“I’m stuffed,” he said, patting his stomach.

“You eat less than Alice,” Jessica said, taking a bite of the sandwich.

“I think I’ve conditioned myself to be full with less.”

“You’re no starving artist, so you need to start eating.”

He rolled onto his side to face her. “To tell you the truth, I’m usually too sick to eat. Just the thought of chewing food when your head feels like it’s going to crack open is enough to go on a liquid diet. My father used to tell me a dark beer is like a meal in a can.”

“If you even think of going alcoholic on me, I’ll beat you.”

Jessica had done her homework after meeting him, reading up on psychic phenomena and the lives of famous psychic-mediums. The fact that most ended up with strange, debilitating medical conditions and substance abuse problems hadn’t flown under her radar. She’d once grilled him about his own family and their gifted and at times renowned lineage. Unfortunately, they did little to break the stereotype of the sickly, addicted psychic medium.

Jessica suddenly leaned forward, staring hard at a spot on the water. Eddie looked too.

He hoped she wasn’t seeing the same thing he could.

Jason had a handful of rocks. Plucking them one after another, he skipped rocks like a little machine gun.

The ghostly remains of a boy—he looked to be no older than his early teens—rose from the water. Jason’s rocks sailed through the apparition. The boy was bloated, his waterlogged flesh splitting at the seams, his face blown into a distorted mask that would give even the hardest homicide cop nightmares.

Being as casual as he could, Eddie said, “What’s the matter, Jess?”

She squinted against the sun. “I thought I saw something in the water, like a fish breaking the surface. Did you see it?”

Eddie allowed himself a small sigh of relief.

“It’s not a fish. I think part of you was able to detect it, but there’s not enough there for your brain to piece it together.”

“Is that your way of telling me there’s an EB in the water?”

“Right in the line of fire.”

The boy stared at Jason and Alice with distended eyes. Eddie closed his eyes hard, trying to keep the boy’s image from burning itself into his memory. It was one thing to see the dead. It was another to see a representation of them at the time of their death. There was no pattern to it. Some chose to revert to what they were as a child, or a younger, healthier version of themselves. Others retained their death mask, victims of horrid accidents, drownings and suicides. He’d asked many an EB about it but even they had no answers.

Eddie had once shocked Jessica when he told her the dead had more questions about the afterlife than the living. She’d refused to believe him, thinking he was holding back on information gleaned from a lifetime of communing with the deceased.

“Do you think we should tell the kids to give it a rest? I don’t want the EB to think they’re being disrespectful.”

The apparition turned its heavy head in his direction. For a brief moment, Eddie was able to snatch its thoughts from the cacophony that surrounded him.

“He doesn’t,” Eddie said. “He heard the rocks skimming over the water and was curious. He thinks Alice needs more practice.”

Shielding her eyes from the early evening sun, Jessica stared hard at the place where the phantom boy stood hip deep in the water.

“Straining your eyes won’t make him come into focus for you.”

“But I did see something before. Maybe you’re rubbing off on me.” She gathered up their empty plates and dirty napkins, tossing them in a canvas bag. “Does the boy need anything from us?”

He shook his head. “He just wants to watch. I get the feeling he hasn’t been with the others on the island. There are some behind us by the tree line over there who seem to recognize him but can’t communicate with him. I think it’s been a long while since he surfaced, so to speak.”

“This is such a sad, sad place. I can’t tell you how many times I just felt like crying since we came. It comes in waves, and leaves just as quickly.”

Alice rubbed the dirt from her small hands. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“I’m surprised your arm doesn’t hurt, you threw so many. You got so good,” Jessica said.

The little girl smiled proudly. “Is it nighttime yet?”

Jessica checked her watch. “I know the sun is out, but it is getting late. Pretty soon we have to get you back to the house. Can we talk for a little bit?”

“Sure.”

The children sat cross-legged, facing Jessica with smiling, open faces.

Jessica said, “I want to ask you about the Last Kids. Is that okay?”

“It’s fine, Ms. Backman,” Jason said. “We’re not afraid of them.”

“That’s good. You’re two super brave kids, you know that? Has anyone else seen or heard them?”

The children shook their heads.

“Have you told your parents or uncle about them?”

Again, they shook their heads. “It’s our secret,” Alice said. “But we knew we could share it with you and Mr. Home.”

“And we’re very glad you did,” Eddie said.

“Have you ever experienced anything like this before, in places you’ve lived or visited?” Jessica asked.

“A couple of times,” Jason replied. “But never like this. And never with kids like us.”

“Like you, honey?”

“Our age,” he said. “Well, a lot of them, anyway.”

No wonder they’re not frightened, Eddie thought. This is nothing new to them.

Eddie asked, “When you’re around the Last Kids, how do you feel?”

They thought about it for a bit. Alice said, “Sometimes, I get tired, like I want to take a nap.”

Jason nodded in agreement. “That’s not bad, is it?”

Jessica caressed their cheeks. “No, not at all. I’ve seen the way you to run around. I’m sure you just get tired from being so active.”

“You’re not tired now, are you?” Eddie asked, knowing they were surrounded by EB children.

“No, not at all,” they said in unison.

Eddie set a reminder to ask Jessica how she was feeling. His theory was that now that a larger power source was in their midst, the EBs would focus their attention on Jessica, leaving the kids alone for a spell.

Jason cleaned his hands on his tan slacks, leaving trails of grime along the outer thighs. “Can we do one more thing?” he asked.

“Sure,” Jessica said. Eddie got off the blanket and helped her fold it up. It was an odd scene, this faux idyll amidst an island with a dark secret, teeming with the souls of dead children while a handful of fame seekers plotted a way to take advantage of the situation.

“Would you like to see the cemetery?” Jason said.

“The cemetery? I thought Eddie and I saw the whole island. I didn’t see any cemetery.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “It’s not like a real cemetery. It just has a couple of headstones.”

“Where is it?” Eddie asked.

Alice pointed over their shoulders. “Behind the house. It’s hard to find because there’s a ring of trees around them. Come on, we’ll show you.”

“Do the Last Kids go there too?” Jessica asked, slinging the canvas bag over her shoulder.

Alice said, “No, they don’t like it there. They don’t like us to go there, either, but I figured it would be all right because you’re with us. Right?”

She looked past them. Eddie knew there were dozens of EBs not ten feet away.

“Can you see them now?” he asked.

Alice giggled in reply and jogged off to the hidden cemetery with Jason right behind her.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Paul had changed into a turtleneck sweater and black jeans. The house was downright arctic, but he also had to dress better for the camera. Nina had donned several more layers of long scarves that swished past her waist. Mitch and Rusty were wearing thin gloves.

“So, how should we start?” Paul asked.

It was still light outside, but they had closed all the blinds to amp up the eeriness of the house. It would be truly dark soon enough and they would switch to night vision.