It wasn’t until she’d said it that Gemma realized what she was doing. She was trying to take care of Harper. If Gemma left tonight, she needed to know that her sister wouldn’t be alone, that she’d have someone to lean on. Harper didn’t think she needed anyone, but she did, and apparently Daniel had seen through her act and knew it, too.

Without thinking, Gemma went over and hugged her sister. Startled and confused, Harper just stood there for a second, then wrapped her arms around Gemma and hugged her back.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” Harper said. “But I think I like it.”

After they finished cleaning up the kitchen, Harper went upstairs to read a book, the way she usually did after supper. Gemma stayed down in the living room, watching TV with her dad for a little while. When he got up to go to bed, Gemma hugged him and told him she loved him.

Harper usually stayed up pretty late reading. Gemma had to wait until after she fell asleep to leave, but she pretended to go to bed. Not that she could sleep. The watersong always seemed to get worse at night, and it had kept her awake almost the whole night before.

She kept her bedroom door open, staring at the crack of light coming out from under Harper’s door. When it finally clicked off, signifying that Harper was going to bed, Gemma waited another half hour just to be safe.

Without turning on her own light, she crept around her room. Her backpack hung on her closet door, and she started filling it with her personal belongings. It was hard to know what to bring, though.

She wasn’t even certain that she would go off with the sirens. She just knew she couldn’t stay here. If she chose to die, she didn’t want her family to see that. It would be better if they just thought she’d run away. Then they could imagine she was alive out there somewhere.

The only thing she could really do for her family was leave them with some hope.

In the end, she decided on a few clothes and the picture of herself, Harper, and her mom from next to her bed. She carefully pulled the photo from the frame and tucked it into a plastic bag. Everything else she left behind in her room.

Before going, she paused at her bedroom door and thought of writing a note. But what would she possibly say? What could she tell them?

Gemma stepped outside, closing the back door behind her as quietly as she could. She glanced next door at Alex’s house, where his bedroom light glowed. The window was open, and she could hear the faint sounds of whatever music he was listening to.