At almost ten in the morning, the attic was well lit enough from the dormer windows for Jesse to not have to turn on the light. Even if he had to, he wasn’t certain the lights still worked, it had been that long since anyone had set foot up here. A thick layer of dust covered every surface, and he left distinct handprints on every box and trunk he searched through.

  He finally found what he was looking for tucked near the back, far away from the trap door entrance. He should have known that his mom would have hidden his dad’s stuff as far away as she could. Far away, but still within reach.

  After Julian Grahame passed away when he was seven, Jesse’s mom had packed up most of his belongings and stored them up here. She never told him as much, but since most of it was clothes, he had a feeling that she just couldn’t bear to walk into her closet every day and be reminded of him. There were other things as well, like his suitcase he would take on family trips, his favorite mug he would use to drink his morning coffee. Even a book he had been reading before he passed, its page still dogeared to keep his place.

  Of course, his mother still kept all of his most sentimental items with her in her bedroom, such as his wedding ring, but Jesse had opted to search the attic instead. He didn’t want her asking questions as to why he was rooting around her room; the look she had given him when he told her he was going to the attic was bad enough.

  Carefully, Jesse lifted an item from one of the boxes; an old baseball glove. Its leather was worn and it had a musty smell to it, but as soon as he slipped it on, he was flooded with memories of when he and his dad would play catch in the back yard. To his knowledge, his dad had never played the sport, nor was he a big fan of it, but as soon as Jesse was old enough, he had gotten them the gloves and ball so that they could have something to do together, a way for just the two of them to spend time with each other.

  He slipped the glove off of his hand and after a moment's hesitation, threw it hard on the ground. Expectantly, he looked around.

  The attic remained silent, no sign of anyone else appearing. He was all alone.

  “Jesse!” he heard his mom’s voice call from downstairs. “Siobhan’s here!”

  He dusted himself off, heading back towards the trap door. It was time to go to Gravewood.

  Jesse and Siobhan walked through the forest path that led out from Gravewood and into the woods that surrounded the neighborhood. He had never been into the forest before, so he took in the refreshing feeling of being outdoors, surrounded by nature. The trees and shrubbery were a vibrant green, still acting like it was the peak of spring and not the beginning of summer. There were plenty of animals around as well, like squirrels and birds. Damien had once told him that he and his vampire friends did most of their hunting around Gravewood, though since it was still morning time, he doubted he’d see any of them out grabbing a meal right now.

  They followed the path until they arrived at a large pond, one that Hank had informed them was named Crystal Green Pond. It wasn’t so big that he couldn’t clearly see the other side, but it was nonetheless pretty sizable. While the pond fell outside of the neighborhood’s magic barrier, it was close enough that its illusion spells and other security measures were still in effect. Nobody other than monsters ever visited, even during the hot summer months, making it the perfect location to hold their annual day camp.

  This is a lot bigger than what I would normally consider a pond, Jesse thought to himself as he and Siobhan got closer to the water’s edge. The morning sun made it shimmer with a white light, but otherwise it was perfectly still, reflecting the greenery of the forest around it. Looks pretty deep, too. Still too small to be a proper lake, though.

  Alicia and Noah were already waiting for them, along with Alicia’s little brother, Ashton, who Jesse had only seen a handful of times since meeting him on Halloween last year. He was made up to look like a ghoul, just like his sister, since basically the entire neighborhood already knew that he was Alicia’s brother. He had spent the majority of Halloween night wearing a big astronaut helmet that obscured his face, and though Jesse had gotten to see him normally when he was invited to Alicia’s birthday party last month, he was still struck by how different he looked compared to his sister.

  To put it bluntly, Alicia was Indian, while Ashton looked like he could have been mixed. Both his curly hair and his skin tone skewed towards the lighter side, and though they were both wearing ghoul makeup, Jesse could tell they had very different facial features as well.

  “Hey guys,” Alicia greeted them. “Ready for summer camp?”

  “You know it!” Siobhan chirped. “I’ve been waiting for this since May.”

  It had been over a month since the whole debacle with the last house on River Street, and the school year had come to a close. The summer camp started on the Monday of the third week of June and would last to that following Friday, giving the children of Gravewood five days of fun and activities. It was a good opportunity to unwind after the stress of exams, not to mention being chased around by a haunted doll.

  “And your gang is all here!” A loud voice said as Hank approached them. He was holding a clipboard, his usual flannel shirt tied around his waist to reveal a short-sleeved t-shirt. He was ready for a day under the sun. “Glad to see you all could make it. Including you, Ashton. It’s been a while since I saw you; look how much you’ve grown.”

  It was true, Ashton had grown some since Halloween. Jesse hadn’t been paying too close attention, but it did look like he’d gotten a couple inches taller.

  “Speaking of which,” Hank continued, clicking a pen that was attached to the clipboard. “When Cynthia signed you bunch up, she forgot to include your ages. Could we go through how old each of you are real quick? It’s just something we like to keep track of, demographic purposes, you know?”

  “No problem,” Jesse said. “Siobhan and I are both twelve.” But not for much longer. Their birthdays were only a couple of days apart, right before the start of the next school year.

  “Thirteen, finally a teenager,” Alicia said proudly. She had turned thirteen earlier in April. “And Ashton is five now.”

  Hank marked the ages before turning to Noah. “And how about you, son?”

  “...Fourteen,” he admitted with some reluctance.

  As Hank wrote the number down, Jesse looked at him incredulously. “Fourteen?! But weren’t you in seventh grade with us?”

  “Yeah, and?” He glared.

  “Never mind.”

  Ignoring their exchange, Hank clicked his pen again. “Alrighty, that makes y'all the oldest kids participating in our day camp. Er- not counting Tommy and Cindy that is.”

  “Tommy and Cindy are here?” Siobhan asked, craning her neck to look around.

  Sure enough, the two ghost children were over by the edge of the pond, chatting away with some of the Harwood kids.

  “Oh yeah, Ashton and I already went over to say hi,” Alicia said.

  “But how are they here?”

  Jesse was confused as well. They learned from the Abernathy’s that ghosts normally couldn’t travel too far away from their source objects.

  “Oh, we just brought their sources over,” Hank said, waving to where a canopy had been set up. A singed stuffed teddy bear and a soccer ball sat next to each other on a plastic folding table underneath. “The Abernathys usually don’t leave the house too often ‘cuz they don’t want to bother anybody to move their sources for them, even though I always tell them it’s no trouble at all. But they let us help get Tommy and Cindy over here for camp every summer. Oh, and don’t worry, we’re always extra careful to not let anything happen to their sources. Anyway, like I was saying, it’s nice of y'all to attend this year. Give the younger kids some older role models to look up to. But you don’t have to worry about looking after them, leave that to us counselors. Y’all just enjoy yourselves.”

  “Thanks, Hank.” After the ordeal that was babysitting the Vanderwebb kids, he was relieved that they could just take it easy for the week.

  Speak of the devil...

  “Oh, looks like Cynthia and her kids are here. Let me go greet them. We’ll get started in a little bit; we’re just waiting on a couple people more.”

  The Jorogumo had indeed arrived, carrying with her three familiar little spiders. There was also a grumpy looking girl that Jesse had never met trudging behind them at a distance, almost as if she didn’t want to be associated with them.

  As Hank went off to go talk with them, another group took his place almost immediately.

  “Hey, Ricky,” Jesse greeted.

  Out of all the vampires in Gravewood, Ricky was probably the least scary. It did help that they were currently dressed in an unintimidating Hawaiian shirt, cross body bag, and baseball cap; a vampire ready for the summer. They were joined by two other monsters, a parent and child.

  “Hey, Jesse.” He noticed that despite the heat, they were still wearing the same black face mask from when they met.

  “You know this vampire?” Noah asked. He was still wary around them ever since Halloween night, not that Jesse could blame him. Getting surrounded by a group of vampires had been his abrupt introduction to the world of monsters. But since Jesse had been spending more time with Damien, he had started to warm up to them.

  “Yeah. Guys, this is Ricky, he’s- sorry, they-”

  “It’s okay, I go by he too.”

  “He’s really cool. What brings you here? Are you a counselor?”

  He nodded and gestured to the other two monsters they were with. “I just wanted to introduce you guys to a couple of the Ferns. This is Audrey Fern, and their child, AJ.”

  Jesse instantly recognized Audrey as the plant-like farmer from the Halloween party. “We’ve met before. You were the one running the corn maze, right?”

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  They shook their head, signing something in ASL, which Ricky translated for them.

  “That wasn’t them, that was one of their siblings.”

  “Oh, they have a twin?”

  “Not exactly, it’s a bit hard to explain. Um, have they taught you in biology class that some plants are self-reproducing? The Ferns are like that, they kind of... clone themselves. When AJ is all grown up, they’ll look just like Audrey. Right, AJ?”

  The kid who was with them, who was half hidden behind their parent, nodded shyly. Just like Audrey, they had pale green skin and leaves growing up their arms and legs. Their hair was a darker shade of green, falling over their face in a shaggy haircut.

  “They’re a bit shy,” Ricky said. “We were hoping to introduce them to Ashton, since they’re around the same age.”

  Alicia smiled. “That sounds like a great idea. Ashton, say hi.”

  Instead of speaking, he raised a hand and waved, which AJ returned in kind, and Jesse had to fight back a smile. There was something incredibly adorable about small children interacting with each other.

  “Maybe they can get to know each other better during camp,” Ricky suggested.

  After their introduction, the Ferns left to return to the rest of the monsters gathering at the pond, but Ricky hesitated, lingering behind.

  “Uh, I also wanted to see if you were doing okay. All of you, I mean,” he corrected hastily. “It’s really hot out today, so make sure you don’t stay in the sun for too long. If you need any more sunscreen, you can come to me.”

  Despite addressing all of them, Jesse couldn’t help but feel they were directing that last part at him, as it was something the vampires often reminded him of. Ricky was just trying to look out for him, but he felt a now too-familiar pang of guilt in his chest at the reminder of his constant lying.

  They cleared their throat before continuing. “Not just sunscreen, too. I also have water, bug spray, a-and-” they cut themselves off with a cough. “B-bug spray... and...”

  They tried to continue, but their coughing only got worse, turning into hacking as they doubled over, hands clutching at their throat.

  “Are you okay?” Jesse asked, alarmed. His hands hovered in front of him, unsure if he should even touch the vampire or not. He’d never seen one go into a coughing fit like this before.

  “F-Fine... I’m fine...” Ricky tried to assure him, but their voice was even raspier than usual. “Just... talked too much. I need... something to drink.”

  By something to drink, Jesse guessed they meant blood of some kind. They stumbled off, back to where the tent was set up, and as they left, he couldn’t help but be reminded of Siobhan’s asthma attacks, a wave of worry coming over him similar to times when he was powerless to help her.

  Alicia leaned in to whisper, “What was up with him?”

  Jesse shook his head. “I don’t know.” But his mind wandered to the mask that they were always wearing. Was he sick? Could vampires even get sick?

  “Maybe you could ask Damien.”

  “Hmm.” He gave a noncommittal reply. Truthfully, he’d rather not talk to Damien if he could help it. He didn’t want to say he had been avoiding the vampire, but he had been avoiding the vampire. The whole ordeal at the last house on River Street left him even more on edge than usual, even though logically he knew that it had just been an illusion that had attacked him and not the real Damien. He still worried that any conversation he had with the vampire could wind up playing out just like the vision had.

  Besides, if Ricky didn’t want to tell them, it didn’t feel right to go behind their back like that.

  A few minutes later, Hank whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Howdy campers! Glad you could all make it today. It looks like our last counselor is running a bit late, but since everyone else is here, we might as well get started. Our first-”

  “Wait, wait, I’m here! I’m not late!”

  A figure came racing from the forest, and Jesse had to shield his eyes as a robotic woman rushed to take her place alongside the other counselors, the sun gleaming on her copper skin. Aside from the metallic sheen to her skin, she could almost have been mistaken for a normal person, if it wasn’t for the mechanical joints on her elbows and hands. Instead of hair, she had a tangle of coiled brown wires that framed her perfectly symmetrical face, and she wore a pair of trousers held up by suspenders over her loose blouse that made her look old-fashioned yet still stylish. “I just had to pick up a few things for the doctor and it took longer than expected,” she explained.

  “Ah there you are,” Hank said brightly. “We were just about to start introducing ourselves since we have a few new campers this year. Why don’t you start us off?”

  “Happily. Hello everyone, my name is Evelyn.” From what she said, Jesse guessed that she must be Dr. Rotbart’s mysterious other assistant, in addition to the hulking Frankenstein’s monster Adam.

  “I’m Tyra,” Hank’s oldest daughter introduced herself next. She sported a short-sleeved top just like her dad and her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

  “My name’s Ricky.” He looked a lot better, now that he had gotten something to drink, and he signed his name in addition to saying it out loud.

  “And I think you all know me, Hank. We’re very excited to have everyone here this summer. How this next week is going to work is every day we will meet here at the pond where we will take attendance before commencing with the day’s activity. And we’re ready to kick off our summer camp with a good old-fashioned bonding session!

  “We’re going to split into two groups. Everyone I call the name of is coming with me and Tyra. Everyone left will be with Ricky and Evelyn.”

  He began calling out names, though Jesse knew he and his friends wouldn’t be among them. Hank had already informed everyone of all the activities for the week so that they could prepare, so he knew the first day would consist of swimming in the pond. Vampires couldn’t swim (at least not during the day) since the water could wash away their sunscreen and he had automatically been put on the “no swim” list. Ghouls also couldn’t swim, on account of their open wounds, so Noah, Alicia, and Ashton were in the same boat as him. Siobhan wasn’t technically barred from the pond like they were, but put herself on the “no swim” list anyway, telling Hank it was out of solidarity. In truth, they were all relieved to have valid excuses for not getting in the water so that their disguises wouldn’t be ruined.

  Her opting out didn’t raise any suspicion flags with the residents of Gravewood, since it seemed like quite a few monsters either couldn’t swim or just didn’t like doing it. The ones who were called to join Hank and Tyra were the four other Harwoods, AJ, and Cindy and Tommy. When they all headed to their respective counselors, Jesse and his friends were joined by Jeremy, Charlotte, and Mason, as well as the moody girl who appeared to be their older sister.

  “Alicia!” all three of the spiderlings ran right up to her.

  “Hey guys, you didn’t want to go swimming?”

  “We can’t,” Jeremy pouted. “Mommy says we’re not big enough yet and that it’s too dangerous for us.”

  “But we don’t mind because we wanted to hang out with you anyways,” Charlotte told her.

  “Aww, that’s so sweet of you.”

  The moody girl coughed into her fist. “Cringe.”

  “You call everything cringe!” Jeremy accused.

  “This is our sister Kaitlyn.”

  “I didn’t ask you to introduce me,” she grumbled.

  Kaitlyn would have looked like any other ordinary emo ten-year-old, with bangs covering one of her eyes and an oversized black hoodie despite the summer heat, if it weren’t for the needle-sharp fangs that showed when she glared at her siblings. Jesse wondered if her human-like appearance was due to some sort of illusion magic like he’d seen her mother do, until he remembered what her father looked like, a human with a spider head, and thought maybe genetics in their family just worked in funny ways.

  Evelyn lightly clapped her robotic hands to get their attention. “Okay kids, looks like you’re stuck with us for the day, because for as smart as Dr. Rotbart is, he can’t make me a body that floats. So, we’re going to have our own bonding session here on dry land. We’re going to play a little game of trust.”

  Ricky held up a bunch of blindfolds. “You’ll all pair up. One of you will take a blindfold and go into the forest. Not too far, though, only where we can still see you. Your partner will stay here and when we give the signal, you’ll put your blindfold on and try to make your way back by following their instructions to avoid running into trees.”

  “And since there’s an uneven number of you, Ricky here volunteered to be one of you guys’ partners. And don’t worry, we’ll do multiple rounds so everyone can get a turn leading and following. So, everyone pair up and when you’re ready, we’ll start the game.”

  “I want to be with Alicia,” Charlotte said immediately.

  Alicia gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry, but I’m going to partner with my brother.”

  “I’ll be your partner,” Siobhan suggested.

  “Okay, I guess...”

  Jesse formed a team with Noah while the two remaining spiderlings paired up, leaving Kaitlyn as the odd one out to pair with Ricky. For a moment he was worried about the small spiders and what would happen if one of them got lost in the big forest, but Evelyn assured him that her enhanced sight could find any of them should the need arise. He had to keep reminding himself he didn’t need to babysit them today.

  For his team, they decided that Noah would be the first to be blindfolded while Jesse shouted instructions. The game turned out to be deceptively difficult, as each teams’ instructions got mixed together as all of the leaders yelled to their partners at once. More than a few times did Noah mistakenly start following Siobhan’s orders for Charlotte.

  “Stop listening to her, just focus on me,” Jesse called to him. “Okay, now take a step to the left- I mean, your right.”

  He nodded to himself, satisfied, when Noah finally managed to step around a log that had been giving him trouble. His arms were held out in front of him as he clearly didn’t trust Jesse to not lead him into something, but so far they had managed to get by without any major accidents.

  “Psst, Jesse.”

  He nearly jumped as Jeremy’s voice whispered right next to his ear, the spider having somehow crawled all the way up to his shoulder without him noticing. “What are you-”

  “Shh!” He brought one of his front legs up to his mouth like pressing a finger to lips. “I’m being sneaky.”

  He pointed over to where Evelyn was preoccupied with chastising Kaitlyn for purposefully leading a blindfolded Ricky into a tree.

  “We wanted to ask you,” he continued, drawing Jesse’s attention back to him. “Have you heard any news from Dr. Rotbart?”

  “No, not yet.”

  The doctor had promised to give them a call when he had fixed up the broken doll that they had brought him, but so far, they’d received no word from him as he remained holed up in his lab. They’d tried texting him a few times, to no avail, and they hadn’t wanted to visit him in case they were interrupting his work, but as the days wore on, Jesse became more and more anxious.

  Jeremy pouted. “How much longer are we going to have to wait?”

  “I’m sure he’ll tell us something soon. And when he does, we’ll let you know right away.”

  “Okay.” That at least seemed to cheer him up a little.

  “Jesse, are you even still there?!” Noah’s voice came from across the forest. While Jesse had been distracted, he had tripped over a small bush and face planted in the grass.

  He winced. “Shoot, sorry Noah!”

  The game continued for several more rounds, until the counselors decided to call for a snack break. They rejoined the swimming group by the pond and fresh fruit and juice boxes were distributed among them to enjoy.

  As everyone split up into groups to chat amongst themselves, Jesse and his friends sat on one of the blankets that had been spread out on the ground to enjoy their snacks.

  “That was pretty fun,” Alicia remarked cheerfully. Since she had been partnered with Ashton, who Jesse was still on the fence about if he could actually speak or not, Evelyn had stepped in to be her leader when it came time for the two to switch. She did the same thing for Mason as well.

  “For you maybe,” Noah grumbled. “You had a partner that was actually paying attention.”

  “It was just that first round!”

  “At least your partner knew what left and right meant,” Siobhan said.

  “Barely.”

  Jesse ignored the barb. “How did Ashton do?”

  “Really well. He almost didn’t need me to guide him.” She looked over to where her brother was sitting with the other kids his age. Or, roughly his age, in the case of Cindy and Tommy.

  “What’d you think of the Ferns?” Siobhan asked. “Do you think Ashton will get along with that AJ kid?”

  She nodded. “I think so. He looked really excited to meet them earlier.”

  He did? Jesse didn’t think he looked any different from normal, but maybe she had a special connection to him, being his sister. Maybe she could just understand him better than other people could.

  “Heya, kids,” Evelyn greeted before crouching down on the grass next to them. “Glad to see you’re enjoying yourselves. I just came to give you a message from Dr. Rotbart real quick.”

  Jesse and his friends immediately straightened up. That’s right, she’s his assistant. Dr. Rotbart must have told her everything about their haunted house adventure.

  “First, and he was pretty specific about this, he wanted to point out that while you asked him not to send Adam to come tell you the news, you didn’t say anything about sending me, so you can’t technically be mad at him about this.” She rolled her eyes. “Adam and I told him his reasoning was stupid, but he wouldn’t listen to us.”

  “It’s okay,” Alicia told her. “He can get a pass since we’re not at school this time.”

  “And secondly, he’s finished repairing Sophia and wants you all to come over to the lab after camp so he can reactivate her.”

  “That’s great,” he said, relieved that their wait was finally over. Then it hit him. “Hold on, reactivate?”

  Evelyn nodded. “Rotbart said he’s gleaned everything he can from her in this state and he wants to try bringing her back to life to interrogate her.”

  Noah scowled. “Is that really such a good idea?”

  She flashed them all a perfect smile, and Jesse noticed that her teeth looked to be made of a white-colored metal. “Don’t worry. Both Adam and I will be there to handle her. Besides, I’m also curious to see what she has to say for herself.”

  Siobhan fiddled with her amulet. “If Rotbart thinks it’s safe, then it should be fine, right?”

  Jesse wasn’t so sure, but it looked like one way or another they were about to finally get some answers about what happened that night.