Page 32 of Obscurity
In fact, they all stood close, as if on standby in case things went south.
Or in case they wanted to make things go south.
Her heart pounded harder.
“Hey, hillbilly. You got any moonshine?” Frat Boy yelled from the back of the group.
Olive’s muscles tightened.
A round of hoots and hollers came from a few of his friends.
Maya scowled before turning back to the Grayfall Guardian. “Do you live around here?”
“All my life. I protect these here woods. Someone’s gotta.”
“Protect them from what?” another man asked.
“Predators.” The word hung in the air.
“Predators?” someone echoed. “What exactly have we gotten ourselves into? Did you guys hire this lunatic to add to the backwoods experience? Please tell me you did.”
“No, sir,” Max said, lifting his radio to call this in. “We did not. But we have every right to use this trail. And the county gave us permission to use Grayfall. We’re paying a pretty penny for it. Not only that, but we hired locals to help us set up. We gave them jobs where there weren’t any. You guys should be grateful.”
“Grateful, my foot.” Grayfall Guardian turned to the crowd, his weathered face grave with unspoken knowledge. “I reckon at least some of y’all got good sense, so listen up. Y’all are fixin’ to head into somethin’ you don’t wanna mess with in them thar hills. Still time to hightail it back to wherever y’all came from afore it’s too late.”
With that cryptic warning, he and his friends melted back into the forest as suddenly as they’d appeared. They left the group staring at the empty trail and wondering what exactly they were walking into.
But all Olive could think about was the possibility that this man—someone who kept an eye on everything going on in this area—might know something about Chloe.
CHAPTER 19
The silence that followed Grayfall Guardian’s departure stretched uncomfortably long, broken only by the sound of shifting backpacks and the nervous clearing of throats.
Olive watched Max’s face cycle through expressions—annoyance, calculation, and finally a forced return to his professional guide persona. He lowered his radio after calling in the incident.
“Well, that was interesting.” His laugh sounded hollow in the mountain air. “You get all kinds of characters living back in these hollers—old-timers who’ve been here so long they start seeing ghosts in every shadow.”
“He seemed pretty specific about Grayfall.” Dr. Z studied the forest where the man had vanished. “What did he mean about things that don’t belong? I’ve covered festivals in remote locations before, and locals usually support the surge in the economy.”
“Mountain folklore.” Sorrel moved closer to the group’s center. “These old mining towns have been abandoned for decades. People start telling stories to keep outsiders away. They want to protect their territory. That’s all.”
Olive noticed how both guides kept glancing toward the forest where the man had vanished, their casual dismissals not matching their obvious tension. This wasn’t their first encounter with people like the Grayfall Guardian, was it?
As Max shifted, Olive caught sight of the gun in his waistband.
Her chest constricted.
Had he brought it to keep this group safe? Or to keep them in line?
She didn’t want to find out.
The woman who’d hurt her ankle waved her hand in the air to get people’s attention. “Maybe we should listen to him? I mean, he lives here. Maybe he knows something we don’t.”
“He probably knows that scaring tourists is a good way to keep his favorite fishing spots secret,” Max interrupted. “Trust me, locals around here have been pulling this kind of nonsense for generations.”
Olive caught Jason’s eye and saw her own skepticism reflected in his gaze.
The guides were working too hard to dismiss the warning. Their explanations felt rehearsed rather than genuine.
