“What the hell…” Jake can see her. He pushes off the tailgate, starting forward, but I grab his arm, and he stops. Lily hasn’t moved from the tree line. She stands as if she might implode, like a doll held up with string. Her shoulders fall forward into her chest, and her knees buckle. She peers at us through a curtain of stringy hair, face streaked with dirt and bloody tears.

And the smell—decay and something chemical that burns my nose.

Souls don’t smell.

“Is this some sort of sick joke?” Jake asks.

“Jake, get in your truck,” I say.

But he’s not listening, and he doesn’t understand what he’s looking at either.

“You aren’t funny, Jeremy! Come out of there!”

Lily moans, lifts her head, and it lolls to the side. “Jake?” she whispers. Blood spills from her mouth. “Anora? What are you doing here? Together?”

I squeeze Jake’s arm, hoping it’s enough of a signal to keep him quiet.

“It’s queen’s ransom,” I say, trying to swallow down my shock and think on my feet. “You found us.”

She doesn’t blink, and after a moment, her broken head falls forward, and she makes a gurgling sound.

“What…happened…to…me?”

I push Jake back and whisper, “Get in the truck, Jake.”

Lily looks up. The yellow light from the flashlight casts shadows on her cheeks, making her features look sharp and demon-like.

“You.”

“Lily.” I spread my feet apart, the presence of the thread at the surface of my palm.

“You!”

The wind picks up, carrying her odor, moving the grass, so I don’t notice the insects until they’re climbing on my shoes and up my jeans. I yelp and brush them off.

“What the fuck!” Jake cries and starts an odd dance, hopping onto the bed of his pickup, but the insects reach him there too. Jake picks up a shovel and starts squishing them, which only enrages Lily.

The bugs take my focus away from the thread, and Lily catapults forward like a beast, knocking me to the ground. She holds me down, and her hands shove my palms into the earth, keeping the thread smothered, like she knows what I am.

Her fingernails dig into my arms, and at the breaking of my skin, the bugs ascend, mouths attaching to my body with a jab. My screams join Lily’s shrieking.

And then Jake is over us, the shovel in hand.

“Jake! No!”

But it’s too late. The shovel makes a loud thud as it comes into contact with Lily’s head. Bones crunch, and she twists, vaulting toward Jake. He uses the shovel like a baseball bat and hits her again midflight. She goes down, but on bent legs, springing toward him again.