That’s one of the reasons I love it so much. I actually feel less haunted on that stage than I do most places.

Cole shakes his head, like Val got it wrong. “Every theatre has a ghost story,” he corrects her. He drains the last of his beer and tosses the bottle into the fire. “But that’s not the same thing.” He looks at me then, and there’s something about his eyes. “Whisper Cove is different.”

“Well, fuck,” Lex says, and he giggles. But it’s a nervous giggle. “I did not sign up for ghosts. That was not in the brochure, y’all.”

Cole looks around our little circle. Faces lit by firelight. “You guys know how this place got its name?”

We shake our heads. Say that we don’t.

“Oh shit,” Jude says. “Here we go.” He raises an eyebrow at Lex, passes the bottle in his direction. “Better have another drink.”

“There used to be a little whaling village,” Cole tells us. “Right here, on this property. Back in the 1800s. A dozen or so little houses up on the hill, where the theatre is now. A general store and a tavern.” He looks around to make sure we’re all paying attention. “The story goes that, one summer, the men went off to sea, like usual. But when they came home six months later, the village was deserted. Totally empty. All the houses abandoned. Plates still laid out on the tables. Vegetables rotting in the gardens. Laundry flapping on the lines.” He shrugs. “But not a soul to be found.”

Cole may not be much of an actor, but he’s a born storyteller. He’s got us eating out of his hand. Everyone looks around, as if we could see the laundry now. Those silent houses standing sentry at the edge of the sea.

But all we can see is the dark at the edges of our circle where the firelight doesn’t reach. And the strange glow of the lighthouse off in the distance.

“So they start asking around,” Cole goes on. “Where are their wives? Their sweethearts? But nobody will say. And finally this one old guy tells them what happened. They’re all drowned, he says. The womenfolk are all dead. They walked into the sea.”

“Jesus.” Lex shudders.

“Told you,” Jude says, and he reaches for their shared bottle. “Haunted as fuck.”

“That’s not even the worst of it,” Cole tells us. “They took their kids with ’em. Grabbed their toddlers by the hand. Carried their babies in their arms.”

“You’re full of shit,” Val accuses, and Cole shrugs.