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“Exactly.” I chanced a small grin at him.
He grinned back, flickering more into a solid being. “I’ll help you by helping her.”
“Thank you, Benji.”
We both glanced back toward where Beatrice was waiting. Her eyebrows were up. She was tapping her foot. Her entire aura was impatience and being bothered. “Are we doing this then?”
I narrowed my eyes at her, wanting to tell her off, but again—hallway. People. “You will be kind to him.”
She huffed again. “Please.” Turning, she flounced back to the library.
Benji reached for my hand, his little fingers curling around mine and giving it a slight squeeze. I could feel him. More chills raced down my spine, but I suppressed a shudder. He said quietly, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll distract her for the whole day.”
He flickered in and out again as he moved among the crowd, following behind her.
I grabbed my textbook for my first period and shut the door just as I heard a scream in the air.
“It’s a poltergeist!” That was Shelton.
“Oh, phooey. He’s my helper for the day.”
I went to class.
25
The library was running somewhat smoothly by the end of the day. Beatrice left me alone. Shelton and Sabine were both absent as well, which…I just didn’t have the energy to spend on why they were suddenly avoiding me.
I went to work, but Cassian gave me a ride since he didn’t have a hockey meeting. Their practices would start up next week. Lee as well. Ethan worked since it was Halloween week. Business was picking up with tourists coming to town for all the holiday events. I didn’t know this, but our boss, who greeted us at the door in a witch costume, told me to be ready for Thursday.
I asked, “What for? Halloween isn’t until Friday.”
“But it’s the day of The Witching Line. Oh, bless me. I forgot that you’re new. You don’t know.”
Ethan clocked in behind me. “They haven’t started building the trail. Tomorrow after school is when they usually do it.”
“Do what? At school?” Different alarm bells were pinging for me.
“Yes.” My boss told me, “Haven Rock, our town, is on a ley line. Do you know what a ley line is?”
I had a bad feeling about this. “Uh. What?” I did know, but how did she know? The general public wasn’t supposed to know about a supernatural line in the ground where ghosts could use as a highway, like our interstates for vehicles.
She gave me the textbook definition. “They’re lines drawn on a map that connects historical structures, prehistoric sites, and landmarks of great importance. The line is believed to be full of power. And Haven Rock is set on one of those lines. In fact, it runs directly through your school.”
Ethan moved around us. “The front hallway.” He sent me an apologetic look. “It’s a big deal. People from all over come, they make this huge trail through the town so people can walk the ‘ley line.’ They call the whole event The Witching Line. They used to do it on Halloween, but there was too much vandalism. Too many people got drunk and went nuts, so now they open up the trail for people to walk it. So, from like, four in the afternoon to midnight, they let people walk the trail including going through school. It’s a bit surreal.”
“What? People just walk it?”
They both nodded, different expressions on their faces. Ethan was more reserved while our boss was excited.
“Why?”
“Oh. It’s so exciting.”
Ethan shrugged, less filled with glee. “People enjoy it. Some do it as a religious thing. Some make a party out of it. It’s like a parade, except in reverse. People line the trail, throw candy at the people walking.”
“In our school?”
“Yeah. They have security so people can’t go around looking in the school, but the higher-ups make it a big thing. Have you ever run a marathon?”
