“I’m going to check on Donna,” Skip said suddenly behind her. She whirled around, cheered a little by his change of heart. “You wanna come with me?”

She did, but instead shook her head. “No…I think three might be a crowd if there’s any making up to do.”

Skip pondered these words of wisdom, then shook his head. “No, I think maybe you should be there. So when she crawls back and I refuse her, you can arbitrate.” He took her punch on his arm and grinned, more like his old self again.

“You might as well go with him,” Justin urged, shrugging into his jacket. “Neale’s gone off to check something up the beach, and I need to go find him. I’d feel better if you weren’t alone.”

So you feel it, too, Kelsey thought, and she met Justin’s eyes with a slight shock—they seemed to confirm her sense of foreboding. Something…something’s not right…

“Yeah, come on. We’ll take the shortcut up by the lighthouse—it’ll be faster.” Skip propelled her out to his jeep, not giving her time to answer. She gasped as the wind nearly knocked her over, and Skip helped her into the seat, his own body braced against the fierce gusts. “Sit close to me!” he ordered her, and she scooted into his side, glad to have something to lean on.

“I need a jacket!” she shouted, and Skip coaxed the jeep to life, sending them both back against the seat.

“You can get one at Donna’s. What do you think I’m here for anyway?” He slipped an arm around her and hugged her close, waving smugly to Justin as they started off. Justin waved back and shouted something, but it was lost in the wind.

A clap of thunder shook the air, the sky, splitting the clouds. Kelsey jumped as the rain hit her—not a light sprinkling, but an unleashed torrent that turned the world an instant, impenetrable gray. They were drenched within seconds.

Skip hung over the wheel, squinting through the impossible curtain of rain. “Damn! I can’t see a thing out here—”

“I think we’re too close to the water, Skip! Maybe we should—” Kelsey began, but she never got to finish her sentence.

For one split second the waterfall around them seemed to part, revealing a long, dark shape sprawled directly in their path, a shape they gaped at, unbelieving, even as they went right over it.

“What the—” Skip fought wildly for control as Kelsey screamed. There was the sickening feel of earth giving way beneath them, and the dizzy sensation of spinning—on and on through the rain—

Kelsey felt herself hurtling through the air…felt the ground smack into her face…heard the crash, somewhere, beneath the thunder and wind and rain—

“Skip! Skip, where are you?”

The scream stuck in her throat, strangely metallic; she gagged on it and felt it rush, warm and thick, down over her chin. Blood. Blood everywhere.

What did we run over? In horror she tried to lift her head, spitting out bloody water and sand. Her whole face felt numb…she couldn’t feel her nose at all…