He glanced at his hands like he hadn’t realized they’d been noticed. “Tools bite back sometimes.”
His words were light; his tone wasn’t. Harmony heard the lie and filed it away. She didn’t push. Not yet.
“People bite, too,” Harmony said.
He held her gaze for a long moment. The air between them stilled. He spoke in short sentences, but his eyes told entire stories. Harmony wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to read them all. She wasn’t sure she should.
He went back to work, releasing her from his attention as easily as he’d captured it.
She sat for a while, watching his muscles flex in the lantern glow as he set each board. There was something mesmerizing about construction. With the right tools in the correct hands, anything could be made whole again.
She left without saying goodbye. In Avalon, there was rarely a need. The island was a loop. People circled back whether they meant to or not. If she was going to get lost anywhere, this was the place for it.
***
Days blurred.
Everyone acted slightly wrong.
Mary drank before noon. Candy’s songs sounded like goodbyes. Torie followed Tosh when she thought no one was watching. Zach vanished with a tool belt and excuse. Cass smiled without letting it touch her eyes. And Harmony moved among them, collecting stories.
The investigation became entertainment. Theories were traded over cocktails. A stranger. A jealous lover. Someone local. Everyone had an opinion. Everyone had something to hide.
One night, Cass caught Harmony scribbling in her notebook, and frowned.
“What are you writing?” she asked.
Harmony smiled without looking up. “Nothing and everything. I’m trying to understand the change in the air.”
“Maybe you should stop trying,” Cass said. “Whatever this place is doing to people, it’s catching.”
Harmony’s eyes lifted slowly, pen still poised. “Then I guess I’ve already got it,” she said lightly.
Outside, a car door shut somewhere down the hill, followed by the low murmur of a voice she couldn’t quite make out. For a second, it felt like someone else was narrating her night from just beyond the glass.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” Cass said.
“I don’t think anyone has an answer,” Harmony replied.
Outside the windows, the island glowed under the moon—beautiful, fragile, unforgiving. From somewhere near the cliffs, waves slammed into rock, a steady pulse beneath the quiet. Avalon kept moving, as if pretending made it normal.
Ink pooled at the edge of the last word Harmony had written. She felt eyes behind her, though the room was empty. Maybe it was her imagination. Maybe it was emptiness. Maybe it was simply that she felt alone even when surrounded.
Harmony closed her notebook and stared through the glass, imagining the people she’d begun to catalog:
Mary — Vengeful and sad
Candy — Held together with glue
Torie — Unraveling
Zach — Hiding
Tosh — Guilty of everything and nothing
Janie — Manipulative
Harmony — Always listening.
