“Not yet,” she mumbled. “They’ll ask a lot of questions and I’ll forget to take the pictures. You can do it if you want.” Straightening up, she slung the camera back around and looked at the other person.
And then looked again. With all her senses. She opened her mouth, started to ask him what he was, and hastily changed it. “Wh—who are you?”
Was he the killer? He was clearly supernatural somehow, and she was pretty sure nothing normal could have drained the blood so completely. But nothing about him implied an ability to commit quite this kind of act, emotionally speaking. Curious.
“I’m sure the police will take lots of pictures,” Ethan said pulling his phone out and dialing 911. He noticed the change in the way the girl was reacting to him. He furrowed his brows at her. “Ethan, who are you?” he asked raising one of his eyebrows. He was thinking it was odd that a girl was so casually taking picture of dead people.
“Yes, I’ve found a man dead. On a large stump,” he told the operator when she finally came on. He gave a description of the man and where they could find him. He hung up and put his phone in his pocket. “Do you always take pictures of old dead people in the woods?” he asked trying not to look at the man. It was too weird.
Also there was something weird smelling about him. Not the smell of death but rather that he didn’t smell like an old man. He turned so that his back was to him. “Weak stomach,” he offered to the girl as he took a couple of steps away.
“I won’t be able to look at the police photos, and I take pictures when I want to be able to remember something very clearly. Details.” Summer crouched down beside the stump and the dead body again, frowning. “I need the details.”
The boy — Ethan — was lying about the weak stomach. Coming back to her feet, she put her hands in her pockets and stepped around to his side. “I’m Summer. Did they tell you to stay here? I expect you’ll be okay if you just go to the other side of that tree there.” With a dip of her head she indicated a pine tree a few steps away.