Maye gazed through mist and throughout a pond. No water laid in it, only sticks which stood shoulder high. She glanced over her shoulder through trees. Each in silhouette, three girls hiked toward her aiming flashlights all around.
“She couldn’t have gotten far,” a voice said.
“I don’t know,” another said. “She ran like the wind.”
“She’ll never run again after we finish with her.”
Maye shuddered, turned toward the stick pond, and bit her lip.
Suddenly, behind her, light shone.
“Up there,” a voice echoed. “Who’s that?”
Maye clinched her fists, dashed down a slope, and leapt into the sticks. Like tall corn stalks, she slipped through the sticks, keeping an eye on lofty trees which towered on an opposite bank.
“Where’d they go??” a voice said.
Maye halted, hunched, and glimpsed behind her. The three girls stood atop the slope, peering about the pond.
“I could’ve sworn I’d seen someone.”
“Swear all you want, but you hadn’t seen a thing.”
“Yes, I did, Maddie.”
“No, you didn’t. Hey Casey, I’d told you not to bring your little sis. Now, she’s seeing ghosts.”
“Oh, whatever, you wouldn’t know I ghost if it—”
“Both of you,” Casey said. “Shut up!” She gazed through the sticks and then stamped a foot. “Damn it!”
“No worries, Case,” Stacy said. “Lacy will dive in and scare that girl out.”
“I’m not going in there; it looks like it’s full of possums or rats or something.”
Maddie chucked. “Do you hear this kid?”
“Besides,” Lacy said. “Sky’s darkening soon, and that girl’s got nowhere to go for the night but back to town.” She turned toward the trees and nudged Casey’s arm. “Come on.”
Maye sighed, shifted her weight, and, behind her foot, a twig snapped. She ducked lower, re-shifted her weight. “Damn it,” she whispered and then peered at the girls and, for a spit second, made direct eye contact with Casey as she stared throughout the pond.
Before long, Casey shook her head. “Okay, Lace,” she said. “Perhaps you’re right—maybe we should head back to town.”
Maddie all but fell over. “Really?? And let that girl who outsmarted you in front of our town go without so much as a peek through there??”
Casey gazed into the sky. “Yes, I think so. Besides, we are losing light.”
“That’s not all we’re losing,” Maddie said, turned, and ambled toward the trees. Suddenly however, Casey seized her shoulder.
“On second thought,” Casey said. “We can take a quick peek inside the stick.”
Lacy trembled. “‘We’?? We who??”
“‘We’ you!” Maddie said.
“No, I’ve already told you—I’m not going in there.”
“Well, I’m not,” Maddie said.
“Oh, you’d better, because I always—”
“No worries, you two,” Casey said, tread about the area, and picked up several stones. “I’ve a friend who will check that pond out for us.”
The other girls looked about.
“What friend?” Maddie said. Casey reached behind her back, lifted her shirt, and, out her belt, removed a metal sling shot. “This friend.”