Anima's Ghost: The Summer Before (Song Line Echoes, book 2)

Chapter 18: Disappear

"What are you taking pictures of?" Edelweiss asks, as I'm stretched out on my stomach on the ground near the dead camp fire.

"The boys. I'm supposed to be taking pictures of ghosts...or maybe bigfoot," I almost laugh. "But since there are none of either of those around right now, I thought I'd take pictures of the boys while they work."

"Don't let Borden hear that," Spyro says, coming back over to us. "He's camera shy." He pauses, thinking, "Actually, I think camera-angry is more accurate."

"I noticed at the cabin," I nod. But I've snuck a couple pictures of him anyway.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'll be fine tomorrow." Hopefully. Spyro just looks at me, making me very aware that I've dodged his question. And that he caught me doing it.

Instead of trying to ask me again though, he just picks up the canteen Stryker's girl left behind and holds it out to me. "If nothing else, you can get drunk enough to pass out for the rest of the day."

"I doubt it'd take much," I comment, reluctantly sitting up and taking the canteen, unscrewing the lid. The smell of what's inside it pours out, making me hesitate. "I never drank alcohol before."

"Really? Not even a sip of beer?"

I shake my head, "My dad's very against underage drinking."

"Why? As long as you're not stupid, there's no harm in it. And I just can't imagine you being stupid about anything."

"You've never seen me ride a horse." I shrug, "His entire existence is by the law and the government's word. Nothing else. Even everything he watches is based around the government and the law."

"He sounds like he lives a very boring life."

"Because he doesn't let me drink?" I almost laugh.

"No," Spyro grins, "Because half the fun in life is breaking rules."

"Why do I suddenly get the funny feeling we're not actually legally allowed to be in this area?"

"Because we're probably not," Spyro shrugs, still grinning, before getting up and returning to his search with the other boys.

"What are they looking for?" Edelweiss asks. I look at her, surprised. Gatsby loves to talk about his adventures and the theories that lead him to them. Even if he hasn't exactly accepted her, I would expect that, if nothing else, she would have overheard him talking about it. At home, at the party, to his parents, probably even to strangers.

"Well, Gatsby's probably just looking for bigfoot tracks," I tell her. "The others though...nothing specific, but a lot of things. This area has so much. Abandoned or hidden buildings used by Satanists, thunderbird, pukwudgie, ghosts, UFOs...out here, the possibilities are almost endless.

In the distance, too far away for us to be able to hear them, Spyro and Gatsby have been talking while they search. Now, Spyro stops suddenly and just looks at Gatsby with a baffled expression. Then he shakes his head, says something else, and turns heads back over in our direction. As the breeze picks up, I take a picture – of Spyro with his hair lifted by the wind, his eyes downcast to watch the unpredictable ground under his feet as he approaches us, and Gatsby stopped in the background, one foot up on a fallen tree he's about to cross over, paused as he looks over his shoulder at Spyro's retreating back with a dawning look of realization.

It may not be as exciting as getting pictures of ghosts in haunted houses, but I have gotten some really good photos even stuck in this one spot. I think so, at least. I hope the boys agree. Or at least Gatsby does. Or I might be fired from being their photographer no matter what. I try not to think about what that might mean if it were to happen. I try not to think about what'll probably happen when we go back to Fall River either way.