I got the right key and entered the room but it was no use—I threw the breakers inside over and over again, to no avail, and even the buttons that were supposedly hooked up to the backup generator for emergencies like this one wouldn’t work. It was a total blackout.

What was I to do? I left the room and locked it again, taking my time, hoping that something would happen to save me from further action. But nothing came.

I picked up the cage and walked back toward the steps that led me to 201, but then I decided to go to the main house. I could check the breakers there.

As I walked, rain began to fall. Faster, faster. Sheeting. The wind picked up, and the combined force made the air feel solid, as if I were moving through an endless, wet curtain. I picked up my pace.

Following the sidewalk in front of the apartment building, I made my way to the disguised door where I could exit the city. I passed the electric bus stopped in the middle of the road, mid-trip. Looking behind me, I tried to catch sight of Arcade Florists, Mr. Angelino’s, the Regal Beagle—I couldn’t make them out. The rain and darkness made everything invisible. The city had fallen away.

The rain still pouring, I found the door in the wall and put the canary cage down. With one hand I held the flashlight, while with the other I searched for the door handle. I found it, but as the hinges creaked open, I thought I heard something over the rain—a car pulling into the driveway.

Peeking through the opening, I looked toward the main house.

There, in the driveway, sat an SUV. It was parked directly in front of the main house, its headlights shining through the rain. Thinking it was Bernie again, I was about to shout at him to leave, when a figure passed in front of the headlights.

Was that—Krystal?

Behind me, the canary weakly chirped. I barely heard it. I stared through the rain, unbelieving, and watched her run up on the porch of the main house, knock on the door. The SUV’s headlights spotlighted her as she waited. It looked like she was calling my name, although I couldn’t hear her above the rain and wind. Not receiving an answer, she moved to the nearest window and looked in. Looked into my windows! Cupping her hands around her eyes against the glass like we used to do as kids at the abandoned houses at the edge of town, peering through dirty windows, trying to see what we could see.

She knocked on the front door again. She tried the doorknob. She struggled with it, rattling it side to side. She was trying to break in! Looking at the knob closer now, maybe thinking of picking the lock? She walked off the porch and stood in the rain, in the headlights, looking back up at the house. Probably thinking of picking up a rock, breaking a window.