Then he heard the voice.
“Help me…”
She jerked away, and now he saw fear in her eyes. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” he said, thinking John or Jimmy must have seen him kissing her and was messing with him. “You heard it too?”
She nodded quickly and kept looking around in the dark. He started to say something but she put her finger to his lips and shushed him. They both listened to the silence drag out and Luke could actually hear his heart beating. Nothing happened for a bit and he was about to say something when the voice whispered again.
“Help me…”
It came from behind. He heard her take a sharp breath in surprise and look up over his shoulder. He was afraid to see. A palpable presence felt like it was pressing up against his spine and he shivered as he slowly turned.
He could see nothing in the gloom as his eyes tried to penetrate the dense growth of bushes. He heard a faint sound, almost like laughter, but it was so soft and seemed so distant he wasn’t sure if he was imagining things.
Ellie whispered in his ear. “I heard a laugh.”
He nodded but stared into the darkness where they heard the voice.
“It sounded creepy,” she whispered and shuddered involuntarily.
He suddenly grabbed her hand and said, “Come on!” He crawled from the bushes with her following behind and stood up. “Time!” he yelled and it sounded huge and booming in the silence. “Jimmy! John! Get over here! Quick!”
A grunt of anger came from the direction of the voice and then a crashing noise as someone, or something, broke through the hedge and ran off down the path through Luke’s backyard. Ellie and Luke jumped at the sound, and Luke had a hard time holding his ground. He wanted to bolt and run in the other direction, but he couldn’t leave Ellie there. He squinted into the darkness as he tried to follow the noise, but he could see nothing. John ran over and then Jimmy was there too.
“What’s up?” John said. “You guys quitting?”
“Someone was here,” Luke said.
“What do you mean?” Jimmy asked.
“Someone was in the bushes with us,” Luke said.
“So,” John said, not understanding. “You can hide wherever you want. Everybody could hide in the bushes at the same time if they wanted. It would be stupid, but they could do it.”
“No,” Ellie said. “Somebody else was here. Someone not in the game.” Her face looked haunted and she held on to Luke’s arm with a vice-like grip.
Jimmy’s mouth was set in a tight line and he looked at John, who stared back at him.
“Was it him?” John asked quietly.
“I think so,” Luke said. “It was creepy. This voice whispered ‘Help me’ twice, and then we heard a laugh. Not a funny laugh, but a mean laugh. That’s when I yelled ‘Time’ and called for you guys.”
“Is he still there?” Jimmy whispered.
“I don’t think so,” Luke said. “We heard a grunt and then someone ran off through my backyard.”
Just then Paul and Alan came running around the corner and they all jumped in surprise.
“What’s happening?” Paul asked. “We quittin’?”
“Yeah,” Jimmy said. “We’re done.”
“Why?” Alan asked. “It’s still early.”
“We’re just done.” And Jimmy yelled, “All-e-all-e-all-come-free!” Jimmy led the way back to the center of the court.
“Hey! What the heck?” Paul said. “What’s wrong with you guys?”
“Nothing,” Jimmy said. “I said we’re done and that means we’re done.”
“Man-ever since you guys found that dumb dog you’ve been acting weird,” Alan said.
“Hey!” Luke yelled. “That dog was our friend!”
“Yeah! That so called ‘dumb dog’ was mine,” Ellie shouted, her voice breaking.
“Jeez! It’s just a dog!” Alan said.
Luke got in his face. “Tell her you’re sorry!”
Alan was taken aback. “What?”
Luke grabbed Alan’s jacket sleeve and repeated himself, poking him in the chest with every word. “Tell-her-you’re-sorry!”
Ellie had tears in her eyes even though she was angry. She stood waiting for the apology. Alan looked around. Jimmy and John were staring at him intensely. Paul looked at the ground shuffling his feet.
“I’m sorry,” Alan said.
Luke let go of his sleeve. “Alright.”
All the other kids were coming out of hiding now and as Ralph walked up he asked, “What’s up?”
“They’re quitting,” Paul said. “Game’s over.”
“What happened?” Ralph asked.
“Nothing,” Jimmy said. “We’re just done.”
“But it’s early,” Ralph whined.
“I don’t care,” Jimmy said. “I’m telling you, go home. We’re done.”
“I don’t want to go home,” Ralph said. “You’re not the boss of me.”
Jimmy strode over and pointed a finger into Ralph’s face. Ralph’s eyes grew big and he flinched a little.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll go home,” Jimmy said, and then looked around. “All of you. Game’s over.”
“Fine,” Ralph said and grabbed his sister and started home. All the others mumbled something and headed off down the street.
Luke could tell the three new kids didn’t know what to make of it all. They stood around for a minute and then Cece said, “Well, it was fun for a while. Nice meeting you guys.” They waved goodbye and walked home.
Luke, Ellie, John, and Jimmy were left standing in the middle of the street. They stared at each other for a moment and then John said, “Do we go look?”
“For what?” Luke asked.
“Footprints.”
“Why?”
“To see if someone was really there,” Jimmy said.
“Someone was there alright,” Luke said. “Ellie heard it too.”
“I did. It was creepy,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself.
“I think we should wait until it’s light out,” Jimmy said. “No use traipsing around in the dark.”
“I agree,” Luke said. “Besides, what if he has a gun or knife or something?”
Nobody said anything for a minute as they all thought about that. Finally, Ellie said, “Sorry you had to be the bad guy Jimmy. Everybody seemed pissed.”
“I don’t care about that,” Jimmy said. “They’ll get over it.”
Ellie smiled at him. “Still-it was big of you to take the heat.” He waved it off.
“You guys do know that if this gets worse, we’re going to have to tell them all,” John said. “For their own safety.”
Everybody nodded, but Luke didn’t want to think about it getting worse. That voice he heard was going to keep him awake tonight as it was.
“We should walk Ellie home,” Luke said.
“Thanks, guys,” she said. The four of them headed off toward Ellie’s house.
The snow was falling hard now and Luke could hardly see ten feet in front him. They talked about mundane stuff as they walked and their voices had an odd quality to them; muddled and stale, like they were trapped in a vacuum. Ellie said only a few words here and there, then suddenly yelled at the top of her lungs. “Whoo hoo!”
They stopped and looked at her as she smiled, sheepishly.
“Did you hear that?” She said. “No echo at all. It was like my voice was sucked away.”
“You are weird,” Jimmy said, but was smiling. Luke laughed and John just stared at her.
“You scared the crap out of me,” John said.
“Whoo Hooooooo!” Luke yelled, and then laughed.
“Aaaaeeeeeee!” Jimmy piped.
Pretty soon they were all yelling at the top of their lungs and laughing at the stupidity of it. As they stopped, the giggling quieting down, they heard a distant “Whoo hoo!” mocking them and they all froze. Ellie shifted next to Luke and grabbed his arm. Luke felt suddenly colder and wished he were home in his warm house.