بگو سیب و بمیر فصل 27

Say Cheese and Die! - Chapter 27

Something scurried through the tall weeds of the unmowed front lawn. “What was that?” Shari cried, whispering even though no one else was in sight. “It was too big to be a squirrel.”

She lingered behind Greg, who stopped to look up at the Coffman house. “Maybe it was a raccoon or something,” Greg told her. He gripped the camera tightly in both hands.

It was a little after three o’clock the next afternoon, a hazy, overcast day. Mountains of dark clouds threatening rain were rolling across the sky, stretching behind the house, casting it in shadow.

“It’s going to storm,” Shari said, staying close behind Greg. “Let’s get this over with and go home.”

“Good idea,” he said, glancing up at the heavy sky.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, a low roar.

The old trees that dotted the front yard whispered and shook.

“We can’t just run inside,” Greg told her, watching the sky darken. “First we have to make sure Spidey isn’t there.”

Making their way quickly through the tall grass and weeds, they stopped at the living room window and peered in. Thunder rumbled, low and long, in the distance. Greg thought he saw another creature scuttle through the weeds around the corner of the house.

“It’s too dark in there. I can’t see a thing,” Shari complained.

“Let’s check out the basement,” Greg suggested. “That’s where Spidey hangs out, remember?”

The sky darkened to an eerie gray-green as they made their way to the back of the house and dropped to their knees to peer down through the basement windows at ground level.

Squinting through the dust-covered window-panes, they could see the makeshift plywood table, the wardrobe against the wall, its doors still open, the colorful old clothing spilling out, the empty frozen food boxes scattered on the floor.

“No sign of him,” Greg whispered, cradling the camera in his arm as if it might try to escape from him if he didn’t hold it tightly. “Let’s get moving.”

“Are—are you sure?” Shari stammered. She wanted to be brave. But the thought that she had disappeared for two days—completely vanished, most likely because of the camera—that frightening thought lingered in her mind.

Michael and Bird were chicken, she thought. But maybe they were the smart ones.

She wished this were over. All over.

A few seconds later, Greg and Shari pushed open the front door. They stepped into the darkness of the front hall. And stopped.

And listened.

And then they both jumped at the sound of the loud, sudden crash directly behind them.