Page 10 of Freak Camp (A Monster By Any Other Name #1)

“She’s dead,” he said, not looking up from his knee.

“She was Sally. Dixon. Hawthorne.” He always said her name that way, because every part was important.

The name that was her, the name that was a hunter, and the name that made her theirs, his and Dad’s, and no one else’s.

For some reason people tended to forget that last part of her name.

He said her name like it was a chant that, said enough times in the right way, would bring her back.

He knew it wouldn’t, of course. He wasn’t a stupid little kid anymore.

He waited for the reaction. Everyone had a reaction.

Sometimes amazement (“Oh, you’re those Hawthornes?

”) or disappointment (“ He’s Sally’s son?

”), or an expression that said they had expected more from the son of a national hero, that he should be better than he was.

But he wasn’t, and she would never be there to teach him how.

But Tobias didn’t react. When the silence stretched out, Jake glanced up at Tobias. The boy was staring at his knees too.

“I didn’t mean to ask about something that .

. .” Tobias fingered the hem of his baggy gray pants.

He took a deep breath, still without looking at Jake.

“My mom’s gonna be dead soon too,” he offered.

“She says that’s how we leave camp. It’s a good thing.

So maybe Becca and your mom . . . maybe they’ll be together? ”

Jake’s head snapped up. “What do you mean, your mom’s gonna be dead soon?”

Tobias hunched over and wouldn’t look at him. “She’s going to Special Research. For being a witch. Monsters don’t come out of Special Research.”

“Tobias.” Jake stared at him. He couldn’t wrap his head around it—knowing that his mother was about to die and not doing something about it, not kicking and screaming and fighting every second of every moment to stop that horrible, horrible thing. “Tobias, I didn’t know.”

Tobias glanced at him, and then away. “I mean, it’s not a big deal, she’s a monster.

All monsters go there. Oh.” He seemed to realize what he’d said, eyes going wide, staring back at Jake.

“I’m . . . stupid. Becca and your mom wouldn’t be in the same place.

I’m sorry I said that. I mean, I’m sure your mom was awesome. ”

Jake took a deep breath and scooted closer to Tobias.

He offered him the peanuts, and after hesitating, Tobias took one.

“She was awesome,” he said. “She was a hero, and she—” killed monsters .

“She loved me, and she made the best waffles, and when she was around”— Dad smiled, unless they were shouting at each other —“we were a family.”

“That sounds awesome,” Tobias said, reaching for the bag and helping himself to another few candies. “What’s a waffle?”

Jake was delighted that Tobias actually reached for the food—he’d felt the same thrill once when he’d gotten some birds at one of their apartments to come to the windowsill after he left crumbs there, marveling at the idea that something so skittish and wild would trust him.

He could shove memories of Mom back where they belonged, far enough away that they didn’t make him feel so much like punching someone.

Anyway, it was way more important to fix Tobias’s horrifying lack of knowledge about breakfast foods.

Jake launched into a fifteen-minute monologue in praise and description of waffles, complete with gestures, eating sounds, and recommendations for toppings from the best to worst. The whole time, Tobias watched him like he was the only thing he wanted in the world.

Which was ridiculous, because any sane person should also want waffles.

“That’s it, dude,” Jake said at the end, when Tobias seemed no closer to understanding what a waffle was. “Even monsters should know what a waffle is. Next time I come, I’ll bring you one.”

Tobias crunched the last candy. “No such thing,” he said, with a glow in his eyes another child might have at being told that Santa was just as real as all the bad monsters out there. “Not here.”

“Hey!” Jake grabbed Tobias’s hand. “If I say I’m bringing you waffles, I’m bringing you waffles. That’s a promise.”

Then he caught sight of Dad walking across the yard toward them, and he quickly let go as he stood up.

Time to go before one of those guard jerks came over.

But he turned back to Tobias for a second, sliding the crumpled peanuts bag into his jacket pocket.

“Hey, Tobias. It would be cool if our moms were together. Just like it’s cool when we’re together. You know?”

Tobias nodded, really fast and smiling up at him like the friend Jake had never really had, someone who trusted him and liked him and listened.

Jake couldn’t stop smiling, even when Dad glared at him, until they were out of the camp and back in the Eldorado.

***

T he next time Jake went to Freak Camp, he tried to bring a waffle.

It was technically more of a pie, because waffles weren’t really any good if you tried to bring them anywhere.

Jake had seen in a gas station a plastic-wrapped dessert labeled as a cherry pie with a waffle base, and he figured that was as close as he was gonna get.

Plus, it was small enough that he could wedge it into his pants by the small of his back—where Dad kept his gun—and walk without anyone noticing the bulge.

It didn’t occur to him that the waffle-pie tin would show up in a metal detector until the alarm went off. Weapons were allowed in the camp, but unless you were going in the back entrance with a freak delivery, you had to take them all out and send them through the X-ray machine.

His cousin Lucas Dixon made a big deal of patting him down, then pulled out the dessert. Laughing, he tore open the wrapper, sniffled it, and raised the tin up high like a trophy. “Check it out! Jake Hawthorne is bringing a little cherry into Freak Camp!”

The other guards in the room chuckled.

Lucas smirked at Jake. “Does your father know?”

“Shut up, Lucas,” Dad said tiredly.

Jake glared, his face hot, aware that he was being made fun of, but more focused on the half waffle that he somehow had to get to Tobias.

“I get hungry,” he said, ignoring the snickers across the room.

He turned to Dad and stuck out his jaw. “You’re gone so long, and I get hungry, and there’s nothing decent to eat in the camp, so yeah, I brought a snack. Sue me.”

“He can’t bring the tin in, Hawthorne,” Lucas said. “I mean, we do a lot to these freaks, but giving them a pie in the face? Inhumane, man.”

Dad yanked the tin out of Lucas’s hands hard enough that Lucas nearly stumbled. He continued glaring at the other man while extending the waffle-pie to Jake. “Take what you want. Dump the rest.”

“Yes, sir.” Jake hastily scooped up the waffle base, folding it around the cherry filling, and shoved it into his pocket. He threw the rest of the tin in the industrial-sized trashcan by the metal detector.

Later, sharing the smushed waffle-pie with Tobias, Jake told him the story. He waved his cherry-stained hands in ways that made Tobias grin and lamented the unfairness of life. “Sorry it’s all squished,” he said. “I had to think fast. Who knew they’d be waffle-hating dickwads?”

Tobias nodded, his mouth full of cherry filling. “You were right, Jake,” he mumbled. “This is the best thing ever.” He stopped and bunched his forehead in a way that Jake had come to recognize as him thinking very hard. “Well, second best.”

Jake was outraged. “ Second best . What the hell’s better than waffles? ”

Tobias swallowed and closed his eyes in bliss. “You bringing me a waffle.”

It took Jake a long, unusually silent minute process that answer. In that time, Tobias started to look worried, chewing more slowly. But Jake eventually pulled him close and ruffled his short hair.

***

L ater, in the Eldorado with Dad driving east, trailing a lead that he had picked up in Special Research, Jake wiggled his fingers in the cherry residue in his pockets and couldn’t stop grinning.

Tobias had gotten to eat something that was at least part waffle, and Jake had actually managed to get it into the camp.

Granted, it had almost gone wrong, but that was okay.

Sometimes trial and error was necessary.

That was why Dad always stuck around a few days after a ghost burning to make sure that they had gotten the right corpse, just in case.

“Why pie?” Dad asked eventually, when they were a good half hour out of Freak Camp. He had been staring into the approaching mountains with the tense, focused expression that Jake associated with a long day in Special Research.

“It looked really good,” Jake said. “And it said it was a waffle.” I promised Tobias , he didn’t say.

Dad’s hair was damp and slicked back. He must have showered before he left Special Research, but there was red under his nails where he held the wheel.

He had been there for over two hours this time, and while Jake didn’t mind having that much more time to spend with Tobias—the guards didn’t make Tobias go do things that monsters usually had to do, as long as Jake was with him—he still didn’t like to think about what that meant.

Tobias had said that monsters died in Special Research, and that his mom was going there.

Jake knew that Dad killed monsters, and it had never bothered Jake before, but suddenly the monsters he pictured in Special Research looked more like Tobias and his mom than the vampire that had almost killed Dad a month ago.

Dad looked over as though Jake thinking about Tobias and Dad in the same moment had pinged him, and his brow furrowed, mouth twisting down in distaste. “You shared with that monster, didn’t you?”