We did. The house had been vacant as long as I’d been alive, and though a For Sale sign remained a permanent fixture in the yard, the real estate agent didn’t put much effort into upkeep. The whole place was creaky and barren and reeking of isolation.

We’d spent years putting backstory into the house’s vacancy, imagining a place filled with ghosts of past residents, trapped by the tragedy of their death and the irresistible pull of Cadence, California. The stories kept us up in the early hours, each of us trying to one-up the other with imagined gore and despair.

But the so-called haunted house did not welcome us with a possessive hug. It did not whisper with voices long gone, desperate to be heard. And it certainly did not provoke the goose bumps such a storied place required. It just sat, a collection of windows and walls and floors and ceilings. Even my memories of that day had nothing substantial behind them. We wandered around empty rooms, desperate to find a story that didn’t want to exist.

Still, any time we pedaled by in the days that followed, someone inevitably said something like, “Whoa, I swear I saw someone in the window,” even though saying it became like chewing on stale bread.

We’d spent so much time forcing magic on that house, and we were going back to see if it had finally worked. I prayed it had.

“How are we gonna do this?” Teeny asked Aidy. “You’re grounded.” She seemed pleased to have something trivial to worry about. A question less weighted to ask.

“And why?” Harrison pleaded.

“I know,” Aidy said to Teeny. “We can make it work, though. And Harrison, stop asking that. We didn’t ask you why your letter said to go through the tunnels, we just did it. So shut up already.”

Bigs and Teeny exchanged a quick glance. Ruby pressed herself into my side.

“Uh,” I started, trying to rescue Aidy. “We should probably, well, uh, I guess we have everything we need now. Maybe we should go home for a while? Is that a bad idea? We can look at the other spots on the map too.” I wanted a chance to collect myself. I needed time to make a plan.

“A break would be good,” Aidy said. She started gathering everything up.

Bigs and Teeny said goodbye to us. Bigs didn’t bother to grab his discarded letter. He left it lying in the sand in a crumpled heap as he walked to his car. I picked it up and shoved it into my bra. If he didn’t want it anymore, I definitely did. I needed everything I could take.