Young Writers Society

Lorcan followed Bobby and Kazimir as they rejoined Jack and Chloe. Kazimir had already been attacked by a ghost, and that was when they had all been together - he didn't want to think what would happen if they were separated.

"They got away," Lorcan said. "We might have been able to catch up to them, but we won't be able to catch up to them now."

He glanced back in the direction of the pile of salt on the ground. Whoever had dropped it on Kazimir and the ghost must have known a thing or two about ghosts, but it didn't seem like they wanted to help out the five of them any further than that.

Lorcan let out a quiet sigh and looked around the town. He wished Second was here; his best friend would know what to do.

Bobby went to help Jack back to his feet, standing beside him and wordlessly offering a hand up.

Jack began to get up to see Bobby extending his hand. Just who was this kid? Why did he look like nobody had looked after him? Jack didn't like the condition the boy was in. What surprised him more was that he hadn't noticed all this till now when he was only a few inches away from him.

He got up

"Thanks!" He said, giving Bobby a small smile.

Bobby gave a little nod and shuffled back a few steps. He didn't like being this close to people, even people who seemed pretty okay. There was still a ghost around, somewhere. And someone else. Another person who knew what to do about the ghosts. Maybe they should be looking for them.

Or maybe not. No one went looking for the Hounds - or, the Hound, no one ever thought there might be two of them - just because they were the best killers in the city.

Most in the city just picked up a gun themselves.

Bobby shivered.

Kazimir watched as Bobby helped Jack up and sighed, looking back around the town.

"I can get on top of that building real quick and see if salt kid left any tracks or anything. Seems like our only lead as far as people around here who might know what's going on. That, or we stick our heads in another building. But if they're all as empty as the church, I don't know if we'll find answers about this ghost town."

"It would leave you vulnerable," Lorcan pointed out. "The only thing that seemed to work against the ghost was the salt - I think we should get some to protect ourselves before we start looking for the person that helped us."

He didn't add that Kazimir was the only one of them who had actually been attacked by the ghost - he was guessing and hoping that Kazimir would think of that, too.

Kazimir sighed. He wasn't worried about being vulnerable, but if it meant he could stay around to protect Bobby and the other kids, fine.

He gestured around to the other buildings. "Which one of these you think has a bunch of salt shakers, then?"

Bobby bit the inside of his cheek, thinking. A lot of the old guys liked to tell ghost stories to pass the time around the fires, and a lot of them were really similar. Ghosts didn't like salt, so hide in a salt circle if you need to be safe. They don't like iron either, in most of the stories. Maybe...

He shook the thought from his head. He didn't know anything. He couldn't know anything about ghosts. He was just a stupid kid and this wasn't a scary story told in the dark when the cold turned your fingers blue and everything was scary because there was always a chance that someone there wouldn't wake up in the morning.

"If there's a restaurant, we could check there," Bobby suggested weakly. There were iron fire pokers next to most fireplaces. If he could find a fireplace then he could find one of those. Just...because. It wasn't going to work, but he might feel better if he had something to swing.

Lorcan scanned the parallel rows of unfamiliar buildings. He knew something about what buildings housed what back where he really belonged, but this wasn't that place. The buildings provided little clues to what was a restaurant or a market. They all had a similar design - same paint coat, same towering, wooden structures, and same dusty, cracked windows.

But then his eye caught a glimpse of some faded letters on one of them.

The letters that were left spelled out "B A R Y" but the faded loaf of bread that was pictured below it on the glass helped him fill in the blanks. He barely knew anything about baking, but salt seemed like something anyone who was cooking would have.

He pointed at the bakery.

"I found a bakery," he said. When he glanced down the road, the ghost was nowhere to be found. They would hopefully be safe just walking to it.

Bobby looked the bakery over. It was like every other house in this town, completely abandoned and unkempt, unsafe. But he knew well enough that buildings like that were often sturdier than they looked, so long as you didn't step on the wrong place on the floor.

So he went first, hurrying across the street and hopping through a broken window before the others had a chance to follow. He landed gently and looked around. He was in the main bit of the bakery, where all the buying and selling happened. There was a counter and a display that probably used to be full of bread and pastries and the like, but now there were only a few left, and even Bobby wouldn't attempt to eat those.

He crept forward, testing the floor for even the slightest give before choosing where to step. The floorboards were warped overtime, but Bobby figured that was from heat, not water. He didn't see any mold. Still, he didn't want to step on anything that creaked. In case the ghost was still around. In case there were more people hiding about. They still didn't know who had dumped all that salt on Kazimir.

He made it to the counter and jumped on top of it. There was a door to another room behind it, where he figured there would be storage, but for now, he would wait here. He didn't want to go through the door first.

Jack was still in a bit of a shock after the incident. It, of course, wasn't the ghost that triggered him. It was something else. He couldn't tell what. It was something from his past.

Chloe was squeezing Jack's hand, trying to comfort him a little. It was evident on her face that even she was as clueless as to what just happened as anyone else. It wasn't just evident to someone who cared to notice. Almost anyone could tell that she was freaking out.

Bobby went through the window. Lorcan contemplated going through the front door instead, but quickly found that it was locked when he tried to open it. He settled for slipping in the less traditional route - and paid the price. His body was really too big to be slipping in through the window. Just when he was almost out, his hand caught on a piece of jagged glass.

Lorcan was immediately hit by the smell of blood.

He got through the rest of the window and observed the damage.

There was a nasty gash on the back of his hand. It was painful, too. He wished he had some way to just heal it on the spot, but he didn't have that luxury here. He had to settle for a different approach and hope he could find a first aid kit somewhere.

He sucked on the cut.

He was careful not to accidentally make it worse by putting his fangs into his hand. He just wanted to stop the blood from spilling over too much while he was looking for something that could actually stop the bleeding.

There was a rag and a bottle of water on the counter. He didn't want to think about what the rag had been used for, but the bottle of water looked relatively okay. He glanced down at his good hand. He wasn't going to be able to take care of the cut one-handed.

He glanced over at Bobby.

After a moment of hesitation - and unlocking the front door - he went over to him.

He put his hand down, hoping that Bobby was squeamish at the sight of blood.

"Could you help me?" he asked. "The glass in the window cut my hand. I saw a cloth and a water bottle I could use to watch the rag and my hand, but I can't do it one handed - the blood would get everywhere."

Bobby's gaze had followed Lorcan silently from the moment he entered, and he hadn't missed the cut. He knew why Lorcan was approaching him before he even spoke. Still, he didn't interrupt.

When Lorcan was looking at him, Bobby was looking down at the cracked wood of the counter, tracing the little lines and seams with his eyes.

He gave a little nod when Lorcan finished his explanation and reached for the bottle and washcloth. He swirled the water bottle before he poured any of it out to check for anything nasty settled at the bottom. There was nothing.

He carefully wet the cloth and wrung it out, then took Lorcan's injured hand and wrapped it up, not saying a word or meeting his eye all the while. This would be better if he had something to disinfect it. That glass wasn't clean, and neither was this cloth. There was nothing worse than an infection when you couldn't afford the hospital.

Lorcan gave him a smile after the cut was taken care of. It still hurt, but at least it was covered up.

"Thank you," he said. He tried to pretend that he hadn't noticed how Bobby hadn't met his eyes the entire time. Instead, he tried to think of how he would take care of it when he got back to Charlotte's house. He would have tried making a healing potion - or buying one - but Charlotte had said they didn't have any when Second had gotten that bruise on his knee last week.

Kazimir watched as Bobby and Lorcan crawled in through the window like goons as he walked up to the door. He'd seen Lorcan tug on it, but he didn't know why Lorcan was using restraint. It was an abandoned bakery. No one was going to care about a broken door.

Kazimir looked over at Jack and Chloe. Neither of them looked too good.

"C'mon," he said with a wave of his hand. "The more salt we get the less we have to worry about ghosts. We'll be okay. Let's go."

And with that, he led the way to the door and after testing the knob to get a feel for the strength of the lock, he backed up and lifted his foot. With a powerful smash he kicked the door in, sending it swinging to the side, slamming into the inside wall.

"I just kicked down the door!" he shouted into the bakery, in case the loud sound scared Bobby, or Lorcan thought it was another ghost. "It's just me!"