‘I don’t know, Zach, because I don’t remember what conversations we have and haven’t had. But my guess is that I didn’t want to put ideas in your head. You kids are all the same. I tell you not to set prom on fire, and you go straight out and buy a box of matches …’

‘We can’t go to the shop, though, miss. We can’t leave. But Kellen did manage to convince you to order us all pizza.’

‘Pizza?’

‘Pepperoni …’

She looks at us in disbelief before burying her head in her hands.

‘I need you to understand,’ she says after a moment, ‘that this day has a way of speeding you along, if you know what I mean. The second you get distracted? Start wasting time? Ordering pizza? That’s when bad things start to happen.’

‘Why did you let us order pizza then?’ I protest.

‘I don’t know because I wasn’t there!’

‘Well, you were there …’ I grumble.

‘I swear to God …’

‘What do you mean bad things?’ Kellen asks. He actually looks scared now.

‘Fallen trees, crashed cars … One kid swore blind they were attacked by a bear.’

‘We don’t have bears in this country,’ I say automatically.

‘Well, I didn’t think so either!’ Madzikanda snaps back.

‘Told you.’ Kellen smirks.

‘The longer you stay in this day,’ she says, ‘the less things start to make sense. There’s no reason the building should keep going up in flames, and yet someone knocks the tiniest candle and it’s like a match has been lit at a petrol station. You’re right, Zach, there are no bears in this country … until suddenly there are.’

‘So you’re saying that this place has the ability to distort reality?’

I think of the black smoke billowing from the school. The car slamming into the barrier that wasn’t there. The never-ending depths of a lake that’s barely a metre deep. Even the vividness of that dream, of Kellen falling through the skylight. It all felt so real. As real as anything else that’s going on here.

‘So you’re telling us anything can happen?’ Kellen asks. ‘We might get attacked by a poltergeist … bitten by a vampire! Chased by an enormous fire-breathing dragon?’

Madzikanda squints at him. ‘I think we can safely rule out ghosts, vampires and dragons. But if it can happen in the real world, it can definitely happen here.’

‘Gotcha,’ Kellen says sarcastically. ‘Coming back from the dead is just fine, but we draw the line at dragons.’

‘You’re just lucky you’re blessed with such good weather.’ She peers out of the window. ‘One poor kid’s prom night was in the middle of a thunderstorm, so you can imagine how that went …’

‘They got hit by lightning?’

‘No, but just about everything else did.’

‘So you’re saying the loop is malicious then? Like it has thoughts? Bad intent?’