The Dead House!

~Ch 12 The playground kids~

Sam was so startled, the flashlight tumbled from his hand and clattered onto the street. The light flickered but didn't go out.
By the time Sam had managed to pick it up, our pursuer had caught up to us. I spun around to face him, my heart pounding in my chest.
"Ray! What are you doing here?"
Sam aimed the light at Ray's face, but Ray shot his arms up to shield his face and ducked back into the darkness.
"What are you two doing here?" he cried, sounding almost as startled as I did.
"You—you scared us," Sam said angrily, aiming the flashlight back down at our feet.
"Sorry," Ray said, "I would've called out, but I wasn't sure it was you."
"Sam has this crazy idea about where Petey might be," I told him, still struggling to catch my breath.
"That's why we're out here."
"What about you?" Sam asked Ray.
"Well, sometimes I have trouble sleeping," Ray said softly.
"Don't your parents mind you being out so late?" I asked.
In the glow from the flashlight, I could see a wicked smile cross his face.
"They don't know."
"Are we going to the cemetery or not?" Sam asked impatiently. Without waiting for an answer, he started jogging up the road, the light bobbing on the pavement in front of him. I turned and followed, wanting to stay close to the light.
"Where are you going?" Ray called, hurrying to catch up.
"The cemetery," I called back.
"No," Ray said. "You're not."
His voice was so low, so threatening, that I stopped. "What?"
"You're not going there," Ray repeated. I couldn't see his face. It was hidden in darkness. But his words sounded menacing.
"Hurry!" Sam called back to us. He hadn't slowed down. He didn't seem to notice the threat in Ray's words.
"Stop, Sam!" Ray called. It sounded more like an order than a request. "You can't go there!"
"Why not?" I demanded, suddenly afraid. Was Ray threatening Sam and me? Did he know something we didn't? Or was I making a big deal out of nothing once again? I stared into the darkness, trying to see his face.
"You'd be nuts to go there at night!" he declared.
I began to think I had misjudged him. He was afraid to go there. That's why he was trying to stop us.

"Are you coming or not?" Sam demanded, getting farther and farther ahead of us. "I don't think we should," Ray warned.
Yes, he's afraid, I decided. I only imagined that he was threatening us.
"You don't have to. But we do," Sam insisted, picking up his speed.
"No. Really," Ray said. "This is a bad idea." But now he and I were running side by side to catch up with Sam.
"Petey's there," Sam said, "I know he is."
We passed the dark, silent school. It seemed much bigger at night. Sam's light flashed through the low tree branches as we turned the corner onto Cemetery Drive.
"Wait—please," Ray pleaded. But Sam didn't slow down. Neither did I. I was eager to get there and get it over with.
I wiped my forehead with my sleeve. The air was hot and still. I wished I hadn't worn long sleeves. I felt my hair. It was dripping wet.
The clouds still covered the moon as we reached the cemetery. We stepped through a gate in the low wall. In the darkness, I could see the crooked rows of gravestones. Sam's light traveled from stone to stone, jumping up and down as he walked. "Petey!" he called suddenly, interrupting the silence.
He's disturbing the sleep of the dead, I thought, feeling a sudden chill of fear. Don't be silly, Lily. "Petey!" I called, too, forcing away my morbid thoughts. "This is a very bad idea," Ray said, standing very close to me.
"Petey! Petey!" Sam called.
"I know it's a bad idea," I admitted to Ray. "But I didn't want Sam to come here by himself."
"But we shouldn't be here," Ray insisted.
I was beginning to wish he'd go away. No one had forced him to come. Why was he giving us such a hard time?
"Hey—look at this!" Sam called from several yards up ahead.
My sneakers crunching over the soft ground, I hurried between the rows of graves. I hadn't realized that we had already walked the entire length of the graveyard.
"Look," Sam said again, his flashlight playing over a strange structure built at the edge of the cemetery.
It took me a little while to figure out what it was in the small circle of light. It was so unexpected. It was some kind of theater. An amphitheater, I guess you'd call it, circular rows of bench seats dug into the ground, descending like stairs to a low stagelike platform at the bottom.
"What on earth!" I exclaimed.
I started forward to get a closer look.
"Lily—wait. Let's go home," Ray called. He grabbed at my arm, but I hurried away, and he grabbed only air.
"Weird! Who would build an outdoor theater at the edge of a cemetery?" I asked. I looked back to see if Sam and Ray were following me, and my sneaker caught against something. I stumbled to the ground, hitting my knee hard.
"Ow. What was that?"