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"A camp? A town?" I mused, weighing my options.

“What town is out in the middle of the desert, Maisie Jay? Do you really believe one popped up since last week when you dragged us out here? Can you riddle me that?”

“I don’t know,” I spat, talking aloud as well as mentally. “But what I am sure of is that staying out here in the freezing dark with no water is stupid.”

“And goin’ off half-cocked, chasing some glowing light you think you saw that is even farther from home is a smart thing to do?”

“Do you have a better idea?” Not waiting for an answer, I kept right on going. “Look, I know that wandering around in the desert is risky, but maybe there’s a phone signal over there.” Gripping my cellphone so tightly that my knuckles were white, I shook it and ground out through gritted teeth, “Because this expensive piece of whatever it’s made out of with a hundred cameras and a million filters can’t find a fucking signal.”

“There are only three cameras,” NeyNey sighed.

“Well, that’s two too many because the damn thing never has a signal. They should’ve spent more time on that part and not so much on the photography.”

“That’s because we live in backass Valentine, Texas. It has nothing to do with…”

“Could you please, for the love of the Goddess, agree with me about one blasted thing?”

“Not if you’re wrong.”

“I hate you.”

Ignoring Neysa’s continued rant, I threw my backpack on, left my easel and crazy painting where it was, and started walking. The further I marched, the weirder the air felt.

It grew heavy, smelling faintly of sulfur and ozone, but that could happen. There was always heat lightning and never a lack of stinky animals spreading their scent all over the desert.

So, even as Neysa continued to bitch and moan about me moving in the ‘wrong’ direction, I kept right on going.

My stomach growled again, and I instantly remembered the turkey and cheese sandwich in the pocket of my black hoodie. Getting it out, I took the first bite and was sure I’d died and gone to Heaven.

“How long has it been since I ate?” I mentally asked since my mouth was full.

“How am I supposed to know? Am I your Keeper?”

“Yes.”

“Well, shit,” NeyNey groused. “I hate it when you’re right.”

“Yeah.”

“Shut up,” Neysa snapped, then quickly added. “You had breakfast at Sam’s Diner at 6 am when you told Bonnie Sampson that you were fine coming out here by yourself.”

“No wonder I’m starving.”

“No wonder we’re lost.”

“Once again, I am ignoring you.”

“Same song, millionth verse.”

As I continued walking and eating, I had just popped the last bite in my mouth when the sand beneath my black and white houndstooth Doc Marten boots transitioned from loose earth to a cracked, calcified grey crust.

A cold chill skittered down my spine and then came the shiver that shook my shoulders with enough force to make the keychain attached to my backpack jingle.

There hadn’t been a gust of wind. Hell! Everything had happened so quickly that I was actually getting a little freaked out…

But of course, I kept right on going.

As if Fate or Destiny or one of the other Omnipotent Cousins had sneezed, a sudden, violent vibration in the ground beneath my boots made me stagger left, then right, to stay upright. It shimmied and shook straight through me with such force that I was afraid I might lose a tooth or two.