Angel in the Shadows, Book 1 by Lisa Grace (Angel Series) (5 page)

I walk over to the chapel. Seth and my Venus
girls have saved a place for me. My group is sitting near the back
row. I look for “pink sneaks” as I walk down the center aisle but I
only see one girl wearing pink shoes and she looks too small. She
must be sitting up near the front. I’ll have to wait until after
chapel to continue my search.

As we leave the chapel, my Venus girls distract
me. By the time I look for “pink sneaks” most of the kids are out
the door. I catch a glimpse of a blonde girl with shoulder length
hair who is wearing pink shoes running towards the archery area. I
catch Carrie on her way to the range and ask her, “Carrie, there’s
a blonde girl in your next class who’s wearing pink sneakers;
they’re really cute, can you ask her where she got them?”

“Sure, see you at lunch,” she says.

I catch up to Seth walking to the beach.

“Hey handsome, you can rescue me today.”

“From what a ‘Venus flytrap?’” Seth says. I
lightly put my hand on his chest, stopping him.

“If I find a snake in my cabin kind sir, will
you come and get it out?” I ask Seth, doing my best imitation of a
damsel in distress.

“Yes, fair maiden, I will rescue you from the
fierce legless dragon, slay him, skin him, and turn him into a
fashionable belt as a reminder of the day your true love rescued
you from the clutches of the slithery serpent.”

Seth waves his imaginary sword, grabs me around
the waist, and swings me around.

“Stop!” I laugh.

“You asked for it.”

The kids on the beach start hooting and
hollering for Seth as we make our way down to them.

Mr. Z is gathering all the kids down by the
relay flags. Half of them are stripping down to their suits. Others
are slathering sunscreen on, horsing around, or awaiting
instructions. Mr. Z. grabs everyone’s attention by saying, “Update
on Casey. She’s fine. They’re keeping her at the hospital overnight
for observation. Good job Seth, Megan, and Jackson. You really
pulled together as a team and that saved that little girl’s life.
I’m proud of you.” He claps his hands together. “Now let’s have a
race.”

After swim, we head up to lunch. Seth and I grab
some sandwiches and sodas. It’s too nice of a day to eat indoors. I
quickly scan the room looking for Carrie, but she’s nowhere in
sight.

“Want to go down to our place and eat?” Seth
asks.

“Great idea. I’d love to.”

We head out with our lunch. The day is
beautiful. A light breeze keeps blowing hair into my face. I wish
I’d brought a hair tie. I want to tell Seth about Zadok, but I’m
afraid he’ll think there’s something wrong with me. How do you tell
your boyfriend that one of your camp counselors is an angel?
Especially since Seth’s never noticed anything out of the ordinary
about him. How would I bring up that I see Mr. Z. glowing? How do I
tell him about the evil things I’m seeing too? What if Seth stops
treating me normal and all he wants to do is talk about what I see
or worse yet, if he doesn’t want to be with me anymore because I’m
too strange? Or what if he doesn’t believe me? I can’t risk it. I
just have to hope he notices something. If he does, then I can
bring up what I know.

There is a safer topic I can discuss. We sit on
the dock and watch an eagle circling, hunting for fish on the far
end of the lake. We eat our sandwiches, sitting so close our legs
are touching. I throw one of my legs over his, swinging them
together just over the water. I ball up some bread and throw it in
the lake. Perch and sunfish rise up to the surface to eat it.

“I think one of the girls here is bulimic.”

“Great topic for lunch,” Seth says.

“Oh yeah. I guess it is kind of gross.”

“So who is it?” Seth throws out a dough ball
much further than mine.

“I don’t know yet. I only saw her shoes. They
were pink.”

“Well that certainly narrows it down.”

“If I find out who it is, what should I say to
her?”

“Hmm, what does one say to a cookie tosser?
What’s up?—Lunch?”

I hit Seth, “Stop. It’s not funny.”

“I guess you should probably tell one of the
adults and let them handle it. Megs, whoever the cookie tosser is,
she’s going to need help. Professional help. You aren’t going to
solve her problems in the next few days.”

“Well I can try to talk to her, if I can find
out who she is.”

Seth stands and holds out his hand to help me
up. I don’t let go once I’m up. I know Zadok is out there watching
me. Having a guardian angel at moments like this is a little
irritating. I look up at Seth. He’s looking down at me. I can sense
that he wants to kiss me and I long to kiss him. Seth lowers his
head to mine. I lift my face to him. Seth puts his hands on my hips
and draws me closer. I lay my hands gently on his chest. Our lips
touch as a flash of darkness in the trees catches my eye. We both
hear a branch snap and look back into the woods. Seth and I see a
deer and its fawn bounding out of sight deeper into the woods. I
shiver. Seth puts his hands on my arms and rubs them, our romantic
tension broken.

“It’s okay, it’s only a deer,” Seth says. Except
it’s not okay, because just past where the deer were, I see
something evil, watching us, watching me. I know Seth can’t see it,
but I get an uneasy feeling—it knows I can.

“Let’s go back. I have to do a couple of things
back at the cabin,” I say. I avoid looking back into the woods
where the evil thing is hiding. I grab Seth’s hand, “Can you walk
me back?” I try to sound playful, not scared. I silently ask for
protection. It’s too soon. I’m not ready to deal with my gift yet.
Just a few minutes ago, I desperately didn’t want Zadok around and
now I hope he is.

When I get back to the cabin, all the girls are
in. I feel better having them around. Tynekwa, Tasha and Allison,
my three musketeers are in my arts and crafts class. Today, we’ll
be making wallets, purses, or belts out of leather piece kits.
They’re discussing what they like best. I avoid looking out the
windows, afraid of what I might see. I’m glad to have the girls
walk me to the crafts room.

Class goes by fast. Afterwards, I head over to
help cook dinner. Mr. Steve is in charge of dinners. Tonight is
spaghetti night. I’m put to work boiling the noodles. The kitchen
quickly gets hot. With sauce, frying meat, and garlic bread going,
the temperature soon rises to an uncomfortable level. I’m glad
we’ll be having another weenie roast tomorrow night. As I stir and
sweat, I look around quickly at the other kids feet, but “pink
sneaks” isn’t here.

Thankfully, we set everything out in less than
half an hour. As the dinner bell rings, I go outside the kitchen
door, craving the breezy fresh air. I’m careful not to look at the
woods, but I am actively looking for Seth. The air outside is cool
compared to the heat of the kitchen. Out front, I spy Carrie
walking to the dining room with some of the kids from her cabin. I
run over to join her. I’m still spooked from what I saw in the
woods. It must be a dark angel in some form. I plan to talk to
Zadok about what I saw as soon as dinner is over. I know it can’t
hurt me without God’s permission, but seeing something like that is
just plain freaky.

“Carrie,” I ask, “did you find out who, I mean,
where she got the shoes?”

Carrie gives me a funny look. “Why didn’t you
just ask her yourself?”

“What do you mean?”

“This morning at breakfast. Paige was sitting
right with us. Anyway, she got them last year. She doesn’t remember
where.”

Paige is “pink sneaks”? I’m shocked. Somehow, I
didn’t think it would a junior counselor. Especially not someone
like her who seems to have it all together. I’ll have to get her
alone and ask her. “Oh, well thanks for asking.” I change the
subject. “So, how did arrow hunting go?” I ask trying to keep a
smirk off my face.

“Fine,” Carrie smiles, “Robby is really nice
when he’s not joking around. I think Paige likes him and there’s
always a group of the younger girls following him.”

“I call the younger girls his fan club. He is
cute, and always willing to play; no wonder they all have a crush
on him.”

“He’s a good friend to have,” Carrie says, “I’m
enjoying hanging out with him.”

“Have you seen Robby and Seth?” I ask.

“I think Mr. Timmons has them taking the canoes
out of the boat house and cleaning them for our trip to the dam
tomorrow.” Carrie says.

“Oh, is that tomorrow?” I’d forgotten. You have
to be strong enough to paddle to the dam and back. Each canoe only
holds three campers. All the canoes are florescent orange so
everyone on the water knows we’re from camp. Also, the bright
orange canoes make it easier to find someone if they get lost or
lag behind. On the trip we stop for lunch at the dam, rest a little
bit, then head back. All the campers are required to wear a life
vest in case of tipping. Junior counselors and older get to sit on
floating cushions in case they have to swim to help a camper.
Everyone tips on purpose or by accident. Either way, you’re going
over and out at least once. It’s a lot of fun.

The only bad thing you have to watch out for is
the kingsnakes. They’re not poisonous, but they are surprising. The
kingsnakes like to hang over the water from the tree branches.
Usually, at least once a summer, someone gets a snake dropped into
their canoe. The trick is to stay away from the trees. But the
newbies don’t know that.

I decide to head down to the boathouse, maybe I
can help.

Sure enough Robby, Seth, and Mr. Timmons along
with Mr. Davis, are carrying the last of the canoes down to the
beach. I head up to the boathouse to carry the rest of the life
preservers down. The dust in the boathouse makes me sneeze. I hear
some scuttling in a nearby corner coming from behind a pile of
canvass covers. I look up as a cheeky little chipmunk gives me a
warning chirp.

I answer, “Thanks, I’ll be careful.” He gives me
a couple more chirps then heads under some boards. Seth walks in
just as I sneeze again.

“God bless you,” he says.

“I love it when you catch me doing something
graceful like sneezing my head off.”

Seth comes up and helps load my arms up with
preservers. “You’re cute no matter what you do.” He puts his hands
on my shoulders and lightly touches his nose to mine. He gazes into
my eyes as we smile. He lets go and then carries the remaining
preservers out.

When we walk down to the beach, Mr. Davis is
busy hosing out the insides of the canoes to remove the spider
webs.

“You kids can go up to dinner. We’ll finish up,”
he says. Robby comes trotting up to us, waves, and continues past
us. Seth and I slowly walk up to the mess hall, enjoying our few
minutes of private time.

“I think I found out who the bulimic is.”

“Do you want to tell me?”

“Not yet, ’cause I’m not sure. I’m going to talk
to her. If she’s the one, maybe I can convince her to get help.
She’ll have to tell an adult. She’ll probably hate me and won’t
want to be friends anyway.”

Seth reaches out and takes my hand, “Sometimes
it’s hard to do the right thing. It could be worse to do
nothing.”

“You’re right. Thanks for listening.”

“Well, it’s easier to listen to you than to
Robby burping the alphabet.”

“At least I know where I stand,” I punch him on
the arm.

We reach the hall and go in to eat. After we get
our food and sit, I look around for Paige. Luckily, she’s sitting
at a table with Robby, Carrie, and his growing fan club. I decide
to follow her after dinner. As Paige gets up to leave I ask, “Seth
can you clear my tray? I’ll meet up with you later.”

“Sure, I’ll see you at the campfire.”

I head out after Paige, trying not to be too
obvious that I’m following her. She ducks in the bathroom and I
hear retching as soon as I open the door. Paige comes out of the
stall and sees me at the door. “I think we better talk,” I say.

“I just wasn’t feeling well, I’m better now,”
Paige says.

“I know that’s not true. I’ve heard you the past
few days. I think you have a problem. We need to talk.” I stand in
front of the door, blocking her exit.

“Really? It’s none of your business,” Paige
pushes past me out the door. I put out my hand to stop the swinging
of the door and follow.

I chase after her, “Paige, please, just for a
few minutes.”

Paige stops and turns around to face me, “Look,
I’m just dieting to lose a few pounds. I’m going to stop soon, so
it really is none of your business. Why don’t you go find a way to
sneak around some more with your boyfriend and leave me alone.”
With that, she runs off in the direction of her cabin.

“Well that went well,” I say under my
breath. Now what do I do? I need to try and talk to Paige again.
This is a problem I don’t need. I wish I could just ignore her and
her problem. I’ve got my own to deal with. But I can’t. What if she
gets worse and I didn’t do anything to help her? I have to try.
Real life is just as messy and real as seeing angels. Her bulimia
could hurt her just as much as these evil supernatural things can
hurt me and others too. I decide to attempt to talk to her one more
time tomorrow. If that doesn’t work, I’ll need a new game plan. The
diners are leaving the mess hall in small groups. I go back to the
dining hall and peek in looking for Zadok. He’s not there. I search
the rest of the building, no luck. I run into Kayla and Bri and
head back to our cabin with them. I glance casually at the woods
and see the dark presence again. I think it’s following me. How
does it know I can see them? My heart sinks to my stomach. It is
watching me.
Please God, send Zadok back my
way soon.
I really don’t want to deal with this on my
own. I hope he’s going on the canoe trip with us tomorrow. I can’t
stand the thought that the dark thing might be in the woods the
whole way down the river. Back at the cabin I grab a jacket, a
flashlight, and ask, “Can you girls wait for me?” Bri jokes,
“Sounds like you’re afraid.”