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“I still think it looks like cannon smoke. ”
“Think it all you like; just don’t write it down and publish it. ”
Swish. Swish.
My friends and I exchanged nervous glances. Someone was coming, from over behind the cabin. Maybe nobody was holed up inside it, but someone was hanging around it; that much was certain. And whoever he was, he was on his way over.
He wasn’t carrying a light so far as we could tell, but he didn’t need much of one. The beacon dome of the Marshall party glowed beside the road. So long as no trees or small monuments got in the way, it would be easy enough to make a bee-line for the group.
Jamie dropped one hand to the ground and propped himself on it to move closer to me. “What do you want to do?” he asked, so quietly that even Benny didn’t hear it two feet away.
“It might be nothing,” I replied, knowing as I said it that it wasn’t likely true. If the swisher was an ordinary trespasser like ourselves, he’d probably avoid the Marshalls for fear of getting caught. We couldn’t see them well at all, but for all we knew they’d brought a police escort of the strong-and-silent type. God knows I would have looked into a cop companion if I’d been them, after getting shot at once before. And just because we hadn’t heard a fourth member of the group didn’t mean they hadn’t hired a uniformed representative.
But there’s something about the supernatural that skews peoples’ priorities. Ghosts have a way of making the real world and all its dangers seem small and unimportant.
Unthreatening.
Swish. Swish.
But the real world wasn’t safe to ignore for too long, either.
Whoever he was, he was getting closer, and he was no ghost. He was no Green Eyes, either—of that much I was confident. And it was only a matter of moments until he reached the road.
The Marshalls were retreating to the picnic area, but the swisher was following them, pushing his feet through the grass. He moved slowly, as if to make as little noise as possible.
He was definitely creeping up on them.
Benny echoed Jamie’s question, just as quietly, into my other ear. “What do we do?”
I shook my head, almost hitting Jamie with my cheek. “Don’t know. ”
Let me think, I wanted to add, but the swishing stopped and a soft pat announced a foot setting down upon the road. The time for thinking was almost up. We needed to decide whether we were going to watch or interfere, and we needed to do so quickly.
“We’ve gotta warn them!” Benny whispered fiercely, almost too loud.
I agreed, though. I let go of his arm and dragged my fingers along the ground, searching for something to throw. A piece of asphalt the size of a peach pit caught itself under my thumb.
“Move,” I told Jamie, who shifted his chest to give me room.
As hard as I could, I chucked the rock towards the Marshall party. My aim was bad in the low light and heavy fog, but the dome of electric light made them an easy goal.
I’m not sure who I hit or how hard I hit him, but one of the males cried out, “Hey!” A scuttling scratching noise followed when the rock clattered to the ground, and the Marshalls stopped. I think they were holding their breaths.
“What was that?” Dana demanded, not bothering to whisper.
“Who’s there?”
“Show yourself!”
If the swisher was still moving towards them, I couldn’t hear him. He must have stopped, but he had to be within a few yards of them. He’d made it to the road, and they’d not yet made it to the cement picnic tables.
A long moment of loaded silence followed, while all those within listening distance weighed their options.
Behind my neck I felt a soft rushing noise, like someone was blowing cold air there. When I looked back, I was startled by a familiar face, even as I was happy to see it.
The pitifully young Confederate soldier circled around the boys to stand in front of us, looking for all the world like a projection of dusty light upon the fog. He moved his lips, but I couldn’t read them; he pointed at the orb near the picnic tables, and then at another spot between the field and the nervous people within that orb.
I know, I mouthed, drawing the attention of Jamie and Benny. What do we do?
