“Well, let’s see. It’s hard to keep track without the days and nights, but it’s what, two a.m.? So that means it’s officially October thirtieth,” Ben said.

Eleanor, Pip, and Otto looked at each other in silent horror. For a long moment none of them said a word.

It was October 30. Tomorrow was Halloween.

And Mr. January would be coming for them.

Fourteen

Ben pulled up in front of the house and threw the van into park, making it lurch. “Things have been gray like this since the eclipse started. That’s also when people started going missing, and that happened.” He gestured out past the house. It was hard to tell in the perpetual dark, but as Eleanor squinted, she realized that beyond the orchard, the pine trees that surrounded Eden Eld weren’t there. There was only a solid wall of gray.

Ben waved toward the house. “It’s better inside the house. We’ll be safe in there.”

Ben ushered them all in and slammed the door shut. As soon as they crossed the threshold, their color returned. Everything inside the house looked normal, too—the house had magical protections on it that had kept the gray from encroaching every time the People Who Look Away came after them. Ben threw the locks—all nine of them, bolted along the door from top to bottom. Only then did he let out a breath and relax, his shoulders sagging.

“I think you’d better tell us what is going on here,” Eleanor said, as kindly as she could. Ben looked like he was barely holding things together.

“I should tell you? How about you tell me?” Ben said. He was a big man, and his voice was loud and wild, but somehow it all made him seem very small. “You three. You disappeared,” he said, pointing at Eleanor, Otto, and Pip. Then he looked at the hedgewitch. “And Claire? You’re dead or a criminal or something! I don’t know who the kid is, but she looks like she got lost on her way to a Renaissance festival, so she’s not really upping the normal quotient here.” He gave a manic laugh and swept his baseball cap from his head, running his hand over his hair.

“Uncle Ben, I know this is strange, but I promise it’s going to be okay,” Eleanor said, putting a hand on his arm. He flinched away. She dropped her hand, stung. Was he afraid of her?

It didn’t matter. Soon he’d forget that anything strange was happening. That’s what had happened all the other times he’d brushed up against the Wrong Things.