“Oh no,” Eleanor said. She hurried forward to grab it. “She’s going to need this. I’ll just . . .” Ducking under Jenny’s steely glare, she hurried out of the kitchen. She felt like the worst person in the world. The least she could do was give Katie her camera back.

She stepped out onto the porch. Her phone was chiming. She pulled it out and glanced down at it as she walked.

Slight complication, have to deal with something, Pip had written.

Guys I glbklrbr, read a message from Otto. Eleanor frowned at the key-smash, but didn’t have time to ask him what he meant. She stepped off the porch and glanced up toward Katie, who had her phone to her ear and was walking up the path toward the driveway.

A path that forked, when it had never forked before. One fork of the walkway led to the driveway just like it was supposed to, but the other bent sharply away, slithering off into the grass where there had never been a walkway before.

“Katie, look out!” Eleanor cried. She ran forward, dropping the pinhole camera, but Katie had already stepped out onto the wrong path. The one that shouldn’t exist. She stopped, stock-still, as if her feet were rooted in place. And then she started forward again. “Katie, stop!” Eleanor said, rushing up to the edge of where the paths split.

“I can’t,” Katie wailed. She twisted, looking over her shoulder. She seemed to strain—and her foot moved forward, one step farther along the road. “Eleanor, what’s happening?”

“Hold on.” Eleanor reached out to try to snatch her arm. Eleanor’s fingers clamped around Katie’s hand, and she let out a cry of triumph—and then Katie jerked forward another step, taking Eleanor with her.

Eleanor’s free hand pinwheeled, trying to get her balance, but it was no use. Her foot hit the false path, and then she was lurching forward, her feet carrying her along behind Katie. Katie craned her neck to look back, face stricken with terror.

“What’s happening?” she cried.

“I don’t know,” Eleanor said. “But it’s going to be okay. I promise.”

They walked at a rapid clip. The path wrapped behind the house, to the orchard, and wriggled between the trees, which stretched farther than they should have with no end in sight.

Eleanor looked desperately at her phone. No signal. Her skin crawled with a strange sensation. She felt like she was brushing through cobwebs.

“E-E-Eleanor?” Katie said, teeth chattering with fear. “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know,” Eleanor said. They were heading farther and farther from the house—and the sky was starting to grow dim. She put on a burst of speed to catch up with Katie. She slipped her hand into the other girl’s, giving it a reassuring squeeze, and Katie cast her a startled look.

“It’s almost the eclipse,” Katie whispered. Eleanor nodded.