If nothing else had happened that night, Danny might have waited for more evidence before he joined the other three. Maybe he never would have gotten over his initial skepticism.

Maybe, viewed from that perspective, what happened next could have been a good thing.

Fay Wilson, the hostess, hated her job. She hated her husband for putting all their savings into Pets.com. The Followers promised her everything she wanted, and what she wanted was enough money to leave Middleton forever. Sure, it was a little weird when they tattooed their symbol under her hairline, and surrounded her with candles and chanted. But she agreed at all the right parts, and let a little of The End into her, and from then on, Colchester owned a little bit of her soul.

She didn’t know anything about the four kids who came in late and muttered to each other in the back.

Charles Colchester did. He kept a part of his consciousness on high alert for all of them. He could look through the eyes of any of his Followers at any time, and he saw the four people most likely to disrupt his long-planned ascension all in one place. Individually, they had all stood in the way of The End, and he had them marked for painful deaths.

But Colchester wanted them to suffer a little first.

So he took control of Fay, like he could any of the Followers, and he marched her over to the table. He put a smile on her face.

Carrie looked at Fay with a polite, eager expression. Such a good girl.

That’s when they noticed the darkness outside.

There was a slapping noise, as the shadows outside suddenly swarmed and flung themselves toward the table where the four kids sat. They smacked the window and flapped like fish in an aquarium. They looked like long, distorted silhouettes of men. They kept running into the glass, over and over, as they rushed forward and recoiled when the light from inside the truck stop touched them. The windows trembled every time.

The Shadowmen grinned with teeth that were black-on-black, and reached out with claw-like hands. The four kids knew that if they stepped outside, they would feel those teeth, those claws.

Colchester felt them cringe, felt their revulsion, and savored it. He spoke to them, using Fay’s mouth.

“You’ve found each other. But it’s too late,” Fay said, her voice deep, her eyes filled with darkness. “You can’t stop me now. None of you can.”

Their jaws dropped. Colchester loved that.

Somewhere deep inside her own mind, Fay didn’t know why she couldn’t make herself move. She was drowning in Colchester’s thoughts. She could feel his sticky delight at the scene playing out in front of her eyes; felt it drawing her down like quicksand all around her. She thrashed wildly but only sank deeper. And choked as Colchester’s laughter rose in her throat.