Shadow Rising

Juniper and Birch headed to the mountains on foot while Retta and I took the snot van toward Camp Clearview. I was on tenterhooks the whole time, gripping Juniper’s bow so hard my fingers went white.

“We’ll get him, T,” Retta said. “Relax.”

I shook my head as a fresh wave of pain washed through me. “It just makes me so mad. Like, what’s so scary about love? Why can’t he just be celebrated for who he is?”

“Because,” Retta replied with a sad sigh, “the world is full of morons.”

I couldn’t help but link his situation to the bigger picture going on in New York City, with everyone hating on everyone else for no reason at all other than an inability to accept their differences.

“Talk about Nik being a total jerk back there,” Retta said, giving her wings a flutter of irritation.

“I don’t want to talk about Nik,” I muttered, squeezing the bow even tighter.

Retta raised an eyebrow. “Oh good. So you’ve finally realized he’s not boyfriend material?”

“You could put it that way,” I replied through my teeth.

Just then, a wooden sign beside a single dirt track came into view. Camp Clearview.

“Watch out haters,” Retta said, turning the van down it. “Here come the allies.”

As the van bumped along the track, the trees overhead created a thick, impenetrable canopy that the twilight couldn’t reach through. The darkness made everything even more ominous.

Up ahead, a row of wooden huts came into view. It looked exactly like the sort of camp I went to in the summers while I was growing up. Innocuous. Quaint. There was no hint on the outside about what might be going on inside the cute little cabins.

Retta pulled over to the side of the dirt road and killed the van’s engine. “I’m guessing we want to go with an element of surprise here.”

I tightened my grip on Juniper’s bow. “You bet we do.”

As quietly as we could, we got out of the van, landing on the dirt path on soft feet. We crouched as we tiptoed all the way up to the first cabin. Yellow light streamed out from its window.

Slowly, I straightened up and peered inside. The room was empty, but there were chairs arranged in a horseshoe shape. On the walls were loads of posters that looked like they’d been drawn by kindergartners, depicting men and women holding hands. Slogans around the room stated things like: “You can be cured!” and “Normal is possible!”. The paint, ironically, was sparkly.

“For people who hate gays,” I whispered down to Retta, “they’re kinda kitsch.”

We scurried along to the next cabin. This time, I could hear a voice coming from the inside. It was very upbeat: the sort of voice that belonged to a motivational speaker.

“The rejection you felt in childhood is expressing itself now,” the man was saying. “But that can change. With perseverance and prayer, you can heal from this affliction.”

I straightened up, peeking in through the window. My hunch had been right. There was a stage upon which a young, enthusiastically smiley man walked back and forth with a headset on. In front of him were rows of chairs, each one filled with a kid. I estimated there were about fifty kids in attendance. Fifty.

I scanned the backs of their heads. I’d known Gus my whole life; I could recognize him just by the tips of his ears jutting out through his wavy blond hair.

My gaze landed on him.

“Bingo!” I whispered down to Retta.

She fluttered her wings with excitement. “What do you want to do?” she whispered back. “See if we can get him out a side door when no one’s looking?”

I hitched up Juniper’s bow. “Hell no. We’re not sneaking around like we’ve got something to hide. We’re causing a scene.”

In one fell swoop, I heaved open the window and leaped up onto the ledge, Elkie style. My boots landed with a heavy thud. I raised my bow and fired off an arrow. The magic of Juniper’s ancestors pulsed through my movements and the arrow flew straight into one of the speakers. Sparks exploded everywhere.

I took an adrenaline-fueled breath, astounded by the strength that had come from the weapon. What a rush. I could get used to this bad boy.

My intrusion and the exploding speaker caused panic to erupt. The kids in the hall started shouting, jumping up from their seats and turning to the window to see what was happening. But when they saw I had another arrow pointed directly at the fucktard telling them not to be who they were, they seemed to calm a bit. Excited whispers caught like kindling, spreading through the audience.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Gus staring at me. His expression was priceless, his eyebrow quirked up like he was saying, “Really, girlfriend? What took you so damn long…”

The man with the headset stared at me. “What do you want?” he demanded, his voice coming through the only speaker still working.

I leaped down from the window ledge, landing lightly with my perfect Elkie grace, and strode into the room, bow still poised. “I want you to tell these kids they’re perfect just the way they are.”

“What?” the speaker replied, frowning with confusion.

I fired an arrow. Once again it seemed to burst out of the bow like a bullet from a gun. As if it had a mind of its own, the arrow whizzed way closer to his left ear than I’d intended. I saw his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he gulped.

I spoke through my teeth. “Tell them they’re perfect.”

“You’re perfect,” the man stammered quickly, his voice amplified by the second speaker.

“Just the way they are.”

“Just the way you are.”

I paced closer to the stage, the point of my arrow directed right between his eyes. “Tell them they can love whoever they want.”

The speaker hesitated again. I jerked the bow to the right an inch and fired. This time the arrow flew so close to his face it nicked his right ear.

He yelped and grabbed his ear. Blood started to drip down his fingers.

“You can love whoever you want,” he stammered, beads of sweat appearing on his brow.

A hubbub started in the crowd. The kids were clearly starting to enjoy seeing this asshole get his comeuppance.

I readied a final arrow—only slightly concerned that Juniper’s bow would force me to shoot him in the face. I was close enough now to aim between his eyes, so I did. He cowered on his knees and brought both his hands in the air.

“Now tell them their parents suck,” I said. “That things will be better once they leave home. Tell them to find their tribe, find people who love them, and leave the opinions of shitheads like you where they belong, in the past.”

Trembling with fear, the man repeated my words. As he spoke, a dark stain appeared on the front of his pants. He’d pissed himself. I couldn’t have hoped for a better finale.

The kids in the crowd started to cheer.

I lowered my weapon and turned to Gus. He was up and out of his seat in a second, lumbering over to me, at least a few pounds heavier than when I’d left him. So much for fat camp.

When he reached me, he pulled me into the tightest hug. “My badass babe,” he wailed. “Belenus, have I missed you!”

And for that brief second, everything in the world felt right.