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‘-And, get this, they never found the body. Scary. Real scary.’ Yvonne grinned, her expression sharpened by the stark light. Salem snorted. Throwing her head back, eyes wide in melodramatic fear, Marisol gasped.
‘Oh, the horror! Hold me, darling, lest the terror chill my heart.’ Giggling and shaking her head, Salem kissed her cheek.
‘Come on. It’s the middle of the night and we’re in the woods. Are you seriously telling me you don’t have any ghost stories at all? None?’
‘Yvonne, babe, I think you just killed any sort of creepiness that was ever here with what… that just was.’ Yvonne tutted, rolling her eyes in faux-offence.
‘Tell me a better one then! I don’t know, scare me. Come on!’
Marisol laughed softly, before sitting up, leaning toward Yvonne with a mischievous smirk.
‘Oh! I have one.’ Yvonne rose as well, leaning in as if a challenge.
‘Do tell. Terrify me.’
‘Have you heard of the Ohio Bed Ghost?’ Salem laughed, short and stifled.
‘I’m intrigued.’
‘Well. They say it comes in the dead of night. In the middle of the woods. And it makes its way into bed frames. And if you’re sitting on someone else’s bed and taking up all the space , it traps you beneath the mattress, and you’re never… seen… again .’
‘Bullshit.’ Yvonne’s gaze never strayed from Marisol’s, even as she lifted her legs and, as if to prove a point, laid them down across Marisol and Salem’s laps.
‘And why’s that?’
‘Because I’m right here, and nobody and nothing seems to be doing anything about it. No ghosts in these woods.’
‘Ah, well, that’s how it gets you.’
Salem’s voice interrupted this strange back-and-forth.
‘Please, for the love of god, flirt a different way. You’re both terrible at ghost stories.’
‘Salem!’ Marisol gasped. ‘How could you?’’
‘I’m not sure if I was horrified in the intended sense. I love you, but…’
‘Have some faith, Salem! I was quaking in my boots. Terrified.’
‘Aww, thanks!’
Salem watched their antics, worn out and warm with the calm pressure of Yvonne’s legs on her lap. Maybe the ghost stories weren’t true, but at least her love was.