cheerleader to his football hero. Yes, she was blonde and blue-eyed, the fault of her genetics. She was a good student and coordinated enough to be a great cheerleader. She liked to believe she’d been taught by her family to be a lot more, too—as in decent and compassionate and bright enough to see and understand others.
She thought Tyler was like that, too. No matter how cool he was.
They were just right for each other—and their group of friends was nice, too! Something she considered extremely important. Tonight, they wanted to be seniors—they wanted to be a little bit wicked and have a great time.
But being Davey’s cousin had long ago taught Sarah about the importance of kindness in the world. Patience, sharing, caring...all that.
All that...
Seemed to go out the window right now.
“Davey, I know you were scared in the first house, but we’re all with you,” she said.
“Hey, buddy,” Tyler told him. “I’m bigger than the damned ghosts!”
“You can go between Sarah and Tyler,” Suzie said. “They’ll protect you.”
“No! No—the things in this house—they were okay. They weren’t real. But that house...that one, there. There are things in it that are real. That are bad. They’re evil!” Davey said.
“Oh, you’re being silly,” Hannah said.
“It’s true,” Davey said.
“How do you know?” Sean asked him.
“My father told me!” Davey said. “He helps me see.”
Sarah bit her lip. Davey’s dad had died over a year ago. Aunt Renee was alone with Davey now. Davey’s dad had been a marine, and he had been killed serving his country. Her uncle had been a wonderful man—good to all the kids. She’d loved him, too, and she’d known he loved her.
“Davey, your father isn’t here,” she said. “You know...you know your dad is dead.”
Davey looked at her stubbornly. “My father told me!” he insisted.
“Davey,” Sarah said softly, calmly, “of course, the point is for it all to be very scary. Vampires, ghosts—but they’re not real. It’s a spooky fun place for Halloween. There are all kinds of made-up characters here.”
“No. Real bad things.”
They all let his words sit for a minute.
“The actors in there—they’re not evil, Davey,” Suzie said. “Come on, you’ve seen creatures like that before—and the ones who walk around, they’re high school kids like us or college kids, and now and then, an adult actor without a show at the moment! You know all about actors, buddy. There are pretend vampires—and werewolves, mummies, ghosts—you name it.”
“No. Not werewolves. Not vampires,” Davey insisted. “Bad people. Like my dad said!”
“You love actors and movies,” Sean said. Sean knew Davey had a skill for remembering everything about all the movies and, because of that, he always made sure Davey was on his team for trivia games. When they weren’t playing trivia, however, Sean had a tendency to ignore Davey.
Sean seemed to be trying with the rest of their group to engage Davey, but he kept looking at his watch. He wanted to move on.
“You shouldn’t go in! You shouldn’t go in. It’s bad. Very bad,” Davey said.
“It’s just a haunted house!” Tyler said.
“I love you, Tyler,” Davey said. “Don’t go. My father...he was next to me. Yes. He was next to me. All the things he taught me. He’s dead, I know! But he’s with me. He said not to go in. He said there would be bad men and you have to look out. He was smart. My dad was a marine!” he added proudly.
“That’s kind of sick!” Hannah whispered to Sarah. “Does he honestly think...”
“Davey,” Sarah said softly. “Your dad loved you—you loved your dad. But he’s gone.”
“I’m not going!” Davey said stubbornly.
“He should come,” Tyler told Sarah. “If you give in to him all the time...it’s not good. Don’t make him into a baby. He’s several years older than we are.” He turned to Davey. “You know I love you, buddy, right?”
Davey nodded. “We don’t have a weapon. I’m not going.”
“Davey, I’m begging you...please?” Sarah asked.
Davey shook his head, looking at her. There were tears in his eyes; he was obviously afraid she was going to make him go into the haunted house.
“Just go,” Sarah told the others. “Davey and I will get a soda or...hey, there are a bunch of movie toys over there. We’ll go look at the toys.”
Tyler sighed. “I’ll stay with you.”
The others had already fled like rats.
Not even Suzie—some best friend—stayed behind.
Just Tyler. Staring at her.
“Go,” she told him, suddenly feeling put-upon.
“Sarah—”
“Go!”
He stiffened, squared his shoulder, shook his head—and walked on quickly to join the others.
“I’m still so confused. What scared you so badly?” Sarah asked Davey, leading him to a bench. At least she could sit. Her steampunk adventurer boots were starting to hurt like hell. “You were fine when we first got here. The haunted house we went in was made up to look like that one from the movie—you know, when the kids get lost in the woods and they find the house, but everyone in it is crazy! The father likes to hang people, the brother plays with a Civil War sword, the sister sprays poison and the mother chops up strangers for dinner. It was creepy cool—and they were all actors.”
“Yes, they were actors,” Davey said.
“Then why are you afraid of that one?” She pointed to the house where her friends were now in line, Cemetery Mansion. It was a good, creepy representation from a horror film where people had built over a graveyard and the dead came back to kill the living for disturbing them.
“It’s evil,” Davey said. He shoved his hands into his pockets and shivered. “I saw them. Dad told me to watch—I watched. That house is evil.”
“How is it evil? It’s honestly much the same. The themes are different. There are a lot of fabricated creatures—some cool motion-activated stuff, like robots—and then more actors. People just pretending. We went through the one house—it was fine.”
He nodded very seriously and then pointed at the Cemetery Mansion.
“That one,” he said. “It’s wrong. I’m telling you,
