“Stop the car,” she shouted.
“What? Why?”
Harmony twisted. “I thought I saw her.”
“Candy?”
Harmony twisted to look again. Nothing but rain and blackness. Another flash. Still nothing. “I was wrong. Keep going.”
Cass exhaled. “We’re cursed, Harm. Everywhere we go, death follows like it’s on the guest list.”
Harmony didn’t answer. Mary didn’t either. The words felt too true to touch. She didn’t want to feed them and make them grow.
By the time they reached Avalon, the storm had swallowed the town. Streets ran like rivers; storm drains gurgled with seawater. The power was out. No streetlights. No Neon. There was only the slap of never-ending rain. The ferries were grounded, and The Casino loomed like a ghost ship on the horizon.
They abandoned the vehicles and ran, soaked, breathless, shaking. Inside, The Hotel Atwater, the backup generator buzzed, casting jittery yellow light over terrified faces in the lobby. Dozens of people huddled in corners, wrapped in towels and blankets, fear drifting through them like smoke. The front desk bell kept ringing because a draft drifted through the room, or they hoped it was the wind causing the sound.
Mary strode in, shaking off water. “Phones are down. No signal. The grid’s out across the island.”
Zach flung a wet jacket onto a chair. “So we can’t call Search and Rescue?”
“They’ll know we were hit,” Efrain said grimly. “But the choppers won’t fly in this.” He tried his radio again, but static answered like laughter.
Torie sat apart near the windows, trembling, lips blue, eyes shallow. Harmony crouched in front of her, voice calm. “Tell me again what you saw.”
Torie’s tears cut tracks through the dirt on her cheeks. “I told you—she ran toward the ridge. I followed, just a few steps. The wind was insane.” Her voice cracked. “She looked back, smiled, and then . . . she was gone. I couldn’t see her. She was gone in a flash.”
“Gone how?” Harmony asked.
“Like the darkness swallowed her whole.”
Harmony studied her. “You two seemed to make peace tonight.”
Torie’s lips trembled. “I tried.”
Mary approached with a blanket and draped it over Torie’s shoulders. “We’ll call Search and Rescue at dawn,” she said. “If the roads hold.”
Zach leaned against the wall, rubbing his temples. “What if she fell?”
“Don’t,” Tosh said.
Silence dropped heavy. They were all thinking the same thing.
Thunder rolled back toward the sea. The rain shifted from a battering to a whisper. Harmony straightened, staring at the glass, at the warped reflection of their frightened faces.
“The weather isn’t the only thing hunting us,” Harmony said. “Something is surrounding us until there’s no possible escape.”
No one knew what to say to that. It was too close to true to react and make it real.
“Torie, think hard, think if she fell or not,” Cass begged.
Torie’s voice broke. “I don’t know. One second she was there. The next—nothing. Just rain. Just—nothing.”
Harmony watched her for a long moment. “You did try to stop her?”
“Yes, for the millionth time.”
“Did anyone see you together?”
