The Dead wandered out beneath the broken lights, weightless as ash and snow. They didn’t lurch or lumber, but instead drifted among the snowed-up cars as if waking from sleep to become brighter beings. Emmett took the hand of a waitress in a blue checked shirt-dress, steadying her over the banking snow. Every now and then she patted the pocket of her apron down or reached for her ear, little knowing that she was still holding the pencil and pad in her hand. But then the snow kissed her face. She paused for a moment, gazing up like the world had reminded her of its being there. And then they all did. Snow flurried over ash and bone and those lost souls stood spellbound watching the sky.

“Remove us from the land,” said Tokala, “and we return to dust.”

Peter leaned into the glass, watching the boy from the ticket booth gazing up at the snow. “It was easier growing up on the lake all this time believing we only ever lived among monsters.”

“But it’s only ever been people, Peter. They’re alive in death just so the rest of us realize how much we’re meant to live.”

Tokala made his way towards the front door, but Peter held back a moment. He dragged a dining chair over to the work counter, clambering up to take the clock down off the wall, and removed the batteries. Be gone, he told the silence. Be gone. He got off the chair, setting the clock face down on top of the counter. As he did, he caught his reflection in the glass. He looked tired. Drawn. But more than that, just like his dad back at the boathouse, there was something in his eyes that hadn’t been there before, or rather something had vanished. A spark. He hadn’t understood what that had been before. Now he did, he was glad to have left his dad back at the lake as far away from the town as possible. For a moment he wished he’d stayed too.

Peter pulled down on his lashes to inspect his eye. “Tokala. My eyes.”

“I know,” said Tokala. “It will pass.”

“But—”

“It will pass, Peter. But we must leave now and go warn the others.”

They left town, following the trail they’d made back uphill through the forest. They summited the ridge at sundown with a small troop of the Dead in tow, and with the little lights of West Wranglestone peeking through the snowy pines beneath them, started to make their descent down the other side. They came to a snow-strewn bluff when Cooper removed his Stetson, holding it low across both shins, and called back.