In one sweeping motion, Brian snatched his keychain, and they ran for the garage. In his car, he fumbled with the keys, his hands violently trembling.
“Brian, hurry!”
The engine turned over as the garage door opened behind them. Amelia’s breath caught in an agonizing pang in her chest. In the driveway, a silhouette of a man was set against the volatile sky. He dropped the hood of his black coat and lifted an assault rifle.
Brian threw the car into reverse and slammed the accelerator. The engine roared, and the car smashed into the man who careened to the cement.
He sped down the winding hill, cutting through water that gushed from the storm drains and breeched the road. They raced past the Dauer estate, indiscernible amongst the blaze, and shot onto the main road where felled tree limbs lay in a tangle.
“Look out!” Amelia shrieked.
Brian jammed the brakes. The car spun into the oncoming procession of bleating sirens and flashing lights. Tires squealed and horns blared. Amelia cradled her head in her arms and braced for impact.
SEVEN
AMELIA
The car jostled to a stop.
Nothing came.
No mangled mess of metal.
No broken glass.
Just the sirens screaming up the hill and Amelia’s breaths exploding from her lips. She cracked her eyes and peeked through the sliver of space between her arms.
On the shoulder of the road, the car had missed the guardrail by mere inches. Amelia peered over the edge to the lake water lapping at jagged rocks below. They sat in heavy darkness and even heavier silence. Amelia didn’t know how long it lasted, long enough that her panting breaths slowed and Brian’s hands mostly ceased their shaking.
“What the fuck happened?” he asked so softly Amelia wasn’t certain if she was meant to hear, much less answer.
“The storm knocked the trees?—”
“I don’t mean that.”
Acidity hit the back of her throat as horror snapped into focus. Amelia spun in her seat and ignored the sharp sting of glass that’d buried in her arms and legs.
“My mom! Give me your phone!”
She held out her hand, but tears wet Brian’s cheeks as he shook his head.
“I dropped it when they started shooting. Maybe she got out.”
Out.
The word gutted in a way Amelia hadn’t accounted for. Her mom had been upstairs. She could have hidden from the gunmen, but the fire was inescapable. Amelia’s hand flew to her mouth and muffled a gasp.
“Oh God. This isn’t happening.”
In a daze, she stared out the windshield. Reality escaped her, and she tried to anchor herself to anything tangible. Even pain eluded her, buried beneath surreal detachment. She bit her lip hard just to prove it wasn’t a dream but to no avail.
The wipers struggled to keep up with rain pelting the glass and, across the road, trees thrashed with the wind. The night had gained shades of dark with thick clouds and streetlights knocked out by the storm.
“You said there were people at the party who shouldn’t have been there,” Brian said. “What did you mean?”
Amelia rubbed her arms to drive in warmth, but her icy fingers accomplished little. Neither did her mouth that couldn’t summon an answer. It was too much to explain with her head a mess and thoughts muddled.
“I—I don’t know.”
