Something began to move across the lawn, with eyes that glowed in the dark as it crouched down low to the grass. My feet felt frozen in the spot on the concrete, even though every part of me said, Run. Run now. Get to your children and hold them close.

I pictured Liz crawling out from the bush on all fours, limbs bent at odd angles. Her mouth full of rotting teeth, her eyes two black holes. Her skin dripping off her bones, decaying before us. We would be too frozen to do anything before she opened her mouth and swallowed us whole. And then, she would move on to our families.

I started shaking. Then I saw a small black body, no bigger than a housecat, with white stripes on its back. A skunk.

A loud exhalation from all of us, and Jess lay back down on the grass while Melissa leaned forward and put her hands on her thighs.

I sat down on the sidewalk and brought my knees up to my chest. “I thought you said Del had gotten rid of the skunks,” I said to Jess.

“He said he had. He even poured out some Rumple Minz liquor around the shed since Google told him skunks hate the smell of peppermint. Complained about it for days after since that brand of liquor is an endangered species, apparently,” she muttered from the grass. Her family was very attractive to the skunk population in Winchester. Rocky had gotten sprayed three times in the past two years, all from the skunk family who had decided to take up homesteading in their backyard.

“I think we should try the Ouija,” I said. “If you’re afraid of it, Melissa, that means it’s exactly what we need to do next. Maybe not tonight, but we don’t have any other ideas.”

I looked at Jess, who put her hands over her face, and then at Melissa, whose head hung down, her long, dark hair covering her expression.

“I’m sorry. I can’t,” she said, although her voice held the slightest bit of hesitation.

That was the best we were going to get.

I collected the board from the lawn and tucked it under my arm. “Let’s take a breath and regroup next weekend, assuming nothing else happens between now and then.”

“But that’s the Fourth of July,” Melissa said from behind her hair. “Tony has been talking about making his famous four-day ribs to bring to the barbecue.”

There was a long pause, until Jess spoke.

“Really?” she said, her voice flat.

I wound Rocky’s leash around my palm and started for my front door, Ouija board under my arm. “Next weekend. Ribs or not.”

CHAPTER
19