Truth or Dare Read online

  Copyright © 2017 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

  Darby Creek

  A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  241 First Avenue North

  Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

  For reading levels and more information, look up this title at www.lernerbooks.com.

  Photos in this book used with the permission of: © iStockphoto.com/RonBailey (man with axe); © Pikoso.kz/Shutterstock.com (campfire); backgrounds: © iStockphoto.com/AF-studio, © iStockphoto.com/blackred, © iStockphoto.com/Adam Smigielski.

  Main body text set in Janson Text LT Std 12/17.5. Typeface provided by Adobe Systems.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Coleman, K. R., author.

  Title: Truth or dare / K. R. Coleman.

  Description: Minneapolis : Darby Creek, [2017] | Series: Midnight | Summary: Recent graduates of Middleton High test their bravery in the woods where other young people have disappeared, and when one of their friends leaves the group and doesn’t come back, they become increasingly scared.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016029180 (print) | LCCN 2016040726 (ebook) | ISBN 9781512427684 (lb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781512430981 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781512427882 (eb pdf)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Truth or dare (Game)—Fiction. | Missing persons—Fiction. | Forests and forestry—Fiction. | Courage—Fiction. | Fear—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C644 Tr 2017 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.C644 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016029180

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  1-41493-23354-9/7/2016

  9781512434941 ePub

  9781512434958 ePub

  9781512434965 mobi

  I’d like to dedicate this book to my students at the Loft Literary Center, to Camp Foley, and to all who love telling scary stories around a campfire.

  Chapter 1

  It is hot for early June. The air hangs humid and heavy. Trey shoots a basketball and mutters to himself, “Dominic, where are you?” They’re supposed to be leaving for the weekend—camping out to celebrate their graduation—and Trey can’t wait to get away from Middleton. Dominic lives just a few blocks away, and Trey can see his blue-and-white rambler from here, but not his car. They were supposed to leave an hour ago.

  He has just pulled out his phone to send another text when he hears the catlike yowl of Dominic’s car turning the corner. The power steering went out years ago, but Dominic insists it is fine to drive—it just takes a little extra muscle to crank the wheel.

  The rusty blue Buick pulls into the driveway, and Trey sees someone else sitting in the front seat: Willa McBride, Dominic’s ex-girlfriend. Wait, is she coming with us? he wonders. He was hoping for a relaxing, drama-free weekend of sitting around and fishing. He’s been working extra shifts at the restaurant his parents own, and this is his first weekend off in months.

  “Hey,” Dominic says as he gets out of the car. He’s wearing jeans, an old T-shirt, and an Arizona State baseball hat.

  “Are you two back together?” Trey says, glancing at the car and then tossing Dominic the basketball. Six months ago Dominic and Willa broke up, then they got back together, and then they broke up again. Trey had to deal with them both, and he’d never been so annoyed with two people in his life.

  “We’re just friends,” Dominic says, bouncing the ball. “But I want to hang out with her before I leave—and this is it. On Monday I’m out of here, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

  Dominic does a smooth layup. He’s shorter than Trey, but he’s always been the better athlete—quicker, faster, more determined. He’s off to play baseball for Arizona State. The coach wants him to start training on Monday.

  Trey knows how hard Dominic worked to catch the eye of a scout, but he can’t imagine what it will be like without him. Every day for the past three years they’ve driven to school and baseball practice together in that blue Buick—windows down, music cranked up, making plans to get out of Middleton and see the world.

  Willa gets out of the car and pulls her dark, curly hair up into a bun on top of her head.

  “Maybe you two should just go,” Trey says, nodding at Willa. He doesn’t want to end up being the third wheel on this camping trip. “My folks could use my help. I’m leaving them short-staffed this weekend.”

  “Come on,” Dominic says as he passes the ball to Trey. “They’ll be fine without you, and besides, they’ll have to get used to you not being around when you leave in the fall.”

  Trey keeps his face neutral. He isn’t leaving Middleton. Money is really tight for his family right now. The restaurant is barely breaking even, so he’s decided to put off college for another year.

  He hasn’t told Dominic this; he hasn’t told anyone yet. A part of him wants to believe that things will work out and he’ll be able to head off to Madison at the end of August, but he can’t leave while his parents are struggling.

  Willa holds up her hands. Trey passes her the ball. She bounces it twice and then takes a shot. Despite the weird angle from where she is standing, the ball goes in.

  Swish.

  Focused and confident, Willa makes everything look effortless. She was their school’s valedictorian and class president and was voted “most likely to succeed.” She earned a full ride to Michigan State. Trey wishes he would’ve worked harder in school or pushed himself more in sports. A scholarship could’ve really helped him out.

  “Let’s get going,” Dominic says. “The wilderness calls.” He puts his hands around his mouth and makes the call of some kind of dying animal. Willa rolls her eyes, and Trey shakes his head.

  Suddenly, the wind picks up. Sand and dust swirl around on the driveway, and dark clouds move in from the west.

  “It doesn’t look like good camping weather,” Trey says.

  Willa checks the weather on her phone and says, “It’s just a passing storm. We’ll be fine.”

  But Trey doesn’t feel like things will be fine. The air smells like copper pennies—the scent of electricity and rain. This storm will be big.

  “We can always turn around and head back home if we have to,” Dominic says, also looking at the sky. “Lake Helen is just an hour away.”

  “What?” Trey says, looking at Dominic. “I thought the plan was to camp at Johnson National Park. That’s where the fishing is good.”

  “Too far away,” Willa says.

  “I have get back early on Sunday to pack,” Dominic says.

  “Lake Helen?” Trey shakes his head. “Isn’t that the place where that college student went missing a year ago?”

  “I remember all the posters up around town,” Willa says.

  “We still have one up in the restaurant,” Trey says.

  “The kid isn’t missing,” Dominic says. “He took off. He was here on a student visa and didn’t want to return to Russia.”

  Trey remembers watching the kid’s mother talking to reporters on the news. She refused to believe her son had defected, but witnesses claimed they saw someone matching the kid’s description getting on a bus to New York, and a grainy video confirmed the story.

  Sasha, Trey remembers. That was the kid’s name—Alexander, but his mother called him Sasha. It was written in bold, black ink on the poster near the front door of the restaurant.

  A light rain begins to fall as Trey arranges his gear i
n the trunk of the car. There’s another tent in there, a fishing pole, a baseball glove, and two other backpacks, but no sign of food of any kind. He pops his head out of the trunk. “I thought you said you were getting all the food.”

  “Leslie’s bringing it,” Dominic says.

  “Leslie Miller?” Trey says. “She’s coming too?”

  Willa reaches past Trey into the trunk to grab a red raincoat out of her backpack.

  “She’s never been to Lake Helen, and she really wanted to go,” Willa says, holding the jacket over her head. “Besides, her dad owns Middleton Grocery now, so she got all the food for free.”

  “Did you give her the list?” Trey says to Dominic. “Hot dogs? S’mores? Jiffy Pop? Tang?” That’s what they got when they were younger, when they used to camp out in Dominic’s yard.

  Dominic shakes his head and slides into the driver’s seat. “I’m sure she’ll get plenty of good things to eat.”

  Willa gives him a flinty smile. “You don’t know Leslie, do you?” She heads toward the front passenger seat, jumps in, and shouts, “Shotgun!”

  Trey climbs in the backseat as Dominic and Willa laugh about something up front. As they drive away from his house, he wonders what other surprises await.

  Chapter 2

  Leslie Miller’s house is a huge brick mansion at the top of a steep driveway. Trey knows there is a pool in back, but he’s never been invited there to swim. Leslie’s father owns half the town, including the strip mall where Trey’s parents run their restaurant.

  Over the past two years, Mr. Miller has increased his parents’ rent so much that they can barely break even. Trey has been slipping more than half of his tips back in the till to try to help out. His parents really need to own their own building, but there isn’t a place in town that they can afford right now. Mr. Miller has snapped everything up.

  Leslie is waiting for them on the front porch, her long brown hair blowing wildly around her face. Dominic hops out and opens the trunk while Trey helps Leslie with the cooler of food. The sky is darker, and the rain blows sideways in the wind.

  “Maybe we should just hang out here until the storm passes,” Trey says as they get into the backseat.

  “No way,” Leslie replies. “We need to leave before my dad gets back. He’d freak out if he knew I was spending the night at Lake Helen.” She tucks her damp hair behind her ears and looks out the window. “He’s never allowed me to go there my entire life.”

  “Even for the day?” Willa asks.

  “He’s convinced I’d get kidnapped or something. A friend of his went missing there a long time ago. She stepped into the woods just after midnight and was never seen again.”

  “When?” Trey says looking at her.

  “Back in 1984.”

  “So that makes two people who disappeared there.”

  “Three,” Leslie corrects him.

  “Three?” Willa asks.

  “A year after my dad’s friend went missing, her sister went missing too.”

  “From Lake Helen?” Trey says.

  Leslie nods. “I’ll tell you about it around the campfire tonight. It is a long, weird story.”

  At the bottom of the driveway, the car splashes through a large puddle and howls as it turns onto the street.

  “Do you think it is safe to camp there?” Willa says.

  “We’ll be fine,” Leslie says, looking out her window. “The police concluded that the sisters ran away, but my dad is convinced someone or something lurks in the woods.”

  Dominic makes a ghostly whoooo sound as they turn onto the highway and drive west, straight into the storm.

  Chapter 3

  As they near Lake Helen, the rain falls so hard that the windshield wipers can’t keep up. Trey watches Dominic grip the steering wheel and lean forward, trying to see the road ahead.

  “You should just pull over,” Trey says.

  “We’re almost there,” Dominic replies, though he slows down. Up ahead, blurry brake lights glow red. “I think the turnoff is in less than a mile.”

  Trey leans forward in his seat too, looking for the sign. “I think that’s the turn. Right here.” He points to a green sign that is there and then gone.

  Lightning flashes across the sky and thunder booms, and a gravel road appears to the right, marked with a faded wooden sign that says Lake Helen. It’s small, as if no one wants anyone to find the place.

  “Right here,” Trey says. Dominic slams on the brakes, and they skid across the blacktop onto the muddy gravel road.

  “Good eyes,” Dominic says.

  They drive up a steep, curvy hill. A thick, dark forest of massive pine trees looms to the left, and a grassy meadow opens on the right. Trey visited Lake Helen once before, back in sixth grade for a field trip, but nothing about the place seems familiar. The woods seem darker and more ominous.

  Suddenly Willa yells, “Watch out!” Just in front of them, down the hill, a giant pine tree has fallen across the road. The car swerves and slides, and the seatbelt digs into Trey’s stomach and chest as they go off the road and skid to a halt in a muddy ditch.

  “Whoa,” Dominic says, still gripping the wheel. “I did not see that.”

  “How could you not see a giant tree?” Willa says, glaring at him.

  Thunder rumbles, and there’s another flash of lightning.

  No one seems hurt, but when Trey looks out his window, he sees the water in the ditch rising rapidly.

  “We need to get out of here,” Trey says.

  Dominic steps on the gas, but the front wheels just spin.

  “Put it in reverse.” Trey looks out the back window. Dominic floors it, and the wheels throw up a fountain of muddy water, but the car stays put.

  “Hold on.” Trey jumps out of the car. The rain is cold and hard against his skin. As he breaks boughs off the fallen tree, he feels like someone is watching him from the woods. Another streak of lightning flashes in the sky, and something moves between two trees. Then it disappears. He hopes it isn’t a bear—though at this point, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Maybe they can just turn around and head back to Middleton as soon as they get the car out of the ditch.

  Trey places the pine branches under the front and back wheels.

  “Put it in drive,” he says to Dominic, who has rolled his window down. “Ease the car forward.

  Leslie sticks her head out the window. “Do you want us to get out and push?”

  “No, I think this will do the trick,” Trey says.

  Dominic puts the car in drive, and the tires crunch against the pine branches.

  “Steady,” Trey says. “Now gun it.”

  The car lurches forward up the grassy, muddy bank and back onto the road, just on the other side of the fallen tree. Trey climbs out of the ditch, his shoes covered with mud and his clothes soaked through. As he makes his way to the car, he hears a slow and steady chopping sound coming from deep in the woods. Who would be out cutting down a tree during a thunderstorm?

  Shivering, Trey looks back at the giant tree now behind him. He’d assumed the storm blew it down but now sees that it has been chopped off at the base.

  “Well, I guess we’re not turning back,” Dominic says as Trey gets into the car.

  “The tree was felled,” Trey says.

  “What?” Dominic says.

  “Someone cut it down.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Go look for yourself.”

  “That’s bizarre,” Leslie says, handing him her dry sweatshirt. “I guess someone didn’t plan out the angle of the fall.”

  Trey shakes his head at the sweatshirt. No sense getting her stuff wet and dirty too. Instead he wipes his face on his arms, though he feels chilled.

  “Turn up the heat,” Leslie says. “Trey’s cold.”

  “I’m fine,” Trey says, but a shivery feeling runs through his veins, a feeling that Lake Helen isn’t where they should be.

  As they drive toward the lake, the rain begins to let
up.

  “Look at that,” Dominic says a mile down the road. “What did I tell you? It was just a passing storm. The sun is even starting to come out again.” He turns off the windshield wipers and the lake comes into view, aquamarine water standing out against the black cliffs and evergreens.

  They drive into the campground, and Trey thinks how strange it is that there is no one else there on a Saturday in June. Not one tent. Not one other car.

  Chapter 4

  Dominic pulls into the campsite closest to the lake.

  “Prime real estate,” Leslie says, getting out of the car and standing at the edge of the campsite. “Check out this lake view!”

  “Let’s head down there. It’s still too wet to set up camp.” Willa is already heading toward the lake, Leslie in tow.

  “Don’t you think it’s weird no one else is here?” Trey says to Dominic as he pulls a dry shirt out of his backpack.

  “I guess no one could get past that tree,” Dominic says.

  Something isn’t right about this place, he thinks, but then he looks at the lake. The water is calm, reflecting the clear sky above, and the beach is covered with pinkish-white sand.

  Leslie and Willa have already taken off their shoes and waded in. Trey and Dominic head down there and climb a large boulder at the edge of the lake.

  Trey pitches a pebble into the water and watches a ring spread out across the lake, and then he looks at Dominic. “It is going to be so strange not going to school this fall.”

  “What are you talking about?” Dominic says. “You’re heading off to Madison.”

  “I decided not to go. We just don’t have the money.” It felt good to confess it to someone.

  “Man,” Dominic says. “I’m sorry. I know how excited you were about going there.”

  Trey nods. He was excited. He was ready to get away. “I just can’t leave. Not now. My parents are about to lose their restaurant, and I’ve got to figure out a way to help them.”

  “The food is amazing,” Dominic says. “I don’t understand why it isn’t doing well.”