Over the weekend, the number of vampires surveilling my house went from three to six, and now I’m sensing them everywhere—even during the day. A car will drive by me while I’m on my bike, its windows tinted so heavily I can’t see inside, but that familiar, conclusive ripple will pass across my skin; or a sudden tingle between my shoulder blades will tell me I’m being watched from one of the empty houses between home and school. Maybe it should unnerve me, but instead it’s having the opposite effect. They’re keeping their distance, and even though each side is just trying to make sure the other doesn’t get to me first, they’re all otherwise leaving me alone.

On Tuesday, Daphne makes good on her word to protect my family in a way I didn’t expect: Out of nowhere, my mom receives an email from an appraiser interested in her hideous rag doll, having heard about it from an unnamed colleague. The twist is that he wants to see it in person, but he lives in London and isn’t capable of traveling. The twist on the twist is that my parents have always wanted to see London but haven’t been able to justify the expense, and the twist on that twist is that, seemingly overnight, their frequent flier account tripled—to the point where their tickets would be all but free.

I don’t know how the Brotherhood pulled it off, or how they’ll keep my parents safely out of town long enough to see things through to the end, but I’m already planning to name my first pet Daphne out of gratitude.

If I live long enough to have a pet of my own. The end might be anytime. Someday, maybe soon, I could wake up and find the Corrupter in control of my body.

But I’m still in command of all my parts on Wednesday when Gunnar texts to ask me on that official date: Hey! How do you feel about ice-skating? I’m afraid to be honest and tell him it scares me—especially because it’s a silly thing to fear after I literally almost got murdered—so I reply with a thumbs-up emoji, an ice-skate emoji, and an explosion emoji, which is vague enough to signify either excitement or imminent calamity. And I’m still very much me when I get home from school on Friday, my stomach so packed with butterflies they don’t even have room to flap their wings, so they’re all just crawling around in there until I’m pretty sure I’m going to barf.