What did she expect? An apology? It wasn’t like Jordan had anything to apologize for. As much as Wendy hated to admit it, everything Jordan had accused her of was right. She was the one suddenly acting weird, and she was taking her frustrations out on Jordan. She tossed her phone onto the nightstand.

Wendy’s mind wandered to Peter. She wondered if he was okay, secluded in the woods with the shadow gaining power with each passing moment. She grew worried, thinking about him alone in that dingy hunting shack. Maybe she should have asked him to stay. The thought made her shift uneasily. That would be awkward. Where would he sleep without her parents knowing? In her truck? That didn’t seem much better. Clearly the shadow had no problems with lurking around her driveway.

Either way, there was nothing she could do about it tonight. She and Peter hadn’t had time to arrange a place and time to meet tomorrow because Jordan showed up, so, once again, she’d have to just wait and hope.

Wendy’s mind kept cycling through worrying about Jordan, then Peter, then the shadow, then the missing kids, then back to Jordan, then over to Peter again.

She needed a distraction. She dug a book out of her backpack and tried to read, but every time she’d start a sentence, her mind would wander and she would forget what she had just read and have to start the sentence all over again. After reading the same sentence five times, Wendy gave up.

When she put the book on her nightstand, her fingers itched, twitching toward the drawer. She hesitated for a second before pulling it open and taking out the acorn. Lying back, she rolled the acorn in her palm. The longer she played with it, the warmer it seemed to get in her hand. It reminded her of how she felt when she was around Peter. It was comforting.

That gave her an idea.

Wendy went to her closet, got on her hands and knees, and started digging through the stack of boxes in the far corner behind her shoes. It took her a few minutes of opening lids and rifling through contents until she found what she was looking for.

She pulled out a yellow plastic pencil box. Inside were old jewelry-making supplies that Wendy had used to make necklaces and bracelets when she was younger, most of which she only ever gave her mom and Jordan. Inside were small beads and pieces of yarn in different colors. There were spare toggles and barrel clasps, and various jump rings. She took out a silver one and a long piece of leather cord.

Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Wendy used the supplies to fashion the acorn and leather cord into a necklace. When she put it around her neck, the acorn hung in the center of her chest, long enough to safely tuck under her shirt.