Mae hadn't slept well the night before. She'd been asleep for the usual ten hours, sure, but she didn't feel rested. Germ's words had been stuck in her brain. She'd tried to dismiss what he said about seeing someone at the mines, but she couldn't. Everything was swimming around in her head.
When Mae woke up from her dream about a sky filled with trees and a party filled with noise, she had already decided on going to the mines. She wasn't going to be able to sleep properly until she saw this guy herself.
Mae hurried on downstairs without logging onto messenger. Bea, Gregg, and Angus were all probably at work, so there was no point in using it to say where she was going. Besides, Mae was just heading out to take a look. They didn't need to worry.
When Mae got down to the bottom floor, she decided it would still be best to go and talk to her mom. Mae turned the corner and walked past the stairs, into the kitchen where Candy Borowski was sitting.
She wasn't reading one of her books this evening. It was a newspaper. Mae's mom had been reading newspapers a lot more lately. Mae could guess why. She was probably hoping to find some news about Aunt Molly.
It hurt to think about that, though.
"Morning, mom," Mae said as she hopped up onto the kitchen counter.
Mae's mom looked up from her paper and gave her daughter a warm smile. "Good morning, movie star," she said. "How did things go last night?"
Mae didn't know how to answer that. They hadn't done a whole lot of movie-making, after all. Mostly, they'd just wandered around in the woods and confronted the weight of their past sins.
"Kinda slow," Mae said after thinking about it a bit. "Got kinda weird after. We saw Germ with a torch in the woods."
"A… torch?" Mae's mom repeated. She barely knew who Germ was, but Mae got the feeling that even she was starting to get a good picture of Germ's weirdness. "Like, a literal torch?"
"Yup," Mae said. "The kind you use to chase Frankensteins."
"That can't be safe," Candy mused. "What if the fire spread? You could burn the whole forest down."
"Well, they'd have more space for parking lots," Mae joked.
That got a laugh out of her mom. Good. A laughing mom cheered Mae up most of the time, and this was one of those times. Her work done, Mae leaped down from the counter.
"Well, I'm heading out," Mae said. "Got some stuff I wanna check out."
"Check out, eh?" Mae's mom asked curiously. "Ooh, is this good news? How's the job hunt going?"
Oh, God. The job hunt. Mae had promised her mom she'd start looking for a job. She'd completely forgotten after everything with the Dream Casey had started up. All in all, Mae had applied to maybe two places in, like, a month, and she'd been turned down by both of them.
"Still waiting to hear back," Mae said quickly. "But, y'know, fingers crossed."
"Fingers crossed," Mae's mom repeated. "Okay, bye-bye, sweetie."
Mae let out a quiet little sigh of relief as she turned to exit the kitchen. She felt guilty about lying to her mom, but she didn't want to let her down, either. Of course, Mae felt like the longer she went without finding a job, the more she was letting her mom down.
It wasn't easy, though. Mae's work experience didn't exactly inspire confidence. Not to mention, most of the business-owners in town knew her as the girl from the softball incident. Either that, or the girl who'd once tried to climb the flagpole outside of the school.
She wound up getting stuck on top of that flag pole for nearly six hours. The fire department had to come in to get her down, but she ended up just falling off of the pole and landing on Tim Whitley.
Oh, yeah. That was another person Mae needed to make amends to.
Mae had completely lost her train of thought by the time she made it to the front door.
Mae had more or less made a beeline towards the old basketball courts that sat on the edge of the woods. She didn't stop to say hi to anyone, which was a bit weird for a social butterfly like herself. Mostly, Mae just didn't want to worry anyone, or let anyone see her acting strange.
It was just one guy, right? Mae probably didn't need help. No need for her friends to get all scared and protective and stuff. Probably.
Of course, once Mae made it out to the Food Donkey parking lots, she realized she'd forgotten one little detail: Germ. The little guy seemed to always be hanging out in the parking lot, and today was no exception. There he was, right in front of her.
He'd already seen her, so there was no way Mae could just, like, walk past him. Or maybe she could? It'd be rude, but Germ probably wouldn't mind. Germ was kind of a rude dude himself.
Whatever. Mae decided the best thing would be to just wave as she passed him by.
So she did just that. Mae gave Germ a friendly smile and lifted her hand as she walked past him.
"Hey," Germ said. Then, he immediately began following Mae.
It took Mae a few feet to realize he was tagging along. She stopped, turning around and looking at Germ. He had the same, Germy expression on his face. Mae had seen Germ smile, but it seemed like even when he was happy, Jeremy Warton defaulted to a blank, mysterious stare.
"Were you following me?" Mae asked slowly. Obvious question. If he was just walking home, he wouldn't be directly behind Mae. He'd be off to her right, to walk past the stairs and the basketball court. As it was, he was poised to walk up the stairs along with her.
"Yeah," Germ said. "You going to the mines?"
God dammit. Was Germ psychic or something? "Yeah…" Mae said slowly. "I'm just gonna check it out. See if I see the weird dude you saw."
"I mean, he didn't look all that weird," Germ said. "He just looked like a normal dude. Except he was staring at the mines. For, like, a long time."
"Yeah, see? That's weird." Mae said. "Nobody should stare at mines except for, like… miners."
"I mean, I can show you where I saw him," Germ said. "You probably shouldn't be out there alone anyway. You look bad."
He was probably right. Mae's head was throbbing, and her whole body felt tired. It was a repeat of last November, alright. Maybe not as bad, but definitely not good. Still, Mae didn't exactly like him pointing it out. Stupid, concerned Germ.
"I'm fine," Mae mumbled. "I'm good. You don't have to follow me, Germ."
"Okay," Germ said. "I'm still going to, though."
"I appreciate your honesty," Mae said. She sighed, too tired to argue this any further. "Fine. Adventure time with Germ. Let's go. You'll see what you missed out on last year."
The gang had filled Germ in on what had happened to them a few days after the incident in the mine. He'd thrown dynamite into a well for them, so it was the least they could do. It was difficult to tell how much of the story Germ believed, but he at least took their story seriously. Seriously enough to stake out the mine fairly regularly, it seemed.
Mae continued to march her way up the stairs that connected to the old basketball court, Germ in tow. Mae didn't know if this place had ever really been used for basketball. Mostly, it was just a place for the local skater kids and Gregg to hang out.
Well, Gregg had tried to be a skater kid. Tried and failed. Repeatedly.
It wasn't much of a basketball court now, though. There were no basketball… towers. Is that what you called them? Mae was going to call them that from now on.
"Hey, Germ," Mae said. "What do you call the… things you use to play basketball? Like, the big sticks with the baskets on them."
"Hoops," Germ said.
"What? The whole thing is called a hoop?" Mae asked. "But, like, the only hoopy part is the baskety thing. Why is the whole thing called a hoop?"
"It's the rules," Germ said simply. "You gotta call it a hoop."
Okay, this was all just making Mae more upset. Basketball was stupid.
Woods, woods, woods. Mae felt like a significant portion of her life in Possum Springs was spent in the woods. The woods were where the parties were held, and where teens got up to their nonsense. Even these woods, which were supposed to be off-limits, had seen their fair share of teenage malarkey.
Walking this path made Mae nervous. Her last few experiences in these woods weren't exactly good. She'd been shot at, for one. That was kinda bad. The second time, someone else had gotten shot, but they kind of had it coming.
Hmm. Mae hoped nobody got shot at this time.
"Hey, Germ," Mae said, "you live close by, right?"
"Sorta," Germ said. "Kinda. I don't tell anyone where I live."
Mae nodded. "Yeah, I think Gregg mentioned that once. Is your family, like, really embarrassing?"
Germ shook his head. He was walking side-by-side with Mae now. That was kind of nice. Mae liked hanging out with someone she was taller than. Hopefully, Germ wouldn't grow any more in his life.
"I like to keep my home life and social life seperate," Germ said. "I mean, I almost invited you over to dinner once."
That caught Mae off-guard. That was mostly because the idea of eating dinner at Germ's house was so mysterious. For some reason, Mae pictured Germ's family as, like, a clan of trickster wizards. That was probably wrong, huh?
"It was last year, when you were going through your stuff," Germ explained. "I thought you deserved a chance to, you know, chill. I decided against it, though. I was nervous about you meeting my gramma."
"The spooky one?" Mae asked.
"The only one," Mae said. "But, yeah, she's real spooky. I was worried she'd scare you off. She's kinda weird."
"My granddad was kinda weird," Mae said. "He kept a tooth in a safe."
"That's some secret society shit right there," Germ said.
The trees were beginning to clear away as they grew closer and closer to the mines. They were nearing the old mining equipment now. It was a graveyard for the things that had built up Possum Springs. It was so weird to think of what this place must have been like, and what the town must have been like, back when the mine was running. Back when the town wasn't dying.
Those guys in the mine said that what they were doing was keeping the town alive. Mae had given a lot of thought to what they'd said, but it didn't add up to her. Lots of bad things had happened since they'd started feeding that… thing. Businesses had closed, streets had flooded, people had died or gotten run over by runaway parade floats…
Had their sacrifices even done anything? Somehow, the idea that Casey died for no reason hurt even more than the idea that he died for some crappy old guys' retirement plan. Not like the reason mattered, really. But Mae wanted Casey's death to mean something, at least.
"Pretty amazing to be something, at least."
"Hey, Mae?"
Germ's voice brought Mae back to reality. Germ was staring at her. Was that concern in his expression, or just confusion? How long had Mae been standing there among the old machines and carts?
"Sorry," Mae muttered. "I spaced out there."
"Do you wanna take a few minutes?" Germ asked.
Mae appreciated that Germ hadn't suggested turning around entirely. With the way Mae's head felt, a rest sounded good. She promptly fell into a sitting position on the old, dusty ground. Germ joined her, his hands in his lap.
"I been up here before," Germ said. "Back when I was a senior."
Mae nodded. She hadn't been in Possum Springs then, of course. She probably spent Germ's graduation day sleeping in her room, trying not to cry. College had been garbage.
"Did you see anything weird?" Mae asked. Germ shook his head.
"Nah, it was a party. Tim Whitley was in town and wanted to do a, like, homecoming thing. Me, Casey, and Gregg went."
Mae chuckled. "Wow, you went to a college party in high school? I'm kinda jealous."
"It wasn't a lot of fun," Germ said. "It was cold and windy, and Casey spent all night making out with some girl. He almost didn't come home."
"Yeah, that sounds like Casey," Mae mused. "He was big on smooching, and being smooched. He was, like, the first one of us to actually get kissed."
Germ nodded slowly. Mae wasn't sure what that meant, exactly, but whatever.
"I've only kissed, like, two people," Mae said. She paused, and then decided to be honest. "Well, one-and-a-half. I don't think Cole counts that much. What about you?"
"I like skating," Germ said. "I don't have a lot of interest in, like, kissing. It's kinda dumb."
Mae considered Germ's view on things. Looking at him, she wondered if it was even possible for him to kiss someone. His beak was kind of… out there. Yeah. Probably poke someone's eye out. Then again, it was kinda round. Maybe it'd mostly just get in the way of things?
Wait, why was Mae thinking so much about kissing Germ? This was stupid.
"I mean, I might be interested if I really liked someone," Germ said. "But mostly I think I'd just want to, like, play video games and skateboard with them."
"Those are good relationship goals," Mae said. "I'd want to wrestle with them. Then live with them on a farm in Iowa."
"Iowa's big and empty," Germ said. "Good place for a farm."
"Yeah, I don't know why I wanna live with them on a farm," Mae said. "I've never really even been on a farm. Ever since I was a kid, though, I've wanted to, like, spend my life on a farm with… whoever. And have two cats, and a dog, and howl at the moon with them."
Things got quiet for a bit. It was nice out. The sun was in the sky, and the weather was pleasantly warm. Mae would probably switch to short sleeves sooner or later. Maybe. Eh. Changing clothes was a hassle.
Mae stood up and stretched out. Her head did feel a little bit clearer after resting. Germ stood up as well, and without a word, they were walking again. It wasn't much further until they reached the cliff overlooking the mine. Hopefully this time, they wouldn't see a bunch of dudes getting ready to kill someone.
Mae didn't like the silence, but she couldn't really think of what to say. Germ was kind of hard to start a conversation with. Back in January, she'd tried talking to him about getting some dynamite, and he'd started talking about the time he got a concussion.
Thankfully, they only had to walk for a few minutes. Soon, Mae and Germ were standing on the rocky cliff that Mae had stood on less than a year ago. Looking down at the mine, Mae half expected to see a gathering of hooded figures again. But no.
Nothing but rocks, and a thing that used to be a thing.
"Last time I saw him, he was down there," Germ said, and pointed to the spot in front of the mine's sealed entrance. Lots of rocks were poking out of the entrance's wooden frame. Jeez. That cave-in had really done a number on the mine, huh?
"Did he, like, notice you?" Mae asked.
Germ shook his head. "Nah, I'm pretty quiet. People don't notice when I'm watching them."
Mae took a minute to fully register what Germ had just said. "Wait, Germ, you don't, like, stalk people, do you?"
Germ opened his mouth to speak, but another, deeper voice interrupted him. It came from directly behind them, on the trail that lead into the woods.
"The hell are you kids doing out here?"
Mae let out a little scream. She couldn't help herself. She noticed that even Germ looked a bit surprised. Slowly, Mae turned, and found herself looking at a tall, middle-aged man dressed all in flannel, eyeing both of them suspiciously. He looked familiar, but Mae couldn't quite place it.
Possum Springs was a small town, so it'd make sense that Mae had seen him before. He was probably someone's dad.
Lots of people's dads were probably out in the woods.
Apparently, Mae wasn't the only one who recognized someone. The man squinted a bit at Mae, clearly trying to place her face. Mae fidgeted a bit, nervous as the man studied her.
"Wait, Mae? Mae Borowski?" The man said.
"Uh, no." Mae said quickly. "No, I'm… June. June Muddy."
The man's harsh, distrustful expression dissolved into a friendly smile. "Yeah, you're Mae, alright," he said. "The hell are you doing out here, Borowski? This place is supposed to be off-limits."
The man's eyes darted to Germ, whose nervousness had been replaced by the same blank expression. The stranger looked back at Mae, his eyebrow raised. "This isn't really a good place for a date. All these old rocks are death traps."
Yeah, Mae knew that better than most people.
"We aren't here on a date," Mae said.
"That somehow makes being out here even weirder," the man pointed out.
"I was gonna show Mae a dead buck I found," Germ said. His tone was completely natural and unchanged. Mae was surprised. She hadn't pegged Germ for a good liar. She wondered if Germ was constantly lying all the time, and no one realized it.
The man winced a bit, clearly grossed out. "Had it been shot?" He asked.
"Nope. Just dead."
"What's a dead buck doing up by the mines?" The man asked. "Deer usually don't come out here. Something about the place spooks 'em."
Mae could understand that. She had some firsthand spook experience with the mines. Deer were probably, like, super smart, and knew all about cults and stuff. But they weren't smart enough to avoid getting shot by hunters. Heh. Stupid deer.
God, though, who was this guy? He was weirding Mae out. She knew she'd seen him before.
"So, like, speaking of why people are at the mines…" Mae said, "Why are you at the mines?"
The man's smile seemed to falter a bit. He tried to hide it, but there was no mistaking that look. Mae often got that look when she asked people questions that she apparently shouldn't ask. Seemed like this was an off-limits topic.
"I come up here every now and then," the man said. "I worked up here for a while after I graduated from school. I started coming up here after they closed it down. Just, you know, to look around."
The man's attention seemed to shift beyond Mae and Germ, to the mine's entrance down below the cliff. Mae didn't like how focused he was on it. It was like he was trying to look through the rocks and stone.
"Looks like there was a cave-in sometime last year," the man muttered, his voice slow and thoughtful. "Probably some bootleggers messing around's what caused it. Hope no one was in there when it happened."
Oh god. Oh god. Mae felt a chill pass over her whole body. Did he know? Was he one of them? With the way he said it, Mae didn't know if he was just stating a fact… or accusing her. Even if he was a member of the cult, though, he couldn't know that Mae and her friends had caused the cave-in. Right?
Mae tried to say something to brush all of this off, but she couldn't find her words. She was speechless. That didn't happen often. Thankfully, Germ spoke up and saved her the trouble.
"Probably wasn't no one down there," he said. "I mean, most people avoid the mines."
Germ was certainly playing it cool. Well, as cool as he usually played it. Still, it was easy for him to stay calm. He hadn't almost died in a hole and communed with an eldritch horror. At least, as far as Mae knew, he hadn't done those things.
The man seemed to consider Germ's words, and then nodded. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "You're probably right there. I guess I'm worrying over nothing." The man gave a smile that was all teeth. It freaked Mae out a little.
"Well," the man said, "I'll leave you two alone to look for your deer. Say hello to your dad for me, Mae."
Was this one of her dad's old work friends? Mae only knew a few of them. She hadn't seen any of them since she was, like, eight. Mae doubted she'd really recognize any of them like she recognized this guy.
"Sure," Mae said. Her fear that this man was one of the cultists was about on par with her shame at not knowing who he was. "It was weird seeing you again, mister… you."
Well, that pretty much let the cat out of the bag. When he realized Mae had no idea who he was, a look of confusion appeared on his face. Also, he looked a little hurt? Mae might have just been imagining that, though. She might have been imagining a lot of things.
The man didn't correct her, however. He just gave her a brief nod, and turned to walk off the way he came. Mae watched him walk off until he was out of earshot, and then tilted her head to whisper to Germ.
"Dude," She said. "Was that the guy you saw?"
"I dunno," Germ said. "Maybe. Sure. I only saw him from behind. I mean, he seemed weird enough."
"Yeah, he definitely did," Mae said.
Mae watched the man shrink down smaller and smaller as he walked into the distance. Eventually, he disappeared on the horizon as he walked down the hill and out of Mae's sight. It wasn't until Mae was certain that he wasn't coming back that she let loose the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
The walk back into town was quiet and uneventful. Mae was still trying to wrap her head around the things the man had said. There was no way he didn't know about people dying in the cave-in, right? That was how it seemed, at least. But did he know Mae had been involved? If he did, how did he know?
The gang needed to know about this. When Mae got home, she could contact them on messenger. Let them know what had happened. For now, Mae just wanted to get home. If she and Germ hurried, Mae would make it in time for dinner.
Mae had expected Germ to part ways by the time they reached the old basketball court, but he continued to follow her well into town. That was a little odd. Mae didn't mind too much, though. It was nice to have some company.
They stopped once they reached the Snack Falcon, and Mae turned to say her goodbyes to Germ.
"Hey, so, like," Mae said, "thanks for hanging with me today. It was good to have you around."
Mae thought she detected the faintest hint of a smile on Germ's face. She might have been imagining it, though. "No problem," he said. "I had fun."
That was surprising. "Did you?" Mae asked.
"Eh," Germ said, shrugging slightly. "I mean, it was a weird bad time, but it was cool to spend time with you. We should hang out more."
"I check in on you, like, every day, dude," Mae pointed out. That was true. She'd started thinking of the Food Donkey's parking lot as Germ's lair. Could parking lots be a lair? Did a lair have to have, like, walls and stuff?
Whatever.
"Yeah, I guess," Germ said. "I mean, it'd be cool to do something sometime."
"What, like skateboarding?" Mae asked. "I don't skateboard. Casey tried to teach me once, but I couldn't figure out how to turn." That had been embarrassing. A bunch of cool skater kids had watched her eat it. Still, she hadn't been as bad as Gregg.
Germ was quiet. He seemed to be thinking of something to say, but couldn't decide on anything. Mae was used to Germ just blurting stuff out most of the time. Him apparently not knowing what to say was weird.
"No," he said. "I mean, I'd kind of like to be better friends. Gregg's gonna be moving soon. It'd be cool to have someone to do something with."
Mae felt a feeling that she didn't have words for. On the one hand, what Germ was saying made her sad. Gregg moving away was, like, bittersweet. But, on the other hand, Mae got what Germ was saying. She really did.
If Gregg was going to be gone, maybe something could be made with the stuff he'd left behind.
'Left behind' didn't feel like the right word for it, but the sentiment felt right.
"I get you," Mae said. A smile slowly crept onto her face. "But if we're gonna hang out more, I've gotta ask you something. Tell me, Jeremy: what's your opinion on crimes?"
