Page 117 of Serenity Falls

Sadie hesitates, and then says, ‘There’s been some weird stuff happening.’

‘What sort of weird stuff?’ Ellis asks.

Sadie looks around at the group. She’s not used to sharing, especially stuff that could get her ridiculed. But Ellis showed her this place, she thinks. She has to trust someone, at some point.

‘Okay …’ She recounts what her dad told her about seeing Frankie/Arnie on the security cameras and the creepy balloons.

‘Whoah,’ Ellis says. ‘Sounds like someone really wants to freak you out.’

‘No shit.’

When Sadie gets to the lights in the ghost house and the weird phone calls, Ramona holds up a hand.

‘Wait. You’ve been waking up at night?’

‘Yeah.’

Ramona shakes her head. ‘Nope. That doesn’t happen.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Everyone here goes to sleep at eleven and wakes around seven,’ Ellis says.

‘Well, that can’t be everyone.’

But suddenly she hears the voice again: ‘You shouldn’t be awake.’

‘I’ve tried staying awake,’ Dax says. ‘But every time, I fall asleep dead on eleven.’

‘Me too,’ Ramona says.

Ellis nods. ‘Haven’t you noticed?’ she asks Sadie.

Sadie thinks about her dad. A lifelong insomniac, but here, falling asleep like clockwork every night.

‘I’ve noticed my dad is sleeping, and he never sleeps.’

‘But not you?’

‘No.’

They look at each other.

‘So, maybe it doesn’t work on you?’ Ellis says.

‘What?’

Ramona holds up her wrist. ‘The bracelets. We’re pretty sure they use them to control people’s sleep, and maybe other stuff, too.’

Sadie just stares at her. She wants to laugh, but then she remembers how the bracelet was pulsing on her dad’s wrist that night. And smart watches can monitor pretty much everything from your heart rate to how well you sleep, so maybe it isn’t so far-fetched.

‘Who’s they?’ she asks.

‘The Conservators. I mean, they control everything here. Like everything.’

‘That’s pretty seriously fucked up,’ she says.

‘Oh, that’s just one of the fucked-up things,’ Ramona says. ‘There’s the curfew, the ghost houses, the fact people just disappear, like Chris and his family.’