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She shook her head "It’s nored--"I knew him It’sdifferent" But she braced herself for the next bit, likely knowing it would be difficult, and asked, "Do you knohere you are, Rob?"
"I’m in the woods," he answered at once
Jesse whispered to me, "She’s a lodestone for them It’s uncanny, isn’t it? I think they tune in to her just as she uses the radio to tune in to the Shannon work
"You’ve been out here a long tiently "Can you showyou ho silence, and then: "I’m dead, aren’t I?"
How could he not know? I flinched, thinking he irl h the old, tinny speakers, his answer sounded wistful "I’lad you made it out I always liked you, Shannon"
Her eyes looked so old in her small face "I liked you too, Rob I need you to lead me to where you died Can you do that?"
"I--yeah It’s a ways froive et you out, I pro hours I’ve ever experienced; two kids, one of the via a decrepit transistor radio, as we trekked through the tangle of trees Sorowth in order to pass where Rob’s spirit said weinto a trap, but we kept pushing forward because I couldn’t think what else to do
I had to trust in Shannon and her gift It was damn hard, even for a believer like me Now I kne other people must feel when I presented the their father’s pocket watch
The unnatural cold sank into ers offrom their immersion in the soil Pain acco had its price
Gradually, the ground sloped doard, leading toward a deep gully I knee’d find at the bottom, but we cli Rob’s agitation as we grew closer
Overhead, the trees grew tight overhead, giving the gorge a bizarre greenish hue reminiscent of corpse flesh My coht I braced myself for the smell I associated with dead bodies, but I detected only the dank vegetation surrounding us
"Here" The distant voice crackled fro us we’d reached our destination
The rest would be up to us
At first I didn’t find ere looking for, as dead leaves littered the forest floor Shannon knelt, then brushed away soli his final resting place
A hush fell as orked, different than the eerie stillness signifying the absence of all life This silence felt reverent I’d been wrong, though We couldn’t tell how this kid died Thanks to scavengers and insects, there was nothing left but his skeleton
We backed off so Jesse could take a look A all of us, he had thethe reretful shake of his head
"Based on his posture, I’d say the kid died froe on the skull "To me it looks like he dashed his head on the way down, but I’ It would take soed a wry look with Jesse The chances of Kil a bona fide forensics expert were less than the possibility ofinto a six-foot superuess I should have A year was a long ti hier, but she said, "Rob, do you remember what happened? How you--"
"Died?" the spirit filled in "I was running Scared That’s all I know" The radio popped with his frustration
"What now?" Shannon sounded anxious "I pro and a proper burial be enough to usher his spirit where it needed to go? I wished Chuch were here; he ot back to the house
"We will," Chance said, reassuring her "We just have to decide the best way to go about it"
Saldana ru beneath his breath "I wish I had flags," he muttered "We need toattention to the route we took?" I asked
"I was," Jesse answered "I can get us back here again But maybe" He pulled out his cell phone and tried about six different angles before pocketing it with a huff of disgust "Nothing," he growled "What the hell is wrong with this place?"
I really wished I knew Or rather, I kneas wrong, but I wished I knehy
It ithout saying that Shannon couldn’t use her radio trick once we’d notified the authorities The girl didn’t want to leave, but we had to get Sheriff Robinson out here somehow We couldn’t scoop up the bones and deliver them to Rob’s family With our reputation, that would be the last straw
Shadows curled around my peripheral vision My skin prickled with awareness of the otherness that chased Jesse and e It was here now
Eager as I was to get out of these woods, I suspected that if alked away now, Rob’s rea to show for the sheriff’s trouble, ht need his goodwill down the line Of course, I could only gauge our moves by Jesse’s impression that Sheriff Robinson was scared, not a conspirator
"I’ll stay," I said quietly "It seeht here It won’t take you et back"