I think I started to stand at some point, because I felt Hayden reaching for me, calling my name. He just sounded so far away, unreal. Without any warning, the night of the accident came to life in startling detail. My eyes were open, but I wasn’t seeing the room anymore. I was in that car, about to die again.

Dad had sat in the driver’s seat, talking softly with Mom. No. Not talking. They were arguing again, fighting over Olivia. I hadn’t understood why. I really hadn’t even cared.

“You’re saying her touch did that? Fixed it?” Mom asked, shaking her head.

“Yes,” Dad snapped. “For the tenth time tonight.”

“You shouldn’t have ever involved them,” she said.

I shifted down in the back seat and rolled my eyes. Olivia. Olivia. Always about Olivia. I was practically invisible to those two. So much so that last night I had snuck out and met up with Dustin. They hadn’t even noticed. Olivia. Olivia. Olivia. I looked up and saw the stoplight turn from red to green. I was going to give Dustin the green light on Fridaythe green light to go all the way.

Dad glanced back at me, forcing a fake, stupid smile. He hadn’t smiled for real in a long, long time. “What do you want to eat, honey? Pasta or seafood?”

“I think we should just go home,” my mom said. “I can make pasta at home.”

I ignored her and picked what I knew Mom couldn’t whip up. “I want seafood from Salt of the Sea.”

He nodded and hit the gas.

Only a memory, but my heart raced. I felt sick. I stood in the cabin, but I couldn’t pull myself out. I wanted outneeded out now beforebefore

It happened.

A scream got stuck in my throat.

The headlights of the truck threw everything into a harsh yellow light, and then I was flying back in my seat. The collision knocked me into the door, spun the car around. The screaming and twisting of metal overpowered my mom’s screams. Stunned and helpless, I felt the car whirl around and flip. Once. Twice. Glass broke, pain ripped through my stomach, and over it all, I could hear Olivia crying for Daddy, crying for me.

The impact was shattering, excruciating and terrifyingfinal.

“Nothing,” I heard Parker speak for the first time. His voice strained, thick. “There’s nothing.”

The memory blinked out, flipped to the days after the accident. My mirror reflected an empty shella girl covered with scars and vacant, soulless eyes.

“No soul,” Parker said. “Nothing but scars and an empty shell.”

The image of me faded, replaced with several more memories. The first accidental kill, the first time I’d tried to touch Olivia, Dustin spasming on the cold, rain-soaked cement.