He and Girl started walking, moving in and out of the creek. “Just to keep them guessing.”

“Do you see them?” I’d wanted to ask this for a long time.

“Who?”

“You know.” I limped along with my taped feet. Water had oozed in, and with each step my heels made a soft gulp. “Dot,” I said. “And the others.”

“No. They’re not like that.” He took a few steps then stopped, whispered, “Sometimes I see Stan though.”

“Really? What does he look like?”

“He’s vast, Magic Boy. So vast. Dark, dark red in, in, urh, in my sky. And when he’s mad, he fills me up and stretches me so thin and he seeps out through all my pores.”

Carl sounded afraid, so I said, “It’s okay. I get it.” I sort of did. Sometimes I felt that way about Gloria.

ROWAN

It seemed like we walked for hours. I thought I was going to collapse. Every part of me was exhausted, and my tooth throbbed. Insects bit my neck then flew into my mouth, a metal taste spreading over my tongue when I crushed them.

Carl did not seem tired at all. He stomped ahead, step after step, swinging his flashlight left to right. Several times he caught a pair of yellow eyes in the glow, low to the ground. The creature would stare, then skitter away.

Eventually the creek grew wider and the bank turned into a tangle of tall grasses and sharp bushes. I knew I was covered in cuts and scratches, and I could feel blood trickling down my legs. More than once when I stepped, my foot met with nothing. A dip in the ground or a space between rocks, covered by leaves. I went down. Cracking against the ground, bones twisting. While Girl halted, Carl kept ambling forward, shoulders hunched. He didn’t even notice. It sounded like he was arguing, saying, “No, you’ve got it wrong this time. Listen to her, listen to her. I can tell, Stan. Urh. Listen to her. Unsubstantiated slanderous allegations.”

I tried to breathe slowly. I didn’t like it when Carl talked to Stan. His voice always went low and hollow.

Finally the creek spread out, gently tumbling over larger rocks into a lake. As we got closer a line of purple appeared on the horizon, and then a layer of orange slowly pushed up beneath it. As the colors flushed across the water everything was suddenly alive and glittering and magical. I’d never seen anything like it before. I stopped. “Carl. Look!”

Putting his hands out straight, palms facing the water, he said, “Because we’re here.”

I felt it too. No one owned it. No one could claim it. No one could abandon it or make it disappear. So beautiful and free, the sight of it filled every crack inside of me. Maybe I was even floating a little. Like Dot had suggested.