I wiped the back of my gloved hand across my brow, most likely leaving behind a pretty terrific smear of dirt. Despite the cold, damp air that had settled over us, I’d built up a sweat. “So,” I said, tossing my shovel up onto the grass above, “I think that does it.” I looked at the exposed coffin we had unearthed, feeling my already fast heart rate pick up. “You ready?”
It took us about half an hour to figure out how to work the backhoe properly. Then about another forty-five minutes to clear the bulk of the dirt out. There had been no sign of Matthew or his mother, which was good … but also a little creepy. A couple of times it felt like Freddie and I were the only people left in Otter Lake. After we shut the backhoe down, we spent more time than we probably needed to clearing off the coffin with our shovels. and digging a trench for us to be able to stand beside it. Probably because we both needed to work up the courage to do what needed to be done next.
“Ready? I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life,” Freddie said, nodding and looking at the coffin. His voice sounded a little shaky, though.
I nodded in return. “Okay, well, go ahead.”
“Right,” Freddie said, stooping down half a second before jerking back up. “Do you think it’s locked?” He turned and pointed up to the grass. “I could get my—”
“Why would it be locked?” I snapped. “How? Where would you even buy a lock for a coffin? Vampire hunter supply outlet?”
“Shush, shush, shush!” Freddie said, waving a frantic hand, ignoring me completely. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“I think maybe it was an owl. A real one.”
“What?” I stopped and listened. “No … well, maybe.”
“It was. It was an owl hooting,” Freddie said, face tight. “And we’re standing in a grave. And look!”
“What now?”
“There’s a cold fog coming in.”
“What is your point, Freddie?”
“We’re probably going to die.”
“You need to pull it together, man,” I said, shaking my fingers. Shoveling was hard work. “Okay, let’s just do this together. I mean, there’s no body in there … so, really, there’s no problem.” I noticed my head was shaking side-to-side a little too frantically. “I mean, we’re really sure there’s no body, right?”
“Right,” Freddie said, leaning over to grip the lid. “It’s fine. It’s—Wah!” He jumped back, smacking at his arm with his free hand.
“What the—”
“Spider. I thought there was a spider,” Freddie said, batting his arm one more time for good measure. “Okay, we seriously need to get this over with.”
I nodded as we both bent over to grip the lid.
“On the count of three?” Freddie asked.
I nodded.
“One.”
I closed my eyes.
“Two.”
I inhaled deeply.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Freddie said, stepping away.
“Oh my God!”
“I can’t. I can’t,” he said quickly. “This here is bad, bad energy. You’re the non-superstitious one. You need to do it.”
“Fine,” I said squinting my face up into an exaggerated Whatever expression. “This is so not a big deal.” I bent over the coffin again, swallowed hard, and gripped the lid with my fingers. “In fact, I don’t even need a countdown.”
“Uh-huh.”
I gave a little practice lift. Definitely not locked. Not even stiff.
“I’ll just skip, one and two, and move right to thr—”
Then I screamed.