6

We scrambled beyond the tree line and out of the woods. We didn’t stop running when we came to the others�"and they started running after us.

We scattered to our bikes. The other three pranksters had parked theirs not far from where Polly and I parked ours, in the shadows so we wouldn’t see them. It had worked, too.

We mounted and road off from the park as fast as any kids ever could. We didn’t stop again until we came to the bright lights of town center. There we stopped at a well-lit gas station to catch our breath.

“What were we running from?” Squire asked, trying to catch his breath.

“Something chased us,” I returned, taking a deep breath.

“What was it?” Nick asked.

“It was a kid,” Polly answered. “And not a living kid.”

“We were chased out by the ghost of some dead kid,” I exclaimed. “Or an undead kid. Whatever he was, he wasn’t human like us anymore.”

Nick started up, “You wimp. You got scared away before you even got to the old playground?”

“We saw the playground,” I assured him, still catching my breath.

I pulled the blue gem out of my pocket and held in front of him. It shut him up quickly.

Nick just stood there for a moment, his mouth hanging open. He took the jewel out of my hand and looked it over carefully.

“You actually got it,” he gasped.

I looked at Polly, who was still shaky and looking over her shoulder from time to time.

“Can we all just go home now?” she begged. She looked coldly at Nick, who was ignoring her over the gem stone.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “You’ve got your stupid rock, now we should go on home.”

Nick gave me an evil look, when I spoke strongly about the gemstone.

“It’s not a stupid rock,” he assured me.

“Well whatever it is,” Polly scowled, “I don’t care, and we’re leaving. And you’re stupid if you don’t go home now.”

“You coming with me, Cameron?” she asked, setting off down the sidewalk on her bike, headed in the direction of home.

I knew she didn’t want to ride home alone�"especially tonight. So I rode off behind her.

“Wait up, Cameron,” Squire called.

I looked over my shoulder, as he and Marcus rode off behind me.

Nick, on the other hand, sat on his bike, there under the streetlight. Staring into the blue gemstone we retrieved for him.

For a moment, a spitefully proud grin formed across my face and hung there.

We showed him, I thought, riding off behind Polly. Squire and Marcus fail in line behind us.

Stupid homeschooler thought we would come in to town and still our thunder.

We showed him we own this town�"not him.

“So, tell us,” Squire pried. “What happened to you two in there? To get you so scared like that?”

“Yeah,” Marcus seconded. “Or was that all put-on? Way to show that creep anyway, if that’s what it was.”

“It wasn’t put-on,” I assured them. “But, you’re right,” I said, staring traitorous glances at Polly, as I rode behind her, “that Nick kid is a creep, all right.”

Polly either didn’t like my comment, or she could feel me staring coldly at the back of her blond head. Either way, she released a breath of annoyance, and rode off further ahead of the three of us.

I guess this was giving all of us the cold shoulder in her mind.

She was, after all, anything but an aggressive girl.

“So, tell us,” Squire tried again, in a lower voice. “What did you guys see in there? If it’s bad, you should probably tell us.

“He’s right, Marcus agreed. “If there’s something bad going on in our town, you should tell us.”

“Maybe later,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t want to talk about it right now… Maybe later, guys.”

For the most part, both Marcus and Squire let it go. Squire, being Squire, had to ask at least one more time before he and Marcus split off from our quartet, just passed Mimosa Street.

Again, I told them no.

Maybe later, I said again.

After that, it was just Polly and me until Oak Circle�"which is where she lives.

I sped up after Marcus and squire were gone, until I rode next to her in the vacant street. Her hair glowed as we passed under the street-lamps. It blew behind her like some kind of magic, golden twine.

“I’m sorry, Polly,” I apologized, “for making the bet with your stupid friend.”

She huffed again. “Can we not talk about Nick?”

“Sure.”

There was a moment of silence, before she came back in voice that was louder, shakier, and still a little frightened.

I can’t believe I let you do that,” she cried.

“Let me what?”

“Let you talk me into going out there,” a strand of her golden hair flapped across her face, where it stuck. When she shook it away, I could tell she was crying, and her face was moist with tears.

Tears that seemed to send her face glistening, as we passed under another street lamp.

“Honestly,” I sighed, “neither can I.”

When I arrived home, the house was all dark, except for the ceiling light above the hallway to my staircase.

As I entered our front door, I felt safer than I had felt since I’d left earlier.

The undead kid was still stuck in my mind, playing in a loop, as he rose from his grave and chased the two of us out of the woods; but now I was feeling like it was all behind me. However horrible it had been, it was all behind us now.

Even if the ghost boy were still out there wandering the streets of Bridgewater, it didn’t know where any of us lived. He would never find us.

I told myself again that it was all behind me now, and I crept quietly down the hall toward the staircase.

That was when the figure reached out of the darkness and grabbed me by the arm.

It was no longer behind me now. It was right in front of me. It had found me, and grabbed me.

The dead kid had somehow found me. Somehow it had followed me home.

My pulse raced and I began to panic.

I wanted to scream; but I reminded myself that my parents were asleep, and I didn’t want to wake them.

Then the figured lunged out at me.