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Another voice answers hers, this one calm and instantly recognizable. Kit.
Well, I guess it wasn’t me he was looking for after all. I start to turn away.
“Don’t do this,” Kit is saying, his voice low. “Not now. Laney doesn’t deserve it.”
“Laneydoesn’t deserve it? What about whatIdeserve?”
I turn away quickly and hurry down the stairs.
I take half a sleeping pill before I go to bed. I still spend an hour staring up at the ceiling, the second half of the pill whispering in my ear. Tempting, yes, but if I take it, then my sedated brain will insist there’s someone lurking around and what the hell was I thinking taking a full pill and how am I going to protect Madison like that?
When Madison shakes my shoulder, I startle. My fuzzy brain whispers that I’m dreaming, replaying my day on a loop, starting with Madison waking me.
“Laney?” she says. “There’s someone outside.”
That has me flailing up. When she doesn’t say anything else, I hover there, heart hammering, and I expect to look over and see her still asleep. I went to bed worrying about someone lurking about, and now I’ve dreamed it.
Madison isn’t asleep. She’s not even in bed.
I scramble up, heart jammed in my throat now, only to see her by the window, the drapes clenched in one hand.
“I thought I heard something,” she says.
I relax and start rolling out of bed.
“Then I came to the window,” she continues. “And saw someone down there.”
I freeze.
Do not freak out. For Madison’s sake, do not freak out.
I compose myself and walk to the window.
“You think I dreamed it,” she says.
“I—”
“You think I’m traumatized by that asshole peeper and dreaming of him.”
“Can I finish, Mads? No, I don’t think that at all. I…” I clear my throat. “Earlier today I was sure I saw someone on the bluff. I lied because I decided it was just the blackened tree stump.”
“You think I’m seeing things, too.”
“No,” I say firmly. “I mean that I should have said something because I’m still not sure what I saw.”
I peer out the window and give a start, only to realize I’m looking at a bird feeder, its pale top and wooden pole vaguely humanlike in the darkness.
“It wasn’t the bird feeder,” she says.
“I never said—”
“It wasn’t. The person was in the woods. Over there. I saw a person.” She shifts. “Or I saw what looked like a person. Something definitely moved. It seemed bigger than any of the animals here and…” She trails off to a mumble. “Maybe I’m wrong. The other night, Ididwake up after dreaming there was another peeper at my bedroom window.”
“We should wake the others.”
When I turn to go, she grabs my arm. “No.Please.”
I hesitate.
