Alice slid out of bed, walked over to Camilla, quietly, slowly, not wanting to spook her, send her running. When she got close, Camilla looked up at her, not in the least surprised by her presence. The expression on Camilla’s face was troubled. She tapped the end of her pen against her front tooth. “Something’s not adding up. I’m trying to balance the figures, but they won’t balance,” she said, then returned her attention to the piece of paper.

Alice glanced at it. It wasn’t numbers that the paper was covered in, though, it was letters: letters forming Camilla’s name. She was writing it over and over again, working her way down the page, covering every line, every bit of blank space with black flowing script. Alice had seen the signature only once before but would have recognized it anywhere, the large C and F, the C slightly larger; the letters tall and slim and well-formed, angled to the left; the i with that careless, high-flying dot. The signature had force, conveyed a personality: bold and regal and wild, full of easy confidence.

“What does it mean?” Alice said to Camilla.

Camilla kept writing, didn’t so much as lift her head, like the words had taken a detour between Alice’s lips and her ears, gotten lost. As Alice watched her hand move fluidly across the page, a single drop of blood hit the white paper. Then another. Then another. The drops started to flow together, form a trickle, then a stream. Alice looked up. The blood, a vivid scarlet, was pouring from Camilla’s black-and-white nose, cascading down her black-and-white chin. “I have to hurry,” she said. But there was no hurry in her voice. No sense of urgency either. Just an absolute calm. “I have to warn little sister that she’s in danger.”

“Charlie? In danger? What kind of danger?”

“I’m almost too late.”

“Too late for what?” Alice said, but as she said it, she looked down at her feet. They were immersed in water, and the water was rising fast. Where was it coming from? She looked around frantically, but could find no source. Still, it was filling the room, was up to her knees, then her waist, then her chest.