I told him no.
     But a dare is a dare.
     And when you’re new in town, and out to impress a gang of sixth graders, no nine year old boy is gonna refuse a dare. Unless, he’s facing certain death, or worse; he has to kiss a girl.

     Seeing how none of these things applied (except, if you believe in ghosts), my little brother, Austin, had no choice but to take Josh Millwood’s dare.

     “Austin Cooper,” I hollered. “You come back here!” I straddled my Purple Raptor
mountain bike and mashed the handbrake ‘til my fingers went numb.
     “He ain’t gonna listen to his sister, Lyda Mae,” Josh stopped beside me on his Mean
Green BMX bike. He grinned so wide, I could see the wad of gum packed in his cheek.
     “Man, that kid is brave!” Kurtis Satterfield hopped off his skateboard and popped it under his arm. He tossed his stringy bangs out of his eyes.
     “Wait for us,” Carly Payne called. She and Jasmine Johnson rode up on their matching
bikes and stopped on the other side of me.

     Now, I know Austin heard me, but he didn’t even look back. He just peddled his mini
mountain bike right down the middle of Spooky Street – headed for certain doom.
     “Shoot,” I spat. “I should have grabbed Ole Lucky.”

     Too late, I remembered that Austin’s courage was tied to that beat up cowboy hat
plastered to the top of his sweaty head. I watched in horror as he sped right into the wall of fog hanging across the crumbling road. In no time, he was out of sight.

     I wiped the salty sweat off my face. It was too hot to think right. It hadn’t rained for a month. Even the sawgrass along the roadside was bent over limp. The cypress trees in the swamp ditches had shade, but they dripped with puke green moss that crawled with blood-sucking chiggers. No way I was standing there.

     Suddenly, Josh let out a whoop. “He’s really gonna do it!” Right then, I wanted to rip the Army Brat dog tag necklace right off his neck.
     “He’s as stubborn as you are, Lyda Mae,” Carly whipped her helmet off and flipped her toast brown hair over her shoulder. “Does that come with being blonde-headed?” I shot her a sideways glance and pulled my ball cap further down on my head.

     Jasmine leaned over her handlebars. She held a thin brown hand up over her eyes and
squinted into the fog. “I don’t see him anymore.”.
     “I guess you’re not gonna miss him when he’s gone, Lyda Mae,” Kurtis said. “See’in how you don’t like him much.”
     “Who said I don’t like him?” I shoved his skateboard with my foot.
     Josh jumped in. “Why you did. You said your brother was two years younger, but five
years dumber. And you wish you were an only child.” I winced as my own words came back me from out of his mouth.

     “I like him just fine.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Besides, I was mad when I said that.” I turned and stared Josh right in his beady brown eyes. “It’s a stupid dare - especially since you’d never do it.” Josh gawked.
     “I have done it!” He swiped a hand across the top of his buzz cut.
     “Yea, we both did,” Kurtis said. “Last summer, long before you moved here, we went all the way up the front porch before—“
     “--before Cootie Barnes, himself, came walking out of the front door. We thought we was goners!” Josh cackled.
     “Yea, we ran out of there so fast the wind couldn’t catch us!” Kurtis said.
     “But Cootie didn’t get to put the curse on us. Now, we’re here living to talk about it…” Josh winked. “I just hope Austin’s as lucky.” Kurtis laughed and reached across me to give Josh a fist bump. My stomach climbed to my throat.
     “Whatcha gonna do, Lyda Mae?” Carly whispered.
I tried to think of a way to stop Austin that didn’t involve getting killed.
     “We’ll have to go after him,” Josh pulled his bike up into a wheelie. “If we’re gonna get the proof.”

     We all looked at each other. No one wanted to go where Austin was headed: the only
house on that street – the Spooker House - was a wooden two-story monster with a gaping hole where the chimney used to be. It sat all the way at the end of the road.
     “Did you say--we?” Jasmine chewed on the end of her black braid.
Josh dropped his tire to the ground. Curtis popped a kick flip and ran his skateboard into
my shin. I winced.

     “Yep,” Josh said. “We all gotta go.”

     I glanced at the battered street sign behind me. Someone had spray-painted ‘Spooky’ in drippy red letters over the street’s real name. At the top of the post sat the sun-bleached skull of a wild pig; its ten inch tusks glinted in the sunlight. It stared at me with hollowed out eyes; its jaws frozen in a mocking laugh. I shuddered.

     “Josh is right,” I suddenly realized that facing certain doom was better than being
grounded for a month if Aunt Raye found out I let Austin go off alone.
     “I’ll go with you, Lyda Mae.” Carly put her helmet back and clipped the chin strap.
     I turned to Jasmine. “If don’t want to go, fine. But we’re only getting close enough to
call Austin back.”
     Jasmine groaned. “He didn’t listen to you the first time, Lyda Mae.” I pushed off and started pedaling.
     “Then you can help me drag his lifeless body back! Now come on - before he disappears
for good!”