Chapter 33
It wasn’t dark in the trees. It wasn’t dark out of the trees, for that matter, otherwise the bell would have already been rung, and the kids would be heading for their cabins. It was a little dim, though, since the trees were filtering out some of the early evening summer sunshine. There were some shadows, some noises coming from the gentle breeze through the branches, and movements here and there from those same branches – and from the assorted birds and mammals that were in the area.
Perfect for ghost hunting.
Peter and knew something about ghost hunting. When Peter was still living with the Tatros – before he’d even met Tony – the older boys had been pretty hooked on the reality shows that focused on trying to discover paranormal things; ghosts, bigfoot, leprechauns, you name it they were trying to discover it.
“Too bad we don’t have anything to record with,” Ned said as they walked into the trees, looking up at the branches as if expecting to see ghosts peeking down at the from every corner. “We could do the thing where we ask questions and then listen later for answers.”
Peter grinned.
“That’d be cool if it really answered.” He didn’t really believe in ghosts, but he wasn’t a complete skeptic, either, so he was willing to be swayed if they actually saw something. Then he frowned, and turned back the way they’d come, looking behind them. “Did you hear that?”
Ned stopped, looking back the same way.
“What did you hear?”
“I don’t know…” he admitted. “It kind of sounded like a flag does…”
“Maybe it’s a ghost sheet…”
“They don’t really have sheets.”
Ned shrugged.
“Maybe. Maybe the ones who dies in gross ways started using sheets to hide the blood and guts.”
“I didn’t think about that,” Peter admitted, still looking over his shoulder. “Do you feel that…?”
“What?”
Peter hesitated and then shrugged.
“Nothing, I guess.” He started walking, again, but now Ned was looking around a little more, and was (maybe) starting a little whenever he heard any weird noises.
“Did you hear that?”
Peter listened.
“No. What was it?”
“Ghost, maybe?”
They were coming to a chain-link fence, and the boys knew that it was the one that went around the outer perimeter of the camp. The barrier that told the campers they were supposed to go any further – and also was intended to keep any larger wildlife out of the camp area. Not that there was a concern about bears or wolves or anything like that, but there were plenty of deer and while they were shy, they could also be dangerous if they felt threatened. The camp didn’t want to take any chances, no matter how slight.
Ned reached out, hooking his fingers into the fence and pulling himself up a little. Not to climb over the fence, but because he was a boy, and boys liked climbing things. The trees weren’t really suitable for that since the trunks went up a good twelve feet before the first branches started, but a fence was always worth a climb.
“I like this place,” he told his friend. Then he flinched and jerked back with a yelp, falling from the fence and looking around, wildly. “What was that?”
“What?”
“Something touched me!”
Peter looked at him, wide-eyed.
“I didn’t see anything.” But he felt something. The same weird tingle that he’d felt, earlier. Not the something bad is happening tingle that he sometimes felt, but something different. Something weird. The same thing he’d felt when he’d been getting checked by the doctor that morning. “Are you okay?”
Ned was looking around, still, rubbing his arm.
“Yeah. It didn’t hurt.”
“A ghost, maybe?” Peter held his arm up. “Touch me, too,” he said to the empty air around them.
“What are-“
“Arrgh!” Peter jerked his hand back. “It touched me!”
Ned lost his nerve and broke, running back toward the camp. Peter didn’t, though. He couldn’t. The thing he felt was still there, and now he didn’t think it was a ghost. He wondered if SHIELD was doing something. Maybe Natasha was messing with him and Ned? It didn’t really seem like the thing she’d do – she didn’t like playing tricks on people, because she didn’t like having them played on her, he knew – but maybe someone else. Or maybe it was something else. He hesitated.
“Hello?”
There wasn’t an answer, but the feeling was still there. A tingle. Kind of weird, but not painful. And not scary.
“Are you there?” There was a tap on his shoulder, and he gasped, jerking back and almost falling. “Wow… Are you a ghost?”
Which was dumb, he supposed, since he didn’t have any way to record what it might say and no way to hear the answer, otherwise.
“Peter! Come on!”
Ned ran, but he was loyal enough that he wasn’t going to leave his friend behind.
Peter hesitated.
“I gotta go.”
He turned and trotted toward the sound of Ned’s voice, but he looked back a couple of times. He didn’t see anything, and the feeling of being followed never abated, nor did the tingle that he was feeling.
“Are you okay?” Ned asked, standing near the edge of the trees and looking a little wide-eyed.
“Yeah. That was weird, huh?”
“Yeah. Do we tell Bucky? Or call your dad?”
Peter hesitated, again, and shook his head.
“We can’t tell anyone.”
“That we saw a ghost? Of course we can.”
“They won’t believe us.”
“It touched me,” Ned reminded him, pointing to his arm.
“You can’t prove it,” Peter pointed out.
“I wouldn’t lie – about something like that, anyway. Besides, you can tell them it touched you, too. They’d believe us.”
“Or they’d think it’s something bad and make me go home.”
Peter had Tony figured out pretty well, by then, and knew his adoptive father didn’t like having him in any weird or potentially dangerous situations. Hanging out with ghosts would definitely qualify, he was sure. Nick and Natasha weren’t any better.
“They wouldn’t do that…” But Ned wasn’t so sure, of course. “Do you think?”
“Maybe. Just don’t tell anyone, okay? Maybe we’ll try to find something to record with and go looking for it again when we can get proof.”
“That’d be pretty cool.”
“Yeah.”
“And it’d be real, too,” Ned added. “Not like those shows.”
“Yeah.”
“We could probably be famous.”
Nothing more fun than having a secret adventure – and becoming famous.
“Probably.” Of course, Peter was already a little famous because of Tony. A couple of girls were heading in their direction, giggling about something they were discussing. “Let’s talk about it later, okay?”
“Yeah.” Ned looked over and saw Dr. Strange on his porch, waving at them, and he waved back, making Peter look over and wave as well. “Let’s go see what they’re doing in the gym.”
“Okay.”
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
Strange was on the porch when he caught sight of Peter and his friend coming out of the wooded area just on the edge of his little cabin. Not such a big deal, really, since there were kids running all over the camp, just then. Luckily, none of them were falling down and hurting themselves, so he was able to enjoy his evening as it were, without taking care of minor injuries.
The big deal was that he could see the Cloak of levitation hovering near the boys, following them. Almost close enough to actually touch Peter at one point, although it moved a little and avoided the contact.
Ugh. He waved, trying to catch its attention, definitely not appreciating the fact that the thing was being so willful. And scowled when Ned and then Peter both waved back at him but the cloak apparently ignored him. The sorcerer supreme muttered a couple of choice swear words and then double-checked the spell that he’d used to make sure no one would see the cloak. Since it would made him look like a crazy man if he chased after the boys, yelling at the invisible piece of fabric that was following them, he forced himself to settle back on the chair on the porch and try to relax, but he had to admit that picking up garbage might have been a lot less stressful, after all.