Chapter 13
It’s colder up here than I thought it would be. I’ve two jackets on over a pair of thermals and a T-shirt and I’m still freezing. This might have been my idea, but I didn’t expect it to be the coldest day of the year.
“You expect us to jump that fence?” Zachary looks puzzled.
Ah yes. The fence. I forgot about that little detail.
It’s at least eight feet tall and built out of black wrought-iron bars.
The top is well out of his reach, and so out of mine.
Maybe we could help each other over, but there’s also the problem of the thick spiky pieces of metal jutting from the top of each bar.
It’s almost like they didn’t want anyone getting in.
“Are you sure the gate’s locked? This place has been abandoned forever,” Kaitlynn whines, which is against rule number one.
No complaining.
It took a lot of convincing to get her to come along, which somehow she spun into Zach and me needing a chaperone, not because I simply asked her to come, and in the end I had to lay down some ground rules.
Number two was Don’t embarrass me. She’s the queen of that, maybe even thrives on it, but tonight is not that night.
There’s also a third I added later because she wouldn’t shut up about it.
No calling Zachary my boyfriend. She somehow got it in her head that’s why he’s coming.
Hence us needing a “chaperone.” It’s not though.
“Of course,” I say. “I checked last week.”
“Really?” she sounds surprised.
“No, bitch.” I roll my eyes. “I’ve never been here before.”
“So…” Zachary smirks, steamy breath rolling from his mouth the moment it hits the chilled air.
I think he’s trying to understand Kaitlynn and my dynamic before getting in the middle of it. Smart boy. She’s a handful that he doesn’t want to upset, not yet.
“I hate you. You know that, right?” Kaitlynn eyes me down.
I smile back and then nod to our right.
“The gate’s that way,” I tell them.
“So you did check it?” Zachary finally asks.
“No.” I toss the word behind me and start off.
We ditched Zachary’s truck back where the fence picked up, just in case there were cameras. We could be misidentified on camera, but a license plate…that’s a little easier to catch. Not to mention Zachary’s truck isn’t that subtle. It’s big and, well, very orange.
Plumes of steam billow from Kaitlynn’s nose when I point my phone’s light back toward her and we pass the vine- and weed-wrapped fence.
She’s not the biggest fan of my little expeditions into the abandoned, but I drag her along anyway whenever I can manage.
She loves me. It’s mostly the dark that gets her, I think.
Above us, the moon continues to wane into a thin crescent, and with all the clouds, it’s nearly pitch black.
It’s so quiet I can hear every breath we take, especially Kaitlynn’s, and the occasional insect singing its late autumn song to the coming winter.
My trespassing sneakers—yes I have old shoes just for trespassing—squish and sink with each step, courtesy of today’s morning rain. It’s not a sound I particularly enjoy.
“Is there a story to this place?” Zachary asks. “Why’s it abandoned?”
There wasn’t much talking on the half-hour drive up.
At least not with him. Kaitlynn wouldn’t shut up as usual.
I could barely enjoy the music for her raving about the new season of Siesta Key and how Elijah looked at her in Math yesterday.
She’s determined he’s in love with her. There wasn’t time to talk about the house.
“From what I’ve heard, there was a family living here in the early ’90s,” I start relaying what little I know.
“That’s forever ago,” Kaitlynn mumbles.
“We weren’t even born,” Zachary whispers back to her.
“Yeah, major old.” I laugh. “Well, they say it was a husband and wife and their two kids. Twins, I think, a boy and girl.”
“That’s rare,” Zachary comments.
“The dad was an only child, and they say he was training his son to take over the farm,” I say. “But—”
“This is a farm?” Zachary interrupts.
“Yeah.” I look back and nod. We’re at the gate. “So…”
I stop storytelling to stare at the chain links drooping from the gate with a massive rusted padlock hanging from it.
I survey the gate. It’s made of the same black wrought-iron bars, except it has a big H on each door and the spikes are taller.
I pull at the lock to see if it’ll budge, but get nothing.
I don’t think we’re getting in this way.
“Locked,” Kaitlynn says the obvious.
“No shit,” I blurt.
“Is there another way in?” Zachary asks.
I shrug even though he’s not looking at me.
I honestly figured we’d have to jump a fence, but I hadn’t expected it to be this tall.
I had a fence I could look over in my mind, like a little white picket fence.
Not a stay-the-hell-out iron monstrosity.
And honestly, I expected the gate to just be open.
“Over?” I suggest, but the doubt is clear in my tone.
Zachary groans, eyes shooting to the spears topping the fence. “It’s sort of tall, and spiky.”
“Maybe there’s a log around here somewhere we can use to stand on,” I say, knowing all too well it’s much too convenient. There’s not going to be a random perfectly shaped piece of log just sitting around. “Or we could walk around and see if there are any openings?”
“Didn’t you say this was a farm?” Kaitlynn’s whining yet again.
“Yeah.” I shrug and face them both.
“Um…” Zachary puts a finger in the air. “How big of a farm?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I didn’t get the Zillow specs on the property before we came to view. Are we planning to buy or something?”
Okay, maybe it was a little spicy, more of a Kaitlynn thing to say, but this isn’t working like I’d planned. We were supposed to be inside already, exploring, seeing if there are ghosts or cool old nineties relics.
Kaitlynn pooches her lips and shakes her head. “It’s probably huge, then. And I’m not here to walk miles in the pitch black, in the woods, where there are bears. Big bears.”
“I’m with her,” Zachary says.
“Traitor.” I aim my light at him.
“Well, I… I— Wait!” Zachary yells and shields his face from the sudden brightness. Then he shrinks back like he said something bad. “That was loud.”
“Everything is loud out here,” I tell him and then raise my eyebrows to say, and?
“I have this project I’m working on for school in the back of my truck. We could use it,” he says.
“We going to present ourselves over the fence? Lecture it into submission?” Kaitlynn scowls.
I bite my lip to hold back a laugh, but my belly shakes anyway.
“No-o-o.” Zachary strings it out and laughs it off. “My carpentry project. It’s a bookshelf.”
“Oh.” I nod quickly. “How big a bookshelf are we talking?”
“Just three shelves,” he says.
“That shouldn’t be too hard to carry,” Kaitlynn says.
“Well…” Zachary starts.
I don’t like the sound of that.
“It’ll take at least two of us.” He looks at me, then grimaces. “Okay, maybe all three.”
Kaitlynn giggles and nods at Zachary approvingly.
“No! That’s not what I meant.” Zachary’s hands are flailing.
“Excuse me?” I widen my eyes. I’m not that puny.
“I swear, I didn’t mean that,” Zachary repeats, and then looks at Kaity and shrugs. “Okay, maybe I did a little.”
“We doing this?” I growl and roll my eyes. I will not be doubted.
“Come on.” Zachary waves and he’s off toward his truck.
I huff and race to make up the lost ground. A few minutes later, we’re standing at the back of Zachary’s truck with the tailgate down and the cover lifted. He has to be kidding.
“That looks heavy as fuck,” I blurt.
“Eh.” Zachary shrugs and jumps into the truck bed. “It is solid wood. It’s not finished yet though. I haven’t put the trim on or etched out the decorative stuff, but it’s sturdy.” He grips the corner of the unstained wood and gives it a shake. It barely budges.
“Looks like it.” Kaitlynn grimaces.
“I’ll push it to you two and then y’all can ease it down,” he tells us. “Ready?”
“Uh…sure.” I shrug.
“Please don’t break it,” he says, and starts to push.
It slides to the edge quicker than I expect.
Maybe it’s not that heavy after all. When it gets to the edge, I grab my end while Kaitlynn’s fingers wrap around the little feet on the other side.
This ain’t so bad, nah, it’s…oh shit! The full weight drops as it clears the tailgate, and I brace.
This is heavy as crap. It drops several inches before I get my fingers back around it.
“Kenzie!” Kaitlynn yelps.
“Sorry!” I yell back. “I got it now.”
“You sure, Mack?” Zachary doesn’t look convinced yet. His arms are desperately wrapped around the top of the case.
“Yes, Zachary, I have it,” I bite back.
“Mack?” Kaitlynn leans around and whispers at me.
“Shut up,” I whisper back. No one calls me that, ever. It is a little weird to hear, like mac and cheese or something, but I’ll let it pass until my life isn’t on the line.
“All right, I’m putting all the weight on y’all now,” Zachary says.
I’m sorry, what? The full weight? Only now?
I push forward as the case comes down. I struggle, but keep it from free-falling. This bitch is heavy AF! We finally get it to the ground and I let go.
“How are we getting that way over there?” I gulp in air.
“Ah, you’ll make it.” Kaitlynn pats my back.
I want to call her a bitch, but I don’t.
Zachary jumps off the back. That’s when I notice he’s wearing boots. Okay, why do they look sort of hot on him? Nope. Focus. Focus, Kenzie!
“You can call me Zach, by the way,” he says over Kaitlynn.
“Huh?” I stumble, but manage it.
“Zach—you can call me Zach. You know, short for Zachary, like Mack is short for Mackenzie.” He acts like he’s giving me a lesson.
I roll my eyes. “Let’s just get this thing over there.”
“Zach,” Kaitlynn says a little louder than I’d like.
“Huh?” Zach asks.
Dammit. He heard her.
“Nothing, just getting used to the name,” Kaitlynn says.