Inventory was not usually Helen’s favorite job, but it was that night. She was so occupied counting every object in the store that before she knew it, they were locking the front and going through the ritual of closing down.
“So. What really happened between you and that Lucas kid?” Kate asked without looking up from the stacks of bills she was sorting.
“I wish I knew.” Helen sighed as she rested on her broom handle.
“Everyone’s talking about you two. And not just the kids,” Kate said with a half smile. “So what’s up?”
“Look, if I had an explanation, believe me, I’d be shouting it in the streets. I don’t know why I attacked him,” Helen said. “And the worst thing is that the attackisn’tthe worst thing.”
“Oh, you’re going to have to explain that,” Kate said. She put aside the money. “Come on. Tell me. What’s the worst thing?”
Helen shook her head and started pushing the broom around.
There had always been a voice in her head that would whisper possible explanations for her strangeness, words likefreakormonsteror evenwitch. No matter how deftly Helen silenced that voice, it always came back eventually.
The absolute worst thing that Helen could think of would be to find out that she really was one of those things.
“It’s nothing,” Helen said, unable to look up.
“It isn’t just going to go away because you don’t talk about it, you know,” Kate pressed. Helen knew she was right, and she also knew she could trust Kate. Besides, she needed to talk to someone about it or she’d go crazy.
“I’m having nightmares. Actually, it’s the same nightmare that I keep having over and over, and it feels so real. Like I’m going someplace while I’m sleeping.”
“Where do you go?” Kate asked gently. She came out from behind the counter and made Helen stop sweeping and focus.
Helen pictured the barren, hopeless world she had been forced to visit the last few nights.
“It’s a dry place. Everything is bleached and colorless. I can hear running water in the distance, like there’s a river somewhere, but I just can’t reach it. It’s like I’m trying to find something, I think.”
“A dry land, huh? You know that’s pretty common in dream imagery,” Kate assured her. “It comes up in every dream book, in every country I’ve ever been to.”
Helen swallowed her frustration and nodded. “Yeah, but I wake up in the morning and my feet...” She stopped herself, hearing how crazy she sounded. Kate studied Helen for a moment.
“Are you sleepwalking, honey? Is that it?” Kate took Helen’s shoulders, encouraging Helen to look her in the eyes. Helen threw up her hands and shook her head.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. But I’m so tired, Kate,” she said. A few exhausted tears slipped out. “Even if I manage to fall asleep, I wake up and I feel like I’ve been running and running. I think I’m going crazy.” She let out a nervous laugh. Kate pulled Helen into one of her pastry-scented hugs.
“It’s okay. We’ll figure it out,” Kate said soothingly. “Have you talked to your father yet?”
“No. And I don’t want you to, either,” Helen insisted, drawing back to look directly at Kate. Kate gave her a searching look, and Helen continued. “Next week, if I’m still crazy, I’ll tell him, but I think we’ve both had enough drama for one week.”
Kate nodded. “You decide when you’re ready to talk about it with your dad, and I’ll be there. My littleloca,” she teased smilingly. Helen smiled back, grateful that she had Kate, who could listen to her seriously when she needed it, and then stop being serious at just the right time.
“I think we can leave the rest.” Kate gave Helen one final squeeze. “Ready to go?” she called over her shoulder as she went behind the counter and put the money in the safe.
Helen stowed her broom and made her way to the back door. Switching off the lights, Helen turned to lock up as Kate headed across the alley toward her car, keys in hand.
Neither of them heard a thing. There was a blur and a faint flash of blue light in the corner of Helen’s eye, and asmell. It was a nauseating yet hauntingly familiar odor of sizzling hair mixed with stale ozone. Then Kate dropped to the ground like a puppet with her strings cut. Helen instinctively bolted forward, holding out her arms to try to break Kate’s fall, but the attacker took the opportunity to put a bag over Helen’s head from behind.
She was too startled to scream. As she was pulled backward against a soft chest, it suddenly registered in Helen’s head that her attacker was a woman.
Helen had always known she was strong—and not just strong for a girl. Strong for a bear. She bent her knees and braced the balls of her feet against the pavement, ready to give her would-be abductor the shock of her life. She flexed her back and tried to break out of her attacker’s arms, and was surprised to realize that she couldn’t. The unseen woman was just as impossibly strong as Helen. But Helen had more to lose.
The soles of her sneakers shredded under the pressure of her feet as she pushed off. She took one step, and then another, walking right out of her ruined shoes as she dragged the woman along with her. Then Helen heard a thump, a gasp, and she pitched forward violently as she was released.
Struggling to get the black velvet bag off of her head, Helen heard a rapid succession of slaps, thuds, and the quick huffs of stunned breaths. There was a draft of air and the staccato sound of someone sprinting away just as she yanked the hood off and pushed her hair out of the way.
Lucas Delos stood over her, his body tense, his eyes scanning the distance for something that Helen couldn’t see from her position on the ground.
