Put That Kid Down

Chapter Twenty

Gwen knows.

She knows; she knows; she knows oh my god.

David wrenched his gaze away from Gwen's sleeping form with some difficulty. She hadn't said a word since Glen, and as the campers had begun waking up, there hadn't been time to talk what with getting the kids up to speed on everything they needed to know.

Which didn't include everything Gwen knew.

And Nerris, Harrison, Space Kid...

Max, always Max.

Tucked in between clasped hands, Gwen was holding the folded knife to her chest. The one Glen had used against them. Even in sleep, her brow was furrowed and her countenance pale. Distress was evident in every line of her curled limbs and tossed sheets.

But she was asleep.

By the time all the campers were convinced of the truth - not including David's role in it and especially emphasizing the fact that leaving the camp was not just inadvisable, but deadly - the sun had been setting. Sort of.

The sun had, at least, flickered briefly at the horizon before the moon had mysteriously and smoothly knocked it out of the sky like a billiard ball. Given what David knew about the solar system's set up, and the relative sizes of the parties involved, he knew that couldn't actually be the case.

That had been exactly what it looked like, however.

Ered had replayed the video five times before David realized the phone they'd been passing around was his and took it back.

It turned out hours upon hours of construction work followed by heavy hypnosis really took it out of a kid, however, because David soon had to practically carry the kids two by two to the dining hall.

The magic kids hadn't even flinched, Nerris actually climbing blearily up onto his back with Nikki as they demanded transport to bed. Harrison had been less belligerent, but the sway into the side of David's leg and subsequent quiet, "Me too" might have had David breaking down just a little if he hadn't had so much to do.

And now Gwen was asleep.

She had looked at him when he'd offered to take first guard, nodded, and just... gone to sleep.

He couldn't believe they... that they might still trust him. Somehow. A little.

It felt like stretching a bandage over the gaps and sharp edges in his chest, crushing the pieces together into something resembling what it used to be. If he could just make it hold a little longer, then they'd all make it through this.

After all, there seemed to be a clear path to the volcano across the lake.

Max thought that was suspicious, going on about it being an obvious trap, but...

What other choice was there?

The seal was centered physically at the volcano, and it needed to be... fixed. There weren't any good options for doing that, but there was one that was, at least, possible.

And it was all thanks to something he'd noticed after taking care of Glen.

Daniel's body was gone. Which probably meant he'd stood up and walked away from a fatal wound after David had removed the knife from his throat. Which had all kinds of scary, horror movie implications that David usually wouldn't be able to handle.

Okay, no, he still wasn't okay with it.

Things that were dead, and then not dead, were not something he would ever accept with any level of comfort. Not that anything about right now was in any way comfortable.