There were cliques at camp. Guys who emerged as natural leaders and were the type one simply wanted to hang around. Carson was a natural. Good-looking, athletic, and charismatic. Troy had been watching the first time Carson asked Joe about a project. Joe had looked as if God were speaking to him, his eyes wide and worshipful. Their small group had come together. Carson was the speaker. Rick was the driving force who could manipulate Carson’s words. Aaron was the angry follower who wanted to feel like he was being heard. Troy and Joe were the listeners and the grunts, happy to go where others led.

It worked. For five days they blended into the natural elements of a team, getting to know one another better, and feeling proud to have established friendships around a common core. But then jealousy about Colleen built up between Rick and Aaron. And Rick felt the need to prove he could win.

At Rick’s urging, they’d followed her late one afternoon. She’d found an ancient hammock hung between two firs in the woods, its ropes and material looking as worn as if it’d been there since the sixties. It was a quiet, sunny, and peaceful spot. No interruptions. Until the five of them approached her.

It’d started off fine. Colleen had sat up and chatted with them, but Troy had known she was pacifying them and wanted to be left alone to read. Then Rick had gotten personal. Fear had shown in her eyes as Rick moved close, taunting her and pulling at her bathing suit top, telling her he knew she wanted him, claiming she’d slept with other campers and that she had no right to turn him down.

Troy froze.

Colleen told them to leave and it turned ugly.

Rick ordered Aaron and Carson to hold her down as he raped her.

Troy had never seen a rape before, and he couldn’t look away. He covered his ears, but her screams tore through his brain.

It’d been brutal and humiliating. But worst of all, none of them had stopped it.

Rick had put his hands around her neck as Joe and Troy finally looked away. Aaron and Carson had continued to watch and pin her arms. When Colleen stopped breathing everyone panicked except for Rick. “We’ll make it look like she killed herself,” he’d said. “That she went into the woods and slit her wrists.”

He’d bent down, taken a penknife from his pocket, and sliced across her wrists. Nothing much happened. Troy now knew that her heart had stopped beating and was no longer forcing the blood to move within her veins.

“It’s not working,” Rick had said, his eyes frantic. “We’ve got to hide her.”

“We’ve got nothing to dig with,” Carson had pointed out. “Did anyone see shovels back at the camp?”

Troy and Joe had shaken their heads. Troy couldn’t look away from Colleen’s face. To get her to stop screaming, Rick had shoved a big stone in her mouth. It hadn’t worked; she’d still screamed. Now her face and lips were limp around the gray piece of rock wedged between her teeth. Troy stared, hoping she’d move an arm or leg.

She’s fine. She’s just unconscious.

But he knew something was very wrong.

“We’ve got rope from the hammock,” Aaron suggested. “Could we make it look like she hung herself?”

“No, we need to hide who she is. That’s a better idea. The police won’t know what to do if they can’t identify her,” said Rick.

“But they can figure it out,” said Joe. “There is all sorts of science now to identify people.”

“What if we burn her?” said Aaron. “They can’t figure it out from a pile of ashes.”

Troy wanted to throw up. Burn her?

“We can’t do that,” whispered Joe. His face was pale. “That’s wrong.”

Rick got in his face. “We’ve already gone beyond wrong! You want to go to prison for the rest of your life because of this? Or are you going to help?”

“I didn’t do anything,” shrieked Joe. “It was you! You and Aaron killed her.”

“You didn’t stop us!” shouted Aaron. “That’s just as bad. If I get arrested, you’re all going down. So let’s take care of this!”

The next hour passed in a daze. Aaron had sneaked back to camp and found an accelerant in one of the labs. It hadn’t worked. Bodies aren’t easy to burn. It’d charred part of her hair and most of her clothing before extinguishing. Aaron had chopped off the rest of her hair with his knife, hoping to help hide her identity. Both Joe and Troy had vomited in the woods, the smell of burning flesh too much to take.

“It’s not working,” Carson stated. “We need a different plan.”

Troy stared at the battered body. “This is crazy,” he whispered. “How did it come to this?”

“That’s it!” blurted Rick. “We’ll make it look like someone crazy killed her. We’ll hang her from that old footpath bridge. It’s not far.”

“It’s blocked off,” argued Aaron. “It’s a rotting mess.”

“Perfect,” said Rick. “Only a crazy murderer would kill her and hang her from something like that. It makes no sense. No one would dream that we did it.”

Troy helped tow Colleen’s body on the hammock fabric through the woods to the bridge. They tied the rope around her neck, tied the other rope end to a semi-stable bridge post, and pushed her over. It held. She dangled, her toes ten feet from the quiet flow of the water.

The boys all stared for a moment.

Colleen was a mess. Her hair was gone, her clothes had burned off, and blood had seeped from the wounds at her wrists. The rock was still in her mouth. The fresh and beautiful girl was long gone.