Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state - Gandi
Scan the QR code to watch our “hatch-cam” for twenty-four hour surveillance of a nest full of life!
There’s the code and info about the church sponsoring the trail-cam. Ethan gets out his phone and scans the code. Service out here is slow, and it takes a minute for the footage to pull up. We step back several paces and he points to something on his phone.
“That’s Stuart’s grave.”
It’s a little to the left of the nest and in clear view. “Seriously?”
“Yep.”
“Can’t we cover the camera?”
“In theory, but it takes time to dig up a grave. If someone notices the camera view is blocked, there’s a chance they could come out and try to fix it. And that camera records audio.” He inhales, thinking for a moment. “I can get the grass laid back out pretty well, but it will be obvious the ground was disturbed. That alone can raise suspicions but pair it with the camera being blacked out at the same time.” He shakes his head. “We’ll have to hack in and play something on a loop, cover it to be safe, dig up our corpse, uncover the cam and get the hell out of here as fast as we can.”
“Knowing how to do all that is not a flex I thought I would find hot, yet here I am.”
“I’m gonna have to have Jules help with the hacking and it’s going to take some time. We won’t be digging up graves tonight.”
“Darn. And yes, I actually mean that.”
We sit on a bench and finish eating lunch and then head back home. There are a few things to do around the house, with my biggest one being I need to catch up on laundry. I should probably vacuum and dust because it’s been a while since either of those have been done. Hunter isn’t an actual German Shepherd, but he sure sheds like one.
I’m happily surprised to walk into the house and smell cleaning products. Nik is in the kitchen wearing yellow rubber gloves, scrubbing the fronts of the cabinets.
“Wow,” I say, taking off my shoes. Romeo squirms in my hands, excited to be somewhere new. He wants to get down and bounce around, but there’s too much for him to get into on the first floor. “You don’t have to do all this, Nik.”
“I know, milady. You know what they say about busy hands and idle minds. Granted, there are other things I’d prefer to be doing with my hands, but I canceled my date tonight just in case you need me.”
“Thank you,” I tell him. “Really. You’re a good friend and I’m really glad you came back when you did.”
Nik looks up from the soapy cabinet door, eyes a little misty. “I’m glad I did too.”
“I’m going to go put this guy away. I can come help you and then maybe we can go ride?”
He smiles. “I’d like that a lot.”
* * *
“Sometimes you gotta leanon him a little,” I tell Nik, rolling my eyes and Sundance. “But once he knows you want to pick his hooves, he’ll lift up the others for you right away.” I duck back into Mystery’s stall, running a brush over him. We both got sweaty riding this afternoon and had a great ride. Sundance was content just walking around the arena with Nik and coming out here was exactly what I needed. Keeping a clear head and a steady mind really is important when it comes to fending off any sort of psychic attack, including those from spirits.
Nik helps me sweep and dust the barn once we put the horses back out. The temps are supposed to drop significantly next week, so I decide to keep my baby chicks in their little enclosure in the garage for another week. This also gives us more time to build a bigger run. I’ve always wanted goats as well, and once we get a paddock built, the chickens can have free run in it along with the goats, who can act as good guardians over chickens.
I wander through the house, forgetting where I last had my phone. Ethan has to call it for me, and it’s upstairs in the closet where I left it when I changed into breeches. My heart skips a beat when I see that I have a dozen missed calls from Keith.
“Fuck,” I mumble and call him back.
“Thank god,” he breathes into the phone. “We have a problem.”
“What is it?” I put the call on speaker and hurry out of the room and down the stairs.
“My aunt figured out the radon spike was bullshit and she says we’re being ridiculous to be that scared of a ghost.Everyday, I’m losing money,” he says in a voice meant to imitate her. “She has an interior designer scheduled to come over tonight for a walk through so they can start putting together ideas. Her specialty is Feng Shui and she’s wearing a big ass pentagram necklace in her bio photo on her website.
“Shit.” I motion for Ethan, who is sitting in the living room playing video games, to take his headphones off so he can hear.
“That’s literally like throwing chum into the water.”
“Right, and the more I try to explain, the crazier I sound. Even to me.”