So I told her about how James had led me to Lee. About finding him, so frightened, in the closet.

“Terry told us,” Billy said.

“Oh,” I said. “Okay.” I thought it strange that they would not have mentioned it to me. Would not have checked in to see how I was, or asked for more details to fill in the story. But, as though reading my mind, Liz said, “We wanted to give you time. It must have been upsetting, seeing him like that.”

“It was,” I said, lowering back onto the bed. I saw him rocking back and forth, remembered my promise to always protect him, renewed it for myself right then. Soon the bed dipped with weight on both sides of me. Liz was there, propped on her elbow, behind me. “You did the right thing,” she said. “You did exactly what you needed to do, and now Terry is taking care of him.”

Billy smiled at me, his face next to mine on the pillow. “She’s right,” he said. “Everything’s going to turn out okay.”

With the two of them beside me, their low voices comforting me, I allowed myself to close my eyes. Soon, I drifted to sleep. No nightmares, no visions of men come to haunt me or scared little boys rocking forward and back. No sickness over the things I had or had not done. Only assurances that I was good, that I did what I should have, that Lee was all right now—all those sweet words whispered into my ears.

And then I woke up alone.

____________

The bed was cold. I reached for the blankets and they gave too easily, no bodies tangled up in them. I sat and saw the emptiness.

In those first bleary, disoriented moments, I thought maybe it all had been a dream. That I had not, in fact, been so lucky. That I had been alone in my own bed all those nights, imagining they were with me. We’d never dressed up for dinner, I’d never held still and let them draw me, had not learned the names of the wildflowers after all.

But my vision sharpened and I saw more of the cabin. Billy’s, not mine. So, where were they?

I rose from bed and made my way to the window. I could make out figures on the field—human figures, not glowing. A full moon hung above them, lighting the sky enough for me to see. Liz and Terry, with Lee between them. All three stood still, as though they were waiting for something. I wanted to go to them, but I was aware of a strangeness, an intensity, and I stayed at the window, watching.