Hidebehind

Forty

It was difficult to distinguish trees from sky from grass. There was a moon, but it did little to illuminate our piece of the world. We moved quickly in the direction I thought was right, but it was a bit of a trek to the unfinished house, and the few times I had been there, it'd kind of been by accident. The air was cooling fast, and I was glad we'd brought our jackets, but when a clammy, misty rain began to fall, I wondered if maybe we were getting in over our heads.

We were pretty quiet, focusing mostly on the spots of light emitted from our flashlights. Maisie didn't have one, but Alex and I did, and she walked between us. The only things I really felt were determination and a little reluctance until we entered the woods, and then that cold fear began to creep back into me.

Did Maisie and Alex really believe in the monster? I doubted that they did; if they had, I didn't think they'd so easily follow me. I myself probably wouldn't have gone out there if it had just been for Jay, but since Penny was gone, I had to.

The darkness closed around us entirely when the skeleton trees got us in their clutches. There was an overgrown path I tried to follow, but it was difficult to see in the black, and even the flashlights didn't help a ton. They were sort of pathetic, almost—these little bits of brightness in a universe of dark.

"Don't be scared," Alex said suddenly.

"Who's scared?" I hissed, wondering if he'd said it more for himself than for his sister or me.

"Where are we going, again?" Maisie asked.

She knew. I'd already told her. But maybe she wanted to keep our voices going; they almost felt like some sort of protection. "Luther's house. My Great Grandfather's house that he never finished."

"Because you think Penny is there?"

I hesitated, listening to my feet crunch the twigs and leaves and whatever else was beneath them. "It's my best guess, right now. I don't know where else to look."

"It's spooky out here . . . who would want a house?" Maisie was a lot braver than I'd thought she was, but the uneasiness had gotten into her, too.

"Yeah, I don't know. It's a freaky-big house, too, but it's all falling to pieces. It's dangerous. We can't go in it or anything."

"Then how are we going to get your sister out?" asked Alex. His tall figure towered over me, and I was glad he was at my side.

"I don't know that she's in it, necessarily. I've been out here around this house; there's a fence, and some weeds, and just . . . I don't really know. I hope she isn't in it. I hadn't actually thought of that. If she is, I'm not sure we can go in and get her. The whole place looked like a strong wind could blow it over. Plus . . . if anything in these woods is haunted, it's that house."

Maisie gasped. "Exactly! That makes sense, Rob! If Jay is a ghost, and if he's haunting something, then that would make sense!"

Her comment struck me, and I stopped.

"What?" Alex asked. "What is it?" He and his sister had stopped, too, and turned to look at me.

"I hadn't thought of that." My brain was trying to piece something together. "I hadn't thought . . . but why? Why would Jay haunt that house? I mean, you hear in ghost stories about ghosts haunting the houses where they died, right? Could . . . could that mean that . . . that Jimmy died there?"

They were quiet, probably thinking over what I'd said, but then Alex added, "I thought you said a monster got him."

"Maybe it did, but it was at that house."

"I'm thinking," continue Alex, "that Jay is the monster you thought was after you. I mean, it just makes more sense than that there's a ghost and a monster. You know? Jay the ghost has been haunting you, and you thought it was a monster."

"No," I said softly.

"How do you know?"

"Because . . . because even if Jay is a ghost, he never scared me. He never did anything that was mean. He was . . . he was just, my friend. He wouldn't have chased me through those woods; he helped me out of them! I wouldn't have escaped that monster if it weren't for Jay."

"Unless he was the monster, and he was messing with you."

"He isn't. I'm sure of it."

"You can't be sure."

"Well, at least he didn't leave me alone in those woods by myself in the middle of the night! That sounds a lot more like what a monster would do!"

"Are you calling me a monster?"

"Yeah, maybe I am! Everybody here is a monster! I just want to go back where I was!"

"Stop fighting, you two! Just stop it! Just be friends and stop fighting!" Maisie was rightfully frustrated with us. "This isn't the time for it. We have to find Penny!"

I was about to reply that, once again, she was right, but in that moment, both of our flashlights stopped working. If we'd thought it was dark with them, it was pitch without them.

"Wh-what happened?" Alex stammered, knocking his light against his palm as if to shake it back on.

Before any of us could answer that, the very air around us rippled, snaked—it was weird, but we could feel it, and I knew in that moment that whatever I'd thought had been after me in the woods those weeks ago was here, again, now. The fear inside of me ballooned, and panic leapt into my throat. I wanted to run somewhere, though there was nowhere to run, but my legs were like lead posts, and Alex and his sister had both grabbed onto my arms and were dragging me down, holding me where I was.

Maisie could barely speak. Her words came in a faint choking sound. "What is that?"

I shook my head, feeling this thing more now than I had before, and the terror its presence created nearly brought tears to my eyes. "It's here!" was all I could manage.

And then the three of us were back-to-back, not knowing which of us had the idea first, and noticing the small mercy of our eyes adjusting a little to the gray and black shapes around us as they became trees, bushes, and whatever lay beyond.

I'd never clutched onto anyone the way I grabbed Alex and Maisie, my arms so tight that they ached. We couldn't see it. We couldn't hear it, even, but we could feel it watching us, waiting for some moment we couldn't predict.

"I was wrong! I was wrong!" Alex whispered. "I believe you! But where is it?"

"It's always behind you," I repeated what Grandpa had told me. "Never in front of you. Always behind so you can't see it."

"That's why we're back-to-back. It can't be behind us!" whimpered Maisie.

My stomach churned. "Maybe it is," I hissed. "We know it's here."

We instinctively hunched closer together, our backs pressed up against one another. And we would've stayed that way if, in that moment, we hadn't heard a scream. A little girl's scream. Coming from the direction we'd been heading.