Church. But Esmie didn’t go to church. Hadn’t since Dad?—
Church. Old church. Old churchyard. Sleepy Hollow. Headless Horseman. Headless Horsemen.
She sucked in a deep breath and sat up, almost falling out of the saddle, but Chad still had an arm around her and didn’t let her go far.
“Whoa, there. I got you.” He chuckled. “You sleep like the dead, you know that?”
Yawning fit to split her face, she stretched her arms, popped her back, then slumped. Her mouth tasted like a dead frog. Areally dry dead frog. She should have requested a bottle of water at some point. Ugh.
“I’m thirsty.”
“Oh,” Aaron said, sounding dismayed. “I forgot. You would be thirsty, wouldn’t you? And probably hungry, too.”
On cue, her stomach awoke, growling like an angry cat. “Don’t remind me. I’m guessing another pit stop will have to wait until we’re done here.”
“And we have no idea what food and drink will taste like in the Between,” Jerome said, sounding unbearably cheery. “Could be an interesting experiment, though. You should definitely try something carbonated.”
“I’ll pass.” She looked around. “Not much left of the church. I can’t even tell where it—oh.” She spied a corner of a foundation, worn and broken down with age, crusted with lichen, and nearly hidden with brush. “Is that all that’s left?”
“The whole foundation was there in our day, but it looks like it’s grown up a lot since then.” Chad unwrapped her from his tattered cape, and she felt the warm fuzzies that he’d thought to wrap her in it, though it didn’t actually get cold here. “Let’s look around and see what we can see. Maybe they just put his head elsewhere but still here.”
“I doubt it,” Jerome said, but dismounted readily enough.
Chad took her gently by the upper arm, and she leaned over to be let down. As always, he eased her down so gently she didn’t so much as bobble a step. When he joined her on the ground, she brushed her hair out of her eyes and grinned up at him sheepishly. She must look awful. Hair a mess, face swollen and scraped in a dozen places, probably bruised all to hell on her forehead where she’d smacked it down in the gravel.
Whatever. He didn’t have a head. No one was winning any beauty pageants right now. But she still felt awkward. He’d beenvery kind, for all that he’d kidnapped her to the Between. They all had, really. Even Jerome, for all his snark.
Shaking off the moment, she turned to the dilapidated church and went to explore. She started at the ratty corner she’d spied through the undergrowth and climbed up onto it.
“Careful,” Aaron cautioned, climbing up with her. “There’s no way the floor is stable if it’s just wood.”
She bent down on all fours and knocked. Ugh. Wood. But solid here, at least. She crept forward and knocked again. Wood, but solid. Again, and more solid wood. Unfortunately, even a few feet further, and the wood turned spongy. She didn’t dare try to crawl onto it. In fact, if she didn’t know better, she’d swear the bit she knelt on sagged under her despite sounding solid. Nervous now, she scooted back to the corner, which felt much more secure.
“Well, that’s a no go. I don’t suppose there’s a cellar or anything below this that we could get into?”
“Huh.” Aaron hopped down off the foundation and mimed stroking his absent chin. “It can’t hurt to go around the outer edge, surely. As long as we watch our step. What are you looking for?”
She frowned. “I don’t know. I’ll know it when I see it.”
They walked around the grown-over foundation, Esmie taking large steps over the underbrush. The Horsemen, for the most part, didn’t seem to have much problem powering through it, though Aaron did his share of high-stepping, but she was panting and grumbling before reaching the second corner. Thankfully, they came upon the crumbled remains of a doorway before getting all the way around.
“Here we are.” She paused to tuck annoying wisps of sweaty hair behind her ears and catch her breath. Her cheeks, she knew, were flushed and damp, and she was sweating under her hoodiefrom the stupid workout. “There’s something here for us. I can feel it.”
She took out her phone and turned on the flashlight. Jerome grunted but didn’t comment. She checked her battery. Seventy-six percent. Not bad, but she’d better use it sparingly.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to heft open the remains of the bulkhead door one-handed. Aaron, ever the gentleman, hurried over to help, and they practically ripped it off the grubby, rusted old hinges getting it open. She jumped back from it as it flumped into the overgrown grass, but no beetles or creepy crawlies scurried away from the weird half-light.
“There aren’t any spiders in the Between, right?” she said nervously. She hadn’t seen any in the rest stop bathroom, but she wanted to be absolutely sure before going down into that dark, forbidding maw. “Right?” she said with more force when no one answered.
“Um….” Chad scratched at the back of the neck of his cape. “Honestly? I have no idea.”
“Why would we know that?” Jerome said, amused. “Seriously. Are we supposed to have been taking a wildlife survey this whole time? Seriously, girl. Cobwebs, we clearly got, but spiders?”
Aaron tutted. “Jer, c’mon. Can’t you be nice for, like, a minute?”
“This is my nice.”
“Ugh.” He did something so sweet then that Esmie was won over totally. He tucked one arm behind his waist and one arm in front of it, bowed slightly, and said, “Don’t worry, Esmie. I’ll go first and knock down all the webs.”
