a reason to live(87)

I couldn’t shake the feeling, though.

My cell was burning a hole in my hip pocket. Crying out to me to send Shane a text telling him where we were. I reached for my phone and pulled it out. Indecision weighing heavily on my mind.

“You’re thinking of texting Shane, aren’t you?”

The owl flapped its wings and flew to a headstone ten feet away, perching on the top. Its honey-colored eyes captured mine and held them.

The sun had sunk lower in the sky and dipped below the tree line. Twilight was upon us.

I hit the power button and my phone lit up, casting light on the ground.

“What’s going on?” Maxine asked through the radio.

Mia answered. “I think the owl spooked Sage.”

“I think we should let the guys know where we are.”

“Heller can’t find you here, Sage,” Maxine’s calm voice reminded me of my mother. “You’re thousands of miles from home and he doesn’t have a clue where to look.”

“I think we should let the guys know where we are,” I repeated.

“We couldn’t even if we wanted to. We’re out of tower range out here. Our phones won’t work,” Jenn informed me, to my horror. I kept pressing the power button so I could keep an eye on the owl. The golden hue from the sun had sunk further and night had fallen.

The owl decided to take flight. I tracked it for five feet with the light from my phone until it disappeared into the night sky.

“See,” Mia said, “the owl’s gone and nothing bad happened. Come on, let’s sit over here and see if the ghost makes an appearance.

“I’m being silly,” I answered hysterically. “It’s just an old wives’ tale, right?”

“Exactly,” Mia replied, dragging me a few feet from the open grave.

“I feel stupid making a fuss about an owl,” I explained once we’d sat.

“Considering you have a mad man after you, I think you should cut yourself some slack.”

I could see headlights in the distance heading our direction. Jenn must have seen them too because the radio crackled to life.

“Keep your lights off,” Jenn whispered in the radio, “I don’t want someone calling us in to the station.”

I turned my phone off and shoved it in Mia’s pack on her back while Mia doused her flashlight. Clouds were thick in the sky, beckoning in a storm, and without the light from my phone or moon’s glow, I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

The vehicle slowed near the entrance then pulled in and parked, turning off its lights.

“Radio silence,” Jenn whispered again.

“Who would come to a cemetery at night besides us ghostbusters?” I asked Mia.

“I don’t know. But Jenn and Maxine will see who it is. If it’s trouble, they’ll radio us.”

“It can’t be Heller,” I answered, more for me than for clarification.

“Of course it’s not Heller,” she scoffed. “Even if he figured out where we were hiding, he has no idea we’re at this cemetery.”

“Okay. Good point.”

I relaxed a fraction.

I could hear leaves crunching as we sat silently. Whoever was in that vehicle was making their way toward us. Moments later, a flashlight turned on and the outline of a man carrying a shovel and small ladder appeared. Luckily, we’d sat far enough away from the empty grave we weren’t caught in the beam. But we were too close for comfort, so Mia and I scrambled to hide behind a headstone. In our haste to retreat as quietly as possible, we accidently left the radio and flashlight lying on the ground.

He kept sweeping his flashlight back and forth until he came to a stop at the open grave. We couldn’t see the man’s face, but we watched as he dropped the shovel into the grave, then leaned down and placed the ladder inside. He then followed, dropping over the side of the hole. Once in, his light went off.

“If he’s here to fill it, why the hell did he climb into the grave?” I whispered.

Mia shrugged.

A moment later, the sound of exertion as he dug in the solid ground echoed up from the hole.

“This seems like an odd time to be working?” Mia whispered.

It hit me like a bolt of lightning. He wasn’t working; he was robbing. I’d seen a news article recently. Thieves were visiting old cemeteries, targeting graves that were more than a century old, hoping to find treasure.

I leaned in and whispered into Mia's ear. “Jenn has a story, but not the kind she was looking for. I think that guy is robbing the grave.”

Mia gasped. “We should radio Jack.”

“Should we sneak back and get the radio? We could move over to the trees and tell Jenn what’s going on.”