Page 77 of Chasing Infinity

“Well, you’re wrong.”

She turns to me and grins. “I don’t know. Yeah, you two have this weird enemy thing going on but based on how his eyes lit up when he saw us sitting here, I’d say it only goes so deep. He definitely doesn’t hate you the way he says he does. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be engaging at all.”

“His eyes light up with the spirit of Satan, that’s all. Sorry, Grace. You’re wrong on this one.”

Grace shrugs her shoulders with a smirk as if she knows something I don’t. “We’ll see.”

* * *

Thankfully, Noah seems to leave us alone for the next few weeks, aside from a few sinister smiles here and there. Grace is under the impression that he’s letting her get acclimated to her new school, but I know better. I figure Noah’s just biding his time until the opportune moment when he can strike.

I’m right.

The Friday before Halloween, Noah makes his move.

“What’s up, New Girl?” he jeers, sidling up to Grace and me after school. He dips his chin at me. “Parks.”

Grace looks at him coolly and cocks her hip to the side. “The sky. What do you want?”

“Just thought I’d check and make sure Parks here told you about the Halloween traditions this weekend.”

I nearly groan when Grace looks at me accusingly, eyebrow raised with intrigue. “She didn’t, but I’m sure you’re about to,” Grace says back to Noah.

His lips twist in amusement as he leans forward and looks around as if he’s telling a secret he shouldn’t be. “Tomorrow night. Witch House. Nine o’clock.”

“Witch House? What the heck is that?”

I roll my eyes and enter the conversation. “This ancient creepy house on the outskirts of town that everyone thinks is haunted.”

“It is haunted,” Noah says deadpan. “Legend has it that you can still hear the screams of the witches being tortured in there from back during the witch hunt.”

“It’s ridiculous,” I say. “There’s no such thing as ghosts or hauntings or whatever. It’s scientifically unproven.”

“You and your science-bull crap again,” Noah says. “There’s more to life than just evidence and research.”

I cross my arms and scowl. “Fine, then how about I point out that Vermont only had one known witch hunt, and it was about an hour south of here.”

Noah glares at me, his eyes taking on a sharp edge. “Youwouldknow that.”

I flip my hair over my shoulder and hit him back with a satisfied smirk. “I’m surprised you don’t. And besides, that was hundreds of years ago. Do you think a random house would’ve survived without any upkeep? I don’t think so.”

“You’re ruining the fun, Parks. Maybe stop using your brain for one second and just enjoy the experience.”

“What about all those screams that people hear then?” Grace asks me.

I shrug and look down at my fingernails, picking at a cuticle. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for that. Probably the wind hitting a hole in the roof just right.”

Noah groans loudly. “Oh myGod, Parks, would you shut up?” He looks to Grace. “If you can get whatever stick is up her ass out, we’ll be at the Witch House tomorrow. There will be a bonfire and games and such.”

Grace looks at me with a smile and a gleam in her eye. “We’re going.”

I cross my arms over my chest and press my lips together. It seems I’m losing this battle. Which is how I find myself standing in the middle of a field the next evening. The sky is dark overhead, just the twinkling of stars and the light of the moon illuminating the area.

“The game is ‘ghost in the graveyard,’” Noah instructs everyone. I side-eye Grace and plant my hands on my hips, trying to appear unimpressed. “Think of it as backward hide-and-seek. I’ll assign two groups: one to be groundsman and the other ghosts.”

Noah continued on to explain the objective of the game. The groundsmen count down from one o’clock to midnight while the ghosts scatter and hide. If a groundsman locates a ghost, they have to yell out,‘ghost in the graveyard!’Then all the groundsmen have to run back to home base while the ghost chases them, trying to tag them. If you get tagged by a ghost, you become a ghost too.

In my opinion, the whole game sounds trivial, and I would much rather be at home. There’s supposed to be a special on haunted houses across America on the History Channel tonight, but Grace insisted we come.

---