Run & Hide by Beatrix Hollow
6
Several hours later, I was stumbling out of the vehicle after my nap. My brain felt sluggish and heavy, not letting go of sleep immediately. I blinked rapidly as I spilled out into the sunny campsite.
The splinter from the haunted house pinched painfully in my left ring finger as it bumped the side of the car door. A little piece of wood was lodged inside me, worming deeper into my body every time I tore into my skin seeking it out. I sucked in a breath, eyeing the bandaid over the irritated wound.
My earlier attempts to fish the splinter out with tweezers only accomplished making it worse. The sharp ends of my tweezers had torn the flesh as I’d winced in pain, hurting myself.
At this point, I was scared to mess with it any more. I'd likely create a crater while the old wood slipped further into my body, getting so deep I'd never be able to find it again.
I leaned into the car, grabbing more antibiotic cream and bandaids. It was surprising how innocent the wound looked for how much it hurt. After handling that, I fished out my camera and popped off the lens cover before letting it hang around my neck from its thick strap, ready for action.
The air was cooler than I expected. It was mid-August and still warm, but nowhere near as humid and oppressive as my hometown on the coast. I tugged my phone from my pocket and saw it was already noon.
I scratched my scalp and went over to Caspian, who was finishing putting up my tent. He was hunched over, his wide shoulders pulling his tee-shirt taut across his back. Tattoos covered both of his arms, spilling in black and grays from the sleeves of his shirt and stretching down to his wrists. Both sides were visions of water and the creatures in its depths—some real, some fantastical.
There was another tattoo hiding just inside his hip bone, near his pelvis. Sometimes it would peek out of his low-slung pants. I hadn’t asked him what it was though, a little embarrassed to bring up I’d eyed the area a lot. He’d also gotten his left pec tattooed before we left, but it was still covered. When I asked what it was he had winked instead of sharing.
As I approached, he stood up with a proud smile, his eyes looking to me for approval. It was amazing how cute Caspian could still be.
“It looks great,” I said, turning and taking in the camp. He’d set up a hammock between two trees, had the cooler sitting next to the picnic table, had the picnic table bursting with a bunch of unpacked things, and two Sasquatch Inc. camping chairs were set up by the fire pit. I pulled up my camera from my neck and snapped a picture of the chairs.
“One tent down. One to go,” I said, turning back to him. “Is that the only thing left?” Caspian’s eyes widened slightly and he looked off towards the trees. “Cas?” I asked in suspicion.
“Well, you see I forgot to pack my tent.”
“You forgot to pack a tent… for camping?” I looked at him in disbelief. His rich brown eyes settled on me.
“Silly me, being so forgetful,” he said with a taunting smirk and smoldering eyes. I felt things tighten low in my body and swallowed.
“You loser. What are we supposed to do?” I asked, shoving him playfully. He stumbled slightly and his smirk grew to a full smile.
“It means, dear stepsister—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“That we’re sharing a tent,” he finished. I groaned then eyed my tent. It was technically a two-person. However, that didn’t account for personal space. Two bodies could fit in there for sure, pressed up tight like little sardines holding each other in a tin can.
I couldn’t handle that. Not with him.
“Sleep in the SUV. We’ll put down the back seats.” Caspian’s smile turned to a look of offense.
“Seriously?” He asked, eyes boring into mine.
“Yeah?” I said in confusion. He made a frustrated groan towards the sky and stomped off. He moved down the little campground road, heading towards the bathroom building.
Then it was just me and nature. A nice silence intermingled with the sound of birds chirping and leaves rustling. Caspian was acting weird but that was pretty typical. Eccentricity was part of his package.
He didn’t really want to be all squished up together in the tent, did he? I’d likely embarrass myself if we were forced to have our bodies pressed tight in a hot tent.
I imagined us in our sleeping bags together in the dark, his teasing voice making jokes as I felt his large body behind mine.
“You love your stepbrother, don’t you?” He’d joke, his fingers scratching into my scalp, moving my hair away from my ear. “Want to show me how much you love me?” He’d murmur, his breath tracing the lines of my neck.
“What's wrong with me?” I mumbled, swallowing thickly and crossing my arms over my hard nipples. Why did he have to joke about those types of things all the time? He was putting strange thoughts in my head. Especially now, with the whole world thinking we already had sex. That we used to sneak around, living in the same house, fucking when everyone’s heads were turned.
I groaned and smacked my heated cheeks, trying to dispel any and all visuals suddenly flashing in my head.
I heard the abrupt beep of a little vehicle and jumped. Turning, I saw a golf cart at the front of our campsite. A woman sat on it and she did not look happy to see me. Had I done something wrong? Was I supposed to check in with her first? There hadn’t been instructions or even a building at the front of the campground, so I’d just drove on in.
The woman sat there staring at me, not getting up or waving at me to come hither. She had gray and brown curly hair cut into a mullet. On her head was a pair of sports sunglasses and on her feet were sandals that looked a size or two too small.
On her waistband was a gun.
I heard the screams and felt the panic from the concert. I love you, the girl gasped. Teeth and metal touching.
I blinked and took a deep breath, letting the visceral memory die.
I couldn't seem to stop looking at the weapon though. My tongue felt dry and the woman's apathetic expression now felt tainted, as if she was masking anger, her hand itching to snatch the metal from her hip and point the dark tunneled end right at me.
“Well aren’t you a pretty little thing,” she finally huffed out. “Here,” she said, grabbing something from a fanny pack and holding it out. I walked over and took the paper from her hands.
“Put that in the front window of your vehicle. Write in the days you’re going to be here, your campsite number, your name,” she paused and I looked up to see her hawking a mucousy piece of spit loudly into the dirt. I jerked my gaze back to the little paper and nodded my head.
“How long you here for?” Her tongue came out, swooping across her lips almost nervously, as her eyes darted around.
“A week." My eyes drifted back to the gun. Why did she need to wear it around a campground? Was she that concerned about campers? Or maybe it was something else she was prepared for just in case. Her eyes snapped back to mine after scanning the woods.
“Them two with you?” She asked, jerking her thumb towards Caspian’s bandmates.
“Uh, sort of.” I frowned and looked over at them. Matthias was asleep in their hammock, his mouth wide open as he snored. Brandon was sitting in a chair with eyes closed and headphones on, his fingers drumming the chair arms.
“Two sites is two payments,” she said, her eyes scanning the trees behind me again as if she were looking for something. “I’m the big RV you passed on the way in. You need firewood, then I can sell it to ya. I’ll need upfront payment on the campsites.”
Once the last word was from her mouth she pressed on the gas and drove away as fast as the golf cart would go.
“Ma’am! We prepaid online!” I yelled out to her but she just kept going, not responding to me at all.
Caspian walked back around the curve, looking over his shoulder at the rapidly retreating golf cart. The lady seemed in a big hurry but slowed down to eye Caspian plenty before grinding her foot into the gas and disappearing entirely.
My eyes drifted to the campsite across from ours. Brandon was now wandering around with his phone in the air, looking as if he were struggling to find service. His face had an ugly area developing into a nasty bruise. I thought about what I saw earlier.
Falling into a tree made no sense. They’d all been standing at least twenty feet away from any tree. Caspian’s knuckles had been red. Brandon had his arms lifted as if to protect himself from an attack. Matthias had been tugging on his hair, a look of panic on his face as he watched the two men.
They’d been fighting. I wasn't stupid.
It was hard to imagine Caspian punching someone in the face but the evidence was all there. How could he do that?
Maybe it had been about me. That thought both upset and angered me. His band was acting as if I was the cause for Caspian’s choices. Part of me felt guilty but the other part of me rallied against the idea, logic telling me I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t. Caspian had wanted or needed a break for some reason. I was just a convenient option.
Caspian wasn’t very chatty as he walked into camp. He sat in his camping chair and watched me as I searched for a spot with phone service.
I climbed on the picnic table and held up the phone in the sky.
“Your tongue is sticking out,” Caspian said.
“Leave me alone” I grumbled self consciously as my tongue indeed wiggled out of my mouth as I stretched my phone towards the sky. Finally, I got the vulture pictures from earlier to post to the Instagram I was running. Sasquatch Inc had wanted me to update regularly there.
“It’s cute when you do it,” Caspian said as I jumped down from the picnic table. I looked over at him and something about his heavy attention and words made me feel like climbing in a hole and squealing.
“Good to know,” I said awkwardly, yelling in my mind not to think about the thing I’d thought about before. With us both in the tent and him whispering and teasing.
Nope! Not thinking about it.
“I better take some pictures,” I said, scrambling around to get a Sasquatch cooler out and get some good shots of it.
Product photography wasn’t something I had a ton of experience with so it took me a long time to figure out good placements and angles. Caspian got his acoustic guitar out at some point. The sound of smooth, languid Spanish songs filled the campsite.
He watched me the entire time, his eyes lazily taking in my movements as he effortlessly played music. It made me feel aware of my body, his gaze almost like light touches caressing my heated skin. It was a familiar awareness though.
When we lived together, we were always around one another. He tended to watch me a lot, no matter what I was doing. At first, I’d griped about it, getting irritated by his attention. He never stopped despite my complaints and eventually, I’d come to accept that was just something he did. He was a people watcher I suppose. Charming people were often like that, fully focused on the person they were around.
Matthias and Brandon stayed on their side of the street, not bothering to even look our way. There was an edge of anger in their movements I could see even from here. Their attitudes had taken a nosedive since the fight earlier. It left me feeling unsettled.
After a few hours and a million photos, I flopped in the other camping chair next to Caspian.
“Now what?” I asked, looking around at nature.
“We could make a fire and eat,” Capsian offered. My stomach groaned from the suggestion and I realized I’d been ignoring it all day. I looked over at him with a smile. That was all he needed to set his guitar to the side and begin making a fire. Sometimes I felt spoiled by him. He always jumped to do everything with eagerness, more than happy to be useful for people.
“This is so exciting! Our first fire! Should I help?” I was giddy, bouncing in the chair as I watched him set up the wood in a teepee shape.
“I’ve got this,” he said with a small smile. He had changed into a sleeveless gym shirt at some point. The muscles on his arms flexed as he went about moving pieces of wood. The armholes were so big they showed off the side of his chest and body. The bandaging from his new tattoo was still in place. It was big, covering his entire left pec.
When our parents first married he was skinny and lanky, his hands and feet too big for him. Like one of those massive dogs with oversized paws they needed to grow into. He was tall and filled out now. My eyes kept catching on his defined arms and wondering how he was ever gangly.
My eyes darted away when I realized I was ogling… again.
“Thank you, by the way. I know I’ve said it before, but I want to say it again.” Caspian looked over at me as he bent down, stuffing dry leaves between the firewood. “Not the fire, but that too. I mean coming with me. For being excited for me. Supporting me.” I waited for a response but his eyes dipped away from me as he lit the fire. It started to smoke and build. He pushed up from crouching and walked over.
He always moved so fluidly—smooth, powerful, and confident.
He stepped right in front of my chair, looking down with his thick dark eyelashes and smirk. He was almost too close. I tried to pretend his crotch wasn’t at head level but it was hard when he was practically shoving it in my face.
He reached out with both hands, holding my face gently... right in front of his pant’s zipper. My tongue darted over my lips and I looked up. Did he even realize what he was doing? Was this him teasing me? One corner of his mouth tipped up in a little smirk. He had to know my face was two inches from him.
“I’ll always support you, Ava. I’m always here for you.” He held my gaze. My eyes tried to dip to his crotch and I had to bite my lip to stop myself from looking.
“Thank you,” I breathed out before swallowing hard. This was too much, I needed a cold shower. “You’re the greatest friend I could hope for.”
His smirk dropped, a look of annoyance coming over his face as he pulled back. He walked to his chair and flopped down.
“Yep,” he grumbled, picking up and thrusting a long stick into the fire to poke at it aggressively. I frowned. His attitude was throwing me off. His emotions seemed a bit all over the place since we got here.
“Oh, I want a pokey stick! We can use them for smores later!” I said, trying to brighten the sudden strange mood.
I leaned forward to peer at the other campsite, wondering if they might join us eventually. They noticed me looking and eyed me back. Then they leaned closer together and began talking, still looking at me.
I bristled and quickly looked away, uncomfortable they were so obviously talking about me.