“They were my friends, too,” he said. “More important, they were my responsibility. I tried telling you that before, but you weren’t listening.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I already stayed once, by the way. The doors are still open. The Beehive’s still there.”

“How about Matt? Or Trinity? Did you see them?”

“Not yet,” Basil said. “Is that why you’re here?”

“I’m getting them out,” she said, nodding. “Everyone keeps telling me it’s all over, that it’s back to normal, but I don’t want to go back to normal. I don’t like the person I used to be. I want to keep being the person I was that night.”

“It might be harder than you remember,” Basil said. “The penitents are less organized without their leader. Easier to evade. But the store still gets inside your head, and all the baby merch makes it extra freaky. You want to avoid looking inside the cribs, understand?”

“I’m going to go slow and careful,” Amy said. “I’m going to figure out how this place works, and I’m going to keep coming back again and again until I find them. Day and night, I’m not quitting until it’s over.”

They almost smiled at each other before Amy looked away. The air was humid and the frogs were roaring in the marsh. She heard an electronic eep as Basil swiped his ID over the scanner. The lock clicked inside the doorframe, and he held the door wide.

Bugs flew in, attracted by the light. Amy wanted to say something, to reassure him that she’d changed, to tell him she was glad he’d come back, she was glad she’d been wrong about him. Instead, she just stepped inside the door. There was no more time to waste. They had work to do.

About the Author

GRADY HENDRIX has written for Variety, Slate, the New York Post, Playboy, Village Voice, Strange Horizons, and the anthology The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination. He spent several years answering the phone for a parapsychological research organization. He is currently employed by Orsk, Manhattan.

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