She waited to feel the flow of warm air from the window. For the thump of something lowering itself onto the floor. She hoped whatever it did, it would do it fast.

She waited.

A minute passed. Then another.

She couldn’t hold her breath any longer. But when she allowed the air to softly enter her body then flow back out again, nothing happened.

There was no thump. No warm air, either.

The room was silent.

Had she imagined it all?

Lily’s heart was pounding harder than she’d have thought possible. There was no use waiting any longer.

She had to get out of this room. She had to leave her blanket cocoon and face whatever was in here with her.

Except there couldn’t be anything.

Lily knew better than that. She knew.

She took a deep breath. Then she threw the blankets from her head before the fear could immobilize her again.

A blurry white shape stared at her from the other side of the room.

She started to scream. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth.

It was just her crumpled homecoming dress, hanging from Maria’s chair.

Hold it together, Lily, she told herself. You’ve made it this far. You can’t lose it now.

She darted her eyes around the room, but nothing else seemed out of place. The window was shut and locked.

She got out of bed, taking care not to look at the spot on the floor just under the window. She was sure there was nothing there, but she didn’t want to look right now, that was all.

Lily had to do something. She had to get the hell out of this room.

She pulled on a pair of sweatpants, headed for the main entrance of the house, and pushed the front door open, letting the humid air wash over her. It had stopped raining.

There wasn’t a soul outside, not even a stray groundskeeper or lonely freshman. Everyone was still at the dance. Out of habit, she waved a trembling hand toward Tony in the security guard’s booth, but she was too far away to see if he waved back. It didn’t matter either way. On dance nights, students were allowed outside two hours past their usual curfew as long as they stayed on campus.

The hill next to the house rose up in Lily’s eyes. The Siward family cemetery plot stood at the top. Lily had only been up there once, with her tour group when she’d first started at Acheron. Lily wasn’t good at climbing hills.

Before she knew what she was doing, though, Lily was hoisting herself up to the very top. She was trembling, but she pushed on, ignoring the pain in her legs.