Really?” Mariana said. “I didn’t think anything scared you, Reyva. Isn’t that what you were trying to prove by jumping into the terrifying murder pit?”
Reyva glared at her.
