She froze for a heartbeat. Gritted her teeth. Hauled him back fully onto the sidewalk.
An ambulance sped past, sirens cutting through the quiet of midday. She frowned, her pulse still climbing. This was so not good.
“Hi,” the boy said brightly, in a voice too normal for what had just happened. Whatever he’d just experienced, whatever had spoken through him, was gone now. His face was all softness and innocence.
She swallowed and forced a smile. “Hello there.”
“You’re the books lady.”
She crouched to his level. “I am.”
“My mom take me there every hundred days,” he declared proudly, pointing toward the library with his stuffed shark dangling from his arm like a sidekick. “I’m Noah.” He wiped his nose with his sleeve. “I’m five.”
“Hi Noah, I’m Daphne. Do you know where your mom is?”
It was obviously the wrong questions. He looked around, searching for her. When he didn’t see her, his smile dropped, his bottom lip trembled, and his eyes filled with sudden tears. “No.”
Daphne pulled him gently into a hug, stroking his back, trying not to let him feel the shaking in her own spine. “You’re being very brave, Noah. You know what we’ll do?”
He shook his head and smeared tears on his face with the shark’s fuzzed fin.
“We’ll go inside where it’s warm, see if I’ve got some snacks, and call the sheriff so he can help us. What do you think?”
“‘Kay,” he whispered.
They were halfway across the pavement when Daphne caught sight of a man sprinting down the other side of the street, barefoot, shirtless, yelling unintelligible words into the sky. He stumbled, fell, got up, and ran like something was chasing him.
She didn’t wait to find out what came next. She scooped Noah up, clutching him close, and hurried through the library doors. Inside, she settled him on the little couch in the children’s section, tucked a Christmas story into his lap, and opened a juice box with fingers that wouldn’t quite stop shaking. Then she picked up the phone and called the sheriff’s department. Harper picked up. “Sheriff’s office, Deputy Walsh speaking.”
“Hey, it’s Daphne.”
“Hey! What’s up?”
“I’ve got a lost child with me. Noah, five years old.”
There was a brief rustle of paper on the other end, then Harper’s voice shifted into full deputy mode. “Okay. Is he hurt?”
“No. Just scared. Says he doesn’t know where his mom is.” Daphne’s eyes flicked toward the wall where shadows stretched too long. “And, um, there was a man running down the street, screaming. Barefoot.”
A pause. Longer than it should’ve been. “Right,” Harper said. “I’m heading over now, and I’ll loop the Sheriff in on the way.”
“Thank you, Harp.”
The moment she hung up, the lights flickered.
The shadows twitched.
She stood perfectly still, her hand still holding the phone, sweat cold against her neck.
This wasn’t just odd.
This was wrong.
Very,verywrong.
She went back to Noah and sat with him. She put everything she had into making him smile. And was successful.
Until a man hit the huge window of the library.
