“Dies how?”
She shrugs once more and eases back in her chair. “Suicide, mostly, or some freak accident.”
Aron chuckles with a shake of his head. “It happened once.” Then he looks at me pointedly. “No one goes near it because the whole town thinks the place is cursed or some shit.”
“Oh, shut it,” Brittany says. “They both died a week later. What are the odds of that?”
Aron rolls his eyes, and Benny coughs into his closed fist to hide his snicker.
My eyes widen. “What happened?”
“Clarissa was a freshman at high school, and Harvey was on the football team. They’d been to a party. It was all part of some stupid dare. They were supposed to enter the property and film themselves making out in one of the rooms. Your typical high school shit.”
“And then what?”
“A week later, Clarissa disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“A witness in a passing tractor saw her enter the woods that back onto the property.”
“She disappeared?” I press, biting the inside of my lip.
Gwen nods. “But it doesn’t end there. The same day she disappeared, Harvey’s parents found him in the bathtub. He had electrocuted himself with a hairdryer.”
Goosebumps erupt over my arms as a chill slithers down my spine. “I don’t believe in the supernatural. Whatever happened must have logical explanations.”
They exchange amused glances before Brittany pops her gum and smiles brightly. “We should do a séance at your house one day to see if we can communicate with it.”
Lily’s lips part as she gasps. “Are you crazy? No!”
“Why not?” Brittany looks at me then. “She’s up for it.”
“Why not?” She opens and closes her mouth like a fish. “Because it’s dangerous. People die who venture inside that house, or have you forgotten? I don’t want to go anywhere near it.”
Gwen smiles apologetically, sensing my discomfort, while they continue bickering. Aron plays on his phone, and Benny studies me, as though he finds me intriguing.
I suppose I am the city chick.
The outsider.
The new girl who has never seen cornstalks or scarecrows in real life until yesterday.
“Welcome to the unhinged gang,” Gwen whispers in my ear, loud enough for the others to hear, and pulls me close with her arm around my neck.
I think I’ve officially made some friends.
THREE
CAMRYN
Tappingthe pen on my notebook, I stare out the window at the setting sun.
Dominic begrudgingly drove me home after school and didn’t speak a single word the entire journey.
Now, as I watch the trees sway in the breeze, the sound of his electric guitar drifts through the walls. I can’t focus on my homework. Not because of his strumming. Something about those trees calls to me.
My curtains dance as another gentle gust brings with it the scent of pine and rotting wood.
