Page 91 of Possibly Texas

“Jordan. No!” Auggie hissed.

Ignoring him, I tried to pull away, to wrench my shirt from his grasp. As usual, Auggie was full of surprises, and his grip proved to be powerful. Angrily, though mostly desperately, I turned away from the ghosts and swiped at Auggie’s arms.

“Stop it!” I commanded him. “I’m going to see who these people are!”

Auggie’s hands fell away with surprise at my tone. As soon as I was free of his grasp, I whipped back around, prepared to dash across the street to confront the ghosts. However, once I was turned back to the graveyard, the ghosts were gone.

So was the mist.

It had simply…disappeared.

Jerkily, in complete disbelief, I stumbled out from under the tree and into the road. Step by step, I clambered across the road towards the headstone where the ghosts had held court. I could hear Auggie shuffling along quickly behind me, following me across the road to the graveyard. Though I was moving slowly, I was gasping for breath when I stopped in front of the headstone, my head whipping around, looking for where the figures could have hidden.

They were…gone.

There had been nowhere for them to hide so quickly. No trees to duck behind, no headstones large enough to crouch behind. Nothing. They had disappeared.

“Holy shit,” Auggie said quietly.

“What the...Auggie…what…where’d they go?” I gasped, my head still whipping around.

With no other option, I glanced down at the tombstone, wondering if there was any significance.

Burke.

That was the name on the gravestone.

Quickly, I spun around to face Auggie.

“Where’d they go?” I demanded, though I wasn’t angry.

I was spooked. Unnerved.

Auggie started to speak, stopped, started again, then gave up. He shrugged. His eyes were still the size of saucers.

“Burke!” I jabbed a finger around my back at the headstone, though my eyes didn’t leave Auggie’s. “That’s Jack’s last name.”

“And yours.” Auggie nodded.

“Is that Jack’s family? Does that mean something?”

Auggie shrugged again. “Some families have been around here for forever. I don’t know.”

Nothing could have prepared me for my reaction. I found myself leaning back and laughing loudly up at the velvety sky. Auggie stood a few feet away, watching me quizzically as I laughed until I was holding my stomach, nearly doubled over with amusement.

“What is it?” he finally asked.

“Oh, come on,” I said, finally realizing what an idiot I had been. “You told me Possibly is haunted. Then we walk those circles? We come out here at night and two ghosts show up and decide to meet in front of a headstone that belongs to some old relative of Jack’s? You’re pulling my leg, man. I was so freaking scared!”

I laughed long and hard, bending over to brace my hands against my knees.

Auggie simply watched me as I laughed until I couldn’t laugh anymore, filling downtown Possibly with the sounds of my nearly insane amusement. Surely, people who lived above or near their businesses downtown were disturbed by the sound in the middle of the night. But no lights came on, no doors opened, and no sound but my laughter could be heard.

When I finally settled down, certain that I had figured out Auggie’s game, I stood up straight to look at him. Wiping my eyes, I shook my head back and forth in amusement. I wanted to be mad at Auggie. To tell him that he was a jerk for working me up and getting me so scared. I wanted to demand the names of his cohorts. One could have easily been Jack—the one that had come from the direction of his place. But Auggie was frowning at me.

“What?” I finally asked.

“Where’d the mist go, Jordan?” he asked.