“The Doom Statues” — Chapter 19

Distracted by this pond, Jeremy and company have gotten no further than skirting it. They approached from the left side, nearest the woods, but then rounded the top and have come back around down the opposite side. He wouldn’t consider himself a nature nut, but there is something peaceful and enchanting about this body of water.

“Well, alright,” he says at last, after a long spell staring at the placid surface. “Enough of this. I suppose we should keep moving, no?”

While the other two lead the way, Lydia, as she has for most of their outing, lags a few paces behind, snapping endless photos with her high dollar film/digital hybrid camera. When asked, she explains that like many “serious” photographers, she prefers shooting to film, but this digital storage option gives her a nice backup if running out, or if absolutely needing an image on the fly.

“We need, to like, dig a little deeper on this place,” Denise insists, “I’m telling you. I’ve been saying this all along, and that incident last night confirms it.”

“I guess so,” Jeremy says. He had picked some random pink and yellow, late season flower from near the pond’s bank, and is now absently ripping off petals one by one.

“You guess so? What, like, you don’t think that’s a big deal? Or you don’t believe her?”