Most of the others head back to the blue cabins, like Willa ordered. But Cole pulls me toward the Hidden Theatre. Lex, Val, and Jude trail behind us. The five of us seek some kind of shelter in the branches of the huge tree as we peek between the leaves and watch Glory get loaded into the waiting ambulance. The siren roars to life again, and they take off down the driveway.

We listen until the blaring noise fades away, and then it is so quiet.

So deathly still.

“What do you think happened?” Lex finally asks. “Some kind of accident?”

“I don’t know.” Jude sounds so broken. I remember that warm hug he had for Glory on our first morning. “It doesn’t make sense. What would she have been doing down at the beach? At night. Alone.”

“It wasn’t an accident,” Cole says. “She drowned herself, I think.” Everyone turns to stare at him. His eyes are so black, and his voice sounds strange.

“No,” Val says. “Don’t do this, Cole. Don’t make this into one of your ghost stories. The fucking whispering. I can’t—”

“No.” Cole shakes his head. “It isn’t that. I just think she wanted to die.” He’s looking at me now.

“Why?” Jude is shaking his head. “Why the fuck would Glory kill herself?”

“Try to kill herself,” Lex pleads. “We don’t know if—”

“But why?” Jude asks again. “I don’t get it.”

“Guilt,” I tell them. And I can feel their confusion. I don’t know for sure if I’m ready to say it out loud to the whole group. But I can’t see any reason to keep that secret anymore. So I let the words come out. “Because she murdered my mother.”

There are a few stunned moments of silence. I see Lex and Jude and Val all trying to make sense out of what I’ve just said. But they can’t. How could they? So I fill them in on everything I know. How Glory was in love with my mother. The fight at her house. Me hiding under her picnic table. How my mother said she was leaving. That she couldn’t stay. Not even for love. Then the ominous sound of Glory’s wind chimes. How it’s one of the very last things I remember. Before the world went black. “She couldn’t let her walk away. So she killed her. Threw her off the cliff behind Willa’s house. It’s the only answer that makes sense.”

“And she threw you after her,” Lex says. He’s blinking. Trying to catch up. “Holy shit. Av. Oh my God. Av.” He pulls me into his arms and it’s suddenly all too much. I start to sob. Lex rocks me back and forth. He strokes my hair. Makes soothing noise in my ear.