“Well, isn’t that something?” Kelly said, in a tone that teased.

“What, um, what brought you here, then?” Amber asked.

The lights went out and they were plunged into darkness.

“Oooh,” said Kelly. “Cosy.”

Amber shifted at once, relaxing into it. Her eyes were sharper like this, and she could pick out Kelly’s outline in the gloom. She backed up to her bunk and sat so that her own silhouette wouldn’t give her away.

“Sorry?” Kelly said from the darkness. “What was your question?”

“What brings you here?” Amber asked.

“Business, of a sort,” said Kelly. “We’d heard about Desolation Hill for years, or at least heard whispers about it, so we could hardly pass up the opportunity to come here and see it for ourselves. Kind of an odd town, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I do,” said Amber. “I’m not the biggest fan of its police force, though.”

“Me neither. I find they tend to arrest the wrong people.”

“I’ve found that, too.”

“Where you from, Amber?”

“Florida.”

“Wow. You’re a long way from Disney World. I’m from California myself. Venice Beach. You ever been?”

“Can’t say that I have. Are you enjoying the cold?”

Kelly laughed. “No,” she said. “I was born for the sun, honestly. Alaska is beautiful, and I appreciate beautiful things, but I’m a girl who needs a lot of heat, you know what I’m saying?”

“And yet here you are,” said Amber.

“Here we are …”

“You have any more friends?” Amber asked.

Kelly’s tone changed slightly. “That’s a peculiar question.”

“Is it? Oh, I’m sorry.” Amber ran her tongue over her sharp teeth. “It’s just that I met someone this afternoon who wasn’t very nice to me. I was wondering if you knew him. Phil Daggett?”

“Not a friend of ours,” said Kelly. “What did he do that wasn’t so nice?”

Amber shrugged to the darkness. “He had some pretty demeaning things to say about women.”

“Well, there you go,” said Kelly. “I wouldn’t hang out with anyone like that. I only hang out with cool people. You a cool person, Amber?”

Amber bared her fangs. “Sometimes.”

“You sound like a cool person. I can tell. I’m very in tune with coolness.”

“I saw your tattoos.”

“I have more,” said Kelly. “I’ll show them to you later, if you like. You have any?”

“No,” said Amber. “My parents never approved.”

“Squares.”

Amber’s smile widened. “Yeah. Squares. Do your parents approve of yours?”

“Don’t have any,” Kelly said. “Parents, that is. They died when I was a kid.”

“I’m sorry,” said Amber, when really she meant I’m jealous.

“It’s cool,” Kelly said. “What are your folks like? Apart from square.”

Amber thought about this. After a while, she said, “They’re perfect.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I hate them.”