She wouldn’t stop screaming. I was afraid the people in the houses nearby would call the police. I put my hand over her mouth, trying to quash the noise, but she bit down hard on my palm, drawing blood. When I drew my hand back in pain, she wailed again. One word.

“Dylan!”

She knew who I was. She’d seen me before.

“Don’t hurt me! Please don’t hurt me! Dylan!”

I grabbed her shoulders, with blood dripping down my wrist, and pushed her against the wall.

“Eve,” I hissed urgently. “Eve, listen to me.”

“Don’t hurt me, please!”

“Eve. Try to focus. I’m Dylan, but I’m not him.”

“You are, you are! Go away, leave me alone!”

“Look at me!” I backed away and shined the light of the phone on my face. “Look at me, Eve. You can tell, can’t you? We’re the same, but we’re different. I’m not him.”

I put my hands up, a gesture of faith that she wouldn’t run. That she should trust me. She summoned the courage to look at me, and I had the chance to look at her, too. I had no idea what she was on or how far gone she was, but when her animal instincts receded, I saw a little bit of the Eve Brier I remembered. Somewhere in there was the brain that had started all of this.

She was the portal.

“See?” I said quietly. “I’m not him.”

She touched my face, like a blind woman getting to know me. “You’re right. You’re different.”

“Yes, I am.”

“How? How did you get here?”

“Through you,” I said.

She didn’t look surprised. “You mean a different me? From somewhere else?”

“That’s right.”

Eve exhaled with relief. “So you know about the worlds. You know they’re real.”

“I do.”

“People don’t believe me. I tell them I go on rides, and I tell them what I see. They think I’m crazy. They think it’s nothing but the drugs.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy. Tell me about the rides, Eve. Where do you go? What do you see?”

“There’s a place where we all meet,” she replied dreamily, looking over my head at the sky. “There are so many of them. So many of me. I’m not like this everywhere, you know. I’m smart. Rich. Beautiful.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Sometimes I follow them. The other Eves. Just to see what it’s like to live like that. I hide, and I watch them, but I never stay. I couldn’t live in those worlds. I’d still end up just the way I am now. We all end up back where we belong sooner or later. Except for him. He goes wherever he wants.”

“Tell me about him.”

Her face darkened. “He’s evil.”

“You’ve seen him on your rides?”

“Yes.”