Michael screams something, so does Jane, but in the rush of flames, I can’t hear them as I drop back into the projection booth. Rochester’s got Bee pinned against the wall, and though she’s flailing against him, more than holding her own, the fire is outmatching them both. It’s rising faster now, and it’s greedy, even greedier than these men. It’s consuming everything.

I call out Bee’s name, but I can’t get to her, Dracula blocking my way, the flames licking his body like an eager lover. Only his skin isn’t burning to cinders. Instead, he’s turning gray, as if all the colors have been leeched out of him.

“You know I’ll only come back from this,” he whispers, smoke pouring from his lips. “And so will you.”

I back against the wall. It’s true. We’ll never stop this cycle. We’ll just keep going around and around until we’re both dizzy with infinity.

Unless there’s another way.

The silver letter opener glints up from the floor. This keepsake, this gift, this glorious weapon.

I lunge for it in the dark, but Dracula sees it too, and with a quick leap, he grabs it first.

“For you,” he says, and with his skin puddling at my feet like pancake batter, he thrusts the letter opener through my heart.

A strangled sob, and my skin goes soft and useless. Across the booth, Bee stares back at me, her body burning, my body dissolving, the two of us dying in plain sight. The men are dying too, the smoke and the blaze too much for them.

With the last fragments of his strength, Dracula leans in close, his lips pressed against my ear. “See you there,” he whispers, as the world fades to gray.

I GET TO THE other side first.

The room—if you can even call it that anymore—is almost too dark to see. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust before I spot her there.

Mina, crumpled up on the floor, her legs tucked into her chest, the hands groping all around her.

“Lucy,” she whispers, and I fall to my knees next to her.

“I told you I’d come back,” I say, and shivering, we sit together on the floor, the walls crawling and eager.

These hands, these restless hands. I envision them just beyond, waiting in the dark. They’re the same as the girls back in the drive-in. They’re so enraged at what’s become of them, and even from here they can feel it, what those men have been up to. How more girls will soon join their ranks.

But these hands can’t stop them, they can’t break through. It’s all they want in the world, and the one thing they’re denied.

Another arm juts out, and Mina and I dodge the other way, sliding past something on the floor.