I glanced out the window, remembering Anamae speeding down the same road Victor was driving on now. She’d lost control of the car, and we were sent over the edge of the mountain. I’d gotten a slight concussion, but was put on heavy medication over the next several days.

James had felt responsible for the accident. It was when he decided to leave Woodvine. He’d used the fading on me. It had almost worked, what with me medicated like a zombie. But when I quit taking the pills, it all came back.

“Are you okay?” Victor asked.

Snap out of it, I thought. Or the first place he’s going to take you is to see Will.

“What?” I asked. “No. I’m fine. Just thought I saw something out in the woods.”

“Okay, so what brought you out there in the first place?”

“I thought I lost something,” I said. That much was true. I had gone to Judaculla Rock because I was afraid I’d lost James.

“You were thinking it would be easy to find it in the dark?” Victor asked.

My fingers worked to free the chains that were still clutched in my hand. I raised them to show Victor. The silver locket spilled out, swaying with the motion of the car.

“I did find it.”

“You came out here in the middle of the night for that?” he asked, a touch of anger in his voice. “Things can be replaced. You can’t.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, without meaning the words.

What did it matter, anyway? As soon as possible, I would return to Judaculla. When I did, Victor wouldn’t remember my flimsy apology. He wouldn’t remember the disappointment he felt, knowing I’d just lied to him for the first time in my life.

Until then, I was stuck in a world that wasn’t real. A world that had been conjured up to accommodate my disappearance, then altered to accept my sudden return. I believed it was okay, acceptable even, to bend the truth when the entire business was one giant lie that would eventually collapse on itself like a dying star.

“It’s okay, Leath,” Victor said. “I’m just glad I found you.”

I decided it would be best if I kept my thoughts to myself as I tried to piece together what was my current reality in Woodvine. As I glanced at Victor, I was happy we were at least still friends in this shifted world.

Only we weren’t.

The world I’d returned to was different from the one I’d left behind. In this reality, Victor and I were still dating. His hand left the steering wheel, coming to rest on my thigh. The strangeness of Victor’s touch compounded the guilt I felt over the betrayal to James.