Chapter Fifteen

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Danielle took off at a sprint, her boots digging into the soft earth as she headed back towards the car. Her thoughts jumped between the ghost sighting and the pain that raced up her arm. "Come on!" she yelled to Logan a couple steps behind her.

Logan gained on Danielle, her steps in time with the rapid pace of her heartbeat. She got a few strides ahead of Danielle, glancing back to see if the ghosts were following them. The ghosts still loomed around them, only a few feet out of reach.

Now, the ghosts weren't only given away by missteps and cracking wood. The silence of the woods had ended.

The spirits tramped through the forest around them, steps thudding on the ground and branches whining from the weight over their heads.

"Unlock the car!" Danielle pointed ahead, where the car was just coming into view.

Logan still clutched the camera with one hand, the other searching her pockets in a moment of terror for the keys. Her hand latched onto them and she let out a breath of relief, pointing the keys towards the car and watching the headlights flicker on.

The forest thinned and they reached the roadside. The noises ceased, leaving them once again in the quiet. Danielle refused to slow down, throwing open the passenger door and scuttling into the car as her heart slammed in her chest, terror leaving her weak.

Logan hesitated as they made it out of the woods, looking back into the forest with one hand on the car door. But the ghosts had vanished, no sign of them now that they were out of their territory.

She ducked into the driver's seat, throwing the burned camera into the backseat. Logan shoved the key into the ignition, her foot pressing down on the gas as they swerved back onto the road. Only their hurried breathing filled the air, the discomforting scent of the burned electronics in the back seat wafting to them.

"We shouldn't have gone back there," Danielle said between her gasps of air. She looked down at her arm, eyes locked onto the horrid burn marks. "That was dangerous, and stupid."

"I didn't know!" Logan shot back, paying almost no attention to the gauge of her speed as she shot down the road. "I didn't know it was going to be that dangerous."

"I warned you! We all knew the place was housing upset spirits." She glanced around the car, but their first aid materials were back at the RV. Danielle had no choice but to push through the waves of white-hot pain that coursed up and down her arm.

"Every haunting is said to be dangerous! The only person who had any idea of the stakes was you, and you didn't tell anyone." Logan shook her head, adrenaline leaving her hands shaking and her thoughts muddled. "If you had told us, we could've done it differently. I could've caught them on film this time, without destroying the camera in the process."

"You're only mad because of the camera?" Danielle's words were harsh, no filters left. "This is exactly why I didn't tell you. Because I knew you would take us back here, and someone would get hurt."

"Well you sure did a great job protecting everyone, huh?" Logan snapped back, glancing at Danielle's arm. Logan's hands gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles went white.

"I did better than you would've," she muttered, leaning her head back against the seat. She closed her eyes, reserving her energy for dealing with the pain. She ran out of the strength to fight with Logan, letting herself drift off to sleep for the rest of the drive.

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