-Rowan's POV-

I'm awoken by a knock at the door.

"Come in," I say as I yawn. I hadn't realized I had dozed off, but great orgasms certainly come at a price.

Josiah pushes open the door, but freezes in place as soon as the door opens. His eyes widen as he studies me, his lips parted in shock.

"You okay?" I ask, sitting up. "Is it dinnertime?"

He nods mutely. "Have you seen Luis?"

I shake my head. "What's wrong?"

He starts to say something, then stops himself and looks at me. After another moment of internal war, he speaks. "Don't take this the wrong way, Rowan, but you need to go take a shower."

With that, he leaves. The door closes behind him.

I check my watch. It's a waterproof rubber-coated thing I only use for camping. I have twenty minutes before dinner starts. Still yawning, I decide that my multitude of strenuous physical activity today probably has left me in need of a shower. I make a mental note to thank Josiah for his honesty as I dig my towel and shampoo out of my duffel bag.

No one else is in the men's showers right now, and I enjoy the privacy. I wash myself clean of the sweat and sin of the day, trying not to yawn, and dress in clean clothes.

Dinner is barbequed chicken and baked beans served in an eating area beside the cabins. The chicken looks dry and is drenched in barbeque sauce and I've never been a fan of baked beans, but I'm so hungry I have to exercise a lot of self-control to avoid wolfing it down before I find a spare picnic table.

I decide to sit next to my mom. I have friends who share my interests in swimming and activism, but I'm not in the mood for their company. Not here.

"How was your day?" she asks as we dig in.

"Exhausting," I answer. "Good job on the compass activity. It was brilliant."

"Cheat proof?" she asks through a mouthful of beans.

I nod. "Oh, except..." I swallow my mouthful of chicken. "Josiah figured out that it was a five-pointed star and was about to do the math on how to navigate it as a pentagon to save us time."

She snorts. "I'm not going to try to out-think that. If someone can do that math accurately, they deserve the advantage."

I laugh at this.

"How's Luis?" she asks.

I shrug. "He's fine. He got a bit weird earlier about... oh, I found this dog in the woods..."

I tell her about the strange, friendly dog and its weird behavior. She seems as perplexed as I am.

"And he didn't want to follow you back into camp?" she asks. I nod. "Weird. I'll tell the chaperones to keep an eye out."

Dinner ends and those who are interested are divided into teams for a game of capture-the-flag. They give us sets of red and blue mesh jerseys. My blue jersey is a bit tight, but at least it isn't falling apart like some of the rest of them. The firepit is the boundary line and the flags are, yes, rolls of duct tape. My adrenalin starts going when the whistle is blown. I serve as the team medic, using my speed to rush into the enemy team's boundary and unfreeze my blue teammates who were caught trespassing. I'm far faster than the other team's perimeter guards, but one of their offensive members quickly realizes that I'm becoming a pain in her team's ass. Hannah Barker, one of Luis's friends. She makes it her personal mission to mirror my every move from the other side of the line. She's tiny but fast, and effectively prevents me from saving anyone for a few minutes.

"Ooh, Hannah's got a crush on you!" I hear Josiah say gleefully from behind me.

I chance a glance back at him. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I got stuck playing defense!" Josiah said. "Finally got someone to cover me. What do you say we see if Hannah here can split in half?"

Before Hannah can protest, Josiah and I race over the perimeter in two separate arcs around Hannah, tagging our teammates free and dodging the spotty defense. I spot their flag behind the shower building and scan the area for red defense. I don't see any. It seems like a trap, but I might be fast enough to grab the flag before the trap shuts.

I race for it. I've no sooner wrapped my fingers around it when I hear a heavy thud behind me. I turn to see Luis eyeing me from a few feet away, rising from a crouching position to his full and considerable height. His dark eyes glitter dangerously from behind his dark, shiny hair. His thick eyebrows pull low over his eyes as he faces me, an intruder in his base.

I look up. This asshole actually just dropped from a tree branch.

"What do you say you just let me take it?" I ask playfully, sliding it up my arm.

He shows me the tiniest fraction of a smile and shakes his head. "Set it down, Rowan."

I grin. "Bite me, Luis."

I bolt around the other side of the building. He yells for backup as he gives chase. I shout in victory when I realize he is stunningly fast for someone of his size, but I'm faster.

Then Hannah reappears and smiles devilishly as she darts to intercept me from the front. I whirl out of the way to avoid her, but I lose speed. Luis slams into me and we both go tumbling into the dirt. I think he got the wind out of him. He looks absolutely breathless as the two of us realize he landed on top of me in a very suggestive pose. I can hardly breathe, but having his body pressed up against mine is unbelievably erotic.

Fuck. You'd think I'd be satisfied for the day after earlier, but no. All I can do is pray he doesn't notice that I'm at half-mast and quickly growing.

He gives me that full movie-star grin and taps my shoulder. "Tag." He reaches to pull the roll of tape off my arm, but I throw my arm over my head and free the tape with my spare hand. Without missing a beat, I toss it to Josiah, who jogs easily past me and whoops in victory as he makes it over the boundary line. Then I push Luis off of me so I can breathe. I have a hard laugh at the dumbstruck look on his handsome face. The laughter is so intense it swipes away whatever air I had managed to regain.

"Dick," he mutters, laughing at Josiah's ridiculous victory chicken dance. He pulls a pinecone from the ground and throws it at his friend. "That's how you do me?"

"Gotta take advantage of stumbles like that. What can I say?" Josiah says, offering me a hand to help me up. I hesitate for a moment before I decide that my thick canvas pants should conceal my erection. Once I'm standing, I offer the same to Luis.

Even his hands are perfect. Soft but strong. He stands up and glances at me before looking at the ground, embarrassed.

"Rematch?" he asks after a moment. I'm about to ask him if he wants to get beaten again when Josiah punches him on the arm and points to the campfire.

"S'mores!" he cries, racing off. Luis chuckles at his friend, but both of us jog after Josiah in search of that sweet treat.

***

Clawson laughs as she hands Josiah his own full-size packages of the ingredients to make s'mores. I get a full set, too. As do the rest of people on our team for the compass activity. The second and third place winners get double rations. Everyone else gets enough for about four s'mores.

"Remember, you can earn more in the activities tomorrow!" Jenson calls out as we settle on the log stools around the fire. I end up between Luis and Josiah, with Serena in front of us. I realize that there might be something between Hannah and Josiah when she leans her head on his shoulder and tries to sneak a bite of his s'more.

The chatter quickly devolves into cheesy ghost stories, and then some dipshit guys have the great idea to point out that the Pacific Northwest is America's serial-killer capital. They regale us with a few minutes of tales of the I-5 killer and the Green River killer and even a few stories of Bundy's victims before my mom catches on and shuts them down.

"How come, every year, someone tries to talk about Bundy?" she asks in exasperation. "No Bundy! This is a Bundy-free trip!"

There are some giggles in response to her mini-rant.

"Wonder what she'll do if someone brings up Dahmer. That one's a little close to home for her," someone a few rows behind me mutters. The comment is met with laughter from the guy's friends. I pause for a few moments before I realize that this comment was about me.

I look back. "You know, if I really was going to be the next Dahmer, pissing me off is probably a pretty bad idea."

My peers quiet. I realize that they all heard me. I see shocked expressions in the dying daylight.

Then Josiah, Serena, and Hannah burst into laughter all around. Even Luis grins. Their laughter inspires others to laugh as well.

"Sorry, Rowan, did someone suggest you're to become the next Dahmer? I missed that part," a pretty Latina parent chaperone asks from across the fire, lacing her fingers on her lap.

I catch a shadow of carefully concealed rage in my mother's eyes, so I shrug like it doesn't matter.

The Latina chaperone stands up and walks around the fire to stand in front of me, but her eyes are searching the people around me. "Does someone have a joke to share? I'd love to hear it. I love true crime."

There's silence for a few uninterrupted seconds. Her play is brilliant. He can stay silent and be harassed for his cowardice by his friends, or he can tell her and get in trouble for it.

Screw ghost stories, it's clear from the excited smiles and raised eyebrows of my peers that this is the best form of fireside entertainment any of them have ever seen.

"I said, "I wonder what Arti will do if someone brings up Dahmer because that's close to home for her"," the same voice says again, louder. I recognize the voice without having to turn and look at him. Gabe Schultz. Serena once smashed his face into a locker for suggesting that he could turn her straight. I witnessed him get kicked out of our biology class in freshman year for insisting that homosexual animals and humans alike served no purpose in any habitat and shouldn't be acknowledged as members of their respective species.

The Latina cocks her head. "I don't get it."

I bite both of my lips as I try to hide my amusement. I don't know who this woman is, but I love her. After a few more awkward moments, I can't stop myself from breaking into silent laughter. The best way to disable bigoted jokes is to play stupid and make the bigot explain the joke.

"Cu-cuz Dahmer was a queer," Gabe stammers.

"Oh," the Latina says, nodding. "That was your idea of a joke. I see. Well, Rowan is a man of color. Statistically, serial killers are nearly always young, straight white men with compensation issues."

Everyone bursts out laughing again. The Latina gives Gabe a movie-star smile as every single student in the class cheers her on, including Gabe's friends.

"What's your name, doll? You look familiar. I think I know your parents," the Latina continues with that same stunning smile.

I turn to watch Gabe simply get up and leave. The Latina watches him go, a satisfied look in her eyes. Then she turns to Serena.

"Oh, Serena, you should tell the story of the pink house," she suggests. Serena gasps and lights her phone's flashlight under her chin as she begins to spin a crazy story for the rest of our class, waltzing around the fire like she's doing some kind of interpretive dance. I'm glad to have all the eyes off of me. I'm not shy, but there's something about having my sexuality openly ridiculed by a classmate that makes me just want to blend in.

"Good job, mom," Luis tells the Latina. She gives him a loving smile before turning her warm brown eyes to me.

"Hello, Rowan. I'm Maria Delgado, Luis's mom," she says, offering me her hand.

I stand up and hug her instead. "That was awesome."

"Thanks, sweetie. Don't let him get to you," she says, patting my cheek. Then she walks back to her spot and pays close attention to Serena's scary story.

I turn to Luis. "Your mom's awesome."

Luis smiles. "Yeah. She is. Yours is, too."

This surprises me. "I thought you'd hate my mom." I catch myself. "You know... because of the fighting and all that."

He shakes his head. "No. She always goes to bat for me. She makes sure the school board knows that it's in self-defense. If it weren't for your mom, I'd have to be homeschooled."

I grin at the thought. "Good. You deserve to be here. And I... I love this place. That's a big compliment from me."

Luis's gaze catches mine. "Thank you."

His eyes hold mine for a few long moments. It's a curious thing: I can't see his thoughts or pick up the minute changes in his expression, but I feel something. Something slow-moving and incredibly powerful. Something as ancient and primal as the firelight reflecting on his face. Something unspoken, but undeniable.

After some time, I'm startled by the sound of a cowbell.

"Roll call! Everyone go stand in front of your cabins! The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can keep doing scary stories!" Clawson calls. Luis smiles when I jump. I give him a sarcastic grin and elbow him.

Everyone files to their cabins. Josiah gives Luis and me an unhappy look as he stands beside Isaac.

"You'd think they'd wait to do it until after the campfire," Luis mutters as we lean against the wall of our cabin. Clawson begins calling names.

"Bethany Abraham?"

"Present!" a voice calls.

"They have to do it before people start going to bed," I explain.

"Oh," he says. "That's probably a good idea. I'm exhausted."

"Me, too," I say with a grin.

"Rowan Arti?"

"Present!" I shout.

Roll call passes seamlessly at first. Only one kid was in the showers, and Jenson went to verify that he was alive and present.

Then they get near the end of the list.

"Kirk Wilkins?" Clawson calls out.

There is no response.

"Is he in the showers?" Clawson asks Jenson quietly. Jenson shakes his head.

Clawson looks at Oliver Matheny, Kirk's roommate. "Any ideas?"

Oliver shrugs. "I haven't seen him in a while."

Fear grips my guts with two cold iron fists.

Clawson laughs quietly. It's what she has been instructed to do when someone isn't present for roll call, so no one freaks out. I know what she's going to say next. I've heard it in past years when people were in the wrong cabins, or napping under a tree, or getting a handjob in the forest.

"Huh. We have our first wanderer of the year. I thought for sure it would be Rowan," Clawson says, giving me a grin. I don't respond. She's forgetting that I've seen this song and dance before, and that every year I've been here and this has happened, she's made this same joke about a different student.

I'm on edge and high alert, but her joke relaxes my classmates. My mind whirrs as I try to figure out what this could mean.

Gabe Schultz's shitty joke keeps replaying in my head.

What if someone saw Kirk and me by the stream? What if that's why he's gone?

What if he's scared? What if he's hurt?

What if I'm next?