In Another Life

125 (Colby's POV)

"I don't like this," Corey said, shortly. If I were being honest, I didn't either. I was ready to go, and I could tell the girls were too. Denise wasn't even speaking, staying as close to Corey as she could. "We'll leave in a minute. Let's just try this, see what happens, then we'll go. Okay?" I asked, looking around at all of them. Terra bit her lip, a somewhat frightened expression on her face. "Yeah, sure, but can we just hurry up?" she asked, bringing her hand up to twist her earring. It was kind of cute to see her having some of the same habits that I did. "This is actually starting to freak me out a little," I continued, laughing nervously.  "Yeah, same," Denise replied. "Jake, Corey?" Sam asked. "Are you guys okay with that?" "Whatever," Jake replied, nonchalantly. "Do I really have a choice?" Corey asked, shaking his head. "Let's just get it over with." Sam, Jake, and I cleared away the toys from on and around the grave. Terra tried to help but I grabbed her hand to stop her. If this was actually real and we did piss off Gracie, I didn't want her being in the line of fire. "We've got it," I said, letting her hand go quickly, since I was still recording. She glared at me a little, but backed up. I liked this fiery side of her. I didn't get to see it much, but it seemed to piss her off if I tried to tell her what to do. It wasn't like I thought that I had a right to tell her to do anything...we weren't even dating, and even if we were, she was her own person. I just didn't want her going off alone, or messing around with this stuff. I knew from experience that it could be dangerous and I couldn't have her getting hurt because of me. For some reason, I started thinking about telling her that we had to stop whatever this was at the end of this trip. I smiled a little thinking about how she might retaliate against me, scream at me, and call me an idiot. I wasn't smiling because it was going to be over. I hated that part. It hurt to even think about. I was smiling at the thought of her getting riled up, like she did that night at the club in Florida. The wind picked up again, and started whistling through the trees, making the leaves sound like they were singing a song of pure dread. I shivered a little, feeling that dread crawl up my spine. We all felt it. I noticed Terra pully my jacket closer around herself, Denise stepped closer to her, and intertwined their arms. Corey looked up and around the graveyard, swinging his light back and forth. Jake and Sam both stopped moving the toys and looked towards the trees that were directly in front of us. "Do you think that was Gracie trying to tell us something? Like stop, maybe?" Corey asked, that nervous smile on his face as he looked at us with his wide eyes. "Maybe," Jake replied, shrugging his shoulders. He never did believe in any of this, even when something happened right in front of his face. "But it doesn't matter because we're done now." I looked down at the grave in surprise, and noticed that he was right. All the toys were gone from the grave, over to the side in a pile where we had placed them. "Do you guys feel that?" Denise whispered, looking around, her face terrified. Terra nodded, not looking too brave herself anymore. "Yeah. The air changed. It's...different. Thicker or something." I had to agree. I could feel it too, but I didn't want to freak anyone out anymore than they already were. Sam and I exchanged a look. We had to hurry and get this footage, and get the fuck out of here. "Okay Gracie, are you still here," Sam asked, pulling the EMF meter out of his pocket. He must've taken it from Jake earlier. "Look, look!" Corey exclaimed, as we watched the meter start jumping as soon as Sam turned it on. "Oh my God, bro! Its going all the way to orange!" Sam cleared his throat. "Gracie, are you mad at us for taking your toys?" The meter spiked again, several times before falling dormant. "Can you make the statue cry? Your statue. If you do, we'll put your toys back. We'll give them back Gracie. Can you make it cry for us?" The EMF started jumping wildly for a minute, before it completely shut off. "What the fuck?" Sam muttered, banging it against his hand, like that would help. "Let me see it," I said holding my free hand out, and passing him the camera with the other one. He trained it on me, while I tried to figure out what was wrong with the damn thing. After a couple of minutes of being unsuccessful, I gave up. "It's either fucked, or the batteries are dead. Did we bring extra batteries?" I asked, holding it up. Sam shook his head. "We did, but they're back in the room. We didn't bring any with us." "Damn it. Guess we're done with this then," I said, sticking it in my back pocket. "Guys," I heard Terra whisper, her voice barely discernible against the now raging wind. When I looked at her, I had the urge to race to her, to catch her before she passed out. That's how she looked, as she stared up at the statue. I let my eyes follow the same path that hers were on, until my eyes connected with the eyes of the statue. I froze. "Oh my God," I whispered. "Oh, what the fuck?" Jake said, taking a step towards the statue. Corey's hand flew out, stopping him in his tracks. "No Jake. Don't. We should go. Let's put the toys back and go!" Corey exclaimed, almost yelling over the wind. "Colby!" Sam yelled, grabbing my attention. I looked to him, and he held the camera out to me, hanging on to it, so that the wind didn't take it from him. "Let's do what Corey said. We should go!"