At last, I could see the house in the darkness, with the faint glow from its windows. I stumbled and flailed as I dashed around the side of the building, made my way through the tall wet grass, and pushed at the door, which would not give. I banged at it. I pushed harder.

“Jasper!” I called.

Something was blocking my way, but I pushed and pushed, and at last, with a grating noise, the cinder blocks gave way, and the splintery old door let me in with a creak of hinges, and I burst into the room, breathless and shouting, “I’m here! I’m here!”

I looked around the dim room wildly for the man, for the danger, for Jasper. The wind outside shook the old loose panes of glass in the windows, and I could hear a steady drip somewhere in the darkness, even over the thunder all around us, but the room was mostly dry.

My eyes fell on the bed. There she was. Jasper sprawled on her pile of sheets and blankets. She peered, squinting. She blinked at me, sleepy eyed.

“Leah? Is it morning?”

The lights along the floor cast a warm gleam on the blue blanket, and Jasper’s tousled mop of hair was lopsided. She yawned as she smiled at me. She was calm. She was just like always. Jasper.

“I wasn’t too late,” I said. “You’re okay.”

“What do you mean?” A drop of rain plunked on her hand from a leak in the ceiling, and the crumbling house groaned with the wind. “What’s wrong? Are you talking about the storm?”

I dropped to my knees beside her bed, panting, dripping. “Oh, God,” I said. “I’m an idiot. There was nothing wrong. I imagined it.”

“Leah, what’s going on? Are you okay?” She looked worried.

Then it all hit me. My scraped feet and tired brain, my panting chest and the mud and rain soaking me. I toppled over onto the edge of her thin mattress. I looked like a freak and felt like a fool.

“I came . . . to help . . . you,” I said, still trying to catch my breath. “I came . . . to make sure . . . you were safe.”

Jasper laid a hand on my wet shoulder. She leaned over me and grinned into my face. “You’re nice to worry,” she said. “A total weirdo for sure, and dripping water all over the parts of my bed that weren’t already wet from the storm. But very nice.”

I rolled off her blankets onto the floor. I tried to breathe like a normal person, whatever that meant.

Then, in the distance, somewhere near the house, I heard a shout.

“What was that?” said Jasper. Her eyes shot up to the window.

“I don’t know,” I whispered.