“I don’t know. Yes. No. Probably. But you can’t call the police, Adam. You have to promise me.”

There was another long gap of silence. “Okay. I won’t call the police. Where are you?”

“Um, in some place called the Dark Forest.”

“Come again?”

I laughed weakly. “It’s a town called Petersburg. I’m in West Virginia, Adam—West ‘by God’ Virginia.”

“What?” he shouted.

“You know the place where that movie about the incest hillbillies was filmed? Remember, they like ate people or something. You said the one guy with the gross hands reminded you of our gym teacher?” I took a deep breath. It caught in my throat.

“Em? Are you still there?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s going on, Em? I went to your house. Everything is gone. The place is empty.”

Everything was in that house. The paperwork to the bank accounts. Pictures of Dad, of us together, before the accident were all there.

“Everything is gone?” I whispered.

“It’s like no one lived there. Ever,” he said. “It was the freakiest thing I’d ever seen.”

Cromwell hadn’t been joking when he said everything had been taken care of. Even if I did find a way to go back, there was nothing to go back to. No way to buy food, to pay for stuff, to do anything. How could I take care of Olivia or my mom now? My legs felt weak. I slumped down on the balcony floor and pressed my forehead against my bent knees.

I was trapped.

“Em? You still there?”

“It’s my mom,” I said finally, choosing the one lie I had always relied on. “She’s worse. I’m with friends of the family.” He didn’t respond. The silence stretched out for so long I thought he had hung up the phone.

“Adam, are you there?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “How long are you staying there?”

“I don’t know. I may be here for a while.”

“You’re joking,” he said. “Right? Because people just don’t up and leave without any sort of warning.”

A sudden tightness clamped down my chest. “Adam, I’m not joking.”

“I don’t understand.” His voice sounded strained, choked.

The vise-grip spread to my throat and my eyes started to burn again. “I have to stay here for a while, Adam. I don’t want to, but I have to.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Ember.” He took an audible breath, and I could hear him moving around. Probably in his room—he was always in his bedroom. “What friends of the family? Whose house are you staying at?”

“Jonathan Cromwell,” I told him.

“I’ve never heard you mention them before.”

I closed my eyes and clutched the sketchpad to my chest. “Yeah, I know. Adam, please don’t worry. Everything is okay.”

“You don’t sound okay, Em.”

“Really, I am. It’s just been a… rough couple of days. I’m sorry I freaked you out and I haven’t had a chance to call. Look, I need to get off here. I’ll call you soon.”

“Ember, don’t hang up!” he yelled. “Something isn’t right. You don’t sound right.”