Page 59 of Cemetery Boys

“Call it witchy intuition!” Maritza said over her shoulder.

Yadriel couldn’t keep himself from laughing as he jogged to catch up. Julian chased after them, demanding answers.

TEN

The farther they got from home, the more unsure Yadriel was about this plan. Afternoon LA traffic kept the streets packed, and the air filled with the sounds of honking, sirens, and bumping subwoofers battling for dominance. But as they followed the train tracks, the main roads started to clear until the sounds of traffic were just a droning in the distance. Empty tracks stretched out before them.

The path was littered with broken brown bottles, fast-food wrappers, and cigarette butts. Donatello and Michelangelo enjoyed snuffling through the debris as Maritza tried, in vain, to stop them.

A man in a large black jacket with his hands stuffed deep into the pockets walked toward them. When he spotted Donatello and Michelangelo, he crossed to the other side of the street, staring intensely as they passed.

“If we get mugged or kidnapped, I’m going to be pissed,” Maritza told Yadriel.

He laughed, but it did little to ease the tension knotting his shoulders. “Noted.”

The warm afternoon seemed to pass right through Julian. The burning gold light that streaked across the sky and splashed against the walls of buildings didn’t touch him. Instead, he was washed in dull blue, the color of dusk.

Julian’s pace quickened until Maritza and Yadriel had to half jog to keep up with him. Donatello and Michelangelo trotted along, their massive paws shuffling over the pavement.

“Are we close?” Yadriel asked.

“It’s right up ahead!”

Yadriel tucked Julian’s necklace under his shirt. He didn’t want to have to come up with an explanation if Julian’s friends noticed it.

“Here, here, here!” Julian waved at them frantically as he raced toward a set of stairs that led down from the train tracks.

“Wait!” Yadriel called after him, panic finally getting the better of him as he chased after Julian.

Luckily, he stopped at the top of the stairs, but was poised to take off, one hand already on the railing. “What?” he demanded.

“What’s the plan here?” Yadriel asked, fidgeting with his hands.

“The plan?” Julian repeated, his face screwed up in confusion.

“Yeah, like, what are we going to say to them?”

Julian waved a hand dismissively. “Nothing, I just need to make sure they’re okay!”

“Uh.” Maritza came up to Yadriel’s side. “We can’t just walk into your friends’ hideout, be like, ‘Hey, just checking in,’ and then be on our merry way,” she told him.

Yadriel nodded enthusiastically in agreement. He was very glad to have another voice of reason.

Julian let out a groan, like coming up with a game plan was a very large inconvenience. “I’ll just tell you what to say in the moment!”

“What, like Cyrano de Bergerac?” Yadriel asked with a sarcastic laugh.

Julian blinked. “Uh … yeah.”

“Do you even know who that is?” Maritza said.

Julian scowled. “Yes!”

He was definitely lying.

“That didn’t exactly work out for him, so I really don’t think it’ll go well for us, either,” Yadriel tried to reason, but he’d already lost Julian’s attention again.

“Blah, blah, blah! It’ll be fine!” he insisted, turning back to the stairs, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Come on, they’re right over here!”