“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I say one more time. Ralph has vanished back into his house, leaving me with Aiden and Kasey. And Grant, who apparently fell back asleep in his chair while no one was paying attention to him.

“I don’t feel great about it either,” Aiden admits, “But if he has an idea of where it is…”

“What’s taking so long?” Kasey grumbles, checking for a watch that isn’t there. She wasn’t wearing it the night she died.

“Alrighty,” Ralph says, popping back out onto the porch with a pair of jeans and sturdier shoes added to his ensemble. “Let’s do it. Either of you boys think to bring a compass?”

“I have my phone.” I hold it up. “We’ll be fine.”

“Mind the mud, that’s how a drizzle will kill you.” Ralph doesn’t bother locking his door, I guess because Grant is sitting there looking like the world’s worst bouncer. I watch Ralph bound down the sagging porch steps and onto the grass, and it strikes me abruptly how ridiculous this all is. If I could go back in time just a few months and tell myself what I was up to right now… Walking into the woods with two of my childhood bullies and a confirmed otherworldly spirit, on a hunt for someplace that’s haunted in the most literal way?

This is how people die in horror movies.

But in actuality, Ralph is the only real threat - or at least, he’s the wildcard. You never know what kind of mood he’ll be in, and what might cause him to abruptly skyrocket from one to the other. I’ve seen him go from delighted glee to boiling rage without stopping at any of the emotions in between. Is he smiling because he’s happy? Or is he smiling imagining exactly how he’s going to take your existence and turn it into a nightmare?

It’s that same kind of dangerous smile that Aiden used to wear when he was busy making my life hell. On Ralph, it’s just as troubling. Something about the cold curve of his lips makes it impossible to relax around him, impossible to believe anything ‘nice’ he might say - although, that is coming from me, and there’s the whole poem incident at the root of this particular anxiety.

The poem. Every time I think of it, I end up playing tetherball with my own brain, knocking back and forth between various theories on why Aiden stole the poem back from Melanie. Each as absurdly improbable as the next.

“Where are you going?” someone shouts, snapping me out of the spiral my thoughts were headed down. We all twist to see Noah leaning out of the second-story window, squinting in the rainy sunlight. “Is that Aiden?”

“We’re going on a hike, dude!” Ralph calls back. “Won’t be too long!”

“Wait for me!” Noah disappears back into the house. A few minutes later he pops outside, staggering as he tries to pull on a shoe and walk at the same time. “What the fuck! You guys were gonna leave me and Grant?”

“Aren’t you rolling?” Ralph asks, extracting a lollipop from his pocket and tearing away the wrapping. “I figured you’d want to stay here.”

“Course I am, it’s Molly Mondays.” Noah’s pupils are wide and round, his forehead beaded with sweat.

“It’s actually Saturday,” I mumble, but no one pays me any attention.

“Ralph, did you say you know where the cemetery is?” Aiden cuts in, clearly sensing that we’re being derailed. Ralph sticks the lollipop in his mouth before answering.

“Duh, Aiden, we’ve been there together.”

The entire group turns to look at Aiden, whose surprised expression matches my own.

“We - what?”

“Don’t you remember?” Ralph lets out a harsh, scraping laugh and drops the lollipop wrapper onto the grass. “Come on, let’s go.” He wheels around and sets off towards the thick wall of greenery behind his house.

“Wait, Ralph, what are you talking about?” Aiden calls, hurrying in his wake. Noah, Kasey, and I follow behind. Noah’s jaw is churning like he’s working on a tough bit of steak or something. “What do you mean?”

“We went there, dude. To the old cemetery.” Ralph does not slow his step to wait for the rest of us; I’m practically jogging. “I can’t believe you don’t remember. Avery Schroeder used to live like, four houses down the road. We went to his place, we did some lines, we split a bottle of Jack, and then we went wandering around and stumbled into it.” Ralph glances over at Aiden. “You honestly don’t remember?”

“I thought we went to Memory Gardens, the other cemetery,” Aiden answers. His blue eyes are confused and troubled. I suddenly remember what he said to me, when I found him lost on his way to Kasey’s grave. I don’t remember where it is. I’ve only been there once, and that was in high school, and I was very drunk. He looks at me over his shoulder, his cheek pinched like he’s biting it, and now I’m remembering something else he said to me: I just wish I remembered more of the last eight years of my life. A painful pang moves through me, seeing this expression on his face, knowing what it means.

“Hey, we’ve all forgotten shit from high school,” I put in, finally catching up to him and Ralph. “Especially when a bottle of Jack was involved, right?”

“Right,” Noah agrees immediately. Ralph throws a cursory glance at me and narrows his eyes.

“Yeah. Whatever.” He looks back to Aiden. “The point is, I know we found it, and I vaguely remember what direction we were going, but we’re gonna have to do a little poking around if we want to find the exact spot.”

“I honestly barely remember this,” Aiden says, his brow still furrowed.

“Yeah, well, you were something special, that night.” Ralph laughs and slaps the back of Aiden’s shoulder. “Remember that shit, Noah?”

“Le-gen-der-y.” Noah lets out a hoarse laugh. “Oh, shit. You were trashed, Aiden. You were so fucked up that you straight up kicked down one of those old headstones. Must have been old as fuck. It broke into like ten pieces.”

Ralph laughs again. Aiden turns to look at me, and the shame and guilt in his expression is almost heart-stopping. I can’t think of anything I could say in front of Ralph that would make him feel better, but I am physically incapable of doing nothing. I glance back to make sure that Noah isn’t paying attention, then quickly slip my fingers along Aiden’s wrist. Take his palm in mine, give it a gentle squeeze, and then let go.

Only Kasey, walking a foot or so behind me, could have seen. Aiden’s eyes drop to our now-separated hands and then back up to my face. He still looks pained, and his eyebrows draw up in a question. I try to use only my face to tell him it’s okay, and maybe he understands, because his eyes warm gratefully. His knuckles brush against mine for just a second.

“Shut up, Noah,” Ralph groans, and I realize that Noah has been chattering away about nothing this whole time. “God, that shit makes you talky. Should have left your ass at the house.”

“Fuck you, dude.” Noah shoves his hands into his pockets, takes them out, and puts them back again.

The forest spreads wide before us, densely populated with foliage. We are on a steady uphill climb, which seems like a good thing to me. We’re searching for high ground, after all. I didn’t expect Ralph or Noah to be actually joining us. I’m surprised either of them wanted to, but I suspect Noah is just following around Ralph, and Ralph has some kind of agenda, something he’s hoping to get out of this.

“Here we are, gents,” Ralph says, slowing his stride. “This is the last place I remember us stopping before we got to the cemetery last night.”

We’re in front of a little brook, swollen from the raindrops currently fluttering down on us. Smooth black rocks crest the surface, surrounded by bubbles that quickly pop and vanish.

“How do you even remember that?” Noah leans over to peer into the water.

“Cause we all pissed in it.” Ralph turns to face us. “I don’t exactly remember where we went from here. Maybe we could cover more ground if we split up?”

“Great idea,” I say at once, taking a step towards Aiden. But Ralph is right next to him, and he loops his arm over his broad shoulders before I can get there.

“I was thinking Aiden and me could go together,” Ralph says, with a cold grin. “You’ve been hogging him, Jamie. He hasn’t even called me once since that party.” He flicks the lollipop stick into the stream.

“Gee, I wonder why.” Kasey scowls at the spot where it floats on the water’s surface.

“Come on, don’t leave me to babysit Noah,” I begin, but Ralph waves a hand dismissively.

“He’s a cupcake when he’s like this, you’ll be fine. Plus, like you said, we all have our phones, right?”

Without waiting for an answer, Ralph sets off along the edge of the brook, heading East. Aiden tries to mouth something at me as Ralph drags him along, but I can’t make out what he’s trying to say in time, and Ralph shouts over his shoulder:

“Keep us updated!”

I turn to exchange a dismayed glance with Kasey, who presses her fingers to her cheeks and tips her head back, letting out a groan so loud that I wouldn’t be surprised if Noah somehow heard it. But he didn’t, and he’s just standing there shadowboxing clumsily.

“I wanna fight someone,” he hiccups.

“I thought molly is supposed to make you cuddly and affectionate.” I don’t bother trying to hide the annoyance in my voice.

“What, are you asking me to cuddle you, Keane?” Noah laughs. “I never knew you liked me like that.”

“That’s fucking hilarious, Noah,” I answer flatly. “Good stuff, man. Not nausea-inducing at all.”

“Which way are we supposed to go?” He swings around to face the water. “Which way did they go?”

“What do you mean-?” My heart drops as I realize that Aiden and Ralph have somehow already been swallowed up by the forest. There’s no sign of them. I quickly pull my phone out of my pocket and unlock it: no bars. There’s no reception here. Which Ralph would know, given that this property is right behind his house.

“Oh, my fucking god. Come on, Noah, we are not splitting up. Let’s go find them.”

“Bossy, aren’t we?” Noah swallows and winces. “God, my mouth is dry.”

“Then let’s go.” I grab him by the shoulders and steer him ahead of me. When I release him, he just keeps walking. He’s babbling something to himself incoherently.

“This day took a turn,” Kasey observes, walking at my side. “You know, it feels like this happens every time we go hunting for a secret haunted cemetery.”

“Ha, ha. This is a disaster. I knew we shouldn’t have involved Ralph. What a jackass.”

“You said that out loud,” Kasey murmurs, with an alarmed glance at Noah. I clasp my hands over my mouth, embarrassment flaming in my cheeks. If Noah heard, however, he doesn’t show it. He’s yammering on, watching his feet, his hands out for balance.

“He’s on a different plane right now,” I tell Kasey. “I think we’re good.” We both pause, waiting to see if this snaps him out of his reverie, but it does not. “We better hurry. I’m worried about Aiden.”

“Aiden’s a big boy, he could basically step on Ralph and kill him.”

“That’s not the concern. What Ralph does is more like psychological warfare.”

“They can’t be that far ahead.” Kasey slips her hand into mine. “We’ll catch up fast.” I give her an appreciative look, squeeze her fingers. I would feel ten times more panicky right now if she wasn’t here and I really was alone in the woods with a zombie version of Noah.

“Thanks, Kase-face.”

“Anytime.” She chews her lip for a moment, then adds: “By the way. It’s been a few days. Are we going to talk about what happened?”

“What do you mean, what happened?”

“Um. Aiden kissing your neck in his office?”

“What?” I turn to stare at her. “That didn’t happen. He was pretending to bite my neck.”

“You’re right, it sounds way less flirty when you put it that way.” Kasey fights down a smile. I glance at Noah to make sure he’s out of earshot; he’s a couple of yards ahead now, still mumbling quietly.

“It was a joke. He’s just a hands-on sort of dude. We’re not talking about this.”

“But you’ve been thinking about it, haven’t you?” Kasey pokes my ribs. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you zoning out all week ever since it happened. Cheeks all red.”

“Please do not.”

“Jamie, I’m just saying, I’m the only one who saw the looks on both of your faces after that happened, and-”

“Kasey! The more I convince myself that that was something, the harder it’s going to be for me to stop myself from telling him how I- listen, I already decided I’m never going to tell him. Please don’t make this more difficult on me. I’ve been trying not to think about that office incident all week.”

“Okay, just hear me out - would it be the worst thing in the world if you told him?”

“It has the likely potential to mess everything up between us, so yes. It would be the worst thing in the world. I’m not willing to lose him as a friend. I’ll get over it eventually, and be glad I didn’t say anything.”

Kasey sighs.

“I have more to say about this, but I feel like you won’t listen.”

“You were the one warning me about how even being his friend was a bad idea.”

“Well, now I’ve seen how he is around you, and how you are around him, for that matter. I’ve never seen you like this.”

“I don’t know what that means, and I don’t want to know. Let’s just find him, okay?”

We both swivel to face forward as Noah trips over a tree root and lands flat on his face.

“Oh my god!” Kasey sputters. I rush forward, stumbling over the uneven forest floor.

“Noah?” I grab his shoulder and roll him onto his back. He laughs and stretches his arms over his head.

“I just want to lay down for a minute,” he sighs.

“No, Noah, get up-”

I stop and look up. I heard something through the trees, too faint for me to tell if it was a voice or an animal sound. Kasey clearly heard it, too: she grabs my wrist.

“I’ll stay with Noah, go see if it’s them.”

“Thank you, I love you, stay right here!”

I scramble up the hill in the direction of the noise, wishing I hadn’t worn Converse for this part of our investigation. Aiden had even teased me about it in the car, but I didn’t listen. Not that I’m going to tell him he was right. I slow down as I reach the top of the hill, crouching among the bushes in case the sound came from something scary-

“I don’t care, I’m going back to find Jamie.”

“Aiden, they’re fine, man. Stop for a second.”

It’s them. I can hear it clearly now, the tramp of footsteps, their voices. I straighten up and step out of the bushes, relief flooding my chest, just in time to see Ralph grab Aiden by the arm. Aiden whips around, yanking his arm free at once.

“What is your problem, Ralph? I told you I didn’t want us to split up.”

“Well, excuse the hell out of me, but this is the only way I could think of to get you to talk to me for a second.”

I’m frozen next to the bushes I’d been hiding behind, completely out in the open. They’re staring at each other and I have somehow gone unnoticed. I don’t know why, but rather than shout something or say something, I slip behind the nearest tree and press my back against it, holding as still as I can.

“Is there something we need to talk about, Ralph?” Aiden asks, and I haven’t heard his voice so icy since high school.

“Yeah,” Ralph says. “I think there fucking is.”