“Exactly.” Vera’s voice perked up. He looked her way, and her big brown eyes sparked to life. “The explosion happened after the storm, and I think it was the first event, the first big event, caused by the demon. The explosion sent the town reeling into despair and shock, and that’s how the demon started feeding, growing stronger….”

Wait. Max jolted, eyes wide. “You’re saying the demon didn’t arrive with the explosion, but it caused the explosion. That means this thing is not only trying to take away my mother right now, but it already took away my father.” He blinked, pegs falling into place. “It killed my dad. That’s why it talks like him.”

“I think so. Maybe.”

Time froze. A gnat stopped its flight in midair.

Max should have realized. When she’d mentioned the hurricane and the chalice, he was so consumed with what was happening with his mom, he didn’t fully deduce how it could tie into his dad.

All at once, something shifted inside him. All the desolation, all the confusion, all of the anguish he’d felt these past seven years, he now had a place to put it—in a sizzling pit of rage that burned with blue flames inside his chest.

This thing took his father—and seventeen other people from Roaring Creek. He thought of all the suicides, all the car wrecks, and all his dead classmates; they were brainwashed. It stole them. And now it was inside of his mother, gnawing on her and using her to infest the entire town.

“We have to stop it.” His voice was firm.

“I spoke to my parents. They booked a flight that will get them home, not tomorrow, but the next day. They will stop it. Until then, Father Chuck’s going to get some people to set up shop outside your house and make sure no one goes inside.”

“How are they going to do that?” he scoffed. A handful of churchgoers against a cult and a demon sent from Hell?

“I don’t know. They just will.” She shrugged. “And I have to get those shrines out of the hospital. Maybe instead of the higher-ups, I’ll go to the janitors, the orderlies, the food service staff. See if people will ‘accidentally’ dump the statues into the trash while patients are asleep. We have to stop this from spreading, at least until my parents get home. I feel so useless….”

“How can you say that?” he spat, forehead wrinkled at the absurdity. Without her, who knows what would be happening to him and Chloe? To his mother?

“You heard the demon. It knew about my dreams—everything. All the sleepwalking, the visions, could be coming from the demon.” Her voice broke, a touch of fear slipping through. Max noticed her hands were shaking. “I can’t believe anything anymore.”

Max placed a palm on hers. “That’s not true. I believe you.” His tone was certain. “The demon was wrong today. When it said I was relieved that your aunt took Chloe off my hands, that I wish she were never born, that isn’t true. Yes, I’m glad your aunt’s here and she’s doing an amazing job, but that’s not how I feel at all. And I’m not just saying that.”