Into the Beyond Books 1-3

The creature wasn’t even gone ten seconds before camp counselors Matt and Alison came running around the corner of the cabin to investigate its cries. The beams of their flashlights bounced wildly as they hurried. They’d been watching the unusual aurora borealis together beneath a blanket on the opposite side of the cabin from where all the girls were set up.

Their lights fell across Jerry, the state of which made Alison audibly gasp.

“There must be a bobcat!” exclaimed Matt, scanning the area around them with his flashlight. “We need to get everyone inside!”

Josie, Channie, and Lewis sprinted from the edge of the woods, mixing with the group of stargazing girls just as Alison and Matt announced a lockdown. Lewis was ushered into Josie and Channie’s cabin along with all the girls. The counselors left them unsupervised as they continued down the line of cabins, sending everyone they found wandering the grounds inside the buildings nearest to them.

“Why is there a boy in our cabin?” asked Steph, gawking at Lewis.

The whole cabin, abuzz with nervous energy, suddenly fell silent, all eyes turning towards the lone boy.

“He’s here so he doesn’t get eaten by the bobcat,” said Josie, sticking with the terrestrial explanation.

Steph’s expression changed as she comprehended the danger. “Jerry’s still outside!” she exclaimed.

Josie and Channie looked at each other. Neither one of them wanted to tell Steph of Jerry’s demise.

Steph started towards the door but Lewis stopped her. “No one’s going out there,” he said. “It’s not safe tonight.”

Steph looked Lewis up and down with a slow pan of her head. Her expression changed again as she submitted to his authority. Without skipping a beat, she fluttered her eyelashes at him in a flirtatious manner.

Josie felt a spike of annoyance which only grew stronger as Steph gestured towards Rebecca’s empty bunk.

“My bunkmate didn’t make it back for the night,” said Steph. “You can take her bed.”

Lewis ignored the offer, walking straight over to Josie instead. “I told you, I need to watch over you,” he said. He sat down on the bunk beside Josie’s, displacing Mia, the girl who belonged there, over to Rebecca’s bunk.

Mia didn’t complain but she did send Josie a wide-eyed, knowing glance as she walked away.

Josie felt her face go flush again. The small aisle separating her from Lewis may as well have not existed from the looks she received from the rest of the girls as she ventured a quick scan of the cabin.

“I’ll keep you safe,” said Lewis. “Get some rest.”

The embarrassment coursing through Josie’s veins was palpable. She lay back on her pillow and closed her eyes despite knowing full well she wouldn’t be getting any sleep. She could feel Lewis’s eyes on her, even through her eyelids. She didn’t understand why he was so fixated on her. She didn’t think she was anything special, not in this camp full of girls anyway, many of which she felt were more attractive and developed than she was.

Josie’s cheeks warmed. She peaked at Lewis with one eye and caught his gaze lingering across her body. He shifted his eyes back up to her face in an instant. Her cheeks grew even hotter.

She turned to face the wall. His gaze made her feel insecure. He looked at her so intensely. She could still feel the eyes on her back, but the longer she sat with the feeling the more comforting it became instead of intrusive. He still looked at her like he knew her… it was so strange.

“Y’all aren’t really trying to go to sleep right now, are you?” Steph complained to the whole cabin. “It’s a spooky night. We should be telling ghost stories!”

Some of the other girls were enthusiastic about the idea. Several of them moved closer, sitting on the bunks around Steph as she jumped straight into a story. She always had to be the center of attention.

“Once there was a girl named Annabel Wence. She attended this camp until one night, five summers ago, when her body was found floating face down under the kayak dock!” Steph gestured broadly for dramatic effect. The other girls giggled. “You won’t find it funny to learn that her spirit haunts these grounds to this very day, terrorizing anyone unfortunate enough to come across her. She is searching for the ones responsible for her death, for you see, when they found her, there was no water in her lungs—it was not an accident! Annabel was already dead when her body was thrown in! Now, who among you would like to learn of the untimely demise of poor Annabel Wence?”

Other than Channie, who rolled her eyes, all the other girls were feeding right out of Steph’s hands.

“Annabel started out her final day at camp just like any other, attending breakfast in the mess hall. She ate alone—not unusual for Annabel—but the kids who saw her that morning noticed something very wrong. Her forehead, beneath her bangs, bore an ashy mark that looked like someone had put a cigar out on it, but she didn’t seem to notice it at all. What Annabel didn’t know was that she’d been marked to be taken!”

Outside the cabin, there was a sudden onset of heavy rain. A gust of wind struck the side of the building, blowing raindrops against the window. Mia jumped, startled by the sound. The rest of the girls laughed, cutting the tension. It was unusual weather for an unusual night. A late summer storm was blowing in from the north, chilling the air.

“Annabel needed to be careful, but she didn’t know how much danger she was in. None of the campers who saw her told her about the mark on her head. Her spirit still blames the kids for not warning her. After breakfast, she decided to take a shortcut through the forest to her first activity of the day, but she never arrived. Eventually, search parties were sent out to find her when she didn’t return. It was three full weeks later when her body finally turned up. She looked as fresh as if she had died that very day.

A drifter was found, living illegally in a tent within the edge of the campgrounds. The police arrested him under suspicion of Annabel’s murder. He insisted he was innocent right up until the day the state ended his life with lethal injection. His story never changed. He claimed to have heard the howls of a beast the night before Annabel went missing—the very devil himself—and a deep voice had spoken to him inside his head, telling him not to watch as the demon came that would take Annabel.”

Another gust of wind whistled in the rafters of the old cabin. A distant crack of thunder punctuated the story.

“But the drifter didn’t do as the voice commanded. He saw what came for Annabel, and he tried to stop it! From the shadows it formed, forked-tongued and horned. The drifter was petrified with fear as the shadow crawled up to him and entered his skin. He was no longer in control of his own body.

The beast in human skin waited in the forest for Annabel to pass. He stood perfectly still, not wanting to startle her too soon. When he snatched her, she couldn’t even muster a scream as he dragged her away to some underground lair for three weeks of torture.”

“What did he do to her?” asked Mia.

“Don’t interrupt!” exclaimed Steph. “You don’t even want to know what he did. It was too terrible to speak of. Now, Annabel haunts and kills anyone who dares sleep in her old bunk. Which just so happens to be in this very cabin… right there!” Steph pointed at Mia, in Rebecca’s bed, just as the door to the cabin burst open.

Everyone screamed—Mia shrieked exceptionally loud. They all turned towards the door. A dark mess of stringy black hair leaned in through the opening. Josie was on her feet in an instant.

Rebecca!

A diluted smear of blood decorated her shirt. Josie ran across the cabin to her as she stumbled in. Her clothing was completely saturated with rain and she had scrapes and scratches up and down her body.

“Help me,” Rebecca rasped as she fell into Josie’s arms.

Rebecca’s still kicking! That’s good for my plan. You’ll just have to wait around and see how it all unfolds. If I told you now, it would take all the fun away! I hope Steph’s little story didn’t scare you too much. She made it up completely on the fly. It’s a little bit ironic that Annabel’s story is that of a marked girl fighting terrors beyond her control, since that is so similar to Steph’s own true fate. She does not know it yet, and would dread it if she did, but even Steph has a role to play in the war to come.

Keep vigilant,

-Mr. Gray