As a plate flew across the room Blake hid in disbelief. His parents had gotten into arguments before but not as bad as this. All this constant fighting led to Blake having a rough relationship with his parents. His only escape was the camp he went to every year, called Camp Ajax. 

This was his favourite place, as he could escape his stressful daily life for three weeks of summer fun with his friends. In past years at camp, Blake became a completely different person. He opened up and became a more fun person in general. He was able to experience new activities and try new foods, which led to his growth and ability to make friends. The moment he got home, though, his entire self was changed. He became more gloomy and sad. 

He was excited to see his best friend at camp, Lachlan Worthington. Lachlan was very different from him, yet something just clicked. Lachlan came from a very rich and posh background. He was pampered and could have everything he wanted. Blake, however, came from a family right in the middle. He wasn’t poor but he definitely was not rich. Together they went on many adventures, but this year would change it all forever.

On the first day of camp, Blake arrived there bright and early. He checked in, got to his cabin and immediately ran into Lachlan. He was so excited to see his best friend, and they immediately caught up on all things. That very night the camp had its first activity. The boys prepared for the evening. Blake had showered before Lachlan, and was waiting for him to finish up. As Blake waited and waited outside for his buddy, no one came out of the Wolf cabin. Soon waiting grew to worry. Blake ran back into the cabin, bursting through the door.

Nothing. There was nothing there: no Lachlan, none of his stuff, not a single thing, it was just an empty cabin with beds. Fear was the only feeling in Blake. A strike through his entire body. Was it really fear though? Or was it just the thought that his best friend, the one person that made him feel good, had just been kidnapped? He looked around in utter shock. Was Lachlan dead or was he gone somewhere else? The despair rose through Blake's body. He didn’t cry; not a single tear was shed. He glanced around the room. There it was: the one possibility that could lead Blake to Lachlan. A simple hollowed-out clock. It wasn’t much, but Blake could tell it would lead him to his friend. 

He tried to crack it open in every single way possibly known to man. Not a single thing worked. He thought and thought but nothing came to mind. His mind was like a blank office, with one flickering light bulb. The lightbulb inside his brain suddenly flickered on. He remembered something his dad had taught him long ago. That was the last time he ever had a good memory with his dad. 

He ran to the dining hall and grabbed the fire extinguisher out of the case. He ran back to the cabin and sprayed the clock down with foam. The nooks and crannies loosened up, slowly splitting. The foam turned a bronze colour, and slowly but surely it split. Blake grabbed a screwdriver and pried the clock open. Through the foamy mess created by the fire extinguisher, he saw a note, folded to the point where it had almost disappeared in the foam. As he unfolded the note with his slippery fingers his gut filled with worry. 

The note read, “Find me by harvest or I will take another person. Tick Tock.” 

The writing was shaky but Blake was able to read it. Thousands of ideas flew through Blake's head, but he knew before he proceeded any further he needed to talk to the camp counsellor.

Blake burst through the door of camp counsellor Jerome’s office. Jerome looked up from some paperwork, worried. Jerome had known a lot about Blake as he was a returning member of Camp Ajax. He had never seen anyone as worried as Blake was at this moment. Jerome could hear words being mumbled from Blake’s mouth but nothing was clear enough for him to be able to hear, let alone understand it. 

Finally, with one loud gasp, Blake screamed, “MY FRIEND HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!” 

Jerome was puzzled. What? Was this kid loopy or was he just trying to go home? What really happened? Blake calmed down and explained everything that happened.

Jerome just looked into the void of nothingness. Complete and utter shock. This had never happened before. How would this affect his career? How would he be able to live with the guilt that he let a child get kidnapped? Once he regained control of all the possibilities his brain put him through, he picked up the telephone and rang the local police station. 'Local' being a bit of a stretch, as the police station was really four hours away. As the phone rang repeatedly, sounds flew all around Jerome's head, filling his ears. Finally, a voice spoke. It was a very gruff voice but he knew it was the police. The person on the other end couldn’t read Jerome’s face at all. He wouldn't be able to know if it was a good or a bad call. When Jerome got off the phone he just shook his head. The police said that they were swamped with a case in the town and wouldn’t be able to get there for at least four days. 

Blake was disappointed. There was nothing else he could do. Or at least that’s what he thought.

Blake walked back to the cabin, his shoulders drooping from the disappointing news he had just received. As he opened the door to the cabin it wasn’t empty anymore. The cabin counsellor Zane was there. He saw the huge mess that Blake had made when he was trying to crack open the clock. An explanation was all Zane wanted, so that’s exactly what Blake gave him. Zane stood there in pure and utter shock. All the thoughts that had gone through Jerome’s head were now going through Zane’s head and he felt he was more at fault because he was the head of the cabin. He asked if they had contacted the police and Blake told him everything that happened in Jerome’s office. Then the wisest words to ever grace Blake’s ears were said. 

Zane said in his airy voice, “If they really are a close friend, wouldn’t you go to the ends of the earth for them?” Blake knew what he had to do.

He grabbed the note and ran to his girlfriend's cabin. They had met in this camp, and she had been going longer, so he knew she could help him. He busted through the door and was greeted by the scent of perfume and makeup. Olivia was sitting on her bed. He explained everything that had happened to him and Lachlan, then showed her the note. Slowly but surely she understood the problem. They argued back and forth on whether they should really be the ones to solve this mystery, but finally she was convinced. 

She separated each word of the riddle and thought about each part. She noticed the word "harvest" and remembered that this year at camp they would be holding a harvest festival halfway through the camp. Now they knew the time when someone else would be taken. Olivia highlighted a part that Blake had put no thought into: “Tick Tock”. This surely was not a coincidence. She thought and thought, and finally it clicked. Blake remembered the clock tower he had seen when he entered the camp. They knew their next clue would be there, but it was too dark out to find anything. They decided they would meet tomorrow in the fields at dawn.

As time passed and Blake rested, he couldn’t stop thinking about his missing friend. He wondered whether he’d return safely. His constant worry made him sweat more than he had ever. Finally, when the clock struck dawn Blake raced out of bed. He put on his loose flannel with sweats and ran to the fields. In previous years they used the field to play soccer but too many balls were lost because everyone was scared of the clock tower. 

Blake saw Olivia approaching. She seemed to be filled with a lot less energy than what Blake was feeling, but he knew his energy was from the fact that he wanted his friend back. Finally Olivia reached the middle of the field where Blake had been waiting for the past hour. He grabbed her hand and together they ran to the clock tower.

The clock tower was rickety and old. Quite frankly it seemed completely unsafe. He wanted this feeling to be gone, though. Blake mustered up all the courage he had and barged into the clock tower. 

For the most part it was empty – nothing but a little bit of hay. As Blake looked up, his eyes scaling up and down on the tower walls, he noticed some red writing. He climbed up to see what it said. Blake touched the writing and the red covered his hand. It wasn’t paint, though; it was blood. Whose blood was it though? No one knew. In large writing, it read “In the shallows.” 

All the possible places this could refer to flew through Blake’s mind. He narrowed his focus on one area: the lake. This is what Camp Ajax had been known for. The lake itself was called Ajax. They had done so many activities there: paddle boarding, canoeing, and even a water slide when the camp counsellor rented one. No one was allowed to go in the lake without permission. He knew he would need someone to be there with him and no one would let him do this alone.

He talked with his girlfriend about what they could do and they decided to talk with the camp counsellor. They thought he would be understanding because he knew how worrying this problem was. They ran to his office at the earliest they could and pleaded. Through all the requests and begging he still said no. Blake knew that there was a reason behind why he wouldn’t let them go in the lake, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Still, no matter what Jerome said Blake was going into the lake. 

He ran to the courtyard and stole some scuba gear that was there for when they did lake exploration. He suited up, completely forgetting that Olivia was still by his side. He ran to the lake in the flippers and dived in. No one was stopping him from figuring this out. 

As he gently swam along the lake bed he saw writing in the sand. It wasn’t written in the sand but rather spelled out in seashells. He couldn’t take a picture of it because he didn’t have his phone with him. The message read, “The person who denied you is the one that’s destroyed you.” His brain flashed back to all the people in his life who had betrayed him or done something bad to him. His mind singled in on one person. Although he had never really done anything terrible to him, Blake knew that this man was the reason his best friend was gone. He resurfaced, excited to tell Olivia that he knew who it was. However, when he went back up to the surface she wasn’t there. Blake thought she probably just went back to her cabin because she was bored.

He continued on, ready to confront this man of mystery. He ran to the dining hall because it was lunchtime and knew that he would be there. Blake sprang through the dining hall doors and was confronted with emptiness. The only person was the person he had been looking for, camp counsellor Jerome. He screamed from across the room, yelling for his friend back. Jerome just looked. He got up and walked towards Blake admitting he had been waiting for him. He got so close that Blake could feel his breath gliding through his hair. 

A simple punch. That was all Blake did. He mustered all the strength he had trained from the football team and punched Jerome right in the gut. He flew back, revolted from this strong and sturdy punch Blake had thrown at him. Jerome stood back up shakily, but Blake wasn’t done with him. He barraged him with punches of massive force, screaming at him to say where his friend was. Finally Jerome whispered that Lachlan was kept in the secret part of the clock tower hidden behind one of the hay bales. Blake couldn’t just leave this criminal free. He grabbed the string that they used to make things such as big pork roasts. He tied him up to a part of the counter so that he wouldn’t move.

Blake bolted out of the dining hall and ran to the clock tower. He threw out every single hay bale in his way. It revealed a trap door. He hopped through the trap door unsure of what was on the other side. It was a dimly-lit room but there was enough light to see his best friend tied up and gagged. He cut him free with the pocket knife his dad gave him for his birthday. He embraced Lachlan with a hug and asked him how he was. Obviously he wasn’t great, but Blake didn’t care about that; he was just happy to have his friend back. He helped him out and took him to the girls' cabin. He thought he would show his girlfriend that he had found Lachlan. However, when he opened the door nothing was there. He saw the exact same thing that was there when Lachlan got kidnapped. It couldn’t have been Jerome though, because he was tied up.

He ran outside and looked all around. A flicker gleamed in his eye. He looked up and saw at the stables a man holding Olivia at knifepoint. Blake ran all the way up the hill and saw what unfolded. The true nemesis behind all of this mess was really cabin counsellor Zane. Zane admitted he had convinced Jerome to kidnap Lachlan and send Blake on this crazy adventure. All Zane wanted was ransom money from Lachlan's rich family. Zane's family was poor and couldn’t do anything to help their sick family members. Blake slowly inched closer, trying not to lose someone else that day. All of his time and efforts had led up to this - would he really just lose his girlfriend? 

A spark flew through Blake's brain and he flung himself into action. He kicked up the dust that lay on the ground and caused a disturbance. He slid right across the ground kicking Zane in the shin. He pulled Olivia away from him.

Zane revealed that he had gone through all the struggles of life and just couldn’t take it. He wanted to get this money because he knew it would make his life better, but never wanted it to go this far. Blake could sense the remorse throughout Zane’s body and slowly tried to talk to him about what could be done. He didn’t want to hear any of it, though.

In moments all the pain seemed to have faded. It was just Blake and his girlfriend atop the cliff.

They went down to the camp together, and just as they arrived the police showed up. It wasn’t only the police, though; it was every single worried parent, and through the crowd Blake could see his parents. He first went to the cops and relayed all the events that had happened in the past three days. He showed them where Jerome had been kept and they took him into custody. Rather than Blake running to his parents, his parents ran to him. They gave him the biggest hug he had ever received and he felt that they really cared. 

All the kids returned home after the incident. Although it seemed like the rest of the camp kids weren’t affected by these tragic events, they really were. Everyone was at a loss for words - honestly who wouldn’t be? The next week, after their return, they had to go back to school. Lachlan ended up transferring to Blake’s school from his private school because his parents wanted him to be with someone he knew would always be there for him. Blake continued his amazing relationship with Olivia, their relationship strengthened by the events that had taken place at camp. Blake was also a lot happier now. He knew his parents really cared about him and he now showed he cared about them too. Not only was his relationship with his parents fixed, but his parents' relationship itself was repaired. They realised that although they may hit some snags, they both care about Blake and want what's best for him. 

The next year at camp Blake returned with his arsenal of friends.