With the cabin in sight and Nancy feeling better (as well as Zeke backing off a bit) Demi felt comfortable enough to go and do some work. After all they couldn't all slack off for Nancy's sake but at least Zeke could get a pass from Dobbs given he was blood and all that. Demi spotted Em off in the distance, pushing a wheelbarrow of who knows what from this far and seemingly alone. ”I'll catch up later you two. Gonna buddy up with Em so she isn't alone.” He waved goodbye to the pair and quickly began to jog backwards a few steps before turning around and making his way towards Emily. The acrid scent hitting him as he got nearer. ”Geeze Em. Your stomach ok?”
“I'm fine. I don't know what that was.” She shook her head, her face was still contorted into a grimace at the lingering smell. “It almost reminded me of sulfur, but not quite right. Do you recognize it?”
Demi took a second, standing still as the scent surrounded them and he took it in. It was sulfurous as Em had described it, but there was a bit more to it. There was a sickly sweet smell, amongst the scent of rot and decay that seemed to remind him of something. His expression changed, a deep scowl on his face as he held his arms close to his body while a memory he'd thought he buried deep into his subconscious began to climb up. ”Yeah…actually. Reminds me of when I visited some family down in Florida. Rents left me at my uncles for a week, I took to exploring the woods as I do up here. Cept…they don't worry about Moose or Geese and shit. I fell into a hole, down in it was a half eaten body, ripped at the torso. There were faint claw marks at the edges of the muddy pit, I cried for hours, stuck down there until my Uncle finally found me. Almost didn't cuz of the smell, but his dog was good enough…turns out it was someone lost to a gator in the swamps nearby. Authorities were glad to find the body but…the scent stuck with me for days. I tried forgetting all about it.” His voice was distant, lost in the memory as if he was still that little boy.
Em looked at Demi surprised. She wasn't sure what to say in response to that. The smell had already drifted away on the wind. She didn't really want to smell it again. She couldn't imagine how horrible it had been for Demi back then.
“Fuck. That has to be an awful thing to have dealt with. How old were you?” She hoped there wasn't a dead rotting corpse up here. Suddenly she was thankful for the company. Though she hoped they didn't find a body for Demi's sake.
”Six. Its…been a while since then. Maybe all this reconstruction has unearthed one of the bodies, or maybe the wind itself is just carrying the scent from wherever it is. Or –” Demi wasn't sure he wanted to say the last thought out loud. He didn't need to be the only camper that was getting spooked by every sound and scent around him. He looked at Em again, thoughtful. ”You went swimming earlier yeah? At the lake?”
Em winced at the age. Damn, Demi was lucky to be so well adjusted. That was a messed up childhood event. She nodded at his question about swimming.
“Yeah it was too hot to be out here clearing paths. And I love a good swim. Why?”
”Was the water…bubbling by any chance? When you were there.”
Em frowned. “I didn't see any,” she admitted after a moment of contemplation. Now more intrigued by what Demi might be talking about.
”Oh. Good, I guess.” Demi began to wonder if maybe this was all just a coincidence. The scent, the sound, the connection to a past he'd long wanted to get away from. Maybe it was all superstition and he was getting all worked up over nothing. No one else seemed to be taking it seriously. He looked up towards the sky, trying to judge how many hours they had before nightfall. ”It sounds silly, but part of me wants to go and double check the water after smelling that. They say if it's calm he won't be active that night, but if it bubbles then we are in for a long night. Not sure if we could even check and be back before night falls. It's stupid…”
Em turned and looked at the lake. She didn't necessarily believe in ghosts, let alone some spectral killer. But she nodded, in agreement. “Let's go check it out.” She set down the wheelbarrow and made sure the shovel and other tools were secure. She dusted her hands and started walking back to the lake.
Demi hadn't expected Em to agree. Hell he hardly expected her to take him seriously. He watched as she set down the wheelbarrow, and he quickly grabbed a shovel and took it with him before running after her. ”In case there's a wild animal. I hear they hate loud sounds, so smack this bad boy onto the ground or a rock should scare them off if not work in a pinch as a weapon.” Forget the fact that the sound of a shovel on gravel was this killers go to sound. No shovel, no sound. Easy.
“As long as you don't use it on the animals... unless it has rabies or attacks I suppose.” She nodded and finished walking toward the lake. It was a big lake, big enough that the other side of the lake was not clear to the naked eye. There was a line of trees and mountains but seeing exactly where the water and land met was difficult. She frowned. Watching the water for bubbling.
“The wind is causing the water to be just a bit too choppy to spot movement.”
”Wonderful.” Demi remarked, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms. The shovel lazily hanging off of one of his fingers. ”It was stupid to want to check anyways. Sorry for dragging you out here Em.”
Em shrugged one shoulder. “Not stupid if it was true. I don’t necessarily believe the story, but I’m not insane to ignore something that is dangerous even if I don’t believe in it.” Em frowned. “My mom is very superstitious. Believes in all kinds of stuff. I always try to not be superstitious unless I find a good reason. But I’m not afraid to say there is a chance of things being real that I can’t explain.”
”I don't know where I land if I'm honest. I feel silly believing in things, but also I want to believe ya know? Life beyond us, what lies in the great beyond, energies that exist beyond our mortal selves, it all sounds so silly but also…kinda cool. I dunno, but the way Dobbs talked about this, the amount of information he had. It didn't sound as if he was pullin’ it out of his ass. So I figured I better pay attention, but now I'm jumping at shadows and smells and sounds. This camps gonna be the death of me.”
“My experience with stories like that is they spread and change and become messes and while there might be a nugget of truth in it the truth has been lost.” Em chewed on her lip a little. “The base story might be true. A man stuck in a bad situation fighting for his life and his family. What happens after his death is muddier. I’m not saying it isn’t possible. But I don’t think I believe it until there is more than stories. Stories are easy.”
”But isn’t weird. Other places have stories of vengeful spirits who protect an area. All spread across the world. Why would so many people have similar experiences if there isn't some truth to it?” Demi shoved the shovel into the dirt deep enough to rest his body weight on it. Leaning on the shovel as he spoke.
“That’s why I’m willing to entertain the idea. The possibility. However, what if, the killings prior was a living human. And the killer has gotten away with it because of those stories,” Em offered as a counter point.
”Local murderer hiding out in the woods and picking off easy kids? Sounds doable. Somehow also more terrifying than if it was a bad spirit. The spirit has rules, things it can or can't do. People? They're fucked. They can do what they want when they please if they knew they couldn't get caught. I'd take the spirit any day.”
Em nodded. “Alright. If we are going to believe that there is a danger. Human or spirit. What do we do? How do we protect ourselves?”
”Buddy up. Stay strapped. And offer Aster as a sacrifice if needed.”
“Hmm, the last one is tempting.” Em laughs. “He grows on you... like a bad rash.”
”Ah, that's why he's here. Can't have a true summer camp experience without getting a bad rash at some point. Usually it's Poison Ivy but I guess Aster will have to do.” Demi laughed, relaxing a little more as the thoughts of maniacal killers began to drift away.
Em grins. “Alright. I have work to do. Are you gonna help me? Or wander off?”
”Por Que no los dos? Help out a little here and there before I get bored and go off to find Marco to see if he can make me a little snack.” Demi pulled the shovel out of the ground, twirling it so that the wooden shaft now rested against the back of his neck as his hands draped over the top of it lazily.
Em grinned. “Hope you're not afraid to get a little dirty.” Em led the way back to where she had left the wheelbarrow and started to get to work clearing the path.
