Page 47 of Fall From Grace

“We’ll grab some burgers on the way,” he added.

“We’re seriously going somewhere creepy, ain’t we?” I asked, feeling my stomach knot up.

“Yea, I’m glad you wore boots and jeans. It’ll be dark in another hour or so.” His eyes lit up with mischief.

After going through the drive-thru at Wendy’s, we ended up at the end of some random hollow. He parked off the small one-lane road on the grass. I hoped whoever’s yard this was didn’t mind. I noticed a small foot trail heading into the trees. We weren’t going through that, were we? It was almost completely dark outside; another ten minutes and it would be. The burger I ate rested in my stomach uncomfortably.

“Here, wear this over your jacket. It might get a little too chilly for that thin one you have.” He handed me a hoodie from the back seat. I put it on before getting out. I took another look at the trees, so eerie and way creepier than what I remembered the woods being as a kid. Maybe it was because it was dark. “I feel like… I’m not as brave as I was when we were kids,” I whispered.

He walked up next to me and laughed. “No kidding. You’re a lot different than what you were when we were kids. I can remember you hated the idea of kissing and things.” I rolled my eye. “Now look at ya, you’re frustrated that you’re still a virgin.”

I glared at him. “That’s because you scarred me for life with that porn video.”

He shook his head. “Come on,” he said with a smile on his lips and when his hand came out for mine, I didn’t know how to react. I just stood there. “I figured you’d rather me hold your hand as I walked us to where we’re going... I was gonna fill you in on the story of Burt’s wife and how she still roams these woods after Burt tied a noose around her neck and left her hanging in the tree to go find her secret lover… But I suppose Dustin wouldn’t like that, does he even know you came here with me?”

I grabbed his arm and held on tight. “It’s probably better this way, right?” He kept turning the light on and off. “Will you keep it on! We can’t even see anything.” I paused a moment. “What about wolves or bobcats?” We started moving and I looked around but couldn’t see anything beyond what the flashlight showed me. “What about bears?”

“Don’t worry, your loud mouth will scare anything around away,” he teased, letting me lean into him as we walked. “Watch out for that log,” he told me as we stepped over it.

“Where are we going?” I said in a hushed tone. Something other than us made a sound in the trees. “Did you hear that?” I asked.

“No,” he leaned in, “what was it?”

I strained my ears. “I hear something, Noah, it’s like something’s walking besides us.”

“I don’t hear anything.” How could he not hear that? “Is it a female voice crying out, ‘Burt, I’m coming for you… Burt’.” He was messing with me.

I smacked his arm but still held onto him. “Seriously, Noah, I hear something.” There was a scratching noise. “I’m scared,” I panicked. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I instinctively wrapped my arms around him.

His light went out. “Shit,” he muttered.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think the batteries need to be changed.”

A male voice shrieked somewhere in the trees around us and I screamed as soon as I heard the painful wail. I clawed at Noah, forcing my way into his hands. I fumbled around in the pitch black. “Grace,” he whispered, sounding panicked himself. His hands came over my butt and hauled me up but I was too wild for that to happen smoothly. He held me upright as he fell to the ground, keeping me tucked above him.

I was still screaming when the flashlight came on between us. His evil grin played with my heart as he shined the light in his face and started laughing like a hyena. Now that I wasn’t screaming anymore, I could hear two other voices laughing behind us. “Noah,” I hissed, jabbing my elbow into his chest until he hissed. “This is not the kind of adventures I was talking about.”

“Ow,” he said while laughing. “You never were specific.”

“Damn,” a male muttered behind us. I moved off Noah and stood. “I bet my parents could hear her back at the house.”

“What the hell are you two doing here?” Noah asked as he stood.

“Here’s the keys,” the other guy tossed them to Noah.

“We couldn’t help it,” said the black-headed guy. “When we heard y’all coming up the road, we ran up here to wait to scare you both.”

“Like I wouldn’t know it was you guys,” Noah told them.

“You didn’t plan it then?” I squinted my eyes at Noah.

“Finally, it’s nice to put a face to the one he talks about all the time since his ass moved over here in the seventh grade.”

“Jack,” Noah warned. “These two idiots are Jack and Lance.” He pointed to each of them.

I pushed my hair back and tried to smile. My heart was still racing from being terrified. “I’m Grace.”

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