Mia walked through the trees, following Anna and Luke. She tried not to notice how they seemed to be walking more next to each other than actually with each other. Even with no one else around, there still seemed to be an awful lot of tension between them. Carmine had said something about them getting ready to break up, but Mia hadn't really believed it until now. She wondered vaguely what could have happened to them, but it was kind of hard to think about that kind of thing when she was busy walking through a place she really didn't want to be.

The farther they went into the woods, the slower she found herself going. The only reason she was still moving at all was because Zev was right next to her. Well, that and the fact that she didn't want to look like a complete baby in front of all her friends.

"Are you ok?" Zev asked after a minute. Mia didn't even realize he'd been watching her.

"What?" she asked. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "I'm fine. Why?"

"Well, I don't think I've ever seen you move so slow." he told her.

"I just really don't like the woods." she said quietly. It sounded even more pathetic out loud than it had in her head.

"It's just trees. What's so bad about that?"

"Bad things happen in the woods." Mia said grimly.

Zev looked at her like he couldn't figure out what she could be talking about. But then, she guessed he did come out here an awful lot; he might not instantly associate it with what they'd done the last time she was out here. Too bad Mia knew she'd never really see these woods as anything other than the place where a headless horseman had almost killed her. Zev was still looking at her expectantly, so she shrugged resignedly.

"The last three times I came to the woods, I thought I was going to die – twice it was only a little ways away from here." she added.

"I'm sorry." She watched his expression change from sympathy to guilt. Then, confusion. "Wait – three times?"

"Before I moved here." She didn't feel the need to point out that she'd been attacked in the woods herself; it was how she'd turned. Besides, he didn't like talking about that stuff any more than she did.

"Well, nothing bad will happen today. Promise."

"Yeah..." Seemed like a pretty big thing to promise as far as she was concerned.

"Don't worry – just try to relax and have fun." he told her. Then leaning close, he nodded towards Anna and Luke whispering, "With the way those two are acting, who knows when we'll do something like this again."

"Where are we going anyway?" she asked, deciding to ignore what he'd said about Anna and Luke; she didn't want to worry about any of that right now. Besides, how could she have fun if she didn't even know where they were going? If there was one thing Mia hated more than being in the woods, it was being lost in the woods. She tried to ignore the fact that that had already happened to her twice now.

"Down by the creek." Luke said over his shoulder.

"Why?" She stopped dead. Of all the places to go, that seemed like the worst – that was where they'd buried it's head sophomore year.

"I think it's best to be a little bit away from the road." Anna told her, sounding guilty about it.

Mia narrowed her eyes suspiciously but didn't say anything. She was busy remembering yet again how Anna had been kind of weird about being seen with Luke lately. Still, this seemed extreme. She didn't quite see why Anna was being like this, but there was no point in arguing about it now. Besides, with the boys all here, there was almost no way Anna'd actually tell her the reason anyway. But Mia would definitely be asking about that later, Anna could be sure of that – especially if this problem of Anna's was causing Mia to have to make trips out to the woods.

"We're not going to that place from sophomore year, are we?" Carmine asked, sounding suddenly uneasy. At least Mia wasn't the only one worrying about that.

"No – it's farther down, don't worry." Luke told her.

"Good." Mia said. She tried to be happy about that, but all she could think about was that if anything went wrong here, she'd have a whole new place in the woods to be afraid of.

It seemed like forever before they finally got down to the creek. It was true Mia hadn't been down here since she'd been chased by a headless horseman, but she still didn't remember it being so deep in the woods – had she really run that far? She found herself looking around, trying to orient herself in case she needed another quick escape.

Anna, Luke and Zev finally sat down in a small clearing about five yards from the creek. Of course, Luke hadn't sat down all that close to Anna. Mia pretended not to notice, focusing on the sound of the creek instead. It would have been kind of pretty, except for the fact that it signified how close she was to running water. Just another danger in the woods, Mia though as she gingerly sat down next to Zev.

"You'll be fine. Don't worry." Zev told her. Apparently, she wasn't doing as good a job at looking calm as she'd thought.

Carmine and Conner hadn't sat down with the group yet. Instead, they were standing near the edge of the creek. Mia couldn't help but notice Carmine looked even more nervous than Mia felt. How had Anna managed to convince them to come out here again?

Conner pointed at something across the creek and Carmine nodded.

"Think she's going to jump?" Mia asked Anna, nodding in Carmine's direction. Now this could be interesting. It looked like someone else might be getting ready to have a bad experience in the woods for once.

"Surely not." Anna told her. "She knows better, right?"

"I never said anything to her." Mia shrugged. "You?"

"Well, no." Anna admitted, looking guilty. "But she knows a lot about those kinds of things even without us telling her, doesn't she?"

"But does she know that?"

"What's the big deal?" Luke cut in. "It's just water – you did it a couple years ago yourself, remember?"

"I try not to." Mia told him shuddering.

"You sure they're not dating?" Zev broke in. He'd been absolutely convinced since sometime last year that Carmine and Conner had been secretly dating behind everyone's backs. And nothing either of them said could convince him otherwise.

"Who knows?" Luke shrugged.

The four of them watched as Conner easily jumped the three feet to the other side of the creek. He turned back and looked expectantly at Carmine.

"She's going to jump." Mia told Anna, still watching. She hated to admit she was almost fascinated, but it was providing a welcome distraction from her own problems for the moment.

"She can't!" Anna said worriedly.

"Watch her." Mia replied. But she called out loud enough for Carmine to hear, "Don't do it!"

"Why not?" Carmine yelled back. "It's tiny!"

She looked annoyed. Mia wasn't sure if it was because she thought they were all being nosy or if it was because Mia was shouting orders at her.

"You're not going to like it!" Mia warned her.

"I'll be fine!" Carmine said. She gave Mia a look that clearly said it was none of her business anyway.

"Fine – do it." Mia mumbled. "See if I care."

Mia had more than enough to worry about without adding anything Carmine did to that list. And if Carmine was going to yell at her like that, she could just figure it out on her own. Mia looked up at Anna, grinning wickedly. "Bet she only does it once."

"Mia!"

Anna seemed shocked, but Mia couldn't really see why. Maybe she was being a little harsh, but Carmine wasn't exactly being nice herself. So what if she didn't go out of her way to help someone who was snapping at her? It wasn't like anything bad would happen. At least, not too bad.

"What? It's not like it'll kill her." Mia said defensively.

But Anna didn't hear – she was already hurrying over to Carmine. Mia watched, even though she knew there was almost no chance that Anna would make it in time. Besides, that kind of thing was something Carmine would have to experience on her own to really understand what the problem was. Mia knew she didn't really get it herself until she'd done it.

"Wait – what are you taking about?" Luke asked, cutting into Mia's thoughts.

Mia glanced around, vaguely wondering who he could be talking to – Anna was already gone, and it wasn't like they were really on speaking terms anyway. But when Mia looked up at him, he was staring back at her.

"It's nothing." Mia told him. But she could see he wasn't going for it. Why did she have to be the one to tell him this?

"You know, I'm getting really tired of people telling me that." Luke said.

"It's just that it's running water." Mia admitted.

Normally she wouldn't have caved quite so fast, but something in his tone made Mia feel like she practically had to tell him. Besides, she'd been trying hard to be nicer to Luke. It wasn't much, but it was the best she could do to make up for attacking him twice last year. Sure, it wasn't exactly her fault, but that didn't make her feel any better about it.

"So what's wrong with running water?" Zev asked.

Even better. She really didn't want to lie to her boyfriend, but she was pretty sure he wasn't going to be impressed with her answer. Especially since it would just be all the more obvious that she wasn't overly concerned with Carmine. Maybe she could blame it all on the stress of actually being out here in the woods.

"You ever heard the phrase 'vampires can't cross running water'?" Mia asked slowly.

"No." Luke shook his head.

"Yeah." Zev said at the same time. Luke just looked at him.

"Really?" he asked Zev.

"What?" Zev shrugged. "I have Internet."

"Whatever." Luke mumbled. Then turning back to Mia, he said, "But it's just a phrase, right? I mean, it's not actually true."

"It's kind of true." Mia admitted. Luke's eyes widened.

"But how? I mean, you did it a couple years ago – I saw you. Remember?"

Mia nodded.

She'd been running for her life, with the headless horseman after her. Normally, she would have heard the creek before she was right on top of it like that, but since she'd been busy worrying about how she was going to die, she'd missed it. With no other options and a horse bearing down on her, she'd jumped the creek. Luke had been right behind her.

"It is possible – but it's not fun." Mia told them. "I mean, it kind of hurts...so we try to avoid it."

There was a little more to it than that – like if it was something too wide to just jump over, they really couldn't cross it. And saying that it hurt might have been downplaying it just a little bit. It was definitely painful, sure. But there was also a tightening in her chest that made it impossible to breathe, and a feeling of dizziness – nausea even. And there was no way to make any of that stop until she was safely on the other side.

But Mia didn't really want to point any of that out to them. Besides, that would just make her look even worse for not appearing particularly concerned about Carmine a few minutes ago. She glanced over at Carmine, suddenly feeling guilty. Of course, she was just in time to watch Carmine start to make her jump.

Mia leapt up. She knew she'd figured that Anna'd never make it on time, and now Mia was even farther away. Still, despite how she'd been acting, she never really thought Carmine would actually try it. But before Carmine could actually launch herself across the stream, Anna sprinted the last few yards over to her. She grabbed Carmine's shirt, yanking her back to the ground. Mia's face was flooded with relief as she sat back down.

"Kind of hurts?" Luke asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Hurts a lot." Mia mumbled.

She glanced past him so she wouldn't have to make eye contact. Anna was talking to Carmine; probably telling her all about why she shouldn't try that again. Finally, Carmine gave a short nod. Conner jumped back over the creek and the three of them made their way over to Mia and the boys.

"Are you ok?" Luke asked, looking a little worried.

"Yeah – I'm fine. Nothing happened." Carmine shrugged. And Mia was glad all over again that Carmine hadn't made the jump. But Mia's relief only lasted a minute before she heard a kind of rustling in the trees just behind her.

"What was that?" she asked.

She whirled around, going from sitting to crouching in an instant, scanning the trees frantically.

"I don't know." Anna said, looking suddenly very nervous. She called out, "Is anybody there?"

Of course, there was no answer. The whole group seemed to go quiet as they tried to figure out what they'd heard. Anna shifted away from Luke just slightly, widening the already noticeable distance between them. He set his jaw but didn't say anything.

"It's probably just an animal – a squirrel or something." Zev said, trying to reassure both Mia and Anna, and apparently pacify Luke.

"Some squirrel." Luke mumbled. He looked like he was thinking the same thing as Mia: whatever it was seemed way too big to be a squirrel.

"Probably a bogeyman or something." Carmine mumbled, only half joking.

"There aren't any monsters in these woods." Zev sounded exasperated.

"Nope – not at all. Except for whatever's out there." Carmine mumbled. "Just some hairy-scary thing sitting in the trees. Let's just call it Steve, shall we?"

"Why Steve?" Conner asked.

"Because it's less scary if it's just a Steve." Carmine shrugged. Conner and Zev started snickering, but Anna didn't look amused at all.

"Don't name it!" Anna told her sharply.

"Why not?" Zev asked her blankly.

"Because – what if it really is something?" Anna sounded horrified at the thought. "You can't just name things like that."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Luke told her. But Carmine was suddenly looking very worried.

"What's wrong?" Mia asked her. Whenever Carmine got that look, it always meant bad news.

"Well...it's just..." Carmine said slowly, obviously not wanting to admit whatever she'd realized.

"You shouldn't name things." Anna told Mia quietly. "Some things get more powerful once they're named."

"A lot more powerful?" Mia asked slowly, even though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

"Sometimes deadly." Carmine said, nodding down at the ground.

"Don't worry about it." Luke broke in. "I've been coming out here as long as I can remember, and I've never seen anything."

"Yeah..." Mia nodded vaguely.

Anna had made her a little nervous, but Mia was sure Luke was right. That is of course, as long as Carmine's naming whatever it was really didn't make everything worse. Mia wasn't sure how much worse they could afford to make things.