“Aha!” Ollie chimed after a few moments more, as he pulled out a rather thick-looking leather bracelet with snaps, and what looked to be a white marker? “I thought about writing on myself, but couldn’t think of anything that would stay on well enough without smudging, but also wouldn’t be too hard to remove. And I figured I could always burn the bracelet if I find later that I can’t get the acrylic paint marker off.”
Even if part of him was sure Ollie would be fine… “Better safe than sorry.”
“That was my conclusion as well,” the man said as he pressed the bracelet flat on the ground, hesitating a moment before beginning to draw the second symbol.
It took at most a minute for the witch to complete the drawing, which was similar to the first, aside from a few lines angled in a different way. Once he had finished, Ollie carefully snapped the bracelet on, before putting his supplies and notebook away. The witch had just started to wave his arm around to help the marker dry faster, when Irene appeared two inches in front of the still-crouched man.
Noble flinched ever so slightly at her sudden appearance, while his witch let out a strangled yelp as he lost his balance and fell back on his ass.
Blinking, Irene released an almost uncertain laugh as she looked around, before saying, “Oh, hello again.”
Helping Ollie to his feet, as the man grumbled to himself about ghosts being stupidly good at jump-scaring unsuspecting people, Noble asked, “Still think you can take us to your body?”
The ghost’s brow wrinkled for a moment, before a wide smile appeared on her face as she said, “Yes. I’m sure I can.”
“Here!”Irene cried, pointing from the back seat, before quickly adding, “We’ll have to walk from here.”
The last bit was pretty obvious, Ollie thought as he eyed the area, while Noble pulled off the gravel road onto a patch of grass where the annoying little pebbles had spilled over and formed a makeshift parking space.
Considering it was a single lane road, he imagined the locals would use it to turn around, or to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. Either way, it was pretty rural where they were. And they hadn’t seen another car for at least twenty minutes of the forty-five-minute drive.
After pulling his flashlight from his bag and turning it on, Ollie unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped out as soon as the truck was fully parked. Hurrying around to the bed, as Irene basically floated through the side of the vehicle, he opened it and snagged the shovel he’d put in there before leaving the library.
“Um…Ollie?” Noble said slowly.
He glanced back at the man, who was now standing behind him. “Yes?” he asked with a smile.
“I didn’t ask about the shovel, when I really should have, and now, I guess I really have to…” His boyfriend sighed. “Baby, you can’t just dig her body up.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
The question was echoed by Irene, before she pointed out, “Wouldn’t it be the easiest way for me to be found?”
Noble’s face pinched. “Ollie, for one, you aren’t police. And two, going to a random spot in a heavily wooded area that, from my guess, is either publicly or privately owned, and somehow managing to find a body is what one would call…suspicious. Very, very suspicious, and highly unrecommended in general. Lastly, I have a sinking feeling that you may not have thought any further than just digging her body up. As in, you have no plan beyond that.”
Ollie stared at the man like a deer in headlights at basically being exposed, before he let out a sheepish laugh and admitted, “I, um…may have just planned to wing it a bit?”
Noble chuckled. “I figured.”
“I mean…” Ollie scratched his cheek and glanced at Irene. “There is a reason you are still here, right? You want your brothers to know what happened to you, and wouldn't it be better for them to find out about it due to your body being found? And like, what better way to get the cops out here than a body?!”
“That doesn’t mean we need to actually dig her up. We can always call in an anonymous tip.”
“B-but what if they don’t find the right spot?! Oh, maybe I could stick my shovel in the right location, and?—”
“Fingerprints,” his boyfriend pointed out.
“Right…” He sagged a bit, frowning as he looked down sadly at his shovel. Was it wrong that he had been fully prepared to digup a body, and that it was sort of a letdown now he wasn’t even going to get to use his shovel at all? Like, it was a brand new shovel!? He’d been prepared!
Ollie sighed. He supposed it was a bit rude to dig someone up. He frowned—was it rude?
Shaking the ridiculous thoughts from his head, he couldn’t help but ask one more time, “Are you sure we can’t use it?”
“I’m sure, Baby.”
Huffing, he tossed his shovel back into the truck bed, wincing and blurting, “Sorry,” at the thud it made as it landed.
“It’s fine.” Noble waved away his worry about damaging his truck, then shut the bed and moved to the side door as he said, “But, speaking of evidence, there's no point in adding our footprints to the mix.”
