Billy dressed himself quickly and then took Fred by the hand, leading him east towards the coastline. As they walked through the outskirts of town Fred could see the beginnings of dawn - he must have been asleep for longer than he'd realised. Nearby, as if it had heard his thoughts a bird started to sing. Fred shut his eyes a moment to feel the song skip against the silence of the sleeping town.
His arm jolted. He turned to see Billy had sunk to one knee.
"Are you okay?" Fred asked.
"I am dead, my friend. The dawn sends me into a stupour. I must hide."
Fred swept Billy into his arms. He was light as driftwood. "Where?"
"The sewer."
Fred carried him to a man hole. This wasn't the first time he had to prise one open using only his bare hands. He quickly lowered Billy down onto the ledge by the running stormwater and then jumped down himself. He sat with his back to the cold brick wall and lifted Billy's body against his chest.
"Where were you taking me?" he whispered, his lips almost touching Billy's flickering eyelashes.
"Mark your…" Billy mumbled.
"Mark my?"
"Mark your spot."
"What do you mean?" Fred asked.
"Mark your spot," Billy said one more time, and then grew still.
Mark my spot? Fred wondered. He lifted Billy again and carried him until he found an alcove in the sewer. He curled Billy inside it and kissed his brow.
"You've been doing this for three hundred years, huh? I guess you're tougher than you look."
Fred didn't like to turn and leave him, but something was pulling at the edges of his mind. Something he'd seen in down town Salem a day or so ago. He retraced his steps, back to the man hole and out into the fresh air. From there he continued towards the coast line.
It was another five minutes of walking towards the horizon that was now showing the merest hinds of gold on the undersides of scattered clouds, before Fred found what he was looking for.
A shopfront that would not open for another three hours or so, but tha didn't matter. In the window Fred saw the answer to the question he asked Billy in the cemetery: "are you happy with the way things are?" and above the shop window was the sign Mark Your Spot.