I really didn’t want that drink. I really didn’t want anything to touch my stomach, lest it come screaming right back out again.

“Lee,” said Grandma. “I really must insist. I’ve lived a long life, and I know how to deal with a hangover.”

Shit. How did she always know?

“Fine,” I said, and I took the glass from her and drank. It tasted like grainy sludge with some weird herbs or something floating around in there.

“What is this stuff?”

“My home brew,” she said. “It never fails. Now drink up.”

“I don’t think I can handle any more.”

Grandma reached over the bed and grabbed the bottom of the glass and tilted it toward my mouth. I gulped and gulped and gulped until the liquid was all gone. Grandma pulled the glass away, and I lay back down, gasping.

“You’ll feel better in no time,” she said, smiling at me. And then she left, shutting the door behind her.

I wasn’t sure, but I thought I heard the lock click like she had turned the key from the outside.

Why would Grandma lock me in here? I thought.

I fell back asleep.

Chapter 31

It was the afternoon, I knew that from the way the sun slanted across my room. Something had woken me up—something was wrong. I wasn’t alone in the room. There was someone else there with me.

My closet door creaked open.

There stood the Hobo, tall in his boots, his eyes wild. He stepped toward me, the floorboards creaking under his feet.

It was like I was paralyzed, like I couldn’t move at all. This wasn’t real, I told myself, it was a vision, it wasn’t happening.

I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry for help, I wanted to do anything but lie there, still and dumb.

He was standing right next to my bed.

The Hobo reached a scarred hand over my body and laid his palm on my forehead. It felt hot and sweaty, the blood pumping strong beneath his skin.

He began to chant, to mutter and groan, like he was praying, like he was a priest anointing me.

The light in my room flickered and dimmed, like the sun was just another cheap electric bulb, and the whole world plunged into darkness.

I stood in the night world again, the black endless place where the stars whirled wild and strange above me.

I knew I’d been running for hours and hours, days and nights and weeks on end. I was so tired. My sides ached, my head throbbed, my feet were blistered.

And all the while the monster was gaining on me.