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“What is it?” he says.

“Someone’s in there.”

“In the forest?”

He’s looking but whatever she saw is gone, and the more she stares, the more she’s not sure she saw anything at all.

Her brain said it was the figure of a man, moving between the trees, but it’s so dark there’s no way she could have made that out from fifty feet away.

She rolls her shoulders. “I’m getting jumpy.”

He pulls her under his arm and kisses the side of her head— Well, kisses her hood, but close enough. He looks where she’d pointed for another few seconds. Then they continue to the passenger side of the truck. Caleb peers in, shading his eyes.

“Empty,” he says.

“There’s another vehicle,” she says, pointing at a small car crushed between the pickup and the tree.

Noemi drops Caleb’s hand and runs to the passenger door. The car is so badly damaged that she’s terrified of what she’ll see, but when she puts her face to the window, the interior is empty and the driver’s door hangs open.

“Looks like there’s something in the truck,” Caleb says.

He opens the passenger door and crawls in to take a piece of paper off the dash. Then he holds it inside the dry interior for them both to read.

Our vehicles are both disabled and need tow trucks. Sorry to block the road like this, but we don’t have a cell signal. Heading along the road in hopes of finding a landline. Probably best to turn around.

“Yeah, I’d love to turn around, buddy,” Caleb mutters. “But our car’s not going anywhere … after hitting yours because you left the lights off.” He glances at Noemi. “Do we sit in the car and wait? Or see where they went?”

She glances at the forest and tries not to shiver.

“Let’s walk,” she says.

SEVENELLIE

After calling my attention to the water under the woman at the bar, Henry walks over and sets down my coffee and then sits with his back to her.

“You wanna leave?” he whispers, low enough that only I can hear.

I look out the window, with the rain pouring so hard I can’t see anything.

How freaked out am I? Enough to run back to Henry’s truck and stay there, surrounded by the forest, under that strange sky?

I’m not even sure “freaked” is the right word. I’m confused and unsettled.

“Is this real?” I murmur, and I mean to just say it in my head, but his expression tells me I spoke aloud.

I put my fingers to my forehead, where a lump has already risen.

“You didn’t imagine that it looks like her,” he says. “If that’s what you mean.”

I’m really asking if everything is real, not just the woman, but he can’t answer that, can he? If it’s not real, then he’s part of the nightmare, too. Another false ledge of safety for me to cling to.

“Should we go?” he asks again.

“I … I don’t know.” I lift my gaze to his and whisper, “What do you want to do?”

His worried eyes say he doesn’t know either. What exactly are we thinking? That something is going on here? What?

I glance at the bar patron and suppress a shiver. I know she’s the woman I saw from the road. I also know that there’s no logical explanation for that, short of “she changed into dry versions of the same boots but somehow still dripped water on the floor.”