The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious #4)(2)

“Oh, good. I can’t let them shut down my lab, not when I’m so close. Soon my creation will come to life!”

He shouted that last word, causing something in the branches above to stir and fly off.

“Eric, you freak,” Diane said, laughing.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” he replied. “Aaaaaand . . . here we are!”

The flashlight beams struck a small clearing. There were a few cut logs on the ground, rough seating around a stone circle.

“Okay,” Eric said, setting down the bag he was carrying, “you guys do the setup. We’ll go get the milk. This way, my dear. Just over yonder a few paces.”





Eric took her hand once again to guide her through the dark. They reentered the woods on the other side of the clearing.


“So how do you pay for it?” Sabrina asked, picking her way along the tangle of roots beneath their feet. “What’s the system?”

“If you continue to come with me on my magical journey, you will learn all, little Bilbo.”

“Did you just call me Bilbo?”

“It’s from The Hobbit.”

“I know what it’s from, you moron,” she said, laughing.

“Never question the girl who works in the library,” Eric said, bowing low. “I beg forgiveness.”

Something crunched near them, and Sabrina let out an involuntary yip.

“It’s fine,” he said, shining the light around. “Lots of noises out here. They startle you at first.”

Suddenly, she didn’t want to be here. Her whole body flooded with anxiety. Eric seemed to sense this and stopped.

“It’s cool,” he said.

“There’s something out there.”

“There probably is. A raccoon. A possum. A skunk. But they don’t come near the clearing or the fire.”

“You’re sure?” she asked.

“I come out here every week. I always hear something. It’s the woods. Seriously, they don’t want to come near people. They stay away.”





“I know. I need to relax. I’m trying.”


“Here’s the thing . . . you’re trying to relax. You’re even pushing yourself to do that. You push yourself too hard.”

“I know. I know.”

The world slowly righted itself. Sabrina took a deep breath and straightened up.

“Keep going,” she said. “I’m fine.”

They continued on another fifty paces or so, until the flashlight revealed a small structure. It was a box in the woods, about eight feet long and four feet high.

“Here we are,” Eric said, approaching it.

“What is this?”

“An old hunting blind,” Eric replied, handing her the flashlight and lifting the large lid with both hands. “Hunters would hide inside while they were hunting deer. It’s got little openings in the side they could look out of.”

“Creepy,” she said. “But I guess hunting is creepy by definition. You creep behind animals to kill them.”

“True. Anyway, this one hasn’t been used in a long time.”

That much was clear. While not completely rotted, the box was on the path in that direction. The boards were weatherworn and bowed, and some of them were coming away. It was now most likely home to spiders and snakes and various other critters, so she cringed a bit as Eric climbed inside and started rooting around in a pile of discarded wood. She made a mental note to check herself carefully for ticks when they got back to camp.





“Where is it, where is it. . . . Ah. Here we go!”


He stood up and proudly held aloft a crumpled McDonald’s bag.

“That’s it?” Sabrina said.

Eric climbed out of the box and closed the lid.

“Shine the light,” he said.

He set the bag down, opened it up, and removed a used Big Mac box, two hamburger wrappers, and a used cup, still with the straw.

“I can see you’re not impressed,” he said. “But behold. . . .”

He opened the Big Mac box. The container was brimming with fresh, fragrant marijuana buds. As were the hamburger wrappers and the soda cup. Sabrina had seen marijuana before—small amounts of it, usually in the form of joints—but she had never seen this much. This was an extremely illegal amount of marijuana. A scholastic-career-ending amount. A definitely arrestable, criminal record amount.

“No one looks at trash,” Eric said with a smile. “Especially trash inside of something that also looks like trash, out in the middle of the woods. Pretty clever, wouldn’t you say?”

“I guess.”

“You guess? I’ll have to try harder. Come on. Time to get to work.”

Back in the clearing, things were looking much more inviting and cheerful. There was a fire going, and a camp lantern sat on one of the logs. Two sleeping bags had been unzipped and spread out as blankets, their soft plaid flannel





insides resting upward. The portable tape player was piping more Led Zeppelin into the velvety darkness. (They were Diane’s favorite band. Sabrina didn’t like them at all, but if you hung out with Todd and Diane, you had to get used to it.) Todd and Diane were stretched out on one of the sleeping bags, munching on chips and staring up at the sky.