Rising to her feet but still staying low, Amy made her way to the edge of the forecourt and hid behind a tree. She lay flat on the grass and wiggled around the trunk, closer to the fence, squinting through a narrow gap between two slats of wood. She still couldn’t spot any activity. She contemplated scaling the fence and sneaking a look through a window when suddenly a figure stepped out onto the porch—a tall man wearing a cap and dark-blue uniform with badges on his sleeves—a paramedic. He was walking backward holding the end of a stretcher while another man, identically dressed, held the other end. There was a fluorescent-yellow body bag resting on the stretcher. Amy stared in horror. Who was sealed inside the bag ? Ryan ? His father ? Her mother had given no warning that something like this might happen. Did this signal the end? Had Amy failed before even making contact with Ryan? Had she not made it to him quick enough?

Sadness and panic tugged inside her chest as she watched the paramedics descend from the porch and load the stretcher into the ambulance. While one paramedic went to the driver’s side door, the other returned to the house, and that’s when Amy saw Ryan.

He emerged from the house and stumbled down the steps, visibly distraught. Collapsing to the ground with his arms around his stomach, he rocked back and forth as though his whole body were writhing with pain. His cries pierced the air. Amy was desperate to rush to his aid, but it was impossible with the paramedics still on the property. She couldn’t risk being seen, couldn’t risk giving herself away.

But then, without warning, just as one of the paramedics was walking over to console him, Ryan jumped to his feet and sprinted to the barn. He disappeared inside. Amy lay frozen on the grass, her heart in her throat, each second passing by unbearably slowly as she waited for him to reappear. But when he did, the situation only got worse—he was on the back of a horse. He came charging out at breakneck speed, so fast that it was only a matter of seconds before he had jumped the fence, galloped across the field, and vanished into the night.

Amy acted without thinking. She jumped up and screamed, “No! Ryan! Come back!” But it was too late. Ryan was gone. And all her outburst had done was alert the paramedics to her presence.