Page 45 of Big Witch Energy

All of them startled, looking almost guilty when they turned around to find Ben staring at them. They were dressed in hiking clothes—even Caroline, whose hiking boot wasn’t quite laced tight over her still-tender foot. But it was way too late in the day to be heading into the woods.

“Going for a walk?” Caroline suggested, her smile bright.

“You’re in a wheelbarrow,” Ben said, noting the rusty garden conveyance. “It’s not even a new one.”

“In our defense, you gave us this idea,” Alice told him.

Seemingly eager to change the subject, Caroline asked, “Um, Ben, what are you doing here?”

Ben held up a small travel medical bag. Mina had handed it to him as she practically shoved him out of the house after dinner. “Mina suggested I go for a walk…and she knew I would eventually end up walking toward your house, because she’s basically a criminal profiler given her TV-watching habits… Did she know you were going out here tonight?” When most of the group nodded, he gasped. “She tricked me. My own flesh and blood, the betrayal!”

“Aw, she’s trying to Parent Trap you!” Riley said, grinning. “Wait, would Parent Trapping them involve a group activity?”

“Teenagers rarely do anything alone,” Ben informed her. “Trust me, group gatherings are one of their better impulses.”

“That was a pretty flimsy story,” Edison noted.

“Yeah, I’m really gonna have to put more effort into questioning her,” Ben muttered. “I’ve let my guard down since we moved to a relatively low-risk location.”

“You live next door to one of the most haunted houses in the world,” Riley noted.

“We moved from Arizona. Rattlesnakes and scorpions,” Ben explained, shrugging. The others nodded as if they understood. That was comforting. This was nice, spending time with other adults. He didn’t have time for a lot of socializing before. His coworkers wanted to talk about work, when he certainly got enough of that at the hospital. And his ex… She never seemed to like spending much time with him in general. And if these people wanted to talk about ghost stuff or whatever weird activity they had planned, well, his schedule was pretty open.

“So, is this secret Shaddow Society business or something?” he asked.

“Oh, that’s an interesting title for our little group,” Alice said, grinning at him. “The Shaddow Society.”

“I still think ‘Shaddow House Ghost and Friday Night Euchre Club’ is a perfectly valid name,” Riley said as they pushed the wheelbarrow along the path into the woods. Ben just…followed. They didn’t object, so he supposed he was welcome.

“We don’t even play euchre!” Caroline sighed as she settled back into the wheelbarrow, as if resigned to her fate.

“So, it will throw the Wellings off of our trail,” Riley shot back, making Caroline laugh.

It took them relatively little time to cross the island, considering they had to push Caroline uphill in a few spots on the dirt path. The sun had just set when they approached Vixen’s Fall. The place wasn’t as creepy as Ben remembered it. He’d only made the trek out here once as a kid, and that had been on a dare, proving his nerve by tempting the angry seductress ghost to grab at his ankles. He’d gotten within a foot of the cliff for about three seconds before dashing back to the “safe” spot of the Crown rock formation. He was lucky his idiot friends hadn’t shoved him over the edge.

“This is not good for your ribs,” Ben told her as Caroline hissed at a bump in the trail. He was pushing her, giving Edison a break for a while. Edison had dashed ahead, pointing out some ridge in the distance that served as an important lighthouse location a hundred years before.

“I’m fine,” Caroline insisted. “And it’s good for us to get out of the house every once in a while, as much as it might hurt Plover’s feelings.”

“Plover seems a little bossy for a dead guy,” Ben observed.

“Eh, he was a patriarch in need of a family,” Caroline said, smiling fondly up at Ben. “We’re his ladies, and he worries about us, which seems reasonable. At least more reasonable than Charles.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” Ben said.

“Slightly histrionic Regency-era gentleman attached to the silverware of the beloved wife who poisoned him,” Caroline replied. “He’s sweet but a little high-strung.”

Edison’s enthusiastic footfalls slowed as they approached the cliff face. His shoulders stiffened, and Riley slipped her hand around his and squeezed. Vixen’s Fall was sadder than he remembered, the shadows deeper.

“Is he OK?” Ben whispered.

“Um, Edison has a pretty severe fear of water,” Caroline told him quietly. “He saw his fiancée die in a boating accident.”

“But he lives on an island,” Ben noted.

“Yeah, he knows,” Caroline said. “It’s OK as long as he doesn’t look at the water.”

Edison hung back as Alice and Riley got closer to the Crown, studying it. Ben pushed the wheelbarrow as close as he was comfortable and helped her stand.

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