Slap-slap, woof.

Lia could barely even hear Abby and Omelet now. She started jogging, one ear tilted out of the wind to listen. Lia should have walked faster—everyone outpaced her eventually.

Omelet barked. Then came a thunk, as if Abby had kicked a rock. A groan, tree limbs bent back too far by the wind. Damp branches splitting underfoot.

Then Abby took off again.

Lia ran after her. Maybe Abby had seen her lurking in the trees. Lia neared a sharp bend in the path, Omelet’s bark growing louder and louder. Lia lengthened her strides, water gun in hand. She sprinted beneath a burned-out streetlight.

And tripped.

She went down hard. Her hands shot out and the water gun skidded across the sidewalk. Her chin smacked into her outstretched arm, teeth biting through her cheek. Gravel tore through the knees of her jeans. Lia groaned and rolled onto her side, eyes squeezing shut. Omelet whoofed and panted. He padded back and forth across the pavement. Lia shook her head.

“Not funny, Abby,” Lia murmured, crawling to get the gun. Everything ached, and her right ankle throbbed. There was a ringing in her ears. “Abby?”

No one answered. Omelet, still pacing across the path in front of her, whined. The path was empty in both directions.

This had to be payback for the bridge, but Lia had never thought Abby was the revenge type.

“Abby?” The skin on Lia’s hands looked like it had gotten the meanest rug burn she’d ever seen. “I don’t think I fractured anything, but we’re definitely even and you’re freaking Omelet out.”

Lia froze. The silence pressed in.

Abby would never leave Omelet like this, even if she were out for vengeance. Lia stumbled to her feet, and Omelet darted to the side of the path. Without the streetlight, Lia could only see his white fur. A dark stain marred his snout and paws.

Lia lurched after him. Abby lay off the path, facedown in the dirt. Her neck was twisted at an awkward angle.

“Abby!” Lia dropped to her knees and turned her over.

Blood soaked Abby’s face, all of her red and warm and still. It thawed the frost on the ground in a halo around her. It darkened the indent where her skull had been cracked open and stuck to Lia’s hands. It dripped down the rock that had broken Abby’s fall. Lia’s fingers fluttered near her jaw, desperate to find a pulse.

Nothing.

In the dark, alone with Abby while the 911 operator barked instructions, Lia saw eyes peering out from the darkness. She saw shadows darting toward her down the path. She saw the bloodstain on Omelet’s fur grow and cover him. She saw everything, none of it real.

The flashing lights from the arriving ambulance didn’t help.

An EMT bundled Lia up in a silvery blanket and sat her on the path far from Abby. The path wasn’t wide enough for cars, so they had all come running through the woods, cutting straight across the park. The sun was only just rising, and all of them were washed in red. Abby’s parents arrived as the EMT finished cleaning her knee. A detective loomed behind them.