They are!



I tried!

See?

"Do we have to go through everything? Can't we just say what happened and get it over with?"

"Of course not! It wouldn't make sense otherwise. There's a flow to these things."

"But-

"Shush!"

And she kept on telling the story. How we'd gone back to the cabin, and how everyone had decided that they had to tell their OWN ghost stories after everyone was in bed and the lights were out.

In one of the pauses, after Miranda had finished with a really looong story that didn't make much sense, about a ghost who was maybe an old woman who lived in an attic, the topic had somehow turned back to the bakery story.

"I'd never go out there," said Brielle.



I'd borrowed some suntan lotion from her earlier when we were doing the water safety course and she seemed nice.

"Oh come on!" said Sam, "It's not like it's real."

"I know that!" said Brielle, "But I still wouldn't go. 'Cause, you know, IF."

"If what?" I asked, after a second.

"You know! IF."

I didn't.

"If you were wrong. IF it were real, then you'd be in trouble, and there's no reason anyways. Going out there'd just be looking for trouble."

"I'd go," said Sam, "I'd totally go."

"Yeah right," said Brielle. "You say that, but -

"No I'd totally go! I'm not scared of ghosts. Even if they were real."

"I don't believe you," said Brielle, "No, no! Don't get offended. I don't think you're lying, I just don't think you'd do it. Not if it came right down to it. It's easy not to be scared when you're here and not, you know, not there."




Of course.

"Oh yeah? Well I will go. I'll take pictures. I'll take pictures OF THE OVEN even."

Brielle just snorted at this and turned over in her bunk.

"I will! I'll go tomorrow night after lights out. Whose with me?"

There was silence, then Jane said, "Knock it off Sam."

But Sam didn't knock it off. Sam never knocked it off.

"You all scared? All little chickens afraid of the big bad bakery ghosts B'aaaaawk b'aaawk b'aawk."

I was scared. I didn't want to go out to the bakery. That sounded dangerous, even if there weren't any ghosts. Old industrial buildings like that can be death-traps, my Dad had filled my head with a huge number of things that can go wrong when places get abandoned. I mean, water damage alone can -

"Come on! Someone? You!"



She was pointing at me.

"Uh…" she paused, clearly trying to remember my name.

I decided to help her. "I'm Bina."

"You're not scared right?"

"Well, a-actually I don't really -

"Right! See? She's not scared. We're going! Tomorrow, after dinner."

And that is, eventually, what we did.

Notes