The bigger man shrugs, pulls her along, and they step through the door in the van, and walk out into a hotter, muggier day, thousands of miles from her home. She knows this place. It’s where her grandfather lives, where she visits with her mom sometimes.

The guy in the T-shirt steps through the hole in the air. The doorway closes behind him, and her view of the parking lot vanishes like the picture on a TV being shut off.

“I’ll take her now,” he says.

“You don’t trust me with her, do you?” the bigger man says.

“You’re right,” the guy says. “I don’t.”

The bigger man seems to think that’s hilarious.

“You need to remember which side you’re on now. You’re not a good guy anymore.”

“No, I’m not. But I’m still taking her.”

When Grace hears that, her heart sinks again.

The bigger man releases her arm.

Grace could run. She could still fight, like her mother told her. Her father is safe, or at least a long way away.

But she knows it would be useless. The impossibility is beside the point. There is no going back now. She has not found a hero.

This is what’s happening next.

INTERLUDE: The Menace of the Middleton Monster

INTERLUDE

The Menace of the Middleton Monster

MIDDLETON. THEN.

The beast hunched and snarled, then began leaping across the open ground, eating up the distance between itself and Eric.

It had a human shape, but its back legs were bent like a dog’s. Its head looked like a wolf’s, with a mouth full of sharp fangs. Slobber and blood trickled down its muzzle. It wore a letterman jacket with a big M on the front, and a T-shirt and jeans. Its hands were claws. Its feet — paws — had torn free of whatever shoes it had worn.

It should have been funny, like when people dress up their pets. Instead, it looked sick and wrong. It howled like the Wolfman in the old Creature Feature movies. And that wasn’t funny, either.

Eric saw the glint of moonlight in its eyes, its mouth open in a dog’s drooling grin. It looked happy. Eager.

Eric stood his ground. This was everything he was supposed to prevent. Weird stuff leaked out all around Middleton, and he cleaned up the mess.

This was his job. This is what he was for.

The Middleton Monster. Of course nobody took it seriously at first. It sounded ridiculous. Five students from Middleton High were parked at Shadow Bluffs, drinking beer. They came roaring back down the hill, doing ninety as they skidded onto Main right in front of a patrol car. When the cop pulled them over, they were all talking over one another, babbling and terrified.