“Come on,” Caleb said, standing and pulling her to her feet. “I’ll tell you everything outside. And I mean everything.”
As baffled as she was, Kira let herself be drawn to the door. She walked down the steps, and had barely set foot on solid ground again when she heard a horrific crash! from behind her.
“Caleb!”
Whipping around, she was just in time to see Caleb jumping back onto the platform by the door as several of the steps suddenly collapsed in on themselves, falling into the dank space beneath.
“Oh my God, are you all right?” Kira called from where she stood on the ground below. How could that have happened?! The stairs hadn’t had anything wrong with them three seconds ago!
At least Caleb also seemed to look like there was nothing wrong with him – but that didn’t make things any better! He could have been seriously injured, all because she apparently hadn’t noticed the steps needed some maintenance!
“I’m so sorry,” Kira said, shaking her head. “I swear, I get those things checked every six months –”
“It’s not your fault, Kira,” Caleb reassured her, holding up his hands. “This is all… well, it’s just me. It’s not just the coffee and the stairs – you remember the plate? And the tree branch? And how I told you my car broke down?”
Kira nodded. “Wow. I can’t believe how often these things seem to happen to you. You’ve got to be the most unlucky guy I’ve ever heard of. It’s just like you’re under a curse or something –”
Kira had only said it as a bit of a lame joke to try to lighten the mood, but Caleb’s eyes immediately brightened as she spoke. Suddenly, he was down on the ground with her – a jump of about six feet, and yet, he’d taken it as if it was nothing, and at such a speed that she hadn’t even noticed him doing it.
Whoa – what the –
“Then – you do know about curses? That makes things so much easier – I was worried you might not believe what I have to tell you. So you must know about shifters then as well – I wondered, because when I tasted that cupcake I knew that – uh –”
Maybe Caleb had noticed the look of complete non-comprehension on Kira’s face, because he suddenly trailed off, frowning slightly.
“Oh,” he said after a moment. “You, uh, don’t actually know about any of those things at all, do you?”
Kira blinked up at him. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, aware she probably looked like a fish, but she wasn’t really sure what it was she was supposed to say.
“Uh… curses?” she finally managed to stutter out. “Shifters?”
Well, obviously she’d heard of curses before – but they were things from fairytales. No matter how unlucky Caleb might be, he wasn’t actually under a curse. And as for shifters…
Nope, no idea there.
“Ah.” Caleb looked a little sheepish. “I think maybe I’ve sprung this on you in a way I didn’t mean to. I was just overwhelmed for a moment, thinking that you already knew…”
“Already knew about what?” Kira asked, starting to feel just a little impatient. Caleb wasn’t making any sense. And just how had he jumped all the way down here so fast? Or at all?!
“Right,” Caleb said, looking down. “It seems like I have a little bit of explaining to do. I should say though… what I’m about to tell you might sound a little implausible at first.”
“Um. Okay,” Kira said warily.
“Maybe we could go sit down on those park benches over there,” Caleb said, then paused, considering. “Or maybe you could sit. I don’t want to break anything else around here.”
Kira laughed despite herself. She still had no real idea of what was actually going on, but everything had taken on such a feeling of dreamy unreality that right now she felt ready for anything. Crossing the small clearing to the park bench, she sat.
“Okay. Hit me.”
Caleb swallowed. “Okay. Well, here goes. You know how I said I was here just for a bit of hiking? That’s not actually the case.”
Kira blinked. “All right.”
“The truth is… the truth is that I’m here looking for something. I just have no idea where to find it – or even what it is, really, just that it’s here in this parkland. Somewhere. And that it’s gold.”
Kira’s eyes widened. “Gold? Hey – wait. Is this why you were asking me about if I’d ever heard any rumors of buried treasure around here?”
Caleb nodded sheepishly. “Yeah. It is.”