I sat down, my muscles complaining, my lower back stiffening. It had been a grueling climb. I stared at the stars and breathed the air, as clean up here as it was anywhere on earth. Was it free of spores? This far away from Creek’s Cause, it had to be.

Cassius lay against me, the ridge on his back pressed to my side. As I scratched behind his ears, I noticed that he’d grown into some of the extra folds of fur. The shape of his face had changed, too, losing some of its puppy softness. Sometime over the past few days, he’d become a young dog.

I supposed whether we liked it or not, we were all growing up.

I took out my notebook and leaned against my backpack. Resting my flashlight on the ledge of my shoulder threw enough of a glow for me to write by.

From across the clearing, I could hear murmured voices.

“… have to send help back for the others,” Patrick was saying.

I had to strain to hear them.

“We will,” Alex said. “But we don’t have to worry about your birthday anymore. About your turning into one of them next week. We can let adults worry about fixing everything. That’s supposed to be their job anyways.”

“Then what?” Patrick asked.

“Then we can do whatever we want.”

I felt a gnawing at my stomach. It took a moment for me to recognize it for what it was. Loneliness.

Patrick and Alex were going to move off into a new life together, and I was going to be left behind.

I pictured those windshield pebbles spilling from Mom’s purse, red like rubies. How they’d bounced on the floorboards at my feet. How alone I’d felt downstairs with the purse and my dad’s cracked watch. How the smell of lilac had flowered all around, taunting me. The darkest despair I’d ever felt until Patrick had found me. I got it from here, little brother. He’d held me tight, so I knew that even if the world had come apart, he’d be there.

Would he be there now?

Falling asleep felt like an escape.

*   *   *

A hand clamped over my mouth.

My eyes flew open. Dead of night. Skeletal branches overhead.

I bucked, but the grip was too strong. Cassius lay at my side, not growling but watching silently. I put it together an instant before the whisper came in my ear.

“Quiet. It’s me.” Patrick reached past my head where the flashlight had rolled when I’d dozed off. His hand pulsed around it, the thin beam vanishing.

I’d tensed from my heels to my face, but I forced myself to relax and melt into the ground. Then I heard it.

Wails and cries.

Tires crackling over the dirt road.