Dess’s bike rattled across the lawn. “See you in 43,200 seconds, Jess,” she called as she passed. “And wear shoes next time!” She laughed and pedaled to catch up with Rex. Jessica looked down at her bare feet and had to smile.

Melissa stayed a moment longer, her eyes narrowing.

“You don’t belong,” she said softly, her voice almost a whisper. “That’s why the darkling wanted to kill you.”

Jessica opened her mouth, then shrugged.

“I didn’t ask to be a midnighter,” she said.

“Maybe you’re not,” Melissa said. “Not a real one, anyway. Something about you is so…11:59. You don’t belong.”

She turned and rode away without waiting for an answer.

Jessica shuddered. “Great, the biggest weirdo in the weirdo club says I don’t belong.”

She turned and went into the house. Even in the strange light of the dark moon it seemed welcoming as it never had before. Just like home.

But Jessica sighed as she walked down the hall toward her room. Melissa’s words were still with her. The darkling hadn’t seemed like a wild animal to her—more like something that hated her with all its heart. The slither had led her into a trap because it wanted her dead.

“Maybe Melissa’s right.”

This blue time didn’t feel like a place she was meant to be. The alien light pulsed from every corner of the house, haunting and wrong. Her eyes stung from an hour of it, as if she were about to cry.

“Maybe I don’t belong here.”

Jessica paused at Beth’s door. Her white shape was still there, unmoving, sprawled on the bed in its anxious pose.

She went in and sat next to her sister, forcing herself to look, to wait for the end of midnight. She had to know that Beth wasn’t dead. If Rex had been telling the truth, she was only stuck for a moment in time.

Jessica pulled the sheet up around her sister’s neck and reached out to touch the motionless cheek, shuddering as her fingers met its cool surface.

The moment ended.

The boxes and corners faded back into darkness, no longer lit by their own light. Dim streetlights slanted in through the windows, making zigzag shadows on the cluttered floor. The world felt right again.

Beth’s cheek grew warm, and a muscle in it flicked under Jessica’s hand.

Her eyes opened gummily.

“Jessica? What are you doing in here?”

Jessica pulled her hand away, suddenly remembering that an awake Beth could be just as scary as a frozen one.

“Hey, I, um, wanted to say something.”

“What? I’m asleep, Jessica.”

“I just had to say that I’m sorry for avoiding you. I mean, I know it’s tough here,” Jessica said. “But…I’m on your side, okay?”