Chapter Text
The original plan was simple: spend a week in the forest, come back appreciating the beauty of nature, and then do it again the next year. It was tradition! Well, it was for Rocky's friends at least. Grace wasn't really aware that making friends with his roommate meant he automatically "made friends" with his very, very large circle, but he tried not to be too annoyed by everyone. He wouldn't even be seeing most of them soon.
Once the bus they'd rented arrived, everybody split off in groups to do their own thing. Colored wristbands showed who went with who, and Grace was very thankful Rocky had the forethought to steal a green one for him so they matched.
In a few hours, it would just be him, Rocky, Adrian, and a few others Ryland knew through them. Unfortunately, since Adrian and Rocky tended to be all over each other, Grace knew he was probably going to have to spend a lot of time finding something to entertain himself. For a week. With no internet. And only a handful of books. Mostly stuff he needed to read for classes, but wasn't sure he was going to touch.
The bus came to a somewhat sharp halt and Grace's hands shot up to catch his glasses before they flew off his face.
"Y'know, you wouldn't have to do that if you wore them right."
Grace scowled at the back of Rocky's seat, who had turned fully around to grin at him. His round sunglasses were balanced just as precariously on his nose, so he didn't get to say that. He reached up and put his whole palm on Rocky's face to push it away as he got up. He was not in the mood to deal with people. Especially not when he knew he'd be dealing with a bunch of orchestra music all night.
They went out in the middle of nowhere to avoid a noise complaint, but Grace was very seriously considering making one if they didn't let him rest.
Adrian, sweet, sweet Adrian, passed him what looked like a hydration pack from their bag filled with cold brew. He sipped from it far faster than he should have, but he could not care about a stomach ache after basically being handed an oasis to cling to in the desert that was Maidenland Forest. Grace wasn't even sure if that was its real name, but it was what Rocky's friends called it.
Tents matched with wristbands, and Grace collected his covered hammock from the truck someone was driving behind the bus with everyone's things. He hated sleeping on the ground. Too many encountered with scorpions. Too many people pressing shoulder-to-shoulder. Too much.
Grace secured his hammock between two trees a decent distance from everyone else, and then marked the spot with his wristband. He left some rocks in a line so he could follow them at night when it got dark with his feet over to the forest's big bathroom… shower… thing.
It kind of looked like hut.
Grace tilted his head and pinched his chin.
Didn't those have a name...?
There was a mural on the wall of all the animals that could be found in the woods. Frogs and squirrels and rabbits at the bottom. Owls and pigeons and cranes in the air. Some different types of deer, what was probably the artist walking alongside them smiling, and— red foxes! Fuck yes!
Grace likes hunting for them. Not like—hunting hunting them—but he liked them a lot. Rocky said they "suited him" since they apparently screamed the same way and never stopped yapping. Bold words from a guy that sounded like a tea kettle when he laughed.
Adrian slipped their hand onto Grace's back and guided him toward the camping site they'd be using. Logs were neatly circling it, and there were full water buckets nearby, but Grace didn't see a pump anywhere.
"There's a pretty big river near here—we usually just use that," Adrian tugged his sleeve, and Grace followed along much more eagerly.
Beautiful was an understatement.
There were terraced areas were rocks rose out of the water farther west that disappeared toward the hills and mountain hiking trails. Evergreens and yellowing maples were on both sides, littering some of the water with golden leaves. The water was crystal clear, and fish were moving about close to the shallows. A couple people were already stripping down to their underthings to escape the afternoon heat, and Grace was almost feeling bold enough to join them. Not quite, though.
Adrian lightly nudged his shoulder and whispered to him. "Hey, they're cool. Whatever happens in Maidenland, stays in Maidenland."
Grace tensed slightly and took his hand back, lightly rubbing at his arm. "I'm not getting in. It's probably cold, anyway."
Adrian gave him a supportive knock on the shoulder, and then disappeared in the direction they'd come from. Grace could hear them singing "Oh, Loverboy?" in their usual melodic lilt and laughed a little when he heard Rocky singing back.
His gaze swept over the other side of the river and he squinted when he noticed a hint of movement. He tried taking his binoculars out of his bag, but whatever was creeping around out there definitely took off. Hm—probably a deer.
Grace lifted his binocular's anyway and moved his gaze in a slow line over the trees. His eyes settled on some odd things hanging from the trees, and a symbol carved into a few of the bigger rocks. It looked… kind of like a baobab? Thick truck and tiny branches. Neat! Eva probably knew the history of the place. He'd have to ask her about it when they got back.
The sun set slowly, and the campfire was going strong. People roasted the usual assortment of vegetables, fruit, and meat on the grill-covers Adrian was generous enough to provide—then someone brought out the alcohol. Probably Ilyukhina. She never drank it herself much, but she was allowing herself a treat at the end of the week. If people wanted to start off their trip with a hangover, though, that was their business.
Grace had the bizarre and much-envied trait of not getting hangovers, much to his liver's chagrin. He was about two drinks in when he started singing. Three in when he got overheated and lost his pants. Five when he lost his shirt and slipped into the classic bedsheet toga that most of the group was in for the night. Rocky got him started on one of their professors and his bullshit grading method that basically amounted to agree with me in your papers or fail, and by the end of Grace's rant he was so breathless he was half-convinced he was going to faint.
They switched to ghost stories, then to spin the bottle—which Grace vehemently insisted wasn't exciting enough—leading things to take a sharp turn into truth or dare.
Rocky admitted he and Adrian were engaged—which Grace already knew, but still made him laugh a little because that wasn't even that much of a secret! If anything, they were cheating.
Grace noticed the finger pointing at him and blinked slowly before mumbling out, "Dare?"
"I dare you to…" they started to look around the circle, and Grace felt his stomach turn. Rocky cut in before he was put in an awkward spot.
"Skinny-dip!" Okay, not the save Grace thought it would be, but still a save.
Rocky jerked his thumb toward the river. "You look like you could use some cold water in your face right now, anyway."
Grace glanced around the circle, who all had cattish smiles pointed at him. They gestured for him to make his way to the water, and he inhaled sharply before marching himself toward in. People trailed after, laughing to themselves and peeling off their own togas to join him.
The water wasn't even that bad! It was more temperate than anything. Getting out would probably suck, but it wasn't the end of the world.
Grace felt a hand on his shoulder and squinted in the dark. He vaguely made out a Rocky-shaped face, but the face was way too close to be sure. Thankfully, the voice confirmed it. He started to give Grace a warning, but then someone tossed another dare in the air.
First one to the other side and back was getting a cash prize.
Grace's ears perked up at that. He wasn't doing the best with it being just after rent was due, and he'd taken time off his part-time job to be at the party. Cash was pretty tempting.
"Wait!"
Heads turned sharply toward the voice. Grace didn't recognize the owner of the voice. She looked nervous.
"You—you can't go to the other side. There's like—a cult living there now," she sounded serious, and her arms crossed over her chest a bit defensively. "They're like… extremists or something? I don't know, but one the cool professors said they're super bad news. Like stab-you-on-sight bad news."
"Wouldn't they be getting arrested if they were stabbing people?"
"Technically, I think the leader owns the land over there now? So, it's like… oh my, God— Ryland!"
Rocky's attention, along with everyone else's, snapped back in time to see Grace racing for the other side of the river.
He barely made it. The current was strong, and he was definitely going to pass out. He really shouldn't have even gotten in the water after so many drinks, but it wasn't that deep were they were. He could have walked across for most of it.
Grace felt his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose slightly and adjusted them before squinting at the ground, trying to piece together what he was hearing behind him. It mostly sounded like screaming. God, they were so loud. Couldn't they have picked a better time to shout than when he was getting a headache or—
"Hey."
The screaming got louder.
Grace lifted his gaze, and found a steel-toed boot. His followed it up and found snake-guards, what looked like some kind of belt-and-thigh-strap pouch, a jacket, and… the stranger's brows furrowed into a half-scowl that Grace should not have found that attractive.
"You're trespassing."
The face of the stranger was partly obscured since he had a scarf over the lower half of his face, but his eyes were gorgeous. So was his hair. It looked so soft and wavy and—
"Holy shit, you're hot."
Grace jolted slightly, his flushed face going from pink to red. Crap—that was supposed to be an inside thought!
The stranger's eyes widened and his hand adjusted its grip on what Grace was just at that moment realizing was either a walking stick or a potential blunt-force object.
"What?"
Grace quickly lifted his hands off the rocks on the other side of the river, visibly embarrassed and desperately trying to force his mind to work a little faster. The panic wasn't helping, but it was speeding up his heart enough to make him feel a bit woozy.
He ended up having to lean on the stone again for support, shivering violently when he felt a wave of dizziness settle in his head. Rocky was swimming over, saying something. Grace sort-of registered it as fear. A hand settled on his shoulder and he assumed it was his friend. It was not.
The stranger was stronger than he looked, but then again, Grace wasn't able to get that good of a look with all the—night happening to him.
He blearily looked up, assuming he was getting helped out of the water. The balance between him and the stranger completely went off-balance. He leaned forward, the stranger leaned down. Their heads met hard in the middle.
Grace reeled back, unaware how hard the grip on his shoulder was. He inhaled sharply, and then felt water rushing over every bit of him.
He was underwater. Fuck—he was underwater!
Grace panicked immediately, pushing himself upright and staring wide-eyed at a very angry-looking… cultist? Oh, God— was he actually—?
Rocky yanked Grace back before hands could fall on him again. The cultist(?) remained where he was in the water, watching them leave with a very angry glare. Grace could see him walk toward what appeared to be stone steps and stroll back onto the shore, flicking his arms to get some of the water off as he disappeared into the woods.
Grace looked up at Rocky, his eyes wide and his hands tightening their grip on his friend's arms.
"I am so fucked."