He’s about to leave and this is when Peyton opens the door. She glances between the two of us. Ellis doesn’t say anything, just slinks past her and out of the door. He’s fully on side now. It’s a wonderful sight. If only Peyton could understand.

She watches him go and for a moment I think she’s actually hurt, but the hurt just turns to her volatile brand of passive-aggressive anger that I can’t even bring myself to entertain the idea of assuaging, and she turns away from me. She’s made herself an enemy, not the other way around. I’m sympathetic to her; how she, too, is only trying to fix the perceived wrongs of the world, to make things right. But no one will be protected from this life. I decide to tell her this, someday. That there’s no escape from suffering. That perhaps, instead of this horrible desperate dance to avoid it, we should seek it out and learn its name.

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 27

FRIDAY 11 JUNE, 3 a.m.

Ellis and I step into a night impossibly dark and littered with stars.

Crickets are trilling lazily from somewhere when I meet him outside my dorm. His hair is dishevelled, the skin beneath his eyes heavy and pale purple.

‘Did you sleep at all?’ I ask him.

‘N-no.’ Our walk to the diner is quiet and seemingly formal; Ellis says not much of anything until we finally catch sight of the diner in the distance and he says, ‘OK, I’m actually really scared about this now.’

‘This is the most exciting part. Ellis –’ I grab him by the shoulders – ‘we’re gonna figure out what happened to Roxy. We’re gonna crack this mystery that’s been weighing your family and this place down for literally generations. It’s exciting. It’s a good thing. And we have no other choice.’

‘You’re right, like, I know, logically or whatever, that you’re right. That this is exciting. I don’t know – I guess I just feel like something b-b-bad is going to happen.’

‘Nothing bad is going to happen. I promise. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. OK?’

Ellis resolves something within himself and puffs out a shallow breath. ‘OK.’

We slink around to the rear of the diner. I’ve come prepared with my array of lock picks.

I get started with the first pick when Ellis starts to rock on the balls of his feet. He’s looking around but it’s the early hours of Friday morning – there’s no one out this late, not in this part of town. Even if there were, they wouldn’t be able to see us: the island isn’t well lit and we’re concealed beneath the veil of night.

‘How long does this take, normally?’