Page 82 of Grave Danger

“Wait, I want to talk more about what happens when we get home.”

“Later.”

“But…”

“See, this is why I take control of situations,” Demmy said as they followed the others. “If things were left up to you, we’d never get anything done.”

“We’d get some things done,” Cody said. “We’d do each other.”

Demmy laughed, and it sounded good and clear even as the thunderheads gathered above them and the wind brought a stronger smell of rain.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Demetrius decided the hiking wasn’t the worst part of the afternoon. Sure there was no official trail along the banks of Davenport Creek, and the exposed tree roots were eager to twist or break an ankle, and low-hanging branches hungry to scratch faces or gouge eyes. But the worst part of it all was the bugs. Thick clouds of silent and biting bugs continuously swarmed them. All five of them shouted curses as they waved to break the horde of insects or slapped at exposed skin. Agatha proved to be the most inventive stringing together swears, making all of them bust out laughing now and then.

Fifteen minutes after they’d set off, the rain started. Demetrius heard it on the leaf canopy overhead, and a short time later felt the first drops as the rain fell harder. It dimpled the creek’s surface, stirring up silt in places and leaving dirty whorls in the otherwise clear water.

“This reminds me of our last get together,” Dave said from the front of their single file line.

“Did that last gathering include zombies?” Agatha asked.

“No,” Dave said, slapping at a bug on the side of his neck. “A vengeful ghost who put Demetrius and I under a spell and tried to kill us.”

Agatha stopped in her tracks, forcing Demetrius to pull up short behind her, and Cody to do the same behind him. She looked at Dave and Oliver’s backs ahead of them, the two men still moving forward, unaware she had stopped, then she looked over her shoulder at Demetrius.

“Is that true?”

“Yeah, it’s true.”

“Possessed by a vengeful ghost?” Agatha said.

Cody put his hands on Demetrius’s shoulders and leaned in close. “She made Demmy and my brother try to kill me and Ollie.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Agatha whispered.

“Yeah, they had nothing to do with that place,” Demetrius said.

“Hey, you guys okay back there?”

Oliver and Dave were several yards ahead, looking back at them.

“We were updating Aggie on our last get together,” Cody said.

“Oh, she didn’t know about that?” Oliver said. “It was such a great time.”

Agatha started walking again. “You all have a weird idea of what it means to have a great time.”

“Dave’s always been that way,” Cody said in a low voice.

“I heard that,” Dave said over his shoulder.

“With ears like a golden retriever,” Cody said.

“I heard that, too.”

They continued hiking, all of them wet from the rain and waving away bugs. Cody gave himself a hard slap and grunted.

“How long are we going to do this?” Cody asked.