Remember . . .

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

The rainy windshield now becomes the rainy window of the professor’s posh bedroom again. The sound below jolting me back here. To this time.

KNOCK KNOCK!

I look at the clock, an old Victorian thing on the side table.

Midnight. Wasn’t it just afternoon? How long have I been here?

Who the hell would be knocking on the door at midnight?

I don’t want to know.

I don’t want to know anything anymore.

I want out of this place.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

I try to somehow put myself together, making my way down the stairs to the sound of the knocking, each time, more insistent.

And there in the window . . . he is.

Mike.

Such a plain name. A plain-Jane name.

He lays off the knocking as he sees me, waving a little.

Through the door I hear his muffled voice, trying to be heard over the rain.

“I’m locked out! I’m locked out! Let me in!”

Fat chance.

“I can’t get in my truck and I’m locked out! Pleeeeease?!”

A flash of lightning, and I’m in another place altogether.

Or rather, it’s this place, but it’s broken and burned—a ruin. There’s broken glass and the smell of rubber.

A blink and I’m not in the house. I’m on a road.

There is fire and the air is impossible to breathe.

Air like metal.

A crash of thunder and I am back again. Mike at the window. He makes a piteous face.

“Please . . .”

I hear the word and it’s another voice. Not Mike’s. I hear it and I am drawn to it. I am moving to the door. My brain is crying out for me to stop. To leave Mike to whatever the storm has in store for him.

And yet my hand is on the lock—

and it is turning.

My breath catches as my hand finds the knob.

I open the front door gently.

I let the monster in.

Chapter 46

“Oh my God, thank you so much. I had some trouble with my truck there and then I locked myself out, can you believe it? And then this rain, this lousy rain coming down, wouldn’t you know it?!”

He tries to clean himself up, excited. “Do you have a towel or something?”

I give a cursory nod and head to the linen closet. From there I can hear him still going on in the entry.

“Can’t believe I was so stupid! I mean, of all the dumb, idiotic things to do. And of all the idiotic times to do it!”

I’m coiled like a snake, ready for whatever is to come. I find a navy beach towel and bring it back over to him. He takes it and continues.

“I came back over because I thought I left the plans out. The blueprints. Thought I left them out in the rain!”

“Did you?” I ask.

“No! That’s the dumbest part! I left them in the shed out there, you know the shed, that red and white plastic thing?”