Chapter Ten

By Kiesha Priem

Shane was breathing hard.  Or maybe he was hardly breathing.  He was having a hard time feeling his body lately.  But he and Kim had barely made it back to their beds before Tate came in with his wake-up call. 

Shane remembered Kim saying that Keah was going to need their help, but what did he owe the olive-eyed girl?  Nothing.  Things were getting far too creepy for Shane.  He had to come up with an escape plan to get Kim and himself out of there without being seen or noticed.  His thoughts were interrupted by Tate’s roaring voice. 

“This morning for breakfast, we will be hunting and gathering food from the forest!  Part of camping is learning about survival!  Everyone should be back in an hour with anything edible you can find! There will be a fire waiting for you upon your return!”

Ha!  Survival sounds about right, Shane thought. 

He didn’t hear any of the other instructions that Tate was barking at them.  He grabbed his car keys and shoved them in one of his pockets.  This was their chance.  As he left his room with the other guys, he saw Kim come out of the girls’ room.  He caught her eye and she gave him a nod.  They used different exits from Salem, but then they met back up behind the cabin. 

“Kim, do you trust me?” Shane asked.

“Of course I do, Shane.” 

It had been a long time since she heard those words come from his mouth.  He would always ask her if she trusted him before they would embark upon their many adventures.  So she knew that he had something up his sleeve.  It brought a lot of memories rushing back to her head.

“Then just follow me.”

“Ok.  But where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

This kind of annoyed her, but she followed him anyway.  They ran a little ways until Kim saw Shane’s car parked in front of a tree.  “Shane, what are you thinking?  We can’t leave!  They are going to find us, even if we make it out of here.  IF…” 

“Good point, Kim.  But we at least have to try.  I don’t know how much more of Camp Peace I can take anymore.  The dreams, the hiding, Brightlee, Tate…my gut is telling me that something strange is going on here, and I don’t want to be a part of it.”

“But Keah…” Kim protested.

Shane opened the driver’s door.  “I know.  But she’s a smart girl.  She can figure it out.”  He saw the dejected, far-off look on her face and was worried that she was under some sort of spell.  He was beginning to think spells weren’t impossible. 

“Kim, are you with me?”  Kim snapped out of it and climbed in the passenger’s seat. 

“Yeah,” she said.  “Let’s go.”

Shane inserted the key into the ignition and turned it, but it made no sound.  “Great.  They really are trying to hold us captive,” he said.  He turned it again, but still nothing.  The battery was probably dead.  He had jumper cables, but there was no other cars here.  “Hippies,” Shane muttered under his breath.

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“So I guess we’re stuck here.”  Kim was starting to feel more and more anxious about being at Camp Peace.  If Shane’s car wasn’t working, she had no idea how they would ever get out of here.  She had arrived in some kind of transporter with Keah.  And that thing had so many buttons that even if they found it, she wouldn’t know how to fly it.  She was kind of in shock when that whole series of events had happened. 

At least she didn’t have to feel bad about leaving Keah behind to fend for herself, whatever she was trying to do.  She liked her.  Besides Shane, Keah was the least weird of the bunch.  Yes, she did somehow magically find her, and she ….

“Oof!”  Kim hadn’t been watching where she was going and she had fallen down a hole into a deep cave.  It had surprised her, but she didn’t think she was hurt.  She blinked her eyes a few times and saw a bright blue flame over on the far side of the cave.  She was immediately drawn to the flame.

Shane had seen Kim fall, almost in slow motion, but he wasn’t able to get to her in time.  “Kim!”  Shane yelled down the hole.  “Are you ok?”

“Yeah!  Shane, you have to come down here!”  Kim yelled. 

Shane hopped into the small opening that Kim had made when she fell.  Kim was standing over by some sort of blue flame.  Shane went over to where she was standing. 

The blue flame was coming from a very large, very ornate looking candle.  It was the biggest candle that Shane had ever seen.  It stood on wooden pedestal the size of a king-sized bed.  The pedestal had a lot of designs carved into it.  Shane could barely make the carvings out, but it looked like two figures surrounded by different shapes.  The detail was kind of amazing.  It gave him the chills, though.

“Kim, let’s go.  I have a really strange feeling about this.”  But Kim wasn’t listening.  She was enchanted by the candle and the strange blue flame it was giving off.  “Kim!  Kim, come on!”

All of a sudden out of the corner of his eye, Shane saw something large and black dully reflecting the light of the candle.  It almost looked like the aircraft from his dream.  But that was impossible.  Why would it be hidden underground?

Then the door to the aircraft opened and Shane heard Kim fall hard to the ground.