"I can't believe this is really happening!" Gregg whispered, barely able to contain himself.
"I know, I know, I know!" Mae whispered right back.
"Good lord, it's like you're both eight again," Candy murmured. "And I can't believe I'm actually encouraging this behavior," she added.
"We really appreciate it," Trent said.
"Yeah, mom! This rocks!" Mae declared.
"Does it ever bother you, Trent? I know you're only two years older than her, but you seem so much more mature than Mae…" Candy asked.
"Oh wow. Thanks, mom," Mae shot back.
"No, not really," Trent said. "I mean I get giddy over, like, video games from my childhood. Honestly I'm happy about it. I keep hearing from middle-aged people how we all need to just grow up and stop doing stupid kid stuff, but I've always felt like that was bullshit. Like, I never want to stop writing fan fiction and playing video games and having sleepovers."
"Oh my God I love you," Mae groaned, then giggled.
"So long as you're paying the bills and taking care of yourselves, I agree with you, Trent," Candy replied after a moment.
"Really? You don't think I need to grow up?" Mae asked.
"Those two aren't the same thing, sweetie. You can act silly and play video games and be grown. I think you should grow up, but that doesn't mean you need to be boring, dear."
"Huh...I guess not," she said.
"That's actually really encouraging," Gregg said.
"Good. It should be. If our friends hadn't fallen out of the habit, your father and I would still be playing Dungeons and Dragons every Friday night."
"Oh yeah, I forgot you and dad used to play. I remember crawling into your lap like...so long ago. And just listening to the stuff that would happen...that was fun," Mae said.
"It was," Candy replied. She pulled over slowly and parked on the side of the road. "Do you remember what to do?" she asked.
"We remember," Trent replied.
"Don't worry mom, we're taking this seriously," Mae said.
"Okay. Because it'll be in your hands after I do my part. I'll give you a text warning when we're on our way back."
"Thanks. Love you, mom," Mae said.
"I love you too, sweetheart...good luck, everyone."
They got out of her car and began making their way slowly down the strip of mostly dead grass in between the road and the big collection of privacy fences that marked the edges of many people's backyards. Google Earth had helped again, showing them that there was a simple road and a bunch of fields out behind the Beckets' place.
The plan was simple. Once Candy got Maude out of the house, they'd break in and do their search. Candy had already asked if their husband would be joining them for their lunch date, but he was at work and would be all day. She could be lying, but it didn't seem likely. They'd search the place over for the totem and proof and then get the hell out.
Simple.
Honestly, Trent was scared shitless. He'd never done anything close to this illegal before. Actually breaking into someone's house was a lot.
None of them spoke as they hustled down the road, pausing occasionally to peer through cracks and holes in the privacy fence to chart their progress. Becket's house was distinct in that it was the only blue one.
They found it and then crouched behind the fence, waiting.
"This is crazy," Mae whispered.
"I can't believe we're doing crimes and your mom is helping us!" Gregg whispered back, almost trembling with excitement.
"I know!"
"Focus," Trent murmured, pulling out his phone and staring at it. He began to hear faint conversation coming from the direction of the house, recognizing Candy's voice. He waited, and waited, and waited longer, being forcefully reminded how of goddamn long middle-aged people could take to just fucking do anything.
Finally, he heard two car doors slam shut and he got a text that just read 'Kingfish'. Their agreed-upon code word for success. He had no idea why Candy insisted on code words, but it seemed to be something she was into and he would take anything that made her more okay with this whole thing, because he still felt like any actual grown-up adult's participation in this madness was a bubble waiting to pop.
"Go," he said as they heard the car driving away.
He and Gregg gave Mae a leg up. She clambered up over the fence and let out a loud grunt as she fell over the edge and crashed to the ground on the other side.
"Ow," she moaned.
"You okay, babe?" Trent asked.
"Fine. Hurry up," she replied with another groan.
"Your turn," Trent said, and laced his fingers together. Gregg stepped into his hands and was boosted up within reaching distance of the top of the fence. He was barely a few inches taller than Mae was. But then he was over, and then Trent jumped, grabbed the top of the fence, hauled himself over, and landed with a light grunt.
"You're like...pretty agile," Mae murmured, staring at him.
"I guess so," he replied. She kept staring at him. "What?"
"I don't know. It's hot."
"Appreciated, but focus," Trent replied, and started moving across the backyard.
"Yeah."
They followed him. The yard was manicured, very well maintained. He saw an old jungle gym set taking up one corner, no doubt built by the guy himself for his kids. Candy had mentioned that they were off at college, out of state. Which Trent found curious. Had he sent them away with the hopes that they'd come back with important degrees or connections, or to get away from Possum Springs and the dark thing that lay beneath it?
Didn't really matter.
They reached the back door, stepping up onto an immaculate deck, passing a smoked glass table, the deck and lawn chairs no doubt stored neatly in the basement or garage until winter had passed. The back door was locked firmly.
"You sure you got this?" Trent asked.
"Oh yeah," Gregg replied with an air of ease as he fished something out of his pocket and knelt before the lock.
"Trust me, he's like stupid good at this," Mae said.
Sure enough, he had the lock open inside of ten seconds.
They opened the door. Trent winced, waiting for something bad to happen, for some alarm to start screaming, but there was nothing. He let out a sigh of relief and they stepped inside. Trent's gaze darted around as they came into a dining area that served as an intermediary connection between a kitchen and a living room. Everything looked really nice, clean and fancy, really expensive. It was in a style that set his teeth on edge.
"Mae?" he asked, feeling at least decently confident that they were alone, "you've got the spotlight."
"Yeah dude, come on. Sonar that bitch totem," Gregg said.
"All right, shh," Mae replied, closing her eyes.
They all waited. Trent tried to see if he could detect anything at all, if he could feel any bad vibes or strange...energies? It was ironic, he was a horror writer but honestly he didn't really believe in a lot of stuff. He was more Alien than Poltergeist. But he definitely believed in this Black Goat and Mae's strange powers.
He thought he could feel something, vaguely, but it was so faint that he reluctantly decided to write it off as just his own bad vibes, the fact that he knew he was in the home of a murderer. A successful murderer, not just in that he'd successfully murdered, but that he was clearly so successful at life. That was particularly galling.
"Hmm," Mae murmured, and started walking slowly out of the dining room.
"What?" Trent asked.
"Shh," she replied, and disappeared into the living room. Slowly, Trent and Gregg followed after her. She led them into a large, decadent living room. Mae came to stand in the center of the room, just behind a huge couch set far back from a massive flat-screen TV hung on the wall. And there she waited. Then she cupped her hands to her ears and waited more. Then she began to turn in a slow circle. When she faced him, Trent saw that her eyes were still closed. She spun in a circle twice and then abruptly stopped when facing him again.
Her eyes snapped open and she turned to face the TV. Trent and Gregg looked at it as well. She smirked. "Plain fucking sight," she muttered.
For a moment, Trent had no idea what she was talking about, and then he saw. Below the mounted TV was a fireplace with a mantle above it. Resting on the mantle were a collection of random things, knickknacks, and one of those assortment of memorabilia was…
The totem.
"Trent, can you…?" Mae asked, suddenly losing her look of triumph.
"On it," Trent replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out another sock he'd brought along. He retrieved the totem the same way as last time, reluctantly balling it up in the sock, then putting it in a plastic baggie and sealing it up, then pocketing it. "Okay, let's search this place. Remember, we don't want them to know we were here. So make sure not to leave anything out of place. You open a drawer, you close it. You move a book, you put it back."
"Got it," Gregg said, and set off.
He and Mae moved deeper into the house.
It was a bust, as far as information went.
They found nothing worthwhile, even after an hour and a half of searching. The only interesting thing they found were some sex toys. Candy warned them that they were coming back and the three of them got out after quickly going over the house once more, trying to make sure they hadn't left anything out of place. They shut and relocked the door behind them, then hurried and hopped the fence again.
Then they started walking.
They headed back towards town, just three twenty-somethings on their way to nowhere, as far as anyone else was concerned.
"Can you get me a vibrator?" Mae asked.
Trent looked at her, startled. Not just because she'd broken a very long silence but because he hadn't been expecting that at all. "Uh...yeah," he replied. "Although is there even a sex shop in town?" he asked.
"No, I've looked," Gregg replied.
"I think I heard there's one in Briddle," Mae said. "I remember hearing that back in high school. I guess we can look it up. Or order one online? I keep forgetting that's, like, a thing now."
"Once we get all this shit sorted out, yes, I will totally buy you a vibrator," Trent said.
"Will you use it on me?" she asked.
He laughed. "Yes, Mae."
"Oh my fucking God, thank you. I feel like I'd just fuck it up somehow. I'm somehow not good at masturbating. I think that's why I was so amazed that sex actually felt really good."
"I'm still adjusting to the fact that you just say this shit in front of your friends," Trent replied.
"We don't really hold anything back from each other," Gregg said.
"Apparently not."
"Look, there's my mom. Come on."
They walked the rest of the way down the road to the place where Candy had agreed to meet them and got into the car.
"Well?" she asked as she started driving. "Anything? Tell me you got something, because that was an absolute hell I had to endure for you."
Mae laughed. "Oh my God, really, mom? Why?"
"That woman is insufferable. She won't shut the fu-...she won't stop going on about how fantastic her life has gone and how great everything is for her and her husband and how happy she is that she and her husband have been rewarded the success they deserve because they work so hard." She heaved a weary sigh. "Anyway, findings?"
"We found a totem," Trent said.
"You have it on you?"
"Yes."
"And I can find them," Mae said.
"How did you do it, anyway? What was it like? We didn't actually talk about that," Gregg said.
"Oh, right. Well, it's like...a low hum. It's super creepy, and I can barely hear it, but I heard it to be sure. It's constant, but it's so faint, I have to concentrate really hard. I didn't know it'd be a hum. I thought maybe I'd see it in a glowing outline, or just know where it was? But it's a hum. But also more than that? I could kinda tell where it was. Like...almost like I just wanted to go towards it?" she explained.
"I wonder what made it different, the one we had in our house," Trent said.
She shivered, frowning. "I think it's because I wasn't aware of it. The difference is that I was actively looking for it, and that the...the you know, is aware of me."
"So now what?" Candy asked.
"Now we go home and burn this thing," Trent replied. He could feel it in his pocket and it still made him uncomfortable. "And then chart the next part of our plan."
"This thing is very creepy," Candy muttered as she looked at the totem, handling it cautiously with the sock on her hand. No one wanted to actually touch it. "Lord. Here." She passed it back to Trent, who accepted it gingerly.
"We good to destroy it?" he asked, looking around his living room.
"Yep," Mae said, "burn it."
"Okay." He tossed it, sock and all, into his fireplace. Once he was sure it was burning, he turned back to the others. "What's the next step?"
"We should do it again," Mae said. "Now that I know I can find them, we should keep looking for them. And I think we should play the slow game for now. I want to go after the stupid jerk who owns the Ham Panther next."
"That's actually a pretty good idea," Bea said. "We have an in given your dad works there...all we gotta do is figure out when they won't be in the house. Figure out where they live. This should be pretty easy."
"Crime is, like, super easy. I told you that," Mae replied.
Candy sighed. "Mae."
"I'm sorry, it's true." She yawned. "Wow, this really wiped me out. And it's like not even sunset yet. Jeez."
"Take the rest of the day off, all of you," Candy replied as she got up. "I'll talk with Stan about it and see what he has to say. And please, just...be careful. Watch out for each other."
"We will. Love you, mom. Goodnight," Mae said.
They all exchanged 'goodnights' with her and she left.
For a moment, everyone sat around in silence.
Abruptly, Mae looked at Bea. "Hey Bea do you have a vibrator?"
Bea stared at her for a few seconds before asking, "What?"
"You heard me."
"Mae-I just-no. I don't have a fucking vibe, okay? Why? What could have possibly provoked you to ask me that?" she replied.
"Trent promised to get me one. I've never actually tried one. Have you?"
"No, I haven't," Bea replied, sighing. "The closest I got was this app that made your phone constantly vibrate and why am I telling you this?" she groaned.
"Because we're girlfriend-in-laws!" Mae replied.
"I had one for awhile, before I went to prison," Ann said.
"Whoa, you went to prison!?" Gregg cried. "Did you get any prison tats?!"
"How do you not know this about me?" Ann asked.
"I dunno, we've never really hung out much."
"I guess that's true...no, no tats." She looked at Mae. "So you really broke into someone's house and stole that thing?"
"Yeah! Gregg picked the lock and everything!" Mae replied.
"He's really good at it," Trent said.
"Cool...what was it like in there?"
"Ugh. All super clean and organized. Like what you'd expect a serial killer's place to be…" She yawned again. "Ugh, this is lame. I need dinner."
"I'll put something together," Trent said, then sighed suddenly. "Shit, I'm tired, too. That was like wicked stressful. I'm just going to order something."
"Can I have a vibrator?" Ann asked. "I'll pay you back."
"I'll get you one too, consider it a gift."
Bea sighed. "You might as well get me one, too, if this is gonna be a thing...now can we talk about something else? Like dinner?"
"Yeah, we've done enough for today, let's get dinner," Trent replied.