Page 124 of Disharmony

“Have you seen Ashley?” I ask, trying to keep my tone bored and nonchalant, like I’m pissed to have been sent on an errand. “You share a cabin with her, right? I have a message for her from Jacqueline. It’s about the final show tomorrow.”

“Oh, wow!” Cookie’s face lights up, then she looks around. “She was here not long ago. She went to get a drink. I’m sure she’ll show up in a minute.”

I swivel my eyes to the kegs and soda’s. She’s not there. Cookie doesn’t realize I’ve been watching and haven’t seen Ash here or in the neighboring woods for the last twenty minutes.

“I can’t see her,” I say with a yawn. “Would she have gone back to her cabin?”

I’m taking a risk by being persistent.

“No way!” Cookie is indignant. “We were going to leave together, and she doesn’t have a cell right now, so she’ll need to borrow a flashlight to get back.”

The girl with the headphones asks sharply, “Where’s Tiffany?”

“Tiffany?” I frown in confusion. “Why?”

Suffering through Tiffany prancing around on the stage like a human Barbie made me want to claw my eyeballs. I feel for Zed having to put up with her out of family obligation.

Cookie puts her hand to her mouth. “Leila, you don’t think that… after the performance earlier…”

The three of them exchange concerned looks. Something is going down, and I have no fucking idea what they’re talking about.

I try to stay calm and ignore the building tension in my shoulders.

“What am I missing?” I ask.

The girl I now know to be called Leila says, “This is what happened last time. Things went quiet, then—”

“No!” Cookie interrupts. She shakes her head, but her bottom lip trembles. “She wouldn’t!”

Leila narrows her eyes. “Wouldn’t she?” She nods at the twin who is holding her hand. “We can’t take the chance, Conor.”

I grit my teeth and manage to say, “Is someone going to tell me what the hell’s going on?”

“We need to find Ash,” Leila says, “before Tiffany does.”

“I’ll check the cabin with Declan,” Cookie says. “She might have found her way back.”

“We’ll head down to…” Leila swallows hard. “The rocks.”

“The rocks?” I push for answers. “Why check there?”

I’m starting to get really fucking pissed that no one is telling me what’s happening. The rocks is an area by the lake where the hills start to climb. Most campers avoid it because it’s a risky climb, but adrenaline junkies like to throw themselves into the water from the highest point. You have to position yourself for a dive at a perfect angle to avoid an injury.

“It might be nothing,” Cookie says hastily, but adds, “if you want to know more, then maybe you should ask Jacqueline about Riley.”

“We’ll call you if we find her or Tiffany,” Declan says to his brother.

I feel like a spare part as the four of them spring into action and disperse into the night. Something is off, and they think Tiffany has something to do with Ash’s disappearance. I know Tiffany and her little gang pull childish pranks, but why would that worry Ash’s friends so much?

I pull out my cell and ring Zed. “We have a problem.”

“Are you at the party?” he snarls in disapproval. He must be able to hear the music. “I told you not to go—”

“You can lecture me later,” I cut him off, striding through the trees. “Does the name Riley mean anything to you? Something that might have happened here last year?”

Zed is our main point of contact with Jacqueline and Camp Harmony staff. Venom and I refuse to speak to her unless we really have to. If something happened last year, it’s likely he’ll have heard about it.

“Riley…” He pauses. “Oh yeah, I remember Tiffany mentioning an accident at one of our family dinners. It was a bad one. It happened the night of the storm. The girl, Riley, fell on the rocks. She missed the water. She severed her spinal cord and almost died. Tiffany was the one to find her. Jacqueline hushed it up, of course. She didn’t want people thinking Camp Harmony was unsafe.”

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