Josie, picked up Davy and snuggled him. "He's so warm!" Davy immediately started crying. "Wow, tell me how you really feel!" Josie said, handing him to Hazel.
"I know you have more important things to do," I told her point-blank. "There's no need to coddle Archer."
"I don't mind being over here," Hazel said as she, too, tried to make Davy laugh.
"Find a YouTube video," Archer suggested. "Kids love YouTube videos."
"I'm not setting him in front of the TV so he can grow up like you," I scoffed.
"We made him some pizza toast," Josie said, shoving a plate at the screaming Davy.
"I brought stuffed animals," Archer said, pulling a raggedy stuffed jack-o’-lantern out of his bag.
"Where did you even find that?"
"The dollar store. It makes a noise."
The toy made the sound of a dying pigeon. Davy kept crying. He reached for me.
Mace snickered. "He only wants Garrett, poor kid."
I looked at Mace. He froze, and the smile fled from his face. I picked Davy up. He immediately stopped crying and looked around.
"This is not going to work for me," I said. "I have to work."
"But it's almost Halloween!" Josie gushed. "Aren't you excited?"
"Can we have a Halloween party?" Nate, one of my middle-school-aged brothers, asked.
"We have the fall festival," I said irritably.
"You shouldn’t have asked in front of him," Mace said to Nate. "Garrett hates fall and Halloween."
Hazel gaped at me. "How? Fall is thebesttime of the year."
"I don't hate it. I wouldn't waste that much energy. It’s merely an annoyance. I dislike fall. It's damp. There are dead leaves and all the Halloween junk and the pumpkin-spice everything. There are the excessive amounts of smelly candles and the creepy straw decorations. Plus all the inane parties and costumes."
Hazel looked at me in bemusement. I snapped my mouth shut.
The girl from the train station had been like fall personified.
But she’s not wet.
I beat that thought down as if I was taking a shovel to a zombie.
3
Penny
Igrumbled as I dragged my duffel bag through the train station. I tried to put the asshole Svensson out of my mind. Poor Davy. I hoped he would be okay. I also hoped his brother stepped on a rake.
Where were the twins? They were supposed to pick me up. A horn blared, and an antique black hearse pulled up in front of the train station, seeming to appear out of the dark. Morticia, or maybe it was Lilith, rolled down the driver's window. The twins had the same alabaster skin and long black hair.
"Get in," Morticia said, tapping her black-painted fingernail on the steering wheel. "Lilith, scoot over."
"New ride?" I asked as I tossed my bag into the back and squeezed in next to Lilith. Morticia sighed and pulled away from the curb. We passed the blond Svensson, highlighted under a streetlamp, stuffing a still-screaming Davy into the car.
"We have to drive an antique," Morticia explained. "It's the ghost. He doesn't like anything but classic cars."
