Page 28 of Coven of Corpses

“I’ve never been out to this part of the woods before.” Demmy’s voice was quiet, and Cody could understand why. As he moved up beside them, he felt the power that lingered within the clearing. It was like something big hid just out of view, watching. Waiting.

“What are these stones?” Ollie stepped out from the trees, and Cody nearly shouted in frustration.

“Is it a good idea for us to be walking around a place in the woods where some guy was just chanting by a fire that mysteriously vanished when he did?” Cody saw Demmy start to follow Ollie and took him by the arm. “I don’t know about this.”

Demmy looked up at him, eyes so big and blue beneath the orange beanie. “We need to understand what’s happening.”

“I know, but… “ Cody looked past the trees where Ollie crouched by a stone on the other side of the clearing. “There’s something off about this place.”

“Yeah, I feel it, too. But I don’t think it’s dangerous.”

“There was a guy out there with a fire burning just a couple of minutes ago, and now there’s no sign of him or the fire. It’s weird.”

“And it’s why we need to figure out who he is and what he was doing.” Demmy put a hand on Cody’s chest, over his heart. His palm felt warm against the damp chill of the day. “We need to do this. You know that.”

He couldn’t argue that point. Cody released a long, heavy sigh and followed as Demmy moved carefully into the clearing.

Nothing happened, at least nothing he could feel. For all Cody knew, his internal organs were slowly turning into stone. As he moved toward the center of the clearing, he kept an eye on Demmy. He even kept an eye on Ollie, thinking in the back of his mind he should charge Dave for babysitting.

He didn’t see any smoldering ashes or charred logs, nothing that indicated a fire had been burning there just a few minutes before. Maybe the lingering scent of wood smoke, but that could have been Cody’s imagination. There was, however, the sense that something had happened here, that something might still be happening just out of sight.

A stone similar to the one Ollie and Demmy were inspecting caught his eye, and he approached, crouching down with a quiet grunt.

“I heard that,” Ollie said.

Cody held up his middle finger without looking around. “Can you hear this?”

“These stones look as if they were set here,” Demmy said. “Like markers or something.”

“There’s several of them.”

Cody stood and looked to where Ollie was pointing. He saw another and pointed it out. “There, too.”

“Some kind of stones over here,” Demmy said from a place closer to the trees. “But they look different.”

Cody looked at the line of weathered stones, all in a row. The dead and blackened trunk of a tree stood close by, and he figured it had been struck by lightning or something.

“I’m going to get some pictures.”

Ollie pulled his phone from his pocket, reminding Cody about the call he’d received that had given them away. It had been from Shanice at Bulk & Beyond, and he winced when he saw she’d left a voicemail.

“Uh oh, I know that expression,” Demmy said. “Is it Shanice?”

“Yeah.”

“Guess your fib about going into work early is coming true,” Ollie said, a little too high and mighty for Cody’s liking.

“Don’t accidentally step in poison ivy or a witch’s curse or something, Ollie,” Cody said, then listened to the voicemail. Like he’d thought, Shanice asked him to come in as soon as possible.

“For as often as she’s been having you to come in early, she could have hired another couple of people,” Demmy said.

“Companies are asking fewer employees to do more,” Ollie said as he continued to take pictures of the stones, the trees, the clearing itself, and, for all Cody knew, the fucking blades of grass and the flat gray clouds overhead. “It’s cheaper than hiring, training, and providing benefits for the right number of employees.”

“Thank you, Captain Economy,” Cody said. “Are you done with the photo shoot? Can we leave now?”

Ollie looked over with a grin. “Getting scared, big guy?”

Cody turned his back and lifted a hand. “Bye, Ollie. Good luck finding your way back.”