Free Laws of Nature -2 by Christopher Golden

glanced quickly over his shoulder. The ghosts had moved out into the street now, standing in the rain as a few errant rays of sun broke through and speared the pavement around them. Most of them still hung their heads as though ashamed, though one or two had looked up.
    "I don't get it, though," Jack whispered. "One of them tried to get me to turn around. Now this bunch won't even look at me."
    Artie did not respond at first. Jack had to look in the rearview mirror to make sure he was still there. Then those black, bottomless-pit eyes met his, and he shuddered and returned his attention to the road.
    "Artie?" Jack prodded.
    "They're feeling a little guilty," Artie finally revealed.
    Jack furrowed his brow. "Why?"
    "They think you're gonna die."

CHAPTER 4
    Artie.
    The moment Molly awoke, the dream began to slip away. As her eyes flickered open, the only thing she could recall was that he had been there. For a moment it was as though she could still see him; the image of his sweet grin lingered. Then it was gone.
    Molly frowned. It was very dark outside, but with the rain pouring down upon the windshield and drumming against the roof, she could not tell if it was truly night, or if the storm had brought evening prematurely.
    The engine still idled, but the Jeep had stopped.
    She moaned a little, stretched - the last thoughts of the Artie-dream skittering back into the recesses of her unconscious, like night creatures fleeing the sunrise
    - and glanced over at Jack.
    His hair was a mess, and his chin had a shadow he could never seem to be rid of for long. Yet, though rumpled, he looked strong and confident. It gave her hope, seeing him like that, before he had noticed she was awake. Jack had always been the one out in front, the leader, and Artie always the loyal, devil-may-care side-kick.
    But Artie was dead now. And Molly doubted she would ever allow herself to be anybody's sidekick.
    She stretched again, and this time Jack noticed. His eyes sparkled as he glanced at her, and a smile blossomed on his lips. Molly might have seen something in his gaze just then, when he looked at her like that, just waking up, that sent a pleasurable shiver through her. But she pushed the thought away. It was hard for her to think of Jack in that way, but even more so with the last echoes of her dream still haunting her, as though Artie hid somewhere out there in the dark, amidst the rain.
    "Well, hey there, sleepyhead," Jack said in a whisper, barely audible over the radio and the rain.
    "Mmm," Molly replied, stretching one final time before sitting up in her seat and glancing around. "Are we here?"
    She squinted and tried to get a good look at the storefronts on the street around them.
    "Well, if 'here' is Buckton, then, yeah," Jack replied. Then he shrugged. "But I've gotta tell you, there isn't much 'here' here."
    "What was it you expected, Metropolis?" Molly asked. "It looks quaint."
    Despite the rain she could clearly make out the glowing marquee and faÆade of an old-style movie house, the Empire Theatre. There were a few small stores, mostly dark now, and what looked like a tiny Chinese take-out restaurant, given that its name was written in both English and the spiderwebbed characters that must have been a rough translation.
    "Quaint, yeah," Jack agreed, his smile fading, his voice growing far more serious. "But it doesn't seem like the kind of place a pack would go unnoticed."
    A cold fist of ice formed in Molly's gut. "No. I suppose not. On the other hand, they didn't really go unnoticed in Boston, did they? Maybe this is exactly the kind of place they could blend in."
    For a moment neither of them spoke.
    At length Jack shifted in the driver's seat and shut off the engine, casting them into darkness and killing the radio.
    "I guess we should get something to eat and see about finding a place to stay. You've gotta wonder if they even have a hotel here. It isn't like it's a hot vacation spot."
    "We'll find something," she assured