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“What? Why?” Cody glanced back at him with a frown, but did lower his voice. “What?”
“Do you think what she said back in the room is true? About Dave and Demetrius being more in love with us than we are with them?”
“No.” Cody’s response was hard, flat, and immediate, a sign to Oliver that he’d been worrying over the exact same thing. He looked at him over his shoulder for a moment, even as he continued to walk, amazingly not running into a tree. “Absolutely not.”
“Okay.”
Cody faced forward again. After several steps, he said without looking back in a quiet, almost gentle voice, “I know you love my brother. I can see it in the way you look at him, the way you talk to and about him, and the way you touch him. I don’t believe there’s more love on either side of our relationships. I think we’re dealing with a ghost who destroyed Katherine’s chance for a happy family. I think she’s spent her life harboring a grudge for this ghost and devoted her life to keeping other people away from here, so it’s made her a little batty.”
A small sense of relief bubbled up within Oliver. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. There’s no damn imbalance in our relationships. That’s all a crock of shit to give crazy Katie up there a way to keep us off-balance. Truth of the matter is, this supposed ghost hasn’t had to deal with a gay couple before, and then the four of us came along and pretty much skewed her worldview.”
“That’s a good point,” Oliver said, then realized who he was talking to and frowned at himself. Had he just said Cody had made a good point? What the hell was happening here?
Cody must have picked up on Oliver’s unusual wording as well because he looked over his shoulder with a smirk. “I bet those words didn’t feel right being directed at me.”
Before Oliver could reply, Katherine came to an abrupt stop, and Cody nearly ran her down. Oliver bumped into Cody’s back and stumbled back a few steps, almost toppling over. Good God, Cody could really be an immovable barrier when he planted his feet.
“We’re getting close,” Katherine said over her shoulder. “No more talking.”
“Fine,” Cody said, then waved ahead. “Let’s go.”
Katherine turned off the lantern and looked at the flashlights. Cody hit the switch for his, and Oliver reluctantly did the same. Darkness surged around them, and Oliver kept his eyes fixed on Cody’s back and the muted glow of his light-colored t-shirt the rain had plastered to his shoulders. As they moved slowly, carefully through the woods, trying to make as little noise as possible, the rain started to fall harder. In the distance, a rumble of thunder sounded like a displeased god watching them progress toward some ultimate goal. Perfect timing.
Oliver wondered again what kind of place Katherine was leading them to. He really hoped it wasn’t a cemetery. He didn’t think he could handle a cemetery. The rain fell so hard it forced its way through the canopy of tree branches and leaves overhead and pounded on Oliver’s back and top of his head. His shoes and clothes were mud-caked and ruined. But Dave was somewhere ahead, and Oliver needed to find him and… what? What kind of state would they find Dave and Demetrius in? Would Rebecca Hawkins be protecting them? Fight to keep them for herself?
Katherine slowed and dropped into a crouch. Cody and Oliver mimicked her stance as they slowed down as well. Finally, Katherine stopped and got on her knees behind a grouping of scrub trees and bushes. Cody knelt beside her, and Oliver got on his knees on Cody’s other side. After holding a finger to her lips, Katherine carefully parted some branches and they looked out into a small grassy clearing. Oliver squinted through his rain-streaked glasses, then gasped.
Dave and Demetrius stood in the clearing, backs to them and arms at their sides, their clothing wet, dirty, and torn. They stood still as statues, unmoving in the steady downpour.
“Demmy!” Cody called in a loud whisper.
“Shut up, you fool,” Katherine said.
“Why? They’re just standing there,” Cody said. “Let’s go get them and leave.”
“Be quiet and look closer,” Katherine said.
Oliver looked beyond Dave and Demetrius and saw a pile of stones in the center of the clearing. No, not just a pile. The stones looked like they marked the edges of a well.
“This is what she does?” Oliver said. “She just brings them here and lets them waste away?”
“What the fuck?” Cody whispered, then, because apparently one time wasn’t enough to convey how he felt about the situation, he said it again. “What the fuck?”
“I’ve seen this before,” Katherine said, “several years ago. She’d lured a man away from his wife and brought him here. I passed him in the woods as he was walking.” She shook her head and waved a hand before her face. “He didn’t even acknowledge me. Just stared straight ahead, arms at his side. I followed him here and watched him just stop and stand in place like these two. I tried to wake him, to get him to go with me back to the hotel, but he fought me. He attacked me, and I barely got away with my life. I’m convinced she had possession of him and was telling him to kill me.”
“What happened to him?” Cody asked.
Katherine tipped her head toward the clearing. “I checked on him every day, and every day it was the same. He stood there just like that, standing and staring. He lost weight and was swarmed by bugs. One day I came and he was gone, but he couldn’t have gone far because he’d wasted away so much. I think she leads them off into the woods, where they eventually collapse and die.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cody said. “You didn’t bring the cops out here?”
“To do what? To march him out of here with handcuffs to keep him from fighting them? What then? Lock him in a jail cell, unresponsive and not eating, standing and staring off into the distance, back toward this place?”
“What the hell is going on?” Oliver said. He felt sick to his stomach and hoped he could keep down what little he’d eaten. “Why bring the men here? Why keep them in this spot? Is that a well they’re staring at?”
“It is,” Katherine said. “Long abandoned and forgotten.”
