The blade poises for another stab as the astral wind tugs me through space, sending me in backward flight through Matteo’s bedroom, through his walls, and back outside.

I’ve seen what I needed to see.

The street rewinds beneath me as the house I’ve just left shrinks. Through the window, I watch as Matteo crawls from the bathroom, a geyser of blood gushing down his chin.

Help, he mouths, and his head hits the floor.

It’s the first piece to chip away. And then the stars eat the rest of him, reducing his body to nothing.

Jake

I spend study period with Grady in the library on Friday. He’s very distracting, but that’s what I need.

Three days have passed, and I haven’t been able to digest anything. The dread in me has tampered with the pipes of my digestive tract. Even chicken tenders don’t make it past without turning into nausea or diarrhea. And Matteo . . . poor Matteo. I see bloody shower water leaking down the walls of my eyes when I close them.

Grady keeps tapping my shoulder and whispering. “Did you get a chance to listen to that band I sent you?”

“The . . . um . . . Pushing Daisies?”

“Pushing Crazies, bro.”

Right. Pushing Crazies. “I don’t think it’s really my style.”

“Are you kidding me, bro? First you trash Junkman’s Mistress, and now you’re telling me you didn’t like Pushing Crazies?”

“Yup. Sounds about right. Guilty.”

There are bigger things at stake. I might have to burn The Great Gatsby just to forget someone murderous is close enough to me to be tampering with my books. Someone who could be leading me on a deadly murder trail.

I’m turning back to the math problem, when I accidentally lock eyes with Fiona, who’s with her friend Amanda in front of the big windows across the room. She looks just as bored as me, and honestly, I don’t know why we don’t just hang out together.

Grady glances at me and then back to his laptop screen, where he’s typing away. “What’s going on with you and Fiona?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, y’all keep looking at each other.”

“We do?”

Making new friends is awkward as heck. Telling your old friends you want new friends? Even more awkward. I wonder if Fiona is also caught in this dilemma.

Grady sighs. “Anyway, heard your brother’s throwing a Halloween thing at your place tonight, is that true?”

“If it is, I haven’t been informed.”

But totally makes sense, seeing as Mom left for Jamaica this afternoon. I’m disappointed but not surprised that Benji would host a wild party in her absence. It wouldn’t be the first time. Guess I failed at being Benji’s older brother again.