The ghost smiled at him. “Ready to keep going?”
He just nodded, as it was probably less crazy for him to do that instead of responding out loud, now that he knew he was being watched. Then again, whoever it was had possibly just heard his one-sided conversation anyway, and had no doubt just witnessed him nodding to himself… Great… Perfect!
Noble moved without hesitation or caution, taking off as soon as he saw the older man tense. Reaching Georgie Babs, he disarmed the man in one swift move as he swung his shovel at Ollie. Catching the man’s arm, he twisted it back, not slowing even when he realized just how little resistance or force there had been behind the attack.
Georgie shouted out in pain. The shovel dropping to the ground with a thud, Noble kicked the would-be weapon far away before kneeing the back of the man’s legs, forcing him to kneel.
The process only took mere seconds, and once he'd finished, he looked to Ollie, only to find his Baby staring up at him with wide, shocked, almost confused eyes.
“How…” Ollie rasped softly.
Shit…
How…hadNoble moved that fast?
They had reached their destination, which was basically a random spot of grass in the middle of the woods, by what appeared to be a tree with a single line carved in it. Then Ollie had heard movement, and he saw Georgie with his shovel—which sort of rubbed a bit of salt in his shovel-related wounds. But that didn’t matter now, because the problem was…the only one he’d seen in the area in that moment was Mr. Babs. Noble had been nowhere in sight, and then he… And then he was.
Of course…it was dark. Ollie only had the single beam of a rather weak flashlight to see by, even if his night vision had possibly started to kick in slightly the longer they walked. However, it wasn’t like he’d been paying super close attention to anywhere else at that moment, so he could have easily missed Noble’s approach.
Even if ithadseemed like his boyfriend had moved faster than what should have been humanly possible—a ridiculous idea, for sure, as Noble was human—it most likely was just the result of him being too focused on the man coming at him with a shovel. Really, it all boiled down to Ollie overreacting to what his brain had basically ignored in favor of self-preservation.
“Ah.” Ollie blinked, realizing that Noble was staring at him with a touch of concern. “Um, I’m fine. Thank you?” He smiled hesitantly, before looking down at Georgie, who was no longer yelling in pain, but he did look pained, or rather downtrodden… Ashamed maybe?
He cleared his throat. “Georgie…what?—”
“Why couldn’t you just have stayed away?! I never wanted to hurt you…or anyone!” the man croaked out.
“Then why did you?” Noble asked darkly.
“I wasn’t… I wouldn’t…” The man trailed off, sagging further.
Ollie grimaced. “Georgie…who is buried here?”
Georgie’s head jerked up in shock, his eyes widening as he spoke, his words barely above a whisper. “How did you know?”
“Does it matter?” Ollie narrowed his eyes at the man before asking, “You’re not going to try to hurt me again, are you? Though I am a bit curious as to how you knew we were coming here.”
The old man shook his head. “No…I…I don’t know if I’d have actually been able to… I just…I was at the gas station…and I saw you two. I thought nothing of it, so drove off to grab something at the store quickly, but then, I saw you again! And you were… You were going in the wrong direction, going where you shouldn’t…and I…” He trailed off on a wince.
Well, that explained how he knew and managed to follow them.
“Let him up, Noble.”
Noble hesitated for a moment before slowly letting go.
Despite Georgie having tried to smack him with a shovel, Ollie hurried to help the older man get up when he began to struggle as he tried to push to his feet.
Mr. Babs grunted on straightening up, rasping, “Thank you.”
“Welcome, Georgie.”
“Ollie,” Noble sighed.
“What?! He has a bad knee from an accident he had a few years back!?” Ollie defended. “Anyway, you know why we are here, don’t you, Georgie? So, just tell us. Tell us how Irene Genson died.”
Georgie stared at Ollie,a kid he’d known since he was a baby, and struggled with the realization he’d actually tried to harm him only moments ago.
“Irene…she…” He trailed off, wincing as the horrible memories came flooding back.
