The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(79)

“Oh, sure, of course.” Ben subtly readjusted his expression, as if he had a specific face he thought would look best on camera. It was hard for Janine not to laugh, as Ben—paranoid that Whitewood still had people out searching for him—had disguised himself with Rex’s help. He was in a T-shirt, sweatpants, the brown curly wig Leif had worn when he thought he’d replace Alicia in PolterDog, and red sunglasses that Rex had gotten for free at last year’s middle school dance. Ben didn’t seem to have any idea how ridiculous he looked. “All set?”

“You got it, Curly Sue.”

“Excellent,” Ben said. “So as I was saying, our focus needs to be on getting Alicia out of the spring. If we—”

“But we still agree,” Rex interrupted, “that if Alicia’s down there, that means all the other kids reported as dead are probably alive down there too, right? Like, trapped in the dirt walls?” Rex still couldn’t believe how crazy this whole thing was.

“Most likely,” Ben said. “But taking into consideration the small window of time we’ll actually have to do this, it behooves us to focus on Alicia first.”

“Okay,” Rex said, not sure what “behoove” meant or why Ben found it necessary to use such words. He was pretty sure he was doing it for the camera. “But we also have to save Leif from the school.”

“That’s not our focus either,” Ben said, somewhat sternly. “Look, if we can rescue Alicia from the spring and show everyone that she’s alive, Whitewood’s plan will be exposed and the school will be shut down, thereby allowing us to go back and save those other kids, including Leif.” Ben crossed his arms and looked at Rex. “Cause and effect.”

“Hmm,” Rex said, nodding, not wanting to fully agree. Somehow Ben had taken the mantle as leader, which seemed all wrong. Leif and Alicia were his best friends; he should be the one planning the rescue. He was sticking his neck out enough as is, lying to his parents that he was at a classmate’s house for a school project (almost true), so he should at least retain control of how this all went down. And if he were going to cede leadership to anyone, it would be to Janine, the experienced filmmaker in her twenties, not the homeschooled weirdo dressed like Screech from Saved by the Bell.

“It’s our best shot,” Ben said. “I’ve been at the school, I know how it works.”

Rex, who hated nothing more than being told he didn’t know about something, couldn’t accept that. “What about posters, though?” he asked, not entirely sure where he was going with it.

“What do you mean?” Janine asked, pointing the camera at him.

“Just, like…what if we took a still frame of Alicia from that underwater footage and put it on a flyer that says, you know, like: Alicia Boykins is alive! In Bleak Creek Spring! All the other “dead” kids are there too! Whitewood School is a scam! And put it on telephone poles and stuff. Around town.” Rex muttered the last two words, as he’d realized about halfway through what a terrible idea it was.

“What would that accomplish?” Ben asked.

“You know,” Rex said. “Just…gettin’ the word out.”

“Will people even be able to tell that’s a picture of Alicia?” Donna asked.

“I mean…probably.” Rex reached for some more goldfish to try and diffuse his discomfort. “It’s just another option. Maybe we can come back to it later.”

Everybody gave sort of a half nod, then looked back to Ben. As much as Rex hated it, he had no choice but to let Ben assume the role of leader, at least for now. He finally understood Leif’s frustration with always taking the back seat. When they got him out of the school, he’d make sure to apologize.

“All right,” Ben said, gesturing like a tour guide, “before we get into the details of our rescue mission, I’d now like to turn things over to Janine, who’s done some great research for us.”

Again, Janine had to hold back a laugh. Though she’d more or less gotten used to working side by side with fourteen-year-olds, there were still moments when she was struck by how surreal her life had become. “Thanks, Ben,” she said in a peppy newscaster voice. “Let me just…Here.” She passed the camcorder to Donna. “Could you film for a sec?”

“Oh,” Donna said, receiving the camera with reverence and care, as if she were holding a newborn. “Yeah.” Janine knew this was probably the first time Donna had held a camera since their teenage movie-making days.

“So,” Janine said once Donna had started filming, “when I went back to the library, I found…” Janine picked up a large book from the ground and dropped it onto the snack bench with a thud. “This.”

Donna zoomed in on the cover, which read Paranormal Phenomena.

“Out of everything I read during the, like, eight hours I was there, this one seemed to have the most helpful info for our situation.” Janine picked up the heavy book and began leafing through the pages. “I was trying to read about everything water related, and I found this whole section about…Yeah, here it is.” She put the open book back down on the bench, pushing aside the snack bowls to make room. Everyone huddled around.

“Pretty sure we’re dealing with a cursed spring,” Janine said.

Rex sneezed. It was a dusty book.