They stand in a loose square in the parking lot, four points on the compass, a few feet apart. For a moment, nobody moves any closer. They just look at each other. None of them are really the hugging type.

For a moment, Carrie’s memory strobes over the present. It happens sometimes, like time-lapse photography. She sees them as kids in high school, and then she sees them now.

Danny hasn’t changed at all from their last awkward visit, aside from the cuts and bruises. Still handsome. He’s a little heavier, but he was always a skinny kid. He was so angular and bony she thought she’d get cut that first time underneath him, both of them fumbling and hesitant.

They got better with practice. She shoves the images away before they get too detailed.

Alana is stunning, of course; she’s aged maybe five years in the last twenty. She must get carded all the time.

Even Eric looks good, although the goatee is ridiculous. At least he finally got rid of those dorky glasses.

She realizes, despite everything, she is glad to see them. They are the only people in the world who know exactly what she has been through. No one else has ever seen what they have seen. Whatever grudges or betrayals or wounds they’re still nursing, they’re a family — a fucked-up, strange, damaged (and, yes, it has to be admitted, incestuous) group of siblings, welded together by the worst and best days of their lives.

“Well, I guess we all got the invitation,” Danny says. He reaches into his pocket and comes out with the card. Carrie and the others, one by one, do the same.

It all becomes one message, one cry for help:

IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN

YOU HAVE TO STOP IT

YOU HAVE TO SAVE US

YOU HAVE TO COME BACK

That makes it official, Carrie thinks.

Eric looks longingly at the bar. “Can we go inside? I’d really prefer to have a drink in front of me when we discuss this.”

They step up to the door. They can hear familiar voices and old songs from inside. A playlist heavy on Sugar Ray and Backstreet Boys. A lot of their former classmates have showed up early for the reunion as well.

Carrie hesitates, and the others aren’t exactly shoving at her back to get in. They’ve fought monsters, but facing their past — that’s harder.

But one is pretty much the same as the other, so Carrie shoves the door open and walks inside.

They’re back. They might as well get this started.