Page 103 of Sing For Me

Will

Apparently, most of my family got a second wind while we were shutting down the fire, because we find a bunch of them still up in the living room at the lodge, planning their late-night activities.

“Night swimming,” Nix is saying. “We haven’t gone night swimming once this whole trip.”

“It’s too cold for night swimming,” Lyric argues.

Silas sees us come in. “Hey, guys, tell them that we should play Ghost in the Graveyard.”

“We always play that,” Violet whines.

“Ghost in the Graveyard, Ghost in the Graveyard,” Silas starts to chant, Cade and Presley joining in.

“What’s Ghost in the Graveyard?” Eva asks, and everyone goes quiet, staring at her.

“It’s only like, the best game ever,” Everly tells her, black curls bouncing around her face in her excitement.

“I forgot we had a newbie,” Nix says, rubbing his hands together. “Now I think wehaveto play it.”

“You guys,” I cut in. “Eva might not want to play that game.” Ghost in the Graveyard is basically a game of tag, played in the dark and with teams. It involves a lot of sneaking around in the woods and trying to scare each other—maybe not the best option for someone dealing with PTSD.

“Oh, you have to play,” Santana says, grabbing Eva’s arm. “It’s so fun. You’ll love it.”

“I bet we can get the parents to play,” Fox points out. “Aunt Paige for sure.”

I sit down on the rug next to Eva. “It’s a fun game,” I tell her in an undertone so no one else can hear. “But it’s a little scary.” I give her the basic rundown and when I’m finished, I’m surprised to see her eyes shining with excitement.

“That sounds awesome. Let’s do it.”

My eyebrows go up. “You sure?”

“Definitely.”

Santana overheard her. “Eva’s in!” she squeals, and I know there’s no going back now. Once Aunt Paige’s girls have something in their head, it’s impossible to stop them.

Fox volunteers to be the ghost first and the rest of us divide up into teams of four. To no one’s surprise, Aunt Paige readily joins us—she’s the queen of this game. Hell, she’s the queen of most of the games we grew up playing. My mom and Aunt Haylee decide to take advantage of the empty house and stay in to share a bottle of wine but the other adults all agree to play.

“So basically, we’re ghost hunters,” Santana explains to Eva. If I had thought my little cousin was obsessed with the pop star before, it’s nothing on the hero worship that shines in her eyes since the campfire. “The ghost hides and we all have to search for them. And when you find the ghost, you shout, Ghost in the Graveyard! And then everyone has to run back to the safe base and the ghost tries to catch you.”

She says it all so fast that I doubt Eva can actually understand half of it, but she laughs and holds up her hands. “I’ll follow your lead.”

Santana begs to be on our team and I recruit Silas to join us. As we make our way towards the woods on the edge of the property, Eva’s hand finds mine in the darkness. “This is a little creepy, isn’t it?” she asks as we make our way into the woods.

“Try to avoid my mom whenever possible,” Santana says happily. “She likes to jump out and scream in people’s faces. Totally terrifying.”

“She made Silas pee his pants once,” I say in a stage whisper and my brother smacks me.

“I was seven! Who the hell tries to scare a seven-year-old?”

It does feel eerie to be out in the woods. The farther we move away from the house, the quieter it gets. My family is spreading out through the trees and we can hear the faint sounds of their whispering and the rustling of leaves and branches.

Eva leans closer to me. “How long does it usually take to—”

Off to our left, someone screams. “Ghost in the graveyard!” Rose yells from nearby. “Run!”

I think we’re probably too far from the commotion to be in much danger of getting caught, but I still grab Eva’s hand and start running back to the base while Silas does the same with Santana. “Oh my God,” Eva laughs, out of breath. “Why is this so scary?”

“Because someone is chasing you through the woods at night.”