“Bmm-bmm-bmm-bmm-bmm,” adds a humongous bird, emitting a noise like a faraway beating drum, standing directly above us in the cave.
We scream. The bird seems to realize,Oh, right, I’d like to chase them. At least it waited until we woke up to attack us. What a well-mannered monster bird.
“It’s a pterodactyl!” Morgan yells, swinging both our backpacks over his shoulders and flying out of the cave, pushing me ahead of him. This leaves me with Forte, hollering in his baby sling.
I wrap my hair into a ponytail as I run. “How the hell is there a pterodactyl still in existence?”
“How the hell are thereanyof the things that we’ve found lately?”
“Fair point.”
It is too early for this news. I haven’t even stretched yet. One second I’m drooling on Morgan’s arm, and the next, I’m hurtling through the woods. The ground is soggy from last night’s rain, my boots slapping mud and slippery amber leaves.
“Is it still chasing us?” I look over my shoulder as the pterodactyl produces a sound that I can only describe asbaritone purring. “Wait, that’s just an emu.”
“An emu?” Morgan picks up speed, his face blanched with wild panic. “I’mterrifiedof emus!”
“How are you more scared of an emu than a dinosaur?” I knife left. “This way!”
“I’ve been thinking.” His words are garbled. “I want a property.”
“Property?” I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “I can’t hear you.”
“I’VE BEEN THINKING. I WANT TO TAKE YOU ON A PROPER DATE.”
“Morgan, we’re being chased by an emu.” I dart right. “This way. Down that hill.”
“This is the optimal time to plan a date. Endorphins, running for our lives. Careful of that ditch there.”
“I don’t think this qualifies as running for our lives. It’s a bird.”
“Clearly you do not have an uncle with a pet emu namedGregory Peck, who tried to eat you when you were only an innocent, appetizing toddler.”
Four figures tear out of the trees, hollering in surprise when they collide with us. “Run!” they yell.
Morgan and I stop, face-to-face with Luna, Romina, Alex, and Trevor. They’re sweaty, red-faced, wide-eyed. Trevor’s got a camo bandannna tied around his forehead. “We’re already running!” I say. “What are you doing here?”
Luna yanks my arm. “Run in the other direction!”
“But.” I point. “Emu.”
She points, too. “Bear.” We all tangle together in a chaotic herd as we lunge toward a now-terrified emu, who jumps out of our way.
“Right. Bear.” Morgan nods, speeding ahead. “Bear is worse.”
We’re hit with an epiphany at the same moment, stumbling. We grab each other. “Bear?”
I tear off in the direction of the bear. Romina shouts at the top of her voice at me that I’m going the wrong way. Morgan races at my side.
“The Black Bear Witch!” I exclaim. “We’re going to find her, Morgan.”
“Yes! Weare.”
The bear could be anywhere. I keep an ear out for signs of wildlife, but my internal radio only picks up a story I’ve never heard before. Never written before.
…a graveyard so ancient that all of its tombstones had long crumbled away like rotten teeth. A house stood uponthe hill now, and nobody who lived in it had any notion of how many bodies were buried beneath them.
Downhill the earth rumbled, a hand reaching through dirt to grasp at air. Rain poured down pale fingers; the ground shook again and a man’s dark head of hair pushed through. His sole consuming thought was that it did not matter how deep they buried him, or where—he would find her. Nothing mattered except for spearing himself on the sharp gaze of his beloved once again.
