CHAPTER 7: SCAVENGER HUNT
Octavia had always heard about how boys spend their first five minutes of every morning staring at the floor, sitting at the edge of the bed. As Octavia stared listlessly into her reflection in the window, she considered it funny how boys thought that was a boy thing, being soulless in the morning.
Her eyes were puffy and sunken, her hair scraggly and messy from tossing and turning all night. She felt herself drifting off to a completely different world as she stared hard at one stray strand of hair on her forehead. It wasn't until she heard her name loudly shouted that she snapped out of it.
"Octavia! Are you even listening?" Maxson scolded.
"Huh?" Octavia tiredly groaned as she rubbed her entire face. She turned around and immediately wished she hadn't.
Maxson stood in the bathroom doorframe, a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth and toothpaste dribbling out his beak. He was wearing only a pair of wrinkly plaid boxers, his fat gut and moobs hanging low. It was the last thing Octavia had wanted to see so early in the morning.
"You should listen more. I was just telling Cameron and Hubert about the Honor Cabin award," he said, spitting his toothpaste into a small paper cup. "The cleanest and most tidy cabin receives the 'Honor Cabin' title and an appreciative chant at the meal hall."
"Great. Why do we care?" Octavia asked.
Maxson looked out the window, shoving Octavia aside. He scowled at Hogtusk's cabin, which sat on a hill on the other side of the campus. Crushing the paper cup, he growled, "Coach has won honor cabin three years in a row, and I shall no longer allow him to gloat about his victories."
Maxson tossed a roll of paper towels at Octavia, letting it bounce off the floor and roll onto her ankles. "Get to it. I expect this cabin to be spotless. And no, I will not help. I have better things to do."
As Octavia bent to pick up the paper towels, Mr. Maxson suddenly turned back as if remembering something. He walked over and thrust a sealed envelope into her hand. "You've received mail. A rather fancy parchment, I must say, if not a bit tacky."
Octavia blinked in surprise, staring at the gilded envelope, sealed with red wax. "Thanks," she muttered. She briefly considered throwing it away, but decided against it. Dad would just send more if she didn't respond.
As she opened the letter, a little folded-up piece of paper fell to the floor. Octavia eyed it suspiciously, before reading the first letter.
Hello, my starfire!
I miss you already! I'm sorry you had to leave so soon, I hardly had a chance to say goodbye. I beg of you to write me every night, or at least every few nights. I simply must know that you're okay.
I'll admit, I've been rather nervous for your safety the moment you stepped on the bus. My little owlette all alone in the woods! However, I have full confidence in the staff. Please check the second sheet of paper tucked into the parchment. I made it just for you.
Again, remember to write back!
With love,
Your father
P.S
Your mother wants you to know that she misses you greatly!
Octavia looked down at the smaller, folded-up paper that had fallen to the floor. She picked it up, checking over her shoulder. If he had sent her some sentimental baby pictures of her, she did NOT want anyone else seeing them. She held the paper close to her chest and discretely opened it, peering inside.
It was not photos, sketches, or anything of the like. It was a poem.
In the garden of life, my dear, you bloom,
With every challenge, let not your spirit gloom.
Embrace the sun, dance in the rain,
For each experience, a lesson to gain.
Amidst the shadows, let your light shine bright,
With courage as your wings, ready for flight.
Explore, dream, and let your heart soar,
In every moment, you'll find so much more.
So open your heart, embrace the unknown,
Your journey ahead, uniquely your own.
Remember, my child, in every single day,
To live with passion, in your own special way.
Octavia's eyes narrowed in anger with every passing word of the poem. It was like he was teasing her! Was this poem really supposed to make her feel better?
She noticed a few drop-shaped wrinkly spots on the parchment and rolled her eyes. It was just like Father to start crying from writing a fucking letter. She would need to escalate her planned letter to dad from passive-aggressive to aggressive-aggressive.
That could wait for later. Octavia moaned from exhaustion. She was so sleep-deprived that she felt dizzy. She figured she had only gotten an hour or two of sleep. Not only that, but it was still dark outside. The clock on the wall read 5:30 AM.
Octavia lamented that she could have been at home, sleeping till noon. Instead, she was scrubbing wooden floors with a Windex bottle filled with tap water. All thanks to her fucking dad. Mum too, as she was in on it for whatever reason.
With a sigh, she reached for a roll of paper towels and began to scrub the floor, the rough texture of the towels catching on every speck of dirt and loose strands of hair left behind by previous campers. Octavia let out a light chuckle, more of a scoff at the thought of her mother seeing her like this – on her knees, scrubbing the hardwood floors with wet paper towels like a servant.
Reaching into her pocket, Octavia pulled out her phone and pressed the power button. She felt the button click but saw no reaction. Sure enough, battery drain had finally claimed the life of her phone. It had only been one day into camp, and her most valuable asset was dead. She cursed herself for forgetting her charger.
Octavia noticed just how quiet the room was. She looked up, half expecting to be alone in the cabin, given the lack of conversation. Not that she was complaining, of course.
Sure enough, Cameron scrubbed a stubborn spot on the floor while Hubert relaxed on the couch, reading.
Cameron looked worse off than Octavia. She figured it was likely due to him returning to bed so late. She had heard him creep into the cabin in the middle of the night, coming back from wherever he had spent his whole night since leaving the campfire. The effect of no sleep was showing. Dark, puffy circles were under his eyes, and his gaze was hollow.
"Holy shit, Cameron. Are you good?" Octavia asked.
Cameron stared blankly at the floor for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, don't worry. Just didn't get enough sleep."
Octavia smirked. She could tell. She had half a mind to ask where he had been all night but thought better of it. It wasn't her business, and she didn't give a shit anyways. Besides, there was something else on her mind.
"Why did you cover for Brutus last night?" she blurted, unable to keep silent anymore.
Cameron paused hesitantly before sighing. "I'm gonna sound like a pushover for this, but I felt kinda bad about what I said to him yesterday," he muttered. "Like, he followed his dreams, hit his first roadblock, and here I am, making fun of him for failing."
Octavia stopped scrubbing the floor, looking at Cameron incredulously. "Dude," she said, "he fucking punched you."
"Yeah…" Cameron muttered, staying silent for a moment before his shoulders sank. "Yeah, I might be a bit of a pushover, I guess."
As Cameron returned to wiping the floors, Octavia looked him up and down. He would never make it through the last year of high school, or even summer camp, especially not after pissing off Brutus AND Courtney. He was just as much an outcast as she was, and whether she liked it or not, she owed him something for defending her against Courtney.
Maybe the least she could do was show him how to survive as an outcast so that he could live through senior year.
She sighed, returning to making her bed. "Well, um… anyways, thanks for standing up for me yesterday. Nobody's ever done that for me," Octavia said. "Sorry it took so long to say that," she muttered, nervously chuckling before shrinking awkwardly. "I just wasn't sure what to say."
"Oh, yeah, no problem," Cameron said without looking up. He then got a curious look on his face. "Hey, what's Courtney's problem anyway? She seems weirdly hateful."
Octavia's expression darkened. "People like her get off to being a mean sardonic bitch; it makes her look cooler to all of her followers." Octavia frowned, shaking her head as she fluffed up her pillow. "Nothing short of losing her cult following of simps will ever change her."
Cameron nodded, though he looked unconvinced. "I tend to believe in the good in people, y'know? Everyone can change for the better."
Biting back a scoff, Octavia looked at him with a raised brow. She turned back to her bed, shaking her head to herself. How the fuck did someone like him wind up in hell?
The two's conversation was interrupted by Hubert's young, nasally voice. "I'd hoped you'd have learned from last year, Cameron. You can't count on our competition to be good faith actors."
Immediately, Cameron frowned. "You weren't even here last year. How do you know about that?" he said, crossing his arms.
Hubert let out a dry, hollow chuckle as he spoke. "It's all anyone talked about last year. Everyone found it quite humorous. Not I, of course," he added, his tone dripping with disdain.
Octavia, who had intentionally kept herself out of the loop regarding school gossip, was intrigued. "What happened?" she asked, hoping to get some context.
Cameron's scowl deepened as he replied. "Last year, we had a scavenger event as a trial. I was doing pretty well until someone mugged me and took all the trinkets I had picked up from the trial. Stole the lead from me, literally."
Octavia winced at the thought. "Wow," she said. "Did your team not do anything to help you?"
Cameron started to tidy his bed with a shrug. "We had split up. They went in one direction and told me to go the other way, alone. Little did they know that I knew the woods better than them." He gave an empty smirk as he tapped his forehead, trying to hide his pain with humor. Octavia could see right through him, but she decided not to point it out.
"So we get to wander around some shitty forest until we get mugged," Octavia grumbled, sitting on her made bed. "Fun."
"Well, on the bright side, they've changed it to a lockbox trial this year," Cameron said in assurance. He seemed mildly relieved. "We gotta find hints. Each hint is in chronological order; one puzzle leads to another. Once you get to the final riddle, you find the keycode to the lockbox. So mugging people isn't a legit strategy this time." Cameron looked over his shoulder before speaking in a hushed tone. "Besides, we get to spend the morning away from Mr. You Know Who."
Octavia nodded in agreement with a scoff. "I guess that makes it suck a little less."
"Nope, this fucking sucks," Octavia said as their bus sped back towards camp, having dropped off all the campers. Each group had been scattered across the forest, leaving the motley crew that was Possumpaw cabin all by themselves.
Tall trees reached to the sky, surrounding her from all sides as pine needles and leaves crunched under her feet. The air was thick with the smell of damp moss. It was all she could smell and taste, as if every breath was infused with earthy fragrance that lingered on her tongue.
"If only Mum could see me now," she grumbled, swatting a branch out of her face as they all walked down the dirt trail.
Cameron couldn't help but chuckle at their situation. The dense forest around them seemed endless, and the only sound was the rustling of leaves beneath their feet. "It could be worse," he said. "This is nothing like last year."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper. "But we're not in that kind of trouble. We have a map to guide us, a compass to keep us on track, and this first clue to help us find our way." Cameron held up the piece of paper, which had a riddle scribbled on it in barely legible handwriting.
"Atop the crown of hilltops high,
A bony gaze, the answer lies.
Seek the skull, withered and old,
Where ancient tales of nature are told."
Octavia let her hand fall to her side as she groaned. Staying inside and cleaning for four hours would be preferable. "Did Mr. Walt write these riddles? How do we know these riddles aren't just manic scribbles?"
"I think it was Mr. Walt," Cameron said with a shrug before a confused look came over him. "Which is weird. Usually, he just handles the shooting range."
Octavia bristled at the idea of the unhinged counselor handling actual live weapons.
Cameron paced around as he reread the hint out loud a few times. "We're looking for a skull. But what's the hilltop bit about? He could've been a little more specific," he muttered, gesturing to the countless hills ahead of the group.
Hubert abruptly stopped and opened his backpack, kneeling on the ground and rummaging through it.
"Huey, what's up?" said Cameron, stopping before a teasing smirk made its way over his lips. "Forget something?"
The tubby kid scoffed. "Of course not. I never forget things." He shoved several books aside, looking for something in particular. "I'm looking for my Deadwood tour pamphlet. They were handing them out at the school library."
Octavia slipped her hands in her pockets, idly rocking back and forth. She was getting impatient, and the blaring sunlight and pesky bugs were doing little to help her mood.
"Hubert checked out a book with no intention of returning it?" Cameron asked, gasping performatively. Hubert gave him an unamused side eye before pulling out a laminated softcover pamphlet. He flipped through the pages as they walked, pointing to a page that had caught his attention.
"The hint must be referring to Hightop Hill. It's known for its unique stone landmark resembling a…" Hubert tapped the pamphlet, holding it up to Octavia and Hubert. Octavia leaned in to take a look, her brow furrowing.
"Discovered in 1725, Hightop Hill is the second tallest hill in Deadwood! However, what makes it so unique is its natural landmark resembling a 30-foot-tall phallus! Morning wood? More like morning stone!"
"Great," Octavia groaned cynically, pinching her brow as her shoulders tensed, "so we're looking for a giant stone dick. That's our first landmark. Cool."
"Hey, don't bash it. A good landmark is hard to miss," Cameron said with a grin, pointing at something off in the distance.
Octavia squinted to see what he was pointing at. Far in the distance, she spotted a tall cylindrical boulder with two smaller boulders at its base, surrounded by trees that reached up halfway.
"Welp, time to get a move on! Looks like it's at least a mile away," Cameron said, marching towards Mount Stonedick with a stupid smile on his face.
Octavia whined and bashed her head into a nearby tree.
It felt like they had walked across the entire Wrath Ring. With every step, her thighs and calves screamed in agony, as though they were on fire, and every breath she took felt like a sharp knife was being plunged into her side. The unforgiving terrain seemed to stretch out before them forever, and the oppressive heat beat down on them with unrelenting force.
"Fuck… fuck… fuck…" she breathed tiredly.
"If you're going to use… such colorful language…" Hubert panted, rolling his eyes, "Might you at least… be more creative…?"
A few feet ahead of them, Cameron was barely even winded. He looked back to them with a disapproving glance. "Guys, come on. We've only been walking for twenty minutes."
"My legs are a third the length of yours," Hubert objected indignantly, clutching his side, "therefore, I have taken three times as many steps as you!"
Octavia nodded, leaning against a tree, sputtering and gasping for air. "Give me a second, dude… fuck! We've been walking uphill for like ten minutes!"
"Fair points, both of you," Cameron relented before spinning around and throwing his hands into the air. "But behold! The giant cock!"
"What?" Octavia said through ragged gasps before looking up. Just ahead of them stood a large—no, colossal stone structure, as tall as her mansion back home! It was an upright, elongated slab of rock with two large boulders at its base. It cast a dick-shaped shadow over the three campers.
Octavia needed a moment to figure out what she was looking at, still trying to catch her breath. Slowly, her panting turned to chuckling, which then devolved into an uncontrollable giggle. She watched a squirl leap off a nearby tree and climb up the shaft, and her giggling turned to cry laughter.
"Nature is full of wonders, huh?" Cameron said, joining in on the laughter. Octavia only doubled over, wheezing as she pointed at the ridiculous rock structure. She slumped against a tree, covering her reddening face. It had been so long since she had laughed at anything. Octavia couldn't believe she was losing it at a rock. Maybe she had already lost her mind.
As the two of them finished laughing, Hubert rolled his eyes, the boy's ever-present lack of amusement clear as day. "If both of you are done acting like immature toddlers," he pouted, "perhaps it would behoove us to investigate the area."
Octavia gasped, wiping her face as she stood up. Her head felt light, and her belly was already sore. She nodded, composing herself. However, her eyes widened as she got a brilliant idea.
Grabbing the Polaroid camera around her neck, Octavia crouched low, pointing it up at the rock for a cinematic low-angle shot. "I'm absolutely sending this to Dad," she muttered with a subtle smirk.
After taking her picture, the three looked around and quickly found a plastic foldable table with a skull on top. Between the skull's teeth was a parchment.
"Though bones will whisper truths untold,
Lies are buried by shrouds of mold.
Beneath the tree with twisted limbs,
Where shadows dance and light grows dim,
Heed the bones for what is true,
Choose between one of two."
"What is any of this supposed to mean?" Octavia grumbled, once again perplexed by Walt's mad riddles. She looked to Cameron, expecting to see him equally confused. But once again, he had that insightful look on his face.
"Under the tree with twisted limbs, where shadows dance and the light grows dim…" Cameron muttered, tapping his chin. "That's gotta be the haunted tree. It's next to the abandoned cabin." He paused, his brow furrowing. "That's surprising. They haven't let anyone near that house ever since…" he trailed off before shaking his head.
Octavia was over it. She expected stories around the campfire, but it was getting unoriginal with all the shitty ghost stories Cameron was set on telling. "Lemme guess," she said, exasperated, "some kid hung themselves from the tree and now their spirit haunts the cabin."
"Hanged," said Hubert, mild annoyance in his voice. "It's 'hanged.'"
"Fucking- Whatever. Summer camp, ghosts, so scary…" Octavia said in a stupid voice, shaking her hands in mock fear before rolling her eyes. "The scariest thing about this camp is that Walt runs the shooting range." Octavia leaned against the boulder with a moody sigh before looking up and grimacing, realizing she was leaning on the ballsack boulder.
Cameron, however, was unamused. His face remained stoic. "No. I'm serious. Seven years ago, an entire cabin of people straight up disappeared. The only thing we know is that the abandoned cabin is the closest to the Dark Woods. Hence why nobody stays there anymore."
Octavia shrugs, finally catching her breath. "whatever," she said, standing up. "Well, the sooner we get this done, the sooner I can go back to staying inside. Where is it?"
Cameron stepped to the side. Off in the distance, what looked to be nearly two miles away, was a small wooden structure. It appeared to be a cabin. A very distant cabin.
Fuck.
"Whoa!" Octavia grabbed onto a cluster of roots as her feet gave out from under her. The slope she had been walking up was almost a straight drop, and she had to step on rocks to make any progress. She wasn't sure how Cameron was so good at climbing.
Then again, Cameron didn't have a fat piglet with an even fatter backpack clinging onto his back.
"Mind your step, Octavia!" Hubert yelped, clutching onto her neck and putting her in a stranglehold. "I have a very dense center of gravity and am only three feet tall! A fall from this height would be catastrophic!"
"I'm sure your books would cushion you!" Octavia squeaked through strangled breaths as she tried to pull herself up over.
Octavia swore. "Damn! Cameron, are you sure the campers up here were murdered? Or did they just fall off a fucking cliff?" Octavia panted as she climbed up the ledge, putting her feet up and clawing herself to solid ground. She stood and panted, placing her hands on her hips.
The human boy grimaced and nodded. "There used to be a path up here, but they terraformed the heck out of it after the disappearances." He held out his hand to Octavia. "Here, I'll pull you up."
Octavia hesitated, her gaze darting between his eyes and his hand, before relenting and grabbing on.
His hand felt weirdly squishy and soft, yet surprisingly cold. It was like imp skin, though much less rough, and much colder. She chalked it up to the fact that humans didn't have very hot blood, compared to demons.
Cameron pulled, leaning back with all his might. "Urrgggh… nope, too heavy," he panted as he let her drop back down before his eyes went wide as saucers. "I mean, uh, not that you're heavy. I'm just, uh, you know." He gestured to his spindly limbs and body.
Octavia gave him a bemused look. "Yeah. I know."
She grabbed a small rock on the ground, roughly the size of a watermelon, and started rolling it a few feet ahead of the ledge. Although she had never been particularly gifted in athletics, she'd watched enough Mirror's Edge playthroughs to know what to do.
"Fuck, faith was so cool," she thought as she prepared for a running start. "Let's see if I can awaken my inner Faith."
She dashed forward, her talons scraping the rock as she springboarded off it. With all the added weight on her back, it felt like trying to jump out of quicksand. She barely cleared the jump, landing flat on her face.
Hubert hopped off and dusted his trousers. "Hmm, that was an impressive display of athleticism, although the landing could have been more graceful."
Octavia lifted her head and spat out a piece of grass from her mouth. "It would have been more graceful if I didn't have fifty pounds of books clinging onto my back."
Hubert looked back at his backpack and shrugged before giving an innocent smile as Cameron helped Octavia get back on her feet. As Octavia brushed the dirt off her body, she looked up.
To think Cameron had called their cabin shitty.
Before them stood a cabin in utter disrepair. Its walls were covered in moss and overgrown with vegetation, as if nature was slowly reclaiming the structure. The cabin was of an older design than the ones back at camp, resembling a traditional log cabin. Its windows were shattered, leaving jagged shards of glass scattered around the perimeter of the structure. Despite the obvious signs of neglect and decay, there was something hauntingly beautiful about the ruined cabin. Yet there was something ominous about it as well.
"Welcome… to Cabin Four." Cameron paced the side of the building, looking it up and down. "The oldest Cabin still standing."
Octavia cocked her head at the different naming system. "Cabin four? Not Cabin G or something?"
"Camp Deadwood used to have five cabins somewhere around here," Cameron explained. "For some reason, the disappearances spooked the counselors so much, that they abandoned the cabins and just built a bunch of new ones further away from the dark woods. That became the new Camp Deadwood – it's been that way for seven years. And this…" He gestured to the run-down cabin, peeking inside the shattered window. "This is just an old mystery now."
"So… where are the other cabins?" Octavia asked.
Cameron shrugged his head to the side, gesturing to the forest. "Somewhere in there."
Octavia gazed intently towards the treeline that lay just beyond the cabin, her eyes fixed on the dense forest ahead. The trees appeared to be of a darker shade than the surrounding flora, and even though they were not as tightly packed together, they cast a deep and ominous shadow on the forest bed.
As she took a tentative step forward, Octavia squinted at the uncanny and surreal-looking treeline. Something about the forest ahead seemed eerie and foreboding as if it was concealing dark and malevolent secrets.
Despite her growing sense of unease, Octavia took a few steps closer, her eyes scanning the area for any signs of danger. A wave of dread washed over her, and every instinct in her body urged her to turn back and flee from the forest ahead.
Cameron sidled up next to her, soothing her unease. "You feel that too, right? The Dark Woods do that. It's like the forest is cursed or something." He shuddered as he looked into the shadowy abyss. He seemed just as uncomfortable as Octavia.
"Yeah." She turned to Cameron, a new sense of urgency in her voice. "I don't like this, let's just finish this up and find-"
Snap.
Three heads turned towards the forest, all going silent. Octavia listened closely, going stock still. She was sure she was imagining things, but it almost sounded like someone, or something, was drawing closer.
Snap. Crack. Sh-ck.
Octavia noticed movement coming from the Deadwood forest. Though it was only a brief moment of clarity through the foliage, she immediately recognized the towering form of Brutus.
That fucking asshole had followed them! He must have! There was no way that stupid meathead could have gotten past the first hint, and she doubted his friends were any smarter.
But what Brutus lacked in brains, he made up for in violence and pissed off depressed alcoholic vibes. If he saw Cameron this far out in the middle of nowhere with nobody to protect him but a lanky emo girl and a literal child… it wouldn't be pretty.
"Fuck," Octavia thought to herself as she bolted for the door of the cabin. She knew she owed Cameron; It was time she paid him back by sparing him an ass-whooping.
"Octavia, what are you doing?" Cameron asked in a hushed tone, jogging after Octavia. "We're not supposed to go in there-"
"Shush!" Octavia whispered sharply, bringing a finger to his lips. She grabbed the door handle and prayed it wasn't locked as she pulled.
It creaked open.
Inside the cabin, it was surprisingly dark. The back of the cabin was almost pitch black, and the only source of light was coming from the two windows on each side of the open door.
"Get inside!" She whispered again, ushering the two inside. After they entered, Octavia followed them inside and closed the door behind her. She scrambled for a lock, looking for some sort of mechanism.
Her hands brushed across a latch mechanism on the upper side of the door, and she quickly slid it into the locked position. She gave a weighty sigh, before crouching down below the windowsill next to the door.
Seeing her two campmates still standing upright like dolts, she motioned for them to get low. Cameron nodded, a look of confusion on his face as he knelt. For a brief moment, Octavia worried that her eyes were playing tricks on her, that she was overreacting.
She was validated when she heard the voices outside the cabin.
"You sure they went this way, Marbles?"
Cameron's eyes widened as he heard Brutus' voice. Octavia brought a finger to his lips again, before slowly and carefully peeking out the window.
"Ugh. Brutus, are we seriously, like, unironically, LITERALLY following the three biggest losers in Hell by their fucking smell?" Courtney sashayed behind Brutus and Marbles, picking at her fingernail.
"Yeah, babe. We are," Brutus said tiredly, an annoyed frown on his face. This only drew a pout from Courtney, followed by more bratty bitchy whining.
Octavia looked over to Cameron, seeing that he was just as shocked as she was that they had teamed up together. Well, Cameron was shocked. Octavia was only surprised that Courtney managed to find Brutus in a forest. Despite Hellhound reputation, Courtney was not a good tracker. She had probably killed her keen sense of smell with all her obnoxious perfume.
"Heyyyy… so like, does Octavia… you know… have a smell?" Courtney asked.
Octavia bristled at that. She had gone out of her way to smell like nothing. She didn't stink, but she had refused to use the perfume Stella had given her. She hadn't even opened it, and for good reason. It was about as subtle as an elephant, definitely not her style. But if Marbles had been able to track them by smell…
"Everyone's got a smell, girl," Marbles said. "Octavia, she smells like…" Octavia heard him take a few short sniffs. "...kinda like sea salt? Ocean shampoo?"
"The fuck does sea salt smell like?" Brutus asked.
Marbles gave him a baffled look. "You ever stepped in a shower, cabrón? Like body wash!"
Courtney scoffed as she crossed her arms. "Of course, the emo bitch uses men's shampoo." She cackled loud enough to frighten a nearby flock of birds from their trees as Brutus and Marbles nodded.
"It's Royauté Dorée, you stupid skank," Octavia muttered silently before remembering she was supposed to be hiding. She saw Courtney's ears perk up and tail go rigid. She quickly ducked below the window as Courtney snapped around to look at the cabin.
Seeing nothing, Courtney turned back to Marbles with a mischievous grin. "So, like…here's a question that I'm, like, totally gonna regret asking. What does Cameron smell like?"
Marbles sniffed the air, lifting his head high. His brow raised and he let out a confused hum, giving the ground a few sniffs as well. "He smells like… like he's been in the Dark Woods recently. I noticed that smell coming off him earlier this morning. It was stronger then."
Octavia looked at Cameron, raising an eyebrow. He shook his head as if to tell her that it wasn't the right time to ask.
"The Dark Woods has a smell?" Brutus asked, visibly unconvinced.
"Yeah, homes. It's like…" Marbles shook his head, sighing. "I dunno, it puts you on edge. Like the air is sharp and prickly, makes you feel like you're being followed."
Brutus scoffed, shaking his head. "Bullshit. Nobody goes into the Dark Woods, especially not some wimp like him," Brutus growled, looking at the shadowy border to the deep dark heart of the forest. He shuddered, stepping a little further back from the woods.
Marbles didn't seem bothered by the revelation or the shadowy forest. "The nose knows," he said with a smirk, tapping his claw to his feline nose. Everyone who goes in there has a smell; it clings to them for days."
Courtney twiddled with her long hair, no longer seeming as smug. "Okayyyyy… Weird. But it's Cameron, he's, like, a total fucking weirdo anyways."
"Don't worry, babe. If I see that motherfucker," he pounded his fist into his palm with a meaty clap. "there won't be a single counselor to stop what I'm gonna do to him."
Cameron gulped nervously. Octavia could tell he was anxious. Brutus' words carried truth; an actionable promise of violence. He was big, strong, and angry, and there wasn't a single adult nearby to keep him in check.
"Don't fuck him up too bad," Marbles said, "we still need him to finish this scavenger hunt bullshit for us, remember? We need them to be awake for that, yeah, big guy?"
Brutus looked annoyed but agreed in resignation. "Fine. So where'd they scamper off to?"
The blood ran cold in Octavia's veins. She looked to Hubert and Cameron, who both were wide-eyed. Octavia could practically hear Cameron's heart thumping in his chest.
"Smells like they went… in there."
The malicious trio's footsteps closed in on the cabin. Though Cameron and Hubert remained silent, they started visibly panicking.
"This is my chance to be the hero," Octavia thought sardonically. She reached into her satchel, her hand fishing around for that damned perfume bottle. She pulled out a large clear vial filled with a smoky pink liquid. As she shook it, whorls of translucent pink clouds shifted about inside. There was a warning on the back to only apply lightly.
She cursed under her breath as she realized she had never peeled the plastic seal off the top. As the bullies drew closer to the cabin, she gave up on picking at it with her talons and began pecking the seal, successfully tearing it open.
Octavia took a performative inhale, gesturing for the other two to hold their breath as she began to unscrew the perfume.
The door handle turned, and as the door was pushed on, it caught on the latch. "The fuck? It's stuck," came Brutus' voice.
"Lemme try," Marbles said before the door shook again. Then, several sniffs sounded from around the crack of the door. "Those motherfuckers locked it. They're still inside!"
As Octavia removed the perfume's lid, its pink fumes sprayed out in all directions with a silent hiss. Octavia's eyes immediately started to water. Even without breathing any in, the fumes climbed up her nose, stabbing the inside of it with thousands of little daggers. She stifled a choke as her throat burned. She had no idea how Mum wore this stuff every day!
"Outta the way, bro. I'm knocking this door down." Brutus took a few paces back, and Octavia realized she had a lot less time than she thought.
BAM!
The door flexed and splintered, and a few metal pieces fell loose from the sides of the door.
Octavia pointed to Cameron and Hubert, both looking as if they were on the verge of dying, and motioned for them to hide in the closet.
There was only enough room for the two of them, so Octavia dashed through the pink aroma, towards the back of the cabin, into the pitch black.
BAM!
She turned around and thrust the bottle at the entrance, splattering the floor with a three-foot-long line of concentrated perfume fluid. The pink aroma wafted up into the air as she splattered the remaining liquid onto the walls for good measure. She swore she heard a sizzling from the floorboards.
Her large owl eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, and she spotted an open door. She hurried inside, just barely able to make out her surroundings. It was a simple bedroom with various things strewn about haphazardly. She turned to close the bedroom door-
CRACK!
Too late. The bullies breached the cabin, she could hear their footsteps surge into the front room. "Damn, what the fuck?! It smells like Courtney's bedroom! Marbles, you good?" Brutus asked.
Marbles was audibly not good.
"Puta madre!" She heard Marbles retch and gag, stumbling back outside, all according to plan. Octavia felt some satisfaction. For the first time in Octavia's miserable life, Mum had done something good for her.
She scanned for a spot to hide, before noticing the bedframe was just high enough off the floor for her to slip under.
As quietly as she could, she pressed herself to the floor and scooted under the bed. As she moved across the floor, she felt something dig into her thigh. It was roughly the size of a stapler and felt hard and cool to the touch. She ignored the feeling – she could check to see what it was after the coast was clear. While her heart still raced, she felt safer with the bedframe above her.
As the bullies searched the front room, there were no exclamations or sounds of battle. Octavia was pretty sure her left ass cheek had more brain cells than both Brutus and Courtney combined. Without Marbles' being able to sniff them out, the bullies would never find Cameron and Hubert.
The room was in disarray as she lay hidden beneath the bed, her heart pounding with fear. Her eyes darted around, taking in the scattered clothes, the open wardrobe shelves, and a broken bottle lying on the floor. The scene suggested that whoever had been there had left in a hurry.
As she lay there, trying to steady her breathing, she glanced to her side, hoping to find some clue that might help her escape. At first, she saw nothing of note, just the dim outline of objects in the dim light.
But then, as she looked closer, she realized something was next to her, just a few feet away. She squinted, trying to get a better look at the object.
In the dim light, partially lit by her glowing red eyes, she saw it was about the size of a small backpack. She also saw two beady black eyes staring back at her.